She watched as Sid's face crumpled in agony, dropping the blade and her at the same time. She fell to her knees, getting back up again to watch as Sid crumbled to his knees, groaning.

The blade dropped right in front of him, reminding Brynn of her predicament. She had to get out of here.

Turning around to the handles, she found her best way. Being halfway up the bleachers didn't occur to her as she tangled her limbs through the handles, jumping down and crying out when her left ankle twisted funny. She fell to her knees, only pulling herself up on her hands when she heard Sid's frustrated, strangled scream of her name.

The terrified girl shook her brother's heavy coat off, as well as her blazer as she got to her feet, cringing at the added weight on her ankle.

She heard the bleacher's rails squeak though, which meant Sid was climbing over.

She moved her swollen ankle to the front and did what she had to do.

Run.

Brynn ran for what felt like her life.

It was just like in the dreams. The ones where you're running from something. Where you feel like you're running on a squishy treadmill, a marshmellow or even nothing. Putting all your aspiration and determination into it, but coming up short and not making it very far physically.

It was exactly the same as that.

She ran on the moist grass of the school fields, away from Sid, who seemed to gain speed as the milliseconds went on. Her arms moved at her side for more leverage, the limbs slowly starting to burn.

Her face scrunched up in extreme discomfort, her ankle killed. Each step on her left foot sent shocking pains through her leg and up her spine.

A small whimper escaped as she tried to speed up. Sid was insane.

He screamed her name, still not letting up. He had taken most of his layers off, like she did, to remove the extra weight, which was unfortunate for Brynn because she needed him to be slow.

She reached the school doors, the ones which led to the school fields which she was previously on. Now she was on the concrete by the double doors, praying to god that they were open.

She knew it was risky to stop even a second to open the door, delays had to be avoided at all costs. So when she reached out to grip the metal pull handle and the doors opened, all she could do was go straight through. Not look back, not try to shut the door behind her to delay Sid further, just fucking go.

The hardness of the flooring was worse on her ankle and her mind flitted through all the places she could go to that she knew of.

Classrooms could only be unlocked by a thing the teachers had and besides, she wasn't stupid enough to try and find solace in a confined space.

The corridor she'd entered was long, miles and miles and miles long, it was the only corridor which went straight the school, from entrance to back field exit. That fact, right now, was Brynn's saving grace.

All she had to do was go straight ahead, which she did, until her face crumpled further in pain as her run stuttered.

She kept going, more hyper-aware of the pain than she was before because of the solid flooring underneath the balls of her feet.

Her eyebrows scrunched up downwards, as did her eyes. Her mouth was parted, allowing small, yet harsh, breaths out. Her entire face made up one expression.

Pure fear.

The main entrance to the school wasn't a pull or push, it was one of those swinging ones. One of the few things giving Brynn determination to keep running was that the door at the end was easy to open. She didn't think any more one second delays would do her any good.

Sid wouldn't let up.

"Brynn! Come here, I'm sorry! You know I didn't mean it!" he bellowed, the electrifying anger completely contradicting his words.

And she almost believed him.

Because she wanted to.

She really wanted to.

She really wanted to believe that Sid wasn't going to hurt her. But he had a knife. And he had held it up against her.

She really wanted to believe that this wasn't actually happening.

And most of all, she wanted to believe that Sid wasn't an incarnation of Milo. But nothing, right now, could convince her otherwise. She was back there.

She was back.

And when she replayed Sid's words back in her head, it wasn't him saying them. It was that same grating, jarring, raucous voice- the one which seemed to never leave her head, day or night, awake or asleep. The one which tore her very soul apart in any way he could and would whisper words of sorry afterwards even though he said he did what he had to do.

Brynn inhaled through her nose as she descended down the concrete steps of the school entrance, two at a time. A ridiculous idea, but one she didn't have time to think through.

Tears ran marathons down her cheeks, building up small pools at her jawline and, with each jolt her body made from her feet hitting the stony gravel of the car park, those pools broke and sectioned off into individual tracks down her neck to wet her school shirt.

She could feel almost everything; she had to. To know every sensation which was going on around her so nothing stunned her.

The car park wasn't as full as it was in the mornings or the duration of the school day, but there were still a good few vehicles parked.

Brynn thought the smartest option was to go to the centre of the car park, where most of the parked cars were. The only way she could play this was to lose him because there was no way she would win a physical confrontation.

Which is what it always ended up being with Milo.

Now that she thought about it in that way, maybe she couldn't lose him.

But she had to try.

Cars of all shapes and sizes surrounded her as she entered the maze of them, hoping to lose Sid at any twist or turn.

She didn't have to turn around to see if he still was pursuing her. She could hear every step he made and every harsh, ragged breath that flew out of his lips.

Whilst navigating her way through the huge hunks of metal, she paused by a deep blue one.

She hadn't heard the footsteps for a while.

That didn't mean Sid had given up, though. The chance to take a risky look presented itself and Brynn took it, sick of not being able to fully comprehend her surroundings.

She was to the right of the blue car and a white van was to her left. Cars were in front and cars were behind. No Sid.

Brynn turned her head back to the front, sucking in her lips unsurely.

Her eyes scanned over everything it could, squinting occasionally to reach the far away points.

The blue car caught her eyes. It caught them for a second and a half before the rest of her surroundings were the main focus. Still no Sid.

She crouched down as quickly as she could, actually going very slowly as she tried to keep the friction between her shoes and the gravel quiet.

Her knees met the prickly feeling of the small stones as she assessed underneath the blue car. And, with actually a lot of second thought, she flattened herself out on the gravel and slid underneath the car.

Once centered underneath it, she breathed out roughly, giving a look around at what she could see from her position. She saw nothing. That didn't unease her. Nothing would.

Now in a position, which she considered to be at least a little hidden, Brynn's thoughts now held more dominion. Her body wasn't physical moving any more, except from the profound rises and falls of her chest; the adrenaline now had to be directed somewhere else.

Even Brynn figured out that she was having a panic attack and she fully believed it started from the second Sid spoke to her.

It hurt to try and steady the breathing. Keeping it quiet hurt. Restricting each breath to make it small hurt.

Her chest pushed into the ground as she breathed, but she only allowed half of her breaths to escape, stopping the inhale and forcing the exhale out much too soon.

Her entire body fell numb all over. Any adrenaline in them had dissipated as she fully stopped moving, allowing the numbness of her panicking to reach every nerve ending. Her hands lay at almost ninety degree angles beside her head as she lay on her coiling stomach.

The girl's fingers shook in heavy trembles, repetitively making contact with the tiny stones on the gravel.

She wanted to sob.

Instead, only the tears streaming down her neck and face fell silently, falling onto the ground and leaving numerous darkened drops.

Brynn couldn't believe this was happening. The fact that she was cowering under an unknown car- an actual vehicle- from what she could only comprehend to be Milo's ghost.

Sid and Milo's faces didn't differ from each other. And it didn't matter whose true form it was, this pure anger concentrated directly at Brynn was entirely Milo.

Brynn looked around a little more. She was under a car. This happened once, she could recall, in a movie Zach was watching as she did homework. Jurassic something. Underneath a car was one of the character's choices. Granted, that was eventually trodden on, crushed and reshaped as the dinosaur's foot stomped on it.

She didn't think Sid was really capable of that.

She was aware, however, of how she could use this position to her advantage. Through all the darkened hysteria swirling in her mind, she made sense of what she could. That was how she was going to survive.

If Sid did find her, which she knew he would, she could keep shuffling underneath the car, going to the complete opposite side of wherever he reached from. And when he eventually got sick of it, which she knew he would, he would come under himself. And when he found himself rather far in, Brynn could shuffle out and run.

The thought of making Sid angrier than he already seemed caused bumps to appear across her arms, legs and back of her neck, the small hairs defying gravity as they stood alert.

Brynn looked to her arms, which usually were covered by the thick black material of her blazer, following them up to her shoulder. From the right shoulder, she moved her gaze down the right side of her body, until it rested on her right hip. Where she could usually feel her phone in her blazer pocket.

The blazer she shedded, along with Zach's coat, back at the bleachers so it wouldn't slow her running.

Shit.

The amount of tears built up in her eyes doubled, as she looked around again, at whatever she could, only to find difficulty when the blurriness overwhelmed the view.

She turned her head as much as she could without hitting the bottom of the car, to her outstretched legs.

Brynn curled them inwards towards the rest of her body, then brought her left hand up to break the barrier of tears forming over her eyes. The blurriness cleared slightly.

She looked back down at her legs, ensuring that they were curled tightly.

When she turned her head back, her heart lodged itself into her throat brutally at Sid's face looking under the car.

Her breath hitched as she instinctively shrinked herself back.

Sid smirked from where he was on his knees, his palms flat against the gravel, similar to Brynn, except under his right palm was the blade. Brynn hadn't imagined it.

"Come on out, sweetheart."

Brynn let out a sob, only Callan or Brayden called her that.

She shook her head, petrified. Sid tilted his head, in a mocking manner, "no?"

Suddenly, his right palm lifted from the ground, the blade left discarded, and his hand whipped towards her in a snatching manner.

Brynn gasped as she reflexively shuffled back, the stony gravel digging into her thighs and knees as her skirt rose from going back so far.

Sid dropped his hand, narrowing his eyes menacingly. Brynn wouldn't let her eyes move away from him.

He didn't do what she had originally anticipated. He didn't move to the other sides of the car to try and reach from a different angle. He grasped the blade and started moving himself under.

Already? Brynn's eyes widened as she watched him clamber closer. Her heart was beating so fast that it felt like it wasn't beating at all, like with those fans that go so fast it didn't even look like they were moving.

Still, she waited, waited until at least half his body was under before she inched back. Only when Sid raised his head fully, did he see Brynn moving back, out from under the car.

He growled, swiping the blade across, missing Brynn's nose by millimeters as she yelped, shooting backwards so she was fully out from under the car.

Immediately, she was on her knees, attempting to get up from them, but giving herself momentary heart palpitations when she was jolted back down by her collar.

She twisted back around, finding that the collar of her shirt felt like it was choking her. It was caught on one of the hooks at the back of the car.

Her breath got caught in her throat as she fell back down on her behind and hit her head on the boot. It was pointless to push forward, but she did anyway. It really was pointless. Her neck didn't hold the strength to rip the collar away, but logically removing the collar from the hook wasn't in the forefront of her mind.

Her panic escalated when she heard Sid's grunts from the other end of the car, her frantic movements ceasing as she leaned back onto the boot. Finally using her hands to logically remove the collar from the hook, she almost fell forward from the force of it coming off it.

Sid's grunts were closer.

Brynn swivelled back around onto her knees, going to stand up and once on her feet, running to the road. The usually empty, clear, woods enclosed road.

She didn't know if she could make it home, she knew the way after the countless amount of times her brothers drove to school, but she still didn't think she'd make it.

Sid was even closer.

And she had a moment.

Just a moment.

A moment when she mentally paused, disconnecting from the mechanic running movements her body was doing.

What was she running for?

And she thought about it. Because she didn't feel like she was running for herself like she usually did.

If she looked back right now, she didn't know if she'd see Milo or Sid, but it didn't matter.

If she looked back right now and saw either, she would still be running just as fast. Because, right now, they were the same person to her.

She never ran for herself. Running for herself was the reason Milo always got to her. The reason his hands always breached their way onto her skin. Running for herself meant nothing.

But it felt like it meant something this time. She just wasn't sure what.

The running turned into tripping when a rough shove came from Sid behind her.

Her hands collided with slicing concrete of the road, grazing the surface of her palms and fingertips. And her head, her head took the brunt of the force, the right side sliding a little on the ground causing her vision to go ballistic.

Sid straddling her didn't register for a while, not until she felt her throat closing up.

Her vision focused as much as she could make it, her hands coming up to grab Sid's wrist. "S-stop."

Sid's focused glare remained, hands tightening around her throat.

"S-Sid, st-stop it," she rasped. She didn't think the blurred vision was due to the collision with the floor anymore.

"Shut up."

A few tears slid down the side of her face, clumping her hair and collecting pieces of the dusty concrete with it.

"Please."

Sid's face snarled. "I want to fucking kill you."

"Oh?"

Sid's face dropped, hands loosening as he turned his head, only to have it whip back round at the force of a fist colliding with his jaw.

Something dislocated and Brynn felt any and all physical pressure on her hips leave.

She shook her head, eyes-closed, so many times, bringing herself up on her elbows and pushing herself back. "No, no."

"Brynn," she heard, a hand grabbing her left upper arm.

Brynn yelped, jerking back and almost losing balance on her elbows, "no! Don't touch me."

She didn't know who she was speaking to, but she imagined any possible scenario she could have been in. The surroundings felt like Milo's. If she opened her eyes, she feared she'd be back in her old room, in her old living room, or even her old kitchen.

Lips trembling, she proceeded to back away as she felt the presence come closer. "Brynn," it sounded so muffled.

The person was too close. It didn't matter which person this was, they were too close. They were too close to her left side.

"Sorellina," they whispered, softly.

Brynn whimpered and shook her head harder, feeling something come closer, "leave me alone."

Two hands slid under her jaw and tilted her head up, to which she practically screamed.

"You're panicking, Brynn," the voice stated, tightening their hold. "Open your eyes."

Brynn shook her head, "d-don't touch me."

"He's not here, Brynn. He is gone, I promise you that. Open your eyes."

He being who?

Brynn tightened her closed eyes, her nails digging into the person's wrists.

"Brynn, please, open your eyes."

Brynn's bottom lip wobbled as she shook her head once again, kicking her legs out for another attempt at escaping.

"Brynn. Open your eyes."

Brynn let out an exasperated, sobby sigh, breathing in and out, before deciding she had to.

She opened them slowly, the familiar blurriness still there at first.

When it started to clear up, she saw the face directly in front of her, a few inches away. She kept kicking her legs weakly in continued feeble attempts to get away.

"That's it, good girl. Good girl, Brynn."

Eyes in front were clearer, but she didn't want them to be. She made her own wander to the right, only for the person to lift their left forefinger over her right cheek, moving it so her eyes were redirected back to them. "Keep looking at me, Brynn. Who am I?"

Brynn's eyelids closed up as her face crumpled, head shaking. She had to see who was around her.

"Brynn, who am I?"

Her eyes wandered once again, aware of the few other figures in the distance, some large and some close. Cars, people. The person redirected her eyes once again.

"It's just us, Brynn. I promise you, he is not here. Who am I?"

Brynn sniffed, giving in. Not opening her eyes fully, but letting them sit normally, weakly, she stared directly into the familiar eyes. "Come on, Brynn. Who am I?"

Brynn inhaled, shakily, doing it some more. "That's it. Who am I?" The person thumbed over her face, lifting their right hand to brush the strands of hair that got in the way. Their hold felt like a secure grip.

"Brynn-"

"Zayne. You're," she took a pitchy inhale, "you're Zayne."

"That's right, well done, Brynn, yes I am." Which is the last thing Brynn heard before she didn't want to be awake anymore.

---

"Who was security at the time?" Zayne asked from behind his desk.

"Enzo, sir," Jacob responded.

"Get him."

Jacob nodded, turning around to exit Zayne's work office to do that.

Zayne leaned forward on his desk, on his hands, addressing the three boys in front of him. "And where were you?"

"In the changing rooms," Silas responded, eyes down.

"Look at me when I am talking to you, Silas Verlice." Silas looked up.

"We were only five minutes-"

"Five minutes is not good enough!"

Callan shook his head from the couch on the far right, "Zayne, that's not fair, they couldn't have possibly-"

"Silence, Callan."

Zayne lifted his hands from the desk, lifting his head up to breathe in and take a minute. Zaiden shifted, "do you seriously think that we would ever let this happen on purpose?"

Zayne paused, opening his eyes, taking the three youngest in.

"No."

Silence enveloped the room, louder footsteps resounding from the corridor and yelling before the two doors were opened by the men outside and one of Zayne's security entered, beserkly. Silas and Zach parted.

"Sir- sir, I swear to you that I didn't mean to leave my post."

Zayne reached to his right hip, to his waistband. "If I'd have known that-"

A bullet made its way through his skull as Zayne stood still in the shooting position, eyes closed.

He inhaled through his nose, "someone clean that up."

---

Brynn lay in her bed. It was late. Really late. Stupidly late. A time where, in other circumstances, if she were still up, she would be in trouble.

The two lamps on either side of her bed were on, the faint orange glows lighting the otherwise dim room.

Large plasters she didn't remember being put on were on her stomach, right side of her head and some sort of funny feely cream coated her grazed hands, giving a tingly, numb sensation.

She just gripped her pillow with both hands, pushing her right cheek further into it.

"You really shouldn't be lying on your stomach like that, sweetheart."

"I'd like to be left alone please, Callan," she whispered.

Callan paused his fixing the end of the bedsheets as he already had done a few times before.

He moved his eyes from the fresh sheets, to the lump under the covers that was Brynn. She didn't look at him. "Please."

Callan removed his hands, hovering them a little in case she changed her mind.

Brynn curled into herself a little more, "please, Callan."

The man sniffed, "yes, of course, sorellina." He moved up the bed to lean his lips down to her forehead, recoiling back when she recoiled back further into the pillow. "Please leave me alone."

Callan sniffed again, standing back up straight, "okay then, hun."

He made his way to the door, holding the door knob entirely. The last thing he said before he left, was said as he turned around, "we are downstairs if you need any of us, okay, Brynn? Just call for anything. We're all downstairs."

Brynn didn't respond, curling in on herself even more, if possible. Callan closed his eyes for a second, before turning the door knob and exiting, shutting it behind him. He was met with six of them outside, just like he'd left them.

Inside the room, Brynn sniffed, swallowing a small cry. The pillow underneath felt damp which was uncomfortable to lie on, but she couldn't bring herself to move.

She was so embarrassed.

Not just because her brothers had seen her like that, but because she allowed Sid to make her feel like Milo made her feel.

And the same rooted fear that had been placed years ago for Milo, sprouted once again. Everything felt like it was watching her.

Her left hand, that was previously placed on the pillow, moved to the covers, dragging them further up to cover over her chin.

She heard the door open and shut her eyes tiredly. "I said I wanted to be alone Callan."

"I don't believe I am Callan."

Brynn opened her eyes, curling her fingers slightly around the top of the covers to bring them down so she could see who stood in the middle of the room.

"I'd like to be left alone please, Zayne."

"And I'd like to talk to you," he walked slowly to the end of the bed, taking a seat on the seat at the end. Brynn dug her fingernails into the duvet, even though she hated the feeling of it.

"Brynn, I want to say I'm sorry," he started, monotonously.

"And I want to be left alone."

She didn't know where this newfound confidence came from, or when she realised she was talking to Zayne like this, but it felt really really overwhelming.

Tears welled up once again as her lips morphed into a teary frown.

"Brynn, I understand that you-"

"No, you don't."

Brynn wiped her eyes and nose on the abused pillow once again.

The silence in the room held its breath.

"Pardon?"

She stopped wiping her face on the pillow mid-movement and took a shaky breath in. "You don't understand."

The hands that were just laying in a shy, ostentatious manner around the bed moved, slipping under the single pillow under her head and coming up at the top to grip it.

"You don't understand, Zayne."

Zayne joined his hands together on his lap, staying quiet.

"You don't know what it's like. He's," her eyes scanned over the room whilst her fingers latched around the pillow fabric harder. "he's everywhere. And he won't go. He won't leave."

Zayne sighed and Brynn didn't know what he was doing. Not until, he came into view at the side of her bed and crouched down gently.

His right hand moved up to her head, but recoiled, similarly to Callan, when Brynn's face scrunched up into a wince.

"Brynn, nobody in this house, has ever, and will never, ever lay an ill-mannered hand on you." His hovering hand hesitated, for the first time.

Eventually, it lowered, gradually, onto the dampened left cheek of Brynn's, feeling all the muscles in it to tense.

"Do you know that?"

Brynn opened her eyes, as gradually as his hand went down. "But what if one day, someone wants to?" she whispered.

"No, never. There is absolutely nothing in this goddamn universe that you could do which could lead to that. Nothing at all. I swear to you that any trouble you find yourself in, will never be punished like he used to do." Zayne breathed in, "And Sid," he averted his eyes to the girl's pillow, "he will not cause you any harm again, do you understand me?"

Brynn couldn't even bring herself to question what was going to happen to Sid. The muscles in her face relaxed fairly.

"You are so loved in this household, Brynn."

Brynn sniffed, stilling entirely, even her wiggling fingers which insistently pushed into the pillow.

"And you have control here. So I'll ask, would you still like me to leave?"

Brynn's mouth parted slightly as she took in everything that was Zayne at this moment. His calculating eyes and non-predatory-like stature to her.

Unsurely, and moving his hand with her, she nodded.

Zayne thumbed over her cheek, then slowly removed his hand, "then I shall."

He stood, doing as he said he would. Doing as she said he wanted him to do.

---

please

please leave me alone now.

<3