Nightmare

By

AJ

"NOOOOOOOOO!" screamed the young man, his eyes wide with terror. "MOM! DAD!" NOOOO! NOT YOU, TOO!" He watched in horror as they fell, as they all fell. Tears streamed down his face as if it was yesterday. His heart raced with the anguish that he would never see them again. He clutched the blanket and rocked back and forth, still in the throws of the nightmare that was all too real. He sagged back on the bed, turning on his right side and curling into a ball. Why now? Why after all this time? Then he remembered the date. He had not visited them in so long. And the pain in his chest reminded him that he still ached for another, a man who became his father in all but name. If only . . . "No, no, no. He doesn't need me any more. He doesn't . . . want me." The young man knew he should just dismiss the nightmare and go on, but he could not. He had lost so much, his parents due to death, a home and friends who loved him but he could not stay, and now another home, and another father, all due to his pride and a misunderstanding. The young man was the one who walked away. And then the young man found out he had been replaced, in every aspect. The feeling of loss stayed with him for that year. He tried to become something that he wasn't, and lost something that was so precious to him, that he no longer knew who he was to anyone, even to himself. He felt lost, alone, and afraid. The night terrors returned in force, the last one being the worst. If only . . . but pride kept him from returning, pride and the fear of ultimate rejection.

'I'M . . . SO . . . SORRY," he said, crying out his anguish out the open window into the night air. "PLEASE, FORGIVE ME," but in his tortured heart and mind, seeking absolution, he didn't know if the other would even hear him. He turned away and buried his face into his pillow once more poring out his broken heart.

Then a voice faint and gentle reached his ears, that at first he wasn't sure he heard it. He turned his tear stained face toward the open window, but there wasn't anyone there. A soft footfall, barely audible caught his attention and he turned to see a shadow far deeper than the rest.

"It is all right. I am here," the tall shadow said, and it moved forward to engulf the young man in its embrace.

"I . . . I . . . didn't think . . . you'd come . . . because," the young man's words would not come through the tears that continued to fall.

He felt the shadow lift him into his arms and held him close, "Don't you know by now I will always come when you really need me?"

"I . . . thought . . . you didn't care . . . any more," the young man wailed.

"How could you think that?"

"You . . . have a son . . ."

"No, I have two."

The young man's eyes narrowed. "I don't understand."

The shadow didn't answer. "Your nightmare called me. And I would not be here if I didn't care. I know what this night means to you. Ten years ago they fell. And it was ten years ago that we joined together. You are still a part of me, as I am a part of you. You are my son just as much as you were the son of your parents."

"What about . . ."

"He isn't you, and he needs someone to help him learn."

"I . . . think I understand."

"Go to sleep," the shadow said. "I shall watch over you until dawn."

"But . . .What about?"

"You were in trouble, and that is my job. To watch over you and to catch you when you fall."

The young man moved back to the bed and weariness overtook him. He felt the presence of the shadow watching over him, protecting him from the nightmares. All too soon the young man was waking up to the sound of the birds chirping in the trees and the shadow that protected him was gone. He frowned at first thinking it was just a dream, until his eyes fell on the note.

"I will always be there when you truly need me. That is my oath to you.

B"

The young man smiled as hope soared in his soul. Though others might see the shadow that held him in the night as the nightmare, the young man saw that shadow more than ever as his guardian angel. Dick Grayson got up to start his day with a spring in his step, and hope in his heart.