Change

The storm was at full force this evening and I don't think it was going to let up any time soon. It was actually kind of scary to be out in the country when this storm was rolling through.

Right now I was flipping through the limited channels until I came across the weather channel. The storm wasn't looking very good. I watch intently as the weatherman goes on about safety precautions to follow in case the severe weather does occur in our area, or worst case, a tornado.

What am I supposed to do. I lived in California, near a beach, not near tornado alley. Heck, all I knew was to get to shelter which mainly involved just going down into the basement.

That place was creepy, let me tell you. It was just a damp seller that was very dark and probably haunted considering it looked like it had just came fresh out of a horror movie. The weatherman keeps blabbing on about the weather, which I should probably be paying attention to but now all I can think about are every single horror film I have ever watched in my seventeen years of living.

Great, what have I gotten myself into now. Here I sit in the middle of nowhere and now I feel as if I am in a horror film. What pulls me out of my trance is the tv screen going blank as it loses connection and the whole house goes silent. Wonderful.

All of a sudden the house phone goes off loudly causing me to jump out of my seat.

"Hello?" I say answering the phone quietly.

"Joy," I hear my uncle's familiar voice say my nickname, "How are you holding up with the weather and all?"

"Besides the fact that I feel as if I am in a horror film, just peachy." I let out a laugh.

My uncle lets out a laugh as well at my comment "If you need anything, remember you can give Liam a ca-," The line went dead as the power all of a sudden. Surrounding me in darkness.

"Great." I say shakily as I make my best effort towards the kitchen.

I search for the piece of paper sitting on the counter as lightning lights up the kitchen every so often. I find the piece of paper and make my way upstairs to grab my cellphone from my room. I make my trek up the creaky stairs and into my familiarly dark bedroom.

I grab my phone from my desk and start dialing the number scribbled onto the piece of paper. I feel as if it rings forever... He could already be in bed, it was 11:00pm after all.

"Hello?" A groggy voice answers the phone.

"Liam? It's Reina." I say into the phone just as a huge bang occurs just on the lower levels of the house below me causing me to scream.

"Reina, what is it?" I hear his voice become much more alert.

"Well I was calling you about my power being out," I whisper in a panic, "But now I just heard something downstairs." I back up against the wall of my room as my breath catches in my throat.

"Stay where you are," He says as I hear him moving about quickly through the phone. "I'm sure it's nothing, but let me check it out." This is not just "nothing"! He is outside now as I hear him running to his car, slamming shut shortly after.

Panic was taking over me. "Why did I have to start thinking about horror movies?" I ask myself out loud, but instead Liam answers for me.

"How could you be that stupid." He laughs aloud.

I sigh, "Liam will you just hurry?"

"I'm coming as fast as this storm will allow me, Reina."

Thunder rumbles throughout the house and I hear another bang happen below me as I let out a whine. "Hurry! I don't want to freaking die like this!"

"You are NOT going to die, Reina." He states through the phone in a confident tone.

"You better be right."

"Honestly," He laughs. Why is he laughing? "If there was someone there, I'm sure they would have already killed you. You are being rather obvious."

"Liam, you are something." I laugh as he stays quiet, a crack of thunder rumbles through the phone.
"I know." I could tell he was smiling through the phone at my comment.

Just focus on his beautiful smile, Reina. You do love that smile after all. A few moments pass and his voice breaks my trance.

"I am almost there, Reina." I hear him say softly and suddenly the line goes dead as I hear his truck turn into the drive.

"Thank the Lord." I whisper to myself as I hear his door slam shut and his familiar footstep across the porch as the front door swings open.

"Reina?" I hear him call my as he runs up the stairs that are straight off the kitchen, making his way up here. I take a few steps into the hallway as another crack of thunder rumbles throughout the house. I jump and run into a something. I let out a shriek as I look up and see Liam, I was expecting it to be him, but my nerves still got the best of me.

I release the hold I have on his zip- up hood as I see his familiar face and he takes he hand off of the small of my back as we both let out a small laugh. There was his beautiful smile again.

"Liam." I say as I let out a sigh of relief.

"Hi." He smiles again at me as lightning lights up the whole house. I didn't feel as scared now. I am glad I called him.

"Why aren't you wearing a shirt?"

He just shrugs his shoulders and looks down at his bare chest under his zip up hoodie. "Well, I came as quickly as I could." He smirks looking down at me. That dang smile.

I break the gaze he held with me, "The noises came from downstairs. I'm not really sure where though." I say breaking the silence.

He clears his throat, "Right," He says looking at me again and then towards the stairs.

"Wait! I'm coming with you." I say as I follow closely behind Liam.

We make our way to the bottom of the stairs and Liam stops short as I bump into his back. "Geez Louise." I whisper as I rub my forehead.

Another bang goes off causing the two of us to jump. "Reina."

"What?"

"Let go of my hoodie," He whispers. "You're choking me."

"Oh, sorry."

We make our way through the kitchen as Liam grabs something off of the counter.

"What do you think you are going to do with that?" I let out a quiet laugh as I look at the soup ladle in his right hand. "It's a fucking soup ladle."

"Damn, Reina," He says looking down at the ladle, "I don't know." He turns his head to look at me as I stand closely behind him. He sees the smile on my face as we both let out a laugh, until another noise occurs in the living room.

We both jump when the noise happens again. Grabbing onto his ladle free arm, Liam leads the way towards the living room.

"We're both going to die, Liam."

"Oh be quiet, Reina." He whispers with a bit of fear in his voice this time.

The house was still dark due to the power going out, but we were still able to see well enough into the living room. Liam peers in there as I stand on my toes to look over his shoulder hesitantly.

Nothing. The wind was blowing like crazy throughout the room as we both bring our attention to the open window that had blown open. We both look at each other as something slams against the window causing me to scream as Liam pulls me towards him. "Stop screaming, Reina." He laughs, "You're giving me a heart attack."

"Sorry," I say as I look up at him and then towards the window.

Liam goes over to the window and piers out. "It is just the shutter hitting the house when the wind blows hard enough." He states as he shuts the window and locks it tightly. Lightning strikes and thunder rumbles shortly after as Liam closes the blinds. Suddenly the power comes back on and the whole room is much brighter, causing the two of us to shield our eyes. "Do you have every light in this house on?" He asks as he makes his way to shut off some lights in the kitchen and in the hallway.

"Just about." I say as I hear his raspy laugh fill the hallway.

"Are you alright here by yourself or would you like me to stay?" He asks as he makes his way back and stands the living room doorway. He leans against it waiting for my answer. I watch him as he runs his hand through his hair still wet from all the rain. "Reina?" I break out of my trance as I look at his blue eyes on me.

"Could you stay?" I say quietly looking down at the wet floor from all the rain the came in from the window and then back up at him. I already had a hard enough time sleeping, let alone in a house by myself while it was storming.

"Yeah," He smiles reassuringly at me. "I will just camp out on the couch."

"Thank you." I smile back as I make my way past him. "I better get to bed."

"Goodnight, Reina." He whispers as he shuts off the lights after I make my way upstairs.
"Sleep tight."

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I lay in bed exhausted, I know I am just going to be woken up by a terrible dream. Just like every other night.

It is just the same nightmare every single time. My parents death, but now I am a witness as the terror occurs right before my own eyes. The worst part is, is that I can't do anything about it. I am just frozen in place no matter how hard I try to fight my frozen stature.

I lull off into my own thoughts as sleepiness ensues me. I knew the dream was going to occur the moment my eye shut.

Every night I wake up in tears as my aunt or uncle shakes me awake to relieve me of my reoccurring nightmare.

This time it was different, my dream was now somehow different. Instead of seeing the usual car accident Liam stood there by his truck, it must have broke down or something, but I see him standing there. I am standing a distance away from him as I see a semi come zooming around the corner.

Now my dream was becoming just a bit more familiar. I look behind me as I see my parents in their familiar car drive past me, causing my hair to blow across my face.

I knew what was going to happen next. I can't move, I am just stuck here on the side of the road as the semi collides with my parents. I let out a scream as tears run hot down my face, burning my cheeks.

Cars keep driving by as if nothing has even happen. I look over at Liam who has noticed the accident. He runs across the street to help them just as I see another car coming around the bend at top speed.

Just my fucking luck.

This can't be happening to me. Not someone new that I have to watch die right before my eyes, knowing I can't do a thing about it.

"Liam!" Please no, not him, anyone but him. He stops in the road as he hears my voice, his beautiful blue eyes trained on me. I usually don't get this far into my dreams because I am woken up by now.
This was all new to me.

The words are caught in my throat as Liam's eyes are glued to mine. He slowly turns his head and notices the car zooming towards him. Tears start to stream down my face even harder now.

"Reina." He states quietly, fear in his voice when he notices it is already too late for him to do anything. This is killing me.

"No, Liam." I gasp sadly as the car gets closer, Liam having no time to react.

Just as the moments tick by slowly, waiting for it all to happen before my very eyes, I am woken up by a familiar voice.

"Reina," Liam's voice says with fear as he nudges me awake, "Come on Reina, wake up, please." He begged.

I sit up in my bed, chest heaving up and down from my staggered breathing. I look at Liam sitting on the edge of my bed looking at me as he lets out a sight of relief. I knew it was all just a dream but I was relieved to see Liam sitting right before me. I let out a sigh as a tear rolls down my cheek.

"Bad dream?" He asks as he wipes away the tear. I just nod, I don't want to tell him about how my nightmare made me cry because of my parents dying and nearly him as well. I don't want him in my nightmares, they were bad enough as it was.

"I just have this reoccurring nightmare that I have practically every single night." I start, I can feel his eyes on me as I look down at my hands. "This time it was just a little bit different, making it actually a bit worse."

"I heard you scream, so I thought I would come check up on you." He sighs as he gets up from my bed. "Are you alright?"

"Nope!" I say with exaggeration as I pop the "P".

"Come on." He sighs as he lends his hand to me. I look up at him as I take his hand and be pulls me out of my bed and downstairs into the kitchen. He makes up some warm tea with milk in it. "My mom would make this for me when I had bad dreams as a kid." He smiles as he hands me a cup. "It works. I promise." He winks at me as I let out a small laugh.

We head into the living room with our cups of warm tea and both take a seat on the couch. I look at the clock and it reads 3:00am. The storm was still going on outside as we sat watching tv and sipping our drinks.

It is too late for me to be up right now. The tea wasn't that bad, but I was growing very tired as I watched the tv screen to some late night showing of the news and how the storm would be ending soon.

I look over at Liam who is laying at one end of the couch and me on the other. He looked so tired. "I'm sorry I keep waking you up tonight." I whisper over to him.

"Anything for you, Reina." He smiles back over at me. "Goodnight, Reina." He whispers as the two of us drift off into sleep.