Chapter 12 – Nightmares and Confessions
517 Words
Serena woke up screaming.
Her body jolted upright, drenched in sweat, lungs burning as if she had been running for miles.
The room was dark.
Too dark.
Her heart slammed violently against her ribs.
“No… no… please…” she whispered.
The dream clung to her like smoke.
Mara crying.
Hands pulling her away.
A door slamming shut.
Serena squeezed her eyes closed, but the images refused to leave.
The bedroom door opened.
Soft footsteps crossed the floor.
“Serena.”
Adrian’s voice cut through the panic.
She turned her head and saw him standing beside the bed, hair slightly disheveled, eyes sharp with concern.
“I heard you,” he said quietly.
She tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Her entire body was shaking.
Adrian sat on the edge of the bed.
“Breathe,” he said. “Slow.”
She tried.
Failed.
Adrian hesitated for a fraction of a second… then pulled her into his arms.
Serena froze.
No one had held her like this in years.
Warm.
Solid.
Safe.
Her walls collapsed.
She buried her face in his chest and cried.
Not silently.
Not politely.
She sobbed.
Adrian didn’t tell her to stop.
Didn’t tell her to be strong.
He simply held her.
Minutes passed.
Maybe longer.
When her breathing finally slowed, she pulled back slightly.
“I don’t normally do this,” she whispered.
“I know,” Adrian replied.
Silence settled between them.
Heavy.
Waiting.
“My sister was taken,” Serena said suddenly.
Adrian didn’t interrupt.
“She was fifteen. We were living with people who weren’t… good. I tried to protect her.” Her voice cracked. “They sold her.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“I ran,” Serena continued. “I thought I could find help. By the time I came back, she was gone.”
Tears slid down her cheeks.
“I’ve been searching ever since.”
Adrian’s voice was quiet.
“Victor?”
She nodded.
“He’s connected. I don’t know how deep. But he knows things he shouldn’t.”
Adrian’s arms tightened slightly around her.
“You should have told me earlier.”
“I didn’t trust anyone,” she said. “I still don’t.”
“I’m not anyone,” Adrian replied.
Serena looked at him.
Their faces were inches apart.
His eyes were dark.
Unreadable.
Yet something in them had shifted.
“I won’t let him take anything else from you,” Adrian said.
Her heart skipped.
“You can’t promise that.”
“I don’t make promises,” he said. “I make guarantees.”
Something fragile bloomed inside her chest.
Hope.
Dangerous.
Beautiful.
Serena swallowed.
“Why do you help me?”
Adrian didn’t answer immediately.
“Because I recognize survivors,” he said. “And because once something enters my territory, I don’t allow it to be destroyed.”
Serena didn’t know whether she was comforted or terrified.
Probably both.
She leaned into him again.
Just slightly.
Adrian allowed it.
Outside the mansion, darkness watched.
Inside the room, two broken people clung to something neither of them wanted to name.
Yet.
- Writer
