Control Me

14

Akeno 24,

She whimpers in her sleep.

I noticed this my fifth night here and of those five days she's only slept peacefully once.

It bothers me.

I don't know what the reason could be behind it and I know she won't tell me if I ask. Emiko's still insistent on ignoring me, avoiding me.

I want to get out of bed and comfort her. She clearly has bad dreams often and I know all too well how that feels. I don't go inside her room but I do sit outside of her door and listen. It is absolute torture because there's nothing I can do. Nothing in my life has ever compared to the feeling I get in my chest at the sounds of her quiet cries.

I want to make them go away, I think about kissing the tears from her cheeks as her eyes open and in search of tranquility. I wanted those ocean blue eyes to soften like they used to, for the tears to dry and the bad dreams to go away.

I know it won't happen anytime soon, I lost her trust. I lied to her and now she wants nothing to do with me. She barely lets me speak to her, I'm not allowed to touch her anymore and I have to hold back, even if my hand twitches whenever I get too close to her.

Her perfume smells the same and I enjoy the scent flowing from underneath her door as I find myself restless like I do every night. I get four to five hours of sleep and that was if I was lucky. So I spend the night in thought, while I listen to Emiko sleep. She doesn't know that I've been doing this, I suspect she might push me further away if she finds out.

I run my fingers through the curly mess atop my head then down the nape of my neck. My back rests against the wood door as Aja paces the floor in front of me. I brush my fingers through her coat, remembering the exact moment I had found her.

She was a puppy, no older than four months, had been covered in bugs, debris and dirt in an abandoned city. I had only been there because of a job me and Jamie had. We were supposed to be looking for someone. They had crossed someone pretty well known outside of Unity and they wanted him dead. My job was to bring back his head.

Instead of bringing back a body, I returned home with a puppy cuddled in my arms and soundlessly sleeping. She had been by my side ever since, that was two years ago.

Aja's tail wags before she drops to the floor next to me, the spiked collar she wears knocks against the wood floors softly. I chuckle, relaxing in my spot before the sounds coming from Emiko's room flood my ears.

There's a loud swipe sound, a deep sigh and then the pads of her feet hit the floor. I scoot until my back meets the creme colored wall. Her door swings open moments later where she finds me and Aja on the floor in front of her bedroom.

"Akeno?" Emiko questions, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She whispers my name as though she'll wake someone up in the empty house. As if it isn't just the two of us alone.

"Yeah," I meet her eyes in the middle as she stares at me confused.

"What are you doing outside of my bedroom?" She stares at me quizzically. "On the floor."

"I couldn't sleep." I tell her truthfully.

Emiko nods slowly, "me too."

"Do you always have nightmares?"

She looks away like she wants to hide something from me. "Was I loud?"

"No."

"Ok." Its quiet for a second and I'm still waiting on her to answer my question. Her lips part like she's going to answer until her jaw snaps shut to think on her answer. "I get them sometimes, it's no big deal." She brushes it off.