Spellbound

Chapter 10 - Patetico

patetico: with deep feeling

TW: Suicide mention, blood, sexual themes

You hadn't been contacted by the man since then, Stephen's spell blocking him out.

That hadn't stopped the nightmares, though.

Your sleep had been regularly interrupted by the nightmares, as if the man still poisoned every part of your brain. He would approach you, just like he did the first time, except the pain he would submit to you varied each night: one night his crows pecked your eyes out, another night he burned you alive, another night was slowly submerging you in water until you drowned.

The man's creativity was astounding.

Your body would jolt awake in the night, waking Stephen, who was always by your side immediately. You'd offered to sleep in your own bed to allow him to sleep through the night, but he quickly shut it down. He would fall back asleep, but you would stay awake, insomnia taking hold of you.

It had been a week and a half, and you were barely functioning. Still, you continued to train daily, despite Stephen's protests, getting stronger both physically and magically. You had begun transmuting even larger objects and drastically changing sizes of objects (you made a mouse the size of a car, which scared the shit out of Stephen).

Next, you were going to learn how to alter the reality around you.

What had confused you was the lack of strength being gained from the Stone. Malekith was able to greatly increase his strength to be on par with Thor, so why wasn't it happening to you? You were just barely stronger than you were before the Stone merged with you. It was like your brain was limiting you from exerting your true strength.

The Asgardian question still hung in the air, not mentally ready to tackle that quite yet.

But you could feel the effects of poor sleep beginning to take its toll on you. You fought it to the best of your abilities, promising Stephen that you were all right.

You were on the verge of collapsing.

Finally, before the two of you went to bed, you broke down in Stephen's arms, exhaustion and fear taking over.

He rocked you side to side as you hid in the crook of his neck, your tears rolling down his bare skin. You were scared to sleep, scared of what your mind would subject you to. He held you close, allowing you to let it all out. You explained how you hadn't slept for more than three hours a night, no matter what you did.

When you felt yourself calming down, you pulled back, still sitting on his lap. You saw that his shoulder was wet with your tears, and you wiped them away, embarrassment flooding through you. You felt weak, and you hated it.

"I'm sorry," you heard yourself say, not fully aware of what you were doing.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he responded. "God, I would be concerned if you weren't having repercussions of this. The scream you let out that night, I will never be able to forget that. It's completely okay for you to be upset, just don't be afraid to reach out to me for help, okay? Allowing this to fester up inside you does nothing but hurt, and I've learned that from experience."

He paused for a moment, grasping for words that were out of reach. "After the accident," he began, "and after I, um, kicked you out," you felt him flinch slightly as he said that. "After that, I didn't sleep well for months. It was just the same nightmare every time; of me crashing my car, the pain I felt, the inability to move as I lay in the hospital.