by: beebraver
The thing about people is that you couldn't keep them. Not really. Not even when they needed keeping.
4:16 a.m.
She can hear the grating scratching sounds against the walls. It reminds her of afterschool twilights back in high school when a friend used to scrape their nails against the boards to annoy her.
Just as it did then, it sets her teeth on edge.
She'd been trying to look during the day but no dice. She couldn't find where the sound came from.
And she cannot figure out why she jerks awake every time it starts. It would have been okay if she can sleep through it but no.
She jostles in their bed, waking her boyfriend beside her.
"You okay?" his scratchy voice asks.
"Headache, love. It's that sound again. The scraping nails against the walls. Ergh!"
"And I keep telling you, I hear nothing. It's probably all in your head."
"Yeah, thanks, I needed someone to tell me I'm mental first thing in the morning."
"Awww! But baby you the cutest mental ever. Also mine. Just tell me and we can convert this place into an asylum and I'd keep you forever. Just the two us."
He wraps his arms around her to cuddle her closer.
"Go back to sleep, you creep!" she laughs.
She can feel the onset of a coming headache and lets him hold her for comfort.
"Mmmmhhh... I like you like this. Weak and snuggly in my arms."
She hates being affectionate to him any other time. He tries to take advantage of this early hours to cash in all the loving he could get away with.
"Hey babe. Babe. Baby. Are you back to sleep now? Hey, light of my life. Love."
"What?!"
"Oh you good you're still awake!"
"You goof!"
"Here's an idea. You're awake. I'm awake. It's still dark outside and cold as heck, we could... you now..."
He slowly slides his hands under her loose shirt.
Swiping just under the swell of her breast.
And trailing down... down... down...
She gasps when his fingers started flirting with the edge of her underwear.
And then the screaming start.
Not the good kind of screaming.
She can literally hear someone scream inside her head.
A man.
Screaming in desperation.
Screaming to be heard.
Like the scratching on the walls, she didn't notice when the screaming in her head started. She just woke up one day at 4:16 in the morning and realized that it has been happening a lot.
Almost daily now, that she moved with her boyfriend.
Oddly enough the screaming in her head sound like her boyfriend.
She clutches her hair as she turns around to check that yep, her boyfriend is really not screaming at her.
She really might be going mental.
"AHH!"
"Babe?" he asks her, confused. His hand freezing on the spot.
"My head suddenly hurts really bad."
He huffs. "Tell me if you don't wanna. You don't have to pretend."
"Babe, I'm not kidding."
"Sure!" He turns around to his side of the bed.
Great. Now, she's done it.
"Love, really..." she grips her hair to alleviate the pain in her cranium. "Ugh, there's like, arrrghhh, screaming in my head I can't uuughhh!"
She curls into herself, still clutching her head.
"Screaming?"
She feels him freeze.
"Feels like it", she mumbles. "Sometimes, when I keep quiet, it really feels like I can hear it with my ears."
"Have you seen the doctors?" he hesitantly broaches.
"I have. They couldn't find anything wrong."
There was a pause before he began to lightly caress her head.
Gently running his hands through her hair.
She whimpers.
"Shhh... of course they haven't. There's nothing wrong with you, my love. Shhh..."
He runs his fingers though her head a few more times before it starts to slowly trail towards her nape.
"When did this start?"
"Since we moved together actually", she sniffs.
"Shhh... everything is gonna be okay..."
And then she can feel his grip start to become tighter.
"Babe, wha...???"
His eyes are black.
She looked up and his eyes are black.
There are no white or round things in it, just pure black.
That's when she started screaming.
"Shhh, baby, shhh... everything is gonna be okay."
His voice sounds hollow and like the grating scratching on the walls at the same time. Not the sweet and husky tone she thought he had.
"Hush now, mine, I'm just going to make the screaming stop."
With that, she feels a tiny pin prick on her neck and loses consciousness.
4:16 a.m.
She wakes up.
She doesn't what woke her up. The house was quiet and she feels fine.
She doesn't know why she's up at this hour of the night and she couldn't get back to sleep.
She feels like there's something... there's something...
"Love, why are you up?"
"I..."
She looks at her ever loving boyfriend stir beside her.
"I don't know."
"Go back to sleep, babe."
"I think something's... I don't..."
She pauses.
"What?"
"What?"
"What am I saying?"
"You're saying you love me."
She laughs.
"Oh was I?"
"Yep! And that you're staying with me forever."
"Go back to bed, you wacky!" She pinches his cheeks.
"M'kay" he pulls her in his arms to snuggle and goes back to sleep.
She stays up watching the clock hand move to 4:17.
She breathes deep.
The feeling has passed.
And she closes her eyes.
When she finally did, the man beside her smiles.
