“Dr. Clairemont, did you hear that?” I turn around on the couch to look at her and freeze when a knife comes up under my throat.
“Don’t you see Elizabeth?” The knife nicks under my chin and I whimper at the sharp slice of pain. Dark shadows pass across the walls in the room. My body is paralyzed, arms and legs bound so I can’t move. I’m not on the couch anymore, I’m bound in a chair.
“Don’t you see Elizabeth!” Dr. Clairemont yells at me, her eyes changing, one morphing into blue, the other brown. I open my mouth to scream but all that comes out is a whoosh as the knife, stained with blood, punctures into my side over and over again.
“Lizzie!”
In front of me, the man straddles a girl and she whimpers. She looks like me. Her hazel eyes stare back at me. Her body is covered in horrific burn marks and red whelps.
I watch helplessly as he arches the knife up and plunges it into her prone, lifeless body.
Hailey! No! Stop!
Blood sprays everywhere, coating me in a crimson liquid.
I scream.
My eyes fly open and I’m gasping for breath. A loud thumping sound comes from my bedroom wall by the headboard of my bed. I hear a muffled angry voice from the other side. It’s my next door neighbor who’s yelling for me to shut the hell up or he’ll call the cops. Not this again. I rip the sheet from my drenched body and pound on the wall above the headboard.
“Fuck off, asshole!” I yell back. The thumping stops after a few more choice words from my unknown neighbor.
Holy shit. I slide down off the bed and sit on the carpeted floor, knees bent and folding into myself. I reach over to my bedside table to grab my phone but I’m shaking so bad I drop it. It takes me a few minutes but I’m able to turn it on and press call.
“Hello?”
“I need you.”
A streak of sunlight streaming in through the slats of the window blinds wakes me up because it hits me right across my closed eyelids. Groaning, I turn over but something hard and warm pulls me back. My eyes blink open to see liquid silver gazing back at me.
“Julien?”
“How are you feeling?” his sleep rumpled voice asks me.
Confused as to why he’s in my bed, I slowly answer, “Better.”
He reaches over and brushes my knotted hair from my face.
I jump when a deeper, more rumbling voice asks, “Do you need anything?” I shift to my back and turn to see golden amber eyes. Ryder. He is the warm, hard thing I was spooning with.
The hazy fog of early morning sleep quickly evaporates as two sets of eyes quietly watch me. Before my brain fully clicks in, Jayson walks into my bedroom holding a cup of coffee, its rich aroma permeating the air.
“Good morning, baby.”
I ease to sit up and accept the mug he hands me and scowl at him. “I’m not your baby,” I grumble and take a sip of the hot liquid.
Jayson cocks an eyebrow at my tone and sits down at the foot of my bed. “Still grumpy as ever in the morning before your coffee, I see.”
“Yeah, well, you look like shit.”
He laughs out loud this time. Jayson’s face is bruised on one side and the top of his right eye has a gash covered with a butterfly bandage.
The five sips of coffee help tremendously in waking me up. I recall the events of last night. During my post-nightmare freak-out, I somehow managed to call Ryder. Within ten minutes, all three of them arrived at my apartment in the middle of the night. I don’t know how long I cried but I do remember Ryder holding me. I remember Jayson lifting me and carrying me to my bed. I remember Ryder and Julien lying down next to me, then Jayson, all three of them surrounding me on every side. Their warmth was what eased my tears and calmed me enough that I eventually fell asleep.
Julien pushes up to recline against the headboard. “Any more nightmares?” He yawns and scratches his head causing his dark brown hair to stick up at the top.
“No.”
“Want to talk about it?” I slide my gaze over to Ryder. No one should look that good in the morning just after waking up.
