I had been a little over thirteen when it happened.

Kankri had moved out of our home the year before, having completed high school with no problem along with a multitude of basic education in college courses online. He had only a year of courses left to get his degree in sociology and criminal justice by the time he graduated high school. To put it in short, my older brother had left home to finish his studies.

Our mother, a proud, beautiful woman, had passed three years prior due to cancer in her uterus. An ironic outcome when one takes into consideration the fact that both of her sons and her husband are cancers in the zodiac. I missed her with every fiber of my being, but I had learned to move on when it just became my father and me.

Our father was a working man, so I never really saw him much. He was an insomniac, something of which both Kankri and I inherited from him, so he worked two shifts in order to bring in a good amount of money. It was not new to be left at home alone.

No, what was new was hearing something crash downstairs while I was asleep.

I bolted upright in my bed, panic overriding my feeling of drowsiness. I asked myself what could have made that noise. We had no pets in our house, but from time to time, if my father decided that he didn't want to work night shift, he would come home late after his day shift with some McDonald's in tow. I figured that it was just him and he had stumbled. It seemed reasonable…

At least it seemed that way until I heard another loud crash downstairs. My instincts called for me to call for the police. When I reached for my phone, I realized with some horror that I had not charged it and it had died some time during the night. My only hope of calling for help was to risk leaving my room and going out into the hallways in order to get to the house phone. If there was one thing I was grateful for at the time, it was my father's need to keep a house phone in the house.

I hurried out of my bed as fast as I could while trying not to make any noise, my body running on nothing but adrenaline. I ran over to the door, pulling on a white tank top hurriedly. Pausing at the door, I listened to determine how close the danger was to me. Silence was the only thing that had greeted me. Swallowing nervously, I slowly opened the door, checking the hallway to make sure that the danger was not immediately in my vicinity.

Slipping out of my room, I hugged the wall, making my way as best as I could to the house phone at the other end of the hallway. I could hear footsteps coming up the stairs and knew instantly that time was of the essence. Walking as fast as possible without flat out running, I made my way to the house phone. Grabbing it off of the receiver, my fingers stumbled over each other to dial 911. My heart was beating out of my chest as I listened to the ringing of the phone. When it picked up, I quickly whispered, "My name is KarkatVantas, 413 Hive St. There is someone in my house who isn't supposed to be here, and he or she is coming up the stairs and I'm not safe!" I must have caught whoever was on the other end of the line off guard. They didn't answer me. When I looked up, all of the color drained from my face.

He was holding up the severed phone cord in one hand, a knife poised at the ready in the other. How had I not heard him come up from behind me? Then it dawned on me. He had purposefully made noise to lure me out. Now, here I was, right where he wanted me. I fell for his trick, hook, line, and sinker. Before I had time to try and run, he grabbed me roughly by the hair and plunged his knife into my side. I hissed, clawing at his arm to get away, trying desperately to ignore the fact there was blood pooling up around my wound, staining the white fabric of my tank top. My instincts were on fight-or-flight mode, and, at the moment, I was going to fight.

In response to me fighting back, I felt the knife being pushed in deeper inside of my body, being twisted to further open the wound. Tears brimmed my eyes from the pain. I forced myself to lean up, biting at the flesh of my captor's arm. Somehow, I managed to get a hold of his arm with my teeth, and I took a risk by locking my jaw and sinking my teeth into his arm hard enough and with enough pressure to draw blood. Thankfully, he let go of me in favor of reacting to his alarm.

I ran, knife still lodged in my side. I heard cursing behind me, shortly followed by the sound of pounding feet against the floor. I drifted into the bathroom, fumbling as I slammed the door shut behind me. I locked the door a second before the intruder tried to open the door. A lump was lodged in my throat as I pressed all of my weight against the door. The knife still burned in my side, but I didn't remove it in fear of causing more blood to spill out. Once I heard the intruder leave the door alone after a few minutes, I slid down the door and swallowed shakily.

Checking under the sink, I looked for anything to help ease the blood flow, should I pull out the knife at that moment, but I found nothing. I knew that I couldn't leave the dagger inside of me, though, so I braced myself as I wrapped my fingers around the handle, my teeth clenched. Tightly shutting my eyes, I pulled.

The blade clattered to the floor as I quickly applied pressure to my open wound, my blood pooling out heavily over my palms and fingers, spilling over. It took every ounce of my dwindling willpower for me not to cry.

I had never been so afraid of anything in my life. It still haunted me to this day, even though my brother and father had helped me to try and cope with what had happened. The experience wouldn't have been as haunting as it had been if it wasn't for...

If it wasn't for the fact that the man, who I later learned was called Jack Noir, had never been arrested.

Jack Noir was still free.

It was the thought of not knowing where he was that fueled my nightmares, my fear of being home alone…

And Sollux knew it.

He knew because he had been there for me.

[xXx]

I woke up in a cold sweat, straining my ears to listen for noises that could have been out of place. Nothing seemed to be any different; I could hear the soft chirping sound of the smoke detector warning me that its battery was low, the gentle creak of the springs of my mattress under my shifting weight, and the dull white noise of the fan as it blew cool air onto my chilled flesh. Pulling my blanket close, I got up from my bed, my body shaking. I left my room and went across the hallway to Sollux's bedroom.

Opening the door, I slid inside and went over to the bed, closing the door behind me in the process. I slid into bed with Sollux, burying my face into his back. He didn't stir, but he did sigh. Damn it. Baring my teeth a little in mild, weak annoyance, I realized that he had been awake already.

"Couldn't th'leep, KK?" he asked me softly, tilting his head back some.

"The nightmare… It came back…" I whispered. I tensed as Sollux pulled away and rolled over, but I relaxed as he pulled me in close against his chest. I felt safe in his arms, as though nobody could hurt me as long as he was there…

"He will never hurt you again, KK. On the off chanth'e that he doe'th find you again, I will protect you," he whispered to me in an effort to comfort me, running his fingers through my hair. His fingers paused. "I'm going to take the day off work tomorrow. I'th there anything in particular that you want to do?"

"Not really…" I whispered. "I just want to o back to sleep for a while… Can we talk about it in the morning…?" I didn't want to think at the moment. I just wanted to enjoy the sense of security that being in Sollux's arms brought me.

"Th'ure thing… Night, KK…"