A/N: I have never written a chapter like this before. I just thought this worked well for this story as Esmerelda is struggling with her homesickness and she is younger than in the series. Please review and tell me honestly what you think, if you hate it I will not write another one like this. Thanks.

Chapter Nine

After she returned to school it was clear no-one apart from Miss Drill had noticed the young blonde had left because no-one called to see her in Miss Cackle's office. That meant her punishment was still in place and she would not be allowed to mirror Ethel and Sybil.

One month. That was how long she had to get through without talking to them. She tired to remain positive and remember that a month really wasn't that long at all and soon she would be talking to them again but it didn't make it less difficult.

At first, the days were not that hard. It had after all being a weekly thing before so she didn't suffer as much as she would had if this punishment had been enforced when she first started at school. She tried to keep herself busy with work and school life but it wasn't long until things got harder.

Esmerelda had discovered a few days after her punishment who was responsible. It was Delilah and her gang of friends, Millicent, Wendy and Gretel. Esmerelda had not being surprised as she knew someone had set her up, she just wasn't sure who but when they had potions lesson the next day Delilah walked over to her smirking before whispering.

"How strange it is to see you when you are not covered in paint" the girl had said and Esmerelda looked at her confused, not clicking straight away, it was only when she left she understood what she meant, but she couldn't exactly tell Miss Cackle she had no prove at all except for her word which didn't hold for a lot right now.

When she realised who had set her up though she had been annoyed to say the least. Their stupid childish pranks now meant she would not be able to talk to her sisters for a month. She wasn't sure if they had done it on purpose to torture her with that or if they meant to get her expelled, it didn't matter because either way the girl was suffering.

When she was not in lessons she spent her time in her room. Getting up was hard these days, it was more than the worry than the hurt that was driving the girl insane. She worried so much something had happened to her sisters and she didn't know about it. This worry would lead to her crying for hours as she had no way of knowing if her sisters were okay and worst it was affecting her mind badly.

Esmerelda was not really one for nightmares. Her home-life wasn't happy per say but she still didn't suffer with them to much. Ethel and Sybil were more prone to them but over the last week she had not being talking to Ethel and Sybil the nightmares had gotten worse.

The was one dream that kept repeating itself though. Esmerelda would be sitting with her sisters at home and they would all be giggling as they told each other stories until it was time to put the girls to bed. Esmerelda would do the same thing as in real life in the dream, tuck them in, kiss their forehead, tell them she loves them and leave but when she left in the dream she would suddenly appear at Cackles. Away from her sisters.

The next part of the dream involved the girl at Cackles miserably, much as she was in real life, living through the hellish days at school but happy deep down as end of term was coming nearer, the scene would then change and it would be the day of half-term, the girl would see herself smiling excited and flying away from Cackles before she arrived at the front door and run in happily to see her sisters, but when she would go in and call them she would not get a response. She would call them again before panicking as she couldn't see them so she would rush up the stairs.

She looked all over the house for her sisters wondering if they had gone out, she couldn't help noticing the house was dead quiet, to quiet, she couldn't even hear the servants at work. Finally she would arrive at Ethel's bedroom and go in panicking before screaming.

Ethel had rashes all over her neck, meaning she had had an allergic reaction and her eyes were dead, not full of live at all and then she would see Sybil lying on the floor next to Ethel with a huge gash on her head which had blood coming out of it, clearly having of hit it. She would shake both of them trying to get them to wake, but to no avail. She was already to late and because she had not being there they were now both gone, their maltreatment had finally led to their deaths.

This was the moment Esmerelda would wake up drenched in sweat and feeling her throat restricting as she struggled to breath from worry at what she had just seen. It would take her ages to realise it was a horrible nightmare and it was not real, it always felt so real and always felt like it was really happening and it never stopped making her panic to no end.

She would have to sit on her bed clutching her chest as she tried to steady her breathing as she would be breathing rapidly in a panic from what she had seen, it was only once she started to calm down she would notice she was wet.

That was the biggest problem with the nightmares she was suffering from, like most children once she was out of her toddler years she always had dry nights, it was just something that people learned to do but since the nightmares had started she also started bed wetting. The first time it happened she had been to shocked to realise what had happened but now it was becoming a regular thing, it was happening to her most nights.

She tried to change things to help. Never drinking right before bed, going to use the toilet right before she hopped into bed but she would still wake up soaked. She was ashamed, this was not normal at her age and she could only imagine what adults would say if they found out at her age she was not able to control her bladder but the nightmare about her sisters scared her so much, it felt so real and made her panic so much she would always wet the bed from fear. Seeing them dead was her worse fear in the world and she was never so scared in her life until she had that horrible nightmare.

Luckily for her though it was easy to hide, being a witch it was much easier to clean up than it was without magic because a couple of spells cleaned the sheets and left them as good as new. She knew the spell from the odd times Ethel and Sybil had had an accident, they were kids it happened sometimes when they were younger. Their parents got so angry whenever it happened though so Esmerelda had told them not to tell them and had cleaned the sheets by magic before anyone could notice and now that spell was coming in useful. She was still always ashamed but she had read trauma could cause it to happen, even in adults, so she was not overly worried, she knew why it was happening she just didn't know how to stop it happening and there was no way she would ever ask for help for her problem. She could just imagine telling the teachers about this, it would never happen, it was a secret she was going to keep. She was sure it would stop happening once she was in regular contact with her sisters again and was not dreaming about seeing their dead bodies.

She would then spend the rest of the night crying. She honestly didn't know if Ethel and Sybil were okay anymore, was she dreaming about this because it had some truth to it? She had no-one that was confirming her sisters health so she didn't know if the dreams were true. All she knew was the nightmares were haunting her and with each once she became a little more panicked, knowing she still had ages until she got to speak to Ethel and Sybil again.

It felt like she had been lying down for an entirety when she heard the wake up call. The girl would jump up and put on her uniform, in a zombie like state, dead to the world. She just went through the motions now but felt like she wasn't really there.

"Have you spoken to your sisters recently?" Gretel asked as she laughed. It was breakfast time and Esmerelda was playing with her bowl of porridge, trying to force the disgusting paste like food down her throat without throwing up. Esmerelda rolled her eyes and ignored her.

"I asked you a question" she said as she walked over to Esmerelda and aggressively grabbed her arm.

"Get off me" Esmerelda complained, not in the mood for these stupid girls.

"Aww are you getting upset Hallow, are you going to cry?" Delilah said and Esmerelda tried to pull out of their grasp.

"What is going on here?" Miss Drill said appearing next to the girls. Delilah immediately let go of the girl.

"We were just talking Miss Drill" Delilah said as she smiled looking innocent. The woman looked at Esmerelda who was scowling, wishing she could disappear.

"Well then you can talk to each other in detention" she told the girls who looked at her shocked.

"What? Why?" Amy asked looking annoyed

"Because I am not stupid and I do not accept bullying behaviour" Miss Drill told them knowing exactly what was going on "I know what is going on here and I will not let it happen, so tonight, my office, I want you all for detention, don't be late" she told the girls.

After she had left, Delilah glared at Esmerelda and pushed her head forward, not caring if she was caught bullying again.

"You will pay for this" she told her before storming off. Esmerelda sighed wondering how this was her fault but said nothing.

Esmerelda knew things were not going to get better. How could they when everything was going wrong right now, she threw down her spoon and walked to the library, not wanting to have to hang around until her lesson before she noticed the calender.

"Two more weeks" Esmerelda whispered to herself. Just two weeks until she could speak to Ethel and Sybil again. Two more weeks until her nightmares stopped and she could start to get back to normal.