Every Night

Chp. 8

I wake up screaming and in a cold sweat, I'm trying to reach for something in front of me, but it's just the air.

Wayne shoots up out of bed and comes around the bed to kneel beside me, "What's wrong buddy, what happened?"

I have tears in my eyes and it's a little hard to talk, but i get out, "the..... The nightmare. It's back. But this time it was different....."

"What do mean by different?"

"Instead of the darkness wrapping around me, I was standing in an empty room, surrounded by all of you, plus my family. I was so happy you were all there and I was coming to give you all hugs. But as I walked closer to you, the darkness encased you and disappeared, taking you with it. And after that every person I walked to close to was taken away by the darkness, until I was left in an empty cold room. I was on the floor screaming 'Bring them back damnnit! Bring them back!!' And that's when I woke up screaming."

"Hey, look at me," he tells me, "I'm right here, and I will never, ever leave you alone."

I look at him and try to smile, but I can't help myself but break down in tears.

Wayne comes back around the bed and climbs back in. He scoots up close to me and places his arms around me. "I've got you buddy, I'm never going to leave, and neither is no one else."

I'm still crying but I turn around to look at him, and I crack a small smile out of my tear stained face. "You promise?" I ask him.

"Promise."

I put my arms around him and fall back asleep.

I wake up a few hours later to my cell phone ringing like crazy. I open my eyes and carefully sit up, so I don't wake up Wayne. I answer the phone with a simple, "Hello?"

It's my wife on the other line, she sounds extremely panicked, "Dan, I just heard about what happened the other night, in Chicago, are you okay???"

"Yeah," I say in a tired voice, I'm still waking up, "just hit my head and had to get a few stitches, head's still a little sore but I'm managing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine." I reassure her.

"Okay...." She says a little reluctantly, "as long as you're okay. Love you."

"Love you too, bye."

"Bye." She says, and we hang up.

I turn back around to lay down again, when I see that I must have woken up Wayne by accident while I was on the phone, "sorry for waking you...." I say, rubbing my head shyly.

"It's fine bud, I needed to wake up anyways. I overheard you talking on the phone, Aja cares a lot about you Dan, that's another person who isn't ever going to leave you alone, see?"

"I see...." I say, cracking a small smile, "say, could ask you possibly a silly question?"

"Sure." He says with a smile.

"I've just kind have always wondered, what is it about me that makes you care about me so much, like when I found you all went to college together, I thought I was going to be the outcast of our group."

"You are, and will never be the outcast, Dan." He says placing his hand on my shoulder, "I care about you so much, because I know what it's like to hurt inside, and I hate to see other people going through what I know so well, I care about you because you're my friend, and also I feel a small obligation to look over you, because you're the baby of the band." He says to me, nudging with his elbow.