Everything Anew

Chapter Thirty-Five

Thirty-Five

Nathan

What I hated most about falling asleep were the nightmares. I had gotten used to them, but it didn't make it any easier to wake up from one. My heart raced; my blankets were kicked off of me with sweat sheening my skin and dampening my clothes. I stared up at the ceiling, remembering that my dreams were just that, they couldn't harm me, but when a nightmare stemmed from a memory, it's a lot harder to forget.

At first I thought I was the one having that type of dream, but I didn't remember what exactly it was about. Usually I woke up like this with every vivid detail playing out in my head, but my mind was blank, as if I wasn't dreaming at all.

A whimper to my right caused me to turn my head toward Lila, and I realized then it was hers. Her hands were so tightly clenched against her blankets that her knuckles were white. Her hair was stuck to her forehead, her breathing so unevenly paced she was struggling to get a full breath.

I kicked off the sheets tangled at my legs and moved her hair out of her face, planting a hand on her forehead and feeling her warm, damp skin beneath mine. "Lila." I said her name desperately.

When she didn't stir, I lifted the blanket off of her and placed my opposite hand on her shoulder. The touch should have eased her, but it didn't.

I said her name louder this time while turning her body over, settling Lila on her back. I stayed beside her, never daring to loom above her in concern that she may wake up to believe her nightmares were real. "Please, wake up."

A shuddering gasp stalled me, and her eyes opened, her pupils dilated. The hands that were gripping the sheets let go while she sat up in bed, and pulled her legs up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them, tucking herself into a ball while resting her forehead against her knees.

My body eased with relief, although I could feel a shadow of the way she felt, knew that she was still living through what had just played through her head. I moved to sit behind her, my hands resting on both of her shoulders. When she didn't move away, I rubbed down her arm and back up to ground her, massaging her as I spoke.

"Breath deeply, try and focus on something else. You hear the clock?" I asked her. The distant ticking coming from the hallway was faint, but the quietness of the night made it easy to hear. "It always helps me when I listen to it, just to remind myself I'm here in this room, instead of anywhere else." I stopped moving my hands on her arms and kept them on her shoulders.

Lila's voice was muffled, but I made out her words. "Keep talking. Please."

I tried to think of something to talk about while bringing my hands to the braid in her hair and running my fingers over the ridges. "When I was younger, my mom used to tell me a story about a wolf. She tended to enjoy telling me stories, but I was never sure if they were fairytales, or parts of someone else's real past." I stopped and tried not to imagine my mothers face too vividly. "She told me about a wolf who roamed alone, who would go up to anyone in hopes that they would keep her company, but no matter how many times she asked, the other wolves turned their back on her. One day when the wolf was walkthrough through the woods, she came across a man. When she asked if he would be her friend, he agreed, and she was happy to have found someone who finally kept her company."

Lila shifted on the bed until her back was pressed to my chest. I almost forgot where I was in the story, but managed to continue while my arms moved to wrap around her. "But she didn't know he was a hunter, that he saw her pelt that was as white as snow and instead of finding it beautiful, he saw how much it would make him. He waited for her to trust him, until one night the wolf fell asleep beneath a tree, and the hunter made his move."