Never Let Go

Chapter 59: No Diggity

Maya whimpers in distress and fidgets around, waking me up from my sleep. She's breathing heavy and her cries become louder. I quickly turn the bedside lamp on and come to rescue her from her nightmare.

"Maya." I said as I hold her arm to stop her from fidgeting.

For a while her nightmares seemed to have stopped, until recently. Since being together, she's hardly had any, but this will be the third night in a row that she's had a nightmare.

I call her name and shake her a couple more times, desperately trying to pull her from her nightmare until she finally wakes up.

"Baby, it's ok, wake up." I say softly.

Her whimpering isn't as loud now and her breathing isn't as erratic either. Her scared, sad eyes shoot open and they instantly soften when I'm the first thing she sees.

"Hey, it's alright." I said soothingly as I stroke my hand in to her hair.

She wraps her arm around me, clinging on to me tightly as she buries her face in to my neck. I comfort her and make her feel protected by squeezing her gently and kissing her head.

"I'm sorry." She said with her shaky voice muffled against my neck.

She pulls back and looks up at me with her wide, worried eyes, looking guilty for waking me up. I shake my head and place my hand on the back of her head, nestling her back in to my neck.

"Don't be. Are you ok?"

She takes in a deep breath and exhales before nodding her head.

"Yeah."

I hug her tightly and give her another kiss on the head. I wonder why her nightmares have suddenly become frequent again.

"I dreamed about Michael again." She whispers.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I ask as I softly stroke her hair.

She pauses for a second before shaking her head.

"No."

"Ok." I pull back so I can look down at her and gaze in to her eyes, making sure that she's ok. "Do you want to talk about anything else?"

She stares in to my eyes for a quick couple of seconds as if there is something on her mind. But she blinks a few times, breaking eye contact as she looks down.

"No." She said softly.

I know Maya inside and out, and I've known her long enough to know when something is bothering her, but it's late and she needs rest, so I'm not going to push her. I'll let her get some more sleep and I'll question her tomorrow.

"Try to go back to sleep, baby."

She nods and kisses my neck. I pull the duvet over her, making sure she's covered, comfortable and warm, and keep her close to me. It takes Maya a while to fall back to sleep, but I stay awake until I can hear she's rested and fast asleep once again. I hope she doesn't have another nightmare and can get a good night's sleep now.

I keep her protected in my arms and stay awake for a little while, listening to her sleep. I don't want to sleep yet and I'm trying to fight it off because I'm worried about Maya, but, eventually my eyelids become heavy and I drift off to sleep again too, only a light sleep, though. Every now and then I wake up to make sure Maya is alright.

🕊🕊🕊

My alarm rings, waking me up. Maya is still sleeping in my arms. She had a bad night, so I don't disturb her and let her have a few minutes more rest while I take the opportunity to get up and have a shower first. I kiss her forehead and slowly pull away from her, carefully and quietly getting out of the bed and leaving the room.