Chapter One.

I bet many things are borne out of many things. Some things are borne out of frustration, others anger. Still other things are borne out of boredom. In this case, my accounts are borne out of fear and an amateur's diagnosis of incurable insomnia.

Meryl was always small. Even when she was younger, she knew, somehow, that she would always be a small person. This was not to say that she was by any means small of mind. Contrariwise, Meryl had as big a mind and soul as the next person, maybe even bigger. It was just that her parents were very small people, her older brothers were all small, and even the family dog was small. It was a stray pekingese-looking mutt they called Pete.

So Meryl accepted her size at a very young age. She had two older brothers who were in high school when she was in middle school. They were two years apart, but it was not until they were both in college did they become close. Strangely enough, they went to college on opposite ends of the country, so it was odd that they would come home during holidays and be so chum, at least in Meryl's mind.

She should count herself lucky, though. Growing up, Jared and Jay were barely tolerable of each other, but both loved Meryl very much. She was the youngest and their only sister. When she was in seventh grade, a boy followed her home from school against her will. Sure he was the handsomest and tallest boy in school, standing nearly six feet already at age thirteen, but she did not want anything to do with him. Luckily, Jared and Jay took it as their fraternal duty to tell poor Vincent to leave.

However, being only of average height (each four inches under six feet, Jay maybe four and a half), they would not appear intuitively intimidating. So poor, poor Vincent told them to do something that Meryl didn't like to repeat, but luckily for me, she was able to recall the dialogue perfectly.

"Come on, Meryl," Vincent cooed. "Go to the dance with me."

"I don't want to!" she replied, placing her backpack in the living room. "I don't like to dance!" Why didn't she think of closing the door behind her? God, she hoped one of her brothers were home.

Vincent continued, doggedly. "It's okay," he tried to reason. "You don't have to like it. Just come with me. You're the hottest girl in school."

"Wait. How does being the hottest girl in school make it okay? She said she doesn't like dancing, so being hot will all of a sudden make that dislike go away?"

Meryl had never been more relieved in her life to hear Jared's voice from the kitchen. Jared himself followed, first looking forward, then having to look up.

"What's your name, kid," Jared asked Vincent.

"Vince."

"I'm going to call you Vincent."

"Uh...okay."

"Are you Meryl's friend?"

"No!" said Meryl, perhaps a little too excitedly. "He just followed me here after school, after I told him I didn't want to go!"

"Then we have a problem, right?" Jay said, seemingly from nowhere. The voice came from behind Vincent. Jay, too, had to look up, which he did as he joined Jared in front of Vincent. They were both now standing where the kitchen met the living room, and Meryl was sitting at the table in the kitchen. The front door was behind Vincent, still unclosed.

Vincent was quiet, probably thinking. There was a weird, cinematic pause before Vincent spoke up.

"She has to go with me. I don't have a date."

Jared laughed. "Dude, your logic is flawless today. Personally, and I'm sorry if this overrides your facts, I think that you not having a date is a problem she's not solving."

Vincent looked confused.

Jay interjected. "That means she's not going with you and if you don't have a date, that's too bad."

"Go fuck yourself. Don't tell me what to do," Vincent said, still stubborn.

"We didn't, moron. But now we will. Leave."

Jared's voice brooked no argument.

"No."

Meryl was starting to get nervous. Her brothers were significantly smaller in stature than Vincent. She had only known them to be loving, kind people, never in confrontation.

"How old are you?" Jay asked.

"Thirteen," Vincent replied, perhaps a bit too proudly. Jay was fourteen and Jared was sixteen. They looked at each other and looked back at a dumbfounded Vincent.

Jared took off his shirt, revealing a number of tattoos and a very chiseled body. he was flexing, Meryl know, because his abdominal muscles were pretty defined. Meryl didn't think there was a way for Vincent to miss them.

She herself didn't miss the fact that the tattoos were fake, a product of a very talented artist in her brother. Jared could sit in front of the bathroom mirror for hours at a time, drawing on his body. Their parents didn't approve of it, but a lot of time, they didn't see it either. Jared used to come home with markings all over his arm, drawn intricately in the annals of the classroom's boredom.

But she knew Vincent probably couldn't tell. To him the dragon across the chest and a snake on the collarbone looked very intricate and real. The muscles looked real too.

"Get the fuck out before both of us beat the fuck out of you, fuckface," Jay said.

Vincent left, grumbling to himself about not having a date.

"Bye, Vince!" Meryl said after him, waving. "See you at school tomorrow!"

Jared laughed, putting his shirt back on and smearing some of the ink.

"You know," said Jay. "I think that is your realest looking fake tat yet. Were you doing just now in the bathroom?"

"Yeah," said Jared, still laughing. "If you look, I didn't even finish the claws on the dragon." Sure enough, there was an obvious lack of claws on the inked beast. Meryl couldn't have been more elated. She probably hadn't been this happy with having a brother since Jared first got his driver's license and took her and her friends to the mall a few months ago. Her coolness factor at school skyrocketed, then.

"Hey," said Jared as they were looking at his chest and shoulders. "Tell that kid not to mess with you again."

"Yeah, dude," said Jay. "That fucker was fucking dumb."

"Okay, I won't let him follow me next time," Meryl replied, rubbing some of the ink on Jared's shoulder. "And don't cuss so much, dude. What if mom hears you?"

But Jay was already walking upstairs.

Jared laughed. "Don't worry. He talks tough but he's a fat pussy when mom's around."

Meryl rolled her eyes, like only a preteen could do. Boys were so vulgar.