Enjoy! Thanks for the reviews and favorites! Be sure to check out the tumblr for the story, link in my profile!

Ryan Reed wasn't known for sleep walking. That isn't to say it had never occurred to him, but last time he slept walked he had been in the single digit years.

This in mind, Emery Reed was unsure how to handle her brother being in the kitchen at midnight. Or at least, unsure how to handle him being in the kitchen standing in front of the lit stove top.

The front burner closest to Ryan was turned on, the fire dancing around Ryan's outstretched hand. It wasn't close enough to burn Ryan, at least not yet. Emery was stunned as she continued to watch Ryan's hand move within the fire's wake. Her eyes flickered up to Ryan's to notice his eyes open as well. But he seemed in a trance, which could only be assumed to her as sleep walking.

Blinking furiously, Emery considered maybe she was finally hallucinating. Instead of Ryan's figure disappearing with blinking however, another figure showed. A woman, covered in burned appeared next to Ryan, but only momentarily before she was gone.

Just as quickly as she appeared and disappeared did Ryan appear to wake up. He began blinking furiously, and withdrew his hand quickly, as though it was on fire. Ryan gave his hand a once-over, ensuring it wasn't actually burned before he used it to turn off the stove top.

Emery continued to stare at Ryan, unsure if she should speak or not. While she continued her inner debate as to speak or not, Ryan decided to speak up himself.

"The causes of sleep walking are extremely fascinating. Did you know something as slight as going to bed with a full bladder can cause it?" Ryan never ceased to amaze Emery with his ability to shoot off kilter facts at any moment.

"So you going to bed when you needed to pee caused you to wake up in the middle of the night with your hand over an open fire?" Emery asked, and her brow raised as she folded her arms.

"Well," Ryan paused, a frown appearing on his face as he did so. "Well no, probably not." His eyes drifted away from Emery as he continued thinking over the reasons for sleepwalking, and even though a new environment could cause sleepwalking, he decided to dismiss that as an unlikely reason for him putting his hand over an open flame.

He looked back at Emery, to see fuel in her eyes. He knew she would bring this up whenever she felt like it, to try to use it against him. Unless she thought that wasn't an option, that is.

"Look, we can't let Charlotte know." Ryan stated, watching Emery's reaction closely.

Emery grimaced and nodded, turning to look away for a moment before looking back at her brother. "And why can't she?"

"Well lets look at it like this. Her husband slept walked and nearly burnt his hand in a new house, one that could very well be haunted. Is that really the kind of story we want in her head?"

The blood to drained from Emery's face as she was forced to come to two conclusions. One, she was being blackmailed to keep things secret to keep her house. And two, that she would have to go along with it for the sake of the house.

"Fine whatever. I don't really care what we keep from your wife." Emery spat, a frown returning to her face. "I just came down here for water anyways, not to creep on whatever you do at night."

A blur appeared in the corner of Emery's eye, and she turned to look. To her astonishment, she noticed a glass of water near the fridge. Smirking, Emery nodded as she continued to stare at it before she added, "And maybe you were down here for one too."

Ryan was momentarily puzzled until he followed Emery's gaze to where he noticed the glass of water. Ryan chuckled at the sight of the glass of water for perhaps a moment too long, as his laughter caused Emery to join in as well.

"Well feel free to take it, I'm not thirsty." Ryan told her as he finally started to make his way towards Emery and back to bed, purposefully bumping into Emery on his way out. Emery pushed back, her newly found smile continuing at the comforting push of her brother.

Her smile faded slightly once she heard his footsteps continued to retreat upstairs, and Emery sighed before walking over and grabbing the glass of water and drinking the whole glass within a few gulps.

Blood. Pain. Lust.

That's what Emery dreamt of that night after she retired from the kitchen. Once the blaring sound from her alarm woke her, she tried carefully sifting through the mess that was her dreams last night. But sadly as she continued to think them over, like water in her hand it all slowly leaked away until all she could remember was blood, pain, and lust.

Today her brother left her to her devices of getting up. Perhaps he felt bad for her, and felt like letting her sleep in would help. But no sleep was found for Emery even after she hit snooze, because her mind was still too wrapped up in trying to remember what her dreams could've possibly have been to be about blood, pain, and lust.

Ryan once again met her in the bathroom, and while yawning he watched as Emery took her medications before he felt he saw enough and dragged himself downstairs for a well deserved cup of coffee. Yet once again, Emery neglected to take her last pill. Spitting it in the toilet once he was gone, she waited until she was done in the bathroom before flushing to avoid arousing suspicion.

Emery walked to school after being forced a large portion of pancakes by an extremely cheerful Charlotte, whom unlike Ryan and Emery, had actually got a decent amount of sleep the night before.

Emery arrived on the school grounds with her music blasting in her ears and a slight smile on her face after recalling Ryan's desperate attempts at breakfast to appear well rested, when in all actuality he was nearly falling asleep into his plate. The smile slowly left her face however when she looked around and noticed a new girl.

At least Emery assumed she was new, as this girl in particular was taking long draws from a cigarette as she made her way towards the school. Emery looked around, taking note of the looks on the others students faces as this new girl walked. It wasn't going to end good for this girl, and Emery found herself edging closer to the girl, until she was only feet behind her.

Being so close to this new girl did not help Emery's reaction when another girl stormed up. Emery knew this ones name from the day before, however.

"Hey!" Leah stomped over, stopping the new girl in her tracks and therefore stopping Emery. "Student council passed a rule banning smoking on school grounds!" Leah's stance was notably hostile, and Emery shifted slightly to get a better view of how the new girl was going to take this abrupt attack.

What was worse to Emery was the entourage, as before the new girl could even mutter a word a second girl had stood beside Leah and added, "Secondhand smoke kills."

"I'm new, I didn't know." The new girl apologetically stated what was already obvious to Emery as she dropped the cigarette, crushing in on the ground with her scuffed up converse.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Emery could hear Leah's shrill voice even more prominently now over the calming repetitive lyrics blaring into her ears. "People sit here, they eat here." Leah continued as she brazenly swooped up the crushed cigarette bud.

What really surprised Emery was the question the new girl asked.

"You don't know me, why are you doing this?"

At one point in time, Emery would've wondered the exact same thing. But that was before the tears, the heartbreak, and the insanity. Since then, she's never cared enough about an answer, because sometimes there isn't a right answer.

"Leah's grandmother died of lung cancer, she takes it pretty seriously." The second girl in the entourage stated, as if a grandmother's death could explain everything Leah did.

Emery mulled it over in her brain, thinking through all the psychological facts she'd ever been told, and momentarily considered this girl's statement. That was until Leah spoke up again.

"Eat it. Eat it or I'm going to kick the shit out of you." Leah said, getting even closer to the new girl.

"No amount of dead grandmother's will make it okay for you to force feed someone anything." Emery finally spoke up, driving the attention away from the new girl and onto herself.

Leah paused for a moment before getting even angrier. "You want to eat it instead?" Leah shrieked, pushing the cigarette bud into Emery's face as she stomped over to her.

So many emotions forced Emery to take the cigarette bud from Leah. Leah hadn't expected this, and watched with a sickeningly sweet smile as Emery brought the bud to her lips.

Emery fully intended on eating the cigarette bud, until she recalled something from the night before.

The semi-sweet taste of that glass of water.

Emery inhaled quickly and threw the cigarette bud down Leah's crop top shirt, darted to the new girl to grab her arm, and found herself and the new girl over ten feet away from Leah when Emery finally heard,

"You are so dead!"