Darkness. That was the first thing that greeted you. Pure darkness. Then cold. It took you a minute to process everything. You weren’t prepared for the bright lights to suddenly appear. Something wasn’t right. Everything was too clean and smelled very sterile. When you tried to turn your head to see what the hell was going on you found that you couldn’t move it so you tried to move anything you could. The most you could do was barely make a fist. Whoever had you had made sure you weren’t going anywhere.
“She’s finally awake,” You heard a woman speak. Whatever her accent was, it was very heavy, and you could barely understand her. Even though you tried to look around again you weren’t going anywhere. There was some part of you hoping that this was all some sort of weird mistake and they would let you go.
You instantly started to panic as you saw shadows approach you. When they finally surrounded you, you couldn’t see their faces,only their eyes which were lit up by a blue light. They were covered up completely. By instinct you tried to fight against the bonds that held you down but it just wasn’t working.Whatever they had you restrained down with gave you absolutely no room to move. The monitor you were connected to suddenly started to get really loud. Your body was officially in panic mode and that panic had caused your pulse to skyrocket. You didn’t see, well you couldn’t see as you couldn’t move your head, somebody injected you with something. Instantly you felt yourself relax. It felt like you were half asleep but your instinct to survive was more powerful than the drug. You wanted to speak, to find out what the hell was going on, but you couldn’t form the words now. The only thing you could do was watch the white ceiling as you heard stuff being pushed together. You tried to listen to them talk but it was all in a foreign language. The last thing you saw was a nearly faceless man being handed a scalpel.
Quickly you knew of your surroundings, well sort of. Your eyes were open, you could see your hand in front of you but you couldn’t move. You knew Steven was right next to you but you couldn’t reach over to wake him up. You couldn’t scream out his name. The dream, now officially a nightmare, continued to plague your mind. You were paralyzed as you watched it play out. The people that had taken you had connected a tube to your arm, although you couldn't see what was going on you had felt the needle pierce your arm. It didn’t take long for you to start feeling dizzy and when the man with the scalpel started to cut into your abdomen your brain officially woke up.
Now that you could move again you felt tears in your eyes. Why would your brain give you a nightmare like that? That was the most vivid nightmare you had experienced in such a long time. It didn’t help that you were awake for most of it. You needed air or something to distract you. The bed you were sharing with the man you loved suddenly felt very restrictive. You made sure to pull the sheets aside softly so you didn’t wake Steven from his much needed sleep. After reaching over to grab your phone to check the time, which read 3.45 in the morning you got out of bed. All you could do was laugh quietly. All you managed was 2 hours of sleep, if that. It was going to be a long day. Your eyes felt very heavy. Was there a specific phrase for it? Permanently exhausted didn’t even cover it. Even though you were in your apartment, thankfully, you were still scared. Hell you were so distracted by the nightmare that you didn’t notice your whole body was practically shaking in fear. You needed to find a way to calm down before crawling back into bed with Steven. He didn’t need to know about this.
Making your way into the kitchen, you were now very thankful you kept a night light in there, you went to find something to drink. You needed to get the funky taste out of your mouth. Moving as quietly as you could, you didn’t want to take the chance and wake up Steven by being loud, you headed up into the fridge to find something to drink. You didn’t care what it was as long as it was ice cold. It didn't take long to find a bottle of water which was quickly opened. While you were chugging it down, you hadn’t heard Steven get out of bed. He had woken up to an empty bed and went looking for you. When the bottle was empty, you set it next to the sink, it could be dealt with later. Now you needed to find something to do to try and calm your mind down.
When Steven saw you standing in the kitchen he smiled and wrapped his arms around you. He thought you had just woken up to get some water. Of course had he known what was about to happen he would have spoken up first. When his arms wrapped around your waist your fight or flight response kicked in. Instantly your arm raised and your elbow went to collide with Steven’s face.
“ Oh shit!” Steven stumbled back as your elbow rose. He had managed to jump back in time. When you heard Steven’s voice your mind instantly knew you had fucked up. You knew for a damn fact that Steven, Marc or Jake would never hurt you.
“I’m so sorry!”
Steven stared at you with confusion in his eyes. You had never attacked them before. Usually you liked it when one of them wrapped their arms around you from behind because it gave you a chance to snuggle into them. Marc would playfully nip at your ear when he did it, Steven would just rest his head on your shoulder, and Jake would press himself into you. Sometimes it was to tease you and sometimes it was to smell. The man was obsessed with whatever body wash you used. There wasn’t even a debate. Jake just took over control. That was the first time you had ever done something like that and to be honest, he was worried as hell. Actually they all were.
“Bebita,” Jake spoke up as he slowly stepped towards you. He didn’t reach out for you. Not yet anyways. He could see your hands shaking. “What’s wrong?”
You tilt your head up to look at Jake. Guilt was seen in your eyes, along with fear. You didn’t know how to explain what the hell had happened in your brain.
“Come on, bebita. Let’s sit down on the couch so we can talk.”
Jake held out his hand, and when you took it, he led you over to the couch. Even though you knew you were safe with them by your side, you knew for a fact that if anybody would come after you that they would protect you, you were still scared as hell.
“Do you want to talk about what is going on?”
It took you a minute to think. Did you want to talk about this? You knew for a fact that it would help to talk about it but you didn’t know how to form the words. Jake looked up at you. If you didn’t want to talk to him he would understand.
“Have you ever had a nightmare you couldn’t wake up from?”
Jake gave you a puzzled look. They had nightmares all the time. They were usually of the people they killed under the order of Khonshu. Even though they were all bad people they still haunted Marc’s mind which technically haunted them all. Of course it didn’t help that Steven and Marc had been attacked by them in the Duat either.
“Khonshu turned our life into a nightmare for years, so yes.”
“No. Not like that. Like you’re awake but you’re still dreaming.”
Steven was the first one to pick up on what you were referring to. Sleep paralysis. He had remembered reading about it before he knew about Marc and Jake. Jake turned his head towards the closest reflective surface which happened to be a picture frame that held a photo of you Steven had taken. You had been looking at hippos at the zoo. Steven just couldn’t resist taking the picture. You just looked so damn happy watching the new baby hippo playing with his mother.
“Does somebody wanna fill me in?” Marc spoke up. He was absolutely clueless on what was going on.
Steven demanded control from Jake. This was something he needed to have a conversation with you about. Jake fought the urge to roll his eyes but he didn’t argue with the British man. By the way he was acting he seemed to know what was going on. Steven took control and reached over to take your hand.
“You had a sleep paralysis nightmare, didn’t you?’
Your head turned to the left to look at Steven. It took a minute to process his question but what he asked did make sense. It had only happened to you once before and it was when you were a teenager. That was a nightmare you didn’t want to remember either. It was something about a portal opening to hell or something. The older you got the less detailed you remembered which was a good thing but the problem now was you had a new nightmare you wouldn’t forget about anytime soon. Tears filled your eyes and you nodded.
“Do you want to talk about it? I think it might help.”
Although you really didn’t want to, you knew you needed to. The sooner you talked about it the sooner you could hopefully move past it. You swallowed the lump in your throat.
“I was in a sterile place. Like a hospital. Completely restrained to the bed. I was hooked up to some kind of monitor. These people came out of nowhere, completely covered from head to toe. I could only see their eyes which were illuminated by a light. Their eyes looked dark,” You started to choke up. You wanted to stop but you knew you needed to tell them what you saw. “They spoke to me. Fuck they almost sounded robotic with their heavy accents. I started to freak out so they drugged me. They stole blood from me. My brain didn’t fully wake up until they started to cut into me.”
Steven wrapped his arms around you as you broke down. Talking about it helped a little bit but every time you closed your eyes you saw the faceless men. Steven looked over at the picture so he could communicate with Marc and Jake. They both looked horrified. They thought working with Khonshu was a nightmare but this was something completely different.
“If you’re going to convince her to lay down,” Marc told Steven. He remembered having something like that happen when he was a kid after Randall had died. That shit was terrifying. Of course he had nobody at the time to help him through it either. “Make sure you keep the lights on. This shit is not going away anytime soon.”
Steven rubbed at your back until you stopped crying. You didn’t want to step away from him. The smell of their body wash was comforting and so was their shampoo. You always found it funny that they stole your green apple scented shampoo every once in a while. When you pulled away you locked eyes with Steven.
“Can I talk to Marc?”
Steven immediately gave control of the body to Marc. This wasn’t the time to debate on who should have control of the body. Marc’s hand reached up and used the pad of his thumb to start wiping away the tears that now stained your cheeks.
“It’s okay, Baby.” Marc whispered as he finished wiping away the stray tears. Now that they were gone your eyes were red and puffy but you were still slightly shaking. “I promise, no, we promise,” Marc had to make sure to include them all in this. The last time he didn’t include them he got an earful. “To protect you. Whether it be from the nightmares that plague you, that voice in the back of your head, or any other danger that is out there. You mean the world to us. We love you.”
“I love you all as well. Is it okay if we stay out here for the night?”
“Of course. After having a nightmare like that I wouldn’t blame you for not wanting to stay in there for the next couple of nights.” Even though you had described to them what your nightmare was about having it play out in your dream was a completely different experience.
You watched as Marc got up from the couch then raised your eyebrow as he walked back into the bedroom. They were already in their sleepwear, Steven had won the argument about wearing his oversized sweater, so there was really no reason for them to go in there. When they finally did come out they had your favorite blanket and your Taweret plush. They sat down next to you with the blanket. You couldn’t help but smile at them.
The next thing you knew you were getting kisses from your Taweret plush from a surprise attack. That meant Steven had started fronting again since he was the only one who did that with her. It didn’t take you long to start laughing as Steven had the plush give kisses all over your face. It was definitely a needed distraction. Once he was done, the final kiss from her was on your nose, Steven smiled at you. Come on, Love. Let's put on a movie and get you under this blanket. You need your rest.” "Can I lay on you?”
“You know you never have to ask.”
Steven handed over the blanket and watched as you yawned. You looked completely exhausted. You needed to be as close to him as possible. It only took Steven about a minute to get your favorite movie going. It was your go to movie. Especially on your sad days. It was an animated film that involved a talking llama. You had shown it to Steven on your first movie night date. Of course he paid more attention to you at the time than the movie.
When he finally got himself situated on the couch you scooted over to him and placed your head on his thigh. Your body was curled under the blanket while Taweret was squeezed under your arm. You didn’t want to let her go. You hadn’t noticed that Jake had taken control until he spoke up. He could feel how tense you were which meant you were still probably scared as hell.
“Está bien, mi hermosa niña,” Jake spoke quietly as he started to play with your hair. He knew it was something you enjoyed when you were feeling down. When he felt you start to relax he smiled. “Te tenemos Estás seguro.”