New Girl - Part 16

"Jack? What is it?" he remained still as a statue.
His breathing rate increased until he was hyperventilating.
"what do we do?" Florence asked wide eyed. Lewis removed his arm from round my waist, and rose slowly to his feet. He approached Jack with care, stepping gently infront of him and sitting down.
"hey buddy," he spoke softly, Jack's terrified eyes darted about before fixing on Lewis. Then he growled. Florence shuffled closer to me and held my hand. It was her turn to be frightened. I squeezed her hand back, in a poor attempt to reassure her.
Jack growled again, a deep rumbling noise from somewhere near the bottom of his throat. Lewis remained calm and cool.
"hey, it's me. It's okay, we're not gunna hurt you mate, we're all stuck in this together." Jack narrowed his eyes, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration. Recognition flashed across his face and he leapt forward wrapping his arms around Lewis, sobbing. Lewis looked completely shocked put patted Jack on the back anyway. Jack stayed like that for about seven minutes, just as me and Florence exchanged a look of worry he pulled away.
"sorry," Jack's voice was hoarse. Lewis didn't speak, just nodded, then shuffled back over to me on his knees. He leant back up against the cage bars and pulled me into a hug. I leant back into him, resting on his chest with his big muscly arm across my stomach. I brought my knees up and tucked them round away from Lewis' legs, then I placed my arms over the top of Lewis'.
I tilted my head back and smiled at him, before relaxing and closing my eyes hoping to sleep.
"I've really liked you ever since we spoke in ICT that day," he whispered. "like, really, I haven't been able to think of anyone but you," I felt my cheeks becoming warm. I lifted my heavy eyelids briefly to catch a glimpse of Florence and Jack snuggled up, spooning on the soft floor. A smile crept onto my face as I began to drift off.

My dreams werent nice, gentle, safe dreams. They were filled with fear, blood, anguish, pain, loss and guilt. Only two people were in every one, and those people were myself, and Sarah. I dreamed of ways she would slowly torture the others to death infront of me, forcing me to watch helplessly. I dreamt of her coming to see us each day but never providing any food. She would just come to watch us slowly starve to death. I saw us all wasting away, becoming gaunt and hollow. I dreamt of her taking Lewis and Florence and jack away, and leaving me alone, with her only returning to taunt me. I dreamt of her going and killing my parents and bringing their corpses to me. I woke up screaming and shaking violently. Lewis was there, holding me close, stroking my face and kissing my forehead. I wiped my face, and buried into Lewis' chest.
"shh, it's okay, I'm here," he whispered. I managed to calm myself down and breathe deep lungfulls of air.
"better?" he looked into my eyes.
"much" I nodded at him. Then I thought about how Lewis had been speaking to Sarah earlier.
"what has Sarah done to you before that made you hate her so bad? Made you want to kill her?" I looked up at him and saw the pain in his eyes.
"she killed my sister." he spoke in a tone I had never heard before. His voice sounded so pained, like he had given up. I gasped involuntarily. I didn't doubt Sarah was incapable of such a task.
"how old was your sister?" I asked softly.
"seven," his voice was raspy like he was going to cry.
"what on earth did she do?"
"she shot her. Seven times. In the chest. Made it look accidental. Got away with it too, cause her mother is the mayor's secretary person." Lewis had tears in his eyes, now it was my turn to do the cuddling.
"that's just terrible. Don't worry, one day she will get what she deserves" I whispered, wrapping my arms around his neck. He didn't feel so solid and earthed anymore, he felt weak.
"it's okay, we'll be okay, I promise." I never broke my promises.
"I hope so, I don't think my parents would be able to cope with losing another child..." that was another thing I loved about him, no matter how grave his situation was he always thought of others.
"they won't have to, now maybe we should try to get some more sleep?" I suggested.

We adjusted ourselves so that we were lying on the floor, I lay on my side facing Florence and jack. I curled my knees up into myself and rested my head on one of my arms, my other arm just infront. Lewis came up behind and spooned me, tucking his knees into the space by mine, he then rested his head on one of his arms and wrapped the other around my waist pulling me close to him. It was warm and comforting. I could feel Lewis' chest moving as he breathed, gradually his breathing deepened and I knew he had slipped into sleep. I couldn't sleep though, I could feel something in the air, something wasn't quite right and it bothered me.

I continued just to lay there, sharing body heat with Lewis, wide awake.

It was a good job I wasn't able to sleep, because then I wouldn't have noticed the small curl of thick grey smoke rising from under the big wooden door.