Tnlock 30- The Nightmare Changes

Hey everyone. I know it's been forever and I'm really sorry about that. My computer has been broken for the past few months and I finally got it fixed last night. (Thank you IT people!)

The next chapter has already been written, so I'll post it hopefully really soon.

As always, Read, Love and Review.

Alek's POV

I watched Chloe as she slept, her face peaceful and a half smile danced on her lips. Her head rested against my shoulder when my arms were wrapped around her, holding her tight. She had fallen asleep almost an hour ago, during a movie and I didn't want to wake her. After all the constant nightmares she has had the past few weeks, along with training and everything else, I could tell that she was tied. The idea that she would soon wake up due to another nightmare ruined the moment.

Pretty soon, the movie ended and Mimi left. Derek was taking her place for tonight after Jasmine had asked for them to change the shifts so she could spend time with him. "I'm going to take her upstairs." I told them and they shifted from their comfortable position. Kai nodded and went upstairs with us, going towards the attic.

"We'll take the roof so you can stay with her." Jasmine offered with a smile. It was a win-win situation. Jasmine could spend time with Derek, I could be there with Chloe when she wakes up from her nightmare, but Valentina was satisfied that Chloe was being protected. When I set Chloe down on her bed, she barely stirred. Right about when I was going to sit down on her bed, I heard Chloe's mom walk through the front door. Man, we were lucky that we left when we did.

"Chloe? Are you home?" Meredith called. It was only around nine at night, so it made sense that she assumed her daughter was still awake. After a few minutes, she started to come upstairs so I quickly went to the roof, knowing Chloe wouldn't be happy if her mother caught me in her room again. "Chloe?" There was a light knock on Chloe's door before I heard it open and a few moments later it closed. Instead of going back inside, I stayed up there with Jasmine and Derek, talking with them.

It was ridiculous that all three of us were there. Not only was it unnecessary, but I'm sure they had a lot of other things they would want to do. "What's our next step for Chloe's training?" Jasmine asked me.

"Well she still needs to work on ninja stars." I chuckled slightly thinking about the last practice we had where she almost hit Mimi with one.

"Do you want to wake her up later tonight to work on them or just add some training time tomorrow after she gets off of work?" Derek asked.

"Don't wake her up tonight. We'll just do it later." I said, knowing that we should let her sleep for as long as possible before the nightmares wake her up again.

Four hours later, I heard Chloe's mom awake, talking to someone on the phone in the hallway. Meredith hadn't gone to bed yet, which was unlike her. She would normally go to bed two hours ago.

"Look, I can't tell Chloe yet." I heard Meredith whisper. "Something's going on with her, and until I find out what it is, I can't add more pressure on her." She continued. Jasmine gave me a stern look while Derek's arms were still around her. I heard Chloe's heart racing as she started to thrash in her sleep. The nightmare. Knowing that she had to suffer through that, again, really pissed me off.

"Alek, listening in on conversations never end well." Jasmine chastised me. We were still on the roof, pretending to be looking out for signs of danger. Maybe pretending isn't the right word, because we were listening for threats, but not all three of us had to do that at once. Once again, Valentina was being ridiculous.

"You know that Chloe would want to hear what he mom was saying." Kai pitched in. Around two hours ago, Kai had come out to join us on the roof, saying that he couldn't sleep. There was a large part of me that still didn't trust him, but talking to him made me see him a little bit more like how Chloe saw him- Human.

Kai was 18, only one year older than I was, but he had lived in over ten different states by now because his pack was always moving. He said more often than not, it was running into Mai that drove them to pack up and move somewhere else. The Mai would find them, call for back up, and try to kill as many of them as possible before the pack would manage to escape. Kai was only seven when he saw his older sister killed, and 13 when his best friend was.

"She was slaughtered, right in front of me." Kai said, but not really to us. He was lost in thought long before he got to this part of his story. "She was only twelve, and she was killed because a Jackal had killed someone from their Tribe over ten years ago. So they slit her throat, without a second thought." He took a big breath before letting out a sigh. "And then I ran, as fast as I could back to the pack. I left her there… That night, my dad led us to attack them back." He didn't go on to describe the fight, and none of us wanted to know. "Three people from both sides died that night. It was pointless and bloody."

I almost did the same exact thing. I would've, if Chloe hadn't been there to stop it.

"Exactly," I said, "It could be important." Jasmine sighed and rolled her eyes, but didn't argue with me. I started to focus in on Meredith's conversation again, but instead of hearing her talk, I heard Chloe's heart to start to race faster. Her nightmare was getting to the more intense part. I started to climb back into her room, knowing she would start to wake up soon.

"Arthur, I said I will, okay?" I heard Meredith hang up the phone, open her door, and start to walk downstairs. At that moment, Chloe let out a scream in her sleep: "Nooo!" I barely had enough time to leave her room before Meredith came bursting in, trying to figure out what was going on.

Chloe's POV

"Back from the dead so soon?" He snarled. "I always wondered how long it took you to come back."

"Chloe!" Amy cried, and then I heard a thump. She was hit hard enough to be thrown on the ground. I unsheathed my claws and tried to hit his face with them, but he was too far away. Instead, I settled for trying to claw at the hands around my neck.

But he didn't lose his grip around my neck. Instead, his grip got tighter. The feeling of suffocation was awful. Just as bad as drowning. I could feel the back of my head bleeding from where he slammed my head on the ground, and the bruises that would cover my body.

I kept trying to claw at his hands but it didn't make any difference- I was becoming too weak. My hands dropped to the side, giving up. I could hear Alek screaming: at me, at them. He was trying to escape his guards to get to me, but it sounded like he wasn't even close. It sounded like Amy and Paul were sobbing, but they were further away than Alek. Soon, dark dots clouded my vision, and I started to get dizzy. Noise seemed to fade, and the only thing I could hear was my frantic heartbeat pounding in my chest. Then, the world completely faded.

I shot up in bed gasping for air. It felt like I really was being choked just a few moments ago. "Chloe," I heard a voice say, but it wasn't the voice I was expecting. It wasn't Alek. "Sweetie, are you alright?" My brain wasn't functioning enough for me to make out who was trying to talk to me, even as a hand started to rub circles into my back comfortably. So instead, the voice sounded distant, almost as if it was the dream and not what I just experienced. Thump thump thump thump thump thump. I could hear my heart racing along with a ringing in my ears as my breathing continued to come in short, quick breaths.

"Chloe, did you have a nightmare?" The voice asked. It sounded closer, but it was still cloudy. Where was Alek, or Jasmine? Someone who knew about the dreams and would understand. I nodded my head for whoever it was. It was just a nightmare. Just a nightmare, I told myself over and over, but it didn't help.

The nightmare had changed.

After having the same nightmares appear over and over, having it change like that freaked me out. In this dream, I didn't just die once.

I died twice. Jasmine and Derek died. It was a blood bath.

I felt the claws on my right hand come out and dig into the mattress, tearing through the sheets like butter. The sound of Alek's heartbeat above room suddenly became clear as it started to quicken slightly. "I'm sorry Chloe. It must've been scary if it caused you to freak out this much." The voice suddenly became clear. It was my mother. My claws immediately retracted.

Panic soared through me. What if she saw? I couldn't explain it and she would freak. A bitter taste crossed my mouth and I barely made it to the toilet before my stomach emptied its contents.

I needed to calm down now, before she started to get suspicious, but I couldn't slow down my breathing. So as she walked into the bathroom, I held my breath so I wouldn't continue to almost hyperventilate. "Chloe, I'm going to go get you some water, okay Kiddo?" I nodded my head, thankful that my hair covered my face so she didn't see my expression. Once she left, I let out my breath and continued to breathe again. After a few moments, my breathing slowed though my heart continued to race. I flushed the toilet, put down the toilet seat and sat down, waiting for my mom to come back and ask a lot of questions.

"Here you go Chloe." My mom said, holding out a glass of water. I took the water from her, but quickly put it down on the counter when I noticed my hands were shaking. "Are you alright Kiddo?" Concern laced every word and I nearly cringed knowing that I would have to make something up.

"My stomach was hurting last night. I must've picked up some sort of stomach bug. It's nothing." My voice sounded off to me, but I was hoping that she would mistake it for me being sick. I felt her hand across my forehead, and then my cheek.

"You do feel really warm." Her voice sounded suspicious as she said that. "Are you sure you're alright? I heard you scream."

"Oh, that?" I tried to make my voice sound normal, but was failing. "You know me, I watched a scary movie with Amy last night and it completely freaked me out." I got up and started to brush my teeth like I would if I was truly okay.

"Chloe," My mom's voice was free from suspicion but now laced with motherly reprimanding. "You know I don't like you watching those movies." Luckily all I could do was nod at her because my mouth was full of toothpaste spit. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you feel like you're going to throw up again?

"I'm fine, honestly mom." I said while staring at the sink. The second she saw my eyes she would know that I was lying. "I'm just really tired."

"Okay, okay. I can take the hint. You go back to bed. I'll call the school in the morning to let them know that you won't be coming in."

"Thank mom," I said, sad that it was the first honest thing that I had said to her tonight.

"Love you Kiddo." She said as I was walking her out of my room.

"Implied." As soon as she closed the door behind her, Alek came into the room through the window.

Alek's POV-

As soon as I saw her face, I knew that something changed. Her heart was still beating rapidly. "Chloe, I am so sorry I wasn't there when you woke up."

"It's fine, just the same thing as always." She shrugged, surprising me. But when I saw her face, her scared face I knew she was still upset but was just trying to forget, so I decided to drop it. "Is there a party on the roof?"

"Of course," I joked lightly. "You know me, there's nothing like raising the roof a little when you're on top of it. Besides, I'm a party animal, or party cat." I gave her a quick kiss on her cheek when she passed me.

Chloe's POV

"What's today's date?" Kai asked suddenly.

"The third, I think." Jasmine stated, causing him to stand up quickly, looking panicked.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"My father said that he would move all the Jackals out of town today, because there was too much Mai activity due to the Uniter being here."

"Would he leave without you?" Derek asked.

"Wait, your father is the leader of the Jackal pack?" Alek asked directly after Derek.

"Yes to both of those questions." The panic in his voice was so clear that it nearly made me wince. "Thank you so much for everything, Chloe, but I have to go now. I hope that I'll see you soon."

"Wait, you don't think we're going to let you go by yourself, do you?" He didn't answer immediately. "Valentina probably has people waiting for us to leave you alone so they would swoop in and try to attack. We're going with you." Three heads quickly turned to stare at me.

"No," The four of them, including Kai, said at the same time.

"Yeah, cause you guys make my decisions for me, right?" Sarcasm laced every word.

"Chloe, it's not a good idea for you to walk into their place, I'm not sure how they would react." Alek explained, grabbing my arm lightly to get me to face him.

"We are not letting him go by himself. So either we all go, or all three of you plus Mimi go leaving me behind all by myself." I heard Alek growl slightly as the slight anger crossed his face. "Your choice." Alek and I both continued to stare at each other, neither one of us wanting to give in first. After what felt like a minute, I saw his posture start to relax.

"Fine," Jasmine let out some protests behind him, but we both ignored it. "But you follow everything I say, no hesitation."

"Okay,"

"I mean it Chloe." His eyes were piercing through me.

"Same here." After a few more moments of staring at me, Alek nodded.