"Adelaide!" The sheer terror coursing throughout the veins of the person screaming my name could be felt in the air around me. My sight was limited, all I could see was fog and the dark night that hung lowly over my cowering figure. My eyes searched frantically through the vast landscape for the source of the screaming that had seized to stop.
My movements were restricted, but I couldn't pinpoint where. All I knew was that pain was striking through my senses, the physical pain was ghastly, but the mental pain was indescribable. I wasn't sure why I was feeling it, but it were if I was losing something, or someone, slowing watching them fade from my reach and not being able to do anything about it due to my lack of strength.
Guns shots. They were the next thing I heard, searing through the night, the sound hit my nerves as if it were a bullet itself. Screams of pure agony battled for attention, the two sounds muffled together as I found myself unhurriedly dripping away.
"Adelaide!" It was the same frantic voice and it was all I could focus on amidst the pounding gunfire. Everything else just faded to silence as my ears pricked up trying to locate the voice, the voice I so desperately needed to hear again. There was a long pause, free from any bullets knifing the air, any frantic screams, just the pure echo of my breath and thud of my heartbeat. I remember wanting to shout their name back, it was on the tip of my tongue but I couldn't bring myself to say it.
I had no strength left as I lay crimpled in a heap on the floor, at least I didn't until I heard my name one last time.
"Adds!" The shriek was followed by one final gunshot and then complete silence. Nothing at all could be heard this time. I waited and waited until I pulled myself from the freezing concrete, but I was still unable to see anything around me.
The scream that screeched itself from my lips remained unheard by the sleeping town I lay in. The pain in my head subsided as the emotional pain demanded too much attention for me to be able to focus on both. Tears overflowed out my eyes and down my cheeks, my tear ducks being unable to control them at a steady rate as I collapsed to the floor once more, taking everything down with me, everything including my memory of him.
I woke up with a scream, shaking uncontrollably with tears much like the ones in my dream racing down my face. The memory of my dream was evident in my mind, the same voice screaming my name repeatedly as if they were in the room with me. I still felt like I was reliving it, with flashes of the images I had witnessed continually crossing my mind.
I hadn't felt fear like that in a long time. It was the pure fear. The fear that suffocates you, not letting you breathe, not even for a moment because even if it did, you had already lost the ability to control any part of your body under the sheer terror choking every inch of your existence.
My mind was too consumed with the reminiscence of the nightmare for me to fully regain consciousness. But when I did, I found myself consumed in someone's arms, rocking me back and forth as I sat perched on their lap. The tears still rolled down, but instead they soaked into the soft cotton of their t-shirt.
I couldn't stop the shaking but with every second I spent encased in their hold, I calmed a little more. Their voice soothed my senses and gave me the release I needed.
"Shh, it's okay. You're going to be okay. I'm here, it's okay, you're going to be okay."
As they continued cradling me, comforting me and gently rubbing their hand up and down my back, I closed my eyes once again, just relaxing and prolonging the silence, which was for once comforting. My skin was covered in goose bumps, not from the cold feeling currently leaving me, but from the shock my body was feeling for actually being at peace.
"Are you okay?" I nodded my head gently in response to their question, my voice trapped in my throat. I may have not been completely okay, but I knew I would be with the continuation of their comfort.
My tears had settled down as I sat sniffling, hugging the body encasing me tight, but only then did it hit me who's body I was enclosed in when they spoke again and it triggered a nerve inside that I didn't even know I possessed.
"Shh, it's okay, look you're fine." Luke.
