Had an Insidious movie marathon last year and this is what I vomitted onto my computer after. Let me know what you think!

CHAPTER ONE

"No running in the house!" Raul yelled as his younger sister, Teresa, was running into the kitchen.

"Sorry," the innocent girl murmured. "Carmela and I were racing."

Raul stopped short at the name his sister uttered. He watched her put out a bowl in front of her and the empty chair beside her before filling both with cereal and milk. He'd have to throw away the soggy cereal when Teresa was getting her bag for school ready. She was nine – much too old for an imaginary friend – but the social worker he talked to said it was common for kids to regress after going through what their family had gone through. It had only been a month or so. So, he didn't have to be too concerned just yet. He had her see a counselor though.

Marco, the resident teenager of the Sanchez household, bowled through the kitchen bouncing on his foot while he put a shoe on the other.

"Don't forget you need to pick Teresa up from afterschool care," Raul reminded the sixteen-year-old. "I have back-to-back portraits today and pretty much all weekend with senior portraits starting up."

"I got it, but I haven't been able to get my noon to three shift at work covered for Sunday," Marco told him. "I'll keep trying, but you know how my manager is."

"Which is why I say you quit and focus on school," Raul said, taking a large gulp from his black coffee.

"I want to help, Junior," Marco argued quietly.

Raul knew it was a losing battle. He couldn't ban Marco from working part time on the weekends. Not unless his grades started to suffer, and he had a reason to justify doing so. So far, Marco had been able to hang onto his 3.0 GPA. All while working and playing forward on his school's soccer team. Raul couldn't help but be immensely proud of his little brother.

"Make sure to eat something and bring a snack for school," Raul said. He gave little Teresa a forehead kiss and told her to do the same before he left the house to rush to work.

Throughout the rest of the week, Raul was swamped with senior portraits at work all while trying to get Marco and Teresa through the end of their school year. Their first school year without their parents.

A couple weeks before the last school day, he came in for a normal meeting with Teresa's counselor. Her teacher was present. They all just wanted to help the poor girl who didn't seem to be coping well at all with the absence of her parents at such a young age.

"Hello Mr. Sanchez, it's nice to see you," the counselor, Dr. Townshend, said as she shook his hand.

"Yeah, hi," he said awkwardly. It was still awkward to act as the official guardian of his sister at the age of 25. He gave a nod to his sister's teacher, Miss Fischer, who smiled warmly.

"Let's take a seat," Dr. Townshend said, leading them to the couch and cushioned seats adjacent to her desk in her office. "I want to start this meeting by assuring you, Mr. Sanchez, that you are doing an excellent job given the unfortunate circumstances. You're doing all you're supposed to do, and we are here to help provide you with the resources your family needs. What Teresa is going through isn't uncommon. It's a way of coping – latching onto her innocence to avoid dealing with the big life transition."

"I'm more concerned with the fact that we all thought this would be temporary and it's been almost six weeks," Raul cut in. "I've done what you said and not insisted that Carmela isn't real. So as to… not 'shatter her fantasy' too soon. But… I don't know what to do anymore."

"I still believe we have to avoid that," Townshend cautioned. She eyed the teacher sitting next to Raul on the couch.

Miss Fischer frowned and pulled a manilla envelope from her purse. "I'm concerned about a couple of the other kids that have started teasing Teresa."

Raul's face morphed into a glare. "She's being bullied and you're telling me now!?"

"I was only made aware on Friday," she said quickly. "I reprimanded the kids and sent letters home to their parents. But there's the fact that Teresa has started to isolate herself at recess, just drawing. I have some of them here, that she gave me."

Raul scanned through the drawings as the teacher laid them out on the coffee table in the office. A few of them depicted Teresa and another girl, often labeled as Carmela, in a square shaped dress and poufy sleeves. One, however, only had a woman. A woman with black hair, dressed in a white nightgown. It looked like she was floating, and Teresa had drawn big blue tears around her face.

"Who is that?" he asked, gesturing to the woman.

Miss Fischer shrugged. "Teresa said she didn't know the woman's name. Just that she was sad, and Teresa wanted to help her feel better."

"Teresa is projecting her own emotions onto these imaginary characters to avoid feeling them," Dr. Townshend explained. "She's created this little girl her age to relate to. And she's created this sad woman to try and comfort because, she herself wants to be comforted and doesn't know how that can happen. She doesn't understand what she needs."

Raul blew out a harsh sigh. "To be honest, I don't either."

"We're all going to figure that out together," the doctor said. "It's just important that you maintain that you are not at fault and not responsible for how she is handling this. Your job is just to be supportive and patient – which you have been. It's impossible for us to understand your position fully. All we can do is try to help."

The meeting didn't last much longer, and Raul didn't feel like any progress had been made. The councilor didn't want to worry yet that Teresa hadn't let go of her imaginary friends. She wanted to use them to help Teresa navigate her emotions. And help Raul do so as well.

When Raul got home, Marco had already made carnitas for tacos and Teresa had already set out placemats for four at the small kitchen table. Marco quietly asked, "How did it go?" when Raul was close enough, so Teresa didn't hear.

"Same," he grunted. "I need a drink."

"We're out of beer, since I couldn't buy more when I did the shopping," Marco said.

"Well, I still got some of dad's tequila," Raul quipped.

Once school was out, it was harder for Raul to figure out what to do with Teresa, at least when Marco couldn't be home to watch her while he was at work. Chores around the house were piling up too. Laundry, dishes. There were only three of them. And Raul didn't know how to discipline Teresa when she didn't do more than clean half of her room. Even if Dr. Townshend said he shouldn't be too lenient with her and still continue to teach her responsibility around the house. As their parents had.

Raul had buckled and asked his cousin, Tina, to watch Teresa on the days that both he and Marco had work. Being a college student fresh out of spring semester, she could work with their schedules.

The apartment was in some sort of chaos one evening when he got home. He knew Tina wasn't the best cook in the world. So, when he walked in on her trying to make dinner for Teresa, he felt like he was walking in on a nuclear warzone. Two pots were boiling over with… something on the stove. And he could smell something burning.

"I think I'll just order pizza from Mario's," he announced as he walked in.

Tina started with a jump and whipped around to face him, her mouth in a perfect 'O' shape. "I… agree."

Raul rolled his eyes as he grabbed his cell and made the call.

Marco had gotten home before the pizza arrived, but Raul invited Tina to stay for dinner since she'd tried to make some. When it did arrive, he called out for Teresa. "Pizza is here!"

He heard the loud clomping of Teresa coming – running like she wasn't supposed to. And then he heard a loud thump and small yelp of his little sister.

"Teresa!?" he called out as he, Marco, and Tina all raced towards the thump. He saw Teresa sniffling and holding her wrist, crouched on the floor by the entryway from the front room to the hallway. He saw a crumpled jacket on the hardwood floors by her feet and realized she must have slipped on it and fallen. He crouched by her and pulled her onto his lap. "What have I told you about running in the house? AND leaving your clothes and stuff on the floor?"

"I'm sorry," she whimpered.

He took her wrist into his hand and scrutinized it. It looked red but not too swollen. After moving it around, he determined that it wasn't broken and gave her some ice. He helped her eat her dinner and then had Tina help her get ready for bed. Once he saw her out, he and Marco played some Fifa and called it a night.

The next morning, as always during summer, Raul was the first to wake up. He tidied what didn't get tidied last night and had a small breakfast when Marco came fumbling into the kitchen.

"Hey, I got to head into work soon, you told Tina what time she needed to come over today, right?" he asked.

Marco tiredly nodded as he pulled out some cereal. "Not 'til four. I'm closing tonight."

"And you're okay to get Teresa to her appointment at noon, right?" Raul checked.

Marco nodded again. "Don't worry."

"I'll go wake Teresa up," Raul said, making his way to her bedroom. He shared his with his brother in the two-bedroom apartment so the sister could get her own space. When he poked his head in, Teresa was half splayed on her stomach, legs tangled in the sheets on her pink and purple bed. Chuckling to himself, Raul went over and gently shook her shoulder. "Time to get up, nena."

Normally, Teresa would snort and snore and whine before slowly waking up. Now, she hadn't reacted at all. She must still be in a deep sleep.

"Mija, you better not have spent all night coloring again," Raul murmured as he shook her again. Again, she didn't move. Raul frowned, and took both of her shoulders in his hands to turn her fully onto her back and shake her firmer. "Teresa, it's time to wake up!"

When her eyes didn't even flutter, Raul grew frantic. He checked for breathing and a pulse, and she was okay on both fronts. She just seemed to be sleeping. But he couldn't wake her up.

"Teresa! Marco – call for an ambulance – NOW!"

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RegalGirl94