Ellie

Thirty (Part One)

Despite the fact Ellie had claimed she was having an early night she ended up getting very little sleep that night. She was almost glad when they were back on the road again and it kept her mind occupied away from thinking about her mother's past.

But even when they were back on the road, Brett noticed that Ellie seemed more subdued than usual. But, when he tried to find if there was something wrong, she just dismissed his concerns, and told him she was just a little fatigued from the tour, and she would be fine.

One evening, when she was staying over in his hotel room, he woke in the early hours of the morning to find her just sitting up on the edge of his bed

Still half asleep himself, he peered at her hunched over back in the semi darkness, "Ell, what's wrong?"

His voice seem to have startled her, and her head swiftly turned towards him realising he was awake, he couldn't quite make out her expression, so he heaved himself up into a sitting position so he could see her better

"It's nothing, I just had a bad dream and I can't really get back to sleep" she then explained turning her face away from him again

He reached out to lightly rub her back with slight concern, " Do You want to talk about it?"

She shook her head, "No, its just a stupid dream, I will be ok... Actually I think I should just go back to my own room, it isn't right disturbing you like this," she then said, suddenly getting up and gathering her scattered clothes at the foot of the bed and hurriedly dressing herself

"Hey c'mon, you don't have to do that," Brett protested, "I don't mind staying awake with you, don't go like this"

"No," Ellie insisted, still refusing to turn to look at him, "I really think it's best if I just go back to my own room, really, you just go back to sleep"

She quickly left the room, before he could make any further objection, leaving him to lie back in his bed bewildered why she seemed to be shutting him out so much lately.

Yes, there were times he knew she refused to take him seriously, but this was on a whole new level, that was starting to really bug him. He had done all he could, these last few months to show he was ready to make a serious commitment to her. But it seemed it had been a waste of time. Did she still not trust him after all this time? The irony was that she had left him and told him to go back to sleep, when he knew sleep would not come any time soon now, so ended up just punching his pillow in frustration.

Meanwhile back in her own room, Ellie sat up in her bed with the light on and with her knees drawn up almost under chin and her arms around her knees, feeling a little guilty of running out on Brett the way she had, goodness only knew what he was thinking, but there was no way she could talk to him about her nightmarish dream, where she had been standing in front of a mirror, but her own reflection morphed into her dead mothers image staring back at her with sad dark eyes and she reaching out pleading for Ellie to help her. But then a dark shadow appeared and loomed in the background, it appeared to grow in size before engulfing her mothers reflection, and swallowing her up. It was at this point Ellie had started awake with a little cry, her heart pounding.

She had glanced around at Brett, who was lying with his back to her, blissfully unaware of her terror, which was why she had moved down to the bottom of the bed to try and calm herself down

When Brett had stirred, and she realised he was awake, all she had wanted to do was escape, rather than go over the awful dream with him, or let it say how badly it had affected her It would be even worse having to admit this was not the first time she had a nightmarish dream to do with her mother recently.