Take Me Away | ✔️

20. CATALINA

SOMETHING CRASHED onto the floor, waking me up abruptly.

           Before I could get up and check what it was, the door opened and mom came inside, wrapped her arms around me and whispered, "I want you to hide and don't come out until I tell you that it's safe, okay?"

           My brows furrowed. I pulled her back lightly, sitting up. "Just stay here and I'll go check who it is, okay?" She started shaking her head, mumbling about how I should just stay in my room and hide but I wasn't about to do that. If someone was inside the house, I was going to give them hell. "Mom, just stay here. I need to check on Sean, too."

           When my hand reached the doorknob, the door opened by itself, revealing a tall figure in front of me, wearing a hat. "Hi, Amelia."

           Turning around, I ran for my mother but I didn't make it far. He had already grabbed my arm, pulling me back, away from my mom as I screamed for her help.

           She merely just shook her head. "I told you to stay and hide, Sam. I can't help you now."

           "MOM!" I screamed. "HELP ME! PLEASE!"

           But she just stared off the distance, away from my eyes. "Sam, I'm okay. I'm alright. I'm okay. I'm alright. I'm oka—"

           "Sam, wake up."

I jumped up, feeling the beads of sweat rolling down my temple, to the side of my cheek. I wiped them off.

           Catalina was staring down at me from the bed. "I heard shuffling. Thought I should check on you."

           Pulling myself up, Catalina took my hand and helped me up. "It's just the couch," I laughed it off, not wanting to make it seem like a big deal. "Guess my spoiled back isn't used to the couch. Thank you, again, for letting me stay here."

           Her thick brows knitted together. "I have nightmares too. You don't have to act like it's a laughing matter just because I'm younger than you."

           When I didn't say anything, she continued on, "It's about Dad. Sometimes, it's about mom but most of the time, it's him. You know, when I saw him at the house when he killed himself. I either wake up from screaming, crying, both, or from my sister waking me up; so, about a month after dad's death, Mrs. Alexander convinced me into seeing a professional just to get me back but look at me, still not sleeping because I'm afraid of seeing my father's corpse again and again in my dreams."

           On some level, I could understand and feel what she was feeling. Not only because I had just lost my mother and couldn't even go to her wake or for her funeral tomorrow, but I would also wake up from nightmares from the time that Max was abusing me, almost killing me if Alex hadn't come in sooner to rip him off of me.

           "Normally, I would dream about my ex-boyfriend," I pressed my lips into a thin line. Should I really be telling a fourteen-year-old girl this? "He was abusive. Now, I just saw my mother and him. Maybe it's because I'm hiding from him and because my mother just died. I haven't even processed that—my mother is dead and I can't even go to her funeral tomorrow because I knew that when Max finds me, he would kill me whether it was his intention or not."

           Tears were falling down my cheeks, not sweats this time. Before I knew it, I was sobbing on Catalina's shoulder. A fourteen-year-old was comforting me, holding me close; and I could tell that somehow, I was comforting her too.

           We ignored each other's tears, just hugged one another.

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