Of Stalking and Tomatoes

Chapter 11

The wind blew violently, rattling the tree branches onto the windows. The scratching sound it made was horrifying loud but not as loud as the roaring of the thunder. It woke Nyx up and he stumbled on the bed, eventually ending up as a mess on the floor. The lightning illuminated the room and it was followed by an angry roar of thunder as well as furious barking. No. That wasn't right. Storms don't bark.

Nyx untangled himself from the sheets as he listened carefully. The windows were rattling, the branches were scratching on its glass, but there was something else. A scratching sound, not on the glass windows but on the wooden door. There was whining and barking too. Nyx stood up and opened the door.

There, he saw Ren's Labrador, Alex, standing in front of his door. It barked several times and started walking towards the darkness. The lightning came followed by its brother, thunder and Nyx saw the dog by the stairs. It barked again and Nyx was compelled to follow. It ran down the stairs and Nyx made sure to closely follow its path so he wouldn't bump into anything. He lost sight of it by the time he got to the foot of the stairs but a muffled sound got his attention. An old iPod model lay on the foot of the stairs by his feet. He picked it up and quickly recognized it. It was Ren's iPod. He heard more barking coming from the kitchen.

The moment he got there, the first thing he saw was the mess on the floor. There were a couple of plastic cups on the floor along with a large puddle of water. There were headphones discarded on the far side of the kitchen, away from the archway. Nyx eyes went wide as he tried to put two and two together.

"Ren...?" he asked, "Ren?!"

The dog barked again as it pulled on his sweatpants. It then walked towards a cupboard underneath one of the kitchen side tables. He walked towards it and he was sure that he could hear a muffled voice in it. He shooed the dog away from it as he grabbed the handles and slowly opened it. His heart ached at what he saw.

Ren was curled up in the far end of the cupboard. Her hands up tightly covering her ears as her are shut as tightly as they can. She was biting her lips enough to draw blood. She looked so frightened and Nyx didn't like it.

He took a deep breath and carefully approached, "H-hey..." he spoke quietly as he reached a hand towards her, "Ren...?"

Her eyes snapped open the moment he touched her shoulder. The lightning was back followed by the thunder and the bright light was enough to let him see her eyes. Wild panic and deep fear. The fire had gone much darker than before and it scared Nyx more than anything ever had. Ren slapped his hand away, hitting the top side of the cupboard. Nyx cradled his arm in pain as he watched Ren slid deeper into the cupboard. Her eyes were staring at him but it seemed like she wasn't seeing him at all. He tried one more time.

"It's okay." He said as he backed up, giving her some room, "It's Nyx. It's just Nyx."

He waited for her to breathe and slowly blink. She was calming down and he can see that her eyes were starting to focus.

"Ren..." he held his hand towards her, palm up, urging her to take it, "It's okay. Come on. Come here."

He watched as she looked at his hand then his face. She hesitantly started reaching out her hand towards his when the flash of lightning and the roar of thunder made both of them jump. Nyx grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the cupboard before she got a chance to retract it. He was expecting her to resist so he was surprised when she buried her head to his chest and clung to his shirt like a lifeline.

"Shh..." he gently ran his fingers through her hair trying his best to soothe and calm her, "It's okay, Ren. It's okay."

She was trembling and it got worse every time the thunder roared from outside so the stayed like that, on the floor, him holding her against him as he continued to calm her. He whispered gentle words of reassurance to her and made sure she felt safe in his hands. The clenched fists slowly loosened and he could feel her breathing slowly evening out. She pushed him away slowly and gently, her arms still slightly trembling.