The two girls, wrapped tightly in large beach towels, ran through the Cohen family kitchen and up the stairs to Elena's room to get changed.
"I'm so cold," Caitlyn giggled before rifling through her bag. She fished out a pair of plaid blue and white shorts along with a blank tank top and began to get dressed, while Elena threw on her a One Direction shirt and a pair of comfy capri pajama bottoms.
When Elena turned, fully dressed, Caitlyn squealed. "Oh my god, I love One Direction. Who's your favorite?"
"Harry," she said wistfully, beaming. "You?"
"I love Harry, but Liam..." she fluttered her eyelashes.
"Ah, yes, Liam." Elena giggled.
After gushing over One Direction for a solid five minutes, they made their way downstairs to say goodnight to everyone. Kirsten and Sandy were cuddled up on the couch watching the news, while Ryan was grabbing a bottle of water before heading to bed.
When they were back in the safety of Elena's bedroom, Caitlyn grabbed the remote and turned the TV before flipping through the channels.
"Okay, what about Sinister?"
Elena looked a little nervous but nodded anyway. "Okay, yeahust keep the volume down."
"Duh," Caitlyn said playfully, pressing play on the on demand menu. They took the comforter off of Elena's bed, along with the pillows and Caitlyn's sleeping bag, and sprawled them across the floor, making a big bed of sorts.
Elena quietly closed the door and flicked the lights off before running over to where Caitlyn was already laying. She laid down next to her as the movie began to play.
"Okay, the movie hasn't even officially started yet, and I'm already kind of freaking out." Elena said with a chuckle.
Caitlyn giggled. "Relax, it probably won't be too bad."
"Probably?"
"Well..." Elena teased, and then shook her head. "Just watch the movie."
"Okay, okay."
They didn't make it a full hour into the movie before having to turn it off, too petrified to continue. "O-okay, maybe we shouldn't have watched that movie," Caitlyn admitted quietly, as both her and Elena were hiding under the blanket.
"I think Ryan was right. I hate when he's right."
"Lets just try not to think about it and go to sleep."
"Okay. Okay, yeah," Elena said softly, too afraid to poke her head out from under the blanket.
"Night," Caitlyn said, letting out a shaky breath.
"Mmhm, night," Elena replied, her tone matching Caitlyn's.
Ten minutes passed and Caitlyn had dozed off, while Elena was still wide awake. She was about to close her eyes when she heard a faint scratching noise. She shook Caitlyn, gasping. "Caitlyn, Caitlyn, did you hear that?"
"No, what?" Caitlyn asked groggily.
"I swear I heard scratching on the door!" she whispered harshly, shaking her friend to make sure she was fully awake.
"It's probably your imagination," Caitlyn said tiredly. "Don't worry about it.
Elena gulped nervously but nodded her head and sunk back onto the blanket. As she closed her eyes again, this time she felt a hand on her leg. She froze and let out a small whimper, too afraid to look down.
"Elena," she heard a voice croak, followed by a loud, drawn out, "shhhhhhhhh!"
A chill ran down her spine as she felt the hand slowly creep down to her knee, then her ankle, and then, all the way down to her foot. A tear rolled down her cheek and she shook, anticipating what was going to happen next. The hand, which felt cold to the touch even through the blanket, wrapped itself around her foot. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out as she felt herself being pulled out of bed in one swift motion and-
"Elena. Elena! Elena! Are you okay?" Caitlyn asked, sitting up. "You were tossing and turning like crazy."
Elena let out a sigh of relief when she realized it was all just a dream and dabbed at the tiny bit of sweat that was beginning to trickle down her face with the sleeve of her shirt. "I had an awful dream," she said, seemingly out of breath.
Caitlyn nodded. "Me too. That's why I was up. Hey, maybe we can ask Mr. and Mrs. Cohen if we can sleep on their floor."
"What if they ask why?"
"We'll just tell them we're scared."
"No way! They'd see right through us," Elena insisted.
"Okay, well, who else can we ask? Ryan?"
Elena shook her head adamantly, still panting from her dream. "No, that would be even worse."
"Oh."
"I can ask Seth," Elena said after a beat, crawling out from under the covers. "I mean, I'm sure he wouldn't mind crashing in here."
"Perfect," Caitlyn said, standing up. "Lets go ask."
They quietly but quickly scurried down the hallway, careful not to wake up Sandy or Kirsten. When they reached Seth's room, they slowly pushed open the slightly ajar door. Elena walked towards Seth's bed while Caitlyn stood by the doorway.
"Seth," she whispered, biting back a giggle when Seth murmured something in his sleep. "Seth, wake up."
"Summer don't go," Seth said, sitting up.
Elena couldn't help but laugh. "Seth, it's me, Elena."
"Oh. Hey, Elena. Everything alright?" he asked, peering over at his alarm clock that read 2:24AM.
"Yeah, I was jsut...I was wondering if you could sleep in my room with us."
"What? Why?"
"Well, we're a little scared. And I was just hoping-"
"Wait a second. You watched a scary movie, didn't you? The one that mom, dad and Ryan all said no to?" he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
Elena looked down at the floor, biting her lip. She opened her mouth to speak after a long pause but shut it again, wringing her hands together. Her lack of response was telling Seth everything he needed to know.
"Elena-" he began to say, stopping when he saw Elena's head tilt and her eyes go wide, pleading. He sighed and threw the covers off of his legs, defeated. "Okay, fine."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you Seth," Elena said, throwing her arms around him. Seth chuckled and grabbed his pillow off of his bed.
When they were all settled in Elena's room, Seth turned the lights off and crawled under the covers on the floor next to Elena.
Elena clung onto Seth still terrified from her nightmare. "Hey Lena, it's okay I'm right here. Nothing is going to happen to you." He whispered. "I won't let anything happen to you-" he panned over at Caitlyn on his other side; "I won't let anything happen to either of you." He smiled slightly at the two girls.
Elena felt very close to Seth at this moment. She truely had another big brother that would do anything for her. "I love you Seth." Elena murmered feeling her eyes get very tired. She felt so safe with him that he would protect her no matter what came her way.
Seth smiled kissing her forehead. "I love you too Lena. Now try to sleep. We don't want you cranky."
Elena nodded and closed her eyes falling into a deep slumber almost immediately.
She wished she listened to Ryan though. She hates having nightmares; and who knows how long these will last. No one else can find out about this. Elena enjoys sitting down, comfortably.
The next afternoon was a pretty normal afternoon at the Cohen house. Sandy was at the office; Kirsten was out shopping for groceries; Seth was outside in the back reading a comic book while the two girls were in the pool swimming; and Ryan invited Taylor over to watch a movie. It was nice that it was finally official that they are boyfriend and girlfriend.
They two teenagers were snuggled on the couch going through the 'On Demand' menu. "Hmm, I wonder if anyone watched anything good in the past day." Ryan laughed and clicked on 'Recently Watched'. "Hmm only one; Sinister." He read the description of the movie. "I'll be right back." Ryan said and placed the remote down on the couch, and stood up venturing to the backyard.
"Seth, did you watch Sinister last night?"
Seth mumbled a "No" as he was still reading.
Ryan knew Sandy and Kirsten didn't watch it, so it left one last person. "Elena?"
Elena laughed as her and Caitlyn were splashing each other. "Yeah?"
"Did you watch Sinister last night?" He crossed his arms over his chest already knowing the answer.
"Why would you think-"
"Answer the question now, Elena Nicole."
She looked down. "Yes we watched Sinister."
He laughed angrily. "Nightmares?"
"Ye-yeah, Se-Seth slept with us." She said softly.
"Out of the pool, get changed. Caitlyn I'm sorry but you have to go home."
"What! no! Ryan! she was going to sleep over again!" Elena had tears in her eyes.
"I'm pretty sure when mom and dad find out about this she will not be allowed to sleepover again. Now get out of the pool, dry off, get changed and wait in your room until dad gets home. Taylor and I will take Caitlyn home." His tone clipped.
"Ryan!" Elena argued.
"Now Elena. You completely disobeyed me and dad."
Elena had tears in her eyes but she obeyed.
Ryan turned to Seth. "Were you not going to tell anyone about this?"
Seth looked at him "Frankly, no, I wasn't. We had a moment last night. She trusted me and begged me not to tell."
Ryan sighed. "She does have a way of melting your heart."
Ryan explained to Taylor that they had to take a detour of their date, and take Caitlyn home and she was fine with it.
Elena laid on her bed, in sweatpants and a t-shirt waiting for Sandy. it could be hours until he gets home. She started to cry again realizing she messed up completely.
A/N: I realized I in the last chapter I had Elena say "when she was ten" I'm sorry I had forgotten her age is nine! She is NINE years old :)