A/N up above is a basic view of Erin's house ( just without the fence)
Enjoy!!!

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A cold sweat runs down my back. My chest quickly heaves in and out. I take a deep breath and try to relax. Fire . . . all I see is fire. The nightmare replays over and over in my head. The red hot flames, the bitter smoke, the smell of my burning skin.

All of it enough to make me gag.
I've been having this same nightmare for the past year now. I can never seem to figure out why. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, screaming in pain. Other times I wake up in such a panic that I cry myself back to sleep. Sometimes I can't do anything but cry.
I shake my head. I try and bring these thoughts to the back of my mind.

I get up and out of bed to begin another long day.
I slowly make my bed and head over to my dresser and grab a pair of black jeans and one of my old band shirts. I  grab my flannel and a pair of my old convers that were by the corner of my room and put them on. I put two black earrings into each of my ears.

When I was done getting dresses, I tiredly walk towards the mirror I had on one of my walls.

I take a small look at my reflection and roll my eyes. Even though I was seventeen, I was not that tall but. Then again I'm not that short either. I was average height. I was average wait too, I was just an average person if I'm being honest with myself.

I grab my brush from my dresser and run it through all the knots in my brown wavy hair. When I was done, my hair gently goes down to the mid of my back. I focus my attention on my eyes for a short second. My bright icy blue eyes shined brightly against my pale skin and brown hair.

I smiled in satisfaction.

After I finished getting ready, I headed out of my room and down the stairs to the kitchen. I look around the room until I spotted my older brother Asher sitting at the dining table, drinking a cup of coffee and reading an old book. I walked towards him and sit in the chair across from him.

"Hey Asher." He looks up from the book and gives me a bright smile.

I could tell Asher had not shaved in a while because a shadow of a beard started to spread across his lower face. And his brown hair was ruffled in a mess way. Dark shadows were under his brown eyes.

It seemed like he didn't get any sleep again last night. He probably was working on his book again ( I think his book was about plants . . . or was it pants, I can never remember) He always seems to work hard on his book to provide for the us.

Asher has always taken care of me. Sometimes I feel as if I'm just in his way, but I could never tell him that.
Asher and I have always been together, he is my family. His been watching over me since I could barely remember. Since my parents weren't around to look after me, he decided to do it himself. I don't even know much about my parents. I only know bits and pieces about them.

Asher doesn't like to talk about them but, from what I could understand, my father was an awful man and mistreated our mother and Asher badly. In the end my father decided to leave us and go off with another woman.

Ugh, parents.....

Anyways my mother . . . Well, my mother had died when I was real young. Asher won't tell me how or why she died  The only thing he would say was that it was all our father's fault.

When ever I end up mentioning our mother to him, he gets a pained expression on his face. It makes me sad just thinking about it. But I don't need my parents, I have Asher.

"Good morning Rin." (Asher has always called me Rin instead of Erin) I give him a smile and look towards the old rotted book he had set down on the kitchen table. "What are you reading?" He picks the rotten book up and flips it over to the cover.

Plants and there fantastic lives!

"Oh uh, looks interesting." I say without trying to sound too uninterested.

He gives a small chuckle and opens to a musty page. "You don't have to try and sound interested, I already know this isn't the sort of thing you like."

"Oh, okay," I look at the book more closely and realize I've never seen it before. "Asher where did you get that book? I don't think I've ever seen it before."

He looks up at me and hesitates to answer.

"Asher were did you get that book? And be honest!"

Again he hesitates to answer so I do the only thing I could do. I give him a evil glare. The longest he has ever lasted was 48 seconds. Let see how long he can hold out now. I begin my dark glare.

1 2 3.... 58 59 60 61......What is he hiding from me that so important?!?

Just when I was about to give up I see him start to twitch. Yes, I'm finally getting to him!

He eventually sighs and shakes his head. He puts his hands over his eyes. "It not fair you use that against me, your eyes are just too intense!" He peaks between his fingers and grins.

I laugh at him. "You look like a child when you do that! Come on, Just tell me!" I look up at Asher, who has now gone back to having his hands on his lap, I give him a big pouty face. "Please?"

He puts his hands up in defeat.

"Alright alright, I know when I'm beaten." He then stands up from the table and starts to walk towards the hallway. He stops under the attic door. Realizing I was still sitting, I quickly get up and fallow his lead.

I look at him confusedly. "What are we doing here?"

He reaches up to the thin string attached to the small door. With a small pull a ladder comes down to open up to the attic, along with a big gust of dust.

"Well, since I've never let you up here before, I figured I would let you finally see me secret book collection." He turns to the ladder and begins to clime up to the top. He pauses at the surface of the attic.

"Are you coming or not?"

I blink up at him, soon realizing what I was doing. "Oh, yah."

I grab ahold of one of the bars and begin to clime. When I finally reach the top I take a breath, along with a bunch of dust. I start to cough like crazy. "Hell Asher! When was the last time you cleaned up here?" I frantically wave my hand around my head. Asher chuckles at me. Turning away, he walks over to a small book shelf under a small round window.

I gaze around the room, amazed at how cluttered it was. There where boxes on top of one another and papers scattered all over the floor. There were a couple of paintings leaning against the wall and an old bust in the corner. There also were piles and piles of cobwebs around the room. The mix of dust and webs is like an attack against my allergies.

Achoo! Achoo! Cough, cough!

I hate allergies.

"Hey sneezy, get over here!" I look over at Asher, who was now searching through a pile of books. I walk towards him and kneel beside him. "What are you searching for?" He pulls out a moldy book from under the tall pile. He analyzes the book. His face soon becomes elated and begins to cheers.

"Yes! Found it!" I look over his shoulder at the book.

Plants and there fantastic lives 2!

Why is my brother such a nerd?

He turns to the first page and begin to enthusiastically read the moldy book, completely ignoring me. I roll my eyes. "I'm just going to look over here." I say walking over to a different pile of books.

Eventually Asher left the attic to continue to wright his book, leaving me to the dusty, clustered room. After awhile I finally started to get nauseated  of the smell of musty books and dense air. I stand up to walk towards the ladder when, out of no where, I stumble over a tower of boxes that were sticking out.

Why am I such a klutz?

Dust and old papers fly up into the air. The tower of boxes that I had tripped on fell to the ground with a crash, scattering it's items all over the floor. I land hard onto me knees. "Ugh, dammit. . ."

I slowly stand up, rubbing the dust off of my legs. I look over to the tower of boxes I had knocked. With a groan I begin to clean the mess I made.

I stand the boxes up and begin to gather some of the items from the floor. After placing the items careful in random boxes, I notice a little black box sticking out from behind another stack of boxes. I slowly grab it. I don't know why, but this little back box seemed so . . . Interesting.

There was nothing special about the black box but, what was inside made me drawn to it.

I gently open the lid and peer inside.

My eyes widen with curiosity.

Inside the little black box was an alluring medallion.

The medallion was absolutely beautiful. It was carved in a memorizing way. The lines curved into delicate swirls and edges. It weaved in and out, making endless patterns. It was like I could get lost in it forever. Something made me feel connected to the medallion. Made me feel like their was a bond.

I analyzed it more closely.

There was a latch on the side. I took the  ahold of it, I lightly tried twisting it. It didn't move what so ever. I many different ways to open it, but nothing worked.

I sighed in frustration.

I took a glance back at the box. There was a small piece of paper sticking out. I held me breath as I read the small tag.

To Erin, from mom.

I gasped aloud.

What! This was from my mother? This didn't make sense. Asher said that mom left nothing behind when she died. That sneaky lier!

I looked back at the medallion in my separate hand.

I felt more attached to the medallion now than before knowing it was from my mother. Maybe this is why I felt a connection to it, because this had belonged to her. Holding the medallion made feel as if I had a piece of her with me. It made me feel as if I wasn't alone.

Slowly, I put it around my head and clipped it on. Right as my hands left the clip a strong rush of wind surrounded me. My body began to feel heavy. My breathing was harsh and slow. Then everything felt light. As soon as the wind came it left.

My body relaxed, but my mind didn't. An eerie feeling lingered. The feeling seemed to be close, very close. Then a terrible screech echoes from the forest that surrounded the house. It rung my ears. Making me feel like my ears were being torn apart from the inside.I was barley able to cover my ears, till I fell to the floor.

What was that?