My Greatest Adventure

Safe and Sound

"I remember tears streaming down your face when I said I'll never let you go
When all those shadows almost killed your light
I remember you said don't leave me here alone
But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight

Just close your eyes, the sun is going down
You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now
Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound..."

______________

He wakes to a frenzy of thrashing and a strangled cry puncturing the silence.

"Helen?"

A flustered Bob Parr blearily rubs the sleep from his eyes as a rustling of movement and barely-stifled noise beside him unexpectedly rouse him from his slumber. When the sight before him finally blurs into focus, his chest clenches in horror and he nearly chokes on what little air remains trapped in his lungs. Sometime over the course of the night, his wife has somehow escaped the firm grip of his embrace and is now tangled in a web of sheets, flailing erratically against the mattress as if she is attempting to free herself from the mass of fabric hopelessly twisted around her limbs. Her floundering grows increasingly frenetic as the seconds pass, causing the sheets to coil even more tightly around her lithe frame and gradually trap her in a suffocating cocoon. An agonized sound somewhere between a moan and a screech of pain wrenches free from her throat as her head tosses towards him, a thick sheen of sweat visible on her skin even under the cover of darkness.

"Helen?!" he repeats, his mind and body snapping to awareness as his massive hands instinctively fly forward to grab her by the shoulders.

Helen fails to respond; instead, the thrashing becomes more frantic as her legs begin kicking feverishly at their cloth restraints to no avail.

"No...!"

"Helen! Helen, wake up!" Bob exclaims desperately, a sudden surge of anxiety flooding his veins with icy adrenaline. He jostles her torso with what he hopes is enough force to release her from the clutches of whatever nightmare has seized a hold of her. She retaliates, trying in vain to wriggle free and struggling against her husband's grip with a surprising amount of strength for someone still unconscious.

"NO!"

"Helen, please, it's okay! You're just dreaming!"

At that, a powerful shudder ripples throughout her entire body, and with a loud, sharp gasp, her eyelids at last shoot open. For a moment she does nothing but gape blankly upward, her face frozen in a mask of abject terror and her chest heaving with labored breaths. Then, her eyes begin wildly scanning her surroundings, her head jerking back and forth in a startled attempt to get her bearings.

"Helen! Helen, it's okay. It's okay," Bob whispers urgently, gently pushing her back onto the surface of the bed when she makes an impulsive move to bolt upright. "You're awake. It's all right. You're safe now."

She pauses and meets his gaze, at first not truly seeing him. After a few seconds of petrified confusion, she blinks a few times, and her face finally relaxes as recognition slowly seeps into her consciousness.

"Bob?" she croaks with a furrowed brow, her amber eyes searching his face earnestly as if she's still not entirely sure of where she is or if he's really there.