My body jolts forward, and my head slams into the bunk above me again. I gasp for air, watching the shadows of the night still gripping my mind turn into the monsters from my dream. I scream as I try to dust the invisible volts of electricity off my body, and Hale’s arms wrap around me to pull me out of the bed. I convulse violently as the shocking waves continue to haunt me, and all I can see is the spotlight shining on the scorpion shredding a bird. My hands scour my body to find the rods that were just protruding from it, but they’re not there anymore.
Where are they? I can feel them. I know they’re here.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” Hale coos.
Brazen swishes over as a bump in the road sends me falling into his arms. His hands stroke my hair as he pulls me into his chest. His breaths are slow as they try to steady my ragged ones. His cool touch soothes the demons within as he protects me from my nightmares.
“Araya, you’re in an RV, not the prison cell. You’re not chained up, you’re not being tortured, and no one can hurt you,” he says in mantra.
He always explains where I am and tells me I’m safe when I wake from a night terror. I stare blankly into his trembling eyes, and he looks up momentarily to meet the eyes behind me before retuning his gaze to me.
“I’ll go get you something to drink,” he murmurs softly while staring into my terrified eyes.
His cool, soft lips stroke my forehead as they have so many times before he relinquishes his hold on me. Hale’s arms clutch me to him so that I don’t go falling forward anymore.
“Talk to me, baby,” he gently urges.
I’m too numb to talk though. I still feel panicked, and I’m just waiting on the next burst of the violent energy to attack.
“She won’t talk for at least twenty to thirty minutes after an episode that bad,” Brazen answers in my place.
“I’ve never seen one that bad.”
“I’ve seen them worse. She blew out the side of our house once after one far more severe than that. Not to mention the three she destroyed before that. Nothing even vibrated this time. They come in waves. She was probably provoked by the earlier encounter with that symbol.”
“Fuck,” Hale huffs, his arms tightening around my trembling body.
“She said she always screams for me,” he murmurs softly.
“She does,” Brazen huffs out, his eyes closing momentarily. Hale pulls me to be completely in his lap as Brazen continues. “She told me you gave her hope to keep breathing. They forced her to drink blood daily, and they denied her any other drink or food, trying to force her to be a beast. I didn’t understand what that meant at the time, and she never elaborated. She said she knew you would come, and she kept breathing because she didn’t want you to find her dead.”
Hale’s grip tightens on me again, and then I snuggle into his embrace.
“She’s responding sooner than normal. That’s a good sign,” Brazen says, noticing my reaction to Hale’s embrace.
He forces a straw into my mouth, the plastic scratching against my dry, now cracked lips.
“Please drink this. It’ll help.”
I can’t drink though. My mouth is on fire just like always, but I’d rather feel the burn than taste anything right now. It will feel too much like the blood they force fed me to keep me healed.
“Please drink baby,” Hale coos. “Please talk to me.”
I’m frozen stiff. I’m terrified this is the dream and the reality is the nightmare I just jarred out of. So many times I dreamt I was in Hale’s arms only to wake up to thousands of volts of electricity surging through me with merciless force.
Hale sighs when I refuse to respond or react, and Brazen comes over to kneel in front of me.
“Her eyes are very weak. She may need blood to recover from this one.”
“No,” I cry out, and then my body starts convulsing violently once again.
I feel blood running from my mouth after my tongue is sliced by my teeth, and Hale grips me tighter to keep me from doing further damage to myself. The vehicle starts swerving wildly when my gift seeps out.
“Pull the fuck over,” Brazen yells, and I feel the fresh air slapping me in the face as Hale rushes me outside to keep me from tearing the vehicle apart.
“Fuck,” Brazen breathes, and I feel liquid oozing into my throat.
“What the fuck happened?” Hale barks.
