1CHAPTER 4
NIGHTMARES
AAAAAHHHHH!
She was being shaken violently and could not control her screams.
The shaking would not stop. She was so scared.
She suddenly heard a faint noise in the dark distance and the shaking increasing.
The distant noise became louder and louder until it was almost a scream.
"EMMA! EMMA! EMMA STOP! EMMA!"
Emma struggled against the harsh shaking. "No! No stop! PLEASE!" she pleaded helplessly and frightened.
"EMMA! Wake up!" The shaking became more gentle as Emma opened her eyes and saw her dad sitting on her bed and her mom standing next to him with a worried look on her face.
Emma looked up at Snake, he was leaned over her in her bed firmly grasping her shoulders.
Then it dawned on Emma, 'He was the one shaking me'
Snake brought her into his arms holding her fiercely against his chest rocking her back and forth, "You were screaming Em, I didn't know what to do. I was anticipating the worst. I... Oh God! I couldn't get in her fast enough. I thought..." Snake squeezed her tighter to him murmuring to Spike about his worst fears.
"Oh Christine! I thought... I was sure. Oh Emma, God Emma we thought someone was attacking you."
Emma looked up at her dad with her tears still falling from her eyes, "I'm okay Dad."
"Emma what kind of nightmare were you having sweetheart? I was shaking you and yelling to you and you didn't hear me. I shook you for like five minutes Em."
She shook her head and tried to think hard about what she saw, but everything was blurry, even her dad appeared blurry, she looked up at her mom standing next to her dad, Spike reached down to caress Emma's for-head.
"I get you some hot chocolate honey." She turned to heading up the stairs, "Arch, hun do you want some?"
He waved to her telling her yes so he didn't have to take his attention away from Em.
Emma bolted up into a sitting position looking around her room worriedly, "Oh! Did I wake up Jack?"
Snake reassured her by rubbing her shoulders and gently pushing her back down on her back, "Rest hun, don't worry Em. Jack is still fast asleep, probably dreaming about the brownie he was denied at desert." He chuckled at the idea, both of them knowing it was true.
Emma lay in bed looking at the ceiling as her dad Snake busied himself in her room.
The fall night had brought a horrible chill, strangely more so than the years before.
Snake had just added a second quilt and was about to grab the other when something caught his eye from Emma's window at the top of her bed.
The view was from the side of the house and the only thing you could see were feet rushing by.
He turned to look at Emma, she laid there staring at the window with a far away look in her eye, she mumbled something he almost didn't hear, "Again..." her voice quivered and trailed off.
He shuddered and walked over and made sure it was completely latched. Satisfied he turned to Emma with a pressed smile who returned one of her own.
She turned her head slowly staring at the staircase waiting for her mother.
Snake looked down and then a sorrowful feeling rushed over his body.
He awoke before he heard her scream.
He had a nightmare that she was murdered. That had brought him from sleep frantically searching his dark room with roving eyes.
He lay there for ten minutes staring at the clock, sweating and too nervous to fall back asleep.
He was about to close his eyes when he heard her scream in terror. He was up from the bed and out the door before Spike had realized was going on; she herself being jolted by her screaming daughter.
He stood in the corner of the room looking at his daughter, remembering the fear as he raced down the stairs, jumping over toys and scrambling across the kitchen floor.
He remembers flinging the basement door open expecting the worse while coming in contact with his screaming shaking daughter.
He remembers the mixture of relief and still fear when he approached her to wake, when he shook her and she would not wake, the fear shot through him even more.
When Christine appeared and was begging him to do something, he felt helpless.
He was trapped between fear and anger, he couldn't wrestle this demon.
Then he remembers the demon of a nightmare that he had before and then te need to protect her became more fierce.
Just then Spike came bounding down the stairs with a tray in hand. The clinging of the ceramic mugs jostling him from his tortured thoughts.
After depositing the mug in Emma's trembling fingers, Spike then walked calmly over to him under the widow handing him his mug.
She smiled sadly and reached her arm around his waist. Whispering to him, "Look... she's fine Archie... lets go to bed."
"No... Christine... I would feel better if I stayed in the living room where I can hear better."
"Archie... it was just nightmare, she's a big girl."
He shook his head, "It would just make me feel better."
Spike nodded her head slowly, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.
She walked over to Emma and kissed her goodnight and disappeared up the stairs.
Snake walked up to Emma, "Honey, I am going to ... sleep in the living room. Hun if you need me..."
"Thank you dad."
He smiled down at her and walked up to the stairs. When he reached the first landing he turned slowly to her. She was staring at him questioningly.
"Em..." he started slowly, "How many times?"
She looked at him strangely.
"You said... 'again'?"
Emma's mouth formed a small O. She turned her head to the window staring out, she took a long slow sip from her mug.
"The night before you and mom got home." she took a deep breath and let it out it slowly, "That was the first time, Jay is the one that caught it. Sight... I mean."
He looked at her worriedly, "Em, that was a week ago."
She shook her head slowly then turned to face him again. "He was so scared Dad, he had sensed it before, you know. " She said slowly, looking at him with something gave him a chill. Something that he thought, 'YES' She was terrified, that's what he saw.
"He told me that he had something similar happed to him a couple nights before that." she shook her head as if trying to remove the next thought, "Those wondering feet have past my window three times, at first I thought it was imagination, from being scared that one night with Jay, then the next night. Now two days later, I thought... I had hoped it was over. ... I was wrong."
"In the morning I'm going to the hardware store and Jay and I are going to put a new window in, one with a good latch a stake to go against it. Something."
She nodded and took another sip, settling deeper into the pillows and quilts.
"Good night Emma. Rest assured. I'll leave your door open and I'll be in the living room."
She heard the drifting sound of an 'I love you' as he drifted into the upper level.
Emma turned to the window staring out like she could bore a hole through it.
She reached over and grabbed her cell phone off her night stand and pressed number two then talk waiting for the familiar voice...
He heard a rasping yawn then "hey baby... is something wrong... it's after three. Em?"
"I saw it again Jay." she heard the sharp intake of breath, "We are not imagining anything Jay, my nightmares... they are getting worse. ..."
When she heard him sigh, "Jay... something is going on... I'm scared" she cried out the last part.
She heard the rustling of linens then, "I'm coming to you"
"No Jay, my dad is listening for me, tomorrow he wants your help putting a new window in my room."
She heard him chuckle, "Bonding with dear ole' dad. Can't wait." he said sarcastically.
She muffled her giggle so her dad wouldn't hear.
"I love you Emma."
She made a kissing noise into the phone, "Love you too Baby"
She hung up the phone and turned her back to the window. She took one last sip from her mug and then placed it on the stand next to her bed.
She sighed with fatigue and still trembling form the fear of her forgotten nightmare and seeing the rustling f at her window earlier.
It had been over a year since all the horrors of the shooting had happened and yet she was till plagued by those fears and nightmare as well.
Something in Emma told her that she shouldn't disregard that.
Some nagging voice in her head screamed for her to never forget about it and if she ever selfishly did... it would come back to haunt her.
She had almost gotten completely comfortable with her life and now these strange things were beginning to happen.
She just wanted to forget all the horror form her past, and she wondered frighteningly if her dreams or nightmare would come true.
She stared at a picture of her and Jay, letting the tears fall freely from her eyes.
His nightmares were a lot like hers.
Last night he was sitting on her bed after dinner and he taken her hand in his, 'I dreamt you lost me. I could hear you sobbing, you mourned me Emma' . Then she saw something she had never seen before.
He had started to cry, his nightmare had put emotional fear in him.
She embraced him and his fears openly, that was the only way he could be weak, when she loved him for it.
They had gone through a lot to just be together, Jay was careful to not ruin with his coldness. He knew when he got her that he would cherish her and go through whatever means to keep her. Even if it meant showing his sensitivity, the side he swore to never surface.
But he loved her too much. Too much to be cold to her or in front of her ever again.
They both lay in bed scared to fall sleep.
The two of them in separate houses and in separate beds, thinking the same thing, fearing the same thing.
A/N: I really hope you liked it, I'm not sure because I haven't gotten that many reviews.
I hope to get more so I will be more compelled to finish. I want to so I will, I just want to make sure that everyone else is enjoying this.
So I severely hope you read and review.
'I dreamt you lost me' a quote from a favorite movie of mine: The Heart Of Me.
Please review and I hope it's good.
Lots and lots of love!
OH! And thank you to Dezzy-04, and everyone else. The reason I am thanking you specifically is because I got confused and ended up thanking you in another story of mine. I of course felt stupid! Your comment and review was really really nice. I loved it a lot.
I love every review I get, I just hope I get more.
PEACE ISA