Takeover

3- Nightmares

Only Place I Call Home
by Every Avenue

“Hey, I’m done in the bathroom if you need to get in there,” Evan said as he walked out of the bathroom. She looked over at him. He only had on a pair of shorts that hung low on his hips. His hair was wet, dripping in front of his eyes. 

Her mouth fell open, and for some reason, she couldn't help but stare at him. 

“You okay?” His voice ruptured her trance. 

Heat flooded her face and she looked back into the pot. She was leaned over the stove with the bottom half of the hair she hadn't soaked yet in the liquid. 

“Wow. That stuff actually works,” he said walking over, examining the top half of my hair that was already died brown. 

“Yeah. It’s a cool little trick, huh?” 

He chuckled, “Yeah.” 

He reached up to touch her hair with the tips of his fingers, very gently as though it was a breakable feather. He averted his gaze from her hair to her face. He held her gaze for a while, before he chanced a glance down at her lips, but quickly looking back up to her eyes. He coughed and awkwardly backed away from her. She hadn't even realized how close they had been standing. 

“How long do you have to keep your head in there, anyways?” he asked, trying to break the tension. 

“Actually,” she said, lifting her head from the pot and catching the drops of liquid from her hair with a small rag. “I’m done. Hows it look?” 

“Not bad, Lyla.” He winked. 

She chuckled and for some reason, a blush crept up her neck. In an effort to hide it, she continued drying her hair with the towel. 

“Okay, well, I’m gonna go see if I can some of this dirt off my change of clothes so maybe I can spend one comfortable night clean,” she said jokily, but came across as a rather awkward statement for some reason. 

“Well, I have an extra T-shirt or two lying around if you would prefer that? I just washed them in the sink yesterday so they are still clean.” 

She smiled somewhat excited about his suggestion, but then quickly thought better of it and replied, “No, no. It’s okay. It’ll just take a few minutes to wash them out.” 

“But then you’ll have to wait a couple of hours before they are dry. Come on, its no problem.” 

“Hmm… okay, fine. But only because I'm tired and don't want to wait hours to go to bed.” 

He smiled triumphantly, as if he had just won something, yet she hardly though of this as much of a victory for him… 

He quickly walked across the room to a small chest of drawers, pulling out a dark gray, V-neck T-shirt, that looked as though she could wear it as a dress rather than a top. Tossing it to her, she caught it with ease. 

“Thanks.”

She turned around, walking to the bathroom and quickly shutting the door. But, before she closed the crack all the way, she glanced quickly to Evan’s face, finding a similar smirk she knew she had on her face. 

It was good to have him back. 

Once she changed into the tee that ended at the top of her thighs, and rinsed her face off in the sink, she walked back out to find him lounging across his bed, staring at the ceiling. 

“What are you staring at?” She laughed when her words had surprised him, causing him to jump a little. “Wimp,” she joked. 

“Hey, I am a noble warrior trained to remain alert at all times!” he argued back at her, snapping his hand to his chest trying to feign hurt. He was such a drama queen. 

“You’ve never been trained for much of anything in your life!” 

“Hey! How do you know? Last time you saw me I was to young to be allowed to wave a stick around the air for fear of hurting someone. I have grown up a little if you haven't noticed.” 

“Right.” She rolled her eyes. She had forgotten how annoying he could be at times, yet still smiled at his ridiculous logic. 

“Oh, and I set some blankets and a pillow on the couch. I hope you’ll be warm enough.” 

She walked over to find two thin blankets folded on top of a pillow. 

“Yeah, I’m sure this will be fine.” 

“Okay, just tell me if you get cold.” 

“Will do.” And with that she sat down in the middle of the couch, swinging her feet over across one end, and adjusting the pillow under her head at the other end. She sat up to throw the blankets over her body. Once she had placed the blankets so they covered her body in full, she reclined back and rest her head against the pillow. It smelled like Evan. Just like the shirt she was wearing. She remembered how she used to cling to his chest whenever there was a big storm and she was afraid of the thunder. She hugged the pillow closer to her face at the memory, and fell fast asleep with the images of her and the boy across the room running around the castle garden for years and years. 

“You can’t hide forever,” a hoarse voiced whispered in her ear. He was close enough she could feel the man’s breath on the back of her neck, send chills down her spine. She wished she could turn around and beat the mans face in; or at the very least be able to see his face. She wiggled her eyebrows, trying to move the blindfold from her eyes enough that she could peek through to see the face of the person keeping her captive. 

“What do you want?!” she screeched. Feeling him move back towards her again, her body tensed involuntarily. 

“You know what I want, Princess Abella.” 

“Abella! Lyla?! Wake up!” 

She shot up from the couch at the sound of Evan screaming in her ear and shaking her hard enough to wake a hibernating wildebeest. 

“You were dreaming. It was just a bad dream,” he cooed as she tried to put the pieces in her mind back together. 

Once her breathing was back to normal— or enough that she wasn't in danger of hyperventilating— she turned to face him again. He must have seen the terror in her eyes. 

“Wanna talk about it?” 

“No,” she said rubbing her head as she shook it from side to side. “I’m fine. Just a bad dream. I’m fine.” She spoke as those she was trying to convince herself of the same thing she was insisting was true to Evan. Not wanting to go back to her dream, she asked, “Hey, would it be okay if I slept in the bed with you? I’m kind of afraid to go back to sleep alone.”

“Of course,” he said with a knowing expression in his eyes. “Come on.” He extended a hand to her. 

“Thanks,” she said taking it. 

They walked over to the unmade bed. He gestured for her to climb in first. She crawled to the far side of the bed against the wall. He quickly joined her in bed, laying right beside her. Really meaning it when she said she didn't want to be alone, she turned on her side, facing the wall, and pressing her back against him. Sensing she was still scared from her nightmare, he understood her action and turned to face the wall alongside her, placing his arm gently across her side, and holding her across her stomach, resting his hand against her hip. 

“Thank you,” she whispered. 

She fell asleep quickly in his arms.