Chapter 109: Chapter-109. (A Nightmare).
Just when I thought it was all peaceful, someone’s voice fell into my ear, "Elena? Mommy! Elena, wake up!"
The voice pulled me back to reality as my eyes snapped open. I sat back, looking around. The blurred objects started to take shape. The first face that came in front of my eyes was Emma.
Her little hands clutched at my sleeve, her wide eyes glistening with tears and worry, "Mommy...mommy, I am scared."
Her words hit like ice water, making us completely awake. I held her arms, as I scrutinized her from head to toe, while tons of questions, "What? What happened, Emma? Did somebody hurt you?"
She did not answer and kept sobbing in between. That’s when I heard Sophie’s voice, who sat beside us, as she said, "She is not hurt, but tell me, are you okay?"
I furrowed at her words, not able to understand what exactly was happening here, "What do you mean by am I okay? Tell me clearly. What exactly happened?"
Sophie, at first, did not say anything and kept staring at me as if she were trying to solve some puzzle.
Meanwhile, I took Emma into my lap, and she immediately hugged me, while I caressed her back, waiting for Sophie to answer.
"You...were screaming in your sleep," Sophie’s voice came out low, but it fell harder in my ears. My half-awake brain went still, not able to process what she just spoke.
"What?" I spat back. Sophie did not budge. Instead, she nodded her head, "I am saying the truth, Elena." She held Emma’s hands as she spoke with a smile, "Emma, would you help me wake up Edward?"
Emma’s cries were stopped till now, and when she heard Edward’s name, her eyes lit up and she stood up from my lap. Sophie grabbed the bunny toy from the corner and passed it to her, "Here, take your Mr. Bunny with you."
She happily took the bunny and ran out of the room. As soon as she left the room, an awkward tension filled the surroundings. Sophie took a long and deep breath, as she revealed, "We were sleeping soundly when we heard someone screaming, and when I woke up, I saw..."
She paused, swallowing the lump, which definitely did not give a good sign. "As I opened my eyes, I saw you screaming in your sleep. You kept shouting Emma’s name and ’help us’. Did you have a nightmare?"
Sophie, when completed again, that tense silence wrapped around us. My first reaction to her words was shock and confusion.
Shock for that I really screamed in my sleep, and confusion for that I did not remember anything about it. She said that I might have a nightmare, so why did I not remember anything?
I looked around, and my eyes stayed on the wall clock. It was five in the morning. The environment was still cold. Also, the sun was yet to rise. I shifted my focus back at her as I asked, "When you say that I was screaming, exactly at what time did it happen?"
Sophie did not take long as she replied, "Just five minutes ago." I whispered into my mind as I did my calculations. Sophie’s expression also started to get tense as she asked, "Elena, tell me. Did you really have a nightmare?"
I massaged my temple with my fingers as I tried to recall any of the fragments of the dream, but nothing came to mind.
My head started to ache badly; that’s when I stopped forcing my mind and looked at her. Sophie sat there carefully waiting for my reply. I opened my mouth, but my throat felt dry.
Sophie noticed as she tried to stand up from the bed, "Wait, let me grab you some water."
But before she could move further, I held her by her hand, as I spoke up, "No, just sit." Sophie raised her eyebrows as she wanted to be sure, to which I responded with a nod. Finally, she sat back waiting for me to start.
I did not know where to start. "I..." My voice cracked, but I cleared it out as I started to speak, "I cannot remember anything. I tried...really hard, but nothing came to my mind."
Sophie’s tense expression stayed still, but then her expression softened as she replied, "It’s okay. Sometimes, you cannot remember everything you dream about."
Sophie’s words were meant to comfort me, but they did everything but calm the storm brewing inside of me.
I forced my lips to give her a weak smile, though my lips trembled as I asked he question that was going on in my mind, "But why would I scream like that if I don’t even remember?"
Her eyes flickered toward the door Emma had disappeared through. Her voice came out steady, yet lower than before, "Because sometimes the body remembers what the mind refuses to, and I know this feeling. Trust me, it’s more common than you can imagine."
That struck me harder than I wanted it to. My heart started to beat faster than its normal pace as her words echoed inside my mind.
I looked down at my trembling hands, not able to take in her words completely, but maybe she was right.
The scars I carried were not only on my skin, they were inside me, in my mind. They were buried so deeply that even I did not notice that they were there until now.
I bit my lip and whispered inside my head, ’It must have been about him...’Though I did not know fully, I somehow knew, because the scars which we were talking about were given by him.
Sophie might have noticed my changing expression when her hand covered mine as she spoke, "Elena, you okay?"
Her words snapped me out of my trance as I blinked, coming back to reality.
"Can you give me your phone for a minute?" Words escaped from my mouth before I knew.