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From what I remember it was a bright and sunny afternoon, the moon was out partially hiding behind some clouds and the wind that day was particularly harsh and hot. My family was in the middle of lunch when my mother received a call on her phone and as soon as she checked who was calling, she quickly excused herself from the table and walked to the next room. My mother had curly chestnut brown hair and golden brown eyes but milk white skin.
My family didn't think to much of the call as this has happened a few times because of her work as she worked full time and was never really home. After a few minutes my brother seem to have remembered something and quickly looked at our mother with a nervous expression apparent on his face. His name was jack, he was the middle child along with me. He had dark brown curly hair and amber colored eyes. He wasn't particularly outstanding when it comes to looks but he looked decent.
I, of course was older than him as I was the younger twin of my older brother. As I observed Jacks behavior I glanced at my older twin brother to see if he knew why jack was so nervous. My twins name was Oliver and we looked nothing alike except for our faces. Oliver Had bright green eyes and I had light grey eyes but it wasn't just our eyes that was different but also our hair.
He had chestnut brown curly hair that matched his face and his calm personality while I had the darker shade of chestnut with wavy hair. I wasn't quite sure if my hair match my personality but I like to think it did. When Oliver's eyes met mine he instantly understood what I was asking as he had noticed before that Jake was acting weird. He looked at my mother from the other room, then looked back at Jake, then back at me and shrugged.
Jake was the troublemaker in our family, he was rash in decision-making and liked to pick fight as well as skip classes and school altogether. Though he picked fights he never really hurt or even hit someone. One would say he was in his rebellious phase.
I too, shrugged my shoulders after seeing Oliver and continue eating my mashed potato with steak until my younger sister, who was sitting next to me bumped my elbow with her's. I looked over to see what was wrong or to answer any questions she might have had. My younger sister's name was Elena
And she, unlike any of our other siblings had bright red hair. Her eyes was a common brown but her face was quite round.
Elena was a sweet young girl with a bright personality. As I looked at Elena she began to speak "Olivia" she said "yes" i replied and she continue to say "mom don't look to happy, might you know why?". I looked at her for a few seconds before looking at mom. She indeed did not look happy as she kept glancing at the dining room table but more specifically at Jake. I knew immediately that he had done something wrong and Mother was called about it.
I then looked at Oliver, who was focused on eating at this moment and quickly moved my foot to stomp on his. He looked up at me giving a face of confusion as to ask me what had happened. I quickly shook my head towards Mom trying to be as subtle as possible. I didn't want to alert Jake to his impending misfortune. Oliver immediately understood and tapped dad's feet with his.
Dad was a Burly and dignified man with black hair but a darker, almost black red beard. He had green eyes and from what I could remember he was also a white man but being out in the sun had tanned him. He had a funny personality but he was also an Ex military man. Because of this, he always had us work out and make secret signals with him and our other siblings. For a situation like this It was three taps on our feet or three taps on the pinky finger to alert the other party of the situation.
Dad quickly looked up at Mom and then at Jake with a disappointed looking in his eyes. he was hoping this week would be a normal week without any calls from school about Jake. Jake quickly noticed the eyes on him and tapped my ring finger twice. he was asking me what was going on. I looked at him and sighed then taped his thumb.
A cold sweat had appeared on his face as the thumb meant trouble and Jake knew it was about him. He quickly looked at dad and was about to open his mouth when Mom walked back into the room. She walked right next to Jake and looked at him for a minute then sighed. She went over to dad, then whispered in his ear before dad looked at Jake and sighed as well.
I was curious at this time, as usually they pulled him into the other room to talk. Mom went to sit in front of him then said "your teacher called" with a stern voice. From my experience, it was never a good thing when Jake's teacher had called. Jake looked at Mom and then looked down at his plate of mashed potatoes and gravy. He knew what Mom was about to say.
"Jake, your grades are at rock bottom" said mom as she continue to look at Jake. I quickly looked at Jake as usually his grades were decent and never fell below a C or D. I was shocked and speechless, Jake had been rebellious but he had always kept his grades relatively high, in fact all of us did. My lowest grade was a 95.3 which was still an A and Oliver was about the same if not better. Elena's lowest grade was a B but that was still better than a C.
My mother continued to say "Jake what happened why did your grades suddenly drop like this?" With a concerned expression spread across her face.
Jack was silent for a while opening and closing his mouth many times before speaking. I could tell Jake was hesitant to tell us and mom was letting him think. After what felt like a million years he finally began to speak. "I-" he paused then continued "I know it might sound strange but I have been having really strange and scary nightmares" after he said that he immediately looked down at his food with an embarrassed expression visibly on his face.
I was confused then said "what are these nightmares about?" Jack took a moment to respond then said "I don't remember but i wake up in a cold sweat and can't seem to focus on anything". We sat in silence before mom said "do you want to see a sleep specialist?".
This may seem strange for other families to take a nightmare seriously but our family has had a history with it. It would usually start as just a nightmare but it would gradually get worse and worse for the person experiencing them. Some took their own lives being too afraid of what they saw in their dreams and others were sent to a psychiatric hospital never to be seen again.
The strange thing was that they never actually remembered what they saw and were only terrified to sleep. This was the curse that plagued our family.
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