Nightmares and redemption

Everywhere around us was painted in natural white. I walked in on him shaking like a kid that had been bathed in ice water and thought it was because of the cold but taking a close look I noticed that his pillow was drenched in sweat and I knew he was only shuddering.

"Hey, hey" I called out to him while tapping lightly on his thighs. He opened his eyes with great terror and grabbed me screaming "don't kill me please, don't kill me". This has been more like a norm, he's been screaming this phrase for many nights but funny enough I wasn't getting used to it instead it terrorized my existence each time I heard him say it.

"Another nightmare huh?" Same old words but what could I do other than make him believe they were just nightmares.

"Jane, they're coming for me" He put his head on my chest and sulked like a baby. I hated it when he spoke like this, he scared shit out of me but I had to play cool to convince him that we were safe where we were.

"You're safe here and you know that" my eyes moistened as he pulled me closer for a hug. It wasn't easy acting like an elder sister when naturally I'm the younger one but I had to because my older brother was in distress.

He was previously a member of a secret cult. He left the group after the murder of an elderly woman which forced him to rethink his decision of being a member of the cult. Killing was nothing to my brother but that changed after he was forced to kill an innocent old lady. He was only used to murdering people who had offended him or anyone in his brotherhood.

After choosing to leave the cult because he could no longer stand murdering innocent people as he sensed it was going to become a norm after the first assignment, his life became threatened by the cult superiors; they said it was a do or die thing. My brother was scared for his life, for the first time he understood what it meant to live and his wish to live and not die shamelessly got us to where we found ourselves. He had just me in this world and I had just him so we helped and protected each other.

"Everything is fine now, look outside, no one can find us here, we're safe, it's all but a stupid nightmare" I tried to make him see that he was safe. It's been three years already and we've never come across any humans since we moved to these woods. It's just been us and some wild animals.

Physically holding me at arms length, his eyes kissing mine he said; "Thank you Jane" a beam of smile appeared on his lips somehow revealing his perfect dentition. He was a charm in every woman's eye. Sighs.

"I'll be leaving for hunting, you stay home and do some painting so I can take it to the city for sale. We're almost out of cash"

He nodded in response like a four year old and rubbed the back of my palms with his cold hands accompanied with eyes that were screaming 'thank you for all you do'. I nodded in return, kissed his forehead and prepared to leave for hunting. He was all I got so I had to protect him.

I wanted to take the gun with me but for the first time my instinct asked me to leave it with him.

"you can never be sure when an enemy would want to strike" I placed the gun on his bed and made to leave with just my bow and arrows.

"Fight back..."
"If faced with terror" he completed my statement with a smile. Maybe God should have made me his elder sister for real because he was so cute acting the younger one.

To be continued.

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