Dionte

Inside the home, the three got ready for dinner in high spirits. Gregory finished the last touches of a lasagna dish as the twins set the table. Though an unexpected guest caused a brief interruption, Kaleigh ran to answer the door. Her greeting smile vanished to one of disbelief; the woman who stood on the other side was in her position.

"Oh, Kaleigh, you've grown up so much. I know I've seen you other times over the years, but I never took the time to truly look at you back then."

Her shaky hand raised to brush her cheek, but she flinched out of reach. The reaction from the older daughter surfaced a frown, and the younger one was the first to address her.

"...Mom?"

A pan was slammed on the stove from the kitchen as Gregory quickly sprinted to confirm the visitor.

"Selena..."

"I hope I didn't come too late, but the sun is just setting."

"N-No, come on in."

The four sat around in the living room quite unbalanced. The trio who resided in the home lined up on the couch while Selena alone sat on the sofa. The place was stuffy like an oven interior, though the food had been turned off twenty minutes ago.

"How did you find us?"

"I begged your neighbors to tell me where you moved. Eventually, they gave in when I stressed my intentions."

"And those are?" Gregory questioned next, his cold green eyes not wavering from his ex-girlfriend.

"To reconnect with my children. That's all I want."

The ginger looked her up and down prior to resuming with his interrogation. "How long have you been clean for?"

"A little over a year now. I had to ensure I wouldn't relapse before taking a trip here," she stressed, her voice quite calm compared to the previous incident where she spoke to them. "I had a life-changing encounter with a street preacher that guided me to the light. It's ironic. Religion, once force-fed down my throat, left me in shackles, but now it's the source of my salvation. I needed God to lead me back to Him at the proper time."

Hearing her story, they do have similarities. For him, it was the opposite. His adopted parents were gentle with religion, though he was against it. When accepting such, he never truly embraced it until gaining the strength to overcome the bottle.

Selena's appearance does suggest she has her act together here. He hasn't seen her in the last flashback, but her hair was neatly combed with presentable clothes. Yet, Dionte can't say this reunion would be heartwarming enough to play a role in these nightmares.

Gregory had gone mute after receiving the answers he sought, and their mother had a turn to ask her children one.

"School will be starting in a week or so, right? What grade will you two be going into?"

"The sixth."

The pair dryly responded to this, and her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Wow, you'll be starting middle school now. I can still recall how neither of you wanted me to leave when dropping you off at preschool. I suppose time does fly."

"It would fly even more when you're not in the picture."

"Kaleigh..."

"No, Dad." The ginger stood up from her seat, her arms crossed in defiance to remain silent. "She can't just waltz into our home after two whole years of finally escaping her. You honestly think we're just going to become some big old family again?"

A bitter smile tugged at her lips that failed to conceal how it quivered.

"You have every right to be upset with me. I had my own mental struggles that were never properly treated until just last year. It had me run away once and repeat that mistake a second time, but I promise you that it won't be a third."

Selena made another attempt to offer physical affection, which this time was rejected with a firm shake.

"I-I figured it was better to be remembered as an absent mother than a bad one. And then I didn't even follow through with that when becoming an addict... You don't have to refer to me as your mother; that title only belongs to people who earn it. I simply wish for us to restore a bond that has been broken all of these years apart."

Her hoarse desire, spoken between her daughters, didn't have them embrace the practical stranger. Instead, Kaylen's head dropped towards her lap, and Kaleigh went for the stairs.

"Well, maybe some bonds are beyond repair."

Kaleigh's bedroom door was slammed shut, and Selena's remorseful gaze turned to her other child still present.

"This is all sudden, and I just would like space to process it. Sorry..."

"You have no reason to apologize, sweetie." Selena felt around in her purse and pulled out a small piece of paper. "This has my phone number. If you or your sister find it in your heart to let me into your life, you can make the call whenever you're ready."

There's a short pause with hesitance, the girl glancing at her father, who nodded in approval. And so, Kaylen took the digits as she made her exit.

"She proved she changed, and over time, we became a family like in times past."

Kaylen's voice sounds so distant in his head. As if she's speaking on a far-back memory despite their mother's passing being rather recent.

"It's fitting to say we weren't 'playing house' anymore, but this new life was ruined when she succumbed to her sickness."

The scene around them is altered once more. Probably for the final time, with the fourth flashback coming into focus, and the location makes his skin grow cold. It's a sight that squeezes his heart still beating, but the same can't be said about the woman in the open casket.

The family of three stood beside their motionless mother. Her complexion was pale though touched up by makeup, with a smile put on her face that contradicted those she left behind. Gregory went down a street of memory lane to the group that gathered to mourn her death.

"I couldn't ever imagine our romance would be rekindled. To get proposed to by her in that manner after she rejected my own fourteen years ago. M-My only regret is that none of this could've happened sooner."

He pushed up his frames; his large hand blocked his misty eyes in the process. The microphone was passed over to the younger daughter. It must've been her turn to say a few parting words.

"Um, I-I always assumed that drugs would snatch my mom away from me. But she got herself clean and returned to us as a brand new person, one better than before." Kaylen's petite frame violently shook while she read off her damp paper-wet with her tears. "I naively thought that we'd be a happy family again for years to come, but that dream was short-lived. And now this is all a cruel awakening to the fact that she's gone for good."

The words were choked out of the grieving teenage girl, and her poorly contained sobs had Gregory place an arm around her. Kaylen gave the microphone to her sister before hiding herself in her father's embrace.

Kaleigh's dry gaze lacked any moisture. A complete opposite of the puffiness the two beside her had. There was no paper in her hands suggesting her speech was either memorized or unplanned.

"I... didn't think I'd ever attend my mother's funeral. This was the woman who walked out on us when my sister and I were four. Hardly old enough to recognize her without pictures, she only swooped back into our world three years ago. She was absent as many years as she was present, so it would be natural not to feel saddened by the lifeless body in front of me."

Her green irises held a certain flicker that couldn't be masked by a speech colder than her deceased parent's skin.

"She might've run off on a whim, but it was a long hard battle to regain my trust and my love. Her life was brought to an end despite her victory because someone reneged on their promise," she grumbled, her grip tightening on the microphone. "And now I regret that she broke through; this heartache wouldn't exist if my emotional walls hadn't crumbled."

The ginger didn't utter anything else as she pushed the microphone off to Pastor Ige. A silence hung in the misty air after the daughters' sorrowful speeches that stirred no cherished moments. Since everyone had said their goodbyes, the last step was to bury her. The casket was lowered into the ground, and the twins mutually shared in her death with their minds trapped.

"We would've handled her loss better if we hadn't missed her during early childhood after your visit."

Kaylen's voice is barely audible over the pouring rain that almost symbolizes the countless tears they shed after her death.

"You were responsible for triggering her to flee home. Yet, you had your own mother to return to," Kaleigh says next. "It wasn't fair, and we decided you should pay for that."

The sky goes crimson, signifying the nightmare is now starting. Snow replaces the rainy weather, and the location only adds to the chilliness of it. And right before his eyes, a red demon materializes a few feet away. It's glaring right at me. This dream state is different. Rather than it attacking him as collateral damage because of his interference, he himself is the target. Just as these graves surround him, his own body will be but a corpse when it's done with him.

There's nowhere to run... All of the special dreams have a more restricted area than the vast neighborhood. Though considering the red daemon's abilities are heightened, his survival rate is low regardless of where he goes.

Without anything said, the five he temporarily forgot the presence of form a circle around him. They act as a shield of protection against the foe that wants his blood.

"It's pointless for you all to try and protect me. You can't hold your ground with a red daemon."

"And we're supposed to idly stand by then? It didn't stop you from helping all of us, and I for one refuse to flee anymore." Chantel's feet are firm, a determination in her that's nothing like when they first met. "We can lessen the blow at the very least."

Everyone nods in agreement, forming a tightness in his chest. Nonetheless, he doesn't object again when the large beast suddenly sits. It absolutely shows no signs of charging at him, which only replaces his initial fear with confusion. Why isn't it attacking me?

"We were bitter at the time for what you told our mother," Kaylen starts to explain, her tone lacking the original bitterness. "But it happened a decade ago, so we had years to process it."

"Honestly, it was hard even to remember what all you said until watching this flashback. It was her choice to leave at the end of the day, so the fault wasn't yours alone," Kaleigh further shares. "We just needed someone else to blame for her death, but we couldn't wholeheartedly wish a curse on our own brother..."

The red daemon not clawing him proves their words are sincere. So, they aren't angry? This is it then? His dream state, after deliberately blotting the entire incident from his memory, is to be let off the hook?

"Y-You should be furious, sending this red daemon on me like it did on everyone else! Why am I the only one you're taking any pity on? Because we're siblings?!"

His shouts receive no response, the twins apparently sharing as much as their hearts allowed them to open up.

"T-This is good," Jun-Seo meekly counters. "Nobody deserves to be hurt by those things..."

"But if anybody had to out of us, it would be me." Dionte's limp body rests against the large cross of his mother's tombstone. "I snuck a bottle after that argument with my birth mother. It's what led to me being an alcoholic, and I caused a lot of problems for my adopted parents in those days."

His attitude was worse than it had ever been; he didn't mind them and did other reckless activities for fun. In actuality, he was simply trying to drown himself in enough booze to forget that his mother rejected him a second time.

"After I got involved with the church on a deeper level beyond superficial, I was able to quit drinking. Luckily, I wasn't addicted enough to be sent to any rehab facility and depended on my parents' help." His shaky hands are a side effect he once had from the loss of alcoholic beverages. "I assumed the only two I burdened back then were them, but now I see how my actions ruined another home. I-I'm the reason Selena felt she was so unfit as a mother that she abandoned Kaleigh and Kaylen..."

All of the talk in other dreams of the twins' mother's absence, and he was blissfully ignorant that he was the root of it. Even though he had released the malice he once held, Dionte never did make a second attempt to reach out due to how distraught she was the first time. Little was he aware; the repercussions of his guilt trip led to their mother being unhinged for seven years. She probably wouldn't have gotten exposed to drugs either, the very substance that brought upon her kidney failure. It's my fault...

He snaps out of his daze when a heavy hand is placed on his trembling shoulder. Luis is the culprit, whose furrowed eyebrows are deeply arched, most likely ready to give a stern lecture.

"One act you did as a smart-mouthed kid shouldn't be held over your head ten years later. You opened a stubborn man like me's eyes to that with the pointless grudge I held against Gregory for twice as long."

Rebekah takes a step forward next, the blonde smacking him on the back, producing a wince.

"That's right! You had every right to be fuming with how your own birth mother treated you. No one would keep their cool in that situation, and I guarantee my meltdown would've been miles worse than yours." The blonde's fragile smile matches the one she wore upon turning a new leaf. "Every teenager has a rebellious phase, so you shouldn't be so hard on yourself."

"But I was older than you when I had that meltdown."

"Yeah, by three years!"

She clearly doesn't agree with the small age gap, but he technically is considered an adult. One so desperate for his mother's acceptance that he hated the children she chose to keep without even remembering their faces.

"If age is the main issue, then what about myself as an example that's worse than yours?" Pravati steps forward, and he already knows where she's going with this. "I was feigning to gain my father's approval that I committed a juvenile and criminal offense: I hacked into a minor's social media account. My early thirties are much older than you were at the time, and it's still above your current age with a much better head on your shoulders."

The older woman might make a valuable point; nevertheless, their situations differ in the severity of their wrong choices.

"You cost Gregory to miss out on a job promotion, but I cost the twins to miss out on their mother's presence."

Her pale blue eyes avert at his dry comment, and surprisingly, the youngest among them looks eager to share his input.

"W-What about the verse you told me when I felt guilty about how I treated Kaylen? 1 John 1:9. But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done. If the twins aren't even angry with you, then you should pray to forgive yourself too."

Jun-Seo quoting the same passage he used to try and reach him is unexpected. It ignites a fraction of warmth, but her tombstone in his peripheral vision has it grow cold again. I prayed for forgiveness then without understanding the weight of what I did.

"As a Christian with a pastor for an adopted dad, I should've known better than to behave like that. The twins are being lenient on me because all of your incidents are still fresh."

"Nobody's perfect, Dionte," Chantel lightly says, her usual grin unwavering. "So, you shouldn't go through life like you aren't going to make any mistakes. Even bad incidents can be a blessing in disguise, and you confessed at the karaoke bar you wouldn't be the person you are today if not for that hardship."

It is true he wouldn't be a therapist who could help anyone if the old self of ten years ago hadn't been reformed. To have a calling to support Andres and other clients is a result of his own dilemma with the bottle. God brought him through as He did Selena with her drug use.

"I have stored up here that you mentioned your arrogance was problematic in your youthful days." A finger taps at her head, and similarly, he always thought he was so mentally mature back then. "I don't doubt this with the way you snapped during that flashback. Still, if you hold yourself to a higher degree on someone to do no wrong, doesn't it show you haven't really changed at all?"

Her final piece has his blood run cold, a factor he hasn't even considered before. Have I been acting that arrogantly all along? He made it his objective to stress to the others that he's no better than them, regardless of outer appearances. Yet, when his own special dream comes around, he completely shuts down. His perfectionism spreads to his Christian walk, and there is only One who deserves all of the praise for how far he's come.

A breath escapes his lips; the red moon is not looking as eerie as it usually does during these hours. He finally faces the five, something he hasn't done since going on his trip of self-discovery. It must be a blessing for them to have all entered his nightmare that is erased of the pain because of his vulnerable moment.

"Thank you all. This was an incident I was never able to fully overcome, but now I feel I can fully forgive myself for the past I was trying to ignore."

Dionte kneels in front of her grave, his hand brushing the cool dirt that's not balled up, unlike before.

"Even if it's a dream and we can't ever hold a conversation again in this world, it's nice to visit you again, Mom."

A/N Part 2 of Dionte's arc. Sorry if it didn't come out as well. There's still quite a bit of plot left so hope you proceed reading.