Shadow Keeper

"I'm sorry, Stevie." I crawled from the lower bunk and searched for my little brother to pat his back. 

"I'm scared." He leapt at me with such force that the thrust of his body threw me backward. 

I grabbed at the top bunk to steady myself, but all I caught was a handful of blanket. Off balance, I struggled to stay upright, but with his added weight, I lost the battle. We crashed to the carpet covered floor. My little brother, with his strangle hold on my neck, landed on top. 

"Dang it, Stevie." I batted at the sheet and blanket floating across my face. "Why did you jump at me like that?" 

His arms tightened around my neck. "I hate lightning." 

I tried to pry him loose. "It's not going to kill anyone." 

"It killed Daddy." 

My head flopped onto the floor. "No, it didn't." 

"Then what did?" 

Muscle spasms ripped through my body as a grotesque image flashed into my brain, but the figure receded into the dark corners of my mind before I recognized the form. "I don't know." 

"Do you remember when he died?" 

That much I knew. I swallowed hard, hoping my voice didn't shake when I talked. "It was six years ago. I was about your age." 

His arms eased from around my neck. "You were ten like me when Daddy died?" 

"No, I was eleven." I slid him to one side. "Let's get off the floor." 

The blanket and sheet tangled around me as I crawled from the rug. Stevie grabbed at my tee shirt and never let go while I gathered the covers and flung them on the top bed. 

"Can I-" 

"Yeah," I said, cutting off his request since I already knew what he was going to ask. "Get in there." 

"Thanks, Brendon." He let go of my shirt and scampered into the bottom bunk. 

I waited for him to quit squirming around. His bony elbows and knees could be lethal weapons. When I didn't hear anymore wrestling with the covers, I flopped down on the bed. 

"Brendon, before you get in bed-" 

"Too late." I stretched out on the cool sheet and adjusted the pajama bottoms around my waist. 

"But I want Rex." 

"No way. This bed isn't big enough for three." 

"Your bed's bigger than mine." 

"I said no. Besides, you're too old to be sleeping with toys." 

His head lay on the other pillow, but the sniffling noise he made sounded like his nose pressed against my ear. 

"I swear I'm going to throw you in bed with Mom if you start crying." 

"I just got him for my birthday last week. He won't take up much room." 

I wanted sleep. My body hurt too much to climb out of bed and go looking for that stupid dinosaur. Instead, I searched for an excuse he would accept. "Rex already bit me on the foot. He might bite off my nose next." His laughter told me I was headed in the right direction. "If I roll over on him, he's liable to gobble me up." 

"Rex can't hurt you," he said between chuckles. "He's not real." 

"He felt real enough when I stepped on him." 

"I'll keep him on the side next to the wall." His chuckling subsided, and his tone turned serious. "Please." 

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a huff. "If you promise to shut up and go to sleep, I'll get him."