CHapter Ten: Flashback Nightmares

Flashbacks Suck

Katie Shoots up in bed, her nightmare still piercing her mind. Curling up in the fetal position she tugs the sheets closer to her as a whimper manages to emerge when she feels no comforting arms wrapping around her to protect her. Han had kept to his word when he said he wouldn't visit her in the night anymore and the nightmares it seemed had leaped at the opportunity, Becoming more vicious like they were trying to make up the time they had lost while he had been there. Glancing at her bedside table the ghostly blue numbers screamed 4:15 in the morning, August 29Th 2014. It was her 16Th birthday today, what a wonderful birthday gift life had given her. She rolls onto her back and stares at the little glow in the dark stars Bryan had pasted on her ceiling on her 12Th birthday when she had thought she had wanted to be an astronomer. She smiles at how when she had walked into her room that night and saw the stars glowing she had truly felt like she belonged there. Bryan always tried to make her birthdays special, like it was his was of trying to ease the pain of the 10 birthdays living in Hell. Remembering her life before the family instantly makes the nightmare and a flashback rear its head, hitting her so hard it knocked the wind out of her. Image after image flickered across her vision until she could no longer see her room. Clamping her hands over her ears she squeezes her eyes shut tightly, trying to escape from the past, but they only come faster as a full blown panic attack grips her in its cruel clutches. She hears someone screaming from what sounded like a distance until she realizes it was her own terrified, pain filled screams.
 
Han presses the pillow over his head, trying to block out Katie's cries as she fought her nightmare, when the crying ceased he exhales a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He lifts the pillow and throws it hard, sending it into his dresser, his blood boiling. He wanted to go to her, He wanted to take her in his arms and hold her close but he restrained himself from doing the act. He had to let her think he didn't care. He must be doing something right because for the entire month of August she avoided him like the plague giving him hostile glares everytime their eyes crossed paths. The family knew something was wrong but they chalked it up to Katie's mood swings and rebellious teenage nature. Han wasn't in a rush to tell them otherwise, neither was Katie. As the days dragged on, each one an eternity in hell all on its own he noticed her becoming more and more withdrawn from family, spending more time in her room, not caring who smelled the tell tale signs of illegal activities. He was so worried about her, but he was more worried that if he reached out to her it would only make things worse. Suddenly piercing gut wrenching screams shatter his thoughts. It was Katie, He assumed it was just her in the throes of another nightmare but the screams kept coming, one after another, each one more piercing then the one before it. Something was wrong, very wrong. He jumped out of bed and threw open his door. He wasn't surprised to see Bryan and Dom tearing out of their own rooms, sleep the farthest thing from their minds.
 
"DOM WHATS HAPPENING?" Han has to yell over her screams. Dom looks at him, a out of control fear seeping into his eyes, something Han had only seen once, when he had learned Mia had been kidnapped.
 
"SHE'S HAVING A FLASHBACK AND PANIC ATTACK! SHE HASN'T HAD ONE IN YEARS!" Bryan says ripping open Katie's door, her screams so loud Han has to put his hands over his ears, afraid they might rupture. He spies Katie curled up in the fetal position, hands over her ears, eyes shut tightly, though tears manages to stream out of them like a faucet broken on full blast. Before he can move to her though Bryan was at her side, trying to pry her hands away from her ears. "KIT IT'S ME, BRYAN, YOU'RE OK! YOU'RE HOME! SNAP OUT OF IT HONEY!" He yells trying to sooth her over her wailing. His attempt just made her screams more hysterical.
 
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DON'T HURT ME!!!!" She screams. Bryan gets up only to have Dom take his place, He too tries and fails to calm the terrified girl. He looks up at Han with a look of defeat and fear. Suddenly something in him Snaps and everything in the room vanishes, all he could see was the girl he loved..... yes loved in pain and hurting so badly that at that moment he didn't care if it showed. Rushing forward he pushes Dom out of the way much to his surprise and drops to his knees in front of the girl. Yanking her off the bed he gathers her into his arms on the floor and holds her like his life depended on it.
 
Katie hears a male voice screaming at her trying to reach her, she knows it's Bryan but as soon as she feels hands on her, her fears reaches new heights and she lets a new set of screams rip through her. She hears Dom but she was too far gone to respond. Image after image flashing in her tightly closed eyes, fear spreading its poison so deeply into her veins she was afraid that it would never end.  At that moment she would have done anything to make it stop, anything to sink into oblivion and make the pain and terror vanish. Suddenly she was yanked off her bed and gathered into arms she knew all too well.
 
"Angel come back to me please, snap out of this, come back to me." She hears Han muttering as he pries her hands away from her ears. "Open your eyes Angel, look around you, you're home." he says, his voice soothing yet urgent. The feeling of his arms and the sound of his voice gives her the strength to fight through her panic and fear, With one finally whimper she opens her eyes. Looking around wildly until they connect with Han's, relief flooding his face.
 
"Han?" her voice was so broken and small  but filled with the burning question of her safety. he just pulls her closer
 
"shhhhh you're OK, everything's OK." He mummers he holds her, rocking softly until exhaustion from her ordeal makes her pass out into a dreamless sleep. When he feels her body grow lax in his arms he looks up from her to see Dom and Bryan staring at him in stunned surprise. With a slight embarrassed fear he manages to give them a thin smile. " Um can one of you help me? I can't get up with her in my lap, I think my legs are falling asleep." He says in a voice he hoped didn't give anymore away then he had already did. Bryan was the first to snap out of it and leans down to scoop her out of his arms. His arms felt cold without her in them but he wasn't going to show it. Getting up he dusts off the back of his pants and watches and Bryan gingerly puts her back in bed, drawing her sheets up around her shoulders.
 
"We need to talk, Outside NOW." Dom's quiet but threatening voice says from beside him. Without looking at him Han leaves her room, dread pooling in his stomach. No sooner did he leave her room did Dom grip the front of his shirt and slam him against the wall, his head bouncing off of it making him wince with slight pain. "WHAT THE F**K WAS THAT?" Dom hisses at him. Looking into his eyes he sees Fatherly Rage and could tell Dom was barely holding onto his anger. He has to swallow a few times before his tongue was able to move to let words out.
 
" When you guys were away she started having nightmares, not as bad as that one but close , one night after I woke her up from one she started crying so I hugged her, It made her feel better. I figured it would  work again this time" He says giving him a partial truth hoping his real wide eyed stare would help convince him. Dom's eyes narrow and he punches the wall near Han's head.
 
"What was with the Angel Crap HUH?" He says leaning toward him. Han flinches at Dom's cold stare.
 
" I don't know I just said it, It worked didn't it?" He says. Just then Bryan walked out of her room, rushing over to Dom trying to pry him off of him.
 
" Dom cool it, It's Han! do you honestly think he would do anything to her?" Bryan whispers trying to reason with Dom. With one final glare Dom lets him go and storms off to his room. Han coughs and tries to straighten out his shirt,
 
"thanks man I owe you." He says to Brayn who just turned his ice blue gaze at him making him realize he wasn't out of the woods yet.
 
"I appreciate what you did back there, but I swear if I EVER find out something happened between you two I wont hesitate to kill you got it?" He says and leaves for his own room before Han could process what just happened. The sound of Katie's door opening Makes Han snap his eyes over to it, Katie stood in the shadow of her room her mouth open. Han just crosses his arms and gives her a pointed look.
 
" Do you see now why there can't be anything between us?" He says hoping she finally understood. unable to speak she just blinks her beautiful eyes at him and nods, still dumbstruck. He looks at her and nods his head. "Good, now goodnight," He says, but before he could escape she grabs hold of his shirt and doesn't let go until he faces her again. She tries to wrap her arms around him for one last hug but he grabs her wrists and shoves them aside. " I said NO.," He growls trying to force anger and warning into his voice when all he wanted to do was hold her. Tears fall down her already tear stained cheeks and she just rushes back into her room, the door locking quietly behind her. He shakes his head with a sigh and goes to his. This was going to be hell.
 
Katie flops down on her bed, a whole new level of despair washing through her as she sinks into a deep deep depression that had Yet to make its ultimate appearance