Part 5

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I woke up screaming, but it was the shaking that really jolted me from my nightmare.

I hadn't had that severe a reaction to a nightmare in almost a year. I guess telling Matthew about my past brought everything close to the surface and left me raw and vulnerable. I looked around the room when I woke, confused as to where I was. Then I remembered.

Matthew.

I saw him then, sitting next to me on the bed, his hands on my shoulders. He had shaken me from my nightmare. My screams must have woken him.

"Matthew, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?"

He shrugged. "You may have, if I'd been asleep."

I looked at the clock next to the bed. "It's two in the morning," I was confused as to why he hadn't gone to bed.

"Yeah, but after what you told me about the dreamcatcher I didn't want to use it, but I was also too afraid to go to sleep without it. I know that sounds childish. That I'm just some kid afraid of the monsters under my bed, but I just couldn't do it."

I say up and gripped one of Matthew's hands in mine. "The difference, Matthew, is that your monster is very real. Our dreams our manifestations of our subconscious, and for those of us with difficult pasts, those subconscious thoughts can become reality in our dreams. It's not childish that you are afraid to sleep. It's understandable. Good thing tomorrow, well today, I guess, is Saturday so you don't have to go into work tired."

"That is a bonus, I guess, but I go into work tired on a regular basis, so I'm used to it. The past week has been the first time in years that I've been able to sleep through the night. I'm only sorry that you had to pay the price for my peace of mind. I really am sorry for what you have to go through in your job. It doesn't seem right. There should be a way to delete the dreams without you seeing and hearing them."

"If there is, I haven't figured it out yet. Besides," I added, "if I hadn't seen your dreams, I wouldn't have discovered that Dominic Cross was planning something."

"And we wouldn't have met." He inserted that commented into the conversation quietly, like he wanted to say it, but wasn't sure he wanted me to hear him say it. Then he became bolder. "I'm glad we met. The circumstances aren't the best. In fact, they kind of suck, but I am still glad we met."

I could feel myself blushing. Good thing Matthew hadn't turned the lights on when he came in to extract me from my night terror. "I am glad we met as well. And I'm not sorry I saw your nightmares. I usually hate it, but as terrible as it was to experience your kidnapping, I don't regret it."

The conversation lulled after that, and I think we both knew that if we were going to be able to focus on what needed to be done the nest day, we needed to go to sleep. However, neither of us wanted anything to do with the nightmares that awaited us. We sat in comfortable silence, but someone needed to say what we were both thinking. He was too respectful to mention it, so I knew I had to be bold for once in my life. I needed to take control. "Would it, I mean, do you think you could stay in here for the rest of the night. Maybe it would be easier to fall asleep if we weren't alone. There is even an extra blanket so we wouldn't need to share the comforter on the bed. I just don't think I can go back to sleep right now on my own."

Matthew's face relaxed. I could tell he had been wanting to suggest a similar arrangement, but my doing it for him had put him at ease. He moved around the room to retrieve the extra blanket and moments later was settled on the other side of the large bed. I had never shared a bed with a man before. Sure, I was twenty-five and social conventions dictated that sexual relationships were normal with multiple men were normal, but that wasn't my style. I wanted one man for my entire life and I just hadn't found him yet.

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