Discovery Devotion Destiny

Parental Guidance

"Parents can only do what they think is best, with the experience they have. The learning curve for every parent is that there's a limit to how much they can shield children from."

-Matt Haig

It was happening again. Katie found herself trapped in this shell in a state between consciousness and unconsciousness. Those rough hands were now underneath her shirt, moving across her stomach.

"He doesn't deserve you." spoke the deep gravelly voice. Soon the hand on her stomach slid further down.

Katie's eyes snapped open with a gasp. She felt her heart ramming in her chest as she tried to shake away the sick feeling from that dream. She looked over to Oliver who was still asleep. She turned away, looking up to the ceiling wondering where the hell these dreams were coming from. Katie looked over to the clock beside her bed and let out a sigh. She once again glanced over to Oliver who was still asleep before she reached over and lifted the blanket about to slip out of bed, only for Oliver's arm to wrap around her and pull her closer to him.

She let out a quiet laugh. "That super power seems to be getting stronger I see." she glanced over to the man whose eyes were still closed. She turned her body, bringing her arm around him as well as she gently slides her fingers through his hair.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" he asked, the sleep still heavy in his voice.

"Bad dreams." she said and he opened his eyes to look over to her.

"Tell me about them." he said and Katie met his eyes. She hated talking about her dreams. She hated bringing them out of her unconscious mind and yet she knew they never truly stayed there anyway.

"I don't know. For the last couple of days I've been having this strange dream." she said. "I have no idea where I am, it's just total darkness, but I'm not alone. There's a man and he's—" she pulled her hand back and closed her eyes suddenly struck with the memory of the dream. She moved to lie on her back once again as she stared up to the dark ceiling.

"He's what?" Oliver asks, still grasping her hip.

"He's touching me." she says turning to look over to Oliver. "And I don't like it at all. And I want him to stop. I literally want to scream at the top of my lungs for him to just stop, but I can't. I can't talk and I can't move, I'm just stuck there forced to just let it happen." Oliver's eyes were still on her and she just looked away back up to the ceiling.

"Was this just a dream or did-" she felt him grip her waist unintentionally. "Twinkie did someone-"

"It's just a dream." she replied quickly before once again looking over to meet his eyes. She turned, placing a hand on his cheek. "Nothing like that ever happened to me. I promise." she let out a sigh. "It's just weird dreams." he looked at her for a moment before leaning over a placing a kiss to her forehead.

"Sleep and let the bad things in your dreams know that I'm here and will slay them all." Oliver said as he pulled Katie closer. She chuckled as she slid her head on his chest letting the sound of his heart underneath her ear lull her back to sleep.

The next morning, Katie opened her eyes from a welcomed dreamless sleep. It would seem Oliver's threats to her nightmares worked. She lightly smiled turning over only for the smile to fall when she glances over to the empty space beside her where she expected to find her husband. Katie sat up, glancing over to the clock, eyes slightly going wide. It was almost ten o'clock, which means she had slept most of the morning. She jumped out of bed, about to head out of the room when she heard the sound of water running in the bathroom. She walked over, pushing the door open to find Oliver standing there brushing his teeth. He glanced over to her with a smile.