Page 20 of Nightmare

I have so many things I want to say, but nothing comes out, nothing except another strangled sob.

“Breathe.”

He repeats the same word, his voice so rugged it sends shivers up my spine.

I close my eyes again, and I focus on breathing, dragging air into my aching lungs and forcing it back out, until the terror slowly subsides and my body stops trembling. Only then do I open my eyes.

He’s still there, in front of me, just watching me.

His face is expressionless, but he hasn’t left me alone.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

A sharp nod, and then he stands.

I get to my feet, and he reaches out, opening my car door. Looking to him, just praying he’ll say something else, I wait for a moment. He doesn’t speak, so I slide into my car, legs still a little wobbly. Only when I have started the car and he has closed the door does he turn and begin walking away. Rolling down my window, I call out. “Western?”

He pauses, turning to look at me.

“Thank you,” I say again.

“My name isn’t Western,” he grates out, his voice that of a wounded man, deep and yet holding a hint of grit, as if it pains him to speak. “It’s Nightmare.”

With that, he disappears.

Leaving me alone in the parking lot.

Both humbled and afraid.

A mixture of emotion only he could manage.

5

“You need to quit,”Leo says, walking me into the club the next night for work. “I can’t have you working here where you could be fucking attacked in the parking lot.”

“We’ve been over this,” I explain. “I’ll park out front, and my boss told me they will have me escorted by a bouncer to my car from now on. Sometimes, these things happen. You can’t put your life on hold because of it.”

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