Save Me From My Nightmare

Sunshine glowered down on me from above, warming my body slowly as I slipped back into my clothes and tried to stop the bottle from clanking together as I stepped over them. Last night was a big mistake. A huge drunken mistake that never should have happened. Zacky snored on the grass, rubbing his nose before turning over on the grass as he moaned something in his sleep. Holding my shoes between my fingers, I ran out the garden and through the back gate before he woke up and found that I wasn’t there. Shit, I need a shower. I stink of chlorine. And I still remember most of last night which isn’t good either. Sighing, I slipped on my flip flops again and wandered casually out to my car that waited patiently on the driveway.

When I returned to the house, my brother’s car was sat on the driveway with Joel and River waiting patiently on the hood. Their faces showed worry as I stepped from the car and pushed my sun glasses onto my head; smiling innocently. ‘Hey, guys. How long you been here?’ I asked nervously, trying to find my keys in my bag when I noticed the ring wasn’t on my finger. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This day just keeps getting worse doesn’t it? At last the door swung open and I stepped inside, dropping my car keys on the side table as I slid my shoes against the wall and invited my brothers into the huge ass house that I had to share with my new fiancée who’s going to fuck me up so badly when he sees that I haven’t unpacked and I don’t have my ring.

‘Only around half an hour; where were you?’ Joel asked curiously, following me through to the kitchen as I dumped my bag on the stairs and skipped through to the kitchen. Telling my brothers that I had to go to the publishers yesterday and got caught up with my work so badly that I just stayed at a friend’s in LA where the offices were. It was pretty viable in my mind. But the look on River’s face said that he didn’t believe me. Though he hid it as soon as I began to make coffee. ‘We only dropped by to help you finish unpacking everything, we can see you have your work cut out.’

Chuckling, I nodded my head and poured the coffee for them. ‘I’m just gonna go change and I’ll be right with you,’ I gushed, tumbling over my words nervously before running up the stairs to change into something a little more comfortable than sodden underwear and dew covered clothes. The combination made me shiver in disgust. Finally dried and showered, I whirred the hair dryer over my hair quickly and knotted it back into a messy pony tail before bouncing down the staircase once more. The concerned voices of my brothers sounded from the kitchen, obviously not having heard my light steps on the staircase. I gulped, hiding on the staircase where they couldn’t see me so I could listen in on their conversation.

‘I’m telling you, Joel. Something isn’t right with Keeley. Have you seen the bruises, there’s something going on and we need to find out!’ River was seething. Joel sighed, probably rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to work out how that would tie in with my odd behaviour. ‘Don’t you see it? The scars on her wrists and her arms, they weren’t there when she left.’ Joel sighed again, muttering that I was always the clumsy one out of the three of us. Then he brought up the incident with the skateboard and how I managed to lodge a huge chunk of wood in my leg by just tripping over my own two feet. ‘No… this just doesn’t add up. She never uses straighteners and yet she has straightening marks on her wrists.’

‘Maybe she caught herself whilst helping Iain do his hair?’ Joel reasoned. I’d heard enough. I knew they would never believe me if I was ever to tell them what happened when they weren’t around, what a monster Iain truly was when the doors were closed and the locks were bolted over them. ‘O-oh, hey Keeley!’ Joel greeted over dramatically, causing me to raise my eyebrow acting nonchalant towards their conversation. Saying that we’d better get on with unpacking the boxes in the living room and moving the sofa around so that it faced the right way, I smiled widely and tried to cover up the fact that I wanted to blurt out that River was right. ‘Keeley, this is gonna sound crazy, but is Iain… hurting you?’

I looked from both Joel and River nervously, laughing hysterically to keep in time with the act I had to put up with every single day people other than Iain were around. ‘No… of course he isn’t.’ I laughed harder this time, turning away and tumbling off to the living room as I cackled like some old witch. Joel followed after me, grinning at the fact that he’d won. ‘What on earth would make you think something as stupid as that? I haven’t heard anything more ludicrous in all my life. You guys crack me up,’ I exclaimed, calming my laughter and turning away to begin on unpacking the box left on the crimson sofa staring up at me with a black sharpie saying ‘Living Room’.

Sunlight streamed in through the open window of the now cleared living room, causing me to let out a deep breath I fell down on the sofa and stared up at the ceiling. ‘Okay, lift and move so it’s in front of the TV,’ River grinned down at me, Joel on the other side of the sofa as they lifted it up and moved the couch with me still lying on it. As they dropped it, I bounced up and down on the springs and giggled before being attacked by Joel who jumped on me screaming “pile on” at the top of his lungs. River didn’t join in; he was too intoxicated in his laughter to even bother. Suddenly, Joel grabbed my left hand and examined it for a moment, taking note of the departure of the engagement ring that was normally bound firmly around my finger.

‘Keeley, where’s your ring?’