• I screamed.
    It was loud. It echoed around me.
    Something shook me, trying to wake me up.
    “Ella,” I heard Brian call.
    My eye`s fluttered open, and I gasped for air, and Brad put his hand on my forehead.
    “You’re burning up,” he stated.
    I was unbearably hot.
    I shrugged off the hand that Brian had laid on my shoulder, and stood to my feet. It was probably meant as a comforting gesture. But the effect on me was exactly opposite. I grabbed a pair of shorts from my dresser on the way out, heading toward the bathroom.
    I splashed cold water on my face, and changed into the shorts, not bothering to look in the mirror.
    When I returned to my room, Brian and Brad were standing outside my bedroom door, but I continued inside anyway. I was still feeling feverish, but I wasn’t going to concern my family anymore. I was surprised Kim hadn’t rushed to my room just as the twins had.
    I was glad she hadn’t.
    I wished the twins; (Brian and Brad) would stop treating me like I might break at any moment. This wasn’t the first time I’d had a nightmare. You’d think they’d be more used to it by now than even I was. Every time they would rush to room to see if I was okay, it made me feel worse. It made me feel like a burden.
    I wished I could find the OFF switch. The switch to turn off the nightmares. Because, maybe if the nightmares stopped then maybe the screaming would stop too.
    The screams. The worst part. They were a response to the sheer horror that ripped through me every time I had this reoccurring nightmare. And the pain, the pain that had broken and paralyzed me.
    What a horrible thing to have as a first memory. Everything before that truthful nightmare was blank. I figured, it was my fault, like when they talk about repressing painful memories. That s what must have been happening. I was repressing everything linked to whatever it was that had caused my injuries.
    What triggered my frustration was that no matter hard I tried; I couldn’t remember who the boy was. I couldn’t even remember what he looked like, even if I’d just seen it in a nightmare. He was gone when I woke up in the hospital with a broken spine.
    I climbed onto my tall bed, and laid down, my back facing away from the door.
    “You can leave now,” I sighed.
    “Night Ella,” they sighed.
    My eyes closed, I slept soundlessly the rest of the night.