The Dating Club

Nightmares and Knightmares

Chapter 15: Nightmares and Knightmares

"Jessica baby, can you hear me?"

I roll onto my front, dragging my pillow over my ears. "Dad! Go away, I'm in my pyjamas!"

There is chuckling around me and it's then I realise there's something not quite right about the situation.

One. There are people in my room. Now if you've never been to my house, you will not be aware of the large sign on my door, clearly stating that my room is out of bounds until I emerge fully clothed. Even my sister follows this rule, unless she wishes for me to pounce on her like something out of the Lion King.

Two. The bed is way too hard. If there's one thing more important than jelly beans, chips and my other favourite delicacy; chocolate ice cream, it's my sleep, and it's for this reason that I probably have the comfiest bed in all of Lincoln. Not only is it heated, does it have a memory foam base, two mattresses and a dozen pillows and cushions, but it is king sized and could probably fit around ten people in at once.

Not that I'm saying that I've tried, I mean that it could do... Oh, you know what I mean...

And three. I can just about remember something dreadful happening yesterday, and there are flashes of sketchy memories flying through my mind.

I slowly open my eyes and peak through the crack under the pillow at my surroundings.

Oh no. Not this.

And then I'm out of the bed, flying down the hospital corridors in just a nightie with my Dad, Matty and a doctor all trailing behind me as I search frantically for a way out of this place. Everything I see brings new horrors to my mind. The bench I was sat at when I got the news that she had died. The ward where she spent the last few months of her life.

The bracelet on my wrist. I stop to tear it off and feel someone pick me up and hold me from running.

"Dad! Get off of me!" I scream, struggling out of his arms. I kick him in his calves and he releases me, and I run straight into Matty.

"Hey, hey shush now. Come on Jess, let's talk about this -" he says, wincing as I hit him and try to get away, breathing heavily.

"I will bite you!" I warn, and he releases me quickly.

"Jess! Stop it!" Says my Dad, caging me in.

"I want to go home!" I say, trying to count to ten, imagining a large calm bubble around myself, like all the councillors used to tell me to do, whenever I had a panic attack like this.

"You want to go home without seeing Alfie first?" He says slowly, and I rake my hands through my hair, realising why I'm here. Alfie! Poor Alfie, there are vague memories of a collision, and seeing him broken on the floor before I passed out.

"Where is he?" I whisper, getting to my feet and looking down in shame. Here I am, freaking out because I'm being reminded of her, while Alfie is in another room and may be battling for his life.

"He's just down that corridor, and up the stairs. Marty will show you," says my Dad.

"Its Matty," mutters Mathew.

My Dad leans in and looks me in the eyes. "You're going to have to be strong princess," he says, and I nod, sucking in a deep breath.

Matty walks a little ahead of me, and I don't say anything. I don't want to walk next to him anyway, I am content walking on my own and I am concentrating too hard on staying calm to make great conversation anyway. He leads me to an elevator, and just as the doors open to allow us to enter we notice that it already holds four people. Parma steps forward and sneers at us.