Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,54

comforter that he gently pulled over her. He reached down to remove her shoes and belatedly she realised she was still wearing her ‘killer’ dress. There was no other option though and as she allowed the beginnings of sleep to claim her, she realised that she was far too tired to care.

Gently, Vaughn pressed his lips to her temple and stroked her cheek. “Get some sleep, beautiful,” he said, “It’s late. I’ll make sure you get back to your car in plenty of time to go home and change before going to the hospital.”

He turned his back and walked out of the door and in the last seconds before she fell into a deep and blissfully untroubled sleep, she could have sworn she heard him whisper “Take care, my angel.”

Chapter Fifteen

A piercing shout tore through the night, immediately waking Elise and her heart pounded loudly out of her chest. Where the hell was she? And what the hell was that noise?

Her eyes began to adjust to the darkened room and the memories flooded back. She was in Vaughn’s flat, in his spare bedroom and in her dress from last night.

As realisation hit, the sound came again; this time louder and Elise bolted out of bed. It was coming from Vaughn’s bedroom, she was sure of it. She looked around for an object she could use in case it was an intruder but came up with nothing. The sound came a third time and this time she didn’t hesitate – she ran straight up the hallway to his room and pushed open the door, dreading what she would find inside.

It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the dimensions of the room although Vaughn had left the curtains open, and she could make out bits and pieces of furniture from the slithers of moonlight. The bed took up the centre of the room and it was from here that the sound was coming. Vaughn was clearly in the midst of some night-time terror, flailing and thrashing from side to side with the quilt twisted around his torso.

Quickly she crossed the room to the bed and then hesitated for a moment, unsure as to what to do. She remembered reading somewhere that you should never wake someone from a nightmare as it could cause them more harm than good. The fright of being woken had been known to trigger something as serious as a heart attack if her memory served her correctly and actually scaring the life out of him was the last thing that she wanted to do.

Having never encountered something like this before, she was totally out of her element; being in his room like this whilst he was clearly battling his demons just felt too close, too personal, and too raw.

She remained stock-still, paralysed with indecision and warring with her conscience as to what she needed to do. Another howl, this one louder and longer suddenly rent the night; this one almost a real shout of pain and she was instinctively and instantly by his side. It couldn’t be right to let another human being suffer through something that was clearly as traumatic as this.

Gently she lowered herself to the side of the bed and reached out to touch his face. His brow and his cheeks were soaked with sweat, his face cold to the touch. Immediately her concern increased and she leaned forwards to put her mouth next to his ear, all the while stroking his cheek in an attempt to calm him.

“Vaughn..” she whispered “Vaughn.. it’s OK – you’re having a dream. I’m here, it’s all OK. Wake up – please.”

Still the thrashing continued although it seemed a little less severe; he remained asleep but the sweating had started to reduce. Encouraged, she continued to whisper soothing words in his ear, tracing her hands over his cheeks and along his jaw bone and then back up across his brow, reassuring him and comforting him.

Eventually, he calmed completely, the flailing stopped and his breathing relaxed and became deeper. Elise continued to sit by his side stroking his face and murmuring soothing words until she was certain that he was asleep again. She had no idea what had caused his terror or indeed if this was a regular occurrence but it didn’t really matter. All that was important was that he was OK and, after a while, when she was positive that he was pacified and that the storm had passed, she rose from the bed, intent on