FEAR OF FALLING
AUTHOR'S NOTE/DISCLAIMER
Takes place directly after "Eye Of The Storm" and was inspired by "Fears" by Weesta, which is really good. You should read it. Companion piece to "Not Dumb" which you should read first, otherwise this may not make sense. Power Rangers Ninja Storm belongs to Haim Saban and Disney.
Something was wrong with Dustin. Tori could tell, but he wasn't talking. Oh, he acted the same: laughing with the others, dedicating himself to saving the world…and yet, if you were a close friend, like she and Shane were, you'd be able to tell that he wasn't getting much sleep, if any. And she knew exactly why Dustin wasn't getting any sleep: his fear that he had relived because of the fear monster's chokers. Tori watched as Dustin put one of the boxes up on a shelf, setting it up precariously. Before she could shout a warning, the whole pile came tumbling down. With a cry of alarm, Dustin quickly jumped out of the way.
"Are you okay?" Tori asked in concern.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," Dustin assured.
"Dude, that's the third time today. What's with you?" Hunter noted as the trio restocked the pile.
"It's nothing. I'll be better," Dustin answered.
"Nah, it's cool, but you better not let it happen again. Kelly might freak," Blake stated.
"Yeah, I know," Dustin sighed. Tori frowned. Okay, now things were really bad. After all, if Hunter and Blake had noticed…not that they normally oblivious, but they tended to mind their own business, so if they were actually commenting on Dustin's distractedness…things had definitely gotten bad.
"So Dude, what's going on?" Hunter asked.
"Nothing, it's nothing," Dustin said quickly. A look of understanding came upon Hunter's face.
"Is this about what happened with the fear monster?" he asked softly. Dustin didn't respond, but the darting of his eyes told the Bradley brothers all they needed to know.
"Look man, whatever it was, it couldn't have been that bad," the younger Bradley stated, putting his hand on his friend's arm.
"Not that-you don't know nothin'!" he burst out, pushing his friend's hand off of his arm.
"Whoa. Dude, chill," Hunter said in surprise.
"Don't tell me what to do. You don't know! You weren't-" Dustin's sentence trailed off and he ran into the back storage room, Tori close behind. Dustin sniffled.
"Hey," she said quietly, she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. He let out a ragged breath, but let her pull him close to her. For a few minutes, he just cried as she rubbed his shoulders soothingly. Then, he turned around. Tori's throat muscles constricted at the look of pain on her friend's tear-stained face.
"I know you what you saw," she said.
"I was falling," he replied hoarsely.
"But it's not the falling itself that scares you," she stated. He shook his head 'no', confirming her thought.
"I-I-I wasn't just falling. He-he-he-pushed-he pushed-" he started to say.
"I know," she interrupted, her voice breaking. She still shivered whenever she thought about her parents telling her that Dustin was in the hospital because he had "fallen" out of his second story window…something that even then she knew hadn't sounded right. However, it wasn't until he had been beaten almost to death that the police were able to prove anything.
"The-the monster-and the collar-it just-it brought it all back. It brought it back," Dustin said, his voice choking up. Tori wrapped her arms around him. Then, they both cried.
THE END