Anne woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for air.

She sat up and took a moment to steady her breathing. After a moment, she put her hands on her arms. She hated having those nightmares, and she hated having them as frequently as she did. It made her really not want to sleep or back to it at times.

Anne picked her phone up and turned it on. She squinted her eyes as she looked at the time. It was too early to be awake, especially for a weekend day. She sighed while she put it away. She didn't want to go back to sleep yet so she got up and walked out the room.

Anne walked down the hallway. She stopped walking when she was about to pass her parents' room. She stared at the door, heavily contemplating on going in. Her hand reached for the doorknob. It stopped moving when it almost touched the knob. Her lips pressed together and her eyes closed halfway. She sighed through her nostrils. Anne pulled her hand away.

No, she couldn't bother them with the same nightmares she'd been dealing with for years now. She knew how rough it was for them to know how much she'd been suffering, so maybe it was best to leave them be for now. They were probably tired of her being a broken record anyways.

Anne walked away from it for now. She went downstairs and into the kitchen. She grabbed something to drink before she sat down. A yawn escaped her. Anne rested by her head onto her hand. She stared ahead, almost staring off into space.

Even if she knew she wasn't at fault, she still fell back to blaming herself at times like she did now. Part of her felt like she could've prevented the sexual abuse somehow. She shook her head at the thought. Anne thought she was past that, but there were still bumps in the road and she had to remind herself of that. It was like a painful cage she kept crawling back into whenever she thought of stuff like that, whether she realized it immediately or not.

She took a swallow of her drink and she sighed. The whole thing made her feel tired, irritated, not to mention afraid. It was something she might never fully heal from. It might be something that would haunt her forever. Anne hated every bit of it, and it made her want to cry.

She took some deep breaths. She didn't want to cry before she went back to bed. There were too many sleepless nights where she'd done that, she didn't want to add this one to the painful count.

"Anne?"

Anne immediately looked up. For some reason that made her jump. When she saw it was just her mom, she relaxed. She looked back to her cup.

"Hey, Mom." She replied.

Oum walked over to Anne and sat down next to her. She had a worried look on her face.

"Did you have another nightmare?" She softly asked.

Anne rested her head on her hand again. "Yeah…"

Oum hugged Anne, who put her cup down and hugged back. Her mom hugged her tightly.

"It's okay, you know we'll never let him back into this house." She gently reassured.

"I know." Anne responded. "…Does it ever get better? I mean, past now anyways."

Oum didn't respond right away. Her hug lightened up just slightly. It was like she wasn't certain about the answer she'd provide.

"I don't know, Anne, but you know we'll always have your back. You're never alone."

If that was the case, then why did Anne feel like she was alone? It felt like she was the only one who felt the way she did. It sucked feeling like this. She hugged her as tight as she could.

A few tears escaped Anne no matter how hard she tried to not cry.