A Light So Bright

A short one-shot, Nesta's nightmares

Nesta always wondered why she wound up in the Night Court when she had always hated the darkness. She'd often awaken from her slumber with pools of dark liquid drowning her, threatening the very sweet hopes she held dear. It would wrap around her dreams and hold her sanity in tight fists, as if it somehow knew she had scorned the very cauldron it was made from.

She remembered the branches scraping along the windows when the whole house was silent. When she was but a month shy of twelve. The branches would pound across her room, yelling for her to open or they'd come and catch her. Nesta would hide in the closet, curl up in a tight ball until the walls cradled her gently and hugged her back to sleep.

Every night after, when her parents tucked her in and Feyre and Elain were fast asleep, she'd clench her eyes together, swearing that if she never saw the darkness it would never see her either. So tightly shut that not even the night could pry her eyes open. And when she awoke to deep still purples and blues, she hid in the closet until reds shined in the back of her eyelids.

Nesta had always wondered what the fear stemmed from. It was not irrational to be scared, it was just irrational to fear nothing. But it was always in the back of her mind- Always, always be afraid.

It was the sound of crushing glass that made the fear tame, compared to that that overthrew her. The crushing of glass and the silence. The still calm darkness that urged her to take her sisters and hide. She had never been one to play with fire.

Nesta had tipped toed to the other beds. Briskly shaking them both, putting her finger to her mouth, and urging them to move. Feyre was still small enough so Nesta had carried her to the closet. The weight of her little sister was no match for the weight of the terror that consumed her.

The little closet pilfered with midnight and worry became the shelter housing three little girls huddled together. Small arms encircling them and twilight blanketing them in the still calm of the night. She didn't know why the darkness comforted her then, when so many times it had chased her away- why the very thing that frightened her somehow eased her pain.

After that night, when the light reached the crack of the door, Nesta didn't feel as if it had saved her from the perils wrapped around her thumping heart. Elain and Feyre had fallen asleep, while she had sat waiting for danger. It never came.

Hours later she would understand why the sudden need to hide was so prominent in her- why the sound of footsteps, crashing, and grunts made her realize the true trepidation of night. Her father had never been the same after they had crippled him.

So, when Nesta's eyes burst open to the sterile bleakness of her room and the darkness shed light on the rapid movements of her chest, she only wanted to hide. The night was a dangerous thing, a thief waiting to steal her fortune and her pride, an enemy ready to strike.

Her gaze quickly found that door, the one that had always sheltered her when there was no one else. Her body shivered from the cold or the fear she didn't know. Nesta ran to comfort, ran like a lost child who found her mother. So fast, the darkness could not catch her.

Nesta didn't know how long she had stayed in that tiny closet, stayed with only the rancorous beat of her heart and the screams she kept hearing from the nightmare that awoke her. She just wanted it to stop, all of it, every little rushed breath and shake of her hands.

She clenched her eyes together, clenched her fists together, until the whole world could hear only her heartbeat. No more death, no more fear, no more anything, nothing at all. Nesta just wanted to breathe again.

And suddenly a bright light made its way through the crack beneath the door, easing the shadows away from her tight fists and delivering sweet pardons on her behalf. Nesta didn't know how long she had stayed in that closet, but for once, she didn't mind the intrusion. An angel waited on the other side.

"Come on, Nes." He spoke softly, gently.

He held out his hands towards her, and despite what it meant for her, even though she was sure she would regret it in the morning, she took a hold of Cassian's hands and did not let go.

He pulled her up off the ground, shook off the dust and held her close to his chest. And even if reds did not drive out the blues that hid her from the world, she swore she saw a light encasing him. A light so bright she could breathe again.

A light so bright, she could finally feel again.

Happy Reading, I hope you like it!