Goosebumps were forming on the back of my neck as his fingers lightly dragged across the skin. It seems almost like he was drawing a picture on the small canvas of my upper back with ink only he could see. I kept my eyes closed and my breathing slow and deep so I appeared to be sleeping; I feared he would stop touching me if he knew I was awake, he would be too nervous. I wanted this to last as long as it could. I felt the bed shift and felt him sit up, he had stopped tracing on my back and now he seemed to be just sitting cross legged; watching me or not, I couldn't tell without opening my eyes and giving away my consciousness. I lay on my side facing away from him, waiting but I'm not sure what for. I feel him lean in closer to me and slowly kiss the side of my face, just once. The warmth of his lips made my skin crawl but in a good way, like it was rippling underneath his touch. I gave in and let my body roll onto my back, preparing myself for more of his lips of my skin but still keeping my eyes closed, keeping the next touch a surprise.
I felt his fingers on my skin once again but this time they were tracing lines on my collarbones, leading up to my neck. Then his whole hand was resting on my neck in an uncomfortable way that felt like the pressure was building. The muscles in his hand were strengthening and his fingernails were digging lightly into my skin at first and then not so lightly. I could feel panic surging through my body, reacting to his hold that was getting stronger and more painful. I could feel the pressure against my throat, cutting off my breathing and causing my face to swell with blood. My eyes flashed open in reaction to the pain but all I could see were unfocused blurs, the largest leaning over me and pushing down onto my throat. I blinked quickly a few times, gasping for air, trying to refocus my vision. "Tay" I pushed hard against his hand to croak out all that I could. "Tay…"
I could see him now; there were small streams of sunlight from the window shining in his golden hair and small drops of blood on his lips that looked to be coming from where he was biting down. "It's Tate, Violet" He nodded, understanding what I had tried to say. Then a small smile flicked across his face, a demonic smile that I had never seen before, as he tightened his grip, completely cutting off my air supply. I felt my hot tears escaping from the corners of my eyes and rolling down the sides of my cheeks as my limbs became numb and my eyes blurred over again; the colours of my bedroom faded to an empty black.
My body jerked me awake and away from my death scene. I quickly sat up, disoriented. There was hardly any light in my bedroom, even though the curtains were still opened wide putting the dark blue night sky on display. My hands flew to my neck to feel for bruises or tenderness but I felt normal, turning on the lamp and scanning the room everything else seemed normal too. I wiped my wet cheeks with my sleeve, hoping that those tears were the only real part of that nightmare. Keeping the lamp on, I lay back down and rolled onto my side, hugging my knees. I couldn't escape that imagine of Tate and that haunting smile that had told me how much he was enjoying choking me.
"It was just a dream though" I told myself internally "my Tate isn't like that, he couldn't be like that…"