Nightmares

Sleep Study 2

By four pm everyone that was going to come for the sleep study was here. There were ten of us all together. There were four guys and six girls, the bar guy Jacob, Mark, a guy that seemed to wake up every hour on the hour. Kelvin is pretty quiet, Mark though, WOW, he is hot; a perfect body, six-foot muscular arms, a tattoo running down his arm from his shoulder to his wrist of a blue and black wolf. Perfect hazel eyes, and a warm smile. He seemed familiar, like maybe I knew him from somewhere, but I couldn't quite place the face. Maybe before the tattoo, I would have remembered the tattoo for sure. Maybe another life.

The six girls were Bex, a hyper little girl with a pixie cut and a round face, she seemed happy, Roma. A taller girl, athletic, not too interested in talking; she had head phones in ninety percent of the time. Tallie, a girl from Texas, she's cute, freckles sprinkled her face lightly her hair was dyed blonde but originally, I could tell it was an auburn color. Ashley, a quiet girl, kinda shy and also not very chatty. Diana, a blonde with the perfect body, perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect everything. She already had all the guys laughing and swooning over her. You could tell she was used to the attention and she craved it like all those cheerleader types, ok well, most.

A tall man with brown hair, stubble on his perfectly chiseled face wearing jeans and a nice white shirt with a lab coat came in and smiled. We all turned, the guys were instantly jealous and the girls all had love in their eyes. Even Roma turned her head from her phone. This man was sooo used to the attention he was getting, he was the perfect specimen of a man. If I was an alien, he would be my target. Good god what am I thinking? I instantly laughed at the thought. Everyone turned and looked at me inquisitively. "Ha, sorry," Is every man in Boston amazingly good looking? The Doctor smiled at me and proceeded "Well everyone, I am Dr Hades."

I thought, of course you are, because something that hot has gotta be bad. Mark smirked and smiled at me, what the hell was that? He turned his head swiftly. Oh, too late buddy, I noticed. His body froze, I could tell something was up. I stared at him until the doctor started his speech, bringing me back to reality. Something strange was going on with Mark. I wonder if I would have time to figure it out before the study was over.

"For the next week, we will be watching you sleep, interact and hopefully be able to give you solutions for your problems on the daily. We would like you to use the techniques we give you the day we give them to you to see if they help with your situation. Now you all have different problems from what I understand, so each of you will be using different techniques and solutions. Hopefully, by the end of this week you'll be able to move on from here a new refreshed person." his voice was smooth and calming just listening to him made me want to curl up and go to sleep. "the little nodes we gave you I would like for you to wear them always so we can monitor your vitals when your awake and sleeping.

You can leave the office, please refrain from leaving the hospital. Your node will become non-functioning after you leave the hospital and the information will be useless. On Tuesday and Thursday, you will accompany me to the fourth floor where we will hook you all up to monitors for the night. It will be uncomfortable but we will try to make it as comfortable as possible. Lastly, once a day you will talk to myself or Francis about your problems. You will be meeting Francis shortly. Whatever you talk to us about, of course, is confidential. Are we all agreed?" I nodded and a few yeses came from the rest. "Oh, I forgot, snacks and meals will be provided but you are welcome to go to the cafe."

"So today is day one, please put your nodes on, then I'll start calling people in for their first one on one." We opened the little black boxes and took the paper off the back of the tiny little rubber nodes and stuck them on our temples and wrists. A couple of the girls asked the doctor for help while swooning over him as he touched them subtly. I couldn't help but giggle to myself at those girls throwing themselves at him. I noticed Mark's eyes were directed at me, smirking. What was his issue? It was almost like he could hear my inner monologue smirking when it was appropriate and such. I'm watching you Mark. I thought as hard as I could! I could see his shoulders tense again. Hollay s**t! He could read minds, Eeek INSANE!! He swung around quickly. s**t, I looked away, dude I got my own issues I won't rat you out.. What a handy gift.

The Dr left the room and went to his office. A few minutes later he called me over the intercom. The girls all shot me evil glares. I laughed. Mark growled, yeah damn that boy growled. "Did you just growl?" I asked as I was walking by him, he turned his focus away, blushing furiously. Hmm he can read minds and he growls, interesting... Before I knocked on the door, Mark grabbed my hand, "I don't trust him. Be careful." He said quietly. I nodded. If this guy didn't trust him there was a reason.

I knocked on the door lightly "Come in." his voice is dreamy; he probably has all the nurses and doctors in his pocket. I opened the door and walked in; the room smelled of lavender and musk. I looked around the room, it was nice and warm, a small bookshelf with many books on sleeping disorders and psychological trauma. There was a desk, two recliners and a couch, there was a huge window with the blinds closed. I walked over to one of the recliners and plopped down, slouching into the back of it.

"So, your Rose." I nodded. "I am" "I've read your case. It's interesting. You've been to four other sleep studies and your seeing a therapist." I looked at him shocked. "How did you know that?" he looked surprised. "You answered these questions when you applied to our sleep study." I shook my head "I didn't apply." he scratched his head "Oh, that's odd, it usually says if this a doctors request, there's nothing here. Probably a mistake, it happens. Is the information right though?" "it is." "So, in your other sleep studies what did they try?" "Hypnotism, counting, lucid dreaming, conditioning. You name it, I probably tried it." he nodded "Ok so what exactly is the problem?" I shrugged, "Nightmares I suppose." "That's all? How long have you had them?" I huffed in annoyance. "That's all? Trust me, if you had them you wouldn't want to sleep either. And I've had them forever. There hasn't been a day or night I can remember that hasn't been a nightmare." He frowned "Sorry I didn't mean to belittle your condition. Is there maybe an underlining issue that your blocking?" I shook my head. "If there was something that happened, it happened when I was a baby and why would it follow me into adulthood, I would have forgotten it don't you think?" "That's true I guess we'll find out tonight exactly what's happening. Alright, you can leave. I will be here tonight. If you need to talk or anything let me know." "Uhh ok thanks." "Oh, one more question. Are you in a relationship?" my cheeks flushed "What?" "Well, it's not in our records, how long was your last relationship?" "Umm, why would you need to know these things?" "Well, we would be able to converse with you significant other for any information they might have." "oh, well I've never been in any relationship that the person would know these things." "I see." a faint smile played in the corner of his mouth. He looked up from jotting down what ever he was, "what did you giggle at out there?" I looked at him confused. "Out there when I was about to tell you the rules and such" I laughed again "do you even notice the people around you?" he frowned "I'd like to think I do." I nodded "hmm and did you notice the women lusting after you and the men clearly hating every moment? Or do you just ignore it now that your used to it." I laughed "Wow blunt aren't you." I nodded "well you asked." I certainly wasn't going to tell him my alien thoughts as I walked to the door and left.