The Wildness Within

Calls in the Night 3

Calls in the Night 3

Gwyn's reaction upon seeing a bed made Augus' chest hurt, and he could tell Ash felt similarly. Gwyn walked into the bedroom – following dumbly – until he realised it was a bedroom. Upon seeing the bed, he'd backed out and shaken his head quickly.

For a moment, Augus immediately assumed he'd been raped on one, at the very least assaulted, but Ash must have assumed that too because he was already promising that nothing bad was going to happen to him, that no one was going to hurt him, and Gwyn was still shaking his head like that wasn't it. Or like he couldn't hear.

'Hey, it's for you,' Ash said finally, completely changing tack. 'You haven't slept on one of these in a while, have you? Or...haven't been allowed one?'

Gwyn looked up at Ash slowly, and then – surprisingly – shrugged.

'You're allowed one here,' Ash said quickly. 'We're not the people who were doing whatever they were doing to you. Are we? Look at us, we're Unseelie underfae waterhorses man, we have nothing to do with those people. And this is a bed, and it's yours to sleep in and lie down on. Okay? Go on, go and touch it.'

Gwyn stared at it with an open, frightened longing. His gaze then flickered quickly between Ash's, Augus', and back to the bed, and on and on in that loop as he approached the bed with tiny, limping steps. As though he expected to be told it was a trick, or that he had misinterpreted.

Finally he stood by the bed. His bandaged wrists came up and his fingers hovered over the linens, not quite touching.

He placed his palms flat on the bed and pressed down, making a faint noise of pain as he did so. He turned to Ash and Augus.

To see what we'll do.

'Excellent, he understands a bed. That's where I'm going. Wake me if there's any problems,' Augus said, finding that – suddenly – he was too tired to deal with any of this.

He held back his laugh as he walked from the room.

At least I'm not bored anymore.

*

He woke to screaming. He tumbled out of bed, almost falling to the floor, and then ran down the hall in case Ash was in danger. Instead, he found Ash hovering by the bed while Gwyn – blankets around him and covered in sweat – let off blood-curdling screams, one after another. It took a few seconds for Augus to realise he was still asleep.

'This won't do,' Augus snapped, and Ash looked at him with a pained expression.

'I can't wake him.'

'We shouldn't wake him,' Augus amended. 'He'll likely attack. Step back.'

Ash moved back hesitantly, then stood close enough to Augus that their shoulders brushed. Augus felt a head rest on his shoulder, and reached up absently to tangle his fingers through perpetually damp curls. Like his own mane, they never stopped shedding water.

Augus hadn't even gotten a chance to ask how Ash had been lately.

They stood as Gwyn tapered off to silence. Then another series of hiccupped whimpers built into a harrowing scream. Augus sighed.

'Are you sure he'll attack?' Ash asked, in a small section of silence.

'I can guarantee it,' Augus said, watching him. 'His fight and flight instincts are too finely honed. He's obviously dreaming about someone hurting him, and he tends to become disoriented easily. If he doesn't hurt us, he'd run. And for whatever reason...I find I want him to stay.'