The Driven

Chapter 24

Thea

Thea turned as she slept and noticed Hank was sitting in bed. "Darling," she drawled out sleepily. "Lay beside me."

"Okay."

She snuggled into him when he drew her close. Thea went back to sleep immediately and woke up with her head on Hank's chest. Hank was talking in his sleep and she looked at him when he started panting. His chest rose and fell quickly and Thea began panicking.

"Hank, darling, Hank!" she shouted while shaking him awake.

His voice was rising while he was still panting and she thought he was going to have a heart attack in his sleep by the way his chest rose and fell. She saw sweat break on his face.

"Hank, wake up."

She touched his face and his hand came out and gripped her neck tightly. He pinned her to the bed while his eyes were still closed and she clawed the hand on her neck. He started chanting something and Thea shivered. "It's Thea, Hank. You're hurting me."

His grip tightened on her neck and she began to feel light headed. Thea kicked him in the groin as hard as she could and his eyes flew open, they were as dark as a pit and blank. His grip on her neck relaxed and she dragged in enough air then began coughing.

Hank took his hand completely off her neck and sat her up. "Thea? Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," she managed to say after the coughing subsided. Hank looked defeated and Thea didn't know how to feel.

"I'm so sorry, Thea," he said then went to the bathroom.

He stayed in there for almost half an hour and Thea had to go knock on the door.

"Hank, can we talk? Please, we need to talk."

"I'll be out soon."

She heard the tap running then he turned it off and came out.

"You're bruising," he said as he stared at her neck. Thea touched her neck then hugged Hank. "I'm so sorry," he said again before returning the hug.

"Hank-"

He sat on the bed and buried his head in his hands. "I think you should go home, it's not safe here."

Thea sat by him. "It wasn't your fault, you were having a bad dream."

"I could have ki-" he cleared his throat. "I could have hurt you...I hurt you," he corrected.

"I think we should talk about it not shy away from it." Hank remained silent and Thea changed into her clothes then picked her bag. "Bye, I'll see myself out."

"I can drive you home."

"I'm not going home, it's to the office."

"Okay."

Thea waited for Hank to get dressed then she went downstairs with him. She gave him the car keys and sat beside him. They remained silent as he drove and Thea looked out the window until they arrived at her office.

"Please, stay for breakfast. I can quickly make something."

"I can't."

Thea couldn't stop the tears, she left the car and went in. Hank followed her and Thea went straight to the kitchen, she cried into the tissue until Hank pulled her into his arms.

"We can have sex and laugh about random things, but you're drawing the line here. All you have to do is literally talk about it," Thea spoke into his shirt where a wet patch was forming from her tears.