480 Hours

3 | Wake Up Screaming

Staff Sergeant Hogan

Maggie Bailey was absolutely beautiful.

Beautiful and one of my best mates little sisters, which meant she was completely off limits. Not that I was looking for a relationship, even if she was easy to talk with. I couldn't go there. I was in Seaton Bay to care for my mother and I would not allow myself to get distracted by a girl, especially one as attractive as Maggie.

I had only gone to the bathroom to distract myself from her breathtakingly beautiful brown eyes; but no matter how I tried, I couldn't get her off my mind. I couldn't comprehend how a woman I had known for less than three hours already had such a hold over my mind. I had made it a point during my career in the military not to be distracted by women, yet all that "training" went out the window the moment I laid eyes on Maggie.

In order to stay away longer, I decided to strip down and take a shower so that I didn't look too eager to get back. Although the shower was little distraction, because even with the hot water pelting down on my tense body, all I could think about was her. I was about halfway through my shower before I heard a woman's voice crying out for help, less than twenty minutes after I had left her.

Within seconds I was out of the water with a fluffy white towel wrapped securely around my waist. When I threw open the door, their dog was sitting on the opposite side in a panic. The moment he saw me, he started to whine, pawing at my legs in what could only be described as shear terror. I was never allowed to have a dog when I was a child because Holden was allergic, but it was obvious, even with my lack of experience with pets, that Duke wanted me to follow him.

The dog took off running in the direction of the room I was staying in while at the Bailey's beach house. The volume of Maggie's screams only increased the closer I got to the light blue room. When I finally got to her, the dog was already on the bed licking her face in an attempt to wake her.

I had been trained to handle stressful situations like this. I was supposed to know how to help this girl in distress because of the first aid training I had received in the Corps. Yet, she didn't look to be  unconscious in a concerning way; she just looked to be asleep, having a nightmare. 

A horrifying nightmare.

Maggie was lying on the bed shaking, covered in a thin layer of sweat. When I attempted to touch her, her body jerked away as she screamed out in anguish. "HELP US! DEAR GOD, HELP US!"

I didn't know how to help her. If Maggie were in the middle of an epileptic seizure or in anaphylactic shock, I would know exactly what to do. But she wasn't. She was having a nightmare that seemed to terrify her so greatly that she couldn't wake from it.

I had never felt so helpless before, at least not until I came to Seaton Bay that morning. Now, twice within twenty-four hours, I was forced to watch on in horror as two women suffered in front of me. At least with my mother I knew what was wrong; I had absolutely no idea what was happening to Bailey's sister and had no idea how I was going to explain it to him when he came back with takeout.

I ushered the dog out of the way and quickly took his place next to the unconscious woman on the bed. Slowly, I picked up her trembling body and placed it as softly as I could on my lap, fighting her uncontrollable jerking motions the entire time. I did not know how to be there for her in the way that she so clearly needed, but I had to try.

I had very little knowledge of how to comfort a conscious woman, which made comforting an unconscious one that much more difficult. I felt like the foolish main character in a cliché romance novel as I whispered reassuring words into her ear while stroking her long, dark brown hair in hopes that it just might wake her. She didn't wake. Instead, she continued to cry out in fear as whatever was happening in her mind continued to terrify her.