Steal the Stars [REWRITING]

Nicole - Nightmares (Again)

It was late when we finally reached the inn. It was supposed to be a three-day trip back, but we'd done it in two, only stopping when the driver couldn't take us any further or needed to rest. James had gotten his chance to drive, which he was delighted about. I barely slept the whole way back. I couldn't. I was scared to–there were things waiting in the dark, things with teeth and claws that I knew would drag me down. I didn't need to wake up screaming in front of people.

I darted off to my room once we were back in the inn. Annabelle and James stayed downstairs to talk (and, knowing them, gloat), but I couldn't fathom doing any of that right now. I was so, so tired, too tired to sleep.

Leo followed me, stopping outside my door. "Do you want to be alone right now, or do you want someone with you?"

"Alone. Please. Sorry...I don't know." I stared up at the ceiling–anywhere but him.

"Okay. You don't have to be sorry. I'll be in my room if you need me." He shut the door behind him with a soft click.

I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling in the dark. I was still in my clothes, blood dried on the sleeves and the knee of my pants, which were torn. I hadn't had a chance to even change while we were rushing back–no one had. The one time we'd stopped for food, I'd waited outside, and it'd taken maybe two minutes.

I tightened myself into a ball, praying that I'd be able to sleep.

I did. But it wasn't at all restful.

I was standing in a hallway, alone, but I could hear things–feel things–just out of my vision. Things I knew were coming for me, that wanted to hurt me, that wouldn't stop until they did.

I was running, creatures swarming up out of some depth and surrounding me. I was frozen, paralysed; an easy victim. I was drowning, and screaming at the top of my lungs but no one could hear me. There were just more and more of them–things that I'd invented, monsters that didn't exist but might as well have.

I was falling, through emptiness and everything at once, and my head spun. I couldn't stop myself, and I knew I would hit the ground eventually, and that it would hurt. I knew there would be something waiting for me at the bottom, too, and it wasn't good. I could feel myself getting closer to the bottom, my chest tightening and my body bracing for an impact that never came.

I was in the middle of nowhere, in nothing, dark space stretching out as far as I could see, suffocating me. I called into it and got no response, just an echo of my own voice, before being absorbed back into the nothingness. No one could hear me.

Or maybe they could, and they just didn't think it was worth the effort.

The floor dropped out from beneath me, and then I was falling through the blackness again, and I knew that this time, there was nothing at the bottom, good or bad, that was going to catch me. There was nothing that was going to save me, and I was powerless to save myself. I was helpless. I was useless.

I was back in the hallway, back with things just out of sight on every side. I was nearly blind, stripped of almost all my senses, helpless. I was tense and afraid and I could do nothing to stop it. There was nobody here and nobody coming to save me, because I wasn't any use to anybody, including myself.

Everything was back on me again, jaws snapping and eyes wild, things I'd made up things that weren't real, but they felt real, they felt too real–

I was back in the tower and I could hear him, over and over again, an echo, yet my blood still ran cold each time, my heart stopped. "Nice of you to join me, Nicole."