Premature Metamorphosis

Chapter 10

For the remainder of the day, Hunter seemed... relatively normal? Which was weird to say because what even was normal anymore? She'd spent so much time worrying over him and watching him struggle that that had begun to feel normal in its own right. However, today, he was just so much more cheerful. Of course, she was over the moon to see him so happy, that was great! That's what she'd been wanting for the past however long it had been since this whole mess had begun! But it was just a tad bit jarring after he'd woken up screaming from a nightmare just last night.

She couldn't even really place what had gotten him in such a good mood. It wasn't like Raine had really done any proper therapy, they'd just been trying to get to know him and get him to open up and be comfortable around them. Maybe he was just relieved that now he knew there was someone there that could help him?

Someone there that could help him because Evelyn clearly wasn't doing a very good job...

But, unfortunately yet not surprisingly, things didn't last for long and that night played out just like the others had.

At this point, he'd begun having nightmares almost every night, each one amping up in intensity till the point where sometimes he'd wake up so panicked and disorientated that he wouldn't even know where he was or who he was with.

Those usually took him a while to calm down from.

And this night was no exception so while Evelyn had been trying to get to sleep, she decided to postpone her attempts a little when she noticed him squirming beside her, little face pinched in a frown.

Deciding she'd rather wake him up now than wait for his nightmare to get worse, she gave his shoulder a nudge and that was all it took for him to jolt awake, head frantically whipping around looking for whoever had touched him.

"Hey, it's okay... Just Mommy." She said softly.

He paused his panicked survey of the room to look at her and when his eyes met hers he calmed, expression flashing with recognition.

"B...Bad dream..." He muttered, digging through the sheets to find where Flapjack had managed to nestle himself into.

"Yeah, I woke you up. You looked scared."

Once he'd found Flapjack and pulled the bird free from the tangled blanket, he hugged it tight against his chest and laid back down again, his back now to Evelyn.

"'M gonna sleep..." He said, snuggling back into the blankets.

"Good idea. Night night."

She reached an arm around him to pull him closer and hug him against her, much like how he was currently doing with Flapjack, but as soon as her arm wrapped around him, she realised just how much of a bad idea that had been.

For the second time that night, he shot up like a spring, trying to fight the covers off himself, except this time he was about ten times more panicked than the first. Any remaining exhaustion was now gone, replaced by frantic panicking as he gasped for air and tried to crawl away from her, his shaky arms making it very difficult to keep himself upright.

"Hey! Hey! What's wrong? What happened?" She worried, still half processing what could have possibly sent him into such a panic.

He squeezed Flapjack so tightly to his chest that Evelyn wondered I'd he'd manage to split the poor toy in two where it was stuck, squished under his arm.

He seemed oblivious to her question, now curling up small as he wheezed out strained breaths, becoming a tiny shaking figure as he tucked his legs in close.