Thank you Happy for you're review! It definitely gave me a lot of insight of what happens when I get one and I now know I just need to check my emails lol.

Julie's PoV

Nothing good ever lasts for long, I have been happy, life felt safe, good and I felt loved for the first time in a very very long time but nothing good ever lasts forever. I woke up screaming and was met face to face with three concerned faces that for once I didn't want to see. I couldn't even consider dealing with that right now, I needed to get up and get out, I felt like I was suffocating and needed air so I pushed Alex over, grabbed my boots and my jacket then ran for it. I didn't stop running till my lungs were aching so much and I was coughing. I took a minute break then kept pushing, I needed to feel pain to remind myself that I was alive. My legs were in so much pain and I was pretty sure my feet had blisters on them from running in new boots but I didn't care, I only made an adjustment from running like my life depended on it to power walking. At some point I threw up but after a few minutes I kept walking, pain was better than dealing with my head right now.

Lukes PoV

I woke up immediately as soon as I heard Julie's blood curdling scream, she was having one hell of a nightmare and all of us were worried. Then silence, like she stopped breathing silence and I had to lean in to make sure she was still breathing. We all backed up a little wanting to give her space when she did wake up but so far it was five minutes since her initial scream and she hadn't woken yet. She started struggling a little and I was beginning to guess what her dream might be and believe me, my thoughts were not very comforting. We had all tried calling out to her, shaking her gently but nothing. Eventually after ten minutes of literal hell for us, she woke up, took one look at us then shot out like a bat out of hell. We all scrambled to find our shoes and clothes to follow her but dam was she fast. Something had scared this girl so much that her own mental mind was causing her to go into flight mode even though she was awake.

None of us were very athletic, but as ghosts we realized that we didn't tire the same way humans did so we were able to keep up to her but wanted to give her space at the same time so we stayed out of her eyesight and hearing. We watched as she ran, then slowed down to power walking then vomited and still kept going. What had happened to her, I wanted to hold her or burn the world down in my anger at whoever did this to her. It was probably her father. Slowly after hours of her running or power walking, she began to slow and sway then collapsed onto the grass. I poofed to catch her before she hit her head on a rock and scooped her into my arms. I realized this would look extremely strange if anyone saw a floating girl so I sat down with her in my arms and held her close with her head nestled into my shoulder. She had run herself to exhaustion and was probably very dehydrated. Reggie and Alex caught up, Alex sat next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders pulling me into his shoulder while Reggie knelt down to feel her forehead. I hadn't even realized that I was crying.
"She needs to drink water when she wakes," commented Reggie. He sat down on my other side and started doing things off of Julie's phone.
"Alright today is Wednesday, I cancelled her appointment that she was supposed to make and told them she will try to come in or see someone else but at the moment isn't able to come in. Is that okay?" Reggie asked me.
I just nodded my head, it was cold out even with Alex's arm around my shoulders. If Julie didn't wake soon this could become dangerous. I continued stroking her hair with my free hand that wasn't holding her head to my neck and prayed no one would look in our direction and wonder how someone was sitting in mid air yet fast asleep.

After what felt like hours but was only twenty minutes, Julie began to stir and scrunch her face up as she stretched her cold limbs. "Hey" whispered Alex as he reached over to grab her hand. Julie looked up and after a few seconds of realizing what she had done, flung herself at Alex for a bear hug. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sooo sorry" she said over and over into his shoulder. "Here Julie, you can make it up for us by drinking water please, your body is severely dehydrated" said Reggie as he gently put a bottle of water in front of her face.

She sat back next to Reggie, facing me and Alex as she drank half the bottle of water. "Thanks, I'm really sorry for running. I had a really bad dream and couldn't stay still, I needed to just run" said Julie with tears forming in her eyes.
"It's okay, do you feel like you wanna talk about it though? If not, that's fine" I said. Julie was silent for a few minutes just breathing deeply, Alex and I had grabbed a hand each gently in ours while Reggie stroked her back. Eventually she found the courage to speak although we could all feel her body trembling in fear.

"I was back in my house, screaming at my father and fighting to get away then suddenly I was in the dirt, being buried alive while he laughed at my fear, this time there was no straw though and I was suffocating" she whispered as tears streamed down her eyes.

We all leant forward and surrounded her in a massive bear hug.
"I'm sorry guys for running, I was just so scared and I needed to run to feel some sort of pain to know that I really was out of there. I couldn't stop myself once I woke up"
"Julie you might have P.T.S.D, if this happens again I think you might have to talk to someone professional that can help you if talking to us isn't helping" Alex said while tightening his grip around her.
"Ah Alex too tight, that hurts my back sorry" she said.

We let go of her and Reggie ordered her a taxi to come take us home. Alex poofed off to tidy up the cave and then we all made our way back. Julie was very quiet even once we got into her room. I helped take off her bandages and she showered, washed her hair, brushed her teeth and we reapplied fresh bandages. I then gave her some more antibiotics, and I rubbed cream into her head where her gash was healing nicely. I had noticed the rope burn on her wrists and ankles. I dressed those in bandages with cream from our first aid kit that we brought back with us. She still hadn't said a word even when I asked about the rope burn, Julie just shrugged. I braided her hair off to the side then turned to let her out since I wanted to shower and contemplate her silence. Something was bothering her but she clearly wasn't ready to say it out loud. After my shower Alex and Reggie had one and then poofed off. Julie had turned the TV on and was watching it but not really. Eventually the silence was driving me nuts so I got off the couch to sit next to her on the bed to try talking to her. I sat in front of her so she had to look at me instead of the TV.
"Julie, what is wrong?"
She looked down, took a deep breath and looked me back in the eyes. "I don't want to have P.T.S.D, I couldn't control my running before, what if I seriously hurt myself? What if I run into traffic next time? Also I hate that I'm such a burden, maybe I should have died that night, it would be easier for you guys, instead of having to do all these things for me you could be concentrating on moving on. It's why I didn't mention the rope burn, I didn't want to add more stuff to my ailments".
I was speechless, but apparently we weren't alone. Alex and Reggie suddenly were next to Julie on the bed and were cuddling her from both sides.
"Sorry we didn't leave, we couldn't so we just hid in the wardrobe. Julie look at me please and listen" said Alex as he gently tilted her head to look at him.
"No one can control the way their mind is going to react. You went through something traumatic and your mind is trying desperately to deal with what happened. You need to just give yourself time to adjust to your new reality. You made it out, you are alive and you are free and you aren't a burden to us. Even if we were alive, there is nothing we would do differently, we really care about you, I promise and we aren't going anywhere! Doesn't matter how many issues you have, we will always be there for you okay?" Alex said with tears coming down his eyes. He had a cousin once who had similar issues and ended up killing herself so it was rather personal to him that Julie knew she was loved.
"Besides, our lives would not be easier if you had died that night. Do you know how difficult it would be to stop Luke from going on a killing rampage for the rest of his existence? That's not really how I want to spend the rest of our existence" said Reggie, bringing a smile to her face.

I reached over and grabbed her hands gently in mine. "It's true Julie, if anything you gave us a purpose again, we have another chance at life because of you. If you never had played that CD we would have been in a dark room for the rest of our existence. To answer your other question, how can we help the next time? We could easily grab you and stop you from running but would that help? Or do you want us to run with you?" I asked.

"I dunno, I didn't want to be touched at the time, maybe try giving me space so I don't run and then sit with me or offer me a hug when you think I need it? I ran because I felt trapped because of my dream then waking up and being physically trapped probably didn't help. Could also try distracting me maybe with TV or something and I'll try my best to just sit down and not run" Julie said.
"If you need to run you need to run Julie, we can try to keep up with you to stop you going into somewhere dangerous you just gotta try not run as fast!" said Reggie. This brought another smile to her face and we decided to drop the subject there.

It was nine at night and we knew that Nancy would be down stairs so we sent her off to go have her back looked at. I went with her but stayed in the background so Julie wouldn't accidentally talk to me in front of Nancy. Nancy was very good, she looked everything over without asking questions and kept her opinions to herself. Everything was healing the way it should be and Julie was sent back up to her room with a plate full of food. She hadn't eaten all day and Nancy had made roast chicken with roasted potatoes, carrots, sweet potato, parsnips and gravy. It was so good that Julie actually was able to finish it all and didn't need help. We then tucked her into bed and poofed out into the hallway for a band meeting once she was asleep.

Alex and I immediately started pacing in opposite directions down the hall way while Reggie sat down in quiet contemplation.
"We have to make sure she doesn't feel like that again, like she is a burden, it's not a good path to spiral down!" I said.
"Agreed" Reggie and Alex said at the same time.
"We have to figure out how to keep her safe from hurting herself and sane, I don't want her to spiral down the same path my cousin did" said Alex as he was pacing in the opposite direction of me.
"I think I might have a solution to that. Come sit, you guys are stressing me out with your pacing. Why don't we ask her how she feels about moving up to Seattle? Remember Luke that was your dream once we had all finished high school. To go get on a train, live up there and try to make it with our music, before you had to run away and drop out so no one would find you. It's an opportunity for a fresh start and we could get a big place for all of our gear. She could finish off school and it might help her get better. Her dad hopefully won't think to look out of the area for her and it won't be in the back of our minds to look over our shoulders" said Reggie.
"What about her younger brother?" I asked as Alex ducked his head through the wall to check that she was still sleeping.
"She will have to leave him behind. We can always check on him and once she's eighteen she could ask to take him in. That's the one flaw to my plan, it's best for Julie but it means she does the one thing she didn't want to do in the first place although at this time she doesn't have a lot of options that are going to help her mental health" Reggie said sadly.
"Where is your drum set Alex?" I asked just realizing I hadn't seen it.
"I poofed it into a storage unit as well as all of our stuff and yes your couch is in there too. The whole place was burnt down so I saved everything I could. I think it would be a good idea Reggie, if we had more room we can set up the place with stuff from her mum and it would help her recover. I found a chest in the loft that looked like a bunch of costumes her mum wore once. I'm not sure if Julie even knew it was there" said Alex.

We talked for a few minutes then I went to lay on the couch while Alex and Reggie poofed to check on her brother. Reggie was going to wake him up and ask him how felt about the idea of Julie moving. He wasn't going to go into details just that she wasn't doing very well and a move would be good for her. He would still check in and be a phone call away but the family that Carlos was staying with was one of those nice ones where Carlos could have a normal safe childhood.

I softly played on my acoustic guitar and was thinking about a new song I could write when I eventually fell asleep with my guitar still in my hands contemplating the relationship I had with Julie. I liked her, I think she liked me but I wasn't sure. I was still a ghost so not really an ideal person for her to date and I had a feeling I was falling fast into the brotherly relationship category.