Page 30 of Saving Tracey (Finding Hope #1)

He sighed, dropping it, but he didn’t drop the concerned look in his eyes. He stepped back from me, and I sighed, turning and walking out of the bathroom. I sat on my bed and turned the TV on, laying down under the covers.

Maybe the noise from the television would keep the nightmares away.

I just wanted to sleep peacefully.

It was dark all around me. I couldn't see a damn thing. There were no windows, and as much as I felt along the wall, it seemed like I was never going to find a door to get out of this pitch-black room.

I could hear his heavy boots pounding up the stairs, and he began shouting my name. A tear trickled down my cheek. Oh God, he was angry. Something had happened at work to make him pissed.

"Tracey!" He bellowed.

A whimper escaped my lips. This was it for me. I was so fucking done for.

I screamed when the door I had so desperately searched for over and over swung open, and his huge frame filled the doorway, intimidating me instantly.

Tears poured down my cheeks when he stepped into the room, flipping on a light switch.

I cowered against the wall as he stormed over to me, his fist slamming into my rib cage and another blow immediately following after against my stomach.

I preferred the dark.

I fell to my knees, my arms wrapping around my abdomen as I coughed hard, groaning at the pain in my stomach.

Please, make it stop.

He grabbed my hair, yanking my head back, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

"She fired me because I hurt you,” he spat at me.

"I lost my fucking job today. You always ruin everything for me, Tracey.

So, today I'm going to fucking ruin you.

I'm going to make you suffer, and I'm going to watch with a fucking smile as you die a slow, painful death in front of me. "

I jerked awake, screaming at the top of my lungs.

I was drenched in sweat, and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

I kicked the covers off of me, scrambling out of bed so fast that I got twisted up in the sheets and fell on the floor on my hands and knees.

My bathroom door burst open as I sobbed, curling into a ball on the floor.

Trevor came running out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He pulled me up and into his arms immediately, holding me tightly in his arms against his naked chest. I cried against his shoulder, sobs violently wracking my body.

It had felt so fucking real.

"Calm down, baby. I'm right here." He kept me hidden from everyone when they burst into the room.

"Look at me." I looked up at him, tears continuously flowing down my face.

He wiped some of them away with his thumb.

"No one is going to hurt you, understand?

Over my dead body will you ever get hurt again. "

I clutched his shirt in my fists, tucking my head into his chest again. I loved the fact that Trevor automatically knew what was wrong and never had to ask. He knew I had a nightmare, and he knew who the goddamn star of it was.

"Is she okay?" I heard Krista whisper.

"She'll be fine,” Miss Brinson said softly. "Let's go and give them some space."

I heard them shuffle out of the room, and my door shut softly behind their footsteps. "Baby, I need you to talk to me about what happened in your dream.”

He moved us to sit on my bed and pulled me onto his lap, cradling me to his chest. I shook my head at him, not wanting to relive it.

He kissed my forehead. "Tracey, I really need you to tell me.

If you keep it bottled up inside, you're going to relapse.

You've come so far, baby. Keep pushing. Talk to me. "

I sighed, wiping my eyes roughly, but the tears wouldn’t stop.

I rubbed my stomach, almost wincing at the remembrance of the pain from the dream.

"It was the same room from the one last night," I spoke, my voice scratchy from the crying I had done.

My dreams all had the same exact room, and I didn't understand why.

I guess it was because I was afraid of the dark and closed-in spaces.

My mind had to be playing tricks on me.

"Last night, I kept dreaming that he was strangling me.

No matter how many times I woke up right before he accomplished what he was trying, I kept dreaming the same exact thing.

Each time was more painful than the last." My hands rubbed at my throat.

Trevor reached up and grabbed one of my hands, lacing it through his.

He rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. "The one I just had, I was still in that dark room, but this time I was trying to find a door.

I couldn't see anything, but I could hear his footsteps, and I could hear him shouting my name. It was those stupid boots he always wore,” I muttered, cringing when the horrible sound echoed in my head.

Because of him, I hated the sound of loud shoes.

"He walked into the room, and he began beating me, punching me in my ribs and my stomach. When I fell to the floor, he grabbed my hair and pulled on it to make me look up at him. He threatened to kill me."

Trevor pulled me against him tighter, the muscles in his arms flexing around me. "I promise you, Tracey, he will never get his fucking hands on you ever again. I'll kill him myself with my own fucking bare hands before he ever touches you."

I had never heard Trevor talk about killing someone before, but I knew if my dad came around and tried to hurt me, Trevor would spend the rest of his life in prison to rid him of my life forever before he would ever allow the past to repeat itself.

It was both terrifying and comforting at the same time.

"You don't need to go to prison for me," I said quietly.

He leaned down to kiss me softly. “Every minute I spend in a prison cell would be worth it.”

I just sighed and leaned my head on his shoulder, hoping we would never be faced with that kind of decision.

We sat in comfortable silence for a moment before I decided I wanted to go to sleep again. Trevor pulled me against him, and I placed my head on his chest as we lay down on my bed.

I was almost asleep when Trevor kissed my forehead. "I love you, Tracey."

I smiled against his chest, tightening my arms around him. "I love you, too," I murmured.

This time when I slept, the green-eyed monster stayed away.