Haunting My Dreams || A Tree Bros Fanfiction

Chapter 1 || Nightmares and Realities

The rain was so heavy. It came splashing down in large drops like bullets that made leaves sag and sounded like drums against rooftops. But Evan was not inside. He was standing outside in this soaking weather, his hair and clothes wet and plastered to his body. He couldn't feel it. He couldn't feel any of it. Everything was drowned out by the fear raging in his heart, pounding in his ears faster than any rain. No, he thought to himself. No, no, no no nonoNO. No, please. Not this again. He was frozen, rooted in place, his pupils contracted to the sizes of pin heads in the horror of the reality in front of him.

Connor stood in front of him, about twenty feet away. His breathing was deep and ragged. There was that look in his eyes, that murderous glint, that always appeared when this happened. He was just as soaked through as Evan, and just like Evan, his heart pounded in his ears, not rain - but his heart was fueled by rage. It colored his eyes, his expression, his posture.

Please, Evan prayed.

Connor took a step forward.

I'm sorry.

Connor took another step.

I'm so sorry. Evan turned tail and fled.

Immediately, Connor gave chase behind him.

Evan clambered over the wall of, apparently, the park as fast as he could, plopping down with an ugly smush of mud under his feet. But he didn't have time to worry about that. Now was the time to run. He pulled hard against the mud, which was turning his feet into suction cups, and thudded along the dark paved road towards his house. He could feel Connor's lasting presence behind him. He knew he had wasted too much time on the wall, which Connor could leap over easily with his tall, thin structure. He didn't care. He didn't stop. He ran.

He had to get to his house, quick. He knew exactly what he would find there, and exactly what he had to do. This was a process he knew all too well. He just wished he didn't have to go through it in the pouring rain. And the dark.

Bursting through the front door, reassured by the farness - about fifty feet - of Connor's footsteps, he rushed up the stairs as fast as his legs could take him. He cursed how short they were every night when he had to do this. Slamming open his bedroom door, he saw it.

Him.

Himself. Sleeping in his own bed. Not soundly - never soundly. He was always writhing or whimpering or frowning, or a combination of the three. And he had to wake himself up, which was easy to do. He screamed.

* * * * *

And just as in his dream, he shot up in bed, screaming. He realized this quickly and slammed his mouth shut, though he couldn't stop his hyperventilation. It felt as if there was a tight knot in his throat that he couldn't quite breathe around. His hands sifted through his hair as he leaned forwards, head hanging forward as he tried and failed to calm himself down.

"Evan, Ev, I'm here!" And at the sound of her voice, Heidi - Mom - was there, sitting on the edge of his bed, one hand on his shoulder and the other rubbing circles on his back. It always soothed Evan, as it did now.

Once he was calm, though, he let the tears pour. "Mom," Evan sobbed, hugging her tight. "M-Mom, please. I want them to stop. I want th-the dreams to stop. Why w-won't they sto-op?" He didn't even have the strength to curse his voice for sounding so childlike.

This was what it had been like ever since the downfall of The Connor Project. At first the nightmares hadn't been so intense, so persistent. Maybe they appeared a few times a month, but that was it. Then there was the downfall. It was true that he had done his best to clear up relationships and accept himself after he came clean about lying about The Connor Project and his relationship with Connor. But how could he? Connor was now gone. His memory was near forgotten. Evan couldn't live with it. He'd let Connor disappear. And now he just couldn't stop having nightmares about it. Nightmare after nightmare after nightmare. He woke his mom up with his screaming. He lost two hours of sleep each night because of them. But nobody was able to do anything. Not his mom. Not his therapist. And definitely nobody at school. Nobody.