Venus woke, screaming in fear of her graphic nightmare. A memory of the past haunting her brain. It was the first time she ever had a dream like this in her 14 years alive. She didn't know why this was happening to her but at this point she didn't care, she just wanted it to stop and for her to feel safe again. Just then, Matt happened to arrive at the door to see how she was.
He heard her cries and let himself in with only one thought: to make sure she wasn't hurt. She had entrusted him a key so that if something urgent happened, he could get in quickly or so that he could stay the night because his parents kicked him out again. He ran upstairs, taking two steps a time, to her room where the sounds were coming from. She was lying on her bed, paralysed by her subconscious visions plaguing her mind over and over, like a movie of her torment playing on repeat.
He walked over to her, taking her shaking hand in his. Venus felt this and, using all the strength she had, squeezed. After this act, she regained control over her body, willing it to calm again, like it was when she went to sleep. Matt somehow always made her feel safe, even in the hardest of situations. She could never let him in on this, however, because she wouldn't be able to without giving away her crush on him. He was 19, she 14, it made things harder and they were judged by most people on the street, but they didn't care because he was her best friend, and her his. She managed to not let her feelings halt their ever-growing friendship. Little did she know, Matt had the same feelings towards her, and was struggling with the same issues. Even with all her knowledge and genius, she was always ignorant to the way he felt towards her. He had never been with another girl because of her, not because she stopped him, but because none of them could compare to her in his eyes.
He had been staying at hers the past 3 months, making sure she recovered from what happened, the ordeal she went through last year. They never uttered a word about what happened to try and forget it ever happened but that was never easy when something of that magnitude happens in your life. The first night he left her alone, the effect of what happened came through on her psyche, thrusting her into a world of pain, mental pain that came through in the form of physical torture in her mind by the sadist that is her memory. She figured out how Matt stopped all that offloading on her almost immediately after having her consciousness fully restored. When , refusing to let go despite knowing he would never leave her in this state. This was a benefit of having a close relationship for just over 6 years, they knew how each other felt through a psychic connection built up by years of getting familiar with each other's minds.
He would never hurt her, and because of this she would always trust him to make her feel happy and protected, or so she thought then...
