Midnight Poppy Land FanFic

Part 2

Quincy had left a couple hours ago to search the warehouse and find out what had happened to Scharch and his men.

That left Tora alone to fret on the couch while Poppy slept. He pulls out a smoke and lights it up, leaning back into the couch while he takes a long drag.

God he doesn't need this shit right now. Things were hard enough when it was just his life he had to give a crap about and now he's babysitting a civilian with no idea the kind of world she's just dumped herself into. All because of a god damned scooter accident. If she hadn't gotten into that accident, he may have the notebook already and none of this would be happening. Fuck he could be leveraging it for retirement right now. God he hated his life. And now he was ruining Poppy's just for knowing him.

He takes another deep drag on his cigarette. Fuck he shouldn't be smoking when she's here, he thinks and stubs in out in the ashtray.

Tora swollows the amber liquid in his glass, and lays down on the couch with his arm over his eyes.

....................

A hand grabbing at her throat. No!

A knife. Hands touching her all over her body. She tries to get away but can't move. Please leave me alone! Don't hurt me!

Blood, so much blood.

Amber eyes staring at her, lifeless from a pool of blood on the floor. Scharch's laughter in her ear.

"Scream for me"

.....................

Tora jerks awake to the sound of Poppy's yells. He rushes through the bedroom door to find her thrashing under the covers, whimpering sounds of pain and fear as she begs an unseen monster to stop.

"Hey, wake up" he says and shakes her arm slightly.

Poppy yells bloody murder and scrambles hard to the other side of the bed. There is less bed than she expects and Tora hears a thump as she falls off the other side.

"Hey, hey, relax! It's just me. You were havin a bad dream is all."

Tora walks to the other side of the bed and offers his hand out to her in help up.

Tears are in her eyes as she looks up at him. The same amber eyes that had been staring at her lifelessly only a moment ago.

Poppy takes Tora's hand up and gulps down her fear. She moves forward and slides her arms around his waist, burying her head in his chest.

"He kept touching me and telling me to scream for him. And you were dead. I couldn't stop him and he killed you. It was all my fault and I couldn't stop him. I'm so sorry." she cries.

Warm dampness seeps through his shirt where her tears fall against him. She thinks this is her fault. She thinks she's the one that screwed up, he realizes.

He gently lifts her chin to look at him. Her big, sweet, brown eyes so troubled at what nightmares she saw. He wants to kiss her fears away and rip Scharch's life from his worthless body all at once.

"You don't have nothing to worry about doll. He ain't here and he's never going to hurt ya. I promise."

"But what about you? He doesn't seem like a man who would just take what happened and be done with it. He....liked what he was doing. He was enjoying himself. And you hurt him. Isn't he one of your men? Will he try to hurt you because of this?" she asks with a shaky voice.

Those amber eyes looking at her. Her heart beats hard and fast in her chest.

"Scharch ain't that reckless. Besides, Quincy and I got a plan together while you were asleep. He's gonna know real soon how much he fucked up. You don't gotta worry about me. I can handle things."