“Nicole, where are you?” Tara called out as I heard her come through the front door. I didn’t move as I watched Supernatural on the outside TV on the back porch. Cass was kicking some butts when Tara said behind me, “What is that smell?”

“Maybe the bowl of cereal from last night,” I said as Cass killed a demon. “What are you here for?” I asked as I reached for some chocolate covered raisins.

“I came to check on you, when are you coming back? It has been two months and we are worried about you,” she said coming around to sit at the end of my feet. “You’re coming back right?” I looked down at her and didn’t say anything as I turned back to the TV. “Nicole.”

“I’m switching to a school in New York; I’ll be staying with my aunt up there until I am better. I’m going to get therapy while I’m up there, the doctors think that a fresh start will help,” I explained as a tear went down my face.

“When were you going to tell us this? Or were you going to keep it from us?” she said standing up. I didn’t say anything but stared at the TV as Dean tried to explain something to Cass. “Nicole, we are here for you, you just have to work with us. If you don’t then we can’t help.”

“That’s the problem, you can’t help. No one can, I have to start over,” I said looking up at her as I was still lying on the couch.

“I’m not letting you go to New York by yourself without anyone to trust, Nicole. Even if your aunt lives there, you don’t know anyone! You aren’t going alone, I won’t let you. Tell me when you are leaving so that I can have my transcript sent and have our apartment rented out to someone else.”

I sat up as Tara kneeled down to my eye level. I threw my arms around her neck and cried on a shoulder. “I leave at the end of the week, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I just found out two days ago that this was final,” I cried.

“Well, I’m glad I came by,” Tara said as she pulled away to wipe tear from her eyes.

“Me too, sorry for not telling you when I found out,” I said as I turned off the TV.

Tara stayed that night and kept me company while Uncle was out at a meeting for work in Florida. I woke up on the couch as Tara was cooking in the open kitchen. I sat up and saw boxes broken down and piled up by the stairs. “Where did those come from?” I asked looking at them.

“I picked them up this morning when I went out to get food for lunch, you sleep in late don’t you?” she joked not turning to face me.

“Sarah has rubbed off on me,” I told the truth but Tara took it as a joke. “What time is it?”

“One, I was going to wake you up in ten minutes if you weren’t up by then anyway. How did you sleep?” she asked turning around to face me. Her eyes were red and looked tired.

“What happened?” I asked getting up and walked over to her. “Are you ok?”

“Are you ok? You were screaming in your sleep last night, I couldn’t do anything to help. I ran in and you were screaming as you threw your hands in the air, was it about that night?” she asked crying. I looked away and sat back down on the couch not answering. “Nicole, you need to talk to us. We are here to help, you scared me last night. I tried to wake you but you were moving too much that you would hurt yourself or me.”

I looked up as a tear slid down my face; I knew I have been screaming in my sleep. The first night it happened Uncle thought that someone broke in and was trying to rape me or something worse since I was sleeping on the couch. Every night it’s the same dream.

I’m lying in bed when I wake up to my door getting kicked in. instead of the three boys coming in it’s just the one boy who lived. “You shouldn’t have made it, you were the one we were looking for in the first place anyway,” he would say as he walked in with a shotgun.

“Then why did you kill all those helpless girls?” I asked crying as he was getting closer, closing the gap between us. 

“Do you really think that they can live after what happened? We were sent to kill you, not them. But they just got in the way,” he explained.

“How? They were in bed asleep! You broke into their rooms!”

“I was told that you would fight, but I told them that I could handle you,” he said with an evil grin.

“Who are them? And you showed them wrong; I made it when you were meant to kill me! You should have let that one boy shoot me again!”

“Yes, I should have, but I didn’t. Now, time to pay for what you did,” he said as he lifted the gun at me.

“I didn’t do anything! They got themselves killed!” I yelled as he started to shoot at me.

I snapped back to the present as I saw Tara looking at me on the edge of crying. “Nicole, I’m so sorry for what they did to you. I promise that I will make it better, I’ll never let them get to you again.”

“You can’t promise that and you know it! Why promise something when you don’t know or do know that you can’t keep it?” I snapped looking up. “I just want to be left alone and start over again, new school, new place, and new friends.” I ran to the back porch and closed the door to the porch as I cried my eyes out. I could never tell anyone about my dreams, there was just a feeling that I had that if I told others then something would happen to them.

Awhile later Tara came out with a plate of chocolate chips pancakes. I started to pull the pancakes apart as Tara put in a DVD for me. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out to see that Sarah had sent me a picture.

Thought you would like this. Above this was a picture of Cass. I set it as my background picture and replied back saying thanks. After wasting most of my day like I always do, I finally got up to start packing. I played some music on my laptop as I packed and found a picture of the day Uncle dropped me off at my dorm room my first day.

I continued what I was doing as I tried not to think about the picture. A door closed downstairs around 11 that night as I was just finishing up packing. Uncle wasn’t supposed to be home until later tomorrow and Tara was asleep in my bed. “Tara, someone is in the house,” I whispered, running over to her. She sat up as we heard the person move into the kitchen.

Tara slowly got out of bed and we walked towards the door. Tara ran out of the room and ran to the railing at the top of the stairs and looked down. “It’s a guy, from what I can see,” she whispered. I handed her an old softball bat that I still had in my closet from when I played softball in middle school. “Really?” Tara asked turning to me.

“Just in case, if you just got shot at two months ago you would be even more scared,” I said rolling my eyes at her. We started to head down the stairs when the door to the garage opened.

“Miles, be quiet would you? The girls are here,” Uncle said locking the door behind him.

“What is going on?” I snapped when he turned around. “We got the crap scared out of us. I’m packing with a softball bat in my closet and Tara was asleep, it’s 11 at night, you aren’t supposed to be home until tomorrow and some guy walks in!”

“I called you,” he said raising his eye brows. I pulled out my phone to see that I had missed a call.

“Sorry, listening to music as I was packing,” I said as Tara put the bat down and the Miles guy came into the room. “Who are you?”

“Nicole,” Uncle gave me the eye for being rude and then continued, “this is Miles, your aunt’s son. He was staying in Florida while I was down there and he volunteered to drive you home with him Friday.”

“Uhm, about that,” Tara said stepping up to the plate. “I told Nicole that where ever she goes, I go. I have my school stuff being sent over right now,” she told Uncle.

“Nicole is so lucky to have a friend like you, thanks Tara,” he said as he gave her a hug.