Dementophobia • tyler joseph •

eleven // we have romantic fantasies about what dying truly is

--Courtney's P.O.V--

"Courtney, honey, wake up!"

"Why isn't she waking up, Nathan?"

"I don't know! Ow, grab her legs, Tanner, she just kicked me!"

I was jolted awake by a sudden coldness. My head was submerged underwater and my mind was instantly brought back to my nightmare. I could tell that this was different though.

The water was not black like my dream and there was a light shining above me. The temperature of the water was warmer, but definitely not by much. I also felt three pairs of hands holding me down. I began to kick.

Suddenly my head broke the surface and oxygen filled my lungs, making me go into a coughing fit.

I didn't know where I was, but my hands gripped the sides of a bathtub as I pulled my upper body over the edge. Water dripped off of my hair and onto my face, which made it difficult to open my eyes to see what was going on around me. The coughing fit still hadn't passed. I felt someone slam their hand against my back, trying to get me to let loose any water that was still remaining in my lungs.

"Oh my God," were the first words that left my mouth the moment I could speak again.

I managed to rip my eyes open to see Nathan and Elijah staring at me as they were on their knees on the white tile. Tanner was kneeling in the bathtub next to me, concern written all over his features.

"Why am I in a bathtub?" I gasped out, my voice quite raspy.

I was soaking wet and freezing cold. The clothes I was in now were the only ones I had on me and there was no way I was going to show up at my house in the middle of the night looking like a drowned rat.

"I think you were having a nightmare, Courtney," Eli spoke up. "You were kicking and screaming and no matter how hard we tried, you refused to wake up."

"So the only way you thought of waking me up was by dumping me in a bathtub of freezing cold water? Why didn't you try to warm it up first? That would have been nice," I remarked, my teeth chattering.

"Okay," Tanner interrupted, "no more questions and answers until we get you out of this bathtub and into some warm clothes."

The water swished as Tanner got to his feet and carefully maneuvered his way out of the bathtub. He stumbled slightly as his bare feet hit the tile, making it very slippery.

He reached out a hand towards me. I quickly accepted it, expecting him just to help me balance as I stepped out of the bathtub on my own, but that wasn't the case. He picked me up bridal style and lowered my feet down on the floor before letting go of me completely.

"Here's some towels." Nathan handed us two towels each and I quickly began to dry off my hair. I couldn't stand it when my hair was dripping wet. My hair was always perfectly blow-dried.

Tanner pulled of his wet black T-shirt before wrapping a towel around his bare shoulders. "May I throw this in your dryer real quick?"

Eli nodded. "Courtney, do you want to put anything in the dryer or do you just want to go home?"

I definitely didn't what to go home, but I knew if I put all my clothes in Eli's dryer, he would offer me a pair of his pajamas. That wouldn't be a bad offer if his pajama pants didn't threaten to fall of me every time I moved. I really didn't want both my brothers and their best friend to see me partially naked.

"I just want to go home," I mumbled.

Tanner nodded. "I'll take you home as soon as we get our stuff together."