Her Blood Moon

Caden

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawn was helping her grandma pick up all the christmas paper spread over the floor, pulling her new toys into a pile to the side so she could go through them later, when her mom yelled for her from the other room.

“Dawn! Your dad is on the phone!”

She looked up and dropping what paper she had picked up, moved over to the phone her mom was holding.

“Hello? Dad?” the phone crackled in her ear as she heard her dads voice.

“Hey Dawn. Merry Christmas! Did you get a lot of stuff?”

Dawn grinned ear to ear,

“Yeah I did. Wish you were here.” she replied.

“You’ll see me soon. Get dressed if you're not already, I’m coming to pick you up for a little bit. I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise? What is it? And when will you be here?”

There was silence for a minute as Dawn waited for a reply.

“Be there in about 10 minutes, be ready ok? I'll see you soon.”

“Okay dad, love you!”

Dawn handed the phone to her mom, who stood there waiting.

“I gotta go get dressed, dad’s coming to get me. Do you know what his surprise is?”

Danielle smiled a tight lipped smile, and nodded. She didn't look that happy but Dawn didn't think much of it as she ran to the bedroom to get dressed hearing her grandma yell yet again about Dawn running in the house.

It wasn't long before her dads little red pick up pulled up in front of the house and Dawn ran toward it, yanking on her coat as she went. Yelling behind her,

“Bye mom love you! I’ll be back later!”

“Love you Dawn!”

Dawn jumped up into the passenger seat, buckling up and looking over at her dad.

“Hey dad.”

“Hey kiddo, ready to go?”

“Yep.” Dawn watched cars and houses pass by as her dad drove. Wondering what surprise her dad had for her and why her mom had looked the way she did. It was like she was happy for Dawn but mad at the same time. She would never understand adults.

“So where are we going?”

David glanced over at her, before looking back at the road.

“We're going to go see Janet.”

That's all he said, Dawn looking out the window before letting herself frown a little. She wasn't the most excited that Janet had something to do with her Christmas surprise. She wasn't a horrible person, but Dawn always felt deep down that Janet wished Dawn wasn't part of her life, and it's kind of hard to like someone who feels that way about you.

The truck pulled into a parking lot and parked before Dawn realized it, being lost in thought. She glanced around and realized they were at the hospital. What the heck? She looked over at her dad, who just opened the truck's driver door and stepped out. Dawn sat there for a minute extremely confused before she unbuckled, jumped out, closed the door and followed suit.They walked into the hospital and got on the elevator, not speaking.

Once the door opened, and her dad stepped out, he stopped her right outside the elevator doors.

“When we get to the room, don't be too loud. Be easy with Janet and no running. I want you on your best behavior, okay?” Dawn nodded gravely, her curiosity to the point of boiling over. Why did she have to be so careful? Why was Janet in the hospital? What did any of this have to do with her surprise?

She followed behind her dad to room 302, as he opened the door and stepped inside. The entire hospital smelled like chemicals, but the room smelt even stronger of chemicals and other weird smells. Dawn wrinkled her nose at it but didn't complain. Her dad walked toward Janet laying in a hospital bed, but Dawn just stood in the doorway looking around.

Janet lay there with her blonde hair pulled back off her face, a blanket covering her. She looked okay, not sick, or tired. She just laid there smiling up at Dawn's dad then glanced over at Dawn.

“Dawn, go look over next to the window. Your surprise is in the little bed.”

Dawn looked over at the big bay window and the bed that laid next to it. Glancing back over at her dad and Janet, her feet started to move her closer and closer to the window. Once she was closer, she gasped and stared. In the bed, was a baby! A baby? That was her surprise?

Her dad came up next to her, and reached in. He gently picked up the bundled up sleeping infant, and turned to her.

“His name is Caden. Dawn, meet your little brother.”

Dawn just stared, and next thing she knew, her dad had led her to the chair in the room, sitting her down and showing her how to hold the fragile little baby. She supported his little head like her dad told her, and just sat there for a minute. His features were so tiny, cute little nose and tiny little eyes that stayed shut. Suddenly, like he knew she was staring at him, his eyes popped open. Dawn's light brown eyes stared into his little blue ones. A feeling of complete amazement and protectiveness overwhelmed her as she smiled down at him.

She had never felt so protective or in such awe as she did holding him close. Something inside her welled up as a little voice whispered in her head,

'He's so little. we have to protect him. Nothing can hurt him like we been hurt Dawn'

Dawn was a little confused that her thoughts were talking to her, but when Caden started making little whiny noises at her, she put the voice out of her head and brought him closer to her, rocking him gently.

“Hi Caden, I’m Dawn. Your big sister. I love you so much already and I can't wait until you grow bigger. Nothing is ever going to hurt you while I'm around. I promise."