Are You Afraid of Musicals?

Chapter 6.7: Nightmares

T/W (Nightmare, run over, child abuse, graphic violence, blood) You can jump to the ✅ if you want to skip it.

Dani's pov:

The moment the front door clicks shut behind me something feels... weird.

I don't really know how to explain it, I can't really wrap my head around it, but the sound it made felt a second too long, like an echo that lingered in the air carrying a finality that made me frown and look towards the door for a moment, not really understanding but deciding not to give it much importance either.

But then I take a couple of steps forward, going down the three stairs that connect the porch to the front yard slowly, and I can't stop thinking that something's very wrong.

The day is perfect, sunny, not a single cloud in the sky. As I walk I can even see Swanny a bit further ahead in the front yard, playing innocently with a butterfly, and I can't help but smile as his tiny paws pat at the air trying to reach the little bug, looking at it with such curiosity that makes my heart melt.

I stop for a moment to watch him play and I can tell that he doesn't understand how's it floating in the air out of his reach, I can see how his little eyes squint as he tries to reason with the imposible in the cutest way I've ever seen, but something inside me doesn't let me enjoy this moment of peace.

Because the sun is so bright, shining in the sky, but I can't really feel its warmth reaching my skin, and as I look around, the colors are too saturated, the light is too golden, too soft, and the world around feels like it's trying too hard to be perfect, to be peaceful, to be real.

I try to keep looking around me, to find something out of place, something that helps me ease the wrong feeling that I have inside me and that helps me understand what's happening, but everything's so perfect that it's becoming to creep me out, and for a moment, I find myself turning my head back to the porch just to see it completely empty, making me internally curse myself for even trying.

Because my parents are not there waiting for me. Not even in a world that's trying too hard to be perfect.

I sigh and I quickly look away, trying to erase that moment from my mind and convince myself that I didn't look back, and when my eyes are on the front yard again is when I see it.

Swanny's now in the middle of the road, still chasing the butterfly, still with his eyes full of curiosity, innocence and joy. But this time I don't smile, I can't, because a wave of fear washes through my body as some kind of weird memory pops into my mind.

Swanny playing just like he's doing right now, a car appearing out of nowhere, his little body disappearing under it.

I don't know where that comes from, I don't know why the fear and the pain feel so real, but that's not going to happen.

I'm not letting that happen.

So I instantly open my mouth to call him, taking an instinctive step forward as I do and almost falling to the ground when my leg doesn't move, making me look down to see that there's nothing there holding me in place, but at the same time I'm completely unable to move.

I try not to let the panic take over as I look back up to call him, trying to remain calm and failing miserably when no words come out of my mouth.

Just like when I tried to move, my brain gives the order, my body tries to comply and something stops it, something forces the words down my throat, something keeps my feet cemented to the ground, but I keep trying, I keep fighting, I keep shoving the panic down with everything I've got until I can't do it anymore.

A car appears from nowhere at the speed of a lightning, mercilessly approaching Swanny until it's just a few inches away from him, until my heart almost fell to the ground, and then time stops working right.