Katherine sat bolt upright in bed. Moister still clung to the hair at her temples, her heart raced, her breathing rapid. She placed a hand on her heart to try and slow it down.
"Katherine get a hold of yourself. This is crazy, and you are not. What's come over you? No, don't think like that, that won't get you to calm down. What have those boys, no again, none of this is helping." Her mind and her thoughts raced. She gulped down some air in between her frantic thought patterns and her even frantic body reactions. "Just calm down now, and remember what happened, which has always helped before. If you can remember and reason it away then logic will help you go back to sleep."
Katherine had been plagued with nightmares ever since she could remember. What happened this time. Oh yes she was being chased. Being chased by whom? She couldn't remember. All that came to her was she knew she had to get away. The terror of her dream convincing her that her dream was in fact reality.
Running as fast as she could, she was not fast enough for whomever was chasing her. They caught up to her by a lamp post. She remembered the lamp post in her dream, but it really doesn't make sense. Does it have too? The villain of her dreams catches her and holds her fast. The last thing she can remember in her dream is that she started punching or was it flailing.
She remembers trying to scream out, but she can't. She can't even speak at all. Terror seizes her on the inside.
Then she blinks awake. At least she thinks she is awake, she can't be certain. A sound comes out from her, was it from her, it was a sound. A low grumble of a moan. Trying to speak the word no. She can't move. At all. She is paralyzed. She tries to, thinks, wills herself to move, but her extremities don't. This terrifies her even more. It feels as if a person is sitting on her chest pinning her down. Not only can she not move, but she realizes she can't even breath. Her thoughts are all she has. She screams insider her head, but nothing happens.
All of a sudden she has an idea, a glimmer of hope. She wills herself to wake from this dream, for a dream it must be. It has to be.
Armed with these new thoughts in her head, she wakes. The weight, or person, or whatever it was has lifted itself from her chest.
Katherine sits bolt upright in bed, panting. She moves her arms, because she can now. She brings her hand to her temple and when she pulls it away she can feel the moister. A clue that she still has these night terrors. Her red nightgown is plastered to her body. Another clue. They may not be real. They may be only dreams, but she can't get rid of them. No matter what she tries. However she can help the fall out from them, what she can do to get herself back to sleep.
She clambers out of bed and to where she had fresh night things. She pulls out a something white, a frilly creation that at least is dry and cool. She changes out of the first one and into the dry one.
It was only a dream she repeats to herself over and over as she climbs back into bed. But it wasn't a dream was it? Something in her subconscious is toying with her. Something that hasn't quite worked itself out yet. The newsies with their ghost stories didn't help matters. Katherine really was terrified of her night terrors, even though she was an adult and a fully capable one at that.
Katherine took a deep breath and signed, daddy wasn't, couldn't come to the rescue anymore. She was going to have to do this on her own. Humming Beautiful Dreamer she settles back down to sleep.
Walking down the street the next day Katherine, not paying any attention, walks right into Jack.
"Ooff. Oh Ace! Where you going in such a hurry?"
Katherine wakes from the daze she is in. "Jack! Am I ever glad to see you!" Not caring about propriety in that minute she flings her arms around his neck. An instant feeling of peace washes over her.
"Hey, hey hey, are you alright sweetheart?" He pulls back to look in her eyes.
"Yes. No. Well?" She can't finish her statement. For once at a loss for anything to say.
Jack looks up and down the street. He decides there are to many people here and pulls her into a quiet alley. She stands up against the wall and he braces his hands on the wall on either side.
"Now do you want to tell me whats going on? What's got you so scared?"
"Scared?! I'm not scared. I'm in a hurry." She moves to leave and he pulls her back against the wall.
"You're hugging me, in public. Something you've warned me about doing. And there's a look in your eyes that only I can see. So whats wrong?"
She didn't want to tell him about her night terrors, but she felt safe with Jack. Like he could make everything stop, everything just disappear.
"Just not here. Ok? I wanted to yell at the newsies for spooking me last night, but you've changed all that. Just not here ok?" She looked up and down the alley. What with her dream and Halloween being so close, even an lit alleyway had a creep factor behind it. Didn't she read stories of people getting murdered in alleyways?
Jack caught on that she repeated herself. Something must have got to her.
"Alright then where?"
"Anyway. Someplace safe, and lit, and nothing to dark. Nothing that you read about people in the papers ok?"
"Ace something must really have you spooked? I won't let anything happen to you. I've got an idea though."
They walked the distance to central park. She gripping onto his hand pulling comfort from it. They sat down on a park bench and she, under more prodding told. After that it felt as if a weight was lifted from her chest. She could finally breath, safe in the comfort of Jack being there.
"I'll always be there Ace, you know that." This time he embraced her, both smiling. He felt her sigh the last bit of fear leaving her.