----------------------------------------------------------------- ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀SCREAMS ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀by aaron (@-revery) ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ a short story ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀-------------------- ⠀ ⠀⠀ Scream; loud cries expressing emotion or pain ----------------------------------------------------------------- Yelling from the other room. ⠀ "Mom and Nate are arguing again," Noah mumbles from his spot on the couch. His dad was in the kitchen, and the sound of clattering dishes was slightly comforting. If only the two weren't so loud from the bedroom. ⠀ Noah and his dad had just come back from a late night walk, and now it was 9:02, past Noah's bedtime, and he couldn't even go to sleep because his family is arguing loudly in the kids' shared bedroom. He could hear it even with the door closed. ⠀ Instead of responding with words, Noah's dad dropped the kitchen towel and padded over to the shelf behind the couch, picking up a deck of cards. "I know, kiddo," He said softly as he sat down next to Noah on the plush cushions. "We just have to let them do their thing." ⠀ For such an alarming situation, the calmness coming from Noah's father was almost comforting. Noah tried to block out the sounds from the other room as his dad shuffled the deck. ⠀ This happened routinely. Nate would do something, their mom would get angry, and instead of trying to make the situation better, Nate would always make it worse by replying with rude responses and snappish comebacks. Noah wished he could try to talk some sense into Nate, that anyone could try and talk some sense into his brother; because Noah was only eleven, and he was getting so sick of being haunted by the screams. Sick of going to sleep at night pretending everything was okay, sick of his brother's cold replies after an argument with their mom, sick of the fact that the next morning, everyone would act like life was sunshine and rainbows and nobody would talk about it anymore. ⠀ Noah was so sick of it all. But he pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind as his dad finished dealing the cards to play crazy eights. ⠀ The yells raged on from behind closed doors, but Noah could still hear them. -----------------------------------------------------------------
