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“Aggie.”
How did he know her name?
She fought him. He wasn't taking her without a fight.
He shook her again, he no longer seemed interested in hurting her.
Right, she was dreaming. Nick was sleeping in her bed, he must have noticed she was having a nightmare and be trying to wake her up.
“Aggie.”
She tried to turn toward him, to let his voice guide her back to wakefulness, but then the man was back, a knife in his hand. He lifted it above her, just as he had that night, only this time it came flying down and sliced through her flesh. Pain tore through her, but it was nothing compared to the fear as the man turned the knife on Nick.
It was like she knew it was a dream and yet at the same time she didn’t.
It still felt real.
The knife plunged into Nick’s chest, and he dropped to the ground. Dead.
A sharp slap across her face had her flinging herself off the ground, arms swinging wildly. All she could see were dark shadows.
“Aggie, it’s okay. You were just dreaming. I'm sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you, but I couldn’t wake you up.”
Gasping in shuddering breath after shuddering breath, she tried to process her surroundings. A white oval hovered in front of her. A face. Nick’s face. She had launched herself out of bed and was now huddled up against the wall. Nick was standing in front of her, his hands held up, palms out, obviously not wanting to startle her until he was sure she was fully out of the dream.
Apparently, he noticed her eyes clearing because he took a step closer. “Aggie? You okay?”
She jerked a nod.
He gathered her up and returned her to the bed, propping himself up on his pillow and resting her against his chest. “You're like ice,” he muttered, rearranging the blankets around her, then rubbing her arms, attempting to warm her.
Snuggling closer, she pressed her body closely against his, attempting to absorb his body heat. She couldn’t still the tremors wracking through her. She was growing colder not warmer.
“It was just a dream, honey. Let it go,” Nick whispered in her ear, wrapping her more tightly in his arms.
Focusing all her energy on doing that, she released the fear that the dream had brought rushing back. She wasn't in the parking lot anymore. She wasn't alone anymore. She was safe. Because of Nick. Gradually her body relaxed, and she settled herself more comfortably in Nick’s embrace.
“Want to tell me about it?”
“He killed you. The man from the parking lot.” Her ear was pressed to his chest above his beating heart, her hand was on his stomach which rose and fell with each breath he took. Both reassured her that he was alive.
“I'm right here, sweetheart.” He drew her closer still, but it wasn't close enough, she wanted their bodies melded together, and not in a sexual way.
“You could have been killed,” she protested.
“But I wasn't and neither were you,” he countered. For a long moment he just held her, absently tracing his fingers up and down her arm. “Has what happened made you think more about your mom? She was only a year older than you are now when she died.”
“I don’t talk about her much anymore. My dad doesn’t like to, and neither does Andrew.”
“Her death was rough for all of you. It changed each of you in different ways.”
Aggie nodded. That was true, they had all changed after her mom’s death. “She was in a car accident. Hit by a drunk driver.” It felt odd to talk about her mother again after so long, but she wanted Nick to know. “It was late, dark out, she was coming to pick me up from a friend’s house. I was having a sleepover, my first one. My mom was a little overprotective, she didn’t like me to stay with anyone but her, but I had begged and begged for months. She didn’t die right away, she was revived but was in a coma for six days. She never woke up. We visited her at the hospital every day. I was scared the first time, there were so many machines and wires, it looked like she was sleeping only it didn’t. She was brain dead. The doctors eventually convinced my dad to turn off her life support. My mom was an organ donor, two lives were saved and another four improved because of her. When I picture her in my mind it’s how she looked those last few days in the hospital. My memories of her before are faded so badly they're all fuzzy. I wish I could remember her properly. What she looked like, what she sounded like, what she smelled like. I miss her so much, it doesn’t feel like twenty-one years have gone by since she left me. Sometimes it hurts so badly it’s like a physical pain in my chest.”
Nick kissed the top of her head. “I'm so sorry, baby. I wish I could take away that pain.”
“After she died, I used to talk about her all the time, but my dad didn’t like it. He said she was gone, and we all had to move on.” And her father had. Just six months after her mother’s death he started dating Selene Andabaka, six months after that, he was married.
“It hurt you when he remarried, made you feel like he was letting her go, like she had no place in your lives anymore.”
