Stephanie's Halloween Fright
Halloween 2017 was going perfectly. Matthew and Stephanie were dressed up as a humorous interpretation of Peter Pan and Wendy, with Mathew being a bag of greasy fast food from the restaurant named Wendy's, and they were struggling through a 'Try Not to Scream' challenge in front of thousands of people on their daily live stream. A V.R version, in fact, that had enough scares to make Mathew know he was going to have nightmares for weeks to come. Jason and Chris had done a good job finding some scary experiences for the occasion. Mathew was free for the moment, though, and happily on Stephanie's laptop scrolling through Twitter. He glanced over at her, huddled on the ground in fright while crawling through a virtual haunted house. He was slightly concerned, but knew she could handle it. The only things that really bothered Stephanie were extreme gore and nasty sounds. Jason and Chris knew better than to include any of that. Mathew smiled down at his laptop, about to read off another tweet on the live stream when he heard his wife scream out in terror. He started to laugh and glanced over at her again, but saw that she was wildly waving her hands in front of her face and her deep breaths had turned into panicked gasps. A quick glance at the screen caused his laughter to stop immediately and he placed the laptop carefully down on the couch beside him.
"Stephanie?" he called out, sliding down to the ground beside her, "Steph!"
His voice was lost to her ears as she fell down backwards, now laying on the floor struggling to get a breath of air into her lungs. She was whimpering and shaking, tossing back and forth as though in a nightmare. The screen still showed the knife being violently plunged into her body over and over again. Blood spurted everywhere. The scene would not end. Mathew grabbed the V.R headset and tried to pull it off, but Stephanie began screaming again immediately, rolling away from him. Mathew stopped and called out to her again. She was totally unaware of her husband's presence, unaware of everything except the fact that she was dying. Mathew knew she was having a panic attack.
"Stephanie, honey? It's just me. It's Mathew. I'm going to take that off of you, okay? You're going to be alright. I promise."
Steph seemed to lean into his touch this time as he carefully took the headset off. Afterwords she still lay there, struggling to breathe, and Matt was terrified. In anger he turned to his two best friends and snapped, "Who picked this one out? Chris?"
Jason and Chris were standing near Steph, clearly not knowing what to do. Their hands kept hovering near her then moving away. Chris turned to Matt, worried tears in his eyes, and nodded meekly. The horrifying scene faded to black on the television.
"How could you? Are you stupid?" Did you not even play the game?" Matt roared, putting a careful hand on Steph's shoulder. She had raised a fluttering hand to her chest.
"Yeah...I just...I didn't know you could die." Chris stammered, "I didn't know that would happen! The reviews didn't say anything and I...I just..."
"Well, good fucking job." Matt growled.
"Mathew!" Jason snapped, putting a comforting arm around Chris' shoulders, "This isn't his fault. Just..help her."
Matt let out a quick 'sorry' and turned back to his wife who was still laying there shaking. Her breathing had only gotten worse. He brought a hand to her chest, feeling her frantically beating heart. It felt like it was about to escape from her body. The sounds coming out of her didn't sound human. He pulled her into his arms, leaning her chest against his so she could feel his steadier heartbeat. She tried to pull away and he started to rub her back.
"Shh...you're alright. I got you."
"No...no, no, no...please. Make it...make it stop." Steph whimpered. She had turned a ghastly shade of white and her eyes were dazed and unfocused. Matt just pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. She was in another place and so vulnerable and exposed. It physically hurt him seeing the love of his life like this. He had only seen this happen a few times and each time it hurt worse for both of them.
"Baby, please...you have to trust me. You have to breathe for me, okay?" Matt begged, "It's just a panic attack. Nothing is going to hurt you. I wouldn't let it."
Instead of Steph being comforted, however, her agonized breathing reached a new, frightening level of practically not existing. Her fingers twisted tightly into her shirt, clawing madly at her chest. Her other hand dug so hard into Matt's arm that he winced in pain.
"Stephanie." he whispered, covering Steph's hand with his own. He was glad she didn't pull away this time, but the relief didn't last long because he realized he was not even sure if his presence was being noticed.
"Steph." Matt continued rubbing her back, holding her to him so she could feel him and try and steady her breathing,
"Stephanie. You need to calm down. You need to breathe, baby."
Finally Steph responded, but her answer was not comforting in the slightest, "I...can't...breathe…it h-hurts." she panted out. Tears were pooling in her brown eyes and spilling down her cheeks, "It hurts." she whimpered again.
Matt nodded, "I know. I know it hurts. But it'll get better if you breathe. Breathe, Steph."
Stephanie's grip on his arm loosened and Mathew became alarmed. She wasn't breathing! He himself was now starting to panic.
"In and out, Steph. With me, okay?"
Finally Steph nodded and Matt let out a sigh of relief. He helped her copy his breathing until it eased into a more regular rhythm. Matt felt her heartbeat return to a safer, steadier beat and let out a sigh of relief.
"There," he whispered. "That's it."
Steph, still shaking, leaned back into Matt. He massaged her shoulders and back, still trying to relax her.
She finally got her breath, "Oh god...oh god...I'm so sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for, honey."
Jason and Chris backed away, agreeing. Jason had his phone out, ready to call for an ambulance and Chris was trembling. Steph looked at them, no longer crying, but her eyes still red and watery. Her voice was hoarse, dry, and cracked from the panic attack but the three men were listening and heard the whisper clearly, "The live stream."
"Oh, crap!" Chris cried out and he and Jason immediately turned and got to work. They shut it down, typing out a message of apology in the description and chat. They moved onto Twitter as Matt scooped Steph up and sat on the couch with her in his arms. They were still huddled there five minutes later when Jason and Chris asked if they should leave. Matt nodded, apologised to Chris for his outburst, and said goodbye. Steph gave a small wave and Jason told her to feel better. The next time either one of them moved or spoke was when their cat Skip hopped up beside them and Steph reached out to pet him.
"He's hungry." she whispered.
"We'll feed him, and us, in a minute." Matt told her.
Steph slipped off his lap and sat beside him, leaning against her shoulder, 'I'm sorry. I ruined the live stream."
"No you didn't!" Matt cried out.
Steph looked at him, "But-"
Matt shook his head violently, "Don't ever say that! You couldn't control having a panic attack. That wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. I saw the chat and Twitter, okay? They were all just concerned for you."
"I just feel bad." Steph tried to explain, tears welling up in her eyes. The panic attack had exhausted her, "It just...the blood...it brought back bad memories."
"I know, honey." Matt wrapped an arm around her, "But I'm here for you. You know I would never let anything happen to you."
"I couldn't breathe."
"You can now."
"Thank you for helping me."
"You'd help me too. In fact, you're the one that calms me down from nightmares almost every time. It's about time I started pulling my weight around here."
Steph giggled and it was the best sound in the world to Matt. He smiled at his wife lovingly, "How about I tuck you into bed and get you some tea and a grilled cheese sandwich?"
"I'd like that very much."
"We can snuggle all night."
"Okay." Steph smiled, and the happily married couple knew that everything would be okay. They knew that as long as they had each other, they would always be okay.