My Life My Rules

Chapter 41: The Monster in the Dark

Waking up to the sound of crying, Nina sat up in her bed looking concerned as her hazy vision started to slowly clear up. Her glance aimed itself down towards her sleeping wife. And even in her sleep, Nina could tell last nights message was still playing on in her dreams by the furious look on Lain's face.

Kissing her wife's head, she watched as Lain eased up slightly while her nightmarish reality continued to creep into her slumber.

Letting Lain sleep, Nina finally got up and followed the sound of the little girl crying.

Walking into Lauren's room, Nina walked over quickly to the girl who was sat up on her bed with her knees to her chest as she was exploding with tears. "Hey baby." She called picking the girl up and cradling her in her arms.

Hiding her wet face into Nina's chest, Lauren gripped onto the hem of her soft shirt tightly. While her cries were muffled Nina spotted the girls pacifier lost to her sea of blanket. Grabbing it, she placed it back into the girls mouth as she began to bounce the scared little girl.

"Did you have a bad dream?" She asked while Lauren found her rhythm as she sucked on the pacifier before nodding in response.

"Aw sweet girl, I'm sorry you had a nightmare. Want to tell mama what it was about?" Nina asked as she fought back a yawn of her own.

While she didn't want to show it, she was beyond exhausted this morning. With everything going on her entire brain felt like it was on autopilot. Something she was thankful for because she had no idea how she was going to get through her days without it.

But watching as Lauren shook her head, the girl mumbled around the object in her mouth, "scary monster." She said as her body trembled in Nina's hold.

"Well don't you worry. Mama's here to scare all those mean monsters away." Nina assured as she pressed her cheek against the little girls while she hugged her dearly.

Cradling Lauren until her shaking stopped Nina looked at the clock in her room seeing it was only a little after midnight. She sighed as her mind already began to think about tomorrow. Even the slightest thought of it made her head hurt more as her nose scrunched up in response.

Patting the woman's stomach lightly, Lauren wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked up at Nina with big curious eyes. The look on the woman's face was a dead giveaway about something off happening, but she just smiled pushing the thought to the back of her mind.

"Why don't we try getting you to sleep again?" She switched topics as she bent down to place Lauren back in her bed.

But feeling the woman's grip on her loosening, the frightened girl frantically shook her head gripping onto the woman tighter as she hid her face back into Nina's chest.

"No!" Her plead was extremely muffled. "Don't wanna!"

Kissing the girls nose assuringly Nina looked at Lauren's big eyes as she smiled sweetly. "Honey it's still time for you to be asleep. We wouldn't want you to be up all night and then not have enough energy to play tomorrow, now would we?" Nina asked as she tried to tuck the little girl in again.

But upon feeling Nina's grip easing up yet again on her small body, Lauren climbed herself up onto Nina's hip as she wrapped her arms around the woman's head not ready to give up her safety.

Shaking her head as if she knew the small girl wasn't going to sleep alone anytime soon, Nina carefully stood as she repositioned Lauren on her hip so they were both comfortable. "Alright baby. Then let's go somewhere that we can both sleep."

Taking the girl out of her room, Nina brought Lauren back into the room where her sleeping wife was.

"You can sleep with mommy and I tonight." She laid the girl down besides Lain who looked to be even further into her nightmare than before.