In Her Dreams

Jacob-

We had gotten into the basement and we had both tumbled down the small steps that had been behind the door. I couldn’t see much except for a slight glint on the metallic liht, two door knobs, and in the distance the moon was being reflected in what I suspected was the bathroom mirror.

I stood up quickly and searched for a light switch, but stopped dead when I saw movement in my peripheral vision.

“Who’s there?! Get outta my house!” I heard an older man scream and it had scared me so much I nearly did run out. Pest grabbed my arm and pushed me towards the voice, but I ran into what felt like a lamp and it fell over. I fought with the air until my fist came into contact with something. I went with that something to the ground.

“Dude! It’s me!” Pest yelled in a whisper before pushing me off of him.

“Sorry.” I whispered back. I went back to what I was doing before and went to walk along the wall. I needed to find the light if we planned on getting anywhere with this.

I was facing the moon’s reflection when it disappeared. There was a slight ‘oof’ and then there was a blinding light. I couldn’t see what was going on and then before I knew it the door must have closed because I was left with a sliver of light in the shape of a rectangle. The light had made everything else so much darker and I was even worse off than before.

There was a blow to my face and I was pinned to the wall. I could smell alcohol on the guy’s breath, but that was the only indication that this guy was even close to intoxicated. There was another blow to my gut and I bent over in pain. I felt him push my head back to the wall and this time I felt the air rushing towards my face. I quickly moved my head so that his fist made contact with the wall where my head had been only seconds before. How could this guy even see a thing? I took the chance I had to trip myself across the room.

So this was Maggie’s dad. ‘How does she do it?’ I thought incredulously.

“PEST!” I yelled knowing I didn’t have much time before I was found again. I didn’t have a chance against this guy, he was at least three times my size. “Help!” I saw the door open again and a simple silhouette emerged and flipped a switch away down the wall. I had been so close to hitting it myself. Zack gave me a horrified look and I was slightly blinded again. I could almost imagine how bad I look.

By the time I could see every corner of the room Maggie’s dad was no where in sight. I saw a door that opened up to narrow stairs and as I got up I was half tempted to go up and beat the shit out that bastard. What gave him the right to hurt such a wonderful, beautiful, innocent girl? There was a hand on my shoulder and I almost punched Zack in the face, before remembering exactly why we were here.

“Where’s Maggie?” I asked as I put my hands on his shoulders. Pest still looked horrified and he only shook his head before backing away. I could see the short by breaking down in front of me in my mind. I now understand why he the look on his face was there. It was vein of me to think he was scared of me, or even for me. “Oh, God.”

I ran for the bathroom door. “I’m sorry.” Zack gasped as he followed behind me. I could tell he wasn’t breathing right and it was obvious he was crying. I didn’t have to look at him to know that much. “I didn’t know she was there!” I turned to face him.

“Why? What did you do?!” I asked look straight into his eyes. I had found it weird how he could be older than me and he was still a bit shorter than me. I wished he was just joking like I was so used to him doing. I wished he was laughing. I wish his smile was there no matter how much it usually annoyed me. I felt a tear escape my eye and when he didn’t answer I turned and flew through the door to see for myself.

I had my fingers crossed as I turned the corner where a broken girl was draped across a tub. I almost collapsed to the floor myself. I was afraid; the way she was sitting looked unnatural. She looked broken and bloody. It came to me then that I was either insane for doing this or I loved the girl whom I barely even know. Either way I was insane I guess.

“Maggie.” I whispered before carefully scooping her up into my arms. It came easier now. She let out a groan though which almost made me change my mind. I almost set her back down. I didn’t want to hurt her.

I didn’t though; instead I carried her out of the bathroom and then up through the cellar door and into her grassy front lawn. It needed to be cut and her whole house needed to be repainted. I tried to carefully set her down before I looked to where Zack stood behind me. I watched as he nodded and carefully held onto her and helped me lay her down. I kneeled on one side of her while Zack sat on the other side.

Her slow breathing comforted me and slowly Zack’s crying was reduced to sniffles as he slowly clamed down also. I pushed the bit of bangs out of her closed eyes .

“Zack.” I whispered when there was no answer I said it louder.

“Jake?” I looked up and watched as he stood up again.

“Are you okay now?” I asked carefully looking back down to Maggie.

“Yeah… and you?” I laughed a little. I hadn’t felt this horrible in a long time, but it was mainly because she had gotten hurt when the only reason we’d stayed out there so long was to make sure the exact opposite happened. We’d failed.

“I’m fine, but we should probably…” He cut me off by holding his hand in the air and pulling out his cell phone.

“I’m calling 9-1-1.” He mumbled before punching in the three digits and then pressing the phone to his ear. I could only stare at Maggie; I didn’t want to touch her. I could break her even more. So we waited.

Though it may sound bad, I didn’t think the sirens could’ve come a minute too soon.