A Thousand Years, Stefan Salvatore

077. KING OF MY HEART, BODY AND SOUL

Chapter seventy seven

"King of my heart, body and soul."

And although Athena seemed safe with him when she fell asleep, when she woke up in the middle of the night and saw him laying next to her and his arm wrapped around her, she'd remember Silas doing the same thing to her as she began to feel like she couldn't breathe, she brought her arm down to his, slowly, she grabbed his arm and lifted it off of her body, as she took the covers off of her, she climbed out of the bed, not trying to make a sound, as her feet hit the floor, she stood up, and turned heading toward's the bedroom door, it was locked "no, no, no.." she said, remembering how she would lock herself in her room with him and then that quickly turned to being locked in that cave with him.

Which only made her heartbeat speed up, as she started to feel like she couldn't breathe, spinning around, she came face to face with Silas as she was no longer in Stefan's room but back in the cave as he grabbed her by the face "I told you, you were mine." he told her.

Still asleep, Athena's body was thrashing around "help! Please, let me go. Let me go." she said over and over in her sleep, as Stefan felt her movements, he also heard her calling out for help as he woke up, turning to her "Athena. Athena, it's Stefan. Your just having a bad dream. Your safe." he shared, reaching his hand out and moving it through her hair "Athena whatever's happening it's just a bad dream. Your safe in my bedroom. It wasn't a mind trick. We found you and took you home. I'm Stefan. I'm not Silas. Your safe. Bonnie turned him to stone, he can't hurt you anymore." he shared.

Although Silas could still hurt her in her sleep, her dreams turned to nightmares not of other people's trauma but of her's and unknowing to him, the witch Qetsiyah who Silas had told her about and how she was gonna try and keep them apart, he had informed her that she was related to Bonnie so that only turned her rescue into more of a fake reality for her seeing as he told her that if she was rescued it wouldn't be real, it would be one of Qetsiyah's mind tricks not his own and she felt like that came in the form of Bonnie Bennett who seemed to have wanted to find her so badly last night.

Reaching out, Stefan put his hand on the top of her head, running his hand through her hair "Athena..I'm right here. Your safe." he shared, and when he did, Athena's body stopped thrashing around, as her eyes opened, she looked up, seeing him looking down at her "it was just a bad dream." Stefan told her, as Athena brought her hands up, feeling his face "how do I know what's real?" she asked him.

And when she did, Stefan looked at her with tears in his eyes "from the moment I woke up after he snapped my neck and once Damon pulled the stake out of my back, all I did was go out and look for you. Every chance I did. I never gave up. Even when he made us all think you were dead, Damon told me it wasn't real and so I believed him but I didn't truly believe him until we checked the morgue and your body wasn't actually there. And then..and then I found you in that cave and seeing you there..I didn't think you were real either. But you were and you begged me not to leave you with him because you could see him for his true face and I left you again and instead of doing that, I should've broken those chains off of you and took you with me." he shared.

As Athena shook her head "no, no, Stefan, if you tried to save me in that moment he would've hurt you again in front of me, maybe even killed you this time and because of it, he either would've forced me to live on this earth without you in fear of me dying and being on the other side with you instead of him or would've waited till Bonnie destroyed the other side and would've taken me with him and I truly would've never seen you again." she shared, wiping away his tears "because the moment he stabbed you that night everything that I felt about you came flooding back in. Where when things were getting bad, I hallucinated you and you told me to hold on for a little longer and I did and then you showed up." she shared.