Sandra

The little girl was too scared to let her feet touch the ground

So she continued to lie under soft pink colored sheets

Of a twin sized bed in a crumbling building.

Voices creep up the stairs and bleed through the walls.  

I turn to my side and see my sister’s golden blonde strands tangled in my hazelnut brown curls against a white pillowcase.

I stare at the figure for a moment and pray that the madness would go away so Sandra could sleep.

I sat upright and pushed the sheets toward Sandra, but before I could move my legs off the mattress, the sheets were on my lap again.

“You’re up too?” Sandra said, sitting up next to me.

“I’ve been up a few hours now.”

I was startled. I didn't speak.

She stood up on the bed and stepped in between my legs and onto the cold wooden floor.

“Are you ready?” she asked. I nodded my head, not moving from the bed, seemingly in a daze.

“What’s wrong? “Is it the voices again?”

I moved my gaze from the floor to meet her eyes.

“I’m scared too,

But it will be okay,

you’re all I need.”