A Light You've Never Seen Before

Chapter 5

Nightmare

"Ashton what are you doing?! Leave him alone." said Alisa.

As Ashton rushed towards Adam, he caught his hair and pushed him towards Alisa, "get the hell out of my house right now, don't piss me off, that'll just cause you trouble, not me" he continued to walk furiously around the house searching for the next hard object he laid his hands on to use as a shield, it was obvious that Ashton had lost his cool,

"Please, Ashton, there has to be a misunderstanding. And make an effort to communicate with us.  Why are you suddenly acting like this? He's just a kid.  And  where are we going to go? Please don't do this, we don't know anyone around here ". Alisa sobbed as she cradled Adam in her embrace.

Adam was taken aback by his father's behaviour and was unsure if it would have been safe for him to talk at the time. This was a new experience for Adam, as he had never seen his father in this shape before. He was totally oblivious of what was going on. "Alisa, I know what you've been up to behind my back; don't pretend to act innocent now, and Adam? He was sure of everything."

Ashton charged violently towards Alisa, holding a knife in his right hand and forcefully gripping her face in his left, hitting her across the face and ordering her to close her dirty mouth, causing Adam to slip out of her grasp while she fell onto the floor. She continued to murmur in hushed voices,

"This makes no sense, what are you trying to say? This has to be a misunderstanding"

"I SAID GET OU-"

End

I awakened in the middle of the night panting profusely, hardly able to catch my breath and soaked in sweat, feeling as though I was going to drown. My father and mother arguing that day, the day things went downhill, was one of those dreams I used to have a lot in the past. Since my mother died, these dreams were even more intense. I couldn't get them out of my mind, and I couldn't work out why my father had wanted to leave us.

Most importantly, why did he abandon me?

I can't think straight right now; it's been a long time since I've dreamed of anything like this; I thought I was over this trauma, but it keeps coming back to haunt me.

Neil is sleeping across the bed, and knowing he's here by my side makes me relax a bit. I wouldn't like to wake him up and tell him about this because it would just get him worried about me. I can't get the memory of my mother's face out of my mind from the day my father ended it, the day he threw my mother and me out of the house and left us on the streets. My heart feels like it's about to explode and I don't know what to do.

"Adam? Is everything okay?"

Shit, was I too loud? I ended up waking Neil up.

"Adam, are you good? It's 5 am. Why're you sitting up like that at around this time?"

"Uh- it's nothing, don't worry Neil".

Neil came over to my bed, still struggling to completely awaken, and poured me a glass of water, immediately seeing that I wasn't in the best of mood. Before returning to his sleep, he sat next to me and made sure I was ready to fall asleep again.

He's the only one who has ever been able to assist me in these circumstances. He will go above and beyond for me on a daily basis, but I somehow felt like a burden to him. He's been there for me from the first nightmare I had, and he doesn't think I'm crazy for behaving the way I did. Instead, he accepted me right away.

Neil's POV

Last night before going to sleep I put an alarm on for 5:30 am due to my meeting taking place extremely early for the last few months as the Student Government President. I had no idea if I could wake up that early, so I thought an alarm would be beneficial regardless of the situation.

Surprisingly, I awoke at 4:50 a.m., which was unusual for me, but it wasn't due to my alarm. Around 5 a.m., I heard someone sniffling and breathing hard, and I couldn't tell whether I was having a nightmare or if someone nearby was possessed. The noises kept getting louder and louder until it dawned on me that Adam may have had another nightmare like he used to when we were younger.

Despite my fatigue, I knew I couldn't leave Adam alone in that condition and tried to assist him. I tried to keep myself up and finally succeeded, and I was glad that no one was being possessed.

In the past, he would always want to hide his emotions from me, despite how emotional he is, he never wanted someone to see him cry, because any time I looked in on him, he'd act like everything was fine.

Till this day, nothing has changed.

It used to totally break my heart. I realised he was suffering in isolation again, and sleeping wasn't one of my issues at the time. I only wanted him to know that he has me, and that I am the family who will always love him no matter what.

I pulled myself out of bed and helped him settle down a bit. I was happy he was getting better a lot sooner than normal because his agitation always manifested in a huge fever in the past, and if that happened now, I knew I wouldn't have been able to take care of him due to my appointment.

Nonetheless, he eventually fell asleep, and I ended up telling him I'd sleep after him. I immediately got ready for my meeting shortly after he fell asleep and left the house at 5:45 a.m. I know he hates being alone when he's sick so I quickly left the house hoping I'd get back home earlier than planned.  I left medicine and water on his side desk, as well as some food in the fridge, hoping it would be enough for him to eat for the duration of my absence.

End of POV

The next morning when I woke up I realized Neil was already gone. Amazingly, I didn't have a fever and I was relatively pleased that I would be able to do things independently during the day. My head was a little heavy from last night, but I knew Neil left some medications on my desk. Of course with a note saying "there's some food in the fridge, don't worry it's not the left over ramen, love you cutie". This guy is literally a different breed, he always has to add love and affection into everything, it's like that's his signature. Anyway, thank god, there's no ramen today.

I spent most of my day watching movies on Netflix, literally movies with the wildest plots. If Neil were here right now, he'd fall for the character that ends up having the worst background. Neil always ends up falling for the characters who end up dying at the end, like who even falls for that? and it happens every single time, it's like he never learns from his mistakes.