Protect me

The Nightmare

   It was late that same night, and everyone was in their beds. Asher had to explain to Lucas and Anjali what happened with Taylor, and after cleaning up dinner Anjali went home.

  Taylor was still sound asleep as the clock neared close to 2 am. Everything was still in the apartment, the atmosphere was quiet and almost eerie. It truly was the calm before the storm.

Suddenly, the nursery lights up in a sudden blue color before the loud boom of thunder shook the room. It rumbled in a deep low hum before vanishing into the eerie silence. But the storm was only warming up.

In the 3rd crash of thunder, Taylor started to stir. She kicked her blankets off her bare legs and rolled onto her stomach. Her eyes slowly crept open and a confused expression spread to her face. She didn't know what had woken her until she heard it.

Thunder rumbling in the night like a wave would roll onto the sandy shores of a beach. A slow continuous roar before disappearing into the mass of water.

The moment Taylor heard the rumble, it was as if her heart was ripped out of her chest. Her body became stiff and sweety as she tried to evaluate the situation she woke up to.

   For the past few years, Taylor had developed a very severe phobia of thunderstorms. She would often be driven into a panic attack when seeing clouds, looking at the weather, smelling the rain, or when it neared the summertime when thunderstorms are very frequent. She would often get PTSD from anything she was doing or sounded when there was a storm.

  Taylor wasn't in a full panic attack yet until the 5th strike of lightning blanketed her room in a neon color before evaporating like it never happened. 

  She began to shake and whimper as she cocooned herself with her crib's comforter. Hands-on ears, clenching her teeth.

1million copies of the same question flooded through Taylor's head. Where can I run? Where can I hide? How do I escape?

   After another deafening crash, she was in a full panic attack. Sobs escaped her quivering lips and tears rushed down her face. She keep her eyes closed shut the eliminate the possibility of seeing any more lightning.

  Her heart was going too fast she was scared it would burst, and the feeling of nausea surged through her gut. It was like there was no end to the event, and her helplessness was terrifying.

   Her sobs intensified with her panic and soon became screams. With closed eyes, covered ears, and constant warms tears running down her face. Taylor felt as if she was in a different world.

All the noise finally started to make it to Asher's room. After a good 15 of storming outside, it took a very loud crashing of thunder to wake Asher.

He slowly rolled over and peeled open his eyes. He was confused about what woke him until a bright blue strand of lightning lit up his room. Relieved the noise was only a storm, he turned around and was about to go to sleep, when he heard a different noise. The noise of uncontrollable frantic sobs. Taylor.

Asher sprung out of bed and sprinted to the nursery. He entered the blacked-out room and flipped on a nightlight on the wall to reveal what looked like just a pile of blankets apart from the crying and gasps for air.

Asher rushed to the crib, lowering the bars and tearing the blanket off Taylor's head.

Even with the movement going on around her she didn't move a muscle. Taylor didn't even peek to see who tore the blanket off her back.

"Taylor!? Please look at me, baby"

She didn't reply, yet remained weeping in her submissive position. Realizing she was having a panic attack, Asher picked her up and held her tight to his chest. He received her pacifier from the pile of blankets and placed it in her mouth to stop her from grinding her teeth.