OLIVIA
Olivia woke up because of a nightmare.
She sat up in bed, her neck and chest slick with sweat, breathing uneasily. She pulled her sweaty hair from her face and bent over, trying to calm her heartbeat.
She couldn't remember most of the nightmare, but there had definitely been a dark basement. Her brothers were chained up again, but this time was much worse. There was so much blood. Too much blood. Blood dripped everywhere.
Olivia checked her hands, half expecting them to be covered in red, sticky liquid, but it was only sweat.
Breathe and think to yourself, this too shall pass.
It's already passed. Just calm down.
When she was sure her lungs were no longer about to explode, she swung her legs out of bed and slowly crept into the dark kitchen for a glass of water. She took out a couple of ice cubes and plopped them into the glass, too.
It was always so unbearably hot in Louisiana. Having moved there from Chicago, Olivia could never understand why people would stay where the summer was endless and temperatures never seemed to go below ninety degrees.
She was constantly sweating and showering and even nighttime didn't bring the kind of relief she would have had back home.
But this was her home now. The witness protection program had promised to put them somewhere no one would know them - and they hadn't been kidding. Olivia was starting to regret it.
After stuffing some ice cubes in her cheeks, she got back in bed and lay awake, staring out the window. It was eerily quiet where she and her oldest brother, Elijah, lived. Seven months of living there and she still couldn't get used to the silence.
A floorboard creaked outside of her room, interrupting the silence.
She sat bolt upright in bed, her heart hammering.
It's just Elijah, she tried to convince herself. I'm not in Chicago anymore. No one is looking for me here.
But the terror wouldn't go away. Her thoughts pushed her out of bed and to the door, where she slowly turned the doorknob, willing the hinges not to creak.
She poked her head out of her room and glanced down the dark hallway just in time to see the front door close. There was a click as it locked.
Come on, get a grip on yourself.
Olivia took a deep breath and went back down the hallway, holding her phone in her hand in case she needed to a) call the police b) use her flashlight or c) whack any incoming intruder.
But there was no one.
Instead, she could see that Elijah's shoes were missing from the shoe rack at the front door.
She went to his room to make sure she wasn't imagining things, and sure enough, he wasn't there.
She glanced down at the phone in her hand. It was 2:31am.
Where on earth was he going at this time of morning?
She went to the apartment balcony and pulled the sliding door open, letting in a blast of hot, sticky air. Four floors below was the front entrance and the parking lot of their apartment complex.
In the parking lot, there was a black car double parked behind the normal parking spaces.
Olivia squinted and leaned over the railing a little further to see who had made such a dumb mistake. They were going to get towed.
And then she noticed that the car had no back license plates.
That was illegal.
Just then, the front door to the apartment complex opened, and a tall figure stepped out into the streetlight. With his dark hair and muscled back, Olivia would've recognized him anywhere.
She almost yelled for her brother, but then shut her mouth when she saw him walking towards the car with no license plates.
What on earth was he doing? Was that his?
But when Elijah got into the passenger seat, she realized it wasn't his car. Someone was taking him somewhere.
The car reversed quietly and slunk out of the parking lot into the dark street.
Olivia sat down where she was on the balcony, watching breathlessly through the railing. Why had he left without telling her? Why did he just leave in an unmarked car? What the hell was he doing?
Was he even going to come back?
She clenched her fists and tried not to overreact. Logan was always telling her that she was overreacting, that she only jumped to the worst conclusions.
But she couldn't think of a single reason why Elijah would just leave her in the middle night without telling her.
The nighttime heat began to make sweat drip down her back. Her sweaty shorts stuck to the floor. Mosquitoes buzzed at her ears, eager for a midnight snack, only to be slapped flat. But she stayed where she was, her heartbeat refusing to calm back down.
Finally, at 3:44am, the same car pulled back into the parking lot.
Elijah got out of the passenger seat, and without any sort of goodbye to the person inside, he went back into the apartment building.
Relief washed over her like a cool glass of water.
Olivia shut the balcony door behind her and stood in the living room until the door opened, half expecting it to be a stranger, but it was only Elijah. He was half bent to take off his shoes when he jumped and clutched a hand to his chest.
"Jesus, you scared me," he gasped.
Olivia ignored that. "Where were you?"
"Olivia, what are you doing awake right now?"
Olivia shook her head. "I asked first."
Elijah sighed and continued taking off his shoes. "If you must know, I went to go see Logan."
"No, you didn't," she retorted. "You went in some random car."
Elijah frowned, looking slightly taken aback that she had been spying on him, but he didn't mention it. "Our car isn't working. I had to call an Uber."
Olivia narrowed her eyes at him. "That Uber had no license plates."
"I will be sure to leave her a horrible review and tell her she should get some license plates on that car. Happy?"
Olivia was not happy. In fact, she was half terrified.
But Elijah wasn't having it. He pulled her back down the hallway. "Come on, baby, go back to your room. I can't believe you've been up this whole time. And why are you so sweaty?"
"I was waiting for you."
"Outside?"
She bit her trembling lip. "I was worried."
Elijah slid both arms around her shoulders and hugged her tight, sweaty mess and all.
"You have nothing to worry about," he said into her hair. "There's nobody here anymore, alright? Now go back to sleep."
He kissed her forehead and made sure she was back in bed, but as soon as he shut the door, she took out her phone and dialled her middle brother.
After half a dozen rings, his voice, thick with sleep, floated through the phone. "Olivia?" he mumbled.
"Logan," she said without any prior introduction. "What were you doing twenty minutes ago?"
"The fuck, Olivia," he muttered. "Go back to sleep."
"Just tell me what you were doing fifteen minutes ago," she insisted.
"Is this a trick question?"
"No. Just answer it."
"If you must know, I was sleeping. Like a normal person. Now go back to sleep, please," he begged. "If it's an emergency, make it Elijah's problem."
"You were really sleeping?"
"Olivia, I have class at eight am and I'm really tired. Yes, I was sleeping. Now leave me alone."
The line clicked.
Olivia did not go back to sleep. She lay awake until morning, thinking the most horrible things.
Shady business...
For next time: has anyone ever attended a private school? I have!