Nightmare on Third Street - Chapter Five

I looked up tiredly from my hands as Dominic bounded into the room, a smile on his face as he looked at me. I tried to smile back, but instead I wound up yawning, bringing my hand up to cover my mouth. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, tossing and turning in my bed with thoughts of that mysterious, raspy voice tanting me in my sleep. Dominic came to stand next to me at the kitchen table as I stirred a cup of hot chocolate thoughtfully. I didn't care for coffee, really; it didn't have that much flavor, to be honest, or at least I thought so. Sure, I could add a little sugar, but today I was feeling lazy, and made a cup of hot choco instead. Dominic lifted my cup to his lips and drained part of the contents into his mouth. He squealed and jumped back, barely managing to put the cup down before he did so. Some of the hot chocolate splashed over the edge of the cup, and I scowled at him.

"Now look what you did," I yawned as I got to my feet, moving toward the sink. I grabbed a dishtowel and wet it, before I brought it back to the table to wipe the hot chocolate off before it started to dry and get sticky.

"It's hot!" he complained, gulping air in to cool his mouth.

I smirked at him as I sat back down, leaving the dishtowel at hand. "Of course it is, silly," I said. "I just made it." I shook my head at my brother's ignorance and took to stirring the hot chocolate again. "Why else would I not be drinking it? Why else would there be steam rising from it? Look around you, dear baby brother."

He scowled at me. "Yeah, yeah," he said, "I don't need another lecture on hot chocolate. Please, spare me."

I chuckled and blew at the steam thoughfully. I slowly brought the cup to my lips and took a test sip, being cautious and careful not to burn my tongue or any other part of my mouth, for that matter. It was still pretty hot, but cooling down. I swallowed what I had in my mouth, which was little, and put the cup back down. It was still too hot to be all that enjoyable.

Dominic watched me, scowling. Then he smiled suddenly. "What are we gonna do today?"

I shrugged. "How should I know?" I frowned. "Well, let's see, I have a concert tonight so I have to practice my vocals and guitar, and I have a soccer game later today. Which reminds me, I need to call Jake and see when that is." I got up and moved toward the phone. A smile crossed my face as I said, "Don't even think about it, kid."

Dominic stepped back from my hot chocolate with a groan. "How do you do that?" he whined. "I swear, you're just like Mom. You have eyes in the back of your head."

"Yeah," I said. "And I can watch you no matter what, just like she does. You see? You come over here to be free of her, but I am worse! Bwahaha!" I made a motion of rubbing my hands and laughing hysterically.

Dominic giggled. "Yeah, you're MUCH worse than she is," he said between laughs.

I chuckled, smiling at him, and then turned back toward the phone as I picked it up. I dialed in Jake's familiar number and it rang for a few times before a tired voice finally answered.

"Mmm?" the voice inquired sleepily. "Wha' d'ya want?"

I laughed at Jake's sleepy voice. "Stay up late?" I questioned.

"Mmm," he said in agreement. I heard him yawn, and I could picture him rubbing clarity back into his eyes. "What's up?"

"About that soccer game," I said.

"Yeah?"

"I'm in."

"Good, I was gettin' worried for a minute there. Otherwise I would have had to put Johnny in as forward. Don't get me wrong, he's a good player, but he sucks at playing forward. He's a better goalie."

I chuckled. "Yeah. So, when and where is this game taking place?"

"Huh?" he asked sleepily. "Oh. Dunno yet. Joey's supposed to call me when he gets up. I doubt that'll be anytime soon, though, as we were talking to each other via IM last night until like...three this morning. I know, I know, I'm gonna get yelled at by R-man."

I smiled to myself. 'R-man' was one of the nicknames we gave to Remmy, who was in charge of our band. He did the lead vocals and electric guitar, I did lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Joey was the drummer, Jake was the base guitarist, and Samuel did basically whatever we needed. He'd do bass, he'd do acoustic, he'd do electric...but he would not do the drums. He hadn't learned them yet, though, as he kept assuring us, he was practicing. He could practically take over the whole band if he wanted, with his skill.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Just don't tell him. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, yadda yadda."

He chuckled. "Yeah," he said. "I know what ya mean. I'll call ya when Joey calls, kay?"

"Kay," I said. "Get some sleep, lazy ass."

He barked out a sleepy laugh. "One day, Bryan, one day. I'm going to get back at you for all those comments."

I laughed. "If you say so," I said as a goodbye, and then hung up. Dominic was sitting at my seat drinking my hot chocolate. He froze as I rounded on him, one eyebrow raise questioningly. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

He gave a nervous chuckle. "I...didn't do it?" he tried.

I narrowed my eyes. "One."

He 'eeped'.

"Two."

"C'mon, Bry, it was an accident, I-"

"Three!" I said, and lunged toward him. He yelped and jumped to the side--

--directly out of his chair. He hit the floor, and in the next moment I was on him, tickling his ribs. He squirmed and struggled to get away, laughing hysterically, but I would not let him him escape. No siree. He had taken thy holy hot choco. He shan't escape thy rightful punishment.

"S-Stop!" he laughed. "P-Please, mercy! M-Mercy!"

I laughed and let him scramble away. "Serves ya right," I said, and stood up.

"Meanie," he pouted.

I chuckled, but it was cut off somehow. I stood there, frozen, staring into space, as something cold seemed to cling to me as if I were a lifepreserver. Dominic stopped his pouting and took a step toward me, frowing in concern. I was sure that he said my name once, and then again a little louder, but I suddenly couldn't hear anything. I saw his lips move, but that was it.

"You're mine," the voice echoed in my head, along with that laugh that I loathed so much. "You're mine."

'No,' I wanted to scream, 'I'm not yours! I'm not yours, so leave me alone!' I tried to move; my arm, my leg, my eyelids, anything, but I seemed frozen. I could move nothing.

Dominic's eyes were wide and fearful as he shouted at me, his mouth opening wider. It was as if something had plugged my ears, as if sound was frozen away from me. Dominic reached out and touched my arm, before his eyes widened even more than they already were. He yanked his hand back and stared at me, before he opened his mouth to shout my name again.

I couldn't move, couldn't respond to him any way. I wanted to. God, I wanted to let him know that everything was okay, that I was okay, but I had no way of doing it. I wasn't blinking, wasn't moving, and I wasn't sure if I was breathing. For all he knew, I was dead. Sure, I wasn't, but in his young mind, it might seem that I was. He was panicking. I wished I could calm him.

"You're mine, Bryan Randall. And don't you forget it."

Dominic grabbed my arm and shook me. I couldn't, wouldn't move. He clung to my arm like a lost little child, and stared up at me. He shouted something, and it was a good thing that I had mastered lip reading in school, when you couldn't talk and had to mouth what you wanted to say. His words were clear to me.

And they cut me to the core.

"Bryan! Come back! Please, brother!"

Come back? From where? God, he thought I had left him! And, I supposed, in a sense I had. I wasn't in control of my body. Dominic pushed closer to me.

"Why are you so cold?" he whispered. His lips moved faintly. "Bryan...please..."

I wanted to answer him, wanted to reassure him that I was okay, but I couldn't. I was frozen.

Dominic nuzzled his head into my side, and I felt something wet slide through my shirt and hit my already freezing skin. He was crying. Dominic...

...was crying! And because of me! Damn it, if only I could move. I wanted to growl, to snarl and yell at the damned voice, but I could do nothing. Nothing except feel my brother's pain and terror as it rolled off of him like a wave and drowned me in it. I could do nothing to help him. I could do nothing to help myself.

What was going on?

"You're mine," the voice was louder than ever before, echoing through my head. It was so loud that it started to give my frozen head a headache. "Don't forget it. You're mine, Bryan. You're mine."

'So you've said,' I thought to myself. 'You're starting to sound like a broken record.' I desperately wanted to move again, to move around and get some warmth back into my body. I wanted to show Dominic that I was okay, that I wasn't injured or anything and that he could stop crying. I wanted to hurt the voice. I wanted to hurt it so badly...

Dominic's body was shaking against mine. He clutched at my shirt, and my side kept getting wetter and wetter. 'Dominic,' I thought desperately, hoping he would somehow hear me. 'Dominic, please don't cry. Please. I'm okay.'

I wanted to wrap my arms around him. I wanted to hold him and hug him and tell him that everything was okay. I wanted him to stop crying.

"Bryan," the voice said in my head again. "You are mine. Stop rejecting me, Randall. You're mine. Let me in."

'In?' I thought. 'The hell are you talking about?'

Suddenly, I could feel my fingers again. My index finger twitched as the numbness started to retreat, and I blinked my eyes rapidly. I gasped for breath as I doubled over, pushing Dominic away from me as I did so, putting my hands on my knees. Sweat beaded my forehead, and I coughed. I brought a hand up and pounding it against my chest to cough a little more, to get whatever it was out of my system.

"B-Bryan..." Dominic's fearful voice sounded so sweet to my ears. I wasn't deaf anymore. I could move, I could blink, I could hear, I could breathe...I wasn't frozen anymore.

Slowly, I raised my head, still gasping for breath. Dominic's cheeks were tear-stained, and still had tears running down them. His eyes were hopeful as I looked into them. I reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling toward me. He whimpered and gripped at my shirt as I wrapped my arms around him in a comforting hug.

"Shh," I said, my voice hoarse and choked, as I began rocking back and forth slightly, trying to calm him. "Everything's okay, Dominic. Everything's okay. I promise."

He said nothing, just shook his head, nuzzling it into my chest, and gripped my shirt a little tighter. My chest started to get damp, but I didn't care. "Are...are you....are you okay?" he choked out in a faint whisper.

I nodded and tightened my grip on him. "Yeah," I whispered. "I'm okay, D. I promise."

"What...w-what happened?"

"I..." I was going to lie to him and say...something, I wasn't sure what, but I couldn't lie to him. He deserved to know what was going on. He deserved having me be honest with him. "I don't know," I said truthfully. "I...I don't know. It was strange."

"You scared me," he whimpered.

"I'm sorry," I said. "It kind of scared me, too. But it's over now. I'm okay."

He said nothing for a long moment, then whispered in a sincere, tearful whisper, "I love you."

I tightened my hold again. "I love you, too."

I thought the reason that this moment was so intense was because neither of us knew what had happened, and were worried by what it meant, by what was going on. It was nice to hear him say that, though, no matter the circumstances.