Close Your Eyes: Book Two

Chapter Sixteen

Just having her next to me is enough. I was so stressed about coming out here and staying with my parents because neither one of us would have our cars so we wouldn't be able to see each other.

Now we sleep in the same bed, but the problem is, Savannah has been in the bedroom for an hour and a half.

That's not enough attention for me. I miss her.

I say goodnight to everyone and make my way down the hall.

I miss her smile and her sweet face and her laugh and her voice and her soft skin.

I open the bedroom door and close it behind me, and then I look towards Savannah and see her thrashing around.

She's having a nightmare.

I walk over to her and shake her shoulder hard. Not hard enough to hurt her, but hard enough to wake her up.

I've tried every gentle way to wake her before and it doesn't work.

She bolts upright and I feel my heart ache in pain as she gasps and looks around the room.

Every time she wakes up from a nightmare, she thinks she's back there.

I sit down on the mattress and she scoots away from me.

"Savannah," I murmur, "It's okay, okay?"

I hear her sniffle in the darkness, so I reach over and turn on the lamp.

She blinks rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the light, and then she looks at me.

Her throat moves like she's about to start crying, and the pain.

The pain on her face makes me feel like I'm being punched in the stomach.

She runs her fingers through her hair and tugs at it and she looks down and her face screws up like she's about to lose it.

I crawl across the mattress.

"Come here." I murmur, pulling her into my arms.

She curls up in my lap, sitting sideways like I imagine a child would, and buries her face in my shirt.

I feel my heart shatter as I cradle her in my arms, planting small kisses on her temple.

"It's okay." I whisper into her hair. "You're safe here. You're safe."

"I was running." She whimpers, and my heart freezes, because never has she told me about her nightmares.

I've been here for them before and I just hugged her because all she was was a friend, but she never told me anything about them.

"I was running down the street to get away and he was right behind me." She whimpers. "And I felt him grab my ankle and I fell down and my chin smacked against the concrete and he started dragging me and it was cold. It w-was so cold. My shirt ripped from the concrete and I was screaming so loud, trying to g-get somebody to hear me, but nobody did." She starts crying harder. "And then he dragged me back into the house a-and started kicking me and he reset the alarm and threw me down into the basement and I c-couldn't breathe! I couldn't move! A-and then I woke up."

I feel my jaw clenching and unclenching and she fists my shirt in her hands.

I shift on the bed with her in my lap and turn off the light, and I just...

I just hold her.

I hold her until she stops shaking. I hold her until her sniffles are gone. I just hold her.

My legs start falling asleep, but I don't move, and after what feels like an eternity, she shifts in my arms and slides off my lap, sitting up in front of me.