The Truama Behind 1964

Chapter 7 - Normality

We all got home, dropped Sarah off at her house. We finally got home, Daniel fell asleep in the recliner, as he gave the couch to Michelle. Lily and I went to bed almost instantly whenever we laid down.

It was around 3 AM and I jumped from my bed heading Daniel freaking out in the recliner downstairs. I ran to him and saw Michelle trying to calm him down and whispering to him, "You're safe now, nothing can hurt you anymore. It is time to rest and finally let yourself be you." As Daniel calmed into sleep, it was just Michelle and I standing, staring at one another. I didn't want to say anything cause I think it's pretty obvious that I was super confused after jumping an entire flight of stairs because I thought my friend was dying again. She finally came around and said "Hell is something the human brain can not really comprehend without it having its own panic attack. Daniel and I's brains have seen something that we most likely shouldn't have. So, Daniel and I will probably have our moments here and there, so we're going to try and get out of here as fast as we can."

"I don't mind that you guys have your moments, but it was definitely surprising that this happened. You guys can stay as long as you need, just please be safe." I responded, "We are trying, but you gotta remember, we are not normal anymore." she said back. After all of that, I finally went back to bed and woke up at 9 as usual. I went downstairs to grab a coffee and leave and I don't know if Daniel didn't hear me, but when I got down there. He was staring into the ceiling, with wide eyes, and not moving. I whispered "Daniel?" No response. Then I walked over and started shaking him a tiny bit, whilst saying his name. He finally snapped out of it and looked at me and said "Zackery!" Pretty loud. Michelle woke up Michelle and she got up and ran to Daniel super quickly, but saw me and noticed that Daniel wasn't freaking out. She asked, "oh what's going on?" I told them, "Sorry both of you, I saw Daniel staring into the ceiling and not responding to me," "Oh uh, sorry Zackery, I must've been relieving some trauma," Michelle stepped in and said, "Yep, our brains shouldn't have seen hell, at least, the human brain."
"Oh yeah, can I ask about what happened last night?" I asked. "Why were you two awake last night?" Daniel asked confusingly. "You don't know?" As Michelle interrupts me. "Uh, Zackery, here I'll say it for you, Daniel you had one of your panic attacks again, you obviously don't remember, but Zackery saw it." Daniel looked at me, "Oh. Zackery. I'm very sorry you had to see that." Don't worry about it Daniel, but I'm sorry to cut this story short, but I gotta get my coffee and get to work, don't forget Daniel, you technically have a job too! I finally got to work and I was a couple of minutes early, so I was chilling in the back playing on my phone. When Daniel started calling me, maybe he was in trouble, so I picked up with a panicked "Hello!?". He must've noticed the panic in my voice cause he immediately said "I'm fine, I just need to know where I work and if you know, what I do inside." It was such a relief, but I told him he works at Bobby's Burgers and I believe he works the drive-thru. He asked where the place is located and I said "Oh yeah, right I guess you do need to know where it is, it's on Main street of maple. Just look at all the fast-food chains, you should find it eventually." He said goodbye and I finally started work, but I was stressed all day if Daniel was doing okay. After all, it's technically his first day back, and what if his boss treats him like he was treated in hell. Probably not exactly, but maybe the yelling. I got off work and drove to a special restaurant, got to see Lily and we had a little date night. We were there for at least an hour and a half. Both of us got home and Daniel was taking a nap while Michelle was watching TV. I asked Michelle if they had had a good day, she told me, "I actually went with Daniel to work today, and well, it didn't go too well for Daniel. Obviously, this was Daniel's first day back at a job he had supposedly been working for months at. So you can probably understand Daniel's boss's anger when Daniel makes a mistake he should've known not to make if he has been working there for so long. And Daniel had some trauma/PTSD go off and he started to freak out and I had to jump behind the counter and get to him and calm him down. You can probably also understand his anger again when Daniel has this episode when he has been yelled at like that plenty of times. So, after all of that, he got back to work while I talked to his boss for a long time and decided that I am Daniel's boss. As cool as that sounds, in reality, I just got a free job because of my boyfriend's PTSD/trauma. Like, cool I got a job, but very disappointing on how I got it."