The Prey and the Predator

Evoni lay uncomfortable in her bed when Tom closed the door.
Alistair had taken his position back on the couch.
“Well….looks like you’ll be going out tomorrow.” He said, his voice unemotional.
Evoni didn’t say anything as she tried to fall asleep. For two hours she lay restlessly in her bed. Then she fell into an un-easy slumber.
She awoke, huffing and panting from the vivid nightmare that had haunted her sleep. She looked desperately around the room to make sure, to convince herself that she was no longer living that nightmare and that she was really awake.
“Are you alright, child?” asked Alistair.
She gasped, he was leaning over her, his face only a centimeter away from hers.
“What’s wrong!?” he asked.
“It’s just…” she said panting. “You scared me…that’s all.”
He looked down at her concerned.
“You haven’t slept well all night.” He said. “I’ve been watching you, the moments you have been asleep you’ve been tossing and turning…and yelling.”
Evoni froze in horror.
“No!” she said terrified. “No, I can’t have yelled!”
“Evoni, what is wrong?” he asked placing his hands on her shoulders, as though trying to steady her.
She didn’t answer, her face showed fear…
Somebody knocked at the door harshly with such force that the door threatened to fall from its frame. Well, really more like slammed their fist on the door than knocked.
“EVONI! WHAT DID I YELL YOU ABOUT YELLING IN YOUR SLEEP!?!” her father yelled. “I AM SO ANGRY AT YOU AT THE MOMENT AND STILL YOU DISOBEY ME!! SHUT THE HELL UP!!”
“I’m sorry…” Evoni choked in response to her father, Alistair still holding on to her.
He could be heard stomping back to his room.
Evoni and Alistair stared at each other as Evoni stopped huffing for air and relaxed. She sighed.
“I thought it was going to be worse.” She breathed.
Alistair's eyes were wide with shock.
“H-he just yelled at you for yelling in your sleep, didn’t he?” Alistair asked, frozen in shock.
“Uh-huh.” Evoni agreed, her voice tired and cracked.
“But…you can’t control whether you yell in your sleep or not. Why would he yell at you over that?”
Evoni paused for a moment.
“You haven’t realized what he’s like, have you…?” she asked. “My father is the type of person who yells at you for any little inconvenience, whether it’s controllable or not.”
“But…” he still could not take in what had just happened. “But…you can’t control it.”
For a moment Evoni didn’t say anything.
“Well, no of course I can’t control it…you’ve already said that. But if I could control it, I would…then he wouldn’t yell at me.” She said.
Alistair's face became unemotional and dark. He let go of Evoni slowly and straitened up.
“Why?” he asked her.
“Why, what?
“Why were you so afraid when I told you that you were yelling in your sleep?”
Evoni forced a quiet laugh.
“That’s obvious…I was afraid he was going to yell at me.” She said.
Alistair shook his head from side to side, his face completely dark…and somewhat annoyed.
“No, it was more than that, child. You wee also afraid of another thing…what was it?”
Evoni didn’t answer; she didn’t want to tell him.
“Evoni.” He said firmly. “Tell me, or I will read your mind.” His face was serious.
Fucking vampires, she thought. I hope he heard that.
“N-no!” she choked.
“Then tell me.” He said. “The truth, child.”
“I…I was afraid that…he was going to…hurt me.” She said, looking away. “It’s only a matter of time before he starts abusing me physically too.”

Alistair and Evoni remained in silence.
Then he moved silently and sat on the bed next to her.
“W-what are you doing?” she asked, shocked by his actions.
“Shhh…” he leaned forward slightly and quickly pulled her into his tight embrace. “Try to sleep.” He said, cradling her to his chest.
“But I can’t.” She said. “If I have a nightmare and yell again…he’ll get even angrier at me.”
“No, he won’t.” Alistair murmured into her ear. “If you yell I will take you away from here so quickly that he won’t even realize…”
Evoni didn’t say anything.
“Try to sleep, child.”
“But I can’t.” She insisted.
He loosened his grip on her for a moment and looked down into her face.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because if I sleep…I’m afraid he’ll haunt my dreams…I’m afraid he’ll make my dreams nightmares…and if he does that, then how will I escape the nightmare I live now?”
A low pained sound slipped through his lips as he pulled her to him again.
“I will never let him hurt you…” he said mostly to himself, making a silent oath. “I will never let him touch you or yell at you again…and if does…” Alistair did not finish his sentence out loud so Evoni could hear…but he did finish the sentence in his head;
…and if he does…I’ll kill him!

He kissed her forehead lightly, and began rocking her ever so gently back and forward.
“Try to go to sleep.” He whispered. “…for me.”
Evoni looked up at him.
“Will I have nightmares?” she asked.
He shook his head and smiled.
“None.” He answered.
“Really?” she smiled. “You mean I won’t have any tonight? That would be so great…I have nightmares nearly every night…”
“I promise…you will not have one nightmare tonight…or any other night that you are with me.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
She slipped, finally, into a peaceful sleep.

Evoni could not explain it.
Today, she had met a vampire named Alistair, and a horse named Conan. Today, she had yelled at her brother, and screamed things at him that she never would have even dared to say before in front of her father. And right now…she lay in Alistair's warm arms in a half sleep, her mind and thoughts wondering and drifting as she reflected on what she felt. She had only just met Alistair, but it felt like she had known him for so long.
Alistair cared for her. Evoni had always secluded herself from everybody, but for some reason Alistair seemed…safe? How was she to put it? He seemed like someone she could trust, he was someone who…looked after her.
What was he? A friend?
But ‘friend’ was such a hard word for Evoni…for the closest thing of a friend to her was her books…
Evoni decided there and then that Alistair was someone she cared about, and to her, that was a big step since Evoni didn’t really care about anybody before she had met Alistair.

Evoni decided there and then that Alistair… was the most important person to her in her life.