His Broken Angel

Chapter Three: Nightmares

"Get inside." Alex opened up the door when Claire appeared in her robe. "I thought you were going to work?"

"Got canceled!" she cheered. "Boss decided to give me a day off!"

"So did mine!" Harry yelled from his study.

Nothing more in the world pissed me off that my own foster parents and brother had the time to pick me up from a rainy day! I was shivering with water all over my body that was freezing me up.

"All of you could've picked me up today?"

Both Claire and Harry gawked at me before laughing nervously. "You should have called?" Harry said.

I glared at them both. "All of you owe me for this!" I yelled at the top of the stairs when I made my way to my room.

Instantly I stripped out of my soaking clothes and got in the warm shower. At first I got that weird feeling from combining cold skin to warm water, but soon it warmed up the entire bathroom.

Changing into a tank top and sweats, I grabbed my phone to listen to some music. I spent two whole hours listening to my entire playlist which was normal. I usually did this after I got out of school and right now I needed some time for myself.

Downstairs Claire yelled that dinner was ready. My stomach turned once I spotted the food: Fried shrimp, cooked vegetables, brown rice, and some salad she had chopped up yesterday.

"Your food's going to get cold honey, c'mon," she insisted.

With reluctance I took the plate she offered me and sat beside Alex who was already chewing down his shrimp. From the sight of food I couldn't help but think that I was really hungry. I hadn't eaten breakfast, nor lunch at school, so my stomach was dying and pleading inside for food.

Quickly I ate all my shrimp, rice, and everything else that was on my plate. By the time I was done Alex was only half empty with his plate. "You sure were hungry," he mentioned.

I excused myself from the table before running upstairs to my bathroom. I could already feel the bile rising up to my throat when I leaned against the toilet.

It took me a few seconds to regain my breath after that purging was over, but once I did I leaned against the wall, overwhelmed and disappointed.

Returning to my room I took out two mints before I chewed them up. Bad breath after vomiting felt and is terrible.

It was already nine o'clock, which bummed me out since I fell asleep at midnight. But that was in summer, now it was school and this year grades did count. Did they? Still! I needed my grades to be up since last year I almost failed most of them.

"Imagine being a Senior," I muttered to myself.

The entire night I tossed and turned. I knew falling asleep early would screw me up since I stayed up in my bed watching Criminal Minds on my laptop.
*****

My room was empty with only a few cases and cabinets, some stacked with books, others with bottles of beer. My eyes glimpsed to the shadow of my brother being hit by our dad.

Apparently Alex had painted on the walls which made Dad furious. But Dad was also drunk, which made the situation even worse. I couldn't keep my own self to stop sobbing quietly underneath my covers.

Dad stepped inside with a bottle of beer swirling in his right hand. I scooted back until I reached my headboard when the covers were lifted off me.

Dad looked furious, with his blazing blue eyes that pierced my heart like daggers.

"You little bitch!" he sneered. "You and your bastard of a brother are stupid! Why the fuck would you paint on my walls!?"

"D-Daddy-"

"Come here!" He grabbed my wrists and dragged me out of bed. I thrashed in his grasp, but soon stopped when I saw poor Alex.

He had bruises all over his left cheek, a cut on his temple with blood oozing out. My immediate response was to gag at the scene, but I managed to get away from Dad to hug my brother.

"You little brats!" Dad yanked me off Alex who was sobbing into my shirt. Dad threw his bottle across the room which made the air grow silent.

"Daddy!" I couldn't yell anything else when he began to slap me, hit, cut me. . .

I woke up screaming in a pool of sweat. Tears were streaming down my cheeks once Alex came in to hug me.

The nightmare had felt so real like all the times I had it. Every night I had it and if I didn't I would cry myself to sleep or cry in it.

"It's okay, lil sis," Alex whispered. "Just a nightmare. It's not real."

Somehow I couldn't believe him, but I just rolled with it like I always did.