✧The Earthe of the Elves✧

41

Knox doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around me, letting me cry on his shoulder. I close my eyes, but all I see is the knife sticking out of Knox. That brings another nauseating wave of panic over me, and for a second I think I might have my first panic attack. But Knox holds me, whispering reassurances, until my throat opens up enough for me to get in a deep breath, and my limbs are slightly less shaky.

He sits me on my bed, the mattress squeaking as he sits next to me in the dark.

"What- what happened? Are you okay?" Knox asks quietly, running his thumb along my cheek to wipe away a tear. I sniff and wipe away the other tears, then press the palms of my hands to my eyes, taking a few deep breaths before looking back up at him.

"Did you wake me up?"

"Yes, it looked like you were crying in your sleep, then you started yelling or- screaming, it sounded like. So I woke you up."

"Thank you," I whisper. I don't know if I would've been able to handle any more of that nightmare. It still feels too real. I shiver.

"Bad dream?" Knox asks. When I nod, he says, "you don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to, but I'm here."

I nod, but the lead-like weight of it on my chest is pressing down hard enough that I figure I should tell him. Hopefully then it will seem less real.

"It was just as if I was waking up here. We were in this room, and there was a knock at the door and Cin came in and attacked us, and-" my voice wavers, more tears slipping out of my eyes. I wipe them away quickly, angry at myself (for some reason) for even crying in the first place, and take a deep breath. "And they killed you." My voice breaks at the end, and I feel like I'm going to lose it again. Knox's face is filled with such empathy, he must be realizing what it must have been like for me. What it would feel like if he had a dream like that about me.

His warm, comforting smell envelops me as he pulls me to his side again.

"It felt so real," I whisper, trying to shake the disturbing feeling from my bones.

"I'm sorry, I can't imagine," Knox says softly. But, judging from the thick emotion in his voice, I think he can. He pulls away and cups my face with his hands, giving me a soft smile that, with a flutter of butterflies, takes away some of that disturbed feeling.

"I'm fine, right?" He says quietly. I nod with a small smile. "And I'm not going anywhere."

I sniff again, nodding, trying to force every word into truth. Neither of us are going anywhere. Knox's hand slides around the back of my neck and he leans forward until our foreheads touch. I close my eyes, letting my tense muscles relax from his touch. It sparks a heat in my chest, one that lights up the darkness inside me.

"Feel better?" He asks when we pull away.

"Yeah, I think," I respond. When he asks if I need anything else, I shake my head. I don't want to be any more trouble.

Knox nods contentedly and stands, pulling the covers over my legs as I roll onto my side, flipping my tear stained pillow to the other side.

"Goodnight," Knox whispers in elvish, getting up to go back to his bed.

The minute I can't see or feel him, and being on my side like this, like I was when I woke in the dream, I feel the tendrils of it starting to reach out again inside me. Not the dream itself, exactly, but the feeling of it.

"Knox can you stay here?" The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them, and even though it sounds weird, I don't regret saying it. I can feel the panic sitting like a predator waiting for its prey inside me. The lights are all off now except the one in the bathroom, but I see the dark figure of Knox stop and turn, his figure silhouetted by the dim light.