"Stop it, Brayden, you'll pull it out," Callan muttered, moving his eyes away from Brynn to his brother, who wouldn't stop fiddling with the IV tube, on the other side of the hospital bed.

"I'm just making sure it's properly-"

"No, you're not. You're fidgeting. Let it go."

Brayden sighed, removing his hands off the tube. His line of vision moved to where the tube went to, the back of Brynn's left hand, as did his right hand to the tape over it. He smoothed it over, gently pushing the lifted ends back down to the flesh they were supposed to be attached to.

"Brayden."

Brayden sighed and reluctantly let go. He leaned back into the chair, looking at his hands clasped together on his lap. He didn't look for any more than three seconds, his eyes going back to the IV tube.

"Brayden, you put it in yourself," Callan reminded.

Brayden nodded, wiping under his nose after sniffing quietly, and stood from his seat. "I'm going to get a coffee, do you want anything?" he asked with his eyes actually meeting Callan's for the first time in what felt like a while.

Callan stared directly back for a few seconds, then he looked back towards the bed, "no, thank you."

Brayden stood there after he answered. When he made no move to leave, Callan looked back up at him. Brayden looked unsure.

Callan let out a soft sigh, watching his younger brother, who clearly wanted something more to do. "I'll have a coffee, please, Brayden. Milk, no sugar."

The man nodded this time, his left leg actually making a move to leave. Once he'd finally left, Callan sighed, and slouched into his seat. His fingers played with the hospital blanket; the rough, scratchy hospital blanket.

Callan breathed in and his eyes searched the room and the bed area, until he was looking to his left, downwards, at the bed cabinets. His finger opened the cupboard, revealing the softer looking sheets. He breathed out. Something to do.

The chair was pushed back and the softer sheets were taken out and inspected, before they were placed at the end of her bed. It was something to do.

Meanwhile, Brayden was walking down the hospital corridors, making all the twists and turns necessary to get to the cafeteria but pausing after walking past a hardly lit hallway.

There was a figure leaning against the wall to the left, quite far down. Brayden squinted his eyes and let out an exasperated scoff.

Brayden made way to the figure, at the same speed he was walking down those previous corridors. The figure, themself, was looking down towards the ground and had a lit cigarette in their left hand, the orange glow at the end of it illuminating some of the area.

Ash from the end of the cancer stick fell down, which become much more noticeable to Brayden as he advanced closer.

Now standing a few feet in front of the figure, he folded his arms over his chest and ordered, "put it out."

Ezra rolled his eyes, bringing the cigarette up to his mouth again and taking a longer drag to piss his older brother off further.

"Put it out, Ezra. We're in a hospital," Brayden ordered again, really not having time for this.

Ezra breathed out the smoke, straight at Brayden, who scoffed and waved the smoke away from his face. "They have smoke alarms, Ezra," the man hissed, really really not having time for this.

"Disconnected them."

"Put it out."

"Relax, Bray. There's no one critically ill within twenty feet."

"Ezra!"

Ezra rolled his eyes, "fine." He dropped the cigarette onto the floor, and stamped on it with more force than needed.

Brayden tried to look at his face, but he wouldn't look away from where his shoe stood on the cigarette.

He waited a little longer to see if he would eventually look up. He didn't. In fact, he rather resembled his younger self when he threw a tantrum over putting his shoes away.

So Brayden waited. He waited. His arms crossed and his foot was on the verge of tapping- although his face didn't hint to any impatience. There were so many things he was thinking though, and this here, right now, was not something he thought he'd have to do at this point in time.

Finally he sighed, knowing he'd have to say the first words. His brother was too stubborn.

"Do you want to tell me what this is all about?" the older inquired, giving Ezra a long time to respond, but the latter didn't budge.

"No?"

Nothing.

"Okay then."

Pure silence for more than five minutes. Neither moved and neither spoke. From a third person's point of view, you would assume neither were thinking either.

Ezra found some words though, "can you fuck off."

He looked up, watching Brayden's eyebrow rise and jaw tighten, then looked back down. "Please."

"Fine." Brayden untangled his arms and left, just like that, leaving Ezra in his sulking state.

When Brayden finally got to the hospital cafeteria, the coffee machine seemed to be the only thing he could focus on. And as the dark liquid trickled down into the plain, white mug below, it was all his ears could focus on. That was focus swiftly being shifted to his ringing phone.

---

Ezra watched Brayden go. The second he was out of sight around the corner, he pushed himself off the wall and walked out of the corridor.

He looked to the left, not seeing Brayden anywhere, then he looked to the right. Pretty much desolate.

He waited a few more minutes to make sure Brayden wasn't around, before he actually made his way down the desolate corridor with one destination in his mind that made sense.

Callan, on the other hand, was having a minor crisis. He couldn't undo the scratchy sheets to change them.

He played with every end of the sheets to find something but he couldn't find anything that would help remove them. No buttons, no zips, no even any velcro.

They were too scratchy, they needed to be removed and he could remove them. Brynn has eczema, it could do something to her skin. She didn't deserve to wake up uncomfortable. She didn't deserve to wake up in scratchy, tatty sheets, in a hospital. She didn't deserve this.

Callan's hands shook frustratingly grasping the sheets at the end of the bed. He dropped them, bringing his hand over his trembling mouth and looked up to the ceiling.

Taking a sharp breath in, he removed his hand and looked back down to the crumpled bed ends. His hands found their way to smooth them out, because if he couldn't change the sheets, he was going to make them as comfortable as possible for the time being.

"Callan." The man looked towards the doorway. Zayne had his hands in his pockets, looking at Callan with slightly narrowed eyes. Callan looked away, continuing his work on fixing up the sheets. "Callan, it's not-"

"I don't really want to talk about it, Zayne, thank you," Callan interrupted shortly, tugging at the sheets hanging over the edge of the bed to straighten the entire thing out.

Zayne closed his mouth and nodded, entering the room and using his right hand to close the door. He walked to the same side of the bed Callan stood on.

Callan continued fidgeting with the sheets as his brother stayed in the same spot with his hands in his pockets. He decided to ignore it as Zayne watched every movement he did, the older man's eyes doing their best to not stray to the person laying in the bed.

It became clear that the watching started to agitate the younger man. His actions straightening out the sheets became rougher and he pulled the same spot thrice before he pulled a spot two inches over to the left twice.

He started using his whole arm at one point. Every now and then, he would side glance to Zayne who wouldn't move away.

"Brayden said she can come home within two hours if her blood sugar levels remain optimum," Zayne, eventually, said. Callan hummed and nodded, still proceeding with his work.

"The nutritionist is making a specialised diet for us to follow," Zayne kept going. Callan hummed a little louder, still working.

After a while, he, with clear anger being restrained, let go of the sheets and faced Zayne. "We shouldn't even have to make a specialised diet for her," he hissed, "Zayne, seriously-"

He didn't get to continue as the room door opened. Callan looked to see who it was, whilst Zayne stayed looking at him as he saw Ezra in the doorway with his right hand behind his back.

Callan furrowed his eyebrows as Ezra stepped into the room slowly, closing the door behind him. Ezra's right foot came out first, leading to his left one coming after as he walked with unsettlingly slow steps to the opposite side of the bed. Zayne only really started paying attention to Ezra when he came into his peripheral vision.

Ezra didn't make any move as the majority of eyes in the room were on him. His right hand remained behind him, his fingers curling harder around it as the silence became louder.

He cleared his throat, moving his right arm which had the attention of his brothers almost immediately. And the next thing that happened was a small, stuffed dog being placed onto the bed's side table.

Callan and Zayne both looked at the small dog; brown shaggy-looking fur, sat in a classic sitting position. Then they both looked up to the person who placed it there, Callan's mouth parted slightly.

Ezra deadpanned them as they stared, joining his hands behind his back. He looked to Callan, then to Zayne and repeated it occasionally until he gestured his head towards the small dog. "Gift shop."

Callan's mouth was still parted and his eyebrows furrowed, and Zayne had a small crease in between his eyebrows as they both stared at him. Ezra gave them a grimaced sort of look. "It's a dog," he went on, as if that wasn't already clear.

Zayne gave the smallest of nods and Callan nodded slowly twice, "yeah, we see that."

"Yeah," Ezra said, rubbing his hands on the sides of his pants.

He caught Zayne's eyes and narrowed his own. Callan scoffed, going back to the sheets, "you both can't seriously be arguing right now still." Ezra clenched both fists and gave Zayne a curt nod before he stepped away from bed and soon after exited the room.

Callan moved a piece of hair from Brynn's face onto the pillow, "honestly, you're both being children." He moved the sheets from under her chin to a bit lower and untucked them from the sides to loosen them.

He bit his lip, his hands hovering over the bed, not sure what to do which he hadn't already done. He went to fix the tops of the sheets again.

He folded them back, then unfolded them, then decided to fold them again just to see if they looked better that way. But they looked good unfolded too.

The only thing that stopped his fussing was when Zayne talked. "I didn't leave her with him."

Callan stopped his actions with his eyes finding a piece of the wall opposite to stare at. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the words.

Slowly, he started to mess with the top part of the sheets again, very slowly. He kept messing with them until even he couldn't handle the silence in the room. Returning to his normal posture, he got a good look at Zayne's still-neutral face, which, to him, didn't look so sure anymore.

"I know you didn't leave her with him, Zayne," Callan said.

"Father let mother take her. Mother approved of him, I didn't let her stay with that bastard-"

"Zayne," Callan interrupted harshly. "I know you didn't let her stay with him. We all know that, Ezra especially. You know he was the one who had the biggest problem with it and you know that he didn't mean-"

"He said it, Callan."

"And that means nothing when we both know that absolutely nothing Ezra says when he's mad is true. And don't hit me with that 'mad words say nothing but the truth' because it's not true. Some people just know where to hit you and what words to say to do that," Callan told his older brother, who didn't say anything except nod when he had finished talking.

Callan tutted once, taking a step forward and wrapping his arms around Zayne. Zayne stayed still, not retaliating the gesture in any way, just waited for it to be over.

Callan pushed his chin into the man's stubbled neck, smiling. "Ah, isn't this nice?" he tightened his hold.

Zayne hummed, "off."

The other scoffed and let go, about to say something back, but a short, light bang on the door caught his attention. He looked from the door to Zayne, confused, whilst Zayne, himself, was lightly brushing his suit sleeves down.

He fixed his barely crooked tie, "I think Zachary is here."

Zach was there, and he'd found Ezra, the two just being on the other side of the door with Ezra pushed up against it.

"What did you do?" Zach hissed, gripping Ezra's shirt. The latter rolled his eyes, "Zach, you're just embarrassing yourself, we both know how easily I could get out of this."

"Just answer, Ez," Zaiden ordered from behind Zach.

Ezra shrugged Zach off, "just fuck off."

---

Anxiety over the time was something Brynn found pathetic. Especially so, since that's how she was feeling a lot of the time.

Anxiety over mealtimes wasn't normal, she'd realised it herself. No one had to tell her.

But it was also something she couldn't help. And she despised how she couldn't help it.

So, at five o'clock, now at home, the feeling of unbearable anticipation bubbled in her stomach because she knew that any moment now, she'd have to go downstairs for tea. That didn't mean she was going to be forced to eat more food. It meant that she'd have to be given a much much smaller portion whilst receiving sympathetic looks in the silence. That just made her feel pathetic.

She hadn't been called down yet, though. Or at least, she hadn't heard her name being called. She didn't overthink the fact that she could have missed her name being called, someone would have come up and got her if she had.

Sitting at the end of her bed, with her legs crossed over the box at the end of it, she stared at the bedroom door. She was using her phone as a distraction from thinking about it, but it had died. This was the next best option.

It felt like someone was coming- like there was a presence near her bedroom door or in the bedroom hallway.

Her left thumb was brought to her front teeth to chew on as footsteps definitely became audible.

Her breath hitched when they got really close. The light in the hallway was visible from underneath the door. It lit up the majority of her floor, seeing as the only lights she had on in her dark room were the two side table ones.

Two thick shadows entered the lights glow from under the door, right from the other side. Brynn stood up from the bed, wanting to look at least a bit presentable for whoever was going to walk in.

Her breath hitched when the door was opened. No one walked in. It was opened about six inches, and no part of the figure was seen. Instead, a small plate of food was slid in rather smoothly and so was a closed laptop. The laptop was slid in and it rested upright against the wall and then the door was shut- the click resounding around the room.

Brynn walked slowly towards the door, confused, and wondering whether it was going to open again. The figure still remained in their spot.

When the figure made no move to shift from their spot, Brynn came within two feet of the door, looking down at the items.

A plate which was smaller than she was used to when eating with her brothers. It was a comforting plate. One fork, two chicken strips and a ham sandwich- cut in four with the crusts cut off to make it look smaller, less intimidating.

And then a laptop which most certainly wasn't hers, she wasn't even too sure how to use hers.

She furrowed her eyebrows, wanting to say something, but she didn't know what and she didn't know who she'd be saying it to.

Then, the door opened again, a bit faster, causing the girl to jump two steps back. It opened barely once again, this time a bottle of water being placed next to the plate. It closed once again.

Then it opened again, a pair of earphones being placed down next to the laptop. Then it closed. Brynn felt like that was it.

A part of her was rather content, did this mean she didn't have to eat downstairs with everyone?

She sat cross-legged on the floor, not quite sure what to do. Her eyes darted to a square sheet of paper which was slid underneath the closed door.

Reaching out and bringing it closer via sliding it on the floor, she read the scrawly writing on it.

I eat out here, you eat what you can in there.

She looked up towards the door, as if she could see him. She heard a sigh and then the sound of someone sitting down. Then she heard the clinking of a fork meeting a plate.

She took the laptop, opening it the wrong way first. When she opened it the right way, the screen immediately turned on, displaying the mermaid show she liked.

She looked to the earphones, picking them up and plugging them into the laptop, before putting them in. Moving the mouse thingy around, she pressed onto the pad in hopes that it would do something. It unpaused it.

The volume wasn't so loud. Loud enough to hear, but not so loud that she couldn't hear what was going on outside her room.

Picking the plate up, she started with the ham sandwich, selecting one of the small squares and eating it.

With the show playing and relative aloneness, this wasn't so bad. She didn't feel pressured or as nervous as usual when eating. It was... it was nice. And clearly she was trusted to eat (sort of) alone in her room, granted her bin had been taken.

Once she'd finished that piece of sandwich, she could faintly hear more footsteps outside the door. She stopped eating for a few seconds, then continued, not hearing much else.

She finished the plate. She'd actually finished the plate.

No nausea afterwards, no feelings of guilt or anxiousness. No staring brothers making sure every single crumb had vanished and she'd like to think that she did it all by herself- well, the eating part anyway. She did it. And it took two episodes of the show to do it.

On the other side of the door, it sounded like there was a few more voices than before which made her reluctant to take the plate out. So she decided to give it back the way it was brought it in.

But first she had to go to her desk to grab something and then back to her spot, to write something on the back of the square piece of paper.

After hovering her right hand over the door knob for ten seconds, she finally turned it. She hardly opened it, sliding the empty plate between the barely large enough crack and then shutting the door immediately after.

The piece of paper was pushed back underneath the door and she sat back, cross-legged, again, waiting to see if she'd done the right thing.

Callan's attention went immediately to the opening door. An empty plate was slipped out and then it was shut.

He sat in the hallway by Brynn's door to the left with the empty plate at his right hip. Empty.

He grinned, aiming it towards Ezra, who sat opposite said bedroom door, leaning against Zayne's bedroom door. The man deadpanned his face back at him, but that didn't dimmer his smile- nor the feeling of utter proudness for Brynn welling up in his stomach.

And then the note slid through under the door, a little crumpled. In neat words was written and thank you.

Callan picked the plate up, placing it upon the pile of empty ones and only now just really noticing how much smaller it was. So much smaller compared to the other seven plates in the pile.

---

That night, Brynn lay in the darkness. It could be argued that lying in the dark, in your bed isn't always the best place to be. Some people get scared. Brynn never liked to be one of those ones who were scared, and she honestly really wasn't.

Sometimes she was though.

Usually, in the dark, just closing your eyes and bringing the blanket closer makes you safe. Nothing can get you then.

Brynn's eyes insisted on staying open. The covers were all the way up over her nose. Her eyes had adjusted to the room around so that she could see the outline of most objects in the room.

She was mostly concentrated on the wardrobe door, lying entirely on her left side with shaky hands.

The wardrobe door was open slightly, just a crack, and Brynn couldn't see anything inside. It was just a black abyss to the girl.

But it wasn't when she used her imagination.

It wasn't when she imagined a face in the crack in the door. It wasn't when Milo's face was there plastered with a horror movie smile and pitch black eyes.

It wasn't when cold, dead fingers curled around the door frame and the face got closer.

It wasn't when Milo jumped out at her.

Brynn scrunched her eyes shut, curled deeper into the sheets and a noise similar to a whimper came from the back of her throat.

Her breathing was erratic. She needed to turn the side light on and she needed to do it fast.

Her right arm reached out to turn one on, the cold air particles immediately trickling along her flesh. She couldn't find the switch, causing panic. She needed to turn on a light before something grabbed her arm, now.

It felt like something was reaching for it already. Once she'd found the switched, the light was turned on.

Brynn's eyes remained closed even with the light on. The beating in her chest didn't go down, but her bravery made itself known. She opened her eyes.

Then she jumped, picturing something come right up to her face.

There was nothing there, it was just her room. The feeling of stupidness washed over her, chest heaving and head against the headboard. She leaned forward slightly, wincing as a few hair strands were pulled back from being caught on the fairy lights. Bringing her hand to the back of her head, the agitated girl swiped through the strands, really not caring if she had to sacrifice a few of them.

It did sting her scalp though, but she fought through it- she can fight through silly, miniscule things like that. She could do that.

Her hands gripped and fiddled with the loose sheets which lay on the bottom of her stomach, as she scanned the room once more. The closet door was still open a tad.

But she wasn't scared of that. She was scared of Milo. So it was pretty reasonable of her to close the closet door all the way once she'd psyched herself up to get out of bed. And nothing grabbed her wrist once she'd touched the handle either. Because she wasn't scared.

It was all getting a bit too much though. Water, water, was what she needed.

Brynn stepped back from the closet door and kept her eyes on it as she sidestepped slowly to the bedroom door. The only time she was allowed to stop looking at it was when she exited her room fully and the door was closed behind her.

She triple checked the bedroom hallway to make sure no one was around before she started walking down it.

She turned the corner, coming to the end of the next corridor when she had to stop.

"Hello?"

She turned around, startled by Callan's voice as he came around the corner. He looked confused, taking in Brynn's presence, as he took a few steps forward. "It's late, sorellina. Are you feeling sick?"

Brynn's lip wobbled a little. She couldn't help it, everything had just sort of built up. The Ezra thing, the hospital thing, the closet thing. There were so many things and she hated it.

Her eyebrows slanted downwards, her lip quivered more and her eyes went glossy like the face one pulled when they were about to cry. Because that's what she was about to do. That's what she felt like doing.

Callan's face dropped seeing it, "Brynn?"

Brynn lifted her arms up and walked forward into Callan, into his torso. Her hands linked behind his back and her face couldn't get any further into his grey pyjama shirt.

The man was taken back by the sudden action, his hands moving to the back of her head and in between her shoulder blades.

He waited for the girl to say anything, but she said nothing. Ever so carefully, he thumbed over the hair on the back of her head, "Brynn, sweetheart?"

"I'm so tired, Callan."

Her voice was airy- light- cusping on a barely audible whisper. She pushed further into Callan and held tighter, feeling her tears mark his shirt.

The man's movements didn't seem to falter, they only stopped after eleven seconds. "I know, hun. I'm so sorry."

She scrunched her face up into his shirt, swallowing a massive lump in her throat which had to remain down because she didn't want to let it out. "Stop apologising," she muttered through her teeth, taking an inhale.

Callan closed his mouth, finding it hard to keep shut. He closed his eyes, leaning his head up for two seconds and then bringing it down again. Brynn unlinked her hands and connected them to the shirt material, gripping as much as she could in each one.

She took a deep breath which couldn't come out properly, and then she took another one and she took more until her shoulders shook. Callan soothed quietly, moving his hand from her shoulders to her right upper arm.

Her mouth opened a few times, small gasps of air making their way out each time. Her head pounded. Every breath was the loudest thing in the hallway, besides the words she spoke next.

"I hate him," she uttered choking on the breath that bubbled up. The pressure on Callan's chest increased both physically and emotionally, as Brynn pushed her head further in, gripping his shirt even tighter. "I hate him so much."

Callan sniffed, tightening his hold. "I know," he whispered softly, leaning down on her head. "I hate him so much too."

Brynn breathed out shakily and sniffed a sob. "Can I stay with you tonight, please?"

Callan's hand moved from the back of her head to the right side to thumb away the hair covering her face. "Of course you can, sorellina."

They stayed standing though, Brynn failing to not cry lightly and Callan gently shushing as he swayed them.

"'m not a baby anymore, Callan."

Callan stopped his movements, "what?"

"You're swaying me like a baby. 'm not a baby anymore," Brynn answered, lightly laughing in her chest as she looked up.

Callan exhaled, chuckling a little as he did so. His eyes scanned over her face. "Hm, yes you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Oh, yes you are," Callan started swaying again. "This always used to work when you were a baby."

"Doesn't work now," the girl muttered, resting back into the shirt.

"No, you're right, I suppose it doesn't," Callan heaved a sigh.

His hands came under her arms slowly, "doesn't work at all now." He lifted his sister slowly, "a foolish thing to believe, really."

Brynn hummed, "exactly."

She was lifted fully by him. He turned around to start walking back to the hallway bedroom, "Exactly, I mean, come on. You're twelve, the big one two who doesn't need her big brother to get her to sleep anymore."

He opened his bedroom door, stepping inside and looking down at the sleeping basically teenager.

"What was I thinking?"

He exasperated, chuckling to himself and shutting the bedroom door behind him.

---

Brynn sat on the large steps in the garden, staring off into what could be said as "space", but was really the forest that surrounded the property.

She wanted to do something. Play tennis with Zach again, sit on the grass and talk with someone. Hell, even attempting to swim again sounded good, but it was Monday and Zayne made Zach, as well as Zaiden and Silas, go to school.

Brynn wouldn't even mind being in school right now. Zayne was in his office and she assumed Callan was with him. She hoped she'd never have to speak to Ezra again, especially after the events yesterday and Brayden was in the kitchen behind her.

Brynn looked over her shoulder to the big kitchen window, catching Brayden looking at her through it. A small smile was sent to him which he returned, unconvincingly, moving his eyeline back down to what he was doing on the counter.

Two seconds later, the sound of the blender was heard, quite clearly seeing as the patio doors were kept open. Brayden was making smoothies for the two of them. He said it was because he wanted her to try the one he liked to have most mornings, but Brynn knew that wasn't the case.

She knew that it was on the diet plan. The thing that she had to follow now, to ensure that she wouldn't throw up whatever she ate. She knew the smoothie was from the diet plan because the nutritionist let her look at it before even showing her brothers.

The lady let her choose the foods to make the diet plan more suited to her. It was mostly Brynn nodding and saying 'yes' to any food the woman suggested. She didn't want a diet plan.

As well as being shown it first, her brothers had also 'hidden' a copy they had. Brynn says 'hidden', but she knows that it's been discreetly placed in the drawer next to the silverware which no one ever goes in.

There's also one in Zayne's office she knows about, but she wasn't going to tell them she knew. She'd appreciated it so much, not expecting them to really bother with a whole diet plan because they shouldn't have to.

She didn't want a stupid diet plan, but she had no choice. The only good thing that came out of the dramatic eating thing was the fact that she was allowed to eat in her room, not in front of her seven brothers who always had to wait for her to be done. It's not fair.

Brynn looked back to Brayden again. He was still in the window for a second, before Brynn saw him walk away and then she heard the fridge open.

The girl sighed, turning back around. She didn't know what to feel at this point. There were so many things she could be feeling that it felt like they had all just been compacted together into a giant mush pile and that pile can't fit through the feelings centers of her brain. Sort of jammed.

Whilst, inside her mind, she was thinking about what she could be feeling, on the outside, something from the forest area became slightly visible to her eyes. She furrowed her eyebrows and leant forward to get a better look. It looked like a glowing mark on one of the trees.

She knew she shouldn't look into it further, but she really had nothing else to do. Looking back to the kitchen window, she noticed Brayden was still at the fridge.

Standing up from her spot on the steps, she went down the rest of them and walked the expanse of the garden. Occasionally, she looked back to see if Brayden came back to the window- he didn't.

Any sign of proper movement and she was going straight away, but this just looked like some paint on a tree. Harmless. Brynn wasn't stupid.

It did feel chillier though. It was barely three in the afternoon and the sun looked like it was already setting, allowing a hazy purply-orange colour to shadow the garden and sneak through some of the trees.

The forest surrounding the property was really wide. She'd never actually been in it before and she never really wanted to be. The further you looked in, the darker it got.

She only passed five trees before actually reaching the tree with the glow on it. She was right, it did look like some sort of paint, probably spray paint. A small, but highly visible, strip of it was going sideways along the trunk.

She looked to her left, towards the tree about four feet away from the one she was in front of. It had the same strip of paint. Looking to the right, the tree there also had a strip of paint.

Brynn turned to the tree on the left, taking steps to stand in front of it and she found that the closer she got, the more visible another paint line from the tree next to that one had. And the one after that. And the one after that.

She'd walked quite a few trees before she realised that she had walked so far. It was like there was a giant line along some of the trees.

Pushing her back against a non-painted tree, she crossed her arms over her chest and sighed as she looked to all the painted trees in her eye line. Maybe it was some sort of border?-

"Mind if join?"

Brynn violently jolted, taking a speedy step away from the tree she leant on. To the right, Ezra leaned sideways against his own non-painted tree. He wore all black, kind of blending into the forests' dark atmosphere. And he'd almost given Brynn a heart attack.

The girl gulped, taking a step back. She actually did mind. She sort of hoped she would never be in this situation, again.

Nevertheless, she nodded slowly, going to lean back against the tree she was on. It was silent. Ezra stayed against his tree, looking towards the muddy ground and after a few seconds of looking at the muddy ground, he moved to lean his whole back against the tree just like Brynn was.

Brynn looked up when he started talking- it was hard not to, it being the only noise in the whole forest to Brynn.

"These lines were used when you were a baby," he stated, looking to the lines and gesturing limply with his right finger.

Brynn looked at him and to the lines he was gesturing to, which she obviously already knew about.

"You were told not to go past any of the lines," Ezra continued.

He looked from where he was pointing at the trees to Brynn, who was listening to anything he said. She didn't want to be yelled at again.

He folded his finger back inwards into his palm and brought his arm down, "and you would do best to remember that," he spoke, soon afterwards cringing inside with how threatening it sounded.

Brynn had nodded already, though. At least she was right about it being some sort of border.

The two went into silence once again, Ezra deciding to slowly descend downwards against the tree trunk until he was sat completely. Brynn followed thirty seconds later when she felt it would be a good time to do so.

So they were just sat against trees together, about three feet apart, in the quiet of the forest.

Brynn brought her knees closer to her chest, judging all the options to start conversation. She felt like she was going to be the one to talk first and she didn't know if she minded that or not.

She did have things to say to Ezra and the more she thought about those things, the more prominent they became in her mind and the more prominent they became in her mind, the more she felt she had to-

"I didn't mean what I said," she blurted. Ezra rose his head immediately and tried to catch her eye. Brynn tried not to catch his eye by looking forward into the dark abyss, but found herself catching it anyway and looking at him properly. His face looked like it always did, nothing.

But yesterday she had yelled at him to, "shut the fuck up" so she was sure she could somewhat handle this. She still couldn't believe she had done that.

"What I said," she further explained, "when I said I didn't want you. I didn't not want you, I just-" she took a breath, looking back down to her knees. "I just assumed you wouldn't want me to want you."

The skin around Ezra's eyebrows creased and his eyes narrowed, taken back, by a lot. Whereas Brynn didn't want to say anything more, squeezing her knees tightly, unsure of how Ezra was going to react.

"I dont-" Ezra started, feeling like he physically couldn't find words, which had never happened before. "I don't..." he turned his head away, now also looking into the black abyss.

"I don't ever want you to not want me, Brynn," he took a deep breath, "but I get it. I'm a dick and I get why you would feel like I wouldn't want you to want me, but you have to know that's not true, Brynn." He felt his own voice get wavery at the end. "That's never going to be true."

Brynn was the only one who looked at the other person, checking to make sure this wasn't just a figment of her imagination. She was also nodding softly, not sure whether Ezra could see it as he kept his eyes in one direction into the forest.

His left foot was tapping rapidly and he dragged his right hand across his face with an inwardly frustrated sigh.

It wasn't hard to tell that this wasn't easy to talk about, and truth be told, Brynn didn't want her older brother to feel forced into it. And if they never spoke about it again, then that would be fine, too. Ezra had already said enough, and the topic felt uncomfortable, even in the damp atmosphere they were in.

"I liked the dog," Brynn said, diverting her eyes when Ezra looked up. His face still remained like usual, tightened features.

"From the hospital, the dog you got from the gift shop," she explained, although they both knew Ezra that Ezra knew which dog she was talking about.

"Callan said you got it. Thank you. I really like him." She did, even though shocked to find out who it was actually from.

Ezra nodded. "You're welcome."

Ezra didn't want it to go back to silence, "we should really head back inside, you know." He nodded his head backwards, to the direction of the house through all the trees.

"Before someone freaks out when they can't find you," he states. Now they were both looking at each other.

Brynn didn't want to say she felt a little self-conscious, but she did a little. Like how she usually did when around Ezra, or Silas, or even, sometimes, Zaiden.

She shrugged once, "you found me."

Ezra smirked the smallest bit, which Brynn caught. "Yes, but the others aren't as intelligent as I am."

Brynn couldn't believe she found herself chuckling in her chest, as Ezra helped himself up. She did so, too, a second later.

---

:)

<3