A candle sat on the window sill, reflecting on the glass and shining in my eyes as I stared out into the woods. It was a habit of mine. Every night I would do this, as if I was waiting for something.

Maybe someone.

It was late, the moon barely a sliver in the sky as a few stars laid splattered across it's dark background. My head turned when I hear the clanking of toys, sighing and blowing out the candle. I watched for a moment as the smoke floated up into the air before dispersing into nothing, walking out of my room and down the hallway to Jeremy's bedroom.

"Jeremy? Why aren't you in bed?" I asked as his tiny figure sat in the middle of his room, surrounding by cars and Legos. He slowly turned to me like a puppy caught digging in the trash.

"I'm not tired." He answered. I sighed, walking over and sitting across from him.

"It's late, Jeremy. And we have school in the morning." I leaned forward, my elbows resting on my knees as he looked down, rocking his toy truck back and forth.

"I know. But I wanna play." He mumbled. I sighed again, picking up a small blue car.

"I'll play for a little bit, but then you have to go to bed, alright?" I raised a brow at my little brother as he beamed and nodded.

So we did. The two of us quietly played with his cars and little Lego people for half an hour until I helped clean everything up. I said goodnight to Jeremy and shut his door, slowly walking back to my own bedroom.

There was a crash that came from downstairs, and I was quick to grab an unused vase. Jeremy poked his head out of his room. "Dean?"

"Go back in your room, Jeremy." I ordered, crewing down the stairs. But of course he didn't listen. Most 8 year olds wouldn't. He sat down on the stairs, looking down through the poles as I walked towards the kitchen.

I looked up at him, motioning for the boy to stay quiet and slowly pushed the door open, peeking in to see my mom standing by an open cabinet, ceramic scattered around her feet.

"Mom! What are you doing up? You should be asleep." I quickly put the vase down on the table and rushed over to her. She didn't say anything, o my stared into the cabinet.

I brushed pieces of the ceramic away, guiding my mom out of the kitchen and back to her bedroom.

"Hi mom." Jeremy smiled at her, but she didn't reciprocate anything. I looked up at the stairs.

"Go on back to bed, Jeremy." I ordered as he sighed, running back to his bedroom and shutting the door. "Mom you can't be getting up without my help. I'm happy that you were able to walk so far by yourself, though." I told her whilst helping her get into bed.

She simply stared at me, holding my face in her hands. "You look just like your father." She whispered. I paused, looking at her for a moment before pushing away the sad feeling I got in my heart, pulling the blanket over her body.

"Goodnight, mom." I spoke quickly, walking out of the room and back to my own. I slipped under the covers Of my own bed, which sucked me in like a warm marshmallow.

I stared at the wall for a long time as my clock ticked on the opposite wall, filling the silent room. I groaned, turning to face the ceiling as everything g slowly faded away.

ఌ

The last two days have been putting me on edge. I feel like the longer I sit by the window, the more eyes are on me. Jeremy is starting to talk about his dislike for the house despite always being in love with it, so now I'm just scared out of my wits.

The drive to school had been boring like every other day up until I got to that one road with nothing but woods. I took my eyes off the road for a second, and then there was a man in dark clothes, just standing a few feet away from my car.

I slammed on the brakes,  lurching forward and struck my seat, gasping and staring at the road. The man was gone.

"What the hell...." I muttered, looking around before slowly continuing my drive to Beacon Hills High.

When I looked down at my hands, they were trembling. I would have questioned why, but since I did almost kill a man, I tried ignoring it.

I pulled up to the High School. Externally, I had a slightly horrified, deadpanned look. Internally, I was freaking the hell out.

My hand was clenching my backpack strap so tight my knuckles had begun to turn white. I fumbled to get my locker combination in several times, hands shaking while I opened the locker. I exhaled sharply as I tried calming down.

"Excuse me?" I flinched hard, knocking into the locker door and catching a few suspicious eyes. I looked down at Erica, who was gripping her books right to her chest.

"I'm Uh— hey- hey, Erica." I smiled awkwardly and she raised a brow.

"You know my name?" She questioned. I chuckled softly, scratching the back of my head and shrugging, shoving a few books in my locker.

"Well, yeah. I mean, we— we have History and P.E. Together." I spoke quickly as she hummed and nodded.

"Yeah... sorry I don't really pay attention I the people around me." I nodded in understanding. "Anyways I uh... wanted to thank you for helping me pick up my books, you really didn't have to do that."

"Why? It was kind of my fault you dropped them. And I don't like being rude..." I shut my locker door, rubbing my finger nervously.

"Right, right." Before Erica could continue talking, the bell rang. "Shoot. I gotta get to class it's on the other side of the school. I'll see you later..." Erica trailed off as I stammered.

"Oh. Dean... Dean Edric." I nodded in a formal introduction as she clicked her tongue.

"Dean. Well it was nice to finally meet you." She smiled nervously before racing off to her class. I watched her round the corner before finally heading to my own.

As I walked down the hallway, I noticed Scott was only walking by himself. It wouldn't have been strange, but usually he was always walking with Stiles or Allison. I simply shrugged away the sight and walked into Coach's class.

"Edric. A word." Coach sounded slightly concerned, causing me to raise a brow. I walked over to his desk, watching him look down at a paper before leaning on the wood and crossing his arms. "The uh... elementary school called the principal here."

My heart started to race out of control as my eyes widened. "Is Jeremy okay?" I asked in a quick and hushed voice.

"Oh your brother? Yeah he's fine. The kid he punched isn't." My eyes only widened even more.

"What? I think you got the wrong Jeremy..."

"Your brothers name is Jeremiah Edric, right?" He questioned as I frowned.

"Why did he punch the kid?" I asked as Finstock shrugged.

"Beats me. Kid won't talk. School is letting you skip for the day, sounds like he got suspended." He pointed at me sternly as I nodded and sprinted out the door to my car.

I slammed the door shut and gripped the steering wheel as I questioned why Jeremy would hurt someone. He wasn't a violent kid.

But then again, we never really know a person. Sometimes you don't even know yourself.

𒊹︎𒊹︎𒊹︎

I stood waiting by the secretary as Jeremy walked towards me in shame, holding one hand over the other. I quickly wrote his name onto the paper and we walked back to the car, both in silence.

I was doing my best to keep in my frustration, and it was currently working. But I felt like a ticking time bomb.

"Why did you break his nose." I said, more of a statement than a question. Jeremy mumbled something that I didn't quite pick up, clearly my throat so he'd speak up.

"He was making fun of mom and dad."

My heart shattered as I looked in the rear view mirror. My eyes made their way to Jeremy's hand, which was split open and bruised. I sighed, resting my head on the steering wheel.

"Jeremy... you can't hurt someone because of what they said." I whispered, hearing him choke up slightly.

"You didn't hear what he said about them! You didn't hear him call mom poor and weak." Tears were streaming down his face and I turned around, grabbing his hand.

"Do you see this? I would have let you off with a simple warning if you had hit him once, Jeremy. But god dammit, you broke his nose! You kept hitting him until a teacher pulled you off!" I snapped as he visibly flinched. His eyes were wide with fear as I inhaled a sharp breath and huffed.

"You don't hit people. Not until it's to protect yourself." I said sternly as he nodded.

"I'm sorry..." Jeremy whispered, sniffing as I shook my head, turning back to drive out.

"I'm not the one you should apologize to."

𒊹︎𒊹︎𒊹︎

I pulled up into our driveway, grabbing both Jeremy and I'd backpacks.

The two of us walked into the house and he ran up the stairs to his room while I shook off my shoes and hung the backpacks up.

"We're home mom!" I called out. My voice echoed in the large entryway, and I paused when I didn't hear her answer back.

"Mom?" I called out again, walking towards her bedroom quickly. I peeked into her room to hopefully see her sleeping, but she was just staring up at the ceiling, motionless.

"Mom!" I ran over and shook her gently, placing my face to her lips. I'm her hot breath hit my cheek and my fear was washed over with a small sense of relief before I looked at her closer.

"Oh god..." I fumbled for my phone.

"9-1-1 what is your emergency?"