I'm not sure why I wanted to write this, but I couldn't get it out of my head. It's short and angsty and I'm not really in love with it, but I don't know. I needed a breath of fresh (angsty) air and something led me back to these stories.
Either way, I hope you like the (emo) story.
Disclaimer: I do not own this show. And this is completely un betaed.
EDIT: I apologize for the confusion, but the summary says this is a sequel to my story Destination: Beautiful (which I wrote eons ago, it seems). It's just a little angsty one shot.
Years later, he has nightmares. The pain is still there, a distant memory that will burn when he least expects it. It's dull now but it hurts the same.
Friends, family, brothers have moved on. They have moved on and found love, remarried, have families of their own. They are happy. He is happy.
Except for the nightmares.
The nightmares chew his insides, bleed into his thoughts and torture his soul. Venom leaks from pointed teeth into screaming veins and travels like a virus inside him.
His wife will ask later, "Zack, did you even come to bed last night?" He will brush it off, shrug, make up excuses.
"I have a presentation on Thursday. Just trying to prepare everything." And she'll nod, worried, but won't say what she wants to.
Sweat dribbles down his neck from the intense heat that rises up through his face while he sits up at night. If he goes to sleep, the nightmares will come; nightmares he can't handle.
Blood on the floor, gunshots stinging his ears, a chilling voice which makes him shiver.
Everyone dies. Slowly.
He visits his mother and James, along with his brother and his family. Things are well, but while his brother plays with the baby, his shirt rises up and Zack can see the scar.
James knows, because Zack feels his eyes on him as he flinches. He excuses himself and rushes to the bathroom where he can safely tremble without the heat of everyone's stare upon him. Patches of sunlight peak through the high window and cover him, so he focuses on the light design on his skin and begs himself to breathe.
This shouldn't be happening, he thinks.
But it is happening, and he isn't sure it will ever fade.