Isaac
Zac hurriedly turned on the bedroom light and joined me as I wrapped my arms around my brother as he screamed and struggled a bit. Zac looked at me over Taylor’s bent head, his eyes filled to the brim with fear. I knew my eyes were no better and I conveyed my own fear to him with them, looking away when our parents entered the room at a run, skidding to a halt near Taylor, Zac, and myself. I tried to hand Taylor over to my mother, but he wouldn’t let go so she settled for getting up to go get him a glass of water, met at the bedroom door by Parker. He held out one of the tiny paper cups we kept in the bathroom to her and she took it from him gratefully, smiling a little at him as she rushed back to Taylor as quick as she could without spilling the water.
I realized as she tried to get him to drink that he was still screaming, though when I looked down his eyes were open and it was obvious that he was wide awake. He was still screaming as loud as he had been while dreaming and every time he stopped to take a breath or a sob interrupted what were quickly becoming hoarse shrieks, my heart broke. We all whispered quietly to him, our words soothing and nothing more than nonsense when it came down to it. But he kept going. He kept going because for once he could. He didn’t have to cover it up anymore.
“Ssh,” I said to him. “It’s all right Taylor.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Parker lingering helplessly in the doorway, his hands on the shoulders of Avery and Jessica, Mackenzie clinging to his arm as well as they watched on. He looked like he needed the comfort of it just as much as they did. He looked positively haggard, like he hadn’t slept or even smiled in the entire time he had gone missing. His hair was tied in a messy ponytail, more of it out than in and the t-shirt and boxers he was apparently wearing as pajamas were wrinkled almost beyond recognition as articles of clothing. There was worry in his eyes, but it was distant somehow. As if he were seeing this in a dream rather than in reality.
I watched him openly for a minute and he stared back at me just as openly before I moved my eyes away and to Taylor, whose screams were getting fewer and farther between and much less ear-piercing.
“Sweetie,” my mother said as he calmed down more and more. “Oh my baby,” she said, rubbing his back and tugging slightly on his hair.
He pulled away from me slightly and straightened, rubbing his eyes as he did so. Parker disappeared from the doorway his back was turned to. I don’t think Taylor ever knew Parker was even there.
“Tay?” Avery spoke up from the doorway.
He turned to her and I saw him smile shakily. “I’m all right,” he told her. “I’m okay,” he told us.
“Are you sure?” my father asked.
Taylor nodded.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Mom asked.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “It’s all right now, Taylor. We’re all here for you. You know that.”
He nodded and the tears started welling up again in his eyes, but he fought them back and eventually they disappeared.
“Mommy?” Mackenzie said.
She looked up and smiled comfortingly at him.
“Why don’t we get you all back to bed,” my dad said, straightening up from his crouched position near Taylor. “Taylor’s okay and I think we’ve had enough excitement for one night.”
They all seemed a bit comforted as my father led them away from the scene.
My mother turned back to Taylor. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine for now,” he said. “It just got really intense for a minute.”
“I guess so,” she said, smiling a little. “You woke all of us out of a sound sleep.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Don’t be,” she said again. “I should probably go see if Zoe’s all right.”
It was then that we noticed that our littlest sister was making loud wimpering noises from her crib in my parents’ bedroom.
“Okay,” Taylor said.
She patted him on the shoulder before getting up and walking out of the door.
The three of us sat there in silence for a few minutes, waiting as Taylor fully calmed down. He covered his face in a moment, obviously in a gesture of humiliation. Zac reached over and took them off, smiling comfortingly as he did so. Taylor smiled back wanly, tiredly.
“So, I don’t think any of us are going to get to sleep again any time soon after that,” I said. Taylor opened his mouth, probably to apologize, but I spoke before he did, “Monopoly?”
“Sure,” he said.
“I’m in,” Zac said, rising with me to go to our closet and take the game from the shelf we knew it to be on. I took it down and he blew the dust off of it for me, coughing as it blew all over the place.
“Thanks, Zac,” I coughed.
“Sorry,” he said. “Did you see Parker?” he whispered after glancing over at Taylor, who wasn’t paying any attention to us. “In the doorway, I mean?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Good. I thought I was imagining things because the next time I looked up, he wasn’t there anymore.”
“Yeah,” I said. “He probably went back to his room.”
He nodded.
We took the game over to where Taylor was sitting. He pushed his sleeping bag aside as best he could and we got out the board and proceeded to argue over which gamepiece we got.
“I’m the shoe,” Taylor said immediately, his voice croaky, hardly any of the enthusiasm he usually said that with present, though you could see he was trying.
“You’re always the shoe!” Zac said, his slight whine genuine.
“Yeah, so why change?” he said.
“Fine,” Zac said, picking up the dog.
I picked up the racecar and began to give out the money. I was the only one trusted with the money during the game since both Zac and Taylor had histories of either being very bad mathematicians, as they both claimed, or evil bankers willing to cheat to win the game, which they both were. We rolled the dice to get to see who went first.
Taylor very nearly cackled as he rolled a twelve, ensuring his first turn (and his second one since he claimed that even a roll of doubles when you were only seeing who went first meant a second turn in a row as it did during the game). I rolled a meager three and Zac rolled an eight.
And so our game began.
About halfway through it, around five in the morning, I got up to answer nature’s call, threatening both my brothers if they dared cheat while I was gone to which they both only answered with devilish grins. I walked out of the room, rolling my eyes and found myself face to face with Parker.
“Parker!” I exclaimed quietly.
“Hi,” he said after a long pause that made me think he wasn’t going to answer at all. “How is he?”
“He’s all right,” I said. “We’re playing Monopoly, if you’d like to join us?”
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “I was just heading to the bathroom.
“Me too,” I said, gesturing for him to go first.
“No, you go,” he said. “You should get back as fast as you can. I’ve heard about Taylor and Zac’s reputations when it comes to board games.”
I smiled my thanks and went in before him. When I got out, he was gone again and the door to the guestroom was firmly shut. I sighed and went back to the game, silently counting both Zac and Taylor’s amount of money as well as my own to make sure they hadn’t stolen any while I was away. It didn’t appear that they had.
Go ahead. Say it. I dare ya.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty-One