Haunting Cries
Illusion or imagination…?
Blue had been with us for exactly twenty days when something startled me from a deep sleep.
I couldn’t explain the noise I heard as my eyes snapped open, tension winding around my chest like a vise.
My gaze bounced around the dark room, finding only shadows in the corners of the attic, and beyond, the clouds blocked the starry night sky through the small round window at the far end of the attic.
It rarely stretched its light to my side of the space, but still offered a view of the sky if I was lying in bed and could see through the gap between my dresser and the desk.
And then I heard it.
A wail. The ghostly, haunting cry of terror that caused the hair on my arms to stick up as I bolted upright in bed.
It was easy to let my imagination run wild and conjure the fleeting specters that would appear the moment I shut my eyes again, waiting to spook me into a state of fright.
But they never stood a chance against the real horrors that lingered in this house, invading the minds of children who had been robbed of their innocence.
Blue. Her heartbreaking cries were always so visceral that my hand lifted and pressed against my chest, directly over my heart, as I dragged in a shuddering breath.
Jesus. I gulped as I slid my feet over the side of my bed and walked toward the stairs.
At the bottom, Seb looked up at me, his expression so full of pain that I knew he awoke the second Blue did.
Her night terrors had roused the whole house multiple times since she arrived.
More than once, I stumbled from bed to find Seb already awake.
He seemed in tune with her in a way the rest of us could barely grasp.
As I descended the stairs, I saw him reach Sarah and Blue’s room, his expression tortured as he placed his palm on the door.
So silent. He never invaded their privacy, but I knew he would be there the moment that door opened if either girl needed comfort.
They didn’t. Not tonight.
The door remained closed as Blue’s crying reached a fevered state.
She sounded like she fought invisible hands as her voice, raw and hoarse from shouting, begged someone to stop.
I wanted to cover my ears and drown the noises of her suffering, but I wanted to hurt the ones who did this to her even more.
That girl had been through a hell I couldn’t begin to imagine.
Seb’s anger stiffened his body as he formed a fist and placed it beside his flattened palm.
Warring with the need to comfort and avenge her, he struggled with the rage that flowed through him.
I sensed it because I felt the same. His eyes held mine, and I lifted my chin, letting him know that he wasn’t alone.
Blue wasn’t alone. Whether she knew it or not, Sarah wasn’t the only foster kid in the Weathers’ household to comfort one of us when we needed it.
Hell, they did that for me the day I arrived. I didn’t have to go to Noma’s funeral alone.
Finally, Blue’s cries reduced in agony and pitch. They slowly quieted as exhaustion took over. I didn’t know how long we stood in the hallway, but by the time I realized Blue was falling asleep, I noticed that Ethan, Caleb, Gage, and Finn had joined us.
Ethan’s hand rested on Seb’s shoulder.
Gage’s hands were stuffed into his pockets, wearing jeans instead of gym shorts like he usually wore to bed.
Finn stood to my right, his lips pressed tightly into a thin line. He stared at the closed bedroom door, and it wasn’t hard to imagine he was lost in secret memories of the past.
Caleb quietly leaned against the closest wall, his head lowered as he fought his own internal demons.
There was no handheld gaming device in his hand, nothing to let him escape the air to think with emotion from all of us.
When I heard a slight whimper leave his lips, so low I was the only one who did, I nearly took a step in his direction.
I blinked back a surge of protectiveness and the raw need to inflict a little revenge on those who thought it was okay to hurt and bully others as I caught Dale at the top of the stairs on the second floor. I didn’t know when he arrived either, but he looked as anguished as the rest of us.
Seb finally pushed away from the door after silence had filled the hall for several minutes. He turned around to find us all now there, waiting for something we couldn’t name. He gave Dale a brief nod and then strode into the room he shared with Ethan.
Ethan followed.
One by one, everyone left the hall and returned to bed. Finn to a room he didn’t share. It hadn’t been explained why. I didn’t think it was my place to inquire.
The last one standing, I released a soft sigh as the girls’ bedroom door opened and Sarah slipped through. She blinked as she saw me.
“Johnny?”
“We were all here,” I explained with a whisper.
“But you stayed last,” she observed.
I dipped my chin.
Sarah didn’t ask why. She reached for my hand and squeezed. “Blue’s asleep now.”
“Good.”
Sarah sniffled, and I caught the dark circles under her eyes, shadows that were highlighted by the low lighting in the hall thanks to one of Harmony’s night-lights shaped like an owl.
“Want some hot chocolate?”
I knew where Harmony kept the basket of hot cocoa and tea bags. Sometimes, when I was too haunted by the past, I came downstairs to make a cup. If Harmony knew about it, she never said a word. Neither did Dale.
“Not right now.”
“You don’t want to leave her,” I guessed with understanding.
Blue shouldn’t wake up alone. Apparently, that was a silent pact Sarah had made with all of us.
“Yeah.”
“Well, if you need me, speak into the vent.”
Her lips quirked up at the sides. “You can really hear me?”
“Yep. Whenever anyone talks close by a vent, it travels right up the chute and into the room by my headboard.”
Sarah snorted. “Fun.”
“I’m learning blackmail secrets. It’s fascinating.”
She squeezed my fingers and released my hand. “Don’t spill the beans to anyone.”
“Never. I’m not a bean spiller.”
Sarah bumped her shoulder into mine before she entered her bedroom and closed the door with a silent click.
When I turned to head up the stairs, I felt a presence behind me. It wasn’t who I expected.
My gaze met Harmony’s tear-filled eyes as I looked over my shoulder. Her not making her presence known had me suspecting she hadn’t slept through my nightmare either.
Her hand pressed over her heart as her chin wobbled.
Something about the way she stared at me reminded me briefly of Noma.
Maybe it was the way she fiercely loved and cared for the people in this household or the understanding of suffering she couldn’t control.
It could have been the determined set of her shoulders or even how hard she fought not to let her inner turmoil show.
It didn’t matter other than seeing her so vulnerable, willing to be transparent, helped me to feel like maybe there were others like Noma in the world.
Here was someone taking the time to care about me and the rest of us, who ended up lost in a system that tore us away from everything we knew.
For some, that was an answered prayer. For others, it was a nail in the coffin.
Harmony gathered her robe tighter around her waist before she gave me a trembling smile and headed back downstairs. There was no mistaking how deeply our pasts affected Harmony and Dale, and yet they still chose to foster kids and welcome special cases.
My Noma had found the perfect house for me, knowing it wouldn’t replace her, but I would still have a place that would protect me and people who would fight for lost causes.
My breath stuttered in my lungs as my knuckles pressed into my sternum.
Her loss still gutted me every single day, and I fought to control the rising tide of anger that pulsed and tried to punch through my chest.
Rubbing the aching spot, I headed upstairs and back to bed. It took a lot longer than I wanted to fall back asleep.
Seb stayed close to Blue in the following days, not quite hovering but remaining nearby as if he wanted to prevent any further nightmares and could vanquish them in daylight before they had a chance to haunt her dreams.
She never spoke much, but Blue’s eyes held a pain more shattering than any I had ever seen, rivaling my own and even my Noma’s.
It was as if her soul had experienced trauma that seemed to follow her like a melancholy shadow, weighing her shoulders down as though every step she took was a struggle.
The intensity of it seemed to linger inside the house, thickly hanging in the air.
When I woke up to the sound of dishes shattering a week later, I blinked the sleep from my eyes.
A frustrated, stuttering curse followed the clatter, and I knew it was Seb.
I had turned off my fan during the night, and the silence in the attic meant I could hear almost everything happening in the lower levels of the house, especially since the vent seemed to broadcast it all like a bullhorn by the headboard of my bed.
Rubbing the last remnants of sleep from my eyes, I sat up and shoved the blanket off.
A bit disoriented, I bumped into the dresser as I left the room.
A mumbled “Shit” fell from my lips as I stubbed my big toe and took the stairs, making my way down to the first floor.
I padded across the floor in my socks, stopping when I spotted all the broken plates in a scattered pile beside the dining room table.
“F-f-fuck, Johnny.”
“You okay?” I bent my knees and helped gather up the largest of the broken pieces, tossing them in the nearby trash.
Finn entered the dining room, chipper per usual. “Again? We’ll be left to eat off paper plates at this rate.” In his baseball uniform, he walked right through the debris, then out the front door to where Dale was waiting. “Dumbass.”
Dick.