Will McEvan was a sleepwalker.

We hated him. Or not hated precisely, because I try not to hate anyone and Dean hates everyone, but there was something about Will that rubbed us both the wrong way. He was cocky, he was mean, and more than that, more than any of that he had a mum. And I think that's what we hated, more than anything. He hadn't been abandoned. His mum loved him and was trying to get him back.

His mum was a crack addict or something, he never actually said of course because he always talked about her like she was perfect. Social services had removed Will from her care. Placed him in the foster system until his mum either got her act together or… or nothing. He wasn't about to let anyone adopt him when he had a mum he adored vying for custody. He'd stay in foster care. Waiting.

Still, Dean and I were jealous of him. Insanely jealous. Because he had a mum who loved him in her own way. Who fought to keep him. Even though whenever she came to visit she always had hooded and bloodshot eyes. Even though he had cigarette burns peppering his arms. Even with all that, he was loved and we weren't.

Dean didn't find out he was a sleepwalker for a while, cuz he usually slept through Will getting out of bed and walkin' around and would always assume that he'd gotten up early or somethin'. Dean only found out Will was a sleepwalker one night when I'd scurried into his room in the middle of the night and slept in his bed. We were awake to see Will stumble free of his entangled sheets and leave the room. At first we didn't realize he was asleep, we just thought he was getting up to go to the bathroom. But his movements were funny and when he tripped over a shoe on the floor he didn't catch himself proper and went crashing to the floor.

He rose with a jerk and scrambled to his feet. Hurriedly he went back into his bed. I was the one who figured it out, because I paid attention then, out of curiosity. I slept in Dean's bed more nights than I slept in my own, creeping back into my room early in the morning so we wouldn't get caught. Because even though it was completely innocent, most people wouldn't believe that. So I started to watch.

Will would get up at the same general time every night. He'd walk to the bedroom door, open it and go downstairs. At first I wouldn't follow him, but then I started to and then started taking Dean as well. He'd mill about the house doing nothing in particular, then go out into the yard and fall asleep in the grass.

One day he woke up to see Dean and I sitting on the porch steps and watching him. He lurched to his feet and without even a word made a beeline for us and punched Dean in the face. As Dean recovered, Will leaned over me and snarled, "Like the fucking show you little freak?" He made a motion to grab at me and I cowered away reflexively. Will let out a cruel laugh and went back inside.

I suppose that's when we decided to do it.

When I questioned whether we were afraid that he'd get hurt, Dean had laughed wickedly and said, "Well his mum can come and kiss his boo boo better, yeah?"

And I couldn't help but laugh too.

It wasn't a huge prank, just a lets-get-even kinda thing. The family had an inflatable pool that we filled with water and put at the foot of the porch steps, where we knew he'd fall in. And we waited for him to emerge, sitting and talking quietly on the porch railing for a few hours in anticipation.

Will came out and shuffled to the stairs and Dean and I stiffled giggles. Finally his foot slipped in and he fell face forward into the water. Dean and I fell onto the porch in a fit of laughter, clutching at each other in a rush of euphoria. Finally, Will had gotten his comeuppance.

Will resurfaced with a shriek, gasping for air. Dean and I both froze as he raised his arms in defense and screwed his eyes shut, shouting helplessly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" But he wasn't saying it to us.

The burns on his arms were dark in the moonlight.

Dean and I turned and ran back into the house without another word, completely silent. And we never talked about it again.

And we didn't feel jealous of Will anymore.