The night expanded over the Russo loft encompassing the room in darkness except from the rays emitting from the television set, Max quietly skulked into his home and peered over the orange couch only to find Justin asleep in between the green cushions, clutching the remote to his chest.

"So much for waiting up," Max scoffed carefully closing the door behind him, he tip toed up the staircase and across the hall. Whilst passing his parent's bedroom he heard both the gurgling snores coming from his father and soft cries coming from his mother. This was now a nightly occurrence which everyone had learnt to ignore, no matter how much it hurt them.

Max's bedroom door creaked open and he slipped inside before forcing his door to shut as it caught on the clumps of garbage and dirty clothing residing on the floor. Carefully he trudged across to his bed, trying not trip anything on the floor that had been hid in the darkness. Collapsing on to his bed, Max kicked off his sneakers and relaxed into his mattress, he held his muscular arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. Max smirked to himself when he spotted the patch of crusty maple syrup stuck in the corner, Alex had accidently done it when she tossed a pancake and it stuck on the ceiling. Their mom went nuts, but if she had have let them make pancakes in the kitchen like they had asked her then this wouldn't have happened. Max snickered to himself thinking back on how long it took for their Dad to scrape most of it down.

Max tossed over and held his bedsheets close as a bitter breeze passed over him, the city air seemed fresh this night, almost sweet and floral. Bit by bit the breeze grew colder until Max's face was stinging as the cold hovered over him. Peeping over his shoulder he seen his long drapes swaying in the draft of air, "got to shut that damn window," he muttered to himself launching out of bed and marching over to the large window covering his wall. Max threw the drape open but stared in confusion as he noticed his windows were tightly locked.

Max continued to stare at the window baffled, but he reluctantly turned around when he heard approaching footsteps clip-clop along his wooden floor. Max scanned the room anxiously, everyone in the house was sleeping. Could he be imagining it? He hadn't drunk much at the party so he couldn't blame that. Moving away from his safe spot near the window, Max followed the slow-moving footsteps, but they came to a halt when they reached the door to his bathroom. Max stood and stared at the door blankly, unsure of what to do next, he decided to resign back to his bed but as he turned around he heard a quiet sob coming from the other side of the door. Max pressed his ear against the wood and listened intently to the cries coming from within, although they were quiet, Max could hear the raw pain in them.

Max knocked and no one opened up, but the sobs continued. Gradually he opened the door and peered his head through, examining the bathroom carefully before he entered. "Hello?" He whispered, "who's there?" But there was no reply. Max pushed his way into the bathroom, his chest felt tight and his breathing turned rapid as he quickly scanned the room. But there was no one there. The dull light flickered on to pale tiles but once again Max could see that the room was empty. He stood frozen in his place as he heard a quiet sniffle and whimper come from behind the shower curtain hanging next to him, Max tilted his head and edged towards the bathtub. The quiet whimper quickly turned back in to harrowing sobs and Max's hand dithered as he reached over to the curtain, the dread twisted in his stomach like a knife as uncontrollably shaking breaths escaped his chapped lips.

Like a perfect rain, Max heard the shower begin to flow and like a band aid, wincing in fear, he ripped the curtain open. His brain stuttered for a moment and his eyes widened in panic, every part of Max went on pause while his thoughts caught up. Alex sat curled up in the bathtub, her head tucked between her knees with her long socked black hair hanging in front of her face. The large droplets of water soaked into her navy cocktail dress, in a quick movement she snapped her head up, black trails of mascara ran down her pale sunken cheeks and she shook violently as she choked out, "help me."

Max spun on his heels and headed towards the door screaming, slamming the doors shut behind him, he sprinted down the stairs and into the lounge. Justin, who was still sleeping on the couch, leapt up as Max cried out frantically whilst pacing the room.

"What is going on!" Their father yelled from the top of the stair with his wife hiding behind him, "Max what's with the screaming?"

"I seen her! I seen her!" He cried, "Alex! Alex was in the bathtub."

"Max what are you talking about?" Justin asked approaching Max and grabbing him firmly by the shoulders, "calm down, do you know how crazy you sound right now!"

"Justin stop!" Demanded Theresa rushing down the stairs with her husband in tow and engulfing Max in a bone crushing hug. "It's okay honey, I see her too."

Max pulled away from his mother, "you do?"

"All the time. She's everywhere, there are reminders of her everywhere and whenever I actually manage to get some sleep, I see her in my dreams. It's still early days honey, it's normal to have dreams about her."

"But it wasn't-"

"Your mother's right and its normal to feel this way, especially after a vivid dream."

"But Dad, it wasn't-"

"Yeah, and didn't you call and say you'd seen Harper? That's probably triggered your dream too."

"You saw Harper?" Theresa gasped, "where? How is she? Will she come over?"

"I don't know," Max sighed, "she didn't really hang round long enough for me to ask."

"Well, we can discuss this again in the morning," Jerry declared, "Come on Theresa we should go back to bed."

Theresa nodded before pulling Max back into another hug, "goodnight mi hijo, try get a goodnights sleep."

Max nodded and waved goodnight to both of his parents as they wondered back up the stairs, when they'd disappeared from the top step, he turned his head to see Justin eyeing him suspiciously, "have a few beers at that party, maybe something stronger?"

"Justin, I had two beers max and I would never do drugs, I know what I saw…"

"Mom's right, grief can do strange things to a person. But tell me more about Harper, what happened?"

"Nothing. She saw me, freaked out and left. I got the address of where she works though."

"Maybe we should check it out tomorrow? I know it would mean a lot to Mom if we got her to come over."

"Sounds good to me, well I'm tired, I'm going to go and sleep in the lair."

"The lair? Why?

"I'm not sleeping in my room tonight after what I've just seen! I'll sleep on Dad's chair, it should be comfy enough."

"Why not sleep in Alex's room, it's not like she's using it."

Max let out a loud chortle, "definitely not! Besides Mom's practically got the whole room preserved, she'll kill me if I messed it up."

"Fine, the lair it is…"

"Or I could just sleep in your room," Max joked, "seems you'd rather sleep down here lately."

"I don't, I just… doze off watching the TV. I'm going up soon."

"Okay bro, I guess I'll see you in the morning."

Justin waved awkwardly as Max vanished down the metal staircase before dropping his hand behind his head and running his fingers through the thick hair resting on the back of his scalp. The air that had been so still had gained a slight movement, as an icy breeze meandered past his face at its own pace. Justin tensed, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on edge as someone approached him from behind.

She cackled playfully, "I thought he'd never leave…"

Justin mumbled nervously as words got caught in his throat, "Alex?"