Söbriety • Mötley Crüe •

13. Caught

Warnings: Mentions of Previous Drug Use, Mentions of Abuse & Rape

Nikki's POV

I wake up on the floor with a sharp pain in my side, hearing a loud voice grabbing me from my sleep. I look around the room and notice it's still dark, so it has to be in the middle of the night.

Shit, I fell asleep. Who the fuck is yelling?

"No! No! No! Don't touch me! Don't touch me! Go away!" Ryan is thrashing around the bed and I put my hand around the pain in my side and lift off the ground, peeking over the quilt. She must be having a nightmare.

She kicked me off the bed.

"Ryan! Ryan! It's okay! Nobody's here! It's just me!" I whisper yell, trying to grab her arm, but she promptly punches me in the face and I fall back onto the floor.

Fuck, that hurt. If I had known I was gonna get beat up I would've slept in my own room.

She continues to scream and thrash, and I look at the door, hearing voices outside of it. Shit. I wiggle under the bed in hopes that no one will see me, my nose bleeding through my fingers and onto the floor.

Two nurses swing the door open and run to the bed to see what's wrong with Ryan.

"What do we do? Wake her up!"

"No! You can't wake someone up from a night terror, she'll freak out!"

"Well, what the fuck do we do?!"

"I don't know!"

They stand over the bed, staring at her while she screams and moves around like a worm digging a hole.

"Leave, I'll handle it." Dr. Levinsky walks through the door, waving her hands for them to leave.

"What are you doing here? Your shift doesn't start until eight." One of the nurse questions her.

"I stayed in the overnight room. I was scared this would happen after our session yesterday. She has night terrors. I'll handle it, just go make sure she didn't wake up the whole hallway." The nurses scurry out of the room and Dr. Levinsky sits on the bed, her feet inches away from my side, and wraps her arms around Ryan.

"Ryan, it's time to wake up, honey. You're having a night terror." Ryan's body slowly stops thrashing, but she's still yelling. Dr. Levinsky runs her hand through Ryan's hair. "Ryan, wake up. It's okay. You're safe. It's just me, Dr. Levinsky. You're alright. No one is gonna hurt you. I promise."

The room goes quiet until I hear coughing, signaling Ryan's waking up.

"W-what happened?" Ryan's voice is groggy and confused.

"You had a night terror. It's normal after rehashing experiences of sexual assault. Just lay down and take a breath. The four second rule, remember?"

Sexual assault?

"I'm sorry." Ryan whispers, I can tell she's embarrassed.

"It's okay, it just means your brain is processing the trauma, which is a good thing. It's only 4 AM. Do you want to try to go back to sleep? I'll be right down the hallway if you need anything."

I guess Ryan nodded, because Dr. Levinsky goes to get off the bed, but abruptly stops.

"Ryan, why is there blood on your floor?"

Fuck! I look around the floor, trying to see if there's anywhere else I can hide, but I know there's not. Dr. Levinsky's head pops out from the top of the bed and she sighs. I smile.