The Summoning

XIX - The Way That You Were

Arms were closing in a vice grip around me as I reached velocity, breath being stolen by the wind shooting past like a bullet. I was falling down, down, down...

I awoke choking on air that wouldn't come in, sobbing as I clutched my aching chest. 

A hand swiped across my cheek, sliding the mess of hair away from my wet cheeks. Flinching back, I snatched my arms up in front of me in defense as I blinked up to Vessel sitting at the edge of my bed.

"What are you doing in here?" My voice was hoarse, louder than necessary in the dead quiet, as I crawled away from him further into my bed. 

He tilted his head to the side slightly as if it were a strange question for me to ask. He slowly pointed to himself, then to his ear, then to his room across the hall. 

I wasn't in the mental space to play charades at the moment. Sighing, I shucked my hand through my hair. "What - ?"

My heart was pounding, lungs asking for more air than I could give and it was making me dizzy. 

He pointed to me, then his mouth before making the gesture of sleeping.

"Oh..." I pieced it together, feeling myself turn red. "I was screaming in my sleep..."

He nodded solemnly, giving me another moment to think as he set his hands in his lap.

"You heard me from your room." I deciphered the first thing he had tried to say, covering my face in embarrassment.

When I lifted my head, relaxing my tense body, I startled at IV standing in the doorway. He was in nothing but boxer briefs as he scrubbed his hand through his mess of hair.

"Oh, God." I hid my face in my hands again and leaned my arms onto my bent knees. Was I that loud?

"I'm sorry," I looked between the two of them, holding a hand up to shield myself from seeing all of IV, "you guys can go back to bed."

Vessel pinched his lips together, eyes crinkled in sympathy before he pointed to his wrist as if at a watch.

I glanced up to the clock and saw that it was only forty-five minutes until we had to be up to leave.

"Great." I shook my head, leaning back onto the wall. Sighing, I let my head sink against the wall as I closed my eyes.

A hand tucked my hair behind my ear slowly before beginning to stroke through the rest of it. I froze in place, sure that it was Vessel, but not sure why he was being so caring. I let myself peak down from where my head lay against the wall to see Vessel looking down as he mindlessly ran his fingers through my hair, deep in thought.

"I'll go make tea and breakfast." IV's voice was husky with sleep as he went back to his room, presumably to get dressed.

I remembered going to lay down last night, attempting to calm myself from having a panic attack. After some thought, I had decided to pack my stuff to go on the tour with them. There wasn't much I could do otherwise. I was entwined with Sleep and seemingly stuck with them, so I kept my findings to myself. I kept telling myself they hadn't hurt me yet and had promised they didn't intend to. Though, when I thought about it, it wasn't Vessel promising my anything, but the others. I wasn't sure whether he planned on hurting me at any point and it drove me insane. 

I let my eyes wander back to Vessel as he stood, still in low hanging pajama pants and a torn t-shirt, hair a mess. He gestured to the door and I nodded, uncurling from the corner and pulling the covers off myself.

When he left, headed back to his own room, I got up and stretched before closing the door and getting dressed. It was a colder morning and I shivered, feeling a bit weak as I zipped up my duffel bag and headed out to the kitchen. It still looked to be a bit dark outside, as early as it was, and I could hear soft murmurs from the kitchen as I approached.