Page 41 of Chasing Dreams
“Odd,” she murmured.
“Yeah.” Austin tucked the blanket around her and watched her eyes drift shut. Her gift was extraordinary. At the institute he’d met others with differing abilities, but he’d only known one or two who could actually find a location like Shaine had. He was grateful her first ‘hands-on’ experience hadn’t been a grisly one. He wished he could guarantee she wouldn’t have to go through anything worse. But he couldn’t.
Sooner or later, she’d learn why he’d had to divorce himself from all this. Sooner or later, she’d come face-to-face with something she wished she’d never seen.
And he was leading her right toward that day.
Jack awoke instantly. Beneath him the sheets were warm and wet. He hadn’t meant to do it.
He climbed from the bed and clumsily peeled down the resistant pajamas. From a pile of unfolded laundry by the door, he found a clean pair of underwear and pulled them on backward.
His damp skin sent a shiver through his body, and he wished he could get back into the bed to keep warm.
Dimly, in the back of his mind, he remembered a soft nubby blanket and a faded terrycloth bear. Memories of comfort. Memories of another place. Memories before her.
He tugged a scratchy blanket from the back of a straight chair, got his small pillow and curled up on the floor.
It was scarier down here. He could see the dark places under the bed, and the black shadows in the corners of the room. If he cried she’d come hit him.
When she saw the bed, she’d hit him, too. His little body trembled with the thought and he cried anyway.
Once there had been the mama who held him when he cried, who hugged him and let him sleep with her. He couldn’t remember her much anymore, but sometimes he remembered how she made him feel.
The door flew back against the wall.
His body stiffened and he blinked against the harsh light in the hall.
“What’s the matter now? Don’t you have any sense? It’s the middle of the night. What’s that smell?”
His cries froze in his throat and his heart beat so fast, it hurt.
She smelled worse than his bed. She came toward his place on the floor, and he shrunk back, coming up against the metal leg of the bed
“You did it again, did you?”
He saw her foot coming, but he couldn’t squeeze under the bed in time to prevent it from catching him in the leg.
He howled with pain and fear.
“Come out from under there! Come out now! If I have to get down there and drag you out, I’ll close you in the bathroom for the night. In the dark.”
She would anyway. She would anyway.
Was there any place he could hide? Was there any place she couldn’t find him?
Her hands hit the floor and her indistinguishable face appeared. The bad smell of her breath reached him.
“Okay, stinky boy,” she drawled. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh?”
She reached for him, and he shrieked in terror. “Noooo!”
“No!” Shaine screamed the word and lunged up on her knees in the bed. The tangible horror of the dream cloaked her in overwhelming distress. She bent forward, pressing her face to the sheets and sobbed, “Oh, baby, honey, oh, Jack…”
Austin’s footsteps pounded up the stairs. “Shaine?”
In helpless frustration, she beat the mattress with a fist and screamed a curse.
Austin took her by the shoulders and pulled her up to face him. With one hand, he raked her hair back so he could look at her. Dimly she realized he’d turned on a light below, and in its muted glow, his features were full of concern. With his thumb, he brushed tears from her cheek.
