Sonata Dusk, the youngest of The Dazzlings, was having troubles sleeping. She kept seeing the event that led to her living with her sisters Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze clearly in her mind. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the car crash that had killed both of her parents, she tried to ignore it but she couldn’t, she wouldn’t go ask for help though, it was just hard for her to do because of her anxiety. Also, she’d only been living with her two sisters for about 6 or 7 months and she wasn’t completely comfortable with talking to them about it. She’d learned almost immediately after moving in that her oldest sister Adagio cared very little about her and her anxiety. Why should she care though, Sonata wasn’t her sister by blood, but neither was Aria and Adagio seemed more interested in the things Aria did than in things that Sonata did. Aria on the other hand was very caring and was always very concerned about her little sister, she would always ask if Sonata was ok when she started showing signs of being stressed or started showing any other emotion, Sonata was grateful for that, because it let her know that someone in her new home cared about her.
Sonata sat up in her bed and looked over at her clock on the dresser beside her bed, she saw that it was 1:00 in the morning. The house was quiet, which told her that her sisters were also asleep. Both her sisters’ rooms were down the hall a little ways, Aria’s was on the same side as hers while Adagio’s was on the opposite side. Sonata thought to herself, trying to find something to distract her from what she kept seeing in her mind, she thought about how big and beautiful Adagio and Aria’s house was. When she’d first been brought to the house by the child services, she’d been taken aback by the size of the house, also at how stuck up and self-centered Adagio had seemed. Aria had welcomed her happily, but Adagio had merely just shown her where the basic rooms were and that was about it. It had taken a couple of months for Sonata to adjust, for the first week she mainly just stayed in her room and had only left to eat or use the washroom. Aria had helped her come out of her shell though, she’d allowed Sonata into her room within the second week of Sonata living at the house and had told her that she was welcome to go into Aria’s room whenever she wanted.
Aria had also told Sonata that she was always in her room, usually watching something on her TV or looking at something on her phone, so if Sonata ever felt lonely or wanted to hang out or talk with someone, that she could always go to Aria. Sonata was actually the only person allowed in Aria’s room without having to ask verbal permission before entering. Sonata closed her eyes and seen the replay of the car crash again, not being able to hold back her cries any longer. She softly began to cry, unknown to the fact that Aria had gone downstairs to get a glass of water and was now walking past Sonata’s bedroom and had looked in to check on her, mainly because she had heard the start of her cries. Aria watched Sonata cry softly on her bed for a minute before she quietly entered her sister’s room, closing the door behind her and then calmly walking over to her sister’s bed.
“You ok Sonata?” Aria asked her sister quietly, gently sitting down on the bed next to Sonata.
“Yeah.” Sonata quickly answered, not wanting to let Aria know that she wasn’t alright because she wasn’t comfortable talking about it.
“Sonata you aren’t ok. You’re crying.” Aria stated softly, gently sliding closer to Sonata and gently reaching over and rubbing her back.
“Yeah I know, I’m fine though.” Sonata said again.
“No you aren’t. What’s wrong?” Aria asked her again, being careful not to pressure her too much, as Sonata didn’t like it.
“I-It’s hard for me to talk about.” Sonata said, accepting the fact that Aria knew something was wrong and allowing herself to start crying again.
“Come here. I think I know what you’re upset about anyways.” Aria explained, very gently wrapping her arms around Sonata once Sonata had accepted and leaned into her. She also gently rubbed her right shoulder with her left hand.
“Because it happened so fast and I was confused at what was happening.” Sonata said after she realized that Aria was trying to help her calm down so she’d be able to talk about it.
“Yes, I know exactly what you’re upset about. You’re upset about your parents.” Aria softly said to Sonata, continuing to rub her shoulder.
“Yeah. Every time I close my eyes all I see is the-” Sonata started to cry harder when she tried mentioning the car crash.
“I know, I know. It’s ok. It was a traumatic experience for you. Just let everything out.” Aria softly explained, allowing Sonata to cry into her shoulder.
Sonata cried for a few minutes before finally starting to calm down, Aria stayed with her and continued rubbing her back. Sonata took a few shaky breaths before she took a deep breath to get herself to calm down completely.
“You good to talk now?” Aria softly asked Sonata, reaching up to gently wipe the few remaining tears out of her eyes and off her cheeks.
“I think so.” Sonata answered, pushing away from Aria slightly because she was uncomfortable.
“Ok, so you’re upset because of what happened to you're parents.” Aria said while glancing at the clock on Sonata’s bedside table, noting that it was almost 1:30 in the morning.
“Yeah.” Sonata said quietly, rubbing her arm and refusing to make eye contact with Aria.
“What exactly do you see when you close your eyes?” Aria asked Sonata, looking at her sister.
Sonata didn’t say anything, she just continued to look down at her bed, she didn’t know why she felt so uncomfortable telling Aria, her older and protective sister, what was going on. Maybe it was because she was afraid Aria wouldn’t understand her, or that she would just laugh at her and say she was being silly.
“Sonata? What do you see?” Aria asked again a couple minutes later when Sonata didn’t answer.
“Um, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Sonata said quietly, pulling her covers up and getting ready to try and go to sleep, trying to change the subject.
“Why not? You just said you wanted to.” Aria exclaimed softly, confused by what Sonata was saying.
“I just don’t want to.” Sonata stated.
“How come every time I ask if you’re ok or if you want to talk, you shut off the fact that you clearly aren’t ok and say you’re fine?” Aria asked, she said it calmly but she was growing annoyed with how Sonata every time Aria tried helping her.
“Because, it's hard for me to trust that you’ll understand what it felt like and what I went through.” Sonata finally said, lying on her back and staring up at her ceiling.
“So, what you’re saying is that you’re insecure about it and don’t think I would understand.” Aria said, repeating what Sonata had been implying,
“Um, yeah.” Sonata cautiously and quietly replied.
“Ok, Sonata. I know it’s hard to talk about but you need to understand that I am here for you and it would really help if you let someone know what was going on.” Aria explained to Sonata.
“I know, but, what if you don’t understand.” Sonata exclaimed quietly.
“I may not understand exactly what happened, but I will understand what you’re going through now. I promise.” Aria softly explained as she got herself comfortable in her sister’s bed.
“Ok, I keep seeing the crash. And, just before it happened, my parents and I had been laughing about something, but then it happened.” Sonata explained quietly, her eyes getting teary again. Aria noticed and slowly reached over and wiped Sonata’s eyes.
“That’s normal that you keep seeing it. It was traumatic and something you’ll probably never forget.” Aria softly explained to Sonata.
“Also, I keep thinking. What if it was my fault that it happened because we had been talking about something.” Sonata said to Aria again.
“Hey. Nothing that happened was your fault ok, it was nobody’s fault. It was a freak accident, I can promise you that.” Aria explained to her sister again, knowing Sonata was blaming herself for something she didn't do.
“You sure?” Sonata asked quietly, finally looking at Aria.
“Yes, I’m sure.” Aria answered, glancing at Sonata’s clock again, seeing that it was now a couple minutes past 1:30.
“Ok.” Sonata said.
“Why don’t we go to bed now ok. It’s really late.” Aria said to Sonata as they both got comfy in Sonata’s bed.
“Are you staying here?” Sonata asked confusingly after watching Aria get comfortable.
“I am. Is that ok with you?” Aria asked.
“Yeah.” Sonata answered.
“Great.” Aria replied, “Goodnight Sonata.” She added as she rested her head on the extra pillow on Sonata’s bed.
“Night Aria.” Sonata said as she turned so her back was facing Aria, settled down and then got herself situated and drifted off to sleep.
Aria watched her sleep for a minute before finally drifting off to sleep herself.
2 HOURS LATER
“Ari.” Sonata whispered to her sister, gently shaking her to wake her up. Calling her the nickname that she was allowed to call her.
“What?” Aria asked her sister after she opened one eye to see what was going on.
“I woke up ten minutes ago and now I can’t go back to sleep because I feel like something bad is going to happen to one of us.” Sonata explained to her sister.
“Sonata, nothing bad is going to happen to us. There’s a security system on the house, remember.” Aria explained, “It automatically goes off when someone strange enters.” She softly reassured her sister tiredly, reaching over to gently rub her shoulder.
“But what if something does happen?” Sonata asked again nervously.
“Nothing will.” Aria said calmly.
“Promise?” Sonata asked longingly.
“I promise with all my heart.” Aria softly answered.
“Ok.” Sonata said, moving closer to her older sister so she’d feel a bit safer.
“Now go back to sleep.” Aria whispered, rubbing her sister’s shoulder gently.
“Ok, night.” Sonata whispered, she closed her eyes and quickly drifted off into a deep sleep once again.
Aria gently leaned over and kissed the side of her sister’s forehead before going back to sleep herself, opening one eye when she felt her sister wrap an arm around her waist to feel safe. Aria smiled and then finally drifted off to sleep once again.
Author's Note
I hope you all enjoyed this story, and I hope some of you can find a little bit of peace while reading this story and can maybe relate to the topic of the story on a personal level. I understand that many people deal with this type of thing happening, so I want everyone to know that it is not your fault, so please do not blame yourself. I've had this story written and sitting in a Story Archive I have for about 4-5 years now, finally got the courage to publish it online. Again, I really hope you all enjoyed this story. I know it's a bit shorter of a story, but back when I wrote this, I didn't have a lot of confidence in my writing, so I wrote shorter stories. I was also in school, so I didn't have a lot of time on my hands to write long multi-chapter stories, so short stories like this were easier to write when I had some free time on my hands.
