𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓 - 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧

28. vecna's curse

THE NEXT DAY

Aubrey was standing in the lab. Not just any lab, the Russian one they had been trapped in last summer. She was standing behind her mom as she held the two buttons, her arms stretched as far as they could.

She looked up and her dad was behind the glass, standing next to the giant laser, in front of the gate. Blood on his face, tears in his eyes as he gave her mother the nod of approval.

Aubrey couldn't do anything, she was frozen. She tried to yell, "No!" or "Stop!" but her mouth would open and words wouldn't come out. Her mom did it, the laser exploding and her dad now, no where to be seen.

She shot up in her bed, breathing heavily. "Hey, hey, you alright?" Steve had woken up, sitting up beside her, placing a hand on her back.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry." she caught her breath, "I just- I don't know." She didn't want to worry him.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, extremely concerned.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." she told him, "I'm just gonna go to the bathroom real quick." she said, moving her comforter from over her and getting up.

She went to her bathroom and shut the door. She leaned over the sink, breathing heavily. Another nightmare.

She looked up at herself in the mirror, barely recognizing the face that stared back at her.

She opened her medicine cabinet, taking two Tylenol pills for her headache again. Then she flushed the toilet, so it sounded like she was using the bathroom to Steve. She washed her hands and exited back into her bedroom, Steve was already dozing off again.

She laid back down beside him and he immediately wrapped his arm around her again. She never went back to sleep.

10 A.M. rolled around and they were at work with Robin, "And then Vickie laughed. And it wasn't like a cheap, fake laugh either." she had been telling them about her small interaction with Vickie at the basketball game.

"It was like... it was a real, genuine laugh." she told them as they stocked tapes onto the shelves.

"Of course she laughed, Robin. It's my Muppet joke. It's hilarious." Steve replied, Aubrey rolling her eyes at him.

"My point is that Vicki laughed and everything was just like... it was perfect!" she went on.

"But?" Aubrey asked, she knew it was coming.

"But I'm having this problem where it's like, I should stop talking. I have said everything I need to say. But then I guess I get nervous, and the words, they just, they keep spilling out, and it's like my... my brain is moving faster than my mouth, or... or rather my... my mouth is moving faster than my brain." she rambled on, "And I'm digging this hole for myself, and I want to stop digging, I'm trying to stop, but I can't. And I'm doing it right now, aren't I?" she turned around to Steve and Aubrey.

"Yeah, you are." Steve replied.

"Just a bit." Aubrey told her.

She sighed heavily, leaning back into the wall. "Oh, I'm hopeless."

"Eh." Steve shrugged, him and Aubrey leaning onto the wall beside her.