The shriek of Autumn's alarm almost made them literally jump out of their bed. They quickly slapped the snooze button several times until the annoying beeping ceased and they pressed the OFF button.

Their night had been filled with nightmare after nightmare of the strange pitch black, long-haired man they had met the other night. Autumn had been running through the woods where they had met Frank, the snow and darkness of the night making it impossible to tell where they were or how to escape. The moon above didn't cast a light on the woods, but shone a horrid crimson red. The trees that surrounded them appeared far bigger than that first night and the snow was slowing Autumn down as they ran frantically through the low-hanging branches and bushes that whipped their arms and legs. They had thought that the Kinkiller was chasing after them, wanting revenge for having lost its kill the first time.

They soon had tripped into the cold of the snow and scrambled up to press their back up against a tree. They watched as the man dressed in the pitch black fur jacket approached them from the darkness. His piercing blue eyes striking straight through into Autumn's soul, his hands balled into fists at his sides ready to rip it right out of their chest.

Autumn then watched on in horror as the man lifted his hands to his neck, his fingernails as sharp as daggers. He dug his nails deep down into his jugular, breaking the skin and blood welling up at the wounds. Autumn suppressed a scream, slapping their hands over their mouth as the man began ripping the skin at his neck, revealing the flesh beneath. He released a gutteral grunt with each yank of his skin from his flesh, moving his hands to his face when his entire neck was ripped completely off, blood soaking his body from the wound. Tears waterfalled from Autumn's eyes as the man continued ripping the skin off of his body, his grunts from the process and the ripping of skin from flesh filling their ears. The snow all around them turning the same crimson red of the moon, the blood from the man vanishing into the red as his skin hit the ground.

Once he was completely skinned, his clothes scattered about him when he had reached his torso, he reached for the fur he wore and wrapped it around him. He slipped his skinned arms into the sleeves and flipped the wolf-head-shaped hoodie over his head. He then fell to all fours and Autumn finally began to scream as the man became one with the jacket, his arms turning to paws, his legs making sickening cracking sounds until they took the form of hind legs and were covered in fur, his feet turning to back paws, the jacket tail and ears lifting up. He then turned his head up, revealing the hood had become his actual face and his muzzle opened wide in a snarl, giant, white sharp teeth clistening in the red around them.

Before Autumn could make a run for it, the wolf that had once been a man lunged at them with a loud, haunting bark covering Autumn in a terrible darkness. That's when they had bolted up-right in their bed, letting out a scream as they did so. Their body had been covered in sweat and their heart was racing a million times per second. Their arms and legs had ached from where they had been struck by the trees and bushes. Their throat was sore and they shook violently.

When they could finally settle down, Autumn laid back down in their bed and fell back asleep, only to find themselves in another dream. This time they were at the Brighten Estate, the entire house silent and dark. They walked down the halls, the paintings on the walls looking creepier in the blackness that surrounded them.

They had soon found themselves going down a set of stairs that they knew didn't lead to the cellar where Mr. Brighten kept his alcohol. They had been down there several times with Chet and Heinrich and would clean down there when Mrs. Hartfield didn't bother getting drunk down there. This staircase led to a room that didn't look familiar to Autumn at all. It looked like a basement filled with obscured objects that were left to be unused and a chair that was placed directly in the middle of the room, a flickering light bulb handing right above it. In the chair that was facing away from sat someone with long, pure white hair that was perfectly straight has it fell down past the chair the person sat in.

Autumn had tried calling out to them, but their voice sounded distant and echoed through the room. It chilled them to the bone, but Autumn continued trying to get the person's attention as they approached, their voice getting further away and reverberating off the walls as they got closer.

When they were close enough, Autumn reached out and gingerly placed a hand on the person's shoulder. They let out a gasp when they realized their hand was now a small animal's paw and as they drew back to make sure that it was their hand, the person in the chair spun around to look back at them. The person's one eye glowing a bright red, the other nothing but a gross, pus of revealed flesh, their mouth hanging open as a dark brown substance flowed out on to the floor. A shriek filled the room, glass breaking around them and making Autumn's ears ring in agony.

Autumn awoke from this nightmare as well, jumping straight up in their bed again. Their bed wet with sweat, their blood draining from their face, and their body shaking beneath their skin.

Their third dream was the worst of them. They had awoke to find themself in a clearing within the woods once again. Trees circled around them and the snow drifted slowly down from the blank, pale blue sky. They were staring straight up at the sky, feeling the cool frozen water resting on their skin, panting rhythmically as if they were just now composing themself from a panic attack.

A far off, haunting howl echoed around them and Autumn jolted back into whatever sick reality this dream had conjured up. Scattered all around them, soaked in blood and lying limp at their knees were the bodies of the Brighten family, Grace, Frank, Silver Glitter, Donya, Ronan, their sister- Dweni, Dweni's fiance, and their parents. Their necks looked like they had been bitten by some giant animal, their eyes opened wide in a permanent horror at what had killed them.

Autumn could only muster up a whimper, tears welling up in their eyes. They then noticed eyes of different colors staring at them from the treeline. The feeling of being watched and judged filled Autumn with more fear than they could comprehend. They tried reaching out for Chet's hand, but when only a bloody paw appeared in their field of vision where their hand should have been, they immediately pulled back and looked down at themself. Instead of their body, they only saw fur and paws, covered in blood. Their skin felt warm beneath the fur as the liquid seeped into the brown color of their hair, their lips wet with the blood and the iron taste of it on their tongue made Autumn want to gag.

When the bodies of the people they knew or cared about moved their heads all in unison to stare at Autumn with their horror stricken faces, they began to hyperventilate and fell backwards. Their human legs were replaced with hind legs, a long, fluffy, black-tipped tail waving frantically in the snow. The bodies of everyone slowly stood and glared down at Autumn as they all closed in around them. Their mouths opened in silent screams as they all began leaning down to grab Autumn, shrouding them in darkness.

Autumn had woken up once again and bolted to their bathroom where they fell to their knees at the toilet and purged that night's dinner into the porcelain throne. Once they had emptied themself of any and all food they had in them, they crawled back to their bed and cried themselves back into a lonely and terrifying sleep.

Their eyes felt crusty from the crying and their head ached. Their body still ached, their stomach turning from last night's puking. They didn't know why that man at the Brighten Estate filled them with such terror, but they prayed they'd never have to see him again.

Thankfully, due to Mrs. Hartfield's thieving and termination, Mrs. Brighten and Chet had talked Mr. Brighten into allowing Autumn paid time off until he could find more help to assist Autumn on their nightly cleanings. This meant Autumn was freed from work for the whole weekend as they didn't have classes on weekends and they were off the clock at the bookstore until next week. Despite this, however, Autumn couldn't seem to relax. Their mind was still caught up on the man who had interrogated them about Frank and the woods.

They wondered why he wanted to know what Autumn knew. They wondered what he was hiding in those woods and why he had been talking about them with Mr. Brighten in the first place. What did Frank know about all this? Why did Chet have to be part of the discussion?

Frustrated, Autumn pushed themself to climb out of their bed and get ready for the day. It was their first day off in years and they had no idea how they were going to spend it. They supposed they could get groceries as their fridge was looking pretty sad with it being nearly empty. A couple apples, some juice boxes, and a microwaveable meal the only things being stored in it. With how much they had saved, they could probably get enough food to last them a few weeks if they could find some good deals on nonparishables. Maybe they'd treat themself and buy a cake to celebrate Mrs. Hartfield getting fired.

Autumn didn't take pleasure in anyone getting fired from their sole source of income. They knew what it was like to live off of absolutely nothing. But Mrs. Hartfield not working alongside them was going to make life far more easier for them when they went back to work. They just hoped that Mr. Brighten wouldn't hire another waste of human breath to help out with the cleaning.

Once they had finished washing up and getting dressed, Autumn grabbed their phone ready to head out early to get their grocery shopping done. They then stopped when they noticed they had gotten a text message sometime during the early seconds of the morning. They must have been so out of it and terrified to have noticed that their phone had gone off. They unlocked the screen and opened their notifications to see their sister's name under text messages. Opening the message, Autumn saw that she had sent them a recording and a text attached to it.

We need to talk. The message read. Confused, Autumn pressed the PLAY button on the recording and listened to their voice crying into the recorder about needing Dweni's advice and how mom and dad were right about them before breaking out into full-on sobbing, saying goodbye, and their cries being cut off as they hung up.

Autumn's face then went warm with indignation as they told themself that they hadn't said anything in that recording. It wasn't until they went over the events from the night before that they recalled calling Dweni from behind the apartment complex and sitting their crying like a three-year-old until it was time to get ready for work.

"Oh, fuck..." Autumn groaned.

___

Dweni was beautiful. Unlike Autumn's short and unkempt mud brown, Dweni's hair was long, perfectly groomed straight, and shined a glorious chestnut. When they were younger, Autumn's hair was longer than Dweni's, but was too hard to take care of and they had usually left it unbrushed and couldn't exactly keep it washed well enough to keep their mother from getting frustrated with them when she brushed their hair. Luckily, Autumn had grown the balls to chop it all off on their own, knowing full well their parents wouldn't approve. They were right about them being against the style change, but their parents had decided to grit and bear it, hoping their child was just going through some kind of faze. It wasn't until Autumn made it clear to them that they weren't who their parents had been trying to raise and that they were different from their sister in almost every possible way.

It was no wonder someone like Dweni had been planning on marrying her high school sweetheart of nearly eleven years. True, Mitch was older than Dweni by four years and was attending college by the time Dweni was a freshman in college, but he seemed to make Dweni happy and that's literally all Autumn cared about when it came to their sister's relationships. Even if Mitch was her only relationship.

Autumn wished they could find someone like that. To spend the rest of their life with. But with parents like theirs was nerve-racking when it came to introducing them to any possible suitors. They still didn't treat Mitch with fairness as they thought he was too arrogant for his own good, despite them being the two most arrogant people in the world. When it came to Autumn's mental image of themself, their parents still thought it was against what they were supposed to be and that they needed to accept what they were assigned at birth as. After all, their view on life was right and everyone else's was wrong. That definitely didn't help with Autumn's lack of self-confidence.

Hell, when Autumn finally introduced Heinrich to their parents as someone they were "dating" after two months of just talking, the two people Autumn had no choice but to call parents were elated that they were dating a boy. The walk to the Brighten Estate with Heinrich was the most embarrassing and uncomfortable moment in their entire life. Dweni had tried to comfort them when they got back home, but even she couldn't hide her chuckles from Autumn when she brought up their parents practically begging Heinrich not to let Autumn go. Ass hole really knew how to charm a couple of idiots.

One could almost mistake the two siblings as twins had it not been Autumn's messy short hair to Dweni's long and beautiful, Autumn's freckle covered, dark-skinned and oily face to Dweni's blemishless, smooth and only a few freckles here and there's, and Autumn's flat-chested gross looking body to Dweni's skinny, hourglass. Autumn would be jealous of their sister if they didn't love her so much. After all, she was the only one in their family who fully accepted Autumn for who they were. Even if it was all in Autumn's head.

"You haven't called mom and dad for several weeks," Dweni told Autumn as she swirled her pink bubble tea, glaring down into the tapioca ball-filled liquid with her free hand holding up her head as she leaned it down on her palm. "They're getting worried about you."

Autumn sucked down some of their kiwi and strawberry smoothie, taking their time to swallow before replying. "I've just been... Really busy lately..." they grumbled, moving their staw up and down in their cup.

"You're always busy," Dweni scoffed, "have you even found a suit for the wedding yet?"

"I... I'm still saving up... For one I have my eye on..." Autumn replied through their straw.

"It's only three months away!" Dweni snapped. "Autumn, if it's a money issue, we can get you the suit, mom and dad bought my dress and Mitch's suit for us and I know those are way more expensive than what you're interested in getting. Let us get you something that will make you stand out as the bride's sibling!"

"I don't like taking money from you," Autumn rolled their eyes, "and you're right, it's cheap, but I don't really want to stand out... I just want to see you get married and watch you enjoy your life, not be the center of someone's attention."

"It's not about the money," Dweni pointed out, "it's about getting you to realize that mom and dad are wrong about you and that you're fully capable of taking care of yourself and be happy."

"I'm happy enough," Autumn argued.

"'Happy enough' isn't enough, Autumn," Dweni shot, "I want you to be completely and absolutely happy!"

Autumn just looked away, slurping what was left of their smoothie. They knew Dweni was only showing how much she cared about them, but sometimes it was like she was smothering them like their parents did. The way DuPonds loved was by constantly hovering over one another's shoulders until the person being hovered over completes something fantastic. Something Dweni had accomplished by completing college, getting a financially stable job, and marrying a man with an even more financially stable job.

Well, not all of us can reel in an honest man at age fourteen. The most Autumn was surrounded by when it came to men were the Brightens. The ones at university were even less interesting than Autumn.

"But, that's not why we're here I guess, huh?" Dweni sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair. "We're here because of Grace, right?"

Autumn flinched. They really wished they hadn't called their sister about Grace's visit. They especially wished they hadn't called her when they were crying.

"What she do this time?" Dweni asked before taking another sip of her bubble tea.

Autumn sighed before slamming her head on the table and whining in response.

"Oh, you paid for some of your fellow tenants rent again," Dweni seemed to repeat what Autumn was trying to communicate.

Autumn whined again, not lifting their head from the table.

"And Grace told you to stop doing that again because the other people in that building are nothing but delinquents who don't deserve your kindness," Dweni explained, "but they're not delinquents to you, they're real people."

Autumn whined.

"And now you're running low on your rainy days money and you're not sure how you'll be able to pay for everyone's rent next month and you're afraid that will prove Grace right and you don't want her to be right about you because you still have a grudge against her for breaking Chet's heart."

Autumn whined defeatingly.

Dweni groaned. "Well... Autumn... Have you ever thought that... Maybe you... Shouldn't be paying for everyone's rent, especially since the payment includes your own, which you should be focusing on?"

"I can't do that..." Autumn replied, keeping their head on the table. "Those people have way too much going on to be able to make the money they all need to live... And if I have to lose every penny... It'll be worth it."

"Will it?" Dweni pressed. "Autumn, if you lose all your money just to keep a roof over everyone's head, you won't be able to keep anyone under a roof, especially yourself."

"I know that... B-But..." Autumn stuttered, uncertainly, "But what about them?"

"What about them, Autumn?"

"Do you think they'd help you out with however the hell you're making this kind of money?" Grace's words rang in Autumn's head at Dweni's question.

In truth, they had no idea. They didn't know if these people would try helping if they knew the truth. They had, on several occasions, begged Autumn and only Autumn to "talk" Grace into either letting up on the rent or pay her and Marley back later. Yet none of them seemed to care to ask what they had done or said to Grace to get her to listen. They knew the two had a past, but Autumn was positive that they all knew how much they hated her guts. They couldn't tell anyone how their rents were being paid. These people didn't want pity. They wanted a home to go to at the end of the day.

"I... I just can't..." Autumn sighed. "Whether I like it or not, those people can't get kicked out because I can't help when I can... I just wouldn't be able to live with myself..."

There was a long awkward silence between the two of them. The longer the silence lingered, the higher and thicker that wall that kept Autumn and their sister even more divided than they already were got. That wall wasn't just building itself up against Dweni, though. It was being built to keep everyone out and that's just how Autumn wanted it. At least, that's what Autumn kept telling themself that's what they wanted.