AN: Hey! So this chapter is veered towards bonding. Well, for the most part. I hope you like it!

Chapter 22

I was in a white room, surrounded by at least a dozen identical doors. I went around to each and jiggled the handle, finding all were locked but one. That one door led to a bathroom, a bathroom that shared a striking resemblance to the one in my childhood home. Curiosity feeding my movement, I step closer and closer to the over flowing tub, tinted crimson. As I got closer and closer, a figure appeared in the liquid.

No, Jenna, this isn't real. Wake up.

I blinked repeatedly, but I was still in the same dreaded place. I stepped closer and closer, reaching my hand out to turn the pale outline.

"Mom?" I said shakily, tears threatening to fall. Abruptly, the head turned and the entire body suddenly began to rapidly decompose. Maggots crawled under the greenish-black botchy skin, if you could even call it skin anymore. The jaw dropped open and out came hundreds of cockroaches and beetles and flies. Terrified, I backed up quickly but tripped. I scattered across the floor, trying to put as much distance in between me and the corpse of mother.

It's just a dream, it's just a dream

Just as my back hit the door, the scenery changed. I was now in the closet of my aunt and uncles bedroom, peaking through a small crack in the sliding doors. MY aunt was screaming at my uncle, he was drunk again. "You're a dead beat no good rotten excuse of a man!" My aunt Joanne shouted with a finger in his face. That's when he snapped.

He leaped up and grabbed her by the throat with one hand and slammed her head against a glass picture frame on the wall. The actions made me flinch out of fear, which caused my head to hit the shelf above me generating a loud thump. My uncle immediately whipped his head and stared directing through the crack in the closet door. Not even seconds later, he charged and ripped the white pieces of wood apart.

"Eves dropping, eh? Well, wait till you see what I've got in store for you" His smarmy voice made my bones shake in fear. He grabbed me by the hair on my head and dragged me out of the room.

"Let go of me!" I shrieked over and over again, but no one heard me. My head began throbbing from the pull of my hair. Kicking and screaming, I tried and tried and tried to break free, but I failed. All of a sudden, he threw my body against a hard wall and began pacing. I struggled to haul my limp body, but before I got two feet I was met with a foot to the face.

"No, you're not getting away this time" His voice seemed to encase me. It shot at me from every angle.

"Please, just let me go" I cried, desperate for everything to stop.

"No, not until I'm finished with you" His sinful smile churned my stomach. Through my blurred vision, he began unfastening his belt.

"NO, NO GET OFF OF ME GET OFF OF ME!" I screeched and screeched and then-

"JENNA, JENNA WAKE UP!"

My eyes burst open and I was back in my bedroom at Spencer's. I was shaking, violently, and a layer of sweat covered my frail body. Spencer sat on the edge of my bed with his hands gripped on my shoulders. His dark, concerned eyes were trying to find mine but I was too frantic to fixate on any one thing. My pillowcase showed evidence of descended tears, something it was much too familiar with.

"Jenna, Jenna it's okay, you're awake now" Spencer whispered in a reassuring tone. My attention was darting around the room, almost like I didn't believe I was there. All of a sudden, my stomach flipped and I felt a giant lump traveling up my esophagus. I lurched over and heaved into the trash pale I was thankful I placed beside my bed. Spencer placed his hand on my spine, but quickly removed it when I cringed. I sat up and wiped my mouth with a tissue handed to me by Spencer, and we just sort of sat there for a moment while I kept my eyes pointed down at my comforter. I could feel Spencer looking at me, profiling me. I was too shook up to care honestly.

"Spencer?" I looked up and said weakly, thinking my tears were all gone. Once his gaze caught mine I instantly began to cry again. Spencer pulled me into his hold and stoked my hair gently as I wept. No one had done that for me in nearly ten years.

"Shhh, it's okay it was just a dream, it was just a dream" Spencer spoke softly.

"No, it wasn't just a dream" I mumbled into the crook of his neck. "It happened, it really happened"

A few minutes later I calmed down enough to pull myself away from Spencer. The time read 5:28, and I knew by then I wasn't getting back to sleep.

"I'm sorry I woke you up so early. Go back to bed, I'll be fine" I urged Spencer. He had had such a rough week, and I knew he hadn't been sleeping well, and I felt bad disrupting him with something as miscellaneous as a nightmare.

"You don't need to apologize, Jenna. You had a nightmare, they're a terrible demon to fight I know, I've been there. Here, follow me to the kitchen I'll make you some tea."

I don't remember how I got to the kitchen table, but I found myself sitting in one of the wooden chairs with my legs crossed over each other. I tried detangling my massive amount of hair that was now down to hips, but had no such luck. A few moments later, Spencer placed a mug filled with what I assumed was earl grey tea in front of. I didn't even know we owned any drink other than coffee and milk.

"Jenna, you said it wasn't just a dream, and that it happened, was it a memory?" Spencer seemed sort of like he was interrogating me, not in his tone of voice, but more of his stare and the wording of his question.

"Yeah, most of it. The last half more than the first." I replied, monotone.

"Can you run me through it?" It was the question I feared would come. I knew he wanted to help, so I ignored how uncomfortable it made and pushed through.

"At first, I was in my mother's bathroom. As I walked closer and closer to the tub, I-I noticed the water was dyed red. I went to see if my mom was okay but as soon as I touch her she began to rot, a-and there were bugs everywhere, coming out of her mouth and crawling under her decaying skin" I managed to be holding myself together fairly well.

"Then all of a sudden I was in my aunt and uncles bedroom closet" I started.

"Is this part entirely a memory?" Spencer intently asked.

"Yeah, yeah it is. Anyway, they were fighting, a-and my uncle drunk again. All of a sudden he snapped, and grabbed my aunt by the throat. I got scared and knocked a few things over in the closet and he came charging after me. He...He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me down the hallway" I swallowed the lump I felt forming in my throat.

"He threw me against the wall, a-and when I tried to get away he kicked me square in the face" I could see Spencer's muscles tense as I revealed more and more.

"I begged for him to stop, but he wouldn't. Th-then he started undoing his belt and then-" I got too chocked up to continue. I looked across at a worried Spencer, regretting telling him everything I did.

"Then what, Jenna?" he whispered tenderly. I didn't have the guts to tell him what really happened next.

"Then I woke up" I lied.

"Are you sure?" I had a feeling Spencer knew I wasn't telling the truth, but at that point I didn't really care.

"Yeah, yeah I'm sure" I lied again. Spencer kept his gaze on me, I suppose waiting for me to change my mind.

"Okay" He said skeptically and leaned back in his seat. We sat in silence again, the only hints of noise being our separate sips of tea.

"Since doubt either of us will get back to sleep, how do you feel about a Doctor Who marathon?" Spencer offered with a warm smile.

I grinned affectionately in response, something I didn't think I would be able to do for a while.

"I'd love that, Spenc, I really would"