Poverty Challenge: the Less Family
Previously with the Less family, Dream had crept into bed with her sister Heart's boyfriend Eric and let him believe she was Heart in order to trick him into sleeping with her. Eric eventually realized what was happening, but it was too late. When Heart came home from work and found the two of them together, Dream told Heart exactly what had happened, and Heart realized Eric had been taken advantage of by Dream. Then, having gotten what she wanted, Dream walked out, leaving Eric and Heart to pick up the pieces.
Warnings: language, rape mentioned, allusions to past incest
Part One of Two
A long time after Eric left the house, Heart mustered up the courage to finally leave her bedroom.
She was dismayed to find Dream munching a late-night bowl of cereal in the kitchen as though nothing had happened. Heart hesitated, but then decided she’d be damned if she’d let Dream intimidate her in her own house when she, Heart, hadn’t done anything wrong.
Heart stalked into the kitchen and over to the sink, pouring a glass of water without looking at her sister.
Dream: “So did you and Loverboy kiss and make up?”
Heart: “I’m not speaking to you, Dream.”
Dream: “Well I have news for you, Genius. You just did.”
Heart: “Don’t you dare try to be funny, Dream! Don’t you dare! You are the liar here! A liar, and a rapist... and you’re damn lucky Eric doesn’t go to the authorities and tell them what you did!”
Dream: “Are you fucking serious? Let me tell you something, Heart. I don’t know what sob story Eric gave you in there, but if he was raped, then I’m goddamned Miss Mary Sunshine. Raped? Please...” She scoffed and went back to eating her cereal.
Heart: “He was coerced into having unwanted sex with you, Dream, and that would be classified as...”
Dream: “What makes you so sure it was unwanted sex, Heart? What makes you so fucking sure he didn’t want it to happen? Sure, he thought I was you at first, but he figured it out before it was all over. And you know what? I don’t think he really minded that much.”
Heart: “That’s not how it was, Dream!”
Dream: “Hey, he finished, didn’t he?”
Heart: “I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Plus he fucking begged me not to tell you what had happened. Why should he worry about you finding out if it was an honest mistake and he hadn’t actually enjoyed it? He wanted me, Heart. He’d always wanted me. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew it was me all along and he’s just pretending he thought it was you to get himself off the hook...”
“Dream, I’ve heard enough!”
“And now he’s going to have to pay the piper. But not you, Heart. Not you.”
“What...?”
“What are you talking about, Dream?”
Dream didn’t answer, but her sinister expression sent a chill down Heart’s spine. Suddenly, Dream scooped up her empty cereal bowl and tossed it in the sink, laughing as Heart took several quick steps backward away from her.
Dream: “What’s the matter, Heart? Did you think I was going to punch you?”
Heart: “I wouldn’t put it past you, Dream. You’ve already shown you’re capable of anything.”
Dream’s smile grew broader. “It might behoove you to fucking remember that.” She was laughing again as she left the room.
Wordlessly, Heart also turned and left the kitchen, walking slowly down the hall toward her bedroom. She began to push open the door, but stopped dead in her tracks when she realized there was no way she could sleep in that bed tonight.
Instead, she crept upstairs and curled up in her old bed... her hands covering the small, innocent life growing in her womb.
The small, innocent life Eric still didn’t know about.
Miserably, Heart cried herself to sleep.
******
Heart managed to avoid Dream for the next few weeks. It wasn’t difficult; Dream was still going out often and working rather long hours and Heart, exhausted from her pregnancy, slept most of the time Dream was home.
Heart also hadn’t seen Eric since that awful day Dream had taken advantage of him, although she had spoken to him many times on the telephone. Most of the conversations centered around Heart reassuring Eric she still loved him as much as always, and Eric reassuring Heart that he was already looking for a place for them to live when he graduated.
“There’s some really nice apartments that were just built on the other side of town, and I think I’m going to put a deposit on one for us, Heart. I know I’ve said I wanted to save some money and get a house first, but I’ve changed my mind on that. The sooner we can move you out, the better.”
“Because I have to tell you, Heart, I’m not ever going to set foot in that house again while Dream lives there. I’m seriously afraid of what I might do.”
“I don’t blame you, Eric. I wish I could leave and get one of those apartments myself, but it’s just not a good time right now.”
Eric: “It won’t be much longer Heart. Then we’ll be together the rest of our lives. I love you so much, Heart.”
Heart: “I love you too, Eric.”
Heart: “Um... Eric? I have something I need to tell you.”
Eric: “What? Oh my God, it’s not bad news, is it?”
Heart: “No! No, it’s not bad. It’s... um... “ Heart sighed and closed her eyes. “You know what? It’s nothing.”
Eric: “Are you sure?”
Heart: “Yes. I’m sure. I love you, Eric.”
“I love you too, Heart.”
Heart slowly hung up the phone and sighed. It wasn’t the first time she had begun to tell Eric about her pregnancy and stopped herself before she could make her lips form the words. It just didn’t feel right, telling him over the telephone. News that important should be told in person and at the right moment... not rushed on the phone as he was heading off to class or going to bed.
It won’t be much longer, Eric. Like you said, soon we’ll have the rest of our lives.
Heart decided she would take a trip to visit Eric at campus during the coming weekend to surprise him and tell him about the baby. She began to think of various creative ways to share the news, from wearing a shirt with an arrow pointing to her belly that said “baby on board” to gift-wrapping a pair of booties and giving them to Eric during dinner.
Unfortunately, Heart’s happy plans were shattered before that weekend ever came.
“...because I’m going to fucking have your baby, Eric!”
Heart gasped in shock. Surely Dream wasn’t telling Eric she was pregnant by him! Heart knew that was a lie! Even though it was true Dream had seduced Eric that one horrible day and tricked him into having sex with her, Heart knew her sister wasn’t pregnant.
Not only was Dream on a nearly infallable form of birth control... a copper IUD... Heart was also aware that Dream was currently on the third or fourth day of her period.
It wasn’t as though Heart took special pains to find out such things, but two young women living in the same house and using the same bathrooms could hardly keep that sort of information private.
Pregnant... but she... she can’t be...
Heart: “Dream, why did you tell Eric you’re pregnant? You know that’s a lie! You...”
“Oh, you heard that, did you? Well, get your fucking facts straight. I didn’t tell Eric I was pregnant. I told him I was going to have his baby. And I will have his baby, Heart.”
Heart: “Have... his baby? I don’t understand. If you’re not pregnant, then how can you have...”
Dream: “One of us is pregnant by him right now, Heart. Isn’t that true?”
Heart: “What... wait. How did you know that?”
Dream: “Let’s just say the next time you piss on something, make it a point to wrap it up better before you throw it away. I’ve known you were fucking knocked since before the test dried out.”
Heart: “You’ve known... all this time?”
Heart’s mind whirled. So Dream had known about the pregnancy when she had tricked Eric into having sex with her? Why would she do that? What possible motive could she have...
Dream: “So now, dear sister, it’s just a matter of which one of us Eric thinks got bit by his prick... and who gets to keep the baby in the end.”
Heart looked at her sister in confusion. “What are you talking about, Dream?”
Dream: “God, do I have to spell it out for you, Heart? You’re not fucking stupid. I mean, we called our uncle Daddy... it shouldn’t be much of a stretch to imagine your little ankle biter calling me Momma.”
“Oh, no. Oh, God... you want my baby? You want to take my baby from me? Dream! Are you insane?”
Continued in Part II