Taylor x Travis: In Every Life

monsters in the dark

Taylor's POV

"Damn." I muttered to myself, letting the curtain fall back down to cover the window. "It looks like the whole block's out, maybe even more." I said as I turned to the almost pitch black living room. "Travis?" I frowned when I didn't see him where he'd been only seconds before. "Honey?" I called out, going past the kitchen and down the hallway. I walked slowly, even though I knew the layout of my apartment like the back of my hand, it was likely I'd trip over one of the cats in the blackout.

The rain kept beating down on the roof, thunder occasionally booming through the sky outside. It hadn't let up all day, so I was kind of surprised it had taken this long for the power to go out.

I checked our bedroom and ensuite bathroom to find them both empty, so I went down to the laundry. Travis wasn't there either and I frowned before turning to go back down the hallway to check the guest bedroom. I lifted the torch on my phone as I walked into the room, but it was empty.

"Travis, honey?" I called out as I went back into the hallway. "If you're trying to scare me it's not funny." I wouldn't put it past him to hide somewhere and scare me as I walked past, so I kept my phone held up as I walked. Then I heard a shuffle and a cough from the other bathroom and stopped, moving to push the door open. "Oh, hey, what happened?" I rushed in when I saw him crouched by the toilet, putting my phone down and crouching next to him. "Travis, are you okay?" I asked, studying his face in the dim light. He looked...awful. "Have you been sick?" 

"No." Travis shook his head, his eyes closing. "I just..." He took in a deep breath as I pressed the back of my fingers to his forehead. "I thought I was going to."

"You don't have a fever." I murmured. "Maybe it was something you ate." Travis shook his head again and I frowned. "What is it then?" I stroked his beard gently, knowing it calmed him down.

"Nothing." He opened his eyes and looked at me, but I didn't buy it for a second. Travis wasn't the best liar. I raised my eyebrows at him, and he sighed. "It's not a big deal."

"I don't care if it's the smallest deal in the world, I want you to tell me." I pleaded. I didn't understand what was going on, and it was starting to scare me. Was something wrong with him? Was he sick? Badly sick? Travis sighed, and I could tell he didn't want to tell me. "Please honey, maybe I can help." I found one of his hands and squeezed it gently.

"I..uhh..." Travis looked down like he was embarrassed. "I'm not the biggest fan of storms...and the dark sometimes. And..." He gestured to the window where the storm was lashing outside. 

"Oh." I breathed, and he nodded. 

"It's stupid I know, and..." He started to say, but I pressed a finger to his mouth to shut him up.

"It's not stupid Travis, I think it's perfectly understandable." I reassured him. Thunder cracked outside and Travis flinched. How had I never picked up on this before? I supposed we'd never really sat through a storm together before. "How about we go to bed huh? I think I've got some candles in the laundry we can light, make it a little less dark. You think that'd help?"

When Travis nodded, I helped him up. Grabbing my phone, I led him down to our bedroom and left him there with the torch so he wouldn't be in the dark and went down to the laundry. It was a little difficult in the dark, but eventually I located the box of candles I'd bought a few years ago and had literally never opened. Glad to finally have a use for them, I grabbed a lighter from the kitchen and went back into our bedroom. Travis was sitting on his side of the bed, my phone shining its torch up at the ceiling from the middle of the mattress. He glanced up when I came in and the look on his face broke my heart. He really was scared of sitting through a bad storm in the dark.