Page 20 of Survival

Fight orFlight

“Wake up, Jaden,” a low soft voice whispered tome.

I tossed and turned in my bed, fighting something inmy head, but I didn’t know what it was.

“Come on, babe. Wake up, you’re dreaming,” it saidagain and I felt a large warm hand gently shake my shoulder.

And then, finally, my eyes opened and I jack-knifedout of bed, my loud gasps on the verge of screams as I tried tocling to my state of sudden reality.

“Hey, Jaden, it’s okay. It was only a dream.”

And then I felt afamiliarwarmhand on my back, rubbing softly up and down, and Inoticed myself calm almost immediately.

I looked over to find Jason sitting up in bed withme, concern on his face as he tried to comfort me. A huge wave ofrelief abruptly washed over me as my hand reached up to touch hisstubble covered face. He felt real. This felt real. And when Ifinally came to that conclusion, I quickly clutched him to me,holding him as tight as I could so that he could never let go,instantly melting when my skin connected with his body heat. Soreal.

“Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?” he asked mesoftly with that same concern in his voice again. It made me wantto cry.

“I just had the most horrifying dream ever.”

“You’re okay, Jaden. Everything is fine,” Jason saidreassuringly.

God, just hearing his voice was a symphony ofrelief, a chorus of salvation, giving me the soothing confirmationthat I was safe, that I wasn’t a prisoner and that I was home …where I belonged.

“I know,” I said, sniffling back tears, thankfulnone of it was real.

He pulled back, taking my face in his hands, andsoftly rubbed my cheeks with his thumbs.

“Tell me what happened,” he said.

“I dreamed I was kidnapped and sold into humantrafficking. And this guy. This fucking horribleguy, who ran the place,bought me and made mehis sex slave and I …”

I suddenly felt strange. Like sick to my stomachstrange.

“And what, Jaden?” Jason pressed.

“And …” I tried to continue with my story, but mystomach continued to ache with a strange pressure that seemed towrap itself entirely around my torso. I suddenly couldn’t breathe;I felt thepanicrise as my bloodrushed and my heart began to race. Darkness shrouded my vision, andI could no longer see Jason.

“Jason?” I called out to him, but there was noanswer. “Jason!”

I felt the pressure grow until my limbs graduallylocked in place. Something was constricting me, coiling andtightening around me like a boa constrictor, squeezing the life outof me.

“No, no, no, no!” I screamed. It wasn’t real. Itwasn’t supposed to be real.

Darkness consumed me until I felt invaded by it. Icouldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, yet all I couldhear was a hauntingly familiar voice echoing in the background.“Mine,” it kept saying. “All mine.” I fought with all my might tomove, but not a single muscle was able to penetrate the force. Icouldn’t even scream.

Jolting from the bed, I screamed so loud I shatteredmy own ears. The sheets were a scattered sweaty mess around me, andmy chest heaved as I sucked in heavy breaths. My heart was racingand I put my head in my hands to try to calm myself down. Tearspoured from my eyes as I came to realize that dream had been thefalse one, and I was still trapped in my nightmare. I waspanicking, and I could feel the walls closing around me. I had toget out of here. I had to get the fuck out. Now.

I got up, puttheNikeson, and ran to my bedroom door, nearly breaking thedamn thing off its hinges as I threw it open and raced out of theroom. My heart was pounding as I shot down the hallway, my stepslight and quick, barely making a sound as I moved like a fuckingpanther in the dark.

I turned the corner towards the stairs and my heartabruptly stopped in horror, a shocked gasp escaping my lips, butthankfully my legs had a different strategy in mind. Terrorclutched my heart as Darren stood not more than twenty feet fromme, casually leaning against the wall, shirtless, in tracks pants,running shoes and blocking the stairs. He was waiting for me.

How the fuck did he already know? I knew I wasrunning only sixty seconds ago!

Because he has a security team and cameraseverywhere, you dumb fuck. That’s how.

“Going somewhere?” he asked me, raising aneyebrow.

A single glance of him was all the motivation Ineeded to simply skip the stairs, grab the railing, and nimblythrow myself over the edge, feet first. I didn’t even think, justreacted; too much adrenaline pushing my momentum to slow medown.