ɢʜᴏꜱᴛꜱ | ᴅ. ɢʀᴀʏꜱᴏɴ

chapter 23

23. panic

•—✽—✽—✽—•

present day — 2019

THE PAST WAS ONE SON OF A BITCH. FOR Paige, hers was not an easy one—one she could never forget no matter how hard she tried. At age twelve, she watched her own sister drown in a lake and die. At twenty-two, she had stabbed her abusive ex-boyfriend and almost died in the process. Thankfully, she was able to get to the hospital in time to be able to tell the tale. Later at thirty, she had to watch her mother die on video.

It was definitely clear that Paige's life was not a fun one.

So maybe that could be the reason that she quickly walked ahead of Jason without saying anything to anyone even though they were all sitting in the kitchen or walking with her. Or the reason as to why she hid herself away in the corner of her room with her hands over her ears—trying to soothe the panic attack that was taking over. Thinking about moments from her past triggered a trauma response and all she could think of was to run and hide and pray for the living nightmare to end.

Except the only problem was that there was no living nightmare and it was all just in her head. As much as she thought she was okay, she was soon realizing that she wasn't and that was what scared her the most.

"What's up with her?" Gar asked Jason as soon as he turned the corner, watching alongside Dick and Rachel as Paige rushed towards her bedroom.

The boy shrugged. "I don't know, we were just talking and all of a sudden she just...stopped. It was weird it was like she was in her own head or something."

Dick—who knew that Paige being in her head was, nine times out of ten, not a good thing—grabbed an unopened water bottle from the fridge before heading towards her room.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Rachel asked Gar and Jason as they watched Dick leave. They both shrugged, returning to whatever it was that they were doing before.

Paige's eyes shot open as she heard knocking on her bedroom door. To her the soft knocking sounded like aggressive pounding, but in reality, it was a lot more gentle. Her heart skipped a beat before her hands covered her ears again as she tucked her face away between her knees.

Usually when he knocked on the door, Paige would always tell him to come in or at least give him some sort of response. Her lack of response is what really concerned him. Dick didn't know what he was expecting to see when he opened the door, but it definitely wasn't Paige rocking herself on the floor in the corner of the room.

He knelt down in front of her, trying his best to assess the situation. "Paige, hey, what's going on—" Dick began as he softly placed his hand on her arms. Her head jolted up as she tried to back away, but she was already against the wall. She felt trapped with nowhere else to go. The feeling caused a pit in her stomach to form as she hyperventilated.

His eyebrows furrowed at the sudden movement as he lifted his hands up and away from her. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you. Just tell me what's wrong?"

Something had finally clicked telling her that whatever was happening in her mind wasn't real and that she was safe from any sort of immediate danger. Her eyes locked with his as her once distressed gaze softened before she pulled him into a hug. Without any hesitation, Dick had wrapped his arms around her, reminding her that whatever was bothering her, he would help take care of.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that," she said as he shook his head.

"No, it's not your fault. I'm more concerned about what's bothering you."

She swallowed thickly. "Almost dying."

"What are you talking about?"

"A couple of years ago, I almost died. I was stabbed by my ex. I managed to get away, but I lost a lot of blood until I could barely run. I thought that was it for me. I thought I was just gonna die in some hospital in Chicago."

"Is that why you were always looking over your shoulder when we were there?"

She nodded before adding on. "I managed to stab him before I got away. He said that he would find me and kill me. I don't know if he even survived or not."

"Nothing's gonna happen to you, I promise. Not as long as I'm around." His hold on her became tighter as he held her closer to him.

They sat there together for a while, Paige in Dick's arms as she slowly allowed herself to calm down. He had never seen her this panicked before. Sure there have been times when she wasn't completely guarded, but this was a lot different.

The look of terror in her eyes would never leave his mind. He couldn't forget how scared she was in that split second that he made his presence known. Even if she didn't know it fully, he could tell that she was scared of him and that wasn't what he wanted at all.

Dick never wanted to frighten or hurt Paige ever. He loved her and would rather die if it meant that she would get to be safe from all harm. He valued her life over his and wouldn't even think twice about making that kind of sacrifice.

✄ ✄ ✄

"I wish I could drive like that," Paige joked as she watched the news feed of a car chase with Dick, Gar, Rachel, and Jason.

"You can drive like that."

Pausing in thought she shrugged before looking back at the screen. "I know. Except I would never do that." The car had gone up to the top floor of a parking garage and was now cornered with nowhere to go.

They watched as a girl got out of the car. Her face couldn't be seen but what was most distinct about her was her silver hair. And her incredible fighting skills.

"Who the hell is that?" Rachel asked, watching as the girl took down at least five cops all on her own.

"A total badass," Jason said, not taking his eyes off of the screen even for a moment. Rachel and Paige shared a look before looking between him and the girl on the screen.

"The suspect does appear to be female, she's got silver hair. She does seem to be injured, we're not sure how badly..." The news anchor said as she looked up, noticing the helicopter that had been filming the entire thing. The girl looked to be about Jason's age. She had a gauze on her left eye that seemed to still be bleeding.

As more cops came to surround her, she ran towards the edge of the roof. Running onto the car that she had stolen previously, she jumped off the edge and crashed through a window on the other side of the street.

"I'll be back," Dick said as he walked off, leaving the four of them to continue watching.

"Is she even alive?" Rachel asked.

"I'd be shocked if she was. Who the hell just jumps through a building like that?"

"You would," the other three said in unison as she looked around at them all in defeat.

"Yeah that's cause I can phase through things. Helps get rid of the fear of the window not breaking or hitting the outside wall instead."

"Or you're just crazy."

"Watch it, Jason."