"Emma."
The whispered word wakes me from my sleep. I lift my head from my pillow, blinking sleep from my eyes, and glance around the room. My brown eyes land on the sight of my little brother, shaking and whimpering on the next bed over.
"Don't! Don't let them take me, Emma!" He screams.
I sigh and toss my blankets aside. He's having a nightmare about the reaping tomorrow...or today since its the middle of the night...I can tell. He's only ten, he shouldn't have to deal with this yet.
Placing my bare feet on the cold wooden floor, I pad over to the side of his bed. He's curled up on his side, blankets tossed aside. In sleep, and even awake, he looks younger than he really is. Despite the situation, I manage a small smile. I sit on the edge of his bed and place my hand on his shoulder.
He flinches, but doesn't wake up.
"Miguel," I whisper.
He shudders and whimpers again. "Don't let them." Tears flow out from under his closed eyelids.
"I won't," I whisper. I gently flip him onto his back. His eyes fly open, leaving the teary brown irises staring up at me. I offer a small smile.
"I...I...I," he doesn't finish the sentence.
I push some of his brown hair out of his eyes. "I know, Miguel."
That sets him off again. I pull him into my lap and he cries into my shirt. "It's okay. Shh," I whisper. "I'm here now, I won't let them hurt you, Miguel."
He nods against my shoulder as his sobs quiet down.
I lift my head up to glance around the room again. His twin sister, Lilith is staring at us from the other side of the room. She nods, appreciably. She must have just woken up when Miguel started sobbing, because she wasn't awake when I first woke up. Although, she could've been pretending.
The middle sister, Elizabeth, is clearly sleeping. Her snores reverberate off of the walls of the small room that belongs to my siblings and I. I roll my eyes. Of course Lilith wasn't actually asleep. Elizabeth has the bed right next to her, who could sleep with that right beside them.
The creaking of the bedroom door breaks me from my thoughts. I look up. The dim light spilling into the room from the candle the person is holding is enough to see that it's my mom. She looks worried, flustered.
She sees Miguel in my lap and then meets my eyes with a questioning glance. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"
"Shh," I put a finger to my lips, glancing down at a stirring Miguel. "Everything's fine, mom. Miguel just had a nightmare, that's all." I whisper.
She nods in understanding. I smile at her and she smiles back. "Goodnight, sweetheart," she whispers.
"Night," I mumble. Then the room is dark again.
I move slightly and ease Miguel off of my lap so he once again lays on the bed. He stirs and starts mumbling and whimpering again. I lay down next to him and drape one arm over him. "Shh, go back to sleep, Miguel," I murmur softly.
Soon enough, I too, am in a deep sleep.

***************************************************************************************************

The next time I wake it's around 6:30 am. Miguel, still asleep, lays soundly under my arm. I smile to myself and carefully retract my arm. I don't want to wake him. Figuring I won't get back to sleep again, I slip out of bed, my feet freezing when they hit the floor. I barely make a sound as I tiptoe to the other side of the room, find some clothes, and exit the rom. I walk into the small bathroom at the end of the hallway and lock the door.

I throw on a dark blue t-shirt and some black pants, sliding my feet easily into my worn leather boots. After brushing through my dark brown hair, I let it hang in loose curls around my shoulders. Padding back down through the hallway I toss my brush onto my bed from across the room. It lands on my mattress, bounces for a second, and then clatters to the floor. I cringe, surveying the room. Lilith stirs, but doesn't wake. Thankfully no one does. I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding in.

After tiptoeing down the steep and uneven flight of stairs, I pad through the tiny kitchen, and stop in font of the door, pulling it open, and silently slipping through it. After quietly closing the door behind me, I turn to face the figure slumped against the doorframe to my left.

"Hey, Connor," I say with a smile.

"Hey, Em," he smirks. I scowl slightly at the nickname, but only teasingly. There are only select people that I will let call me that without it pissing me off, and he is one of them.

He chuckles and rolls his blue eyes and I smile again. Don't get the wrong idea, we're not together. I can see why some people think we are or think we should be a couple, but we're just friends. Best friends. Actually, a few weeks ago an older lady asked me if we were twins, although, we don't really look alike. Oh well.

We tread through the dim dawn light, down a well worn dirt path between the shabby seam houses and some old oak trees. We walk in silence but it's not awkward, it's peaceful, nice. Five minutes later we arrive at our destination.

I wedge my foot in a gap between the wooden boards that side yet another seam house, grab hold of a higher plank, and pull myself up. Connor follows my lead and we climb up the side of the house together. We reach a grubby window near the top and stop, wedging our feet in between yet another set of boards. This is routine for us, we don't even have to think about it. I knock lightly on the window, then grab the bottom and lift the window up. I crawl through the small space into the dimly lit room on the other side.

"Julia?" I call softly.  I glance back at Connor's shadowy figure on the other side of the window.

"Yeah, I'm over here, Em," comes a soft voice from the other side of the room. She is another one of the few people I let call me that. I roll my eyes and saunter over to where Julia is slipping on a light jacket over a t-shirt and cargo pants. 

"It's not that chilly out actually," I shrug.

"Oh well," she replies with a smirk.

I shake my head. "Come on slowpoke," I tease.

"Yeah, yeah, where's Connor?"

"Outside the window, like always," I say in a duh tone.

"Outside the window, like always," she repeats, mimicking my voice.

I chuckle, rolling my eyes at her antics.

Together we head over to the window. Julia exits first, swinging herself over the windowsill and grabbing the edge. Connor smiles at her in greeting and starts to climb down, with Julia not far behind him. I swing my legs over the sill too, shutting the window in the process. I climb back down three-quarters of the way, and then drop to the ground with a soft thud.

Looking between my two friends I smile. "Ready?"

They both nod.

"Let's go."