Darkness and pain swirled together, combining into a familiar scene. A big bedroom, decorated in feminine soft pinks and frilly whites. Any little girl's dream room straight from a Better Homes magazine cover story. The room itself isn't the cause of fear and panic; its the darkness under the door, the handle as it turns, the silence of the door opening. Stepping from the darkness, as if born of it, comes The Daddy and The Mommy.

Through the fog of night terror and choking dread, the nightmare of her past plays out before her very eyes. They loomed over her tiny eight year old body. They yelled at her, and at each other. They snatched at her; The Mommy's nails digging into unmarked skin and leaving bloody strips, The Daddy's grip bruising. They smacked her, told her she would never see her sister again. Every word spoken accented with a slap or a pinch.

"Be a good little girl Cathleen, bad little girls are punished."

"She was a bad little girl, punish her Alan."

Fear made her throat close, though she can never tell what she was more afraid of at the time; The Mommy and The Daddy, or that they were telling the truth, and Gray was gone.

Darkness wearing the faces of The Mommy and The Daddy continue with their treatment of her. And as always, the nightmare goes from bad to worse. The dream world amplifying the humiliation and pain inflicted on her. Her unheard pleas and screams as people she was told to trust break every promise they ever made to her, and take away her innocence as they violate her in unimaginable ways. The nightmare linking together every single instance of abuse she suffered in their care. Her slight fingers begin clawing back, every bit as ineffective as it was as a child. Her fragile mind searching for the magic fort that was their secret hiding place. But as it happened before, she can't find it. Thoughts swirl, her heart beats audibly, the Masks of The Mommy and The Daddy leer at her, faces twisted with something so dark she can't comprehend it. And Gray never comes to save her.

Hazel wakes up abruptly, leaping from the bed to turn the lights on. Her heart beat an accelerated march in her ears. Her shaking hands scramble for the light switch. As the dim light comes on, she slides to the ground and crawls to the corner. She stays there shivering, curled up, with wide and searching eyes.

"Gray isn't in the bad place… Gray isn't in the bad place… Gray isn't in the bad place…"

Mere moments later, though it was an eternity to Hazel, Gray comes climbing back in through the window. Her eyes take in the light and the trail of blankets, finally settling on the figure of her terrified sister.

"Hazel. Haze…" Gray says as she hops through the window with the grace of a cat, refusing to even make a whisper of noise while her sister is in this state. Gray frowns as she approaches her sister, her eyes slowly shifting from their usual slate grey to a deep hazel. With painfully slow, meticulous care she wraps her arms around Hazel avoiding the flails with years of practice. The older twin's body aches with pain and fatigue from the fights of that night, however the guilt overshadows them easily. "Hazel, Hazel, Shhhhh. Its ok. Its just us, no one is here. Shhhh." Gray coo's to Hazel in their own language, breathing the words softly into her ear hoping to calm the panic "It was just another nightmare Haze, they're gone, we got away. Its ok."

Guilt ate away at her everytime she saw her sister like this. She feared that one day Hazel was really going to hurt herself, but Gray had to work. An apartment in New York City, even the shabbier shittier parts of it, were incredibly expensive, and not many places would hire fifteen year olds.

Her heart ached as she read the pain in her sister's glazed eyes. Gray gasped as they snapped back to here and now. Breathing heavy, lungs burning from the effort, she finally took a look around. As she did recognition began to dawn in her eyes, even as tears started flowing from them.

"Oh Hazel, It's ok, I'm right here." Gray knelt down next to her twin, smoothing her hair from her face.

"Gray? I, I think I'm going crazy. I can't stop the dreams. I'm sorry, I just can't... I... I..." and with that she leaned over and started vomiting, as Gray kicked their belongings out of the way as she soothed her sister, Ignoring the blood trickling down her back.