I jolted awake to see Sal was already up, and fully dressed.

“Nightmares again?” He asked me, “I saw that you were crying in your sleep”

“Nightmare” I corrected him, “It’s always the same one…” I paused for a moment, then added, “You had a nightmare too, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” He answered, “What exactly is your nightmare about?”

It took me a while to find the right words…but then one word came to mind… “Mom” 

We stayed quiet for a few seconds, but then, out of nowhere, he hugged me, and said, “..Me too…”

I uncomfortably hugged him back. We both had had issues with nightmares because of…the day mom died… but for the most part we kept it to ourselves. But, I never really told him about the part that involves him. I had always replaced that part with a dog attack instead of him attacking.

After all, a dog attack isn’t that hard to believe, and I heard from Sal that he had a dog in his nightmares too. Though, he said that the dog talks to him inside of his nightmares.

“...Sis?” I snapped out of my thought as he backed away from me a bit, then added “Are you ok?”

“I-...I’m fine, Sal” I said, truth be told, it was a lie…I just didn’t want to worry him. I tried to change the subject, “Why don’t we go see what dad is doing?”

“Ok, sure I guess.” Sal said. So off we went. We left our shared bedroom, and walked over to our father’s room.

After knocking on the door, we entered, and Sal asked “Hey Dad, any idea on what me and Cass can do?”

“Why don’t you two introduce yourselves to the neighbors?” Our Dad suggested. “Maybe you two could make friends?”

“Ok” Sal agreed, then looked over at me as I stayed quiet.

“Ok, let’s just be honest,” I said suddenly, “Sal’s gonna make friends, not me”

“Well, I won’t just let you stay antisocial your entire life.” Dad said.

“I’m not antisocial! All I need in my social life is my family, and I’ll be fine!” I snapped back at him.

Then Sal sighed, and said, “Come on, Sis. If you’re not planning to make friends, then at least come with me so you won’t be alone.”

“Fiiiine” I finally gave in, “But can I grab something from our room real quick?”

“Ok, I’ll be waiting at the door for you” He agreed, “Don’t take to long”

I nodded my head, then walked into our room,and got dressed. To be honest, I didn’t try that hard to look good…all I did was put on an oversized, black t-shirt with a Sanity’s Fall logo on the back that slightly revealed my left shoulder, a pair of black, ripped jeans, and black sneakers.

I was about to leave our room, but then I looked back at the small table beside my bed. I walked over, seeing my alarm clock which wasn’t ever set, and a pair of spiked headbands. I picked the headband, and placed it on top in my dark purple, wavy hair which was currently in two buns.

I then opened the drawer beneath the table, revealing a pocket knife which was neatly cleaned, and seemed to sparkle in the light of the room.

It wasn’t like I was planning to kill… It’s just that things don’t seem right here… so I grabbed the knife, and quickly shoved it into the back pocket of my jeans. It was only for protection, not for anything else…

I looked over the room one more time, talked to Gizmo, gave him a few pets, then left.

Gizmo was technically Sal’s cat, but to be honest Gizmo was a best friend to both of us. I still remember the day we got Gizmo…

Mom had died a few years before. Me, and Sal were both seeing a therapist…They said there was no hope for me…but they brought Gizmo in, and Sal seemed to be improving. After a while, they allowed Sal to take Gizmo home, and put me on several different types of pills, most of them were experimental, and did more harm than help.

There were a few pills for helping me sleep, for taking away painful headaches, for anxiety, and a few for making me “happier”, for example. But like I said, most of them didn’t work…

I walked out of our bedroom door, and saw our Dad sitting on the couch…but no Sal in sight.

“Hey Dad…Where’s Sal?” I asked him.

“Oh, I sent him out.” He answered, “He said that he’d be down on the first floor, waiting for you”

I nodded, “Ok then, see ya, Dad”

He waved goodbye as I walked out the front door of the apartment, but as I was making my way to the elevator I saw a police officer guarding apartment 403.

“Hey, what happened?” I asked him,curiously.

“None of your business” He snapped at me, then added, “Are you in some sort of gang? What’s with the stupid mask?”

I glared at him, “Gang activity thing.”

He scoffed at me, “Great, another f*cking delinquent”

“It’s a prosthetic face, Dumb*ss” I said to him, “Maybe if you actually considered things, you would actually be considered a good cop instead of guarding the scene of the crime, which by the looks like a murder scene, let’s face it”

“And how would you know what a murder scene looks like, Little girl?” He said, looking me up and down…silently judging me.

“Witnessed one…” I said, then pointed to my mask briefly, “August 16th 1984. New Jersey”

“Who was killed?” He asked.

“None of your business” I snapped.

He just scoffed again, then grumbled to himself so I decided to leave, and go to the first floor. After a short time in the elevator, I walked out to see Sal waiting in front of Ms. Rosenberg’s apartment.

“Hey Sal” I greeted him, “I see you started without me.”

“Yeah, I spoke with Ms. Rosenberg” He said, “...she called me a girl multiple times…and she talks a lot, but she’s nice”

“Well, at least you probably won’t get arrested any time soon” I said.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” He said, suddenly very serious,and kinda surprised.

“Showed the officer guarding 403 some brutal honesty” I answered, “He deserved it. And why do you instantly assume that I did something?!”

“Because it’s you,” He told me.

“...” I thought about it for a second,then sighed, “Fair enough.”

And with all that said, and done, we decided to say hi to Mr.Addison. We walked over to his door, and Sal knocked.

Then the mail slot opened as Mr.Addison’s eyes appeared on the other side as he happily said, “Well, if it isn’t my two favorite twins! What can I do for ya?”

“Oh, we just wanted to say hi,” I said. 

“Well then, Hello to you both” he said, “Would either of you like some tea? It’s free for those who live in the building but everyone else has to pay for it”

“No, thank you” Sal answered, “But maybe later”

“Alright then,how about you, Miss?” He asked me.

“No thanks” I answered.

We said our goodbyes, and went into the elevator. After a few minutes on the second floor, we went back into the elevator, to go up  to the third floor. 

The elevator beeped as the doors closed, and the elevator music started. 

“You’ve been oddly quiet…” Sal said, “is something wrong?”

I looked at him, still thinking about my nightmare, “I’m fine”, I lied, “Just thinking…lost in thought, you know?” I looked down

“It’s about the nightmare, isn’t it…” He asked, but I stayed quiet “Cass… If there’s anything you want to talk about… I’m here for you. You know that, right?”

I looked back at him, a bit nervously, and lied again, “I’m fine. Now, can you please drop it.”

“Fine…”