Rosemary Bakshi's Arc

Chapter 2 of 7

Rosemary clutched the little mouse doll to her chest, its cross-stitched eyes pressed against her wet cheek. The dream still hung in the room like cold smoke. She tried to be quiet, the way her brother would be, but the sobs kept slipping out around her fingers. A soft glow swept across her wall. Clove stood in the doorway, phone held up like a small bright moon. "Bad one?" he whispered. He didn't wait for an answer. He crossed the floor, set the phone face-down so the light shone up at the ceiling, and climbed onto her bed. "Scoot," he said. He pulled the purple throw from the foot of her bed up over both their shoulders, tassels swinging. Rosemary curled into his side, the mouse doll squashed between them. "They came again," she whispered. "They want me to do bad things." Clove was quiet for a long moment. No joke. No shrug. "Yeah," he said finally. "They do that to me too. I hate it." He tucked the blanket tighter around her shoulders. "Listen. I'm older. That means I go first. Whatever they ask you to do, you tell me. I'll figure it out. They don't get you. Not while I'm here." Rosemary nodded against his shoulder. She didn't feel brave yet. But for the first time since the bones in the dream, she didn't feel alone. She closed her eyes under the purple blanket, the small light glowing above them, and let herself believe one true thing: she had a brother, and he had promised.