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You Do What You Have To Do: Chapter 1
I sat on the edge of the boat, my feet dangling into the water as I watched
the sunrise. Before all of this, I was the one that everyone had to pry out
of bed. Now I'm lucky if I get a few hours of sleep a night. The nightmares
are horrible, so real, so twisted, that it's hard to keep telling myself
that it's just a dream and she can't get me anymore.
I can't wake him when they happen. I don't want to worry him, he had enough
to handle on his own, he doesn't need my problems heaped on him too. I
closed my eyes and sighed, feeling the morning mist settling. A nudge on my
foot opened my eyes and I smiled, the dolphin was back. He seemed to adopt
everyone on the boat as his own. I smiled at him, "Good Morning to you
too."
His chipper little squeaks and grunts brought a smile to my face as he
seemed to be talking back to me. He was one of two things that could reach
me these days. The other was lying below deck sleeping. I had read
somewhere that dolphins seem naturally in tune with people's emotions, they
sense what kind of person you are inside and if you are troubled or have
some sort of emotional disability, they tend to nurture you and try to make
it better. I shook my head, "You certainly have your work cut out with this
boat. Between the two of us, we could tell you one hell of a horror story."
The dolphin rested his nose on my feet and I looked down at it, wishing I
could be him, even for a little while. It would be so nice to just have
nothing to worry about besides swimming and eating. Well, the occasional
shark or tuna net, but besides that, life was a breeze if you were a
dolphin.
The sun was just over halfway peeking above the horizon. We were parked
about 2 miles off the shore in Maine somewhere, if you squinted, you could
just make out land. It was perfect. Nothing could ruin this, except going
back. I sighed, I knew we would have to go back to our lives sometime, but
I didn't want to think about it now.
I closed my eyes again and my thoughts started to go back to the church.
The fire, the gunshots, the not knowing if either one of us was going to
walk out of there, and then they strayed to Stefanie. The name still
brought violent reactions from my body. Her evil face swam in my mind every
detail of it scorched in my memory and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't
get it out.
A hand came down on my shoulder and nearly scared me to death. Before I
could stop it, a blood curdling scream left my lips as I nearly fell off the
side of the boat as my body stiffened like a board in absolute terror.
Before I could fall overboard, a pair of strong arms grabbed me and yanked
me backwards until I was held against the body that went with the arms. I
was shaking uncontrollably and the scream that had come out of my would have
woken the dead.
Kevin held me tightly and released my arms when I had calmed down enough
that he knew I wasn't going to hit him in reaction to the fright he had
given me. I wound my arms around his middle as his hand smoothed down my
hair and the other held me against him. "I'm sorry. I should have made
more noise. I'm so sorry for scaring you."
I melted at the emotion in his voice. I looked up into his green eyes for a
second, seeing the emotion had traveled to them also, before dropping my
head down against his chest and sighing, "It's ok, Kevin. Just please don't
sneak up on me again, ok?"
He nodded, "I should have realized. I would have done the same thing." He
sighed in answer to mine, "It's part of the legacy of fear she's left us,
huh?"
I nodded against his chest. "How long have you been up?"
"About an hour. I was up when you left the bed."
I looked up, surprised. "Why didn't you say anything?"
He kissed my forehead, "Well after the nightmare you had, I figured you were
leaving because you wanted some time alone. I came up now because I missed
you."
I felt my jaw drop, he knew about the nightmares. How?
He must have read my thoughts, because he cupped the side of my face in his
hand, "I've known ever since they first started, Nick. I was just waiting
for you to let me in enough to try to help. I know you feel like you don't
want to dump this on me, but we need to help each other, Nick. It's the only
way we are going to get through this."
I nodded. I knew he was right. I rested my head on his chest again and
looped my arms around his waist, holding him close to me feeling the warmth
radiating off of his body.
Silently we both watched the sun rise in the sky until the last of it rose
above the horizon. It was another beautiful day. When the pastel hues
drained from the sky and the normal cerulean blue took over, Kevin grabbed
me and lifted me in his arms.
I looked up at him in surprise for the second time that morning, "What are
you doing?"
He smiled, "Nap time. You and I both need more sleep." He smirked down at
me, "And I wasn't nearly done enjoying just laying there cuddling you."
I let him bring me down below deck and he laid me on the bed after stripping
off my shirt and hat, then took his own shirt off and settle the two of us
under the sheet. Our bodies just seemed to fit together all cuddled up,
like we were parts of a jigsaw puzzle. I sighed, it felt so right, being
like this.
He leaned closer, until his breath was tickling my ear, "I want you to think
of me while you are falling asleep. Think about us being together like this
every night and waking up like this every morning in a little beach house on
the water, ok?"
I nodded, seduced by the little scene he had laid out for me. I felt so
safe in his arms, like nothing could hurt me. Before long my eyelids were
heavy and with a sigh, I tightened my arms around Kevin and fell asleep.
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