Siblings

7- Therapist.

"Why are you here, Maeve?" My therapist asks, confused. I continued drawing. "Maeve?"

"He's dead." I say, after a while. She tensed up. "William is finally dead. Took him forever."

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't do that bullshit. He's deserved death. I'm actually sad that he passed away from cancer. Fucking cancer. I should've killed him when I had the chance, but atlas, I didn't. Fuck me, then."

I continue to color in the coloring book I bring. It helps during therapy. Takes my mind off the things we talk about. Like William. Or about the bitch I call mother. It's whatever. At least I talk.

"Do you think you will go back to the drugs?" She asks, softly. I look at her.

"I don't know. Honestly, I want to think I would but we both know I won't. I won't risk my future by doing them." She nods. "It just hasn't clicked in my brain that he's dead, you know? I still think he's roaming the earth but he's dead. He's in hell now. Or wherever he is. He's sure not in Heaven. I'm just scared when it does finally click that he's dead, I'm gonna have a break down. I'm not scared about that, but I'm scared where it's going to happen."

"Like if you're in line or something like that?" She asks, confused. I nod. She frowns. I look back down at the coloring book and switch colors. I grabbed the purple pencil and started doing the flowers.

"I visited them a few days ago." I say, softly. "She's getting so big. She took an interest in whatever her big brother does. If he plays soccer, then she has to. If he's sitting in my lap, then she has to too. It's cute, really. Demitri is starting school soon. He's not happy about it but he'll be okay."

"You sound like you're not ready for him to grow up, Maeve." I look at her.

"Do you have kids?" She shakes her head. "You wouldn't want your little ones growing up. I remember it like it was yesterday. The first time I got to hold them. The first time they started crawling. Walking. Even talking. Time flies when you're not there but at least I got to be there for their firsts."

"Tell me about Damien and Angel. How are they?" She asks, softly. I shrug.

"What's there to say? Angel started school a few weeks ago. Damien still works at his garage. He doesn't want me around the family. He, uh, tries to come up with excuses on why I'm not included. Worked the first few times but after that, I stopped believing them. He was the one to tell me about the things they were doing but those words never came my way."

"Did you tell the others?"

"No. I don't want them to get mad at him. It's my fault, I guess. I guess everything is my fault." I say, shrugging.

"Maeve, you know-"

"Our time is up." I say, packing up all my colored pencils. She looks at her watch and sighs.

I stand up and go over to the self. I put the coloring book away, hidden from view. I like storing things here. I put the colored pencils in my bag. I look at her.

"I'll see you next week, Emma." She nods.

"Thank you for sharing, Maeve." I nod at her.

I leave the building and go over to my car.

--

Axel's pov
I go inside the house with the other siblings. We just came back from bowling. It was Saturday. We haven't seen Maeve since last night. She didn't want to come bowling with us so we left without her.

"I'll go see if Maeve is hungry." I say, looking at the others. They nod and go into the dining room with pizza boxes.

I walk up the stairs, looking at all the pictures lining the walls. I went over to her door and knocked.