*~*~*
The light glints off the knife as he holds it by his waist. “You deserve this” he sneers. My body won’t move, it’s stuck to the floor. I try to shout and panic when no sound comes out.
He throws his head back and laughs, his eyes darken as he gets closer.
“You’ll never escape me baby” he leans over me “I’ll always be there, watching, waiting”
I watch as his arm lifts up and comes back down in slow motion. I try one last time to call for help. Opening my mouth-
“Kay? Kay!”
“No please don’t!”
“It’s me, Ty.” My eyes
sprang open, Ty stood over me, a frown marred on his forehead.
“I…I…” I tried to catch my breath, my throat burning with each inhale.
“You’re okay sweetheart,” he caressed my face as he sat down on the bed.
“No”. I shook my head “It’s not okay, he’s right.”
“Who’s right?” I looked around, sure that he would be in the room with us.
“Max”. I croaked “He’ll always be there, I’ll never escape him.”
I held back a sob knowing that if I let it come out I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stop. It was always the knife, he never used his fists in my nightmares only ever that knife.
“I won’t let him touch you Kay.” Ty grunted.
“You don’t understand,” I shook my head and turned to him. “He’ll always be here.” I tapped my head and met his gaze. “Right here, I can never forget what he did to me.”
I tried to keep calm, but the more I concentrated the less I could breath. My fingers started to tingle, my head spinning.
“Breathe Kay.” I shook my head, trying to tell him that I couldn’t.
I was having a heart attack. I slapped my chest trying to tell him without words.
“It’s just a panic attack.” Ty cupped my face in his hands and breathed with me.
“We’re gonna count, okay?” I nodded and listened to him count not moving my eyes from his.
“One, Two, Three, Four-” By the time he got to twenty I felt like I could breathe again.
I was so tired and mentally drained because I couldn’t get the rest that I needed. Sleep wasn’t helping, in fact it made it worse.
I lay back in the bed and turned on my side to face Ty.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked cupping the side of my face.
This is where I would always say no, but tonight something felt different. I wanted to tell him about Max, about all the things that happened. None of them knew what happened that day and for the first time I felt like I wanted to tell someone, for them to know more.
“Yes,” I whispered.
His eyes widened “Really?”
“I don’t want to talk about everything yet,” I cleared my throat “But maybe I can tell you what happened in my nightmare?”