Eli Borrelli

13: Nightmares

Gabriele POV.

I woke up in the middle of the night to a blood-curdling scream. I jumped to my feet, the deep sleep I had been in just a second before just a distant memory. I slammed the door open only to see Lorenzo, doing the same thing and Antonio running by us. We quickly exchanged a look before running to the source of the sound.

Eli's door was wide open making my heart skip a beat. I saw Enzo having the same reaction by my side as we charged into the room. No matter what I was prepared to fight I was absolutely not prepared for what lay in front of us.

Eli was on the floor at the foot of their bed screaming bloody murder as Matteo and Alessandro tried to hold them down. Lorenzo quickly ran to their side and tried to frantically wake them up only for the screaming to worsen as Eli tried to fight against Theo and Sandro. Even with two grown men trying to hold them down, they were somehow winning.

Antonio was frozen near the door just like me, just staring at the scene unfolding before us, feeling hopeless as ever. That was until Matteo turned to us with fear in his eyes.

"Get the legs," he quickly called motioning for us to come over.

Something clicked in my brain, breaking me from my trance and I ran to their side holding down their legs. Antonio was still standing there and I could see the fear in his eyes turn into desperation as he didn't know what to do.

"Toni, help," I said, effectively unfreezing him as he took Eli's other leg. They were too strong for me to handle on my own.

All of a sudden Eli's eyes shot open and I could see the pure horror they were covered in. I immediately let go and took a frantic step back, as did Antonio and Matteo. Alessandro still held onto their arm. That was the one time I could read Alessandro's face. He was scared, terrified and he didn't want to let go.

As soon as we released them Eli started desperately backing up only stopping when their back hit the bed. They pulled quickly their arm away from Alessandro and wrapped their arms around their knees, gently rocking back and forth. Their eyes were empty as they whispered something under their breath voice was laced with panic, and their eyes threatening to leak.

Lorenzo tried to carefully place his hand on their shoulder, but they quickly flinched away with even more agony in their eyes.

I looked around at my brothers trying to figure out what to do but for once they didn't know either. We just sat there in panic as our sibling whom we just got back was clearly in pain but we couldn't do anything about it.

"Antonio, Gabriel, go get some water and painkillers," Lorenzo ordered almost in a whisper, to which we just nodded and left running.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked as we got to the kitchen.

"A panic attack I guess, but that was some next-level shit," Antonio said with his still eyes staring into nothingness as he reached for the painkillers.

I just stared at him, trying to understand something behind his words as he started running back.

When we got back upstairs, Eli had already calmed down a bit. They were breathing somewhat regularly and the panic in their eyes had turned into just emptiness. Not the nice kind, but the kind you could drown in.