Hold Me Close: An Ezria Story

Panic

Aria's POV:

Ezra and I had just finished our movie and we were sitting and talking on the couch.

"I should probably make us some dinner." Ezra said as he stood up and walked over to the fridge. He pulled out some leftover pasta and waved it a little.

"This is all I've got." He said

"I'm fine with pasta." I said smiling.

He stuck the whole container in the microwave and started getting bowls down from the cabinet. All of a sudden I saw a dark shadow cross over me. I looked around but I didn't see anything.

"Did you see that?" I asked, a slight panic in my voice.

"See what?" Ezra asked turning to look at me from the kitchen.

"That..that shadow..." I said looking around.

"I'm sure you were just imagining things." Ezra said walking back over to me. He kissed the top of my head. "Don't worry so much." He said, sensing I was scared. "It was probably just something outside."

"Yeah, you're right." I said, shaking my head. I wasn't still entirely convinced. Ezra went back to the kitchen to get the pasta out of the microwave and as soon as his back was turned I saw it again. A dark shadow. This time it stopped for a second. It looked like it was right behind me. I screamed as I got up and looked around. Again, there was nothing there. Ezra ran over to me.

"What happened!?" He asked, panicked. He was looking me up and down to see if I was hurt, but I just stood there speechless.

"T-th-there was a shadow a-again." I said. I was shaking so hard I could barely get the words out. "I-It was stopped right behind me."

"You probably just saw my shadow, I was right behind you in the kitchen." Ezra said as he guided me back over to the couch. "C'mon, just sit and calm down. You're fine."

I sat back down on the couch with shaky hands and tried to calm myself down. Ezra's right, it's nothing, probably just his own shadow. Ezra walked over with 2 bowls of pasta. He sat down next to me and handed me a bowl. My hands were still a little shaky but I managed to at least hold the bowl. I looked up and froze. There is was again. The shadow, but this time it was on the wall in front of me. And it was stopped right behind me. I whipped around and saw nothing, again. Then I started to panic. I set the bowl on the coffee table in front of me and my whole body started to shake.

"Aria? What's wrong? Are you ok? Aria...?" I could feel Ezra's hand on my leg.

My vision started to get fuzzy and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I just started sobbing. I was so scared. I felt Ezra wrap his arms around me and he started rubbing my back.

"What is it Aria? Just calm down." Ezra said in a soothing tone. Hearing him and feeling him calmed me down a little, but I was still scared out of my mind. I finally found the words to speak, but my voice was trembling with shaky sobs.

"Th-There was a-a a sh-shadow. Right on th-the wall." I managed to get out between sobs.

He rubbed my back and had me lie down on the couch. He grabbed me a glass of water and made me drink it. Then he laid next to me on the couch and wrapped his arms around me. I was still shaking uncontrollably.

"Shhhh. It's ok. It's ok. I'm here. You're ok. Just breathe Aria. Everything's gonna be ok. Shhh." Ezra was whispering in my ear until I finally calmed down. I just laid there in his embrace, not knowing what else to do. Eventually I dozed off with Ezra right beside me.

I woke up in Ezra's arms. We were laying on the couch. I looked up groggily and noticed it was still dark out. I could feel Ezra's calm, steady breathing on my neck. Then, I saw a figure move from the corner of my eye. I lied completely still. Someone crouched down in front of me so they were eye level with me. I saw a black hoodie and a black mask and I tried to scream but they put their hand over my mouth and put a finger to their lips. I started to panic again. I felt my throat starting to close and my vision was blurring and I started to shake. I woke Ezra up as I started to sob.

"Ezra, th-there was s-someone in h-here!" I cried into his chest. He rubbed my back and was whispering soothing things in my ear, when all of a sudden there was a clatter noise from the other room. He shot up and looked over the couch. We could barely see anything in the dark. He stood up and slowly started walking towards the noise.

"Ezra, stop. Be careful. Please be careful." I whispered through my cries.

Ezra snuck around into the other room to look around. Then I felt a hand wrap around my mouth. I managed to scream Ezra's name before someone had taped my mouth shut. I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. The last thought I had before everything went black was... -A