unconditional (BOOK #2) [TO BE PUBLISHED]

Chapter 11

A/N: not edited and it is short, but something came up so I'll add another chapter later... 

Chapter 11 (Chelsea POV)

‘We will try to hold off as much as we can.’

‘Build and strengthen the bond between mates.’

‘Compassion and empathy was my stipulation on my gift to you.’

‘You act with both your head and your heart.’

‘For every life he has taken, he has asked for forgiveness.’

‘Count! Don’t let me be the one.’

‘Your Gabriel is a good man.’

‘Because I’m a bad girl.’ 

'You need to go back honey.'

.

.

No sound, no light. No Leo. Driving. Healing. Blackness. My mind was fighting itself, neither relenting. The struggle keeping me astray, I concentrate, and reach out to someone. An anchor. I search for a familiar scent. I swathed in an unfamiliar scent but the words spoken pulled at me so I reach for the words instead.

“Wake up sweetheart… dearie, you need to open your eyes… listen to my voice…” I’m reaching, trying to grasp the words that are now my life preserver. I flex my mind out; I need to hold on to the words. The words will save me from the dark nothingness.

“You are safe child… just open your eyes dearie, one look… you don’t have to fight it anymore… I’ve got you safe in my arms…” The voice continued. My tense muscles that I was holding in, fighting myself with, couldn’t be relaxed but my eyes were blinking. I woke up with a start, still holding myself rigidly but relieved I wasn’t where I thought I was.

But it was more than that, it was more than just the relief you experience when something good happens. I tensed further when I saw Greta, but it only lasted for a moment, because suddenly I was wracked with pain, sadness, and elation. Sorrow, washed over me, and I broke, bursting into tears. 

.

.

This was new, and not new shoes new or new dress 'new,' this was out of my comfort zone new and notwithstanding, it brought comfort and me relaxed. Eased my pain as I clung to this stranger. Was this, her being a stranger, what made it easier? That besides her name I knew less than a handful of things about her? I don’t know. How she knew I was having a nightmare is besides me… one minute I was face down face… the next she pulling me from the horrors of my mind.

Had I been screaming? I’m fairly sure I hadn’t because I didn't scream when I had this reoccurring nightmare. What was different? Why had the dam broken? When I woke up and searched my surroundings, the tears of past pain and present joy flowed. The only difference is that… Greta was here holding me, pulling from it. I didn’t wake up on my own; I never wake up on my own. It goes on, until it doesn’t anymore. So the difference, Greta was here offering me comfort after saving me, and I seized it gratefully.

.

.

I was disoriented and crying, but not just for the hell of it, in this moment I was crying because of emotional and mental agony. Even my body ached; it always did after one of these episodes, because instead of being able to thrash around, this was worse; I did the opposite. Bunker down and experience it. Hold myself as physically tight and stiff as possible.