Dream Catch Me (Student/Teacher)

Dream Catch Me - Chapter Eighteen

Hey sorry it took long to upload.. Hope you enjoy it! Vote and comment! And fan/follow me if you want.. :D

-

I looked around to see nothing but grey. There were no walls, no ceiling and no floor. I wasn't quite sure if I was standing or floating, because I couldn't see a floor beneath my feet. In fact, I couldn't see anything at all, just grey. I took a step forward, and another and another until I was steadily walking, walking nowhere. I am quite a realistic person, so this must be a dream. Sometimes I get these dreams and they feel so real like I am actually there and not just in dream form. I can feel the wind blowing through my hair, and the orange dirt beneath my feet. I walked and walked, but I may as well have been walking on the spot. There was nothing to tell me I wasn't.

I gave up in the end and sat down in the middle of nothingness. It was so strange this place. Grey, halfway between black and white and completely lifeless. No sound of running water, or even my own breath, like I wasn't alive. I squeezed my eyes shut hoping that when I opened them again I would be somewhere else. Perhaps woken up. After counting to twenty I opened them and sucked in a huge breath from fright.

My mother was standing in front of me, or more over me as I still sat on the ground. Her eyes were bloodshot and her clothes crinkled, a smirk plastered on her face. The smirk of violence, of hate, and seething anger. She stalked towards me like a cat and his prey, step by careful step. I couldn't move and she was getting closer. My legs were lead, a dead weight. It was only when she was barely a foot in front of me I realised the sharp knife in her hand, glinting as if laughing at me.

She didn't say anything and I didn't move. I couldn't move. I couldn't move. I couldn't move. I willed and willed myself to roll out from underneath her, to run or to at least fight back. But I had nothing over her drunken strength. It seemed every time she drank, any kind of alcohol, instead of making her weaker it made her stronger like Lance Armstrong's steroid super juice.

She pounced. It seemed that my voice hadn't failed me as I screeched a guttural scream.

"Nooo!"

That knife, it plunged right through me the same time I managed to detach myself from my body. I was watching myself at the hands of my mother. The knife had gone so deep I saw the twinkling of it out the other side of my body at the middle of my spine. I wasn't with my body anymore but I could feel that pain. The sharp blade was pulled out with ease and plunged right back in again. The pain was overwhelming and it felt so real.

"No! No no no no!" I said over and over again as I saw my body draining of life right in front of my eyes. "No..." I whispered, defeated. My mother got up from her knees and walked away with a look of fulfilment on her face and no remorse or regret. She faded away as the grey started to turn darker, until it was a midnight black. Now I really couldn't see anything, not even my hands in as I held them up to my face.

"Jane? Jane.. Jane?" my name was being called and I was being shaken at my shoulder. The comfort and sense of security was brought into focus as I slowly came back into reality.

"Jane?" I looked to my left to find Joe standing and looking at me from a few feet away with a look of concern. I was still confused, I had no idea where I was or what had happened, but I took comfort in the fact that Joe was standing a short distance from me. I couldn't stop myself and I didn't want to. I launched myself at him, wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. I let the brimming tears in my eyes fall and I was unable to stop the flow.

He sat our entangled bodies down on what I assumed was a bed and I continued crying. Joe wrapped his arms around me, something I had wanted him to do, I just don't think I knew it yet. We sat there for a while in silence apart from the sound of my whimpering sobs. I was crying because of my mother, my brother, the people who bullied me. The bottle had been filled to the top and had now burst, letting all my emotions explode at once. Sadly most of those emotions were depression and sadness. When my eyes had finally run dry we lay there on the bed, his bed. I wished we could stay like that for an eternity as his arms wrapped around me felt right, like the piece of a puzzle I was missing.

I had never felt like this before. Admittedly I may have with my Dad but that was different, I had to lose someone first to know what being complete felt like. And Joe made me feel that way.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he whispered in my ear, his breath tickling my neck. Joe was speaking so gently, like he was trying not to break a fragile piece of glass. And it was working, his words were somehow caressing me and making me feel comforted unlike anyone had ever done before.

I slowly shook my head no. It was too much for him to handle or for anyone and I couldn't possibly put my problems on anyone else making my burdens theirs. I was the kind of person who kept their thoughts, feelings and problems to themselves to protect the people around me.

He held me a little longer until it got a little weird. He was my teacher after all. So before I had lost that feeling by over thinking the situation too much, I detached myself from Joe and made my way to the bathroom. I was still wearing the clothes I was this morning, the ones I walked to work in, the ones I fell in and the ones I went to hospital in. I had worn them for so long that they were starting to get that funny feeling, like they were dirty against my skin. I walked back out of the bathroom after I had splashed my face with some water, cleaning the crusty tears that had dried from my cheeks.

I found Joe in the kitchen brewing some tea in two red and white striped mugs, the designer kind. He looked a bit defeated and tired and I immediately felt guilty. His condition was definitely my fault and I hated that I had that effect on his life.

"I think I should go home," I pondered aloud. I wanted Joe to get back to how he was before I moved here, before he knew me. "Are you sure? Because I'm not too sure you should." he replied bluntly. Although I hadn't admitted to him about the abuse, he knew. It wouldn't be difficult to figure it out. I wasn't injured when he left my house after our run but I was when I got to work, so the only possible reason for my injuries would've been at home. I didn't bother giving him the 'I fell down the stairs' excuse because he wouldn't fall for it.

"Yeah, I don't want to intrude." I said, except I didn't make a move to leave and stayed sitting in the kitchen chair. Joe snorted humorously and said, "I think you've done enough of that already, Jane." he was right, I look down ashamed that I had ruined his night.

"Come on," he said gesturing me to follow him. I began to get nervous when he was heading to his bedroom, all my instincts told me to run, yet I continued to follow him. He walked over to a chest of draws and produced a pair of sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt and handed them over to me.

"Go shower and change, I'm not having you go back to your house tonight. God knows what'd happen.." he was right again. Except I may have known what would happen if mother had caught me with Joe again; a few more broken bones? I obeyed his demanding order and stalked sullenly to the bathroom he had directed me to. "There are towels in the cupboard!" he shouted from behind me.

It felt good to rinse the day's dirt from me, wash away the drama but I couldn't get rid of that horrible feeling that something either really bad or really good or really bad was going to happen. I was too secure to feel safe from danger, it seemed to always follow me wherever I went. There was a little gap in my memory about how I actually got to Joe's house, but I think it involves the medication I was given and me falling asleep in the car. I towelled myself off after washing my hair and scrubbing each inch of my body. I pulled the sweatpants on and the shirt, finding them to be a reasonable fit.

"Why are these so small?" I asked Joe holding the bottom of my top when I found him in the lounge.

"Ah well I pull them in the drier for too long one day. I forgot about them and the shrunk. I'd figured they'd fit you, and they do so you can keep them, they're too small anyway." I nodded in response. I caught a glimpse of the time on the clock ticking between our silence, it read 9.30. I was absolutely shattered from the day and I couldn't stop the yawns erupting from my mouth every few seconds.

He lead me into the kitchen and he pushed a mug of tea towards me. "Drink up, it's going to be cold tonight. And this'll ease your aches and pains." he reassured me.

"Sure you didn't slip something in?" I smirked while taking a small sip. He chuckled and took a sip too. The silence was comforting to me as we sat there drinking our tea. I never really thought I would end up sitting in my teachers house having what was effectively a 'sleepover' ever in my life. But Joe was more than my geography teacher now, he was my... Friend? I wasn't quite sure but it was good enough for now.

"You can sleep in the spare bedroom, the sheets are clean trust me. And it has en electric blanket to keep you warm." he said breaking the silence.

"Thanks Joe. I really appreciate this." I spoke sincerely and looking into his eyes. No one would ever do this for me, I had never met anyone as generous as Joe and I was quite sure no one could live up to his generosity. I mean really, not many people opened their doors for partial strangers and let them stay at their house.

"Well you're welcome! Remember that there's school tomorrow if you're up for it so I'll wake you up with plenty of time to eat breakfast in the morning." School. The place where Joe and I went back to being teacher and student. Because of that I despised school.

"Thanks." I stood up and went to exit the kitchen and turned around to face Joe. "Good night!" I muttered and made my way down the hall to the spare bedroom. "Night!" he called back, and I swear I heard him say "Sweet dreams" but then again that was probably wishful thinking. I crawled between the crisp sheets of the spare bed and shut my eyes, falling asleep almost instantly, with a little hesitation towards sleeping and having another bad dream. But my eyelids were drooping and I had no energy to worry or panic...