Clawen • What comes next

|| CHAPTER 34 ||

The small family was sleeping peacefully in the small van. Maisie snuggled up in her blanket on the couch and Claire in Owen's arms in the bedroom. So far it had been a nightmare free night, but that didn't mean that nature didn't put on a little show. Within two seconds, the whole van was awake and sitting up, when lighting struck followed quickly by a loud thunder. Claire's heartbeat increased by the second, her mind going back to all the terror in her past. Once she realized that it was only god damn lightning, her whole body relaxed. It helped that Owen was sitting right next to her with an arm loosely around her shoulder. Quickly pulling her into him when he felt her whole body tensing up.

"Jesus Christ on a stick" Claire said and Owen couldn't help but snort at that. "It was a cross Claire" He said with a smirk. Claire huffed out a laugh and looked up at him quickly. "Whatever" She said with a smile as she slowly started pulling the covers off her legs and placing her feet on the ground. "Where are you going? Owen asked, desperately reaching out for her. "Going to go check on Maisie really quick" Claire said and started tip toeing to where the girl was hopefully somehow still sleeping. She was not. Claire found the girl sitting up against the wall hugging her legs to her chest as she rocked back and forth. Her expression was filled with fear. Claire hurried over to her side and threw her arms around the shaking girl who instantly started to cry as soon as she felt Claire's arms.

Her mind was somewhere else and she hadn't even noticed or heard Claire until she felt her arms wrapping around her small body. It set something off inside of her and she got back to her senses. She couldn't think, barely breath, she just started sobbing uncontrollably in Claire's arms.

"Maisie sweetheart, I'm right here. I'm right here baby girl" Claire whispered, trying not to sound desperate but pretty sure she wasn't doing a very good job. Maisie started crying louder, and her whole face was already drowning and soaking Claire's tank top. Not giving one damn, Claire pulled the girl even closer and somehow managed to put her legs around her to bring more comfort to the girl. "Sweetie I'm right here okay. Everything is fine, you hear me?" Claire asked at the end and Maisie let out another wail, which brought Owen off his ass and into the living space.

Claire heard his steps and quickly looked towards him, waving him back into the bedroom. "I got this" She told him. The look she got in return was skeptical but eventually he turned around and went back to bed.

The girl didn't calm down at all and Claire was starting to get worried. Kissing her hair over and over again, stroking it with her hand and running her fingers through the brown locks. "Maisie can you look at me for a second, sweetie?" Claire asked. Maisie slowly pulled away from Claire and titled her head upwards. Her eyes were as red as they come and long brown hair was sticking to her face. Claire calmly cupped the girls face and made her look her in the eyes. "I'm right here baby" She whispered and Maisie swallowed with a few nods. Another tear left the girls eyes and Claire leaned down to kiss her forehead.

She wiped the sticky hair out of the girls face and behind her ears. Using her thumbs to stroke her cheekbones, catching the few falling tears. "What happened, another nightmare?" She asked Maisie who quickly shook her head. "The...The eh...rain and...and thunder" She said in a vulnerable voice, holding back another sob. Claire finally understood. "It brought you back to that night, didn't it?" She asked after carefully choosing her words. The girl nodded and let her body fall into Claire's.

She let the girl calm down in her arms and she shushed her and kissed her hair. Right when Maisie was starting to breathe normally, another strike of lightning shined through the windows and a loud thunder could be heard a second later. Maisie squealed and grabbed the back of Claire's tank top with her small fingers, pulling herself close to her mom. Claire felt her fingernails slightly claw into her back but couldn't care less. She herself, probably left even worse scrapes on Owen's back if she had to be honest.

"Maisie I'm right here, mom's right here. I got you okay, I got you" Claire whispered, cradling the girl's head in her arms. Shushing her over and over again, letting the girl cry, knowing from experience that there was nothing you could do, you just had to ride the wave and hope it got you to land safely. Another strike of lightning followed by thunder got the girl to squeal again with a heavy sob escaping her mouth. The thunder didn't come as fast and Claire hoped that it was on its way to hell. "Maisie did you hear that?" Claire asked in a cheerful tone. The girl looked up and wiped one of her cheeks. "What?" She asked, voice filled with tears. "The thunder took longer to come" Claire said and looked out in the room. "It's probably getting the hell out of here" Claire said and smiled down at the girl. Maisie cocked her eyebrow in confusion. "How can you tell?" She asked as she sat up straighter and wiped the other cheek. "The longer the thunder takes to come after the lightning, the further away it is" Claire said. She knew that it wasn't exactly the thunder that Maisie was scared of, it just brought back bad memories. But if it was going away, that meant that the faster that happened the faster they could go back to sleep. "How long time till it's gone then?" Maisie asked curiously. "You can't tell exactly but the longer it takes the closer we are to going back to sleep" Claire said and she swore she could see a small smile appear across Maisie's face.

Another lighting could be seen and Maisie winced, grabbing Claire's thigh as tight as possible, seeing as that was what was closest to her hands. "Okay count" Claire said and Maisie started. The thunder struck and the girl looked up at Claire. "Three seconds" She said. "Yes see? It's going away" Claire said and smiled at Maisie who grinned back at her.

It went on for another half hour until the thunder was barely audible. "You ready to go back to sleep?" Claire asked and Maisie looked up at her. Her expression had changed from fairly calm to scared. Claire knew why. "You can come sleep with us of course" She said and the girl's face lit up in an instant. "Come on then" Claire said and stood up, holding out a hand for Maisie to take as they walked to the bedroom. Owen was for some reason awake, lying there waiting for his girls. The smaller of them quickly jumped on the bed and snuggled up into Owen. Claire smiled at the sight before turning around and finding a dry top in her closet, pulling the soaked one over her head, not giving a damn that she wasn't wearing a bra and put the new one on.

She walked to the side of the bed and went under the covers, putting an arm around Maisie who had her head snuggled into Owen's chest. He placed his hand atop Claire's and smiled at her, before they both went back to a hopefully undisturbed sleep.

I wanted to write something like this for soooo long. I forgot about it though, with everything else going on but here we are because I ran out of ideas. Lol

You like it ye? Maybe not hmm.