Chapter 1
Nightmare
She could only watch it happen.
The cracking of heavy blows to his face rang in her ears. Pummeling fists showed no mercy in their constant assault. She heard his groans - those sounds made only by a soul readying to flee its broken body. Green skin marred umber against the scarlet liquid slathered across his cheek. He almost looked dirty. Defeated.
She screamed - begged for some kind of relief from this wretched onslaught. Her desperate pleas were paid no mind.
Still, even as sleep slipped from her eyes, she heard that final crunch of splintering bone.
Raven woke with a start. Uneven vibrations buzzing through the thick mattress were her first tell that something was off. Quickly, she clocked the flickers of Gar's bedside lamp and then a set of novels whirling above the bookcase— her second and third clues.
She groaned.
Azar, what now?
She was already up, abandoning the empty bed. Through a bleary haze, she stumbled out from the turmoil and into the hall. Things didn't look much better beyond the doorway. Raven watched picture frames rattle on the walls. Heard how the console table clunked against the wood floor. If she didn't know any better, she'd wonder if they were experiencing an earthquake.
Raven clenched her teeth. A three second jog to the next door was all the time wasted. Peering in, she locked eyes with the nine-year-old boy staring back at her.
"Dante!" The hushed hiss of his name was accusatory.
Dante sat upright, blinking as though he too had just been shaken awake. Tousled, dark hair matted against his pale forehead. He gripped his blue comforter in defense - a shield between him and the circling chaos.
"It's not me!" The boy retaliated, though wobbly.
The tremors of the bed made answering difficult. A baseball fell from his dresser and rolled.
Raven realized the true culprit just as her ears picked up the sound of muffled sobs.
"Davina."
The tired sigh escaped her as she spun back to the hall. Dante jumped up, tracking closely behind her. Following those incessant wails, investigators reached the corridor's end. Swiftly, they descended the unlit staircase. Swiftly so, until Raven stepped on a discarded lego.
"Oh, Shit! "
Well, if the mage hadn't been fully awake before, she was now. She began the elegant dance that every parent knows. That graceful choreography that only arises when a block is flattened by a bare foot in the dead of night.
"Mom, don't curse."
Dante rebuked his mother, as any sweet child would, utterly unsympathetic to her painful misstep. She merely glared, before continuing to the bottom. This time, violets scanned for hidden grenades on the way down.
From the base, Raven eyeballed the mess that was becoming of the family room. Here, finally, she could make out words mixed in with the crying.
"It's okay, 'vina… Daddy is okay…"
"You don't have to cry, sissy… Want me to get mom?"
Her stomach flipped. Around the corner, Raven and Dante traversed the dimly lit alcove. On the other side, they approached the source of illumination: a door barely ajar. Mom pushed the slither all the way open.
Her daughters' bedroom was of the color of her own happiness. A little, pink room furnished with gigantic plush animals and golden princess tiaras. Walls covered in polaroid photos of cousin outings and princess posters. The Little Mermaid lamp on their bedside table set the space aglow in warm midnight light.
And what a sad sight to behold in such a happy place.
Like the eye of the hurricane, the air held still. Beneath a tasseled tapestry, two girls huddled together in the blush bedding.
Davina choked on blubbering coughs. Puffy, pale eyelids set those wee emeralds in a heartbreaking squint. As she wiped her eyes, a tiny green hand brushed her dark locks from her sullen face. Tenderly, Victoria touched her olive lips to her elder sister's forehead.
"Look, Dovey, it's Mommy and Bubba."
The acknowledgement that was meant for comfort, only incited Davina back to unearthly wails. Raven moved into the doorway, settling at the edge of the twin mattress.
"What's wrong?" A maternal hand grazed that shaking shoulder.
"Dovey's sad." The response came not from Davina, but from the jade four-year-old embracing her. When Tori angled closer, those forest ringlets framing her face bounced.
"She had a nightmare about Daddy."
Raven winced. "Another one?"
This time, the mini-magus answered.
"It's the same one from last time,"
Hugging her knees, she sucked in a snotty breath. Ghastly images flashed in her memory and it showed from the way her green eyes misted over.
"And I can't do anything, Momma. I can't stop it."
Raven's heart fractured a bit when that small voice broke.
It was torture to see her like this. This tiny twin, whose features resembled hers so certainly, but whose nature mirrored that of sunshine. How devastating to watch a star burn out.
It made Raven want to call him right now. To tell him that the days of valiant battle were far behind them. To remind him that ever since their girl witnessed that gruesome fight, she was slowly falling apart.
Because it wasn't fair that he could do this. Wasn't fair that he would go away to protect other people's children when their daughter so badly needed a hero at home.
But right now, she pushed all of that down. Right now, Davina's magic was flailing up. Was knocking My Little Pony figurines off of the shelf and swaying the bed frame on which they sat.
Raven shushed that weeping, pulling the six-year-old snug against her chest.
"Shshsh. Relax," was the gentle order. Mom smoothed stray hairs, tucking an inky strand behind her child's ear. Rocking to and fro, she cradled the girl in her lap like a baby.
Maybe once, the enchantress had been uncomfortable with hugging. That timidness had flown the coop years ago. Back when she'd learned to love a boy who couldn't live without her touch.
"Breathe in…" Raven demonstrated, dragging out a long inhale, which her daughter mimicked.
They held there for a moment.
"...and out." They released a whoosh of air together.
Davina felt her gaze grow weighty.
Raven calmed as the storm subsided. Softly, she rasped.
"Let's say our mantra, everyone."
All together, three sorcerers (and little Tori) began that familiar chant.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."
And once those sobs had all but shriveled to a few sniveling gulps, Raven finally released.
Davina pulled back. Tear streaks stained her spectral skin.
Dante, who had since plopped at the end of the bed, levitated a tissue from the restroom down the hall.
"Here." A simple gesture. But for how his personality modeled his mother's, it meant the world.
"Thanks, Bubba." She accepted the offering and blew.
The sound of that squeaky expulsion, tipped her siblings into trickling giggles. When even Davina succumbed to the laughter, Raven couldn't help the inclination of her mouth.
The tittering died off and the room was wrapped in the kind of quiet that only emerges after a good cry.
The small sorceress sighed.
"Sorry about the mess."
Raven shrugged. "It's okay." She smiled. "We can clean it up tomorrow."
"We? "
The offended objection sprung from the boy behind them. Raven turned to face him.
"Yes, we."
Her eyes held that "try me" expression that every mother has.
Dante didn't try her.
"He's okay, right?"
Raven spun back to that frail one. Davina watched her mom with swelling eyes. Spoke in haunted whispers. Said it like she needed the affirmation. Like she'd never sleep again without it.
"He's doing well, remember?" Raven encouraged. "We called him before bed."
"Yeah, 'vina." Came Tori's second opinion. "Dad said the mission is goin' good. And he'll be back in a couple'a days, 'member Dovey?"
"I know," Davina recognized, eyes falling. "I just…"
She trailed off and her mother knew why.
Maybe the girl wouldn't be so scared if she hadn't seen what she did three months ago. The day the skirmish went south.
The day Dad fell and couldn't get back up. The day Mom wasn't there to heal him right away.
The day that all she could do was watch.
And ever since, anytime Gar was more than a mile away, his daughter panicked. She couldn't handle the distance like she used to. But her anxiety was waning, and the parents had thought that she could manage a week while Gar was recruited.
How wrong they had been.
Raven pursed her lips, searching for anything to say.
"Davina, could you please grab me, A Little Princess?" She asked for their current bedtime read. Settling into the large fuchsia pillow, she cuddled Tori under her arm.
Davina blinked, then, understanding, started to push up from the bed.
"Uh uh, levitate it to me."
Jade eyes lowered in heavy concentration. She raised her pale, outstretched arm towards the bookcase.
Slowly, but surely, the novel floated across the room and into Raven's grasp.
"Very good!" Her mother's praise made Davina grin proudly.
Dante yawned, curling up by Raven's right leg. Three kids listened sleepily as their mom transported them to the attic of an English boarding school.
Visceral quiet was the first thing that Gar noticed when he stepped into his home at 9:00 am. A pointed ear quirked as he stood in the foyer, surrounded in total and utter silence.
No one in the Logan residence, nix himself, ever slept past eight o'clock, let alone nine. Still, even with his enhanced hearing, there was complete stillness.
The second thing that he noticed was the mess in the family room.
Ok. Weird.
It didn't take him long to find his family. As they say, 'the nose knows'.
Peeking into the girls' room, Gar did well to stifle his cackle.
Out of the two beds in the room, he didn't even try to wonder why they were all crowded on one.
Dante hung off the end of the bed, snoring like a lawn mower. Farther up, Raven slept, contorted into what must have been a sorely uncomfortable position. She was shoved over to one fraction of the cushion, barely staying on. On the other side, Davina wasn't much better. And here was the kicker. In the middle, the tiniest of them all, Tori, was sprawled out, claiming the entirety of the twin mattress.
And it wasn't even her bed.
Gar chuckled low. What he wouldn't give for a camera to manifest in his hand. The airy breath of his laugh woke the girl shoved left of the miniature changeling.
Davina opened her eyes.
"Daddy?"
Gar smiled warmly, leaning in the open door frame.
"Mornin', Love-Dove."
His lilting voice was instant relief.
She inhaled a yawn, sitting up. "I thought that you would be gone 'til Sunday?"
He noted the way his wife stirred before settling back down in slumber.
"Why don't you come out here and talk to me?"
And once the pair had traveled into the hall and shut the door, he answered.
"Thought I'd surprise you guys." A wink landed, before his eyebrows sank in confusion. "Why were you all sleeping in there?"
His little girl rubbed the sleep from her lids. "I had a nightmare."
Oh.
Oh.
Suddenly, the trashed family room was making sense. Suddenly, he felt like the biggest jerk in the world.
He crouched down, extending both arms to her.
"Aw, a nightmare?"
Davina climbed into that embrace, letting her father lift her off of the ground.
"Yeah." She murmured into the crook of his neck.
"I'm sorry, Dovey."
He held her like that for a long moment, stroking her dark hair with his free hand. A quiet comfort saturated the hallway. Everything was okay. Every one was okay.
"Dad?"
"Yeah, Love-Dove?"
Little arms tightened around his neck.
"Um… can we have the best day ever today?"
His lip quipped.
"Heck, yeah, we can." He smiled into her. "So what happens on the best day ever?"
She thought for a moment. Considering.
"Uh, first we make mom tea."
"Okay." He chuckled.
"Then… waffles."
"Alright, I like where this is going." He smirked. "What after that?"
"Um… We watch Sailor Moon on the couch. And then we go to the park."
She hummed, as if thinking.
"And Mom lets me have a popsicle before dinner."
"You're asking too much on that last one." He huffed, half-joking.
He carried her small form down the hallway.
"I know, but I thought it was worth a shot."
AND NOW WE'RE ALL CRYING IN THE CLUB, AND IT'S ALL BBRAE BOOK CLUB'S FAULT!!!!
I tried to point to this in the chapter, but Davina has anxiety from an incident when she watched her dad fight a villain. Things went south, and she almost had an experience much like Gar had with his own parents. I've had these random kids living in my head for MANY years, so it's nice to finally give them a home here! Hopefully, more stories to come based on this little family. Thanks for reading!