Split

Not Finished

Barry stepped back in the room a few minutes later, wearing pyjama bottoms and looking flustered. He rubbed his eyes, "what's going on? I... I don't remember what happened... was I asleep?"
I didn't want to reply, part of me wanted to blame it on some kind of sleepwalking episode, laugh it off like it was no big deal... let Barry forget about the beast and all the stress that he brought... but I couldn't do that. I had to tell him.
"Casey? Why was I undressed?" When I didn't reply he crawled back onto the bed and knelt next to me.
"Casey...? Sweetie, you can talk to me... I'm sorry if I scared you... I-"

"You weren't sleepwalking... you..." my breath caught in my throat and I looked away, "it wasn't you."

"Wasn't me? Then... who was it?" He frowned, "Dennis?"

"God no," I shook my head and looked back at him, "you think he'd do that to me?"

"Then who?"

"I... I don't want to say this but... it was the beast..."
Barry didn't reply and continued to frown at me, so I cleared my throat, "He said he's not finished yet."

Barry's mouth contorted into a snarl for a moment and he looked to the side a little, "not now, Dennis!"

"If he's there I want to talk to him!" I butted in quickly and Barry gave me a wary glance before letting Dennis take the light.
He immediately pulled me into his chest and held me as close as possible.

"Are you okay?" He asked with worry coating his words.

"Yeah, I'm okay... I'm worried about you guys..."

"You're worried about us? The beast was just here with you and you're worried about us?"
I nodded and he sighed, "we'll don't. We can't be hurt by him... you can..."

"I know..."

"What did he say to you?"

"He told me that if I got in the way then he'd have to do something about it... and that he's come too far to stop now... and..."

"And...?" Dennis encouraged me and I took a breath.

"He said that we could... start a new generation..."

Dennis blinked, "as in..."

I nodded and he looked a little taken back, "why? Why would he say that?"

"I don't know, he didn't bring it up straight away, I mean... I was uncomfortable because... he didn't have any clothes on..."

"What?" He practically shouted, his fingers curling into fists.

"It's okay, he didn't touch me... he was just leaning over me and..."
He stood up, pacing around the room with his hand on his forehead. If I didn't know him I would have been scared of the hostile look on his face.
"Dennis..." I tried when he'd stopped pacing, but he wouldn't look at me, "Dennis?"

"I can't protect you," he said shakily.

"You do your best-"

"-but it's not good enough, is it?" He snapped and I looked down at the sheets. He sighed and returned to me, standing over the bed, "I'm sorry, I don't know what to do... I can't keep you safe... maybe it's better if-"

"-don't you even say it!" I interrupted, knowing that his next words would be for me to leave.

"Then what am I supposed to do? How can I help you?"

"You can't. If he wants to do this then I'll be here to stop him even if I'm not with you."

"How could you possibly stop him?"
I remained quiet when I realised that I didn't have a way to stop him and Dennis looked away again, "this is insane."

"Tell me about it..." I sighed and my eyes rolled up to look at him, "can you come here? I want to sit with you for a while... I'm... scared..." I admitted weakly and his stern expression softened.

"Of course, I'm sorry. I'm here for you, okay?" He sat next to me and I leaned my head into his shoulder, letting him hold me against him.
We stayed like that for a long time before Barry wanted the light back; I think he was worried about what he'd say to me when he returned.

When he did finally take the light from a very reluctant Dennis, he apologised again about being exposed in front of me and then left the house. I expected that he was trying to keep himself awake, and I tried to wait up for him, but I soon felt my eyelids growing heavy and was soon dozing again.