Marooned

By Dixxy

Chapter Six

(Leena)

AN: Some ideas for these chapter are attributed to Lena Ban Obsidian.

The next day, I awoke to find that Glenn was (as usual) already up. But instead of hearing the sound of the Einlanzers smacking up against the old wooden practice dummy, I heard silence. Getting worried that Glenn was hurt, I kept my CureAll at the ready and raced down the ladder.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Glenn was just sitting quietly at the base of the tree, his chin in his palm and his elbow on his knee. I laughed, getting my friend's attention. "Glenn!" I said. "You scared me this morning! It was so quiet out here when I got up that I thought something happened to you!"

Glenn blushed. "I'm sorry, Leena, I didn't mean to frighten you. I was just thinking, that's all," he said. He stood up, brushing off his pants. Glenn looked at me a bit nervously, coughing. He slowly began to walk up to me, turning his eyes to the ground. "So, er, how did you sleep last night, Leena?"

"Fine, I guess," I said. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason! None at all!" Glenn said, shaking his head vigorously.

"Glenn?"

"Yes?" he asked tensely.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you feeling all right?" I asked.

Glenn laughed. "Why do you ask if I'm feeling all right?"

"Because you're acting weird."

The Dragoon paled. "I. . . I am?"

I shook my head, placing my hand on the side of my face. "Glenn. . . there's something wrong, isn't there?" I said. Glenn shook his head again, grabbing the collar of his tunic. I put my hand on my waist, clicking my tongue at him. "If you caught my flu then you should probably lie down."

"I'm not sick!" he insisted, picking up one of the Einlanzers. I watched as he darted over to the wooden dummy and started to hack at it wildly. "See? Everything's just fine, Leena! Look, I'm doing GREAT!" I scratched my head, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. This wasn't like him at all.

"Glenn! Calm down!" I said. Glenn stopped, breathing heavily as he lowered the blade's edge to the ground. I jogged over to him, placing a concerned hand on his shoulder. He shuddered, but turned to look me in the eye. "Okay, I don't know WHY you're acting like this but PLEASE- chill out! All right? Chill. It's only me, Leena. Take a deep, cleansing breath, all right?"

The noble knight did as I said, breathing in deeply and letting it out slowly. He nodded dumbly, placing a hand on the back of his head. "I apologize, Leena. I just lost my head there for a second. I'll be all right," he said. I smiled at him, giving him a pat on the back.

"Why don't you go lie down for a little while?" I suggested.

"All right," he said. He looked back at me, smiling weakly before he began to climb back up the ladder to the tree house. "I will see you in a few hours, Leena. If something happens, do not hesitate to awaken me. I promise I will not be grumpy towards you."

I frowned. "Okay," I said. "Have a nice nap."

"I would prefer not to call it a 'nap'," he said. "I just need to lie down." With that, Glenn disappeared into the tree house. After about five minutes, I climbed back up into the tree house. Sure enough, Glenn's still form was snoozing away. I smiled, putting my hand to my lips. Then, before I did something I was sure I'd regret, I went back down the tree house ladder.

Later that afternoon, a very sleepy Glenn climbed back down the ladder. I looked up from a book I'd found in the tree house and waved at him. He looked up at me, grunted his greetings, sat down on the ground with a yawn. "Whoo, Glenn, you don't look so good. You look awful!"

"I feel awful," he whimpered. And he DID look awful. His blonde hair was messier than usual, for starters, complete with nearly undone hair ribbon. Dark bags sat under his ocean blue eyes, which were also horribly bloodshot. His shoulders were very much slouched and he looked about twice his age from his posture.

I walked over and sat next to him, putting an arm around his shoulder. He leaned into me, resting his head on my shoulder. "Glenn, tell me what's wrong," I said. Glenn shook his head no. "No? You don't wanna talk about it?" He nodded. "All right. I won't press it any further if you don't want to talk about it. Can I get you something?"

"No thank you," he said.

"You sure?"

"Uh huh."

I ran my fingers through his hair, resulting in a sound of pleasure from the back of Glenn's throat. I could almost feel the tenseness leave him, and I smiled. "It'll be all right, Glenn. Whatever it is I'm sure that you'll be fine, all right?" I kissed his cheek, getting him to look at me in that tired curiosity you have when you're overly exhausted. I giggled. "I don't care if you don't want something, I'm hungry, and if you don't want lunch, that's fine by me."

"I'll have lunch," he said.

"Okay, you just sit tight and let me take care of it. It's the least I can do for you."

"Why?"

"Because you took care of me when I wasn't feeling good- and don't you dare tell me you feel fine because you don't look it! Got it? Got it. Good. And if I see you so much as LOOK at one of the Einlanzers the wrong way, you'll find it sheathed in a place where the sun doesn't shine," I said. Glenn dropped his jaw when I made the comment. "I was kidding about that last part, Glenn."

"Good, because that sounds quite painful."

That night, I awoke sometime, finding myself in the dark. Something had jolted me awake, yet I heard and saw nothing that told me what did so. Groaning to myself, I stuck my head under my pillow in attempts to go back to sleep. Glenn probably snored or something and it startled me. Yes, that was it. He snored. Perfect.

But he hasn't snored before. . .

"No. . . stop it. . ."

I slowly opened my eyes, yawning. What was that?

"Let me go. . ."

I sat up, looking over to where Glenn was sleeping. Or at least, where he was trying to sleep. Glenn was tossing and turning frantically, his breathing getting very quick and heavy as he whipped his head from side to side. His blanket was tangled around his feet, yet his legs were still trying to kick. His arms were whipping about in an almost random pattern. He was talking to someone, grunting and occasionally crying out in fear. I bit my lip- Glenn was having a nightmare.

"Get away from me. . . stop it. . . no. . ."

Concerned, I stood up and walked cautiously over to his bedside. "Glenn?"

"NO! STOP IT! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"GLENN!" I cried, my eyes widening in fear as I tried to hold his body down to stop the thrashing- he could have hurt himself that way! Unfortunately for me, Glenn was too strong and threw me off rather easily. I took one of his hands and held it between my own, trying to comfort him. "Glenn, calm down! Wake up! Please!"

By now his arms had begun to flail even more so and his face was pained. His hair was damp as sweat poured down his face in buckets, his free hand clawing at the sheets as he tried to get away from some imaginary foe. The hand I held was tightening its grip to the point where it almost hurt. "No. . . please. . . stop. . . I wanna go home! No! Stop it! Get away from me! Don't come any closer! No! No! Stop, please! I'm begging you! I didn't do anything to you! Have mercy on me!"

By now I was scared. What kind of a nightmare was this, anyways? "GLENN!" I screamed. No use- he was still lost in him nightmare. What's hurting him? Could this be what's been bothering him? Did he not want me to know about this? I sat down by his flailing form and grabbed his shoulders. I started to try and shake him away, all the while screaming as loud as I could to try and get him out of the dream. "Glenn! Glenn! Wake up, Glenn, you're having a nightmare! GLENN!"

"Curtis, no, stop it!" he cried, trying to push me away. "Get your hands off of me!"

Oh no, I said, recognizing the name. I tried again. "GLENN!"

"MOMMY! HELP ME! COME BACK TO ME! PLEASE!"

"GLENN! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" I screamed.

Glenn continued to scream and thrash about wildly, only getting worse. After getting slapped a few times, I backed away from him, watching helplessly as he lived through what I assumed to be his childhood trauma all over again.. No! I can't just leave him like this! I've got to do something to wake him up!

Getting an idea, I went into my element supply again. Glenn might not be too happy about waking up wet again, but it was the only thing I could think off on such short notice. "AQUABALL!" I cried, aiming the element at the still hysterical Glenn. As the water hit him, he started to gag and cough, sitting up straight as he held his chest, blinking in a mixture of fear and pure confusion. I rushed to his side, wrapping my arms around his shaking form as he continued to cry. Wordlessly, he returned the embrace and buried his now thoroughly soaked head into my shoulder. Not caring, I continued to hold him, trying to calm his shaking form down.

"Glenn," I said.

"I. . . I. . ." he tried to say.

"Shh," I hushed him, gently lifting his chin up. His eyes were red from tears, blinking at me in an almost childlike manner. Such a change from that morning when he'd looked so much older- now he looked almost several years younger as the fear began to take over. "It's all right, Glenn. It was only a bad dream. A nightmare. It's okay, you're safe here with me. I won't let him get to you're here. I promise."

Glenn sniffled. "You, you don't understand."

"I know that," I said softly. "I will never be able to understand what you went through. But I'm here for you, Glenn, all right? I'm here for you. That awful man can't get you now, because he'll have to get through me first and I won't let him." I hugged him again, his entire body trembling with each new sob. I rubbed his back, still trying to calm him down and console his tear-wracked form.

"Thank you," he said.

"It's okay, you don't have to thank me," I said. "But you're welcome anyways."
He buried his head further into my shoulder. "Ever since, ever since my father died, I've had that same dream over and over again. It, it never, ever goes away," he said. He sniffled. "So many nights I find myself five years old again in that cold, dark room with that monster looming over me. And he uses that knife again and again and again and Dario and Karsh never come and he starts doing even WORSE things to me and mocks me and laughs at me and-"

"Oh, Glenn," I said sympathetically. "You've been having this nightmare for fifteen years?" Fifteen years. I can't even remember back fifteen years ago. He's been having this nightmare longer than I can remember! Before some of the other party members were even born! Has he really been having the same dream over and over again for that long? I thought. My eyes narrowed. I bet that's what was bothering him when he came out of the tree house looking like he'd been hit with ThundaSnake- he must've had that dream this morning two. Oh, Glenn, you poor soul.

"Yes," he said softly. "And it only seems to get worse every time."

I pushed some of the damp hair out of his face. "Are you going to be all right?"

Glenn looked down. "I, I don't know."

I gently turned his face to look at mine. "Just relax, okay? It was just a dream, and dreams can't hurt you, right?" I asked. Glenn nodded, and I smiled. "Good, so we know that dreams can't hurt you. Now our next problem is figuring out how to get the dreams to stop doing this to you."

"Stop?" he asked.

"Glenn, if the dream hasn't gone away for fifteen years- three fourths of your lifetime, I might add- then you need help. I don't know what kind of help but you just can't live with that nightmare. I've never seen anyone thrash about like that in their sleep, Glenn, and it scared me. You look awful right now and I don't like that one bit. Please," I said. I looked into his eyes. "Don't you want to stop having that nightmare?" Glenn dumbly nodded, whipping some tears away with the back of his hand. I smiled, kissing him cheek. "Good."

"I. . . thank you, Leena. I feel a lot better," he said.

I shook my head. "It's all right," I said. I looked at the floor, then back up at Glenn. "You know, if it would make you feel better, we can sleep on the floor so you don't have to be alone. I'll understand if you say no, but if you think you need a life size teddy bear, don't be afraid to ask."

Glenn shook his head. "Thank you for the offer, but no thank you."

"You sure? I'm warm and cuddly," I said.

My friend shook his head, laughing nervously. "No thank you, Leena. G'night."

"Good night, Glenn," I said, giving him one last hug before retreating back to my cot. "Pleasant dreams."