― 𝒃𝒆𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏.
❝ no, i am not nice or lovely.
i am just a pair of shaky hands
and an empty body
numbed by pills.
please don't think i am more.
i don't know if i am. ❞
or, in whic...
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BEYOND THIS ILLUSION (book one). °• CHAPTER THREE •°
" COME BACK. COME BACK HERE, KAIA. "
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NIGHTMARES CONTROLLED IDA TUCKER'S LIFE AND ROCKED HER WORLD. In an odd way, they're never the same. Sometimes there's blood, screaming, even if it's not her. There's a flicker of pain once in a while, however much a dream would allow. Only one act remained and happened every single time: she was always in the dark, the only sign of light a glimmer of silver from the gun she never even saw. And then she dies. Ida realized this dream meant one thing that she couldn't run from. She could've died that night and it scares her so much more than losing her future. She narrowly escaped death when she was shot in the back and it was still there, lingering, peering over her shoulder, waiting for the perfect second to attack. It even followed her into her dreams.
Ida starts to shiver under the thin blanket draped over her form. She twitches in the midst of a dream passing, darkness spotting before it coats behind her eyelids. There's an awful bang that rings like an echo in her ears and a spot of pain beginning in her lower spine. It barely spreads before a horrified scream rips through the air. Ida's eyes fly open. She expects her throat to burn, cracked lips to be parted, and her lungs to slowly collapse with the force.
But it isn't Ida screaming. It's Kaia.
She rolls over and nearly falls off the bed in her tired, hazy sight. Kaia's head has thrown back into her pillow, her jaw fallen open as reckless screams escape, and her back arched but her body still. Her wrists flick as they try to find stability. Ida doesn't know what to do. Her friend, her roommate was stuck in her very own nightmare, and there's nothing she could do.
It doesn't feel as if this was real, as if Ida wasn't in control of her own body when she kicks her blanket off and stumbles across the room. Her knees hit the frame as she presses her hands into the mattress. Ida tries to remember what she learned about night terrors, but Kaia's screaming becomes too much. She can't bear it.
"Kaia," Ida says quietly and scoots next to her. She shifts them into a different position until Kaia's back is pressed against her chest. She doesn't stop flailing when Ida's arms circle her, not tightly, but enough to hold her. The screams had fallen into dry sobs that she heaves. "Kaia, Kaia, it's me," she continued softly. The irony is that her words turn into a lullaby when Ida's intention was to wake her. "It's okay. Come back, come back here, Kaia, it's okay. I'm here. I'm right here."
