Silver Lining

7. Nightmares

37 days before

Me and Theo went into the police station, me more on edge then I was when we left. The amount of times we passed Michael on the way here was terrifying.

The police station looked abandoned, and all the lights were off except for one bare bulb over a desk at the front. There was a man, the only person in sight, sitting behind the desk with his back to us. "Excuse me," Theo said to the man to get his attention.

"Yes?" Asked the man without turning around, his voice strangely familiar.

"We wanted to file a report, and also talk about getting a restraining order against someone." Theo told the man.

The man spun around. "Against who? Me?" He asked, batting his eyelashes at me.

It was Michael.

I woke up with a scream, and quickly turned on the bedside light, killing the darkness. Theo quickly sat up beside me in the bed. "What's wrong? Was it another nightmare?"

I nodded, fighting the urge to cry. I told myself it was silly to cry, it was only a nightmare. Stupidly, my eyes didn't listen and a tear rolled down my cheek anyway. "Hush, it's okay. I won't let anything happen to you," Theo said, giving me a hug. For some reason, when I'm on the verge of crying, I'm more likely to cry if someone tries to comfort me. Like, I felt safer in Theo's arms, but the feeling of saftey pushed me over the edge and I was practically sobbing.

I fell back asleep in Theo's arms an hour later at 4am, still feeling shaken from the nightmare.

***

The next morning, I got a text from Finn and Ross, two twin brothers who were youtubers. Up for filming a collaboration today?

Sure! Your place? I answered. It's not like I had anything better to do.

Yup! See you at 10. 10? Bit short notice, that only gave me half an hour to get ready. One thing Finn and Ross were rubbish at was giving people enough time for stuff. Also they were usually late. I ran into the bedroom to find some clothes, and find out if Theo wanted to come.

"Hey, I'm just going to Ross and Finn's place to film a video. Are you going to visit Mrs. Stewart?" I asked Theo who was sitting on the bed. Mrs. Stewart was his newest client, and he was painting her two pet poodles. Her husband died in the war, and she was a little bit lonely, so Theo would sometimes go over and chat to her a bit.

"No, I was just going to hang here today. Mrs. Stewart's son is visiting from America at the moment."

"She has a son? Well, that's good. That he's visiting," I said. "Why don't you come to Ross and Finn's with me? I think Laurel might be going to, and possibly Jack."

"Sure, thanks. Should we call Finn and Ross?"

"Nah, they'll be fine with it."

Ross and Finn lived in an apartment building just on the other side of the park across the road, so we took Asher on a walk through the park on the way. Finn loved Asher, so Asher always came with us when we went to see them.

When we got there, the little apartment was crowded. There was Laurel, and Jack who was another youtuber I sometimes filmed videos with, Thomas, who was Finn's boyfriend, Rachel, Ross' girlfriend, Finn and Ross themselves, Theo and I, and Laurel's boyfriend, Matt, who also was a YouTuber. "Hey Theo! How are you?" Matt asked, doing some complicated handshake thingy with Theo, and they went off into the kitchen.

Laurel looked at me and raised one of her eyebrows. "They have handshake routines now?"

"Apparently so."