Concealed

Gracie tossed and turned on her bed. Her blanket and sheets were messed up and practically falling off. A sudden scream ripped from her throat and echoed loudly throughout the large house. She fought in her sleep, kicking and screaming over and over.

Brian burst through the door thinking she was being murdered by someone, Michelle standing cautiously behind him. Quickly he realized that she was just having one of those frightening nightmares that Lindsey had told him about. He understood now why she called them frightening because the way Gracie acted was indeed frightening to anybody who happened to witness the scene.

He rushed over to her in a panic, sat down on the edge of the bed, and started to call her name out as he shook her shoulders, trying everything he could to wake her up from the awful nightmare she was consumed in.

Finally, a gasp of air left Gracie's lungs as her eyes fluttered open. She sat upright immediately, not minding her dad as she looked around the room and clutched the sheets between her hands tightly, making sure she really was awake and not sill engulfed in that awful dream.

“Gracie,” Brian's voice faded out as he noticed the tears rolling down her cheeks.

She covered her face with her hands and started to cry even harder as she shook her head back in forth, wondering to herself why she was having those dreams so often. Most of them weren't even dreams. They were memories. Horrible, terrifying memories that she wished more than anything she could forget.

“Oh baby,” Brian murmured as he pulled her close.

Gracie fell into his arms and sobbed against his chest, not caring that a spot on his t-shirt was now going to be wet because of her tears. Nothing mattered at that moment except what was going through her head, which wasn't by any means good. The same thing kept repeating in her head like a miniature movie that was on repeat, and she couldn't make it stop no matter how hard she tried.

Brian wasn't sure what to think as he held his upset daughter. He had never in the past sixteen years witnessed such a thing with Gracie. She was never a child who suffered from nightmares growing up, nor was she ever scared of monsters from under the bed or in the closet that were supposedly after her. She was a brave kid growing up who normally slept through the night without so much as a sound unless she happened to be sick. So Brian didn't know what was causing her to have such bad nightmares, but he sure was curious, and he was determined to find out before Gracie returned home at the end of the summer.

It took almost an hour for Brian to calm Gracie down and to get her stop crying. Once the tears subsided, she stayed completely silent as she sat slumped against his chest feeling rather exhausted, while her head throbbed in pain from getting so upset.

Brian did his best at soothing his daughter as he allowed her to lay against his chest while he rubbed small circles against her shoulder with his thumb. He had so many questions for her but knew asking her at that moment might set her off again and he wasn't about to risk doing that. He couldn't take seeing and hearing her cry so desperately like she was. It was hard for him, especially when he knew that he couldn't fix whatever happened to be wrong because Gracie wouldn't tell him.

-x-

The next morning when Gracie woke up, she realized two things. One, it was really early, and two, she had fallen asleep beside her dad. Memories of the night before flooded back to her and she sighed, knowing she would need to come up with some sort of explanation for her small break down and her nightmare. It had to be good too, or her dad would know she was lying, which was something she didn't want.

Untangling herself from her dad's slightly heavy tattooed arm, she climbed out of bed carefully not wanting to wake him in the process. She knew he must have been tired from the night before after being awake for so many hours while he stayed and comforted her.

Snatching up a black sweatshirt from the floor beside her desk, she pulled it on before heading downstairs. She wasn't surprised to find Michelle already awake and dressed and humming to herself as she stood before the stove cooking breakfast.

“Morning,” Gracie mumbled, running a hand through her messy locks of hair as she opened the fridge and peered inside.

She grabbed the carton of milk, found a glass in the cabinet and poured her some. Taking a sip from the milk, she sat down at the bar and watched Michelle cook scrambled eggs, bacon, and what smelt like cinnamon and sugar toast, which was something her and her dad had been eating for breakfast her whole life. It was really delicious and only something she got to eat every now and then since her mom didn't approve of Gracie having sugar for breakfast.

“I hope you're hungry,” Michelle smiled softly over her shoulder at her step daughter.

“Starving actually,” Gracie replied.

“Me too,” Brian chimed in as he walked into the kitchen, looking tired as ever.

Gracie frowned, knowing it was her fault he was so tired. “I'm sorry about last night.” The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“Don't be, Gracie,” Michelle said, narrowing her eyes, “There's no reason to be sorry.”

“You can't control what you dream about, Sweetheart,” Brian added, “It just is what it is.”

Gracie nodded absently and took another sip of her milk, not sure what to say. She wanted to apologize over and over again because she knew that her nightmares didn't just affect her. They affected everyone around her, and right then, they were affecting her dad and her step mom, and she felt terrible about it.

“You want to talk about it?” Brian asked, sitting down beside her.

She swallowed hard. Of course she didn't. It was much too personal. She couldn't imagine talking to her dad about it, especially after what had happened when she talked to her mom. She knew it would just be the same thing repeating itself. Her dad wouldn't believe her just like her mom hadn't

“There's nothing to talk about,” She denied, shaking her head, “I barely remember my dreams. I'm sorry.”

Brian leaned over and kissed her forehead, “Don't apologize for that either, little one. There's nothing to be sorry about, got it?”

Looking into his eyes, she smiled weakly and nodded, “Got it.”

He smiled and then ruffled her hair for a moment, making her pout and huff in annoyance. Soon enough breakfast was ready and the seemingly happy 'family' sat down at the table together to eat, while they talked and laughed and acted as if the night before had never happened. For that, Gracie was more than thankful about.