He shifted and rolled over, the last vestiges of his dream fading away into the darkness .
He opened his eyes and stared into the gloom. There was no light filtering in through the heavy drapes so he knew that it was still more night than morning and he sighed, wide awake now with no real chance of sleeping again.
The kitchen was cold; tiles beneath his feet making his toes curl. He ran the water for a while until it was a little more than tepid and then he got a clean glass and filled it to the brim. He drank it down and filled it up again repeating the process, staring off into the middle distance, the whole world silent around him.
He ran hard and fast trying to forget; his head hurt and his mind had the tendency to wander. No one was about, no one out on the streets. He saw a stray dog rummaging in a dumpster, an owl swoop down to look for food, bats swirling in the very tips of the leafless trees. He shivered even as he sweated and he ran faster, his skull pounding in time with his feet, the slow steady beat of his heart the only thing that grounded him.
"Get in the car."
He had seen the headlights and seen fit to ignore them but now the vehicle drew up alongside him, the man at the wheel leaning out, face pale and angry.
"Get in the car now!"
He stopped running and stared down at the guy, taking in wild green eyes and a tight, worried expression. He wanted to say that he didn't swing that way, he wanted to say that he wasn't that kind of guy but instead he just nodded and climbed into the passenger seat stretching out his long legs and leaning his hot head against the cool window, his eyes feeling suddenly heavy, the scent of his own sweat pungent and unpleasant.
Much later it seemed he was back in his bed, light coming in through the curtains now, comforting somehow. The low winter sunshine made patterns on the wallpaper looking for all the world like thin gold bars and giving him the impression of a cage surrounding him, a cage from which he would never be free.
The green eyed man watched him for a while; hand hovering over his head as if the man wanted to touch him somehow. The anger in his expression had faded and had been replaced by resignation, worry and deep seated pain. There might have been guilt there too but it was hard to tell, hard to make out anything even in the brightness of the morning, his head hurting, his scalp itching, his whole body juddering as he lay there.
"It'll be alright Sammy," the green eyed man said and he had no choice but to believe him, no choice but to listen. He closed his eyes and let the dream take him again, his mind flying free and unfettered, sleep taking him down.
He shifted and rolled over, the last vestiges of his dream fading away into the darkness…
Fin