He Comes at Night

Living a Nightmare

OKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY, now it's getting good. Rewriting this has been a bitch and a half LOL

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Time slowed, moving objects into Nina's vision as blobs of blurred nothing. She felt numb, unable to feel or hear the first responders around her, asking her questions as another treated her wound. 

She had just watched Carter be put into the back of a police car, wrists cuffed behind his back like a criminal. He didn't look her way once as his gaze looked empty and lost. The SUV drove away with him inside it, blue and white lights flashing in her vision as a reminder that for the first time since her nightmares started, she was actually living in one. 

Carter had tried to hurt her.

A deep sting spread over the left side of her face as the EMT cleaned the cartilage that had been sliced through at the tip of her ear and the nick the blade made across her upper cheek.

A haunting reminder that he didn't try to hurt her, he did hurt her. 

She watched the man tending to her wound, reach over and throw away the gauze he had used to clean up the blood that covered her neck. 

"Nina," a man with shoulder-length curly hair stood in front of her, dismissing the EMT. His olive green button-down shirt was tightly pressed to his body and his slacks were freshly ironed. He couldn't have been any older than her father and even though he was seemingly young, he looked tired from age, "I'm Detective Daniel Kelly," his voice was deep and stern, "You think you're okay enough to tell me what happened here tonight?"

Sitting down on the edge of the ambulance, Nina looked to the ground. Trying to find a way to somehow explain what did in fact happen, it seemed impossible to spit the details of her own boyfriend trying to hurt her. 

The confusion was making it difficult to speak. 

"She's my daughter god dammit," a voice penetrated from beyond the driveway. Gavin forced his way through a few police officers, whom were subtly told to stand down by the detective.

"Dad," Nina chocked out, the only word easily escaping her dry throat. 

Gavin rushed to her, colliding her trembling body. His arms wrapped around her, making Nina to sob into his hard chest as he stroked her hair. 

For a moment, Nina felt his tight chest buckle under the pressure the reality that she could have been seriously injured, and soon a small cry escaped his lips. A brief break she hadn't seen since her mother died. 

Detective Kelly introduced himself after letting them embrace for a few moments and moved back to his questioning, not letting too much time pass.

"Were there any drugs or alcohol involved tonight?"

Wiping her wet nose, Nina shook her head, "I wasn't drinking, he might have had a little. But I'm not sure. He got into a fight with his dad."

"She's on antipsychotics, to suppress symptoms from narcolepsy. She's only been on it for a few weeks," Gavin blurted, being as honest as possible. 

Antipsychotics sounded so terrifying, evident in the fact that the detective looked to Nina, then back at her father with more questions on the tip of his tongue. At that moment, she knew he would judge her every answer moving forward.  

"And you're taking this medication regularly?" Kelly followed. 

She didn't want to lie, but she also did not want to tell her father or the police that she had not been taking her medication for some time.