You Don't Have Be Afraid Now

Chapter 8- What happened

Lukas' POV
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I woke up with the Dane and Emil holding onto me; Emil more of a scared holding onto me, the Dane holding onto me like he normally would, which was snuggling me into his body. I moved carefully to not wake Emil and instead started to wake up Matthias. I shook his head around and flicked him gently a few times to get him awake.

Matthias mumbled a 'no' and squeezed me tighter. "Matthias, get up, don't you want to talk about the nightmare?" I asked quietly, trying not to raise my voice for Emil's sake, he needed sleep after that nightmare. Plus I noticed that he had bags under his eyes, so he needs the extra sleep. The mention of Emil's nightmare made Matthias open his eyes, finally getting up. He nodded at me and sat up slowly. I let him get up and out of the bed before untangling him from my body carefully, then giving him a pillow a hold. I thought that he would've woken up, but he stayed sleeping soundly.

Matthias and I went downstairs to the kitchen. It was really early and no one else would be up far awhile so it was fine for is to talk. We grabbed some food from the fridge and went to the living room to talk. We sat down on the couch, laying the things from the fridge on the coffee table in front of the couch.

I sighed and leaned back onto the couch. Matthias turned to look at me and said, "What do you think the nightmare was about?" I looked up at him with tired eyes due to the topic. "I'm not sure, but I think it was about our mother." Matthias had a shocked expression and wide eyes covering his face the moment that sentence came out of my mouth. "What do you mean your mother caused the nightmare?!" He almost shouted, but held back to prevent anyone else waking up. I sighed again and looked down at my folded hands. "Our mother is a bad person. Emil wasn't old enough to understand yet, but I knew she was rotten at the core. Sometimes she showed me a glimpse of her true colors and it was nasty. The only reason we weren't tossed out or something of the sort was because of Emil's father, but it all changed when he died." I explained, about to launch into another paragraph of talking.

"When he died, everything went to hell. I stayed there for only a few weeks after his death before my father came and forced me to go with him. Even though I was there only a few weeks after, I knew she was going to show her true colors to Emil. I didn't want to leave Emil there all alone to deal with what I thought would turn into a monster. I tried to get my father to take Emil with us, but he wouldn't. I really, really didn't want to leave him, but I had to." I explained further, sighing at the end. Matthias put an arm around my shoulder and hugged me into him. "I don't doubt you Lukas, you really care for your brother." He said, soothing me.

I slicked my hair back and out of my face, only to have it fall back down in my face. "He's so tiny Matt, I don't think he's eaten well in a long time. He feels like skin and bones, and the bags under his eyes are huge. He probably hasn't slept properly either. I'm so worried about him, he's tiny, sleep deprived, and doesn't seem to trust people," I paused taking a deep breath, "All that points to things that I could have prevented, if only I tried harder!"

Matthias drew his arm tighter around me. "You mean you think she..." He drawed looking worriedly at me. "Yes," I gulped, "I think she abused him." He pulled me into a proper hug and started whispering, "Lukas, it's not your fault, you tried really hard. I know you would have switched places with him if you could, but it is what it is and we'll all help him. He's not to far gone yet." I hugged him back and said quietly, "Yeah, we'll help him."

Emil's POV
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I woke up to an empty bed automatically looking at the clock and panicking. If I don't get downstairs now, I'll miss school and get a beating if I'm too late. I threw my blankets off of my body shakily. I started to get up, panic over coming my body before I realized that I didn't have to get up and out of the house. I sat back down on Lukas' bed that I had crawled into last night after the nightmare. I put my head in my hands and tried to catch my breath. My heart was racing a mile a minute, of I wasn't at Lukas' then I would have been beaten close to a bloody pulp.

Once I had calmed myself down, I decided that considering how long I had slept in, I should go downstairs. I walked out of Lukas' room and down the hall to my room. I got in and opened my duffle bag that had stayed on the floor all night and pulled out some clothes. I ended up wearing my favorite sweater over a tank top since I wasn't going to take it off at some point in the day and a pair of oversized black jeans.

After that I made my way downstairs to the kitchen to see if I could get anything to eat. Luckily, Tino was cleaning up what I thought was breakfast and noticed that I had just gotten up. "Oh hello Emil! Would you like something to eat?" He sing songed, wiping his hands on a towel. I nodded, showing that I was hungry. "Well, that's good cause there's a plate of food for you I just put in the fridge." He smiled, opening the fridge door and handing me a plate piled with a mountain of food. I took the heavy plate and sat at my new spot at the table, while Tino rummaged in a drawer for something.

Then, just as I realized I had no silverware, Tino came over and handed me the needed utensils. "Th-thanks." I mumbled. He walked back to what he was doing and said, "You're welcome Emil, and if you need anything, just ask." I nodded as a 'thanks for caring' and as an 'ok I will'. I started to eat my food, the thought dawning on me that I had a huge amount of food (as said before a mountain.). Well, at least to me. The plate was filled with different dishes that I didn't know, but looked and smelled amazing. I tried each thing hesitantly, not knowing what the new foods would taste like or if my stomach could handle it. I at least knew that there was going to be half or more of the plate left.

I found that everything tasted delicious and I ended up eating a bit more then what I thought I would. When I was done I gave the half filled plate to Tino, who was just finishing up the rest of the cleaning. He asked me if the food was good and I responded with a nod a small smile, which was hard to manage due to years of neglect. I could barely smile, I had almost forgotten how to because there wasn't anything to be happy about anymore after my father died.

Tino put the food in some tupperware and stuck it in the fridge for later. He turned back to do the rest of what he had to finish and decided to go back up to my room to unpack.

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I dont even know what to put in the authors note anymore... But anyway i have come up with the best idea for this book
Kaia out