Focused Dreams

Chapter 44

I couldn't breathe.

My mind had one focus. And one focus only. Lucinda D'Amrbosio.

But I still couldn't breathe, couldn't think straight threw the pounding of my heart, and the rapidly increasing panic in it. Breathe, I thought willing myself to obey, She is okay and she needs you calm and collected, letting out a shaky breath I managed to calm down.

Marco pulled the car to a stop just outside the poorly guarded warehouse. I jumped outside, the asphalt pounding beneath my feet as I took in everything. The warehouse was exactly as Lucy said, old, big, and smoking. The rust on its metal surface is evidence of its age, and the poorly done paint job makes the green darker and more blended with the forest at its back.

Wait. Smoking?

My heart did a new leap, sending shockwaves to my brain and making my feet run faster. Marco and Ivy distance behind me, but I couldn't focus on that, not when my brain kept chanting, Lucy Lucy LucyLucyLucy...

The giant rusty door was so close that I could feel myself getting ready to stop any threat. My eyesight was colored red, and ready to fight whatever battle, I had one focus and one focus only, which is why I would have almost missed them, if my mother didn't jump right in front of me, shouting something. It took a while for my adrenaline-ridden gaze to focus on her, and for my ears to listen to her words instead of searching for someone else's.

'Damien! Damien sweetie,' my mother grasped my shoulders and shook me, 'We're right here, we're safe.' She pulled me into her, hugging me. And that's when I noticed the broken tilt of her voice and the harsh gulps of air. My mother was crying. My mother is crying while I'm focused on something else, someone else.

I brought my hands up to her scalp, shakily brushing my finger through hers as my mind just kept repeating her name, Lucy LucyLucyLucyLucy.

Calming my breath I managed to focus on her, on my dad and his worried eyes, and set jawline right behind her, 'Are you both alright?' I asked pulling away from my mother just enough so I could see both their faces. And see every evidence of what happened to them. Bruises marred my dad's face, cuts, and dirt as well. But my mother... she was uninjured, dirty yes, but otherwise fine.

They must have noticed me assessing them because mom turned and pulled dad close to her, making my heart squeeze with the familiarity in the gesture, 'He took most of the beatings. My hero.' My mom whispered, and the love in my father's eyes then was like a punch to the gut. LucyLucy Luc Luc Luc.

'You guys need to get somewhere safe,' I said ushering them into Ivy's awaiting arms, reflex telling me that both she and Marco are by my side. And true to the circumstance they were, 'Check on the baby as quickly as you can and get every single one of those cuts bandaged.'

All of them looked at me then, a leader giving orders, but also a human worried for his family. Because that is what they are, family.

That familiar pang of urgency took my heart, and I turned ready to sprint until a hand grasped mine. 'You don't have to do this.' I turned to my dad's set features, 'Your mother will worry, come with us. She has her people, and your mission is done.'

I straightened, feeling every last word pool in my mouth as I said to him, 'She is everything to me. I will not live until she does, I will not breathe until she does. I am her people, and she has become so much more than my mission.'

Understanding flooded my dad's features then. Understanding, but not acceptance, and the look on his face would have worried me, would have had me explaining everything to him, how much I love her and cherish her, and how she is so much more than the façade she puts on daily.