Flames and Starlight

53🌘

Peter

I sighed as my alarm blared. I reached over and turned it off, throwing off the covers and rolling out of bed. Another sleepless night. 

Throughout this past year getting a full night's sleep was almost impossible. I kept having terrible, life-like nightmares about Caius that made me afraid, actually afraid, to go to sleep. I kept trying to work it out with my therapist, who told me that the healing process would take a long time, that it was normal to still feel afraid, lost, and even angry about what happened.

I had this intense fear that Caius would come back and terrorize us again. I kept having this god-awful nightmare that he somehow came back to life and was out for revenge, even though, Kendrick, Jonathan, Eason saw that arrow go through his heart along with me and cause him to become nothing more than ash. Something inside of me kept saying that it wasn't over, that he was still out there, and it was only a matter of time before he came back. 

I knew that whatever being it was, that a stab through the heart would kill them instantly, even Caius. I forced myself to believe that Caius was really dead, that he was gone and would never come back, but I just couldn't.

Jonathan was considered a hero. He was all over the newspaper, TV, any social media everyone could think of. The government provided him with free housing, healthcare, basically anything he and his wife needed. He told everyone that he wasn't a hero, he was just someone who was doing his job and felt a little uncomfortable about the publicity.

I talked to Jonathan a lot. Ever since he gave me his card, we'd been in contact. He invited me over to his house and introduced me to his wife, Claire. I'd started to feel at home with them. I felt comfortable confiding in them about what was going on and how I was coping. 

Claire was a great listener, and that was what I needed most: someone to listen, not try to make me feel better or correct me, but listen. I needed to express how I was feeling, to air it all out. It didn't make everything go away, but it did lessen the weight on my chest.

Claire was a petite, slim woman with short, curly brown hair, bright, kind amber eyes, fair skin, and a warm smile that could put you at ease. Even though they looked nothing alike, she reminded me of Laura in the sense that they were always there for anyone in need and had a warm, generous heart.

Laura and I had spent some time together to hang out, though we were both working on our GEDs, her helping out with Alison's baby, her trying to help Ruben, us trying to cope with what had happened in our own ways. She always offered to talk about it, to let me talk to her about how I was doing, but I knew she was still coping with what happened and didn't need to add my own scars onto hers. That was why I talked to Claire because I wanted Laura to heal and be okay.

And the fact that she was dealing with the death of her grandmother made me want to spare her the gritty details of how I still had night terrors and kept expecting Caius to come back at any moment. She kept herself busy to not think about her grandma, though there was such a deep sadness in her eyes. I missed Ms. Cremer as well; I kept waking up, expecting her to shower me with grandmotherly kindness whenever I went over there to visit, only to be hit in the face with the fact that she was no longer with us. If her death brought sadness to me, I knew it was ten times worse for Laura, Ali, and Derek.

That was why I was so pissed at Ruben for what an idiot he was being. The last thing she needed was to be babysitting her boyfriend and worry and stress about him while he was out doing who knew what at who knew where. I'd threatened to beat the crap out of him for what he was doing to her. She ordered me not to, told me to let her handle it. She told me she'd never talk to me again if I interfered, so I respected what she wanted even though it was hard for me to be civil whenever I was around the guy, which wasn't often. He was gone so much I'd almost forgotten he even lived here.