Something Happened

by Brandy Isaacs

  She was going to have to get out of bed and either coax Beckett out, or, pull her out if she was still asleep. If she was awake, she was probably even more terrified than Rion. What if she is stuck in some kind of fugue state? Time to be the damn adult here, Rion told herself. Her screen timed out, making the darkness even more profound than before. She quickly unlocked the screen. For a brief moment she considered calling Shep, or even Kerry. But embarrassment made its way through her fear.

  She pulled the blankets off her legs and rose to her knees. She leaned over the side of the bed, hoping Beckett was just tucked against it. Still nothing. “Fuck,” she murmured. She tried to tell herself to stop being childish and get up. But, she kept imagining the gap between the bed and the floor. Beckett was in there. She had been violent when sleepwalking before. What if she bites my leg? She imagined tiny, sharp teeth sinking into her Achilles tendon and her heart climbed higher in her throat. What if she found a weapon? A sharp knife could do a lot of damage, even in a kid’s hand.

  Feeling a mixture of ridiculousness and lingering horror, she climbed to her feet and jumped from the bed. The bedroom was so small, she nearly made it to the door. She flung it open, spilling more light into the room. At the same time, she flicked the switch to turn the overhead light on. Refusing to put her face next to the gaping darkness under the bed, Rion backed into the living room. She took a deep breath and lowered herself to the floor. On all fours, she pressed her face into the floor. The lights did little to illuminate the underside of the bed. But, it did enough to let Rion see the shape of her sister, huddled against the wall under the headboard. “Fuck,” she breathed in relief and pity. She pressed her forehead into the cold wood and took several calming breaths.

  Rion finally shook off the childish fear of the monster under the bed and stood. She ran her hands through her hair, and returned to the bedroom. The shadows from under the bed pressed against her bare feet, but she forced herself to stand next to the dark space. “Beckett. Wake up.” She didn’t hear any movement. Did she fall back to sleep? “Beckett?” Realizing she was going to have to pull the kid out, she lowered herself to her knees. As she came face to face with the gap between the box springs and the floor, a screech caused her to jump back, just enough to miss the teeth that burst out from the shadows.

  Rion landed on her butt and elbows. Strange groaning bubbled out of the kid’s throat as she raked her nails across Rion’s arms. “Stop!” Rion yelled. Remembering the last time she had tried to physically restrain Beckett, Rion hesitated. If she was violent with her sister again, she would never be able to forgive herself.

  Icy shock shot through her as something pinched the thin skin of her forearm. Her nerves finally caught up and her arm exploded in pain. A hoarse cry tore itself out of Rion as she tried to pull her arm away from Beckett’s teeth. In desperation and panic she gripped the kid’s hair and pulled. The harder she pulled, the harder Beckett bit down. Eventually, instinct and the fear of losing a chunk of her arm, made her push forward into the kid’s mouth. The move worked and she released her grip.

  Beckett threw her head back and growled. The sound was wild and feral and her eyes were full of rage. The kid’s mouth stretched wide and Rion could see blood in the corners of her lips and in the cracks of her teeth. She didn’t have time to be angry or even scared. Even though the kid was half her size, she felt like she was fighting for her life. Sick to her stomach, Rion shoved Beckett off her and the kid hit the dresser hard enough to slam it into the wall and knock perfume and lotion bottles over.

  Rion rolled onto her side and stumbled to her feet the same time Beckett did. The kid launched herself towards Rion and, hating herself for it, she reacted. She used her foot to push her sister away. Why isn’t she waking up? Rion didn’t want to hurt her, she just wanted her to stop. “Beckett!” she yelled.

  The kid was a wild beast. She was either so deeply asleep that she couldn’t hear Rion, or she was having some kind of mental breakdown. “Beckett!” Rion yelled again as her sister bounced off the dresser and came at her again.

  Rion started for the bedroom door, but stopped when she realized that she would have to pass Beckett to get there. She realized the absurdity of not being able to get past a forty pound seven-year-old, but that didn’t change the fact that she couldn’t bring herself to do it. It would require her to either hurt her sister again, or take the chance on being hurt worse. She could feel the blood from the bite mark dripping down her forearm into her hand. She cupped it to try to prevent it from hitting the floor.

  “Becks. Please wake up,” Rion hiccupped, trying not to cry.

  The kid continued to glare at Rion with bared teeth she shuddered. “Please,” she whispered. “Wake up.” But her sister only stared at her with eyes that held more rage than any kid should ever have.

  Beckett crouched to launch herself at Rion again. But, before she jumped, pounding at the front door caused them both to jump. The kid seemed to fold into herself as she dove under the bed again, sliding with too much ease into the black space. Not willing to risk losing her chance of escape, Rion darted out of the bedroom.

  “Rion!” Shep called from the other side of the front door. Rion wrenched the door open and slammed into Shep’s chest.

  Shep nearly fell from the force of Rion barreling into him. “What’s going on?” he gasped.

  Rion stared at him, at a complete loss as to how to explain it. “Beckett,” she croaked.

  “Is she OK?” he asked.

  “I-I don’t know.” Rion stopped herself from pulling him away from her apartment.

  “Take a deep breath.”

  His hands on her shoulders were a steadying force. “I woke up. And—and…Beckett was on me—I think.”

  “You think?”

  Rion didn’t know how to explain, so she kept going. “I knocked her off and she rolled under the bed. Then she—she attacked me.”

  “Jesus!” He held her back to look for injuries and saw her arm. “Shit! Come on,” he started into her apartment.

  “No!”

  “We gotta clean that.”

  “Not in there….” She knew she sounded ridiculous, but she did not want to go back inside—where Beckett was.

  Shep clearly didn’t know what to do. He kept looking from her to the apartment. “We shouldn’t leave her alone….”

  “I know,” was Rion’s pathetic response.

  Shep took a deep breath. “Where is she?”

  “Under the bed again.”

  He closed his eyes for a moment, started to say something, reconsidered, then spoke. “Let’s go to my apartment. We’ll get you cleaned up.”

  Even though she knew it was irresponsible to leave her sister alone, she agreed. She followed Shep into his apartment, holding a hand to her arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding. She could feel the sticky warmth of her blood pooling in her palm and leaking over the side of her hand. Shep guided her to the sink and turned on the cold water.

  “Here, run your arm under there while I get some stuff.”

  Rion took a deep breath and plunged her arm into the stream. She hissed as the wound burned and stung. The water that ran into the sink was dark pink with blood. By the time Shep returned, her arm was burning and throbbing. She hadn’t even realized he was shirtless until he was pulling a red tee-shirt on as he returned to the kitchen.

  “Let me see.” She tilted her arm so that he could get a good look. “Oh, that’s bad,” he scowled. “You might need stitches.”

  “I can’t afford to go to the hospital.”

  “It could get infected too. Human bites are really nasty.”

  “I can’t afford a hospital,” she repeated.

  “Well, this is going to hurt like a motherfucker,” he shook his head. Before she had a chance to react he poured peroxide right onto the wound. She yelped, yanking her arm from his grasp. “Here, I’m not done.” He pulled her closer again and she didn’t fight him. He used a paper towel to dab at the blood that s
till seeped from the half-circle of cuts. A half-moon of glaring red dashes oozed more blood every time Shep wiped some away. Underneath those, were half-circle of angry pink lines that didn’t quite break the skin.

  Eventually he realized that the wound wouldn’t quit bleeding while he was wiping at it, so he covered it with a piece of gauze and wrapped it in an elastic bandage. “That’s all I have to keep it tight enough. It will do for now.”

  Rion nodded. “Thanks.”

  Shep guided her to the sofa. “Do you have any idea what set her off?”

  “No. She finally started talking after you guys left. But she wasn’t angry…just scared.” Rion told him about the conversation she and Beckett had before they went to sleep. She was sitting close enough to him that she could feel the hairs on his arms stand up as she related their conversation.

  “Wow,” was all he said she finished.

  Movement at her feet caused her to jump, then nearly cry in relief when she realized it was Link. “Link!” she gasped and reached down to pick him up. She held his warm, soft body against her chest and he sniffed at the bandage on her arm and purred. The cuts throbbed with each beat of her heart and she began to shake violently. Shep stood and she looked up at him in alarm and disappointment. “Where are you going?” she hated herself for asking.

  “To check on Beckett.”

  “No! Don’t go over there!”

  “We can’t just leave her,” Shep gave her a wide-eyed look.

  Rion took a deep breath. “I know.”

  “Do you want to call the police?”

  “No!”

  “The social worker?”

  “No!”

  “Then what do you want to do?”

  “…I—I don’t know…”

  “I’m just going to go make sure she is OK. Stay here.”

  “Don’t…”

  “I have too.”

  Rion sighed. “I know," she gave in. "Just be careful. Don’t try to make her get out from under the bed if she still hasn’t woken up.”

  “Do you think this is sleep walking?”

  “I have no idea.”

  Rion continued to pet Link as she waited on Shep to return. The cat could tell she was upset and he rubbed against her hands and purred. As the adrenaline wore off, she shook and struggled to not cry. She looked down and Link and felt an overwhelming longing for the simplicity of taking care of a cat. She took deep calming breaths and tried to hear any commotion from next door. Everything was quiet. Ten minutes that felt like an hour passed before she heard Shep exit her apartment.

  She stood, placing Link on the floor, when Shep opened the door. “Is she OK? Are you OK?’

  He didn’t answer until he had pulled a bottle of whiskey from the freezer and set two glasses on the counter. He poured a mouthful for them both, recapped the bottle, pushed a glass towards her, and then tossed his back in one gulp. She took a sip of hers and shuddered. “What happened?” she asked again.

  “She was still under the bed.”

  “And?”

  “She’s…awake.”

  “Is she coherent?”

  “…No?”

  “No?”

  “She’s…she isn’t talking. I reached under—I know!” he said at the look Rion gave him. “I couldn’t just leave her under there. I tried to get her out but she tried to bite me.”

  Rion gave him a once over. “She didn’t, did she?”

  “No. I got out of the way in time. What’s wrong with her?” Rion just stared at him pointedly. “I know! Rhetorical question. Kind of.” They were both silent as she sipped at her drink and Shep poured himself another. “We should take her to the hospital,” he finally broke the silence.

  “I don’t know…”

  “Rion!”

  “Look, if we take her to the hospital…they are going to want to call the cops.”

  “For biting you?”

  “Yeah. And for trying to bite you. She’s…I don’t know. Beckett is having some kind of episode…But they’re gonna treat her like a criminal.”

  “She’s a kid. She needs help. They aren’t going to put her in jail!”

  “But, they will get the authorities involved. They’re going to call the cops just as a precaution.

  Shep was smart enough to read between the lines and not question her confidence on this process. “But, we have to help her…”

  “I know. We have an appointment with her therapist on Monday.”

  “What’s going to happen between now and Monday?” Shep asked her, clearly frustrated.

  Rion sighed. “I don’t know. But, what if she is still asleep? Stuck in some kind of nightmare?”

  “Is that even possible?”

  “When I was researching sleepwalking, I read cases where people killed others and never woke up during the whole murder.”

  Shep shook his head and finished off his second drink. “I have to say…I don’t know what the hell to do.”

  “I don’t either.” Rion hated how whiny she sounded. “I think…I think I want to give it a little time. See if she wakes up. Or comes out of this.”

  “And if she doesn’t? How are you going to even get her to the therapist appointment?”

  Rion hadn’t thought of that. “Shit.” She brushed her hair out of her face and met Shep’s gaze. His green eyes were full of concern—but no judgement. And for that she was grateful. She realized she couldn’t wait for him, or anyone else, to tell her what to do. “We wait,” she said finally.

  Shep shook his head again. “OK.”

  “If we take her to the hospital and the cops get involved, she could end up in some kind of home for violent kids. She doesn’t belong there. That’s not going to help her. Or, they could lock her up in some kind of hospital for dangerous people.” She knew she sounded breathless and irrational but she couldn’t stop the panic that flooded through her.

  “Good point.” He poured them both another drink. “I guess drinking before going to the cops would be a bad idea anyway,” he laughed humorlessly.

  “Right.”

  “Sorry, that was just…creepy as hell. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “Me either. And in one of the foster homes I was in, there was a kid with some kind of mental issues. He would flip out every once in a while…but nothing like that.”

  “Her eyes…”

  “You got a good look at them?”

  Shep nodded. “They…they didn’t look…”

  “Like they belonged to her?”

  “Yeah,” he breathed, relieved she put it into words.

  “It’s like she has the eyes of someone much older. And…and much meaner. A kid shouldn’t have eyes like that.”

  “No. No they should not.”

  “I think I’m going to have to go back over there tonight.” A part of her wanted Shep to give her a good excuse not to. But, they both knew that couldn’t leave a seven-year-old alone all night.

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “Oh!” Rion hadn’t expected that. “You don’t have to do that.”

  Shep rolled his eyes. “Are you going to get any sleep on your own there?”

  Good point. “No,” Rion admitted.

  “Well, we can sleep in shifts.”

  He followed her back to her apartment and they both crept in as if they expected Beckett to run out at them. A quick check under the bed told them she was still hiding there. Pressed against the wall. She wasn’t huddled as if she was afraid—she was practically reclining under the headboard. Even though she couldn’t see Beckett’s eyes, Rion was sure she was monitoring their every move. Shep pulled the bedroom door mostly closed while Rion kept watch from the living room.

  Her brain was already trying to rationalize what had happened. The poor kid was stuck in some kind of sleepwalking state. She just needed to wait until Beckett woke up.

  “Ow!” Shep flopped onto the futon and apparently landed on a metal bar.

  “Sorry, it’s not exactl
y the most comfortable.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ve slept on worse,” he chuckled. “Wake me up in two hours?”

  “OK.” Rion settled at the counter. She had agreed to take the first shift because she was too wired to sleep any time soon. She opened her laptop to get some work done while she waited for her turn to sleep. She cast a furtive glance towards the bedroom. She’s just sleepwalking. Everything will be better when she wakes up. If she wakes up.

  Twelve

  For the rest of the night, Rion tried to get caught up on work. She needed the distraction and sense of normalcy. Even though her boss was understanding, she would eventually get tired of Rion slacking. But, she found herself staring at the laptop without much productivity. Especially since every once in a while, she could hear Beckett shift against the hard floor. Every time the kid moved, Rion froze, expecting her to come running out from under the bed. But, Beckett never made an appearance.

  As dawn broke, Shep began to stir. He came awake with a start—sitting up quickly. “What happened?”

  “Nothing.” Rion shut her computer and began to make coffee.

  “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

  “You looked comfortable. And, I still couldn’t even consider sleeping.”

  “You need rest. You can’t stay awake all weekend.”

  “I don’t plan on it. I’m still just too…worked up to sleep.”

  Shep glanced towards the bedroom. “Any change?”

  “Not really. I could hear her moving around a few times—but that’s it.”

  He climbed out of bed scratching at the stubble on his chin. Rion watched him stretch and shuffle towards the bathroom. When he returned, he sat across from her at the counter. She scowled at the strangeness of having him in her home for so long—and at him making himself comfortable. There was something disturbingly domestic about it. “How are you doing?”