Enemies of Power

In The Night

Patton woke with a start. He wasn't sure what woke him but he felt something was off. He focused on the person next to him.

"It's not Logan," Patton mumbled. He thought about Virgil. The boy was scared. Terrified. And it was getting worse. Patton jumped up and went to Virgil's room. Unintentionally waking up Logan in the process.

"Virgil?" Patton opened boy's door. It was dark. Darker than Patton had ever seen.

"Patton?" Patton jumped and turned around.

"Logan," Worry was written on the face of the usually cheerful person. "Please don't scare me like that."

"I didn't intend to scare you. I saw you get up and wondered what was going on."Logan whispered.

"It's Virgil," Patton explained. "Look how dark his room is. He's having a nightmare."

"Be careful when you wake someone who is having a nightmare. It is best not to wake someone with a nightmare unless he is thrashing about, according to Dr. Krakow, who is a founder and medical director of Maimonides International Nightmare Treatment Center."

Patton looked into Virgil's room. "I can't see him, but I can tell he's scared. I'm going to wake him up." He started walking into the boy's room. Logan internally debated the decisions before deciding to join Patton.

"Virgil," Patton softly called out. He started walking closer but stopped.

"What seems to be wrong?" Logan inquired.

"I...I can't walk anymore,"

"What do you mean?"

"Something's holding me back. Try it," Patton suggested. Logan walked next to Patton.

"I can't walk past here either."

"Virgil!" the boy was visibly shaking and shadows seemed to surround him. "I..he's...Logan...i don't know what to do." Patton was near to tears.

"Just breathe Patton. There has to be an explanation." Patton took a deep breath in but started panicking again.

"It's getting worse." Patton choked out.

"Focus on my words." Logan instructed. The other nodded. "It's okay. You're doing fine." He continued to murmur words of encouragement into the panicked man's ear. Logan's words seemed to have little effect. But he continued to try despite the failure.

"Virgil!" Patton suddenly tried rushing to the teen's bed. Shadows surrounded the boy and it was only getting darker. Virgil's thrashing got worse. Patton closed his eyes and focused on trying to calm the boy down, but it wasn't working, no matter how hard Patton tried. The shadows started surrounding the couple in the room and pushed them out of the door. Patton fell to the ground sobbing and Logan did his best to reassure him.

"The only thing we can do is wait," Logan told the sobbing figure. Virgil's bedroom door was shut and no sound was coming out of it.

"He stopped," Patton mumbled. "I don't feel any fear anymore."

"Let's get you to bed. You must be exhausted." Logan commented. He picked Patton up and carried him bridal style back to his bed.

"What do you think it means?"

"What do I think what means?" Logan asked back.

"That I can't feel anything coming from Virgil's room anymore. It's like he just stopped. I think about him and nothing. It's like he's numb."

"You can't be numb to feeling. Even I've tried and failed at it." Logan countered. "Maybe he woke up and stopped the panic."

"But if he woke up I still should be able to feel something right?" Logan shrugged and laid Patton in their bed.

"I promise first thing in the morning we will call Dr. Picani and asked him about it." The teacher smiled at his husband. Patton tiredly smiled back and nodded slowly drifting off.

Logan sighed and laid next to the now sleeping figure. What does it mean? What if something is terribly wrong?

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This link below is the website where I got some of my information on what Logan said about waking people up who have nightmares.

https://bottomlineinc.com/health/sleep/should-you-interrupt-someones-nightmare