A/N: Disclaimer: I don't own the beautiful Percy Jackson series… And just so that there's no confusion, the P.O.V. is always Jae's, unless I put in brackets saying it's someone else's P.O.V.
~ Ω ~
Saturday morning, finally. I'd finished all my homework yesterday, because I know Noah would check to see if I finished it; he knows I like to have my weekends free, but I get lazy with doing homework, especially on Fridays. Somehow, he did find time to check in on me, even though all his time should have been occupied by Brent. Brent stayed the night, and my guess is they had an eventful night, to say the least.
"Jae, get yourself up, if you want to have time to interrogate your brother." Dad says, behind the closed door of my bedroom. I groan and haul myself out of bed, knowing that either Brent or Noah has more reason to be groaning than me. With that thought, comes the realization that last night was the first night in a week that I'd slept soundly. No nightmares, no screaming, no screaming in nightmares. A grin crosses my face; hopefully my restless nights are behind me.
~ Ω ~
Everybody is in the living room sitting down, minus Noah and Brent. The TV is on and they're all eating breakfast. Every Saturday morning, we have the tradition of watching TV while eating breakfast. When the twins were old enough to care about what was on, and to be influenced by the show, we started putting on shows like Dora and Thomas The Tank Engine. Noah and I always criticize the shows. Noah and Brent then come into the living.
"Had a nice night boys?" I look at Noah, I know the answer, but I just want to bug Noah.
"Yes, Jaecanne, you may find this hard to believe, but we did." Noah is back to his cocky self, it's as if the little moment of embarrassment yesterday never happened. Brent clears his throat.
"Well, I should probably be going. Nice to meet you all." Brent looks like he's about to give Noah a quick kiss and leave but dad stops him.
"Nonsense!" Dad's deep voice makes Brent jump a little. "Stay, have breakfast, if you haven't had any already." He winks a Brent. Brent blinks; clearly he did not expect our dad to be making sexual jokes. Noah takes pity on him.
"Dad isn't your typical, protective dad. And don't be fazed if mom makes the occasional, unexpected, joke. Our parents are cool like that." He explains.
"Mommy and daddy like to joke!" Calder cuts in. He's so innocent, but if him and Lily have picked up the family trait, they'll their lose innocence around age twelve. Calder's remark makes Brent chuckle.
"Alright I'll stay. Jae and I have a project to work on anyway." Noah pulls a face at this.
"When you said you'd stay, you got my hopes up. I did not expect you to say that you're going to be spending that time with my sister." This causes me to cut in.
"Noah, child, have you not figured this out yet? I'm irresistible. It's only natural that Brent would also want to spend time with me." I give Noah a cocky smile.
"I'm older than you, Jae."
"Shut up. Only by two and a half months. Those are just details."
"I'm still older."
"Technically speaking, yes you are. But mentally, I'm probably much older."
"Ok you two, enough. Go get breakfast." Mom interferes before we get out of hand. The three of us finish the remaining eggs on the stove and get the rest of our breakfast. Dora is currently on, and Calder and Lily have their eyes glued to the TV, singing along and answering the questions that Dora asks. Noah and I then begin our weekly commentary, quietly so that the twins don't hear.
"Dora can influence kids to wear crop tops. She always wears a top that shows her belly!" I make this comment every time Dora is on, but it's the truth. Once Lily saw a girl wearing a pink crop top and light blue jeans and thought that girl was Dora. It was actually quite funny.
"Boots is a monkey that prances around naked, and is named after the only thing that he actually wears." Noah statement makes Brent laugh.
"Well, monkeys are animals. Most animals don't bother with clothes." Noah's response to what Brent said makes him laugh more.
"But, Boots is a talking monkey. Therefore he is not a normal monkey, and so he does not act like a normal monkey. Thus, he should be wearing clothes." The morning continued more or less like this, at one point Lily heard us talking and promptly told us to shush. Apparently, on shush from a four year old can have a lot of sass. After breakfast, Brent suggests starting the project, which disappointed Noah.
"Sorry brother, but we have to keep our grades up." I pat Noah on the back, mocking sympathy.
"Fine. But don't be too long." Noah winks at Brent and goes outside to shoot some hoops.
~ Ω ~
After a good two and a half hours of teamwork, Brent and I had finished the majority of our project. We decided to go and join Noah, who had taken off his shirt at some point.
"Ugh, finally. I was getting so bored all by myself." Noah says, quite dramatically.
"Don't worry handsome, you're not alone now." Brent plants a quick kiss on Noah's cheek.
"Ugh, get a room you two." I roll my eyes, but I'm happy for Noah and Brent, they seem like they're good for each other.
"FYI, my dear sister, we did. Last night, and this morning. It was beautiful." This only causes me to roll my eyes again.
"Alright, I'll leave you two lovebirds alone; go do… whatever it is you two do." Noah opens his mouth to tell me exactly what they do. "Shush, no, don't tell me. I really don't want to know." Before I even close the door behind me, the two start flirting with each other. I smile and shake my head, Noah's all in with this relationship, hopefully Brent is too.
~ Ω ~
The fog dispersed around the person and now I could tell that it was man, no a boy, he couldn't have been older than eighteen. He was just standing there, looking at me. I tried to tell Noah that there was someone there; the twins were still on the swings, oblivious. But he disappeared, and Noah brushed off my concern. Suddenly, the park was gone, and so were Noah and the twins.
"Noah? Lily? Calder? Where are you guys?" I started to panic, they were gone, and all that surrounded me was darkness, and mist, a weird mist. When I turn my head, the guy from the park is there.
"Jaecanne, you're not meant for this life. You're different-" the stranger gets cut off and it's replaced by a new voice.
"You're a killer. Jaecanne Scarlett Chance is a killer, a murderer. You killed them. You killed Jordan because he was a jerk to you and you killed Darren because he was an annoying ex. The best part is you feel no remorse. You WANT them dead. YOU KILLED THEM IN COLD BLOOD!" The same voice laughs, the laugh is full of daggers. It's not the laugh you hear when children are entertained, nor is it the laugh of a sociopath. It's much worse, merciless, remorseless, and dead. "This is your revenge," suddenly the dead bodies of Jordan and Darren are in front of me. "You were made for revenge, child. It's in your blood. Lose control; let your blind rage take over. Be the monster you are meant to be!"
"No! I'm not a monster!" I yell. The boy is back.
"Jae," he says, "Jae wake up. Wake up."
"Wake up!" Noah yells in my ear. I jolt into a sitting position. Noah looks at me, and he's scared as hell. Scared for me.
"I'm fine, I'm ok. Go back to bed Noah." But my words are a breathy whisper. "Why'd you come wake me?"
"I heard you yelling. I came to see why and saw that you were asleep, so I woke you up." That makes sense, since Noah's bedroom is right next to mine. "What the hell were you dreaming about? You're freaking me out Jae."
"It was nothing, don't worry about it. I'm fine; it was just a bad dream. What did you hear me yell?"
"I couldn't make out words, but I could tell that you were yelling. Jae, you know you can tell me anything. If something's bothering you, or if you want to tell someone about your dreams, you can tell me. We've been telling each other everything since we were kids, you can trust me."
"I know, Noah. It's nothing, don't worry. Just a little sleep deprived, that's all. Too many nights spent reading instead of sleeping. I'm fine." But my erratic heartbeat says otherwise, I know Noah more than likely doesn't believe me. Even if he wants to know, I made a promise not to drag him into this, whatever "this" is, not until I figure out what's going on myself. The voice from my nightmare is still in my head, repeating words like dead, murderer, cold blood, killer, and monster over and over again.
Noah goes back to his room, but not before reminding me that if I need anything I can wake him up. I get out of bed and go to the adjacent washroom and splash some water on my face. When I raise my head and look in the mirror above the sink, I swear the boy from my dream, nightmare, is there. But I blink and he is gone. I blink again, but there is no one there. I'm imagining things. There was something that the voice said that was continuously bothering me. It said to lose control and let my blind rage take over. Could it be a coincidence that mom and dad tell me to stay in control, in the same day, and then a couple days later, I have a nightmare with a voice telling me to lose control? I think not. Maybe I was looking into things too much, but I sure as hell wasn't going to ignore this. I made a mental note to talk to both of my parents about it. But right now, I needed to get back to bed and go back to sleep. So much for having more than one restful night.
