Aftermath

Part XXI: Tommy

At one point during the night, as Adam and I slept, I felt him stir within my embrace and begin mumbling something in his sleep.  Slowly, I opened my eyes and my ears perked up enough to understand his muffled words.

“No…Christie...don’t go…”  Adam began writhing around in bed, the sheets getting all tangled up in the process.  “Stop…come back…”

I sat up and grabbed his shoulder and began shaking him gently.  “Adam,” I said in a raised voice.  “Adam, wake up!”  But it seemed that he just couldn’t get himself out of this terrible dream.

“Christie…don’t…leave me,” he continued to whimper.  He twitched in his sleep and desperately clutched his pillow.

“That’s it,” I thought to myself, shaking my head in frustration.  I grabbed Adam with both hands and shook him as hard as I could.  “ADAM!” I shouted.  “WAKE UP!”

“CHRISTIE!” he cried out as he bolted upright in bed.  He was drenched in sweat and shaking like a leaf on a tree.  Tears cascaded down his face.

I held him steady in my arms as he looked around wildly, his eyes wide and frightened.  I had never seen him like this, and he was really starting to scare me.

“Adam, Adam, it’s okay,” I soothed.  “Shhhh, you’re alright.  I’m here.”

“Where is she?” he demanded, as if I had something to do with it.

“Baby, it was only a dream.”  I turned his head so he could look into my eyes and hopefully realize that he was awake now.  “Look at me.”

His blue eyes were still wild-looking and afraid, but I had gotten his attention, and that had been my goal.  Adam took a deep breath, slowly closed his eyes, and sank against my chest.  I sighed softly and held onto him, stroking his hair, which was all messy and sweaty.

“Tommy…” he whispered hoarsely.  “What happened?”  He sounded like a frightened child.

“You were dreaming,” I said.  “And I kept trying to wake you up, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it.”  I sighed again and shook my head a little.  “You scared me, baby.”

Several minutes passed and we remained in the same position—I cradled Adam in my arms, rocking him back and forth in an attempt to calm him down more, and he buried his face in my shoulder.

“It was so bad,” he mumbled, lifting his tearstained face a little.  I brushed my hand over his forehead, pushing back some of his mussed black hair that was stuck to the damp skin.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” I asked hesitantly.

There was a very long pause before he said, “Yeah.”  He wiped away his tears with the back of his hand and sniffed a little before saying, “There was so much blood,” he began in a small voice.  “Christie was standing there in front of me, and she looked so healthy.”  A wistful smile crossed his face, but vanished as quickly as it had appeared.  “But then, all of a sudden, her arms started bleeding and she collapsed.  I ran to catch her and then she turned so pale, Tommy, like every ounce of blood had drained out of her.”  He swallowed hard before adding, “And it had.  I was sitting there in a pool of her blood…so much blood…”  Adam’s face crumpled as he leaned into my chest and wept.

“Oh, Adam,” I whispered, rubbing his back in slow, comforting circles.  We sat there for a minute longer before I sat up straighter, pulling him up with me, and said, “Come with me.”

I took both of his hands and helped him off the bed and guided him down the hall and into the living room.  When I turned to look back at him, I saw the most confused look on his face.