Song: Nightmare- Halsey

I'm sitting down in the family room with my sister. My brothers are running around, not sure why they continue to chase each other around the house. But I know any minute now that Sammy is going to catch up to Jacob and it's not going to be good. I can hear my mom yelling from the other room for them to calm down. She has been baking ever since we made it home from school all because Carlie has to have baked goods for school tomorrow. She would have had Sara stay and help but she told her to go ahead and go on home.

I love when Carlie pays attention to me and tonight she was told to keep me busy so that mom can bake without me being in her way. I can't help but love to watch her bake. She rarely does it and when she does, I love to steal the bowl and lick all that remains. I can smell the scent of chocolate cupcakes and I am dying to get a hold of just one of them, however Carlie is painting my nails.

Suddenly there are loud bangs on the front door as if someone is hitting it with a sledge hammer. Carlie swiftly picks me up and carries me out of the room. Our mom comes out from the kitchen thinking one of the boys have ran into something but she looks over towards the door to see it bowing in.

"Carlie...take Violet on up to your room...boys...boys stop that this instant and go up to your room...NOW!"

Carlie doesn't wait for our mom to give any more orders as she swiftly carries be up to her room. She shuts the door behind her. Before going in, I see Sammy and Jacob close the door to their room. The banging continues. Carlie tries to open the door to take a peek but she quickly slams the door back shut. She grabs my arm and drags me over to the window.

"You have to go get help. Look at me Violet...you are the only one to save us."

I look back into her eyes. She is putting up a good front but I see behind those eyes of hers and she is scared to death. I am also scared. "I...I...I'm scared...please don't make me. It's so far down."

She places both hands around my face and wipes the tears away. Her body jumps as we hear yelling in the house and then a loud bang that startles the both of us. "Violet you have to get out of here. Run...run as fast as you can and don't stop." She hugs me so tight that I feel the air escape my whole body. Then she is pushing me out of the window. "I love you Violet. I will come for you...but you have got to run, get far away from here."

In seconds she is closing the window and I am standing on the roof top. I know how to get down from here only because Carlie loves playing on the roof and she has shown me how to climb down the trellises so that is what I do. Once on the ground I take off running but I see the play house and think no one would ever find me there and it is far enough from whatever is going on inside.

I back all the way up into the corner and cover my ears each time that I hear the loud banging noise. It's so dark in here and my body starts to shiver from not having on enough clothes. When the door opens up there are dark eyes staring back at me. I gulp as I am being pulled out.

In a blink of an eye, I am being thrown against the wall and hands are wrapped around my neck. The figure is hissing in my ear. "You thought I would never find you. I will always find you. I will destroy you."

Tears silently fall from my cheeks and I am crying out in pain. "Please don't do this. I won't tell anyone. Please stop."

I am ripped away from him and Carlie is embracing me once again. "Violet I am here. I am always here for you."

"Don't ever leave me Carlie...I need you."

In seconds, he has her and he is holding her down so that she can't touch me. I keep trying to get to her but it's like she is getting farther and farther away from me.

"Carlie...don't leave me..." I keep screaming over and over.

"Don't trust him Violet...don't trust anyone." Tears stream down her soft red cheeks. "Run Violet...Run and don't ever look back!" she yells until her voice starts to crack.

I keep trying to fight him to get to her but when I look back it's like she disappears right before my eyes. I fall to the floor as pain shoot up my leg. The tears continue to fall as I plead for her to stay with me. "Carlie...Carlie...please..."

I am jolted awake by someone shaking me. He has a hold of my arms as I fight back the tears. I am afraid to open up my eyes, afraid that it will be the one that has come back for me. I hear this manly voice and suddenly he is pulling me into him and embracing me in a tight hold. I hear him coaxing me to calm down. "Violet, baby you are having a bad dream...wake up now, I got you. I got you now; you are safe."

I smell him before I even open up my eyes. I knew taking the pain pills would bring back nightmares and I had hoped that with him being here that they wouldn't come but I was wrong. This time they were so vivid as if it was all happening all over again. I am shaking in his arms and overheated as sweat beads up all over my forehead and down my neck. I let out a sob not really meaning too but I had it held within me for so long that I had no other choice to let it out.

"Shhh....everything is alright, I got you." He wraps one arm behind me and pulls me into his chest. I lay there quietly, listening to his heart beat and letting mine come back down to somewhat match his. His other hand moves the loose strands of hair that has fallen in my face. Then he starts to rub my head gently to let me know that everything is going to be ok.

He sits there quietly for sometime before he dares asks me about it. I can feel his chest rise and fall a few times as the air fills his lungs but he keeps stopping for some reason to get the words out. "Do you want to talk about it? That seemed pretty rough."

I shake my head no.

"Can I at least ask you, who is Carlie."

I feel that familiar sting form in my eyes and the knot builds up in the back of my throat as I feel like I just might start crying and who am I kidding there is no holding back the freaking tears as I think of her now. I sniffle and slowly open up my mouth to talk. "Carlie is my sister."

"You have a sister? I thought you were an only child?"

I shake my head no, while rubbing my nose into his chest. The shirt he is wearing is completely stained with my tears. Crap, I so didn't mean for that to happen. I sit up away from him, knowing he would probably want me to get off of him. My eyes cast the covers on top of me as I sit up. He reaches over and grabs a tissue from the side table to hand to me.

"Carlie was my sister." I stop to blow my nose in the tissue. "You would have liked her. She was so pretty. I always looked up to her and prayed that one day I would be just like her, you know. She had this smile that would brighten up the whole room and she had so many friends. She was a spitting image of our mother, flawless." I blow my nose again and then dab my tear stained cheeks.

"I never knew you had a sister."

"And two brothers, Sammy and Jacob." I burst out in tears. It has been so long since I have talked or even thought about them. His pulls me into him to let me cry once again into his shirt.

"I don't understand. I mean...I remember going to the Adler's and one day you were just there. I can't remember when you were little or anything. I am so confused right now. Are you saying that Mekhi and Scarlet are not your real parents?" He pauses but I don't respond to his question. "That's why I couldn't find out anything about you. Like your birth certificate and stuff...it's like you were never really born. Who are you really?"

I look down at my shaking hands and place them between my legs to help stop the shaking. "Scarlett found me. I was scared and left behind and she found me and raised me in her home. Mekhi took care of everything."

"They just found you. That makes no sense."

"It makes perfect sense. She saved me." I stop and look over at him realizing that I just admitting to them taking me. "Shit I have never talked to anyone about my family. Even some of my therapist have been trying to drag it out of me and here you are...you already know more than they do."

"Vi...I don't know anything really but I am here if you feel like talking about it."

I breath him in, letting his scent take me over. I don't know why I feel safe with him but I do even if Carlie told me not to trust anyone. I feel like I am safe with him. I love when his fingers play in my hair and he is trying to so hard to just listen. "Carlie was sixteen. She would have been something special in her life, however our house was broken into and there were three boys that came barging in. I remember my mom baking in the kitchen and suddenly she is running out to see what was going on. The look on her face scared the daylights out of me. I didn't know what was going on. I was like six or so."

I try to recall the night in my mind as I close my eyes. "Our mom was yelling for us to go to our room. I guess she thought we would be safe there. The last time I saw Carlie she was shoving me out of her bedroom window yelling at me to go get help. I was scared." I sit up and roll my eyes in frustration as I tell the story. I also wipe my eyes again. "I didn't get help. I ran into the playhouse and hid in the dark hoping that all of it was just a bad nightmare. I was wrong though. They all died that night."

"Shit...that's really fucked up, why...like what were they after?"

"I didn't know it at the time. I was clueless. When the door opened to the playhouse, I just remember her hand reaching out for me and telling me that I was going to be alright."

"Scarlett?"

"Yes...Scarlett. Apparently they were called in to clean up the place. She took me back to her house and that is when I met everyone else including Mekhi. I don't think he really wanted me there but she kept going on and on about it. She said she knew how it felt to be like me and refused to let me go."

"So they raised you, took you in as if you were always theirs. Did you ever find out about who broke into your house?"

"I did years later. Apparently my dad had another family and his son...my half brother wanted revenge of some kind I guess. I should have died that night but Carlie...she pushed me out. She saved me."

"You were yelling for her to stay with you and something about never tell anyone about something."

I try to recall the dream. I can see everything as if it just happened yesterday. The guy holding me down was Gabe and I am not sure if Carlie was warning me to stay away from him or trying to tell me to stay away from Eli. I just shake my head and act like I know nothing more. I know Carlie has always been on the lookout for me and I have always paid attention to the signs, if you believe in that kind of thing.

"Well I hate that they all died that night but I am also glad that she saved you or else we would have never met." He leans down and places a finger under my chin so that it tilts upward towards his lips. We sit there for only a second before his lips press into mine.

His hand slowly moves to the back of my neck and he pulls me in more to have more access to my lips. My hand comes up and grabs him the same way and I so want him to just take me right now, this very moment however there is a low growl coming from the opening to my bedroom and we both stop and turn to look at the same time. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: Who do you think is at the door?

Hope you enjoyed the little recap within the nightmare. If you have read part 3 to the Cleaner's Daughter it talks a lot about how Scarlett got Violet. If you are enjoying the story please be kind and vote, if you love it share it.