His Tears, Her Demons

Chapter Ten: Deaths and Desires Part I

Alucard

I stayed by Cristine's side that night, with my eyes wide open and my arms protectively around her. I couldn't help but think that Taka and Sumi would have done something else if the cyanide hadn't worked at all or if it wasn't fast enough. She still was asleep but was not in a peaceful sense. The corner of her lips was in a form of a frown, her hands were currently gripping my shirt, there were even some times where her head would be tossing and turning. I held her closer to my chest whenever it happened and would whisper to her some sweet reassuring words in her ear since it was the only thing that would calm her down.

My eyes widened with surprise when I felt her nuzzle my neck, I kept still as she did so. I didn't want to disrupt her sleep. I gently rubbed her back as she nuzzled my neck. Even though she was sick and despite how wrong it was, I couldn't help but adore her more from how close she was to me; how warm her body felt against my own. Although, the sickness could have been the reason behind her warmth so...

She began to whimper and squirm again, I pulled myself away a little to see her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks from her tightly shut eyes.

Just when I was about to comfort her more, I heard her murmur," No... Stop it... please...". I raised an eyebrow at her, becoming curious. I sat myself up with my back against the bed frame and held to my chest. She gripped my shirt even tighter as she kept dreaming of her nightmare. It was cruel of me to leave her like this.

" Cristine...", I said in a gentle but loud enough tone to wake her," Cristine, wake up. It's only a dream.".

" No! Stop!", she quaked as her body jolted into a sitting position as her eyes opened with fear. Her eyes shut again when she fell back onto my chest a pain-filled groan. I wrapped my arms around her again. I couldn't help but become more worried about her after hearing how she said those words, as she slept and woke up. I lifted her body to where her head was against my shoulder. My heart became heavy when I saw tears stream from her eyes again and her lips start to quiver. I gently placed a hand on her cheek and stroked some of her tears away. She leaned into my hand.

" Cristine...", I softly whispered then lightly kissed the blade of her nose which resulted in her opening her eyes," It's alright...". But the tears didn't stop, they just kept coming down from her eyes. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she cried into my neck. I wrapped my arms around her waist to embrace her.

Her body began to shake not long after, I could even feel breathing starting to shake. I gently rubbed my cheek against her head as she cried." It's alright... There is no need to cry.", I whispered in her ear in an attempt to soothe her. Seeing her like this made my heart ache with pity and my mind forget any thought I had before. I couldn't stand her crying, I hated it. Which only made me further realize how much she meant to me, how much I was willing to comfort her to stop her from being so unhappy, how much I truly did love her.

" I can't help it... It was horrible...", she managed to murmur between her tearful gasps.

" It was only a dream, Cristine.", I told her as I began to rub her back and stroke her hair," You have nothing to be afraid of.". Her panicking body slowly started to calm down. In my mind, I thought that my soothing had worked. But that was proven wrong when I felt her head shake in a way that meant "no".

" It was not a dream at all...", she breathed," It was a terrible memory."

" What was the memory?", I asked in a whisper as I repositioned her into a slightly more comfortable position. I had my arms still wrapped around her back while the other was under her knee, then I lifted her, straightened my legs, and placed her on my lap.

" Taka and Sumi...", hearing those names made me even more curious," They tried to...". She looked down and she gripped on my shirt tightly, from that and how she talked in her sleep I could tell how troublesome this memory was. Probably more than I would expect. But I couldn't push it, I wanted her to feel comfortable enough to tell me on her own. More tears streamed from her closed eyes again. I began to gently wipe her tears off her cheek with my thumb again. I kept going until she opened her sky blue eyes.