Afterglow • Gideon Emery

12

Coyotes howled in the night with crickets chirping by the Emery's windowsills singing their music for the sleeping couple to enjoy, sleeping as in only Gideon once Chloe woke up from her slumber. Looking at her clock; 3:30 A.M. waking up in the middle of the night wasn't like Chloe, on a regular night she is a heavy sleeper and she can sleep through anything and she will sleep for hours upon hours. Sometimes Gideon had to wake her up when the day got too late, normally he'll let her sleep up to 12 P.M.

Chloe was very much pregnant, even more than before. She had to of been at least four months at this point. Feeling her stomach growl she started to feel a appetite and needed to eat now, she's eating for 2 after all. When she looked over at her husband sleeping calmly with loud snores she placed her hand on his shoulder blade and gave his back a shake. "Jaguar.." she whispered to him mentally begging him to wake up. "Gideon.."

"What do you want woman?" Gideon groaned, obviously annoyed that this woman woke him up.

"Can you make me S'mores please?" She asked sweetly, S'mores started to be her guilty pleasure food that never made her want to throw up right upon after eating.

"Make it yourself" Gideon rolled back over to his side and went right back to sleep. He was having a bad day.

"O-Okay— I'm sorry-" Chloe's heart dropped with shots of anxiety dropping the atmosphere in her brain hearing Gideon's new demeanor. Regardless, Chloe didn't want to bother him anymore and just let him sleep in peace.

She crawled out of bed and wrapped her white robe around her body for warmth before she went back to her kitchen. With her German Shepherd supervising her and their area for protection.

Opening her cabinet she gathered her crackers, chocolate and marshmallows after she pre-heated her oven. Herself and her baby is already craving the sweet sensational taste.

Once she set some S'mores in the oven she could hear her dog is growling at the front door. Outside of that door is a long hallway of doors leading to the other Atlas soldiers apartment rooms. "Dempsey, be quiet please." Chloe groaned, being pregnant it was easy to annoy her at this point. When Dempsey didn't stop she got even more annoyed.

'He just wants to go outside' Chloe thought to herself, and with the s'mores needing at least 6 minuets to bake she thought it wouldn't hurt to take Dempsey out for a minuet or two. "Fine, common" she put on her house shoes and followed Dempsey outside the Atlas apartment complex where her and Dempsey usually hung out because the grass is green and beautiful while the sunlight or moonlight shined beautifully above her in her favorite spot to sit at on rocks by a creek. "Dempsey, hurry up please it's cold" Chloe hugged herself when Dempsey disappeared in the shadows.

A large dog the color of chocolate brown and midnight black, that's a perfect color combination for a nighttime escape.

She could hear her dog barking at something while growling angrily, he got this way when danger was close so this startled Chloe a lot. "Dempsey—lets go inside now-" when Dempsey's growls silenced so suddenly it made her so much more startled "Dempsey?" She called out again hugging herself from the frigid cold air.

Standing back up she walked where she last remembered Dempsey run too, finding some light from the wall lamps on the apartment walls Chloe eventually found Dempsey's body, except he's just a lifeless shell. "D-d-Dempsey?" Chloe started to tremble seeing the sight of her dog laying lifeless on the floor with his neck seeming to have been snapped by a evil person. "Dempsey!" She cries loudly dropping on her knees pulling her fur baby on her lap "no-no-no-What happened?!"

Hearing footsteps of sticks snapping and rocks crumbling Chloe turned her head and she could see a familiar face that made her blood boil and freeze at the same time. The man that tried to break into their apartment stared at her with a evil wide white smile, yes, the same man she stabbed stood before her ready for his sweet revenge.

She could see he had a knife in his hand, ready to stab her with. regretfully, Chloe set Dempsey's corpse down and she started to run into the atlas apartment complex, running as fast as her little legs and her pregnant belly would let her run. Though it wasn't good enough because any non-pregnant person could catch her instantly.

When she reached her apartment she grabbed ahold of the knob and gave it a twist, her heart dropped more when she realized her door is locked. She locked herself outside of her own apartment. "Nonononono please please please" she begged through her tears while she pulled at the not budging door.

Her cries came to a stop when she felt a big meaty hand grab her by her shoulder forcefully then violently pulled her around to face the convict himself. The familiar face she never wanted to see again.

There was no conversation between the two, mainly because Chloe was too stressed and mortified to gather her words to plea for spareness, to be left alone. Even if she could, she knew he wouldn't give in.

She watched the man smile a Cheshire smile just thinking about what he was going to do to her, something he's been thinking about since they last interacted. Holding the knife up he looked in Chloe's eyes and without hesitation he stabbed the woman straight in her stomach, watching blood spill from her mouth like a waterfall feeling purity and satisfaction while doing so.

• • •

Chloe shot up from her couch while panting heavily with instant blood falling down her face and raging pain in her lungs. The nightmare gave her what felt like a major heart attack, except it felt more like a major lung attack.

Instead of doing anything she started to sob from immense pain laying back on her back. Her crying was loud enough to wake Dempsey up, and if it was enough to wake him up it was surely enough to wake Gideon up.

"Hey hey hey" Gideon dropped down on his knee holding his hands on her shoulders keeping her down "Chloe Chloe Chloe" he tried to grab her attention, turning the lamp on he could see her bloodshot eyes and her blood drenched mouth. Even the love note now is soaked in her blood. "What's happening?"

"Jaguar-" she whimpered rubbing her eyes "d-d-Dempsey-!"

"Dempsey's fine?" He rose his eyebrow in pure confusion, she could see Dempsey looking at her while shaking his tail. He leaned forward and licked her face then gave a bark at her as if he was trying to talk to her like a human.

Instead of doing anything else, Chloe moved her hands over her lunged area and started to cry more with the pain. This worried Gideon so much. "Love...please talk to me- what happened?

"Just—Just—hold me, Gideon." She whispered instead of telling him what he wanted to know. After he got a wet cloth he washed her blood away, then he trying to give as much less pain as possible the couple worked together to let Chloe sit on her husbands lap and use his shoulder as a new pillow while he held her close in a soft and assuring embrace.

"Chloe" Gideon whispered with his chin on her shoulder, except Chloe didn't respond to him. He could feel her chest move with her breathing so it didn't scare him as much. "Was it a bad dream?"

"Yes" Chloe muttered quietly, feeling so safe in his touch Chloe was already drifting off to sleep.

"You know I'll be here for you always right?" Gideon quietly asks her, stroking her back softly. With her health state, Gideon could feel her spine on her back so vividly, it was disgustingly vivid. "No matter what"

"Yes—Gideon-"

"Dempsey and I both"

"Yes—Gideon"

"I love you—so much"

"I love you more"