Change of Heart 2

Chapter 45

When she shot up from her bed her heart was pounding so hard that she thought the organ was a bomb that had just exploded in her chest. Fumbling in the dark she knocked over what sounded like the alarm clock and a glass before flicking the lamp on. In a hurry to get to him she stepped onto the broken glass ignoring the pain under her bare feet while shoving her glasses onto her face. Running into the room she flicked the lights on and hurried to his side.

"Hey, it's ok wake up." She tried to shake him awake but his skin was so hot that hers turned red from the impact. Sweat dripped off of his hair and nose and his clothes were soaked along with the bed underneath him.

"Leave, leave her alone please!" He shouted; eyes still closed shut. "She's innocent! She did nothing wrong! Leave her alone!"

"Hey, it's just a dream. Wake up!" She shouted now as well in hopes of waking him. "Ian wake up!"

"Don't do it! Don't do it please! Please!" He shouted and cried at the same time.

"Ian, wake up!" She screamed slapping him across his hot, wet face.

He shot up so fast that if she didn't move away fast enough she might have gotten knocked unconscious. His eyes were troubled; his mouth open, and he seemed to be struggling for air.

"It's ok. It wasn't real. It was just a dream." She said softly trying to soothe him.

His eyes blinked for the first time since he woke and an endless flow of water was the outcome. Without words he grabbed her into a tight hug and she wrapped her arms around him.

"Was it the same one?" She asked, rubbing his back gently.

His body trembled from the sobbing. "He killed them." He cried. "He killed them with my hands."

"What do you mean? Who's he?"

"There's someone in here with me, Maddy." He let go of her and looked her in the eye through her lenses. "From time to time he takes over. Those dreams aren't dreams. They're memories. Memories of the people he's killed while in control of my body."

"Ian, are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I'm not a killer!" He raised his voice.

"Ok, ok. I didn't say you were."

"When he's controlling me I see what's going on. It's like I'm trapped in my own body. I see when it happens. All the murders." He wiped his face. "I can't take it anymore, Maddy. I need this to end. I can't even sleep anymore."

"This is terrible. We have to find a way to get him out or whatever. You can't keep living like this." She said holding his hands.

"It's too late. I'm hopeless now." He said.

"No, look we'll figure this out ok."

"There's no we, Maddy. I have to leave." He let go of her hand.

"Ian, what are you talking about? You can't leave."

"It's too dangerous. I'm too dangerous."

"Ian I don't care! Look you cannot do this on your own and I am not leaving you. I won't let you leave either so cut the crap about leaving. You are not going anywhere. Do you understand?"

"Maddy I−

"No! I don't know what this thing is that's controlling you but I am gonna help you through this whether you want it or not!"

"If I don't want it then why try?"

"Because you need it, Ian. That's why."

"I don't wanna hurt you."