Our Rebellion *Old Version*

Chapter 31

Damian POV

When I got back to the shelter, it was stoic. No one was talking. Most kids were in their rooms, not wanting to come out. Caleb was stressing, probably on the verge of pulling his hair out.

"I just wish that they would talk to me! This place is for them to feel safe, not to hide away and shut people out!" He said loudly as he was waving his arms around. We were in his room, me sitting in his bed, and him pacing back and forth. It was slightly starting to worry me.

"Caleb, calm down. They just went through a pretty scary thing an hour ago, it's natural that they're not going to talk. Just give them time to ponder about it. I've seen how much they respect you and care about you, so I know that they definitely will come to you whenever they deem fit. Take a breath." He fell on the bed next to me, spreading his arms above his head and looking up at the ceiling.

"What would I do if you weren't here?"

"Worry into hysteria."

A small chuckle was let out and I felt a hand on my arm. "Come here." I laid down next to him, so our foreheads were touching. I had my arms curled up by my chest, and he had his arm around my waist.

"I'm really glad you were here with me."

"I am too. But, I just...I feel like if Jude and I weren't here in the first place, then this would never have happened. I mean, he is our Dad; he was here primarily for us."

"Damian. This wasn't your fault. Neither was it Jude. Any one of these kids' parents could have come; it's happened before, just not to this extreme. Please do not think that it's your fault. Okay?"

I let out a sigh and closed my eyes. "Okay."

"Are you tired?"

"Of bullshit? Yes."

This made him laugh. "Here. You can take the bed, I'll take the floor." This made me shoot my eyelids open with confusion.

"What do you mean you'll 'take the floor'? You can sleep with me in the bed!"

"Are you sure?"

"Caleb, I'm pretty sure that if you didn't sleep with me in the bed, I wouldn't be able to sleep period. Please?"

"Okay." He got up to take his shirt and pants off, throwing them into the hamper across the room. He threw a pair of sweatpants at me, and began to crawl under the sheets. Oh my fuck—he's sleeping in his boxers!

It didn't take me long to take my shirt and pants off and put the sweatpants on before I did the same thing. Caleb rolled over to turn the light off when I was comfortable, rolling back over to lay his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to his warm body. It was exactly what I wanted.

***

*Triggering to some people pertaining violence and abuse. You know the drill*

The house was empty, as far as I could tell. It looked different, like I was looking through it from the glass of water; all foggy and disoriented. The rooms were zooming around me, like I was running through them without moving a muscle. That's when I started to hear banging, and noticed two little children playing on top of the stairs.

I was looking up fondly at the children, who were playing with action figures, making them marry each other. Suddenly, I saw a demon looking thing; something that I would guess was what was plaguing Jude's dreams based on the description.

It took one of the children in its arms and yeeted him down the stairs—literally. It threw the little boy over its head and he landed with the loudest thud I've ever heard in my life, along with an ear-splitting crack of bones.

I tried to run over to the little boy, who was wailing in anguish at this point, but my legs wouldn't move.
The thing was slowly making his easy downstairs, holding the other boy by its head, digging its finger nails into the little boys' flesh.

"Hey, asshole! Leave the kid alone!" It's head turned to me; reminding me of a cross between the demigorgan and a dementor. It put the second kid down on the steps gently, making him run to the injured boy. It reminded me a lot of me and Jude.

"And who's gonna make me?" The voice made me fall backwards. It was her. It was her voice, the fucking thing was her! My head was racing at a mile per minute, trying to calm my body down. I kept trying to make a move to slap my face, but my dream sled wouldn't let me. I had no control over my body.

As suddenly as the nightmare started, my eyes flung open. It took me a while to get a look at my surroundings, considering there was no lights on and there was some weird shadows that were coming in from the lights in the hallways. I tried to roll over to Caleb, to see if he was awake, but I couldn't. I was stuck there, like I was glued in place.

"Having trouble, Dear?" My eyes tried to move to where I heard the sound, but I couldn't see anything. If I was right, it had come from directly behind me; where Caleb was sleeping.

I tried to choke out words, but nothing came out. I wasn't even able to move my lips up and down; same with my tongue. I wasn't able to make coherent words at all. I don't even think I could make any noise.

It was then when I started to feel the burning hot hand around my throat, and the lady that it belonged to straddling my hips. She had buggy eyes and crazy hair, some teeth missing, and some of her skin was peeling off.

"Did you miss me, sugar?" I couldn't do or say anything; I was putting all my energy into just trying to scream. I tried to say 'go away'. I tried. I really did. But I just couldn't.

The hand around my throat was burning to a large intensity now, like someone had wrapped hot metal around it. It was unbearable.

And as suddenly as I had woken up, the loudest noise that I could possibly make in that situation; which was probably just a quiet shout; was emitted from my throat. Caleb lurched up, looking around the room, trying to find the cause, before his eyes landed on my body.

"Thank god, I'm safe now." I thought as he leaned back over to me.

"You're okay Damian, go back to sleep." No! I can't! Wake me up! Wake me up right now!
*Okay, it's over. Basically he just had a really bad nightmare that led to sleep paralysis.*
The next thing that happened shocked me. "Light....light...on..." It was the only thing that I was able to get out of my mouth. He flipped over on the bed to turn the lamp on, which fully woke me, making the lady and the heat disappear. My whole body spasmed for a moment as I was able to gain full mobility back. Caleb was looking at me with confusion. My heart rate and the ability to breathe kept going up and up. Soon I was having a full on panic attack, but just for about thirty seconds. So, I guess not a 'full on panic attack'.

"Damian? Damian are you okay?"

"C-Caleb. I h-had..." I let out a shaky breathe as my breathing was coming back down to normal. "I think I just h-had s-sleep paralysis."

"Damian, you're okay now," He shuffled closer to me and took me in his arms, nuzzling me closely to his chest. "You're safe. I'm right here."

"I c-can't g-go back to sleep, I-it's gonna happen a-ag-again!" My arms were wrapping around his torso, hugging as hard as I could, holding on for dear life.

"I'll stay up with you as long as you need. You don't have to worry about that happening again. I'm right here. Do you want to listen to anything to calm you down?"

"Your v-voice."

He let out a little chuckle as he lightly kissed my forehead. "Okay, baby. Let me grab my phone so I can read you something, okay?" I let up on the grip of him, but only a little bit, so he could reach over to the nightstand and grabs his phone. He pulled open his Kindle app and showed me all the books. A collection of old children fables and folk stories is what I chose.

Aleah, don't kill me, okay? -Ren