Waking Nightmares Ch. 02

She nodded but he doubted she understood. After waiting for a few minutes to let Allison calm down he went up to see her.

Ryan knocked on Allison's door again and waited,

"Can I come in?"

"Go away," he heard.

He let himself in and found her sobbing into her blanket.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently.

"I told you!" she shouted, throwing the blanket away, facing him with full fury, "I told you I wouldn't be able to do it! Do you see now? I'm broken, I'll never be better!"

Ryan sat down beside her,

"Allison, when was the last time you went out of the house?" he asked calmly.

She looked at him through tears and tried to remember, "Three months, I guess? What's that got to do with anything?"

"And yet today you made it out till the end of the driveway."

She continued looking at him.

"I never expected us to go running today Allison, that was never my intention. I just wanted to get you out of the house. Honestly I thought you would only make it out of the door before losing your nerve but you were stronger than I expected. You did well today Allison, you did fantastic. That wasn't a fail, that was a win."

The anger melting away, Allison's lips were quivering as she tried to come up with something to say.

"But... but I panicked..." she said.

"Yeah you did. And you will. Again, and again, and again. But you can't let that stop you. Until you got to the end there you were ok weren't you?"

She nodded.

"And you're still here aren't you?"

Again she nodded, slowly realizing what he was trying to say.

"Nothing's holding you back except yourself and nothing's hurting you except your mind, which you can control, with time."

She took a deep breath and set her jaw in determination,

"Will you help me?" she asked in a trembling but determined voice.

"Always."

********************************************

Ryan came down with Allison to find Mrs. Greene wasn't alone anymore. Hailey had arrived and she was giving him a murderous glare, standing defensively with her arms crossed. He ignored her and focused on her mother.

"We're going to go running every morning," he told her.

Mrs. Greene looked at Allison and she nodded.

This time he couldn't stop her from giving him a hug. He stood awkwardly with his arms on his sides as Mrs. Greene enveloped him in her arms. Stiffly he patted her on her back as she whispered thank you repeatedly to him.

His ears were red when she let him go. She moved over and hugged Allison. Ryan was becoming uneasy again. Today was a good start but not all days were the same and sometimes it got really bad before it got better. You had to see the darkness before you could see the light, but he didn't want to spoil the moment right now. Every small victory counted. When you have nothing you start becoming grateful for even the smallest things.

Hailey didn't say a word through the whole thing but if he read the air around her correctly, she trusted him about as much as you'd trust a skunk in your house. It seemed to him she was doing her best to stay civil around him, something Mrs. Greene must have said, but he knew the dam would burst sooner or later. He hoped he had the nerve to weather that storm when it hit. He was never good at confrontations.

Allison and her mother walked him to the door where he got another brief hug from Mrs. Greene. He really wished she would stop doing that but couldn't bring himself to tell her. He feared it would only get worse as Allison got better.

"Tomorrow, six thirty?" he asked Allison.

"It's a date," she smiled at him.

Her first genuine smile.