Little Sister

Vecnas Curse

     The room was completely silent, so was the rest of the trailer, which meant no one was home, no one except two redhaired girls, one of which laid quietly in her bed, or at least it seemed for a moment. She tossed and turned, her head thrashing from left to right, then suddenly, with a gasp, her eyes shot open. She quickly sat up and looked around realizing she was in her most current room, not his.

     She looked beside her seeing no one there, setting her off into a panic. She threw the covers off herself and hopped out of bed leaving the room. As she made her way down the short hallway she could see Max standing ahead of her, dressed in her same clothes from yesterday, at the stove finishing up on a meal she was making.

     "Hey sleepyhead." The older girl said. Bailey came up beside her and hugged onto her feeling Max run her hands against Baileys tangled hair. "You alright?" She asked rubbing the smaller redheads back. "You had another nightmare didn't you?" Bailey nodded and rubbed her eyes as her head began to pound. "Your head hurting again?" She nodded. Max pursed her lips out of worry. "Alright, go sit down and I'll grab you some Tylenol." The little girl nodded once more and went and sat at the kitchen table.

     Before she gave Bailey her pain killers she grabbed a plate and piled scrambled eggs onto it then grabbed two Eggo waffles from the toaster, placing the plate of food in front of her daughter. The little girl didn't hesitate and started to dig into her food.

"Well jeez, I didn't forget to feed you last night did I?" She chuckled.

"No, I'm just a growing child, I need my food." She told Max.

"Sure." She placed a pill and a cup of water next to Baileys plate so she could take it. "Slow down a bit so you don't choke." She rubbed the top of Baileys head then turned to clean up the mess she left behind from cooking.

     Bailey looked up at the older girl watching her walk, but it wasn't right, there was clearly a lot of discomfort. The little girl immediately understood what happened and could only stare at Max sadly, she was already in pain these past few days, she couldn't imagine what she was feeling at the moment, she had to be in absolute agony, but she didn't show it, because she was good at hiding it, she's always been.

     She scanned the countertop finding no sign of another plate, not even a bit of food left over. Max didn't make anything for herself.

"Where's your food?" Bailey asked. Max froze for a moment then finished on the dishes.

"We didn't have enough." She told Bailey.

"But you need something to eat too."

"It's fine Bails, I'm not hungry anyway." She knew it was likely Max didn't have an appetite, she was probably too sick to her stomach, still trying to recover from the night before.

"You can have some of mine." The little girl offered, she got out of her chair and picked her plate up.

"No Bailey, you keep eating, I'm fine." The older girl said taking the plate from Bailey and sitting it back down on the table.

"But-"

"Bailey." Max said, her tone of voice stern. "I'm not gonna argue over this." The little girl went quiet then sat back in her seat and looked down, no longer having the appetite for food, she felt bad, felt guilty for eating, seeing Max had gotten absolutely nothing, seeing her in pain.

     She wanted to help her, she wanted to badly, but she knew she couldn't, because Max saw it as an obligation to keep Bailey safe, to keep her well taken care of at the cost of her own health. She shouldn't have to deal with any of it, she shouldn't have to keep suffering.