Sour Candy | T. Drake ✔

[00] Nightmare

Pitch darkness was broken by a gleam of electric blue as the charge from the Escrima sticks struck the opponent, a series of spine chilling screams ensuing from the shadowy creature. Bright orange engulfed everything shortly afterwards, the terrible feeling of being burnt alive clawing at his skin.

The scene changed; he was thrown into a dark cell with no opening, his face striking the cold ground and his limbs aching as he felt broken all over. A flash of black and orange armor swam into view, pain shooting up his veins as a hard surface collided with his head before pitch darkness greeted him again. 

A horrible silence echoed all around him and he turned over in unease, not wishing to relive the scenes that were about to unfurl.

But he had no choice as the darkness cleared up into blinding white rooms, pairs of mechanical appendages reaching out towards him to strap him in place as he thrashed about, suffocation taking hold of him as everything drowned into darkness again. 

He sat up with a jolt, his whole body trembling as he desperately tried to get rid of the images swirling in front of his eyes. His throat was raw, the voice drowned within as he fixed his palm over his mouth, not wanting to scream out loud.

Yet the blank white rooms, the terrifying equipment and the set of machinery glaring down at him akin to predatorial monsters felt unbearably real.

He felt a slight movement beside him and as a reflex action, he tried to leave the bed immediately. However before he could do that, someone held onto his arms, stopping him.

"Let me go," his voice was shaking as he tried to break free from the grip.

"Tim, what happened?" The soft voice felt faintly familiar but he thrashed against her, trying to pull apart.

"Don't touch me, please..." He whimpered, retreating further away from Isadora who had woken up by then, evidently worried to find him in such a state. 

She tried to turn his head towards her so that he would realize that he had just been going through a nightmare and that she was right there with him. But Tim recoiled from her touch, a surge of pain stabbing through her upon his revulsion.

"Tim?" Dora was alarmed to see him as such and did not know how to handle him. 

She had had panic attacks herself before and Alex or Tim had been the ones to calm her down. Though as he seemingly went through a panic attack in front of her due to the nightmare he had just woken up from, she felt terribly helpless. He was trembling violently, his face was tear stained and he seemed to have not recognized her even.

He managed to free himself from her hold and toppled off the bed in panic, head hitting the bedpost, a short curse escaping him.

"Hey, stop, you'll get hurt."

He tried to crawl away even then, his eyes wide in terror and tears pouring out without ceasing. But she switched on the lights immediately, clasping his arms to make him look at her.

"Tim, look here. It's me, Dora," she spoke up, "look at me."

Terror stricken blue connected with concerned brown at last as she leaned closer, her grip softening when he stopped thrashing at last.

"Dora..." He croaked out in a hoarse, shaky voice, "are you really here?"

"Yes, I'm here," she whispered and he quickly pulled her close to himself, his head burying into her neck, "I'm right here with you."

"Don't leave me," he pleaded, wrapping his arms around her tightly, her shoulder getting wet from his tears, "please don't leave me."

Dora rubbed his back soothingly but deep down she was extremely worried. She had never seen him cry before, not even once.

Even in the most terrible of situations, Tim had always kept himself very calm and composed. But right then seeing him breaking down was wrenching at her heart.

There had been times when she had seen him upset, but never had he broken down completely in front of her. The most that he had been worried earlier was when she had gotten abducted by the Scarecrow and the time when he had finally returned to her after an year of staying MIA.

But even then, she had only ever seen his eyes well up but no tear had escaped those angelic blue irises. However, at the current moment, he was crying uncontrollably and by every passing second, the hurt he felt was affecting her as well.

"Hey, calm down," she whispered softly, her fingers running through his soft brown hair that reached down to his shoulders, "it was just a nightmare, Tim, whatever you saw wasn't real."

"It was real..." His grip tightened and she felt a shudder rake through him, "it all happened to me... And it hurts... It hurts so bad..."

She didn't ask him what had happened because he was in no state to answer that question. Nevertheless, she made sure that he knew she was not going to leave him and that he was going to be safe with her. Leaning back against the wall, she gathered Tim in a loving embrace, her soft voice uttering reassuring words as she tried to calm him down.

After a considerably long time, his trembling body stilled and a sad sigh escaped him as his grip loosened on her, head still resting on her shoulder. His eyes had fluttered shut out of exhaustion and though his breathing was still jagged, he was slowly recovering.

"You're going to be okay," she mumbled, turning her face slightly to kiss his cheek, "trust me."

His wide blue eyes were bloodshot and puffy, his nose had turned a faint red shade as well and his shoulder length hair were tangled. He looked no different from a scared child who had lost his way in the wilderness and was chased down by some terrifying monster.

"Please don't leave me," he repeated as he snuggled closer to her, his head dropping down to her lap instead as he curled tight, hands still holding onto her arms as if afraid to let go of her.

"I'm not going anywhere," she reassured him, resting her head back as she closed her eyes as well, gently running her fingers through his hair to soothe him, "no matter what happens, I am always going to be right beside you."

"Thank you," his voice was a breathless whisper as he replied, "thank you so much."

She caressed his cheek tenderly, her hand finding its way to his own, fingers interlacing together, "I love you, Tim, you don't have to thank me for anything."

Gradually, he drifted off to sleep at last but she sat awake the entire night, her fingers still curling at the soft brown strands while he held her other hand in his tightly.  Her thoughts were deviating to the hundreds of questions she had to ask him but couldn't do so. 

He hadn't told anyone what had truly happened to him in that whole year of staying apart from them but she could judge clearly that the experience had been traumatic as well as intensely damaging.

She knew from Steph that Tim purposefully never fell asleep back at home, he overworked himself until he would pass out from exhaustion or until any of them had to drug him. The only place where he did fall asleep was with Dora but even then he would wake up terrified due to the nightmares that constantly plagued him.

She couldn't help but feel scared that he was going to fall apart completely if they didn't help him and even the thought of losing him in any way churned her heart and soul. She had to do something about it and she knew she had to do it fast because she couldn't let Tim slip from her fingers once again.

Dora couldn't bear to lose him, not after all they had been through in the past dreadful year. And she had decided to do whatever it took to bring Tim back to normal.

She knew it would take time and perhaps they could never go back to how they used to be before the entire year of staying apart. But she hoped their love would be strong enough to make through that tough time and she vowed to help him out in every way possible.

***