*****
"NO!" I try to grab for my little brother's hand and it slips through my fingers. "Sabby!" I cry out to him as he starts sliding across the floor further and further away from me. Or is he being dragged?
"Wello!" He cries while reaching his little hands towards me, begging me to help him. His blue eyes are wild and filled with tears.
I try to stand up and run to him but a man in a biohazard suit is holding me down. I struggle with all my might to free myself but it's useless. My limbs feel weighed down and when I try to stand it feels like I'm fighting against gravity itself.
"Willow, it's okay." I turn to look at the man in the biohazard suit but he's gone, my dad is standing there reaching out to me. I try to reach out to him but the edges of my vision become blurred and I feel as though I'm on the verge of blacking out.
"Willow, wake up honey."
I hear my dad calling to me but I can't see him anymore, everything went black. An earthquake erupts and the world starts shaking. I'm too tired to open my eyes and take cover under my bed.
"Willow!" My dad calls again, his voice rises with concern.
I finally come to and pry my eyes open to find my dad shaking me. I look around dazed trying to decipher reality from dream.
"It's okay honey, it was just a dream." My dad says soothingly, pulling me into his arms. He's sitting on the edge of the top bunk with me. I take a few deep breaths and when the reminder of Sebastian being torn from my hands floods back into my brain, I break down. I sob into my dad's chest and cling to him as if he is my life force, the only thing keeping me attached to this world.
"Why dad?" I cry and bang my fist against his chest. "Why are we here?" I pull away from him and curl into a ball on my bed crying with all my might.
My dad doesn't answer me right away. He picks me up and cradles me in his arms like he used to do when I was a small child. I feel teardrops fall on my arms and when I look up at my dad I see that they are from him.
He wipes them away and looks at me with all of the love in the world. "Because we are meant to be here honey. That's why we are here."
"But we left them dad." I say barely above a whisper. The guilt of the situation is weighing heavily on my shoulders.
I feel my dad's body shake ever so slightly and he does everything he can to not break down in this second. "I know." He whispers and looks away. He takes several deep, shaky breaths. "We will pray that they make it. That's all that we can do now is hope and hold onto faith."
"If they don't...make it?" I find myself choking on my last two words.
"If they don't then maybe they are being spared from a worse fate. We don't know why things happen in this life but everything is for a purpose. If they...don't make it." My dad chokes on his words too. "Then they will be in a much better place than here."
I stare into my dad's eyes. "Do you really believe that?" I ask.
He nods his head and says, "With all my heart."
With that I wipe away my tears and move back into a sitting position next to my dad on the bed. Hope, I repeat over and over again in my head.
"Willow, I am here for you. I will not leave you. I promise." My dad hugs me and I hug him back as hard as I can.
"I am here for you too dad."
"I know." He pats me on the back and then hops down off the top bunk.
"You need to try and get some sleep now. I love you."
"Love you too." I lie back down and fall into a dreamless sleep.
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