"No! Don't!" she could hear her cousin screaming from her bedroom, the six year old was tossing around the bed, the bed spreads on the floor as tears ran down her cousin's cheeks.
"Hey, baby, calm down, it's okay" she shook her tiny body gently, Halley opening her eyes, being able to find fear in them. "It was a bad dream" she took her, sitting her cousin on her lap to embrace her.
"They were there" Halley whispered starting to sob, her little face hiding in her neck.
"Demons?" she questioned not sure of what the six year old was referring to, her heart skipping a beat when she saw the child nodding. "What did they say?" she asked pulling the child away a little from her to look at her eyes.
"They want me to join them" her cousin stared directly into her eyes as she nodded with a lump in her throat.
"Do you only listen to their voices in dreams?" she asked hoping for Halley to nod, but the six year old shook her head.
"Sometimes when I'm awake" the child answered making her panic, but trying to control herself so the child wouldn't suspect that it was a bad sign.
"It's okay, they will leave you eventually" she whispered getting the child to shiver. "I know it's scary, baby, but I'll be here with you" she kissed her cousin's hair.
Halley just nodded letting her head to rest on her shoulder, her eyes open, no closing them no matter how many times she insisted, the child would only shake her head and remain awake.
She sighed cradling her cousin, not really getting her to fall asleep, so she ended up reading the child a book. Her cousin's eyes fighting to remain opened by the end of the story, but falling asleep cuddling against her, so she couldn't avoid embracing her tightly only trying to keep her asleep.
"I love you, little one" she kissed her cousin's forehead.
"No!" she exclaimed gripping tightly to her cousin's coat, Kara staring at her as if she didn't know what to do.
"Halley, baby, it will be okay" Kara kneeled down in front of her, her hands holding hers. "I know you're scared, but I'll come back by the end of the day, I promise" her cousin kissed her hair before standing up, but she gripped her coat again while shaking her head with tears in her eyes. "Halley..." Kara sighed trying to remove her hands.
"It's okay, sweetheart, your cousin needs to leave" Sam crouched beside her grabbing her by her waist trying to pull her away, but she resisted. "You need to let her go, kiddo" the woman told her while pulling again, that time getting to distance her from her cousin as she started crying.
Sam picked her up as Kara left, the woman trying to reassure her even though she didn't know why she was so afraid of her cousin leaving.
She sobbed hiding her face, she couldn't believe her cousin was risking her life again with going to Fort Rozz, there were still prisoners up there. She couldn't avoid thinking that it was dangerous, that some of them would want to revenge or, even, Reign could be there as well looking for some information about herself.
Sam kept her embrace as she started calming down, still tears running down her cheeks, her head resting on the woman's shoulder as she opened her eyes meeting Alex', who was sitting on the couch with Ruby, the agent observing her with pity.
"Sam, you're gonna be late, leave her here with me" Alex commented patting the spot next to her on the couch.
The woman nodded before sitting her there, Alex embracing her tightly while whispering reassuring words in her ear trying to keep her as calm as possible.
"Why does she have to leave?" she questioned Alex between sobs.
"It's okay, sweetie" the agent brushed her hair away from her face. "She will be okay" Alex looked directly into her eyes.
She just looked down not truly believing Alex' words, tears still streaming down her cheeks as the agent embraced her again as if keeping her that way would calm her down.
"What if we do something fun to do?" Alex asked. "What about a game?" the woman questioned to what Ruby agreed, so soon they were playing the trivial. "Do you wanna play with me or Ruby?" her cousin's sister asked her, so she looked at both of them for a few seconds.
"Ruby" she finally answered settling herself by the girl's side, who smiled before showing her her hand to give her five.
After playing for around an hour, they were losing by one point and the last question could make them win the game if the answer was correct, so she looked at Ruby as the girl answered, observing Alex' face.
"Fine. You two win" the agent groaned making them both to laugh. "Are you laughing, little monster?" Alex looked at her before pulling from her arm to get her closer and tickle her.
"No..., please... " she asked between laughs.
"Ruby, Do you help me?" Alex asked still tickling her.
She tried to get away from their hands, but it wasn't as easy as she thought it would be, not when she couldn't stop laughing, not even when they stopped.
Kara couldn't avoid smiling at the sight of her cousin asleep snuggled against Alex, who had the child embraced.
"You're back" her sister smiled as she sat next to them on the couch. "How was it?" Alex asked.
"Not really good..." she answered. "There are two more Worldkillers, Pestilence and Purity" she explained observing how her sister looked at her surprised by the information. "How's been your day?" she asked trying to change the topic of the conversation.
"Good actually, we had so much fun" her sister answered.
"Halley?" she questioned caressing her cousin's hair, remembering what had happened that morning when the child had refused to let her go.
"She cried at first, then she's been fine, although, What does she mean with that they want her to join them?" her sister asked as she looked away. "Kara..., What's going on?"
"She's been dreaming with demons, she's even able to hear their voices even when she's awake" she explained not being able to look at her sister, just observing the six year old, who was sleeping so peacefully. "It's a bad sign, Alex, it could mean a lot of things, but what I know is that they want something she has or..., even worse, they want her" she tried not to freak out while telling her that, she had been so scared during the past few days.
"How can we be sure it's really happening?" her sister asked concerned.
"I didn't believe Worldkillers were real and I know she's a child with a lot of imagination, but she's saying the truth" she looked directly into her sister's eyes. "She's afraid of sleeping, every day after the sun goes down, she cries and ask me to stay with her, to hold her tightly" she closed her eyes to prevent her tears from coming out.
"Why are they targeting her? It's not like Halley has her whole powers" Alex was really confused about she was saying.
"She's vulnerable and innocent, she's just a child, it's just the easiest way to get something" she answered seeing how her sister nodded before embracing her, keeping the child in the middle.
"Well, she has us, we're not going to let them hurt her" her sister assured her, to what she nodded, they weren't going to let anyone hurt that child.
After watching a few movies, she returned to her loft with her cousin, who was remaining asleep, though she had flown with her in her arms and she had changed her into her pajamas before tucking her in bed.
However, she was the one insecure about leaving the child in the room all by herself, observing the six year old from the doorstep as she was trying to convince herself that Halley was alright.
She ended up going to bed, knowing that if the child had a nightmare she would hear it, not just because of her screams or sobs, but because she hadn't been sleeping during those past days, just as when Halley move in with her.
"Kara?" it was a weak whisper, but it got her to turn only to find two bright blue eyes that were looking at her in fear.
"Hey, baby" she smiled picking up the child to lay her beside her. "You okay?" she asked hugging her.
"I can't sleep" her cousin whispered leaning closer into her embrace.
She just kept her embraced, rubbing circles on her back wanting to calm her down and get her to fall asleep, but the kid kept her eyes open, her expression blank as if she was thinking about something.
At that moment she remembered that she had found a few things at Fort Rozz that Halley would like to have, so she sat up in the bed, getting the child to do the same while looking at her confused.
"I'm going to get some things, wait here, okay?" she kissed her cousin's forehead before walking to the kitchen, where she had left the bag. "I found some things at Fort Rozz" she told the kid, who looked at her curious about it. "I guess this is yours" she whispered pulling out a soft toy, observing how Halley's face changed.
"Boo-boo!" the six year old exclaimed hugging the soft toy, making her smile while pulling a book from the bag, her cousin eye's widening. "I loved reading that book, thank you" Halley smiled excitedly opening the book at the first page ready to read it.
However, the child was still curious about what else she had found, but she wasn't sure how her cousin was going to react to the last thing she wanted to show her.
She pulled a photo album and, she could admit that she was surprised when she found, but she could guess that her aunt wanted to do something just to remember how Halley had been growing up.
Her cousin looked at the first page before looking at her with tears being contained in her eyes, caressing her mother's face with her fingertips.
"Hey, look at you, you were such a tiny little baby" she pointed to one of the pictures making Halley laugh.
They kept passing through the pages, observing every single picture of baby Halley, feeling how her cousin looked away when they reached the last page, tears streaming down the kid's face.
It was a picture of her cousin and her aunt, the child embracing her mother with a huge smile on her tiny face as her aunt kissed her daughter's hair, just showing how much they loved each other.
"That was the day mommy died" her cousin murmured. "I was going to meet you" Halley whispered looking at her. "But mommy told me that you couldn't meet us and I thought that you didn't want to meet me" the six year old sobbed as she held her tightly.
"That's ridiculous, I had my differences with your mom, but I would have said yes to meet you, little one, don't ever doubt that" she told her, kissing her cousin's hair.
"Father hurt you that day" the child commented. "Mommy was mad at him for that" Halley looked directly into her eyes. "She promised me that we would meet you the next day, but..." her cousin voiced cracked because of her sobs.
"It's okay, baby" she kept the child embraced.
"Do you think that we would have been a family if things had gone differently?" the child asked pulling away from her.
"Um..., I don't know..." she answered. "But we're a family now anyways, okay? I love you, baby" she kissed her cousin's forehead.
"I love you, too" Halley smiled. "Thank you" her cousin hugged her.
"Don't thank me, baby" she increased the strength of the hug. "Let's go back to sleep, sweetie" she said getting everything out of the bed, so they could lay down, Halley snuggling closer to her.
She stayed still with the child between her arms, waiting for her cousin to fall asleep before she could do the same.
She woke up by the sound of someone walking around the house, noticing that her cousin wasn't in bed, what made her think that the child could be at the bathroom, but when she sat up, she saw her six year old cousin walking kind of asleep around the leaving room.
"Halley?" she called her cousin, getting worried when the child keep walking. "Hey, baby, Are you okay?" she asked getting up. "Halley" she called her again.
That time the child turned her head to look at her and, honestly, it was like a horror movie. All the room was dark, but even though, she could distinguish two white eyes with no expression looking directly into hers.
She didn't even find her voice, just feeling her heart beat racing when the child close her eyes while falling to the floor, so she had to speed up to catch her.
A soft cry made realized that her cousin was awake, her eyes being as bright blue as always, her face hiding in her neck as tears ran down her cheeks.
"They were there" Halley sobbed as she had been doing it for the last few nights.
"Shh, it's okay, I got you" she whispered trying to calm her down, but she could assure that what the child had lived that night had been more intense than the other times.
She just sat down on the couch with the crying child in her arms, cradling her cousin not knowing what she should do, because at that moment she was completely terrified.
However, she tried to act brave just for the little one, not wanting to scare her, knowing that they should ask for help. All of that wasn't going to stop until they reached their goal, but she could promise that she wouldn't let anyone hurt her cousin.
Hi!
So Halley's dreams are getting worse, demons are really haunting her, but now that Alex knows too, she's going to help Kara to keep the child safe.
Thanks so much for reading, let me know what you think,
Ayrin