Seth

The room was cold.  A dim lightbulb shone overhead. Diana shivered, regretting the thin sweater she chose that day. Glancing over at Adam, she noticed his nipples pointed at attention through his white t-shirt, reacting to the freezing temperature of the room.

"What do you think?" Adam asked. His disheveled hair and five o'clock shadow made him so ruggedly handsome, Diana was distracted for a moment. Catching his gaze, she quickly averted her eyes to the door.

"This is it," she sighed.

The black door from her nightmares. 

Every morning for three weeks at exactly 2:34, she would awake screaming.  Not movie screaming, where the character sits up in bed, shrieking.  No, she was paralyzed except for the screaming.  Her memories of the nightmares were vague.  She could see the black door, hear her name being called, even smell something rotting. But behind that door was a mystery.

She met Adam three days before. Being her neighbor across the hall, he heard her screams one night.  Fearing someone was attacking her, he busted down the door, admitting later it wasn't nearly as easy as it looked on television.  Since he had come to her rescue, she had a severe case of Florence Nightingale syndrome.

Grasping the doorknob, Diana turned it with ease.  She held her breath, sensing Adam doing the same.  An icy gust of putrid air greeted them. There, in the corner of the dark, dank room, sat a boy facing the wall. Diana gasped with surprise. She knew it was Seth, her 13 year old brother. Three years ago he was walking home from baseball practice when a tornado struck their little town.  Everyone thought he'd been blown away.

Adam looked from the boy to Diana, worry clouding his face.  Who was the thin boy crouching in the corner of this abandoned factory? Diana walked quickly into the room.  Adam grabbed her arm, holding her back, not knowing who else might be lurking inside. Glancing around, he found they were alone with the boy.

"Seth?" Diana whispered.  The boy straightened at hearing his name. They walked slowly toward the boy.

The frail figure turned toward them.  They froze instantly. His left cheek was ripped from his face, cracked and broken bones were all that remained. He slowly smiled, revealing broken and missing teeth. 

Diana, regaining her composure, hurried over and knelt beside her little brother.  "Seth?" she cried. She put her hand on his face, feeling the coldness of his skin.  He rested his head on her hand peacefully.  Diana slowly pulled his skeletal body into her lap, sobbing and rocking him.  

"I'm sorry," she whispered, smoothing his head with her hand.  It made sense now.  Seth had taken shelter in the old factory during the storm.  The tornado hit, making his shelter a deathtrap.

A warm gust swept through the room.  Diana felt the iciness of Seth's body disappear, becoming warm.  A shiver seized his body.  Looking at her brother in her arms, she and Adam witnessed the unbelievable.  His blue skin became pink, his face became whole, air moved through his lungs. He opened his eyes and smiled, his teeth shining white and straight. 

"Diana?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," she answered.

"It was so cold. I kept calling for you," he said.

Diana held him to her chest, trying to comprehend this reality.  "I found you.  I heard you and I found you."

She picked her resurrected brother up from the freezing concrete and walked back through the door. Adam followed closely behind. 

She believed the nightmares would be gone, but they were just beginning.