Tori's POV

Suzie hopped towards her bed while using my arm for support. According to dad the doctor had said it wasn't that bad of a sprain and she only needed to wear a brace on her ankle but to be safe it would be better not to put pressure on her foot. So Suzie had laid her crutches on the ground beside her bed and I helped her get under the covers placing the fluffy blanket over her. "Better?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yeah. I'm sorry for scaring you."

I smiled a little and sat next to her. She had tripped when she was running down the stairs, lost her balance and landed on her foot in an awkward position. "I think you gave Macy a heart attack." I said with a small laugh.

Suzie smiled, "Not as bad as Trent. He thought it was Macy that scremed."

"It's ironic," I told her, "Dad usually wants me to stay with you so you don't hurt yourself. Guess I failed, huh?"

Suzie giggled before snuggling into the pillow below her head. She yawned pulling her blanket closer, "Nah it was my fault."

"Did it hurt a lot?" I had once sprained my wrist, I knew moving it at a certain position would hurt more than just keeping it still. But if it started swelling I'd literally have to keep it as still as the water. If I just moved slightly and it caused a ripple, it'd feel like a sharp pain to my head.

Sue shrugged, "Only if I moved my foot."

I nodded and kissed the top of her head. "Go to sleep. You had a fun day."

She fell asleep shorty afterwards so I walked out of her room and headed towards mine. The lights were turned on in the hall since there was no sun outside. It had gotten dark about two hours ago and everyone was in their rooms, relaxing I assume. When I came into my room I headed to my closet and grabbed some sweat pants with a sweat shirt. I didn't feel the need to turn the lights on so I changed in the dark and threw my dirty clothes to a corner in the closet. I crawled under the covers of my bed and tried falling asleep but failing to do so.

If they had just let me explain what had happened withTrent. I thought to myself. At the same time though, I didn't feel like it was the right thing to tell them. Maybe if I told Cole first, he'd understand. He'd help me. I knew in couldn't tell Blake, there was no way I could tell him. And Shawn? He'd probably kill me if I told him I had a conversation with Trent. I had wanted to tell them but I had no chance before Blake had dragged them away leaving me in the room unsure what to do.

It felt like hours of thinking but when I turned to my clock I realized only one, slow, dreadful hour had passed. I still couldn't find myself to sleep. The whole house was quiet, a mouse would be heard if it walked by in the hall. The silence was suffocating though. There was no wind outside, no shaking trees or falling leaves. It felt like the world stood still.

I turned to my side and watched the digital clock on my desk next to my bed. The colon between the numbers kept blinking red. At every minute the number would change. But I kept my eyes on the colon until I felt myself slowly drifting to sleep. My eyelids seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, and my eyes felt like they were stinging from exhaustion. So I shut my eyes and felt myself drifting off.

It wasn't a deep sleep. If it had been I wouldn't have been awoken so easily. In the silence of the night I heard a small creak of a door outside in the hallway. Then someone trying to stay quiet as they tip-toed in the hall. I checked my clock and it read: 3:09 a.m. It was too early for someone to be up, so I placed my head back on my pillow and tried falling asleep again.

There was a knock on my door. A light tap before someone opened it. "Tori." The person whispered. Even their whisper sounded like a shout. I looked up but only saw a figure, a shadow who's face I couldn't make out. "It's Shawn."

"Shawn?" I croaked before sitting up and rubbing my eyes. "What's wrong? It's three in the morning." I yawned my last words.

"I know." His arm went up like he was scratching the back of his neck. "I had a bad dream. Can I stay with you?"

Even in my haze I was shocked he'd have such a request. I closed my eyes trying to fall back asleep but I nodded my head and said, "Sure." Then I scooted over to once side of my bed so he could slide in. I felt the bed dip and sudden chill reach my legs from the air outside. It quickly went away when Shawn closed the small opening he had formed with the covers. "I'm surprised you came here." I mumbled my back turned to him.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his head between my shoulders. "I've never had a sister to comfort me. Blake and Cole wouldn't cuddle with me if their lives depended on it."

I laughed softly trying not to sound to loud. "So what was your bad dream about?"

He sighed, "It started like all my other dreams."

"Meaning?"

I could feel him smile. "Me and FooFoo strolling through Chocolate Landia on Planet F.U.N."

"Um..." I knitted my eyebrows, "Could you please explain that?"

He nodded, "F.U.N is my world. I dream about it all the time. It stands for Fun Unicorn Nations. It's where my unicorn obsession started, right after watching Despicable Me and the girl had that giant unicorn. FooFoo is my companion. I have three. They're all part of the Senate. But theres a king of the all the Landias. A Landia is like a continent. There's Chocolate, Candy Cane, Gumdrop, Sports, Forbidden, and our recent Landia is Emily Landia." I turned to face him my mouth wide open about to say just how crazy he was but he cupped my mouth with his hand and kept going, "FooFoo is my rainbow farting unicorn. He's my favorite of all, super happy and spunky. Love him. He has a twin sister named FeeFee who farts candy. And a cousin LaLa who just farts."

I pulled his hand away, "Why does LaLa just fart?" Was all I could ask because Shawn seemed to have such a wild imagination it was scaring me at this point.

"She lost it when she swam in the Forbidden Lake." Shawn replied with a casual shrug. Even though it was dark and I couldn't make out most of his figure, I stared at him wondering if he had truly lost his sanity. "You think I'm crazy, don't you?" He asked, almost as if he were sad.

I wasn't sure what to answer. Of course I thought he was crazy, but it was a funny crazy that made me smile. Truth be told, I was just thankful he was serial killer crazy. "I think it's weird..." I answered.

He nodded before placing the weight of his head onto the pillow. I did the same and felt him shift around so his chin was over my head. "Well...FooFoo and I were summoned to go see the king. We call him Sir LanceVicTovan."

I yawned and cuddled into his neck, "What was the bad dream Shawn?"

He stiffened slightly and sighed, "I hurt someone." He whispered even quieter. "I hurt someone that I cared about."

"Who?" I asked. "Was it FeeFee?"

He shook his head, "FeeFee was in the land of the butterflies at the time. She was on a quest to find the Glitter Blue butterfly. Thought to be extinct."

I let that one slide and asked again, "Who'd you hurt?"

He waited a full minute to answer. I was slowly starting to slip back into sleep, but remained awake trying to keep myself from closing my eyes. "I hurt them Tori..." He said again. "I don't want to hurt someone like that."

I frowned. "What did you do?"

He took a deep breath. "I crushed them..."

"Why?"

His words were grave and he started to tremble like he was cold. "I don't know...King LanceVicTovan told us too. He said we had too, that it was mandatory because they were a traitor to the kingdom. And I did what he told me to do...and I hurt them. Now I feel awful."

He tightened his grip around me like he was scared I'd somehow escape. "I'm sure what you did wasn't so bad Shawn."

He shook his head, "You don't know that..." I wasn't sure how to respond. So we lay there in silence just waiting for sleep to overtake us. Shawn stopped trembling soon and his grip slightly loosened. His breathing slowed down but not to the point of sleep. My eyes were closed and I was at the verge of slumber. "Tori..." Shawn breathed out at the brick of passing out, "Would you forgive me? If I ever did something to you?"

"Maybe..." I said against his shirt. "It depends what you do. But why would you do something to me?"

"I wouldn't..." Shawn muttered before falling asleep. "You're my sister." We both fell asleep after that, and for once I felt nice knowing my brother was here with me.

When morning seeped in through the shades in my windows I tried moving myself to a position where my eyes were covered by some sort of shadow. At first I had completely forgotten that Shawn was sleeping beside me, and was at a point of screaming before I realized it was him. He was snoring loudly with some drool at the corner of his mouth. His hair was spiked in all sorts of directions and he kept muttering things about not wanting to taste a dog.

"Well this is awkward." I heard someone say from the end of my bed. I looked up to see Cole who was standing at my feet yawning loudly with the same zombie hair as Shawn. "I just," He yawned more and even stretched a bit, "Needed to talk to you Tori."

I shook my head and pointed at Shawn, "Wake him up first and we can all talk."

Cole nodded and lazily walked to Shawn's side. He rocked his brother back and forth until Shawn snorted and woke up. He started rubbing his eyes and making his way into sitting position, "I swear Mr. Police Officer I didn't hide the crocodile in my toilet." Shawn said before opening his eyes. He smacked on his lips for a couple seconds while Cole and I watched him. He looked completely hollow before he came to his senses and sat up, "Oh...good morning."

Cole took a seat at our feet and leaned onto the board. His feet lay like a wall between Shawn and I as he kept yawning when he tried to talk. "I just wanted to talk to Tori."

"Well I'll go back to sleep then." Shawn tried pulling the covers over his head but failed due to Cole's position on the bed.

"You can stay if you want. I don't care." Cole added. "I just find it weird I found you here."

Shawn shrugged, "I had a bad dream." At the moment I was sort of in a daze, trying to regroup my thoughts before speaking. It was a process I usually went through in the mornings. Wake up, stay in bed, leave when I need to pee. "So talk about what?" Shawn asked.

Cole sighed and looked at me, "Have you ever been stuck between a decision you can't get out of? Or an action you don't know how to handle?"

I frowned and thought for a second. Both Shawn and Cole were looking at me with intense eyes, like my answer would solve all the problems in the world. "Um...well I don't know what you really mean."

Cole took a deep breath, "Ever wish you could go back in time?"

I nodded and looked at my hands. "All the time."

"Well..." Cole said, "What do you do when you wish that but you can't go back? How do you deal with it?"

"Yeah," Shawn butted in, "Like my bad dream. What do I do if I hurt someone and want to go back in time but can't? What do I say to them? To make it better. What can I do?"

Cole frowned at Shawn but then looked back at me. "Yeah that's a good scenario. What would you do?"

******************************

"Dad." I called into his bedroom the next morning. I heard him groan but he didn't move a muscle away from mom. "Daddy?" I called again and this time he looked up. I waved my hands frantically for him to come out, he frowned at first but finally gave in. He walked towards me before making a quick pit stop at his closet.

"Here," He handed me a large bag when he had reached me. Then a handful of coins and spare dollars. "That's all that's left. I hope you realize that was part of your earnings Tori."

I nodded and looked inside the bag. It had all the latest issue of USA team shirts. I had made dad go shopping for them, telling everyone an excuse of having to go to work so he could sneak out. It was true though, most of my babysitting or housesitting earnings were put into these shirts. But I had messed them up for the boys, it had been a complete accident. At least they'll forgive me.

"Oh." Dad said grabbing the bag again. "There's something in the bottom I want you to see." He dug his arm in trying to make the least amount of noise possible so he wouldn't wake mom up. Dad pulled out four rectangular pieces of paper and I realized what they were.

I nearly shrieked and took the four tickets in my hand. "Did we win that godforsaken contest?" I asked him. When I had heard that my favorite radio station was having a contest online to win the tickets, I couldn't help but tell dad to enter. It would be amazing for the guys if they could go.

He shook his head, "No."

I looked at him confused, "Then how did you..."

Dad smiled softly and kissed the top of my head, "I talked with Lilly. And we agreed because you're trying hard to get along with your brothers, that we'd earn the money for the tickets. So you have fun at the game, we'll be watching on the screen in the living room."

I hugged my dad tightly, "Oh my god thank you!" He shushed me so I wouldn't shout so loudly. Instead I just whispered, "Thank you thank you thank you."

He laughed softly and hugged me back. "You earned it. Plus that deal we made, who knows you'll be Zombie Apocalypse 2 soon. And a daddy daughter day with me."

I honestly had forgotten about my deal with dad. At first I only wanted to get to know them because of the deal I made. But now that I do know them, I can't deny I don't feel anything for them. They're like the brothers I never had, and maybe that's why I love them. At least I have Cole and Shawn taken care of, Blake might be cruel but I still felt bad when I ruined his shirt. He may hate me and I may hate him, but even he can hurt me when he says bad things about me. This bet, turned real to me and I now I love everyone of my brothers. I just hope they forgive me for my mistake the other day.

Dad kissed my head again, "Go hide it in your room. Give it to them Thanksgiving."

I nodded and quietly ran back to my room.

******************************

Cole's POV

I woke up Thanksgiving morning with bad breath and hair spiking in all sorts of directions. I yawned but realized how gross my mouth felt, so I grabbed the box of mints beside my bed and chewed on three. The minty feeling stung my mouth for a minute until I exhaled deeply and felt better. I got my phone that was charging on my desk and rubbed my eyes before looking at the bright screen. I had a couple text messages from the night before but only one specific person interested me at the moment.

I opened the messages with Jodee and typed quickly, Happy Thanksgiving Jojo.

After sending the message I got up and headed to the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed. When I was done I headed to Shawn's room and knocked softly. When he didn't answer I pushed the door open and headed inside his room. He was sleeping on his back, snoring softly with his arms sprawled out like he was an eagle. "Shawn," I shook his arm taking a seat beside him. "Wake up. I need to talk to you."

He frowned suddenly and whined, "What? I'm trying to dance with the queen. Leave me alone Joker, no one cares your dad was an alcoholic. You've been mean to everyone, go pick on Batman." He yawned and flipped onto his side, his back facing me.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose before shaking his arm again. "It's Cole. Come on man we need to talk."

"What?" Shawn snapped turning back to face me. His eyes were open now and he looked slightly mad. "I was dreaming."

"I know. I wonder what will happen when your girlfriend hears you'd prefer dancing with the queen than her."

Shawn rolled his eyes, "She was the queen smart one."

I chuckled and let the subject drop. "So anyways I needed to talk to you it's about-"

"Tori." Shawn said for me before sitting up. "I know. I wanted to talk to you about it too."

I sighed, "Blake is wrong Shawn."

He nodded, "I know. That's why we can't let him hurt her. It was an accident."

"Shawn..." I looked at my brother sadly. "Blake already did it."

His eyes went wide. "What?! He couldn't have."

"He showed me yesterday...it's just..." I sighed and ran my hands through my hair.

"It wasn't us!" Shawn shouted before I shushed him. "We weren't around. He did it. Not us. Tori will forgive us. She said she would."

The guilt was eating inside me now. Tori had trusted us, she told us the morning when I found her and Shawn. It was a surprise finding Shawn and Tori in the same bed but they looked peaceful and tired and for once...they looked like siblings. She told us that if we ever did hurt her, she'd try to forgive us. She'd try her best but it would be more disappointment than anger or sorrow. It didn't matter now, it was too late. After the deep conversation with Tori, we started laughing and talking. Apparently Blake had woken up and heard us. The next thing I know, he calls me into his room and tells me it's done. I wanted to scream and throw a rampage at him for hurting my sister. Now I was more scared instead of angry. What would Tori say?

Shawn buried his face in his hands. "I feel like throwing up. It's not fair. He had me convinced that Tori was the bad one. But she's not." He looked up at me with guiltful eyes. "Why is he doing this? I trust him, but now? I don't know if I should. At least not until he comes out and into the light to see that Tori isn't the bad guy."

I nodded and didn't say anything else. It was unfair Blake wasn't giving Tori a chance. There were moments when he was fine with Tori, where she didn't bother him and was just someone that was there. Then there were moments when she was a pest to him, a pest he wanted to get rid of. "Should we tell her?" I asked.

Shawn shook his head and scooted to one side so I lay down beside him. "She'd wonder how we know. She'd be broken hearted that we were involved for a short time. We didn't do it."

"Right...if we don't tell her she won't suspect we knew. We could say we didn't know."

"I told him not to..."

"I know..." I put my arm behind my head and stared up at Shawn's ceiling. It had the pencil drawing of the solar system that Shawn had drawn when he was a kid. Of course it was a modified so the center wasn't the sun but the name Shawn. I remember when mom saw it she wanted to paint over it but Shawn had a rant about how it would ruin his imagination and way of feeling better. Dad, our real dad, had finally agreed to keep it. But he'd have to paint it first. Dad never got the chance, soon afterwards he fell sick and never got around to painting Shawn's solar system. "Do you miss him?" I asked.

Shawn looked up at the drawing before slumping down and laying his head on the pillow beside mine. "All the time." He sighed. "He's probably disappointed in us."

I flinched and sighed, "Honestly...I'd be too."

There was silence between us now. We both just looked up at the drawing in our own thoughts. Shawn then talked softly, like he was afraid someone might hear. "Do you ever hate yourself?"

I turned my head to look at my brother, talking in the same tone. "What do you mean?"