Cut Up And Scarred

#6 ~ D-E-A-D

Oli's POV:

The water cascaded in droplets around my feet at the end of the bathtub; slowly filling up. I concentrated on the sound - the sound of my steady, calm breathing; the sound of the water hitting the plain porcelain of the tub and eventually the water itself filling it up after a few minutes.
I closed my eyes and allowed the darkness to engulf me. It wasn't often I managed to indulge in the pitch black without the aid of specially prescribed sleeping pills, so I let my eyelids shut for a while. I was immersed in the darkness like the water willingly.
I opened my eyes and couldn't even bring myself to scream at the sight. Dripping wet and almost as if melting like candle wax, was the dark and shadowed, distorted face of a demon. This one was from my most recent night-terror.
None of the ones I saw in my dreams or upon the walls had distinguishable features on their bodies or faces. They were all deathly-thin, cascaded and veiled in their own darkness and shadows, their faces weren't recognisable to anything I had ever seen before them and their hands were always reached out toward me. But they were not like hands. The limbs which resembled the arms of the humanoid shadows trailed off into almost tentacle-like tendrils. Wisps of shadow and black/grey smoke billowing lightly from the ends as though they were from a thin-branched tree.
My mouth opened in a silent scream of terror, my eyes wide and unblinking in a petrifying almost paralysis. But no sound escaped past my throat for one of the shadows wrapped itself around my neck, choking me of breath and noise. My hands drew up to my throat, but wrought back down by the demon's own. I wrestled against it with all my strength and tried all I could to fight. My back no longer felt the cold sting of the bottom of the porcelain tub in contrast with the hot water.
I was being pulled down. The water flooded over my face and I inhaled half of it before my body reacted and jerked up to try and regain my lost breath. On instinct my head strained upward but I was restrained by the shadows wrapping themselves in my hair tightly and tugging it back.
My head was submerged once again and I cried out in pain. The water piled up in weight in my mouth and nose as I choked it back out the corners of my lips. Sputtering liquid that was burning my airways and nostrils, I tried to wriggle out of the tight grips of the many tendrils holding me down and forcing me to be enveloped in the feeling of drowning.
The shadows' tight grasp on my dampened hair suddenly let up for a second or two, allowing me to jerk my head up and suck in the oxygen that felt like paradise. But it was short-lived as I was soon overwhelmed by their strength and pushed back down again.
There was a pushing weight on my chest that felt like it was crushing my bones. My ribs were pounding and coursing with pain and terror.
"Chris!" I screamed out in utter desperation, the sound never left me though - only bubbles of air and ripples in the water.
Tears leaked from my eyes but were invisible and unnoticeable amidst the water surrounding me. My lungs were just about to cave in, due to them taking in so much of the water.
Hands; warm and slightly tan; hands that were alive and gripped my shoulders, wrenching me up and away from the grip of the shadows like I weighed nothing and like there was no competition in strength. I was bundled into the arms of Chris as I spat the brackish water straight from being trapped in my airways. He rubbed my back and kissed my temple lovingly - I was oblivious to it all upon ignoring everything that wasn't oxygen.
He wrapped his arms around me and carried my bare and shivering frame away from the bathroom. I was dripping wet, soaking his shirt as I pressed my face into his chest, my scalp, throat and limbs burning in pain.
"It hurts." I croaked with a breathy, pain-ridden voice.
"I know." He cooed in my ear, his free hand coming up to press my head against his chest and his thumb caressing gentle circles over the skin of my temple to cheekbone to calm me. I felt as though I could finally breathe.

Chris' POV:

"Chris!" Oliver's voice rang out from in the bathroom as I got back from a session with Alex. It was filled with desperation and terror, pain and a cry like a wail.
I ran like a bullet to through the door and instantly saw the water overflowing the bathtub and flooding the floor. Oliver was what caught my attention though. He was completely immersed in the water with his eyes wide open, unblinking. His body was jerking around and twitching like he was having a seizure. His mouth was gaping open as well, his face under the water completely. But he wasn't surfacing like his body was trying to, he just kept throwing his limbs around in a restricted way as though something was holding him down. His head was thrown up above the line of surface and he gasped a breath before his head was seemingly shoved back down.
His body was at the mercy of whatever it was possessing him. He wasn't in control of his actions. Like he was a puppet and strung up by this thing trying to drown him.
I grabbed him by the shoulders, hoisting him up quickly and whacking his back to bring up the water in his lungs. He coughed and spat out everything he had inhaled and was taking deep, sharp inhales.
I hooked my arms around his shoulders and under his knees and hoisted him up and out of the bathroom. He buried his face in my chest, unidentifiable tears streaking down his face along with droplets of water from his hair. He heaved a sob as I sat us both down on the edge of the bed. I just soothed him, acknowledging his pain and trying to help. His lungs and chest were burning, like his throat and nose as he told me. I just stoked the hair and water from his reddened face, kissing his forehead and temple occasionally.
He slowly drifted off to sleep as I tucked him under the covers of the bed as I went to try and clean up the mess in the bathroom.

*****

The next morning I woke up to find Oliver still asleep. Last night I'd had to call for a nurse to clean up the water and stray little bits of vomit brought up by Oliver. I wouldn't tell him because knowing Oliver, he'd freak and go on an apology-rage. He's done it before when he accidentally slammed a door in my face when he got angry at a nurse. I got in the way and he slammed the bathroom door between us which ended up crushing my nose.
I still hadn't left though, despite the blood and pain, for I wanted him to know I was there for him and he could talk to me. Honestly, I think it's one of the main reasons why he trusts me so today.
He shouldn't. I'll only break him more than he already is. He should know that.