Page 53 of Stand: Part One

“Jaden, please! Help!”

I’m coming. I’m almost there!

And then a door finally appeared at the end of the shadows. It rattled violently in its frame, the thunderous noise making my stomach clench with pure terror.

“Jaden! Please!”

I lunged for the door, barreling through it like an animal, and burst into a room filled with my worst fears. My heart stopped dead.

My brothers.

Aaron, with blood dripping down the side of his swollen and bruised face, looked up at me from the chair he was currently strapped to. His chest heaved up and down as his eyes moved to his hand, which was covered in red. His middle finger was missing.

“Help us, Jaden.” Brennan’s strained voice came from my right. My heart plummeted as my eyes followed the chains that were currently securing his wrists above his head. He had burns all over his body, and a deep gash up the side of his leg.

They both looked like they’d been beaten to hell.

And then I felt a hand reach around my hip and yank me away into a hard body. Righting myself, I looked up to find Darren grinning down at me with a sinister look in his deep blue eyes. But then he moved his other arm into view and revealed a small, rosy-cheeked toddler with brown hair and dark blue eyes. Darren bounced him in his hold, the two exchanging smiles before Darren turned back to me.

“Soon, it’ll be his turn,” he declared proudly.

I shot up with a gasped scream, my instincts telling me to strike out, making my elbow connect with something hard as I hurled myself out of bed. My knees hit the floor after a single step, but my brain was on total autopilot survival mode, the instinct to flee my only objective.

My heart was ready to burst through my chest as I managed to quickly crawl across the room and lean my back against the solid wall, grounding me to reality. I couldn’t catch my breath, my ears were ringing, and I felt my entire body shaking like a fucking Chihuahua.

Breathe, Jaden. Breathe.

Pulling my legs up, I held my head between my knees to try to take slow, deep breaths. Five breaths later, I felt warm hands gently wrap themselves around my wrists, thumbs softly grazing against the back of my hand. Even squatting low to the ground, Darren’s body still managed to tower over me, blanketing all of my space and making me feel so damn small and utterly trapped.

“You’re okay, Jaden,” he said softly. “It was only a dream.”

But it wasn’t a dream.

It was a premonition. The future.

Fuck.

When I finally felt calm enough, I raised my head and connected my eyes with my enemy.

Aside from the clear redness marring his cheek, his face remained passive, the stone-cold features unwavering as he looked me over like I might be hurt elsewhere. When he was satisfied, he released my wrists and placed both hands along the sides of my face and tilted it upward.

“Better?” he asked.

I closed my eyes as I sucked in a slow breath. “Yeah.”

And then I felt myself being lifted into his arms and carried back to bed. I could see the sun was starting to rise as its light escaped through the curtains, so it was still early.

Climbing back into bed, Darren pulled me onto his lap and locked his arms around me, pressing my head against his shoulder.

“Talk,” he ordered.

I blew out a puff of air instead. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to tell him shit.

“Not yet,” I pleaded with a groan. “It’s too early.”

He sighed heavily, a low growl emanating from his chest.

“I thought you had gotten past these nightmares,” he accused.