Agoraphobia-Fear of places that may cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment.

"What do we do now?" Eli whispered to me in terrified quiet voice, "They obviously won't find us, so do we just come out and tell Peter we were here this whole time?"

What could we do? If we did come out from behind the couch, would Peter be surprised? Scared? Sad that we heard what he said, or that one of us was crying?

"Maybe we should just go out there and say hi?" Eli sarcastically retorted back at me, "Hi, we heard you have a very personal conversation in which you said you were going to die but, actually we were faking our smiles the entire time."

"La, La La, La La." Peter staring to sing a tune I sang to him whenever his parents were fighting and his brothers weren't around. I would sing it to him when he was upset. "La, La La, La La." I heard little footsteps as his feet possibly hit the ground. "One foot forward, n-now the other." He was trying to walk, I heard the slapping of his feet against the cold tile. I heard a few rushed steps followed by a push on the couch and a small groan from Peter. "Ow."

"I wish I could walk but, I guess it doesn't matter now really. I wonder what the others are doing right now." He talked to himself aloud bored yet waiting for someone to add for excitement.

"Probably with Eli in the kitchen, she likes it there. They could be outside, Tino likes it when it's raining or cloudy. Alfie is always with Tino and Mattie is usually with Eli, or Alfred." I turned a slight shade of pink and Matthew snickered. "What was that?" Peter became suspicious. My heart froze in terror, literally as well since I have heart palpitations. I heard the slightest move off the couch as Matthew gripped my hand harder than a stress ball.

"One foot, other foot. Right, left." Peter edged his way around the corner of the couch but, with his eyes watching his feet. "Right, left." His head popped up when he saw our feet and he looked at us in shock and surprise, but not the good kind of it. "Hey Peter." I spoke as if nothing serious had just happened a minute ago. "Did you hear everything?" He started tearing up with the last few syllables. I quickly stood up and rushed to Peter and wrapped one arm around him the other smoothing his hair, "It's fine if we heard okay? We don't hate you and we never will. We can't hate you because to all of us, you're our little brother. Even Eli and I. We love you just as much as any family member."

I held him against me and proceeded to smooth over his shirt on the back to calm him down, "It's fine, it's fine." I looked down to the three still on the ground wide-eyed and horrified. I mouthed, "What do I do?" I got three worried shrugs and no answers. "Do you wanna go lay down Peter?" He nodded his head against my chest, "Okay." I led him back to his bed and helped him climb back in and under the covers. The others came out from behind the couch, Alfred sat on the couch immediately while Matthew carried and set Eli on the couch next to him.

"Why are you all here?" Peter choked out through his weeping. "Well sorry we wanted to visit a kid on his deathbed." Eli mumbled loudly followed by Matthew flicking her arm. "Ow! Fuck you Mattie!" Eli whined at Mattie followed by another flick to the arm from him, "Language."

I boosted myself onto the foot of the bed as Peter began to giggle to himself. All of us besides Peter went silent as we listened to his small laughter, I guess he picked up on our confusion. "It's funny how you guys are always silly yet something not silly at all just happened. That's all." I just sat there, my mind grasping at straws that couldn't put together what I needed to say.

"Peter, I have a question." I stared out past the couch and out the window at the darkening clouds. "If you knew all this time you were going to die, how were you so strong? Sure smiling in front of one person takes strength but, you stayed strong in front of anyone and everyone, no matter how bad it got. How?"

"Tino, I'm not strong. I just wanted to be like all of you." His tears flooded back into his eyes as I turned to face him, he lunged forward at me and cried into my lap. Meanwhile everyone on the couch was in a state of confusion on what just happened. Their faces just spoke, "What. Do. I. Do?"

Our hearts all stopped too quick when we heard the distinct sound of Ms. Bonnefoy's heels. I whispered in a straight to the point tone, "Get behind the couch now, Peter pretend to be asleep." Alfred disagreed , "Why?" I spoke quickly, "Would you like to explain to your parents that we were in the same room and how we heard their deep conversation with their child?" He rushed to meet the others, "Fair point."

"What should I do?" Peter perked up to look at me, "Just pretend to be asleep and if you can't just say you're tired. Okay?" He nodded his head, got up, and layed down comfortably on the bed, "Okay."

I rushed behind the couch just a couple seconds before the door opened. "Hey Peter, how are you doing?" Ms. Bonnefoy spoke in a small shaky voice, like a person afraid of their own shadow. "I'm really tired, I'm gonna got to sleep." Peter seemed convincing enough, which worked in our favor. "Okay Peter, we'll see you in the morning." Ms. Bonnefoy's voice became even more shaky. She knew that the next morning she would see him, but he wouldn't see her.

"Night mama, night papa." Dr. Kirkland spoke now, "Goodnight Peter, sweet dreams." The door clicked shut and we waited until the sound of clicking tile became too distant to hear.

A sigh escaped each of us in unison before we went back to our seats. "What should we do now?" Peter questioned us full of confusion. "I honestly don't know but, tomorrow won't be easy to wake up to." I spoke without thinking and got an expected reaction from the others.

"Well, if that's right, we could do something fun." Peter interjected followed by an idea from Alfred, "Hide and seek?" Eli's sarcasm went off the charts, "Yes, wheelchairs are the perfect gear for hiding quickly."

"Okay maybe we can't play hide and seek-" Eli scoffed, "but we can read a story to pass the time. I mean it's about 7:00 or so and Peter's bedtime is at 10:00." Eli turned to me. "They're gonna be looking for us, you know that. Right, Tino?!"

"What?"

"Yeah we know", Peter interjected. "I said I wanted to see you guys, so they're probably trying to find you guys and bring you here-" Alfred jumped in, "And if they don't find us they'll get suspicious."

"If dad found out we were hiding he'd yell at all of us as bad a fight with mom probably." Matthew finished the thought. "Why would he be angry?" I questioned, it sounds absurd. "Because he, um, doesn't like either of you." Matthew gestured toward Eli and me. "That-"

I got cut off by the door being opened quickly and slamming into the nearby wall. It was Dr. Kirkland.

"Outside. Now!"