Radiant: sending out light; shining or glowing brightly
"She was like a lighthouse, radiant, in my never ending sea of pitch black waves"
Harry Styles is a world renowned cardiovascular surgeon who's never been in touch with his own heart.
Althea...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Althea Cooper
2nd February 2022
I've barely slept.
Harry on the other hand hasn't slept at all. Not even a wink. He thinks that I didn't notice but I'd have to be completely fucking oblivious not to notice that.
Thirty minutes after falling asleep I woke up in a startled sweat after having a nightmare about Jamie. When I sprung up out of bed, Harry was already wide awake flicking through his phone.
He was quick to jump to my aid. Immediately wrapping me in a bear hug, surrounding me in his warmth as I violently sobbed into his chest. I think he thought I was crying over the nightmare but in all honesty I was crying in frustration.
It took me months to get back to a somewhat normal mindset after Jamie the first time around and I wasn't prepared to have to start from scratch. I just wanted to be free from the noose that he tied around my neck all those years ago and every time I finally feel it starting to fray, he just comes along and replaces it with a brand new one. I can't fucking escape him and I don't want to go through this again.
I did manage to fall back to sleep for a little while longer but that didn't last long either when I was shaken awake this time by Harry. I was a little confused and disorientated at first but Harry softly explained that I was tossing and turning so violently in my sleep that he was scared that if he didn't wake me I was going to seriously injure myself.
I was having another nightmare. I knew that. I could remember every single, painful detail. Jamie. It was always Jamie but a version of him that even I barely recognised. In the nightmares though it was never me who he hurt, it was always the people I cared about. The people changed; sometimes it was Hadley or Eden but tonight it was Everly and then it was Harry.
Over and over again.
A constant loop of pain.
But the most excruciating part of it all is that I can't say for sure that it's all in my head. What if he actually had been hurting her and none of us had any idea?
The thought was haunting me.
I don't think either I or Harry were prepared to have that conversation with her in the morning. It would be my fault if he hurt her and I don't think that that is something I want to live with.
Once I settled down again I knew there was no chance that I was sleeping anymore tonight and I think Harry knew this too.
"Want to go downstairs, Buttercup? We can watch the sunrise from the garden? I don't think either of us are getting any more sleep tonight." Harry gently whispered against my head that was comfortably resting against his steady chest.
I tiredly nodded against his chest pulling back to stand but his grip around my waist stopped me as he hooked his firm arms under my legs and instead carried me down the stairs. Every so often he peered down with a soft frown as his eyes landed on what I'm assuming is a bruise forming along my cheekbone, each time peppering a soft kiss against my skin as if that was going to heal it.
