A Familiar Prison

Chapter 19

Opening her eyes, Gwen looks around. It's very dark outside. "Did we really sleep that long?" She thinks a minute. "AJ isn't here. He was holding me. Where could he have gone when I was on him? How could he have gotten up without me knowing?" Gwen stands up and realizes she's not at Kevin and Katie's. She's back at their house. "What? How'd I get here?" She walks into the kitchen. "AJ? Baby, where are you?" She hears a noise behind her. "Thank goodness Babe, I—" Grandpa is staring right at Gwen.

"I see you!" Grandpa starts for Gwen, but Gwen runs off.

Heading upstairs, she barricades herself in her and AJ's bedroom. She flips the light switch. "Shudge! It's not working!" She takes her phone out of her pocket to use the flashlight. Looking around, there is blood on the floor and on the bed. "What?" She looks on the other side of the bed and sees AJ unconscious. "Baby! Oh, no!" She kneels down beside him, taking his head in her lap. "AJ! Come on, please wake up Baby! You're gonna be fine." Somethings not right. There's too much blood. "Is he breathing?" She checks to see if there's breath from his nose, but doesn't feel anything. "AJ! No! Don't you dare die on me! Come on, Baby, don't do this to me!" She performs CPR, eliciting breath from him. He gasps and coughs, and she breathes a sigh of relief. He starts calling her name. She picks up her phone- dead. She reaches in his pocket for his phone- dead. She hears footsteps coming to the door. Gwen grabs AJ and pulls him closer to the bed so they aren't seen. A thought comes to her. "Why are we back home? It's not ready yet." She hears AJ calling her again. "Both of our phones wouldn't be dead." Again hearing AJ, she looks down to him to comfort him, but his mouth isn't the one calling her. "How—" Then it clicks. Nightmare. The real AJ is trying to wake her up. "Okay, Gwen, this isn't real. Wake up." "AJ" in her lap disappears. "This isn't real. Wake up." The bedroom disappears.

"Open your eyes, Gwen." She hears the real AJ trying to tell her to wake as well. She slowly opens her eyes.

AJ is stroking her face, trying to get her to wake. She smiles at him, leans to him and kisses him.

"Umm, not the reaction I was expecting, but hi."

"Hi. You helped me again. You helped me out of a nightmare. I heard you calling my name and telling me to wake up. I got out of it because of you."

"Really?" AJ smiled at her.

"Really." He hugged her. "This imagery rehearsal is working pretty well."

"I'm glad it is. I don't like seeing you suffering, even in your own mind." AJ kissed her forehead.

Gwen looked around. "What time is it?"

"Just after 5. Are you hungry?"

"Mmm, getting there. Want me to make something?" She starts getting up, but he pulls her back down.

"Sure. But in a bit. I never get enough of this." He squeezed her a little more into a hug. She smiled and snuggled into him a bit more.

After a bit of time passes, they get up and make dinner. They did make extra for Katie and Kevin to heat up after they got home. After they ate, they played some board games.

Katie and Kevin got back home and played some card games with them after they ate their dinner.

"You guys do anything interesting?" Katie asked.

"More Imagery Rehearsal." Gwen dead panned.

"Oh no, another nightmare? Well, the way you're talking, it seems the therapy is helping at least."

"Yeah. I started realizing things weren't right, then I heard AJ trying to wake me up. So he helped me come back too." Gwen looked lovingly at her husband beside her and took his hand.

"Glad to hear." Katie smiled. "Did you want to go for a walk outside before we turn in? I know that helped a bit last time too, didn't it?"

"Sure. Yeah, I think it did." Gwen looked at AJ. "Did you want to come too Babe?"

"I think I'll sit this one out. You girls be careful and enjoy yourselves."

"Okay." She and Katie got their shoes on and headed out the door.

"How's your project coming along?" Gwen asked once they were out of the driveway.

"It's good. Not as far along as I'd hoped, but it's coming along at least."

"Good." Gwen seemed deep in thought.

"You okay? You seem a million miles away."

"No, yeah, I'm okay. I'm just... I'm worried about Granny and Grandpa and The Child. I mean, there was NOTHING about the fire on the news at the time, let alone the fact that three people supposedly perished in it... I'm just questioning if they really did die, and what will happen now..."

"G, you can't think like that. They're gone. No one would have been able to survive that."

"Kate, I threw a chainsaw at Granny. I shot both Granny and Grandpa, I knocked Grandpa unconscious and he literally came through a window at me. I wouldn't be surprised if they did survive the fire and are just biding their time for us to relax more."

"Now come on, you can't think like that."

"I'm serious! These people—if they really are people— could survive a nuclear blast! I am excited to go back to the house when it's ready, because there truly is no place like home, but they know where we live. We know what they're capable of surviving and doing. I'm terrified they're still alive! I'd hate to move, I just moved in with AJ when we got married, and we love our house, but if they didn't know where we live, I wouldn't have to be as worried."

"So you're wanting to move?"

"Not really... I just won't feel safe unless I am certain they are dead."

"Well, we can do some research and make sure they're really gone." Katie suggested.

"I think I'd feel better doing that." Gwen shivered, but not from the cold. They rounded the corner and headed up the driveway. Getting inside, they went to their respective rooms and Gwen wrote the daily activities in the journal, making sure to include the nightmare and how she got out of it. After writing, she got ready for bed and was asleep beside AJ within minutes.