Dressed In Black

Reveal

The cleansing was an awful thing to watch. It was obvious Zak was in distress, and even though he knew it was helping, he was stressed beyond belief. The bishop again, was glad that we invited him to take care of things. He had been a great help to us in the recent year and we were so thankful for all he had done. When it was over, Zak was exhausted-- drained, physically, mentally, emotionally... it took a lot out of you. The house was going to be cleansed as well, and our three friends were going to film and witness, but Zak and I weren't going to be around for that. I wasn't letting him go anywhere near that place again, and he refused to go back to the hotel unless I came with him.

Later in the day, I laid down with Zak to read a book while he napped. He'd been conked out for hours already, and I didn't expect him to be up and at 'em the rest of the day. My body was sore, so I wasn't planning on doing anything either, aside from watching him and making sure he was doing alright. I was beyond tired, but I was scared to sleep out of fear of missing something important. I wanted to watch him, at least for awhile, before I could trust that everything was alright again.

I was snapped out of my reading by stirring and shouting coming from the head on my chest.

"ALLI!" He thrashed and I rubbed his back to try to get him to come out of it. This wasn't the first nightmare he'd had that day and I was sure it wasn't going to be the last. He had been through the shit. I hushed him while he yelled, and soon he slowly relaxed and his breathing calmed down before looking up at me and gasping, pulling me in close to him, hugging me around the waist.

"I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." I said softly. "It was just a dream, it's okay."

"It was so real, and so awful." He nuzzled his head into my chest, still holding onto me tightly, but not tightly enough for it to be uncomfortable. "Thank you for staying." He whispered. I stroked through his hair and kissed the top of his head.

"Where else would I go? No place I'd rather be than with you, love. Go back to sleep, and I'll be here when you wake up. No need to worry."

"Then we'll talk?"

"Then we'll talk."

I was delaying talking for an extended period-- he wanted to know what he did, and in no way did I want to tell him. I had makeup on my face and was wearing one of his hoodies to conceal the dark bruises that were forming from being handled the way I was. The ones I could see in the mirror weren't great to look at, and I had no clue what my back looked like, I just knew it was sore as all hell. Being shoved against the wall a bunch of times didn't do me any favors, and I didn't want him to see.

I knew him. I knew how he would feel when he saw everything that he'd done, regardless of the fact that he wasn't really him, that he was checked out of his body and taken over. Thus far I'd been able to avoid him seeing, and I intended to do so as long as I possibly could. We were both okay, and that's all that truly mattered, but he wouldn't feel the same way.

Hours later, I got up to go take a shower. Zak was still asleep, though he had been waking up at least once an hour either to make sure that I was still there or because of a nightmare. Or both. I felt gross and sweaty-- I hadn't taken a shower since everything went down, and having Zak lay on me for so long was like having a space heater directly on my chest. Hot.

I went into the bathroom and shut the door slowly so that I wouldn't disturb him. I wanted him to get as much rest as he possibly could, god knew he needed it if he was going to be 'okay' anytime soon. I winced as I took Zak's hoodie off, my torso rebelling against all of the movement. I didn't look in the mirror before I got in the shower-- I wasn't really sure if even I wanted to see what the complete damage was.