Sweet Dreams (Prologue)

Something I thought of a few weeks ago, and I waited until now to publish it.

Charlotte was screaming in her sleep again; images of blood, death, bodies, it was all flashing before her. She was thrashing in her bed, and tears were pouring down her face. It was a depressing sight to see, but nobody felt worse than Charlotte's sister, Anica, who was trying desperately to awake her little sister.

"Charlotte. Charlotte. Wake up. Please wake up, it's just a dream."

After several minutes of desperate screams and shaking her sister frantically, Charlotte finally snapped out of her nightmare. The entire bedroom was spinning around her. The baby blue walls matched the blue dawn peaking from outside their bedroom window. 

"Anica..." Charlotte breathed out, her voice hoarse and tired; she clutched her rapidly beating chest. "Was I...Was I screaming again?" 

Anica placed a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear, and nodded, tears welling up in her big blue eyes, "Yes, you were, Char." 

12-year-old Charlotte sniffled slightly. She felt as if she was about to throw up. "Anica, I want it to stop. I don't want to have these dreams anymore."  Anica nodded, crawling onto Charlotte's bed and pulling her into a hug, "I know...I don't want you having these dreams anymore either." She whimpered into her little sister's shoulder.

Charlotte hated herself so badly right now. She should be able to control herself, she hated seeing Anica cry and lose sleep because of her. "I'm sorry..." She stated simply.

"Charlotte, it's not your fault." Anica replied, refusing to let go of her sister, "This isn't your fault, you can't control-"But her voice was cut off my a loud SMASH.

"What was that?" Charlotte whispered, fear welling up inside her chest. As if it was waiting for the perfect time, Charlotte's bedroom door swung open; only to reveal the oldest of the three siblings: Elliot. He had dark brown hair, which was shaggy and covered his eyes slightly, he had pale skin, and big brown eyes. He was sporting his normal black pajamas, "It's dad..." He muttered, walking inside and locking the door behind him, "He's drunk again." Elliot added sadly.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Anica jumped from the bed, and reached for the door to unlock it, only to have her arm pulled away. "Did you not hear me, Ann? Dad is drunk, and he's out there!" He whispered, "You know how dangerous he gets..." Elliot pulled up his black sleeve to reveal many black and blue bruises.

"But mom is out there..." Charlotte said, wiping her brown bangs from her eyes and staggering up to Anica. "We have to go out there and help her before dad-"But her worries had come true, there was a loud smacking noise from downstairs, and a high-pitched scream.

Giving that she was in an emotional place right now, Charlotte began to cry for her mother. She dashed towards the bedroom door, but it took both Anica and Elliot to hold her back, "Let me go help her! She's taking all the hits for us!" She cried.

But Elliot just gave his youngest sister a pitiful glance, and pulled Charlotte over to her bed, "Char, mom does this for us. She lets dad hit her for our protection. How selfish would it be if we just got ourselves into trouble like that? We would be wasting her sacrifice for us." As much as he hated making his sister feel guilty like this, it had to be done. Charlotte was stubborn, and there was no other way she could be convinced. "Just... go to bed Charlotte, and everything will be fine, I promise." Elliot said softly.

Nodding reluctantly, Charlotte went to bed. "Anica, Elliot..." She spoke, making both of her older siblings' heads to turn, "Promise me that if it gets really bad, we'll go down and help her." Anica and Elliot nodded, "Of course." Anica spoke, getting into bed next to her sister.

Elliot sighed, he wanted to ask Charlotte what she had dreamt of tonight, but right now was not the time. His baby sister was obviously in the wrong state, emotionally. "I'll wake us up early tomorrow, maybe we'll be able to go to school without running into dad downstairs." Elliot said anxiously to his sisters, crawling into Anica's bed.

Elliot would have slept in his room, but he just didn't feel right leaving his sisters undefended. 

"Goodnight..." Anica whispered, closing her eyes and falling asleep immediately. Elliot did the same after a good ten minutes. Only until she heard one last scream from her mother did Charlotte officially fall into a forced and dark sleep; filled with dreams that reflected her worries in reality. 

Author's Note

Ignore my crappy writing ; . ;

Reviews

[Tai Ryens]

This is definitely not crappy! Jordy, you need to start thinking highly about your writing, haha! ^^