The Day After*

Marty opened her eyes and was surprised to see the sunlight filtering into her windows. She had slept all night without a single nightmare. Todd's mother's magical lullaby had worked and kept the nightmares away just like he said it would. She sat up as she looked around for him, but she didn't see him. She felt a pang of sadness, but she didn't know why.

"Todd?" She called out when she heard noise from the next room.

"Good morning Marty," Todd said as he came in her room carrying a handful of Alcohol bottles.

"What are you doing?" Marty asked.

"Gathering up all the liquor in the house so you can pour it down the drain, along with your drugs," Todd explained.

"Why would I do that?" Marty asked.

"You don't need them anymore. It's making things so much worse for you than they have to be," Todd stated.

"They help to numb the pain," Marty whispered.

"I know, but I think that you need to feel it before you can fully recover."

"What if the nightmares come back?"

"They won't, not with my mom's lullaby. They kept my nightmares away for years," Todd stated.

"But not anymore?"

"She left me a tape with her singing the song to me when she left, but Peter threw it away when he found it."

"That's awful, I'm sorry."

"I thought that she had abandoned me. I hated her for leaving me, but everything I thought was a lie. It turns out I was wrong about a lot of things. I'm not even Peter's little monster. I was adopted, I'm a Lord, Vicki's brother, Kevin's uncle."

"Did they know?" Marty asked.

"I don't think so, but I'm going to visit Vicki today. Do you want to come with me?" Todd asked.

"I'll meet you there in a couple of hours. There's something that I want to do first," Marty said.

"Okay, should we dump this liquor out before I go?" Todd asked.

"Yes, I'm going to try to get through the day without it."

Todd helped Marty dump the bottles of liquor down her bathroom sink.

"I'll meet you at Vicki's in a few hours," Todd stated after they were finished.

"Todd?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for everything that you did for me last night," Marty whispered.

"Don't mention it," Todd stated.

Marty went downstairs and sat down at her piano and began to play the music that Todd had hummed to her the night before.