Dragon's Key--Complete

Chapter Seven

I woke suddenly in a full panic.  Sweat glistened off my skin as I became totally aware that something was wrong.  I was lying in my room atop my covers, fully dressed and I remembered that I had fallen asleep in the garden in Aaron's lap.  He must have brought me here and laid me down, but gentleman that he was, he wouldn't have dared to do more than lay me on my bed.

That didn't explain my absolute surety that something was wrong.  I swung my legs over the side of the bed and got up, looking around desperately.  I heard a soft, muted sound, something that I never would have heard before all of the changes that were going through my body.  I heard it again and I moved to the adjoining door between the rooms, listening intently.  I knew absolutely that something was wrong with Aaron.

Staring at the closed door, I thought about if I dared open it and go inside.  Perhaps he was just awake and moving around.  How could I be so sure that something was wrong? I took a chance and knocked softly on the door.  He'd surely hear me if he were up and moving around and then he could open the door and tell me all was right with the world.

There was no answer.

A thump registered as something hit the floor in his room and I gave up on all pretense of propriety and respect for privacy and I dove into his room.

I looked around, in the corners and the nooks, checking for Aaron, for anything that might be out of place.  What my eyes found caused no small bewilderment.  I saw nothing out of place or unusual.  Aaron was lying in bed arms splayed out above his head wearing comfortable pajama pants and a loose shirt.  There was the sheen of sweat over his face.  He'd kicked off the covers and was spread out in a position that looked horribly uncomfortable.

He seemed quiet at the moment so I looked around for the source of the crash.  On the opposite side of the bed, the lamp had fallen off the table and onto the floor hard enough that the bulb and the decorative glass shade had shattered into uncountable pieces.

Suddenly, there was another shout, an angry growl of power and protest.  My eyes went back to the man on the bed and I gasped in surprise.  Aaron was twisting on the bed, his entire body straining to get free.  His hands and legs were spread this time, as though he were tied down with all four limbs.  I didn't know what was going on exactly, but I knew this was what had woken me.  I walked around the bed, checking each post of the canopy bed to make sure that he wasn't actually tied down.  There was nothing that I could see.

I was still an initiate in this new world, but I was pretty sure that Aaron wasn't bound by anything supernatural or invisible.  I thought it was likely something far more mundane.  We lived in a world post Vietnam War, I had heard about PTSD.  As I stood next to the bed, I remembered seeing on a news program that nightmares were one of the side effects often exhibited by returning prisoners of war.  I hoped that it was nothing more complicated than that.  A nightmare would be something I could wake Aaron up from.  Heroic rescues from the unseen weren't exactly in my skill set.

I reached out, trying to touch him on the shoulder to shake him awake.  “Aaron?” My hand was flung off violently as he shoved his shoulder toward my hand.  He'd reacted to my touch as an attack.  “Aaron!” I said more firmly and much louder.  “Wake up! You're having a nightmare.”

There was no indication that he'd heard me at all.  He was still thrashing and moaning and trying violently to escape whatever held him.  I couldn't leave him like this.  Beyond the responsibility and guilt I felt for what my family had done, I personally couldn't stand to see him so shattered.

My eyes registered another movement as his body stilled briefly and I recognized his hair thrashing on the other side of the bed near where the lamp had fallen.  It was twisting and lashing out just as fiercely as the rest of him was, but it was so long, much longer than his arms.  I remembered earlier when I'd been so upset and his touch on my hair had been soothing and comforting.