The house was silent, but a small cry of terror erupted from a dingy bedroom followed by cries and whimpers. A young girl, no older then 9 had sat up in bed, bawling her eyes out from a terrifying nightmare. Her brother ran down the hall hoping to quiet her before their parents awoke and came to see what the "Brat" was screaming about this time. 

He busted into the room and ran to his sister, he jumped onto her ratty mattress and covers and held her, rocking he silently as he did his best to calm her. This was the 5 time this week that his sister had awoken from a nightmare, twice she was caught by her parents, and that was not good for her, as they held no sympathy for her, all they did was hit her across the head and send her to the time-out closet, which she barely even fit in nowadays.

He rocked her as she buried her head into his chest, her hair was ratty and tangled, as she had never been taken care of my their parents. 

"shh..Its ok Marilyn..its ok..." The brother whispered quietly, as the stomping footsteps of their father could be heard from the other side of the house.

 He knew he either had to hide her or stop his father. But he needed to calm down his sister Marilyn before then. He had hoped he'd would have had more time but it seems luck wasn't on his side today.

"jack.." she whimpered and looked up at her brother, her dirty face was tear streaked and red from they crying.

"w-we died...you died..i-it h-hu-urt-" She was cut of as she reburied her head in her brothers shirt and continued crying. He held his sister closer, a pitying look on his face as he did so.

"c-come on Mari..we have to hide you before dad gets here.." he whispered down to her, a slightly frantic look on his face now, the footsteps were approaching and he needed to hide her quickly.

 She nodded and allowed her brother to drag her off the bed, her weak legs barely able to support her at the moment. He quickly walked her to the rundown wardrobe, opening it quickly and moving the close aside. She helped as much as she could, a pained and scared look on her tear stained face. he moved the last thing, a shallow hollow in the back of the wardroom could be seen and he quickly moved her towards it, pushing her in as he followed. 

It was a tight space and they had to curl into each others arms to fit. but it was the only hiding spot their parents had yet to find. jackoria moved the wardrobes contents back to their normal position and curled back close to his abused sister. He hushed her and held his breath as the sounds of their father was heard in the room. there was some shuffling and thumps, an angry yell and then silence. the footsteps went out the door, probably in search of the twins.

he sighed and looked down at his slightly smaller sister. She could barely be seen in the dim lighting.

A tear or two was running down his face as he closed his eyes, he held her close and comforted her for the rest of the night.