I updated again?? Haha hope y'all enjoy :)
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When I wake, it's not to the dawn but rather to a collection of screams far too close to my ear.
I'm sitting up before I've even had the chance to scan my surroundings. But it isn't hard to identify the problem when the girl beside me is practically convulsing.
"Ella?" A brief moment of panic greets me as I wonder if she's having a seizure.
But despite the violence of her spasms, they lapse into silence repeatedly before starting again. Her eyes are squeezed shut.
Forcing myself to remain calm, I place my hand on the back of her head, preventing it from slamming against the headboard. Her hips buck as I pull her against me. Although I'm twice the size of her, even holding her doesn't quell the magnitude of her tremors.
Grasping her arms, I press my lips against her ear and plead for her consciousness to return. "Ella," I instruct, hardening my voice, "wake up."
When the statement does little, I repeat it until her body stills. Her eyes remain closed, but her eyelids are pinched in pain.
"Love, please open your eyes."
Ella's fingers clasp mine as a tear manages to slip past her eyelids.
I bring my lips to her ear again. "Whatever you're dreaming about," I say, "it's not real."
"Not real," she repeats, as if in a trance.
I say it again, and she chants it quietly until she has the courage to open her eyes. I'm still clinging to her when she does.
"Aaron," she says softly. "You're here."
"Of course I'm here."
A tear chases the previous one. "You were gone."
"Gone?"
"Dead," she breathes.
My breath catches. Ella and I have been through enough in our lives that I'm rarely the subject of her nightmares. Usually, her trauma resurfaces from past experiences, not from anxiety concerning the future. Or me.
Grasping her hips, I meet her eyes. "I'm right here, love. And I'm not leaving."
She stares at me. Her eyes are wide with a strange kind of fear.
I have to ask.
"Do you worry about losing me?"
The idea is so odd to me. But for her, no one has ever cared to worry about anything concerning my existence.
"Yes," she tells me. "I worry about losing everyone I love." Her breathing gets faster when she adds, "But I worry the most about you."
Disbelieving, I say, "I'm flattered, love. Really. But no one has ever cared about me in such a way."
"Loved you," she corrects.
I can't suppress my smile.
Like she does when she's sleepy, Ella runs her fingers over my dimples.
Clearing my throat, I say, "You should get some more sleep."
Ella's eyebrows draw together.
"You won't have another nightmare," I say.
"You're sure?"
I nod.
"How?"
Gathering her soft body into my arms, I murmur, "I will stay awake all night to make sure."
Normally Ella would argue with me, beg me to sleep too, but she's too tired to fight me. Instead, she nestles herself against my chest, the cradle of my arms enclosing her in a rare form of safety.
As her eyes close, I press my lips to my ear and whisper, "Sweet dreams, love."
