Shared Demons

CHAPTER 6

Keegan woke up early and headed to the kitchen to make herself some coffee. She had gone straight to bed after yesterday's terrifying dream. Vera had cleaned her bathroom and even offered to make her dinner but she didn't want to have anything. She didn't think she could stomach anything after that terrible nightmare.

She had heard those horrible nightmares for months after she ran away, but maybe being far from where it happened, made them fade. Now that she was back, she was sure they would return, she just didn't know how soon...and how bad they would hit her.

Maybe he had triggered it. Maybe spending that full day with Theo had stirred the demons to the surface of her mind. And now they lurked near...just behind her eyes.

But she would ignore them, the same way she did the first time.

Alone.

She would tell Theo but she wasn't sure if he also got them the same way she did.

She didn't want to involve him. They had promised not to talk about that particular night, so she wouldn't.

After a few sips of her hot coffee, she went to take a shower and finished the rest of it as she was getting ready.

Her phone buzzed and she looked at it. It was a text from a new number.

I heard my girl was in town.

She smiled, knowing who it was.

After a few hours, she was ringing the doorbell to the house she grew up in.

"I would expect my daughter to get in her own home without ringing the doorbell." A voice was heard from inside.

She opened the door to her father standing below the staircase.

"Hey, Dad..." It was almost a whisper.

"Sweetheart..." Her dad answered before she went straight into his arms, her head buried in his chest with little tears in her eyes.

After a long time of embracing each other and telling each other how much one had missed the other, they were finally seated in the backyard, her father having a bottle of beer and her, a cup of tea.

"It's in the middle of the day..." Keegan said to him with a smirk.

"Nah! Who's gonna get into my house and start counseling me over having a drink during the day?"

"Let me guess, you texted me because you knew she wasn't home and she wasn't coming back any time sooner?"

"I know how much the two of you can't stand each other in the same room."

"Well if she came to me as a mother and not as a nagging woman who is ready to judge me over every single move I make with my life, then maybe I would consider having her visit me more often."

Her father chuckled. "She's just worried..."

"Then she should have known better..."

"...about you, worrying about him the same way she worries about you?"

"Urgh! My mind went in a twist." Keegan sipped her tea.

Her dad's eyes shift to their backyard. "How's London? How's Larry and Vivian?"

Larry was her uncle and Vivian was his wife.

"They're both fine, trying to fix their broken marriage."

"He's still got that British accent he always wanted?" He teased.

Keegan chuckled. "Yah...a lot."

"I see he's offered you a little bit of it."