Eternal Chosen

1 A Wish of Sweet Dreams

"So you don't like me?" I ask timidly on the verge of tears.

"Me? Like you? HA! I was just using you to make my ex-girlfriend jealous and she wants me back now so I don't need you anymore." I slide my gaze to look up at his chest and a few tears spill.

"What?" I croak out.

"Oh Love," He says the sneer and sarcasm evident in his voice. "I thought you were a smart one." he lifts my chin with his hand, our eyes meet, and I see his menacing smile. "Looks like I bested the best." He says with a smirk. He shoves me out of his open doorway, and slams his door shut before my back can even hit the floor. I sit there, silently for... I don't know how long. It could have been minutes, hours or days. All I know is that it was long enough to make at least one person worry because I could eventually feel the vibration of my phone in the pocket of my dress over and over again. When the vibrations stop I hear the sound of tires on gravel, soon I feel a familiar warmth, and I'm not the floor anymore. Then, I'm in a car, my best friend Alex's to be precise. I hear and feel the car door to my right close and then hear the same further to my left.

"I'll ask you about what happened later, but right now I need to get you home because everyone is worried about you and you need to get some sleep." She informs me her voice laced with genuine concern.

'If we go back, especially like this, they'll only laugh and make fun of us.' Jack worries.

"There's no one there who cares about us." I whisper just above the silence.

"I'm not talking about that house you have to live in, with those things that don't even treat you like a human being." She says through clenched teeth "No, I'm talking about my house, our house, where we all care about and love you because we're family."

'Thank goodness,' Jack sighs in relief. 'I was going to have to fight with that bastard again if he got close to you again.'

"Thank you," I say at a whisper once again. "It wouldn't have turned out well." She nods and we drive the rest of the way to her, our, house in silence. After 35 minutes, or so, we get to the house, Alex shuts off the car, opens her door, gets out and closes it. She makes her way quickly to my side of the car, opens my door, picks me up again, and closes the door with her foot when we're both out.

'If you had let me out earlier,' Jack whispers. 'I would have killed him.'

'I know, that's why I blocked you out completely.' I explain. Alex rings her own doorbell with her elbow because she's carrying me bridal style and has no free hands. She has to wait almost a whole minute until the door opens. Her mom Carly opens the door.

"Oh Alexandra good, you're back, now you can explain why you left in such hurr-" She cuts herself off when she sees me in Alex's arms. "Never mind, come in. If either of them sees her they'll raise Hell." She pushes the door open the rest of the way with her back and leans out of the way as Alex brings me into the house. Alex sits on the living room couch with me on her lap, her arms wrap around my waist protectively and her face in my hair with probably just her eyes showing above my head. Her mom sits across from us and waits quietly for a minute.

"I would ground you for leaving the house without warning and ignoring your mother and I ," Carly sighs, "but I know now that you didn't do it without a good reason or the best intentions." She leans forward, pats me on the knee, squeezes it gently and lets it go leaning back into her chair across from us. She looks slightly above my head, I know then she's talking to Alex. "Take her upstairs, both of you need sleep, I'll get the details from you tomorrow while she's washing up or eating." I feel Alex nod against my head, then she picks me up again, and we make our way to her room after going up the stairs. She pushes open her, already ajar, door and we enter her room. She uses her elbow to turn on the light as she carries me bridal style to her bed , but stops midway as if she's just noticed something.

"Do you want me to help you with your dress?" she asks, I nod, and she sets me down on my feet. "Okay turn around." I turn my back to her. "Are you wearing a bra underneath?" She asks knowing how shy I am about my body.

"No." I whisper and shake my head once.

"Alright let me grab you one of my old sports bras, a T-shirt, and some sleeping pants, then I'll unzip you and turn around so you can change." She explains.

"Okay." I nod. I hear her step from behind me and walk to a drawer even further in that direction. She rummages through her clothes until she finds what she's looking for, walks until she's behind me again and tosses the clothes she's going to let me borrow past my right and onto her bed, which is in front of me.

"Hold onto the front so it'll stay up after I've unzipped it and I'll tell you when I've turned around so you can change." I nod.

"Okay." I reply and grip the sweetheart bodice of the long teal dress I was supposed to wear to prom so that it stays flush against my chest. I feel and hear her unzip my dress and gasp as the chilled air hits the skin of my now bare back.

"Alright." She signals after I hear her shuffle 180 degrees. I drop the dress and quickly get dressed barely letting another gasp pass my lips when the the cool air touches my now exposed chest. I turn around, step back, and sit on her bed when I'm done.

"I'm done." I signal her and she turns around to face me again, her eyes sweep over me once, she chuckles and then kneels, settling in front of me.

"How did you manage to keep your shoes on?" She asks her smile caring and laced with a slight amusement. She unstraps my right heel, slides it off and tosses it, without looking, toward her closet, it lands in her shoe bin, and soon my left heel follows. "Are you ready for bed?" She asks and I nod scooting the rest of my body onto the bed and toward the wall before turning my head and facing her. She still hasn't gotten into bed, so I pat the part of the bed next to me that's in her direction. She smiles, makes her way onto the bed, lays down as close as possible, and puts her arms around me pulling as flush against her as she can and I place my head in the crook of her neck.

"Good night." I tell her.

"Night Jame, sweet dreams." She replies softly and I'm out like a light. Unfortunately, her blessing of good dreams is unheard by the entity(s) that control my fate and I'm plagued by a nightmare. It's what happened on the worst day of my life, but when it plagues my mind it plays on a loop until I cry and shake violently and wake up gasping for breath, sometimes screaming.