PTSD

"Gahh, damn my head hurts." I wake up seeing only blackness. Little by little as I blink I begin to be more aware of my surrounding.

I was in a living room that much I could tell.

"Oh he's finally awake"

I turn to my side and I see Zack and Ace each sitting on a stool, looking sleep deprived with a huge sign of relief on their face.

"How long have they been there?" I think to myself as I muster the strength left in me to sit up.

"Woah easy there Tiger." Zack is the first to come to my aid.

"How long have I been out?" I ask Ace.

"All night long, it's 11:53p.m" He replies.

"Wait what about school?"

"Chill man, it's a Saturday" This time Zack replies, still giving me support.

I looked around, I was in my living room. I let out a sigh of relief.

Wait, why am I relieved to be in my comfort space?

Then it hit me like a brick, memories of last night.

"Wolf."

As the word escape my mouth I start to panic again.

"Dray calm down, what's the problem?" my friends ask me with concern as they see the horrified expression on my face.

"Wait where did you guys find me?" I ask quickly, panic clear in my voice.

"Open space in the middle of the woods" Zack replies.

Yes, it was not a dream, last night did happen. This only fuels my already increasing fear as I start to panic even more.

Although my trance-like state doesn't last long as Ace breaks it with the million-dollar question...

"What happened last night Dray?"

"Yeah, we found you out cold on the forest floor," Zack adds in.

As the memories of what happened yesterday flood in, sweat beads start to find their place on my forehead and my hands. The fear, clear as daylight on my face. I try my best to find a reasonable answer to their question.

I end up doing the opposite.

"When I left... you guys, I tried going back to the car 'cause I felt uncomfortable being alone in the woods" I take a deep breath as I finish with phase one of my explanation.

Phase 2 wasn't gonna be pretty.

For me especially.

"As I kept on walking I heard noises, so I looked straight ahead, then I saw..." I couldn't bring myself to say it or rather, my fear completely blocked any words from escaping my lips as flashes of the image of the beast go through my mind.

"You saw...?" Zack asks.

"I sa-, I sa-" I start to stammer, my fear impeding my speech.

Ace quickly goes away from my sight and when he comes back he's holding a glass of water which he gives to me to calm my nerves

"Dray what did you see?" Ace asks with more concern.

After gulping down at least half of the cup furiously, I muster enough courage to say the one word that'd probably haunt me for the rest of my life.

"Wolf"

"Wolf?" They both ask in unison.

"Ye..ah" I reply.

I hear no reply from them so I decide to look up, it's then I see the confused look on their faces.

"Dray,..."

Ace says with a concerned tone

"W..hat?" I ask my panic still clearly showing.

"...There are no wolves in California" he replies.

It's then I flare up, angry that my friends would think I was hallucinating or something.

"What do you mean there are no wolves here in California? I just saw one as huge as a monster truck yesterday in the woods that you both dragged me into!."

Ace decides to sit this one out and let Zack do the talking.

"Hey man chill, we know we shouldn't have brought you into the woods yesterday and we're sorry we did, but are you sure you didn't just hit your head on something"

"Zack" Ace calls him out.

"I'm sorry, buh I'm not gonna let any bro of mine go mad before today ends," Zack replies.

I love the fact that he always said what was on his mind, but not now, now I was a mess of emotions.

"Okay, then how do you explain this?" I say as I pull the neckline of my shirt a little.

"Dray" Ace looks at me now like I've gone balmy.

"If there are no friggin wolves in California then anyone wanna explain how I got the fuckin bite marks on my shoulder?!" I ask, anger clear in my voice, trying to make them see that I'm not crazy.

"Dray,..."

"What?!" I ask furiously.

"There's nothing there" Ace again replies looking more concerned now than ever.

It was my turn to be confused.

"What do you mean there's nothing there?"

"He means there are no bite marks on your shoulder" Zack replies with just as much concern for me.

"No, it can't be," I say to myself as I start to look for the nearest mirror.

I walk as fast as I can to my bathroom. As I walk away I hear Zack saying, "See, I told you he hit his head."

I get to my bathroom and I jack the door open heading straight for my mirror. I then pull the neckline of my shirt a little to the side.

What I see horrifies me.

The spot on which I was a billion percent sure I got bitten was completely healed like it was never there, to begin with.

"What the fuck is going on?"

Was I hallucinating everything?

Did I really just hit my head?

No last night was real, it couldn't be a hallucination, it felt so real.

More importantly, I was sure I saw em blue eyes. There's no way I'd miss them.

Why don't I have the bite mark anymore?

Each of the wolf's canines was as big as my middle finger so there was no way it healed overnight.

Wait blood, there had to be blood on my shirt.

"Fuck" I say aloud to myself as I see that I have a red shirt on. Blood evidence is definitely a fail.

There just had to be something. Something I could use to prove that last night wasn't a dream, that last night was real.

I touched my shoulder once more and sighed

"I must be going crazy"

I decide to drop the whole wolf nightmare problem and just take it as a dream. Of all the things I'm willing to lose my sanity is definitely not included.

I turn on the tap and splash some water on my face. Then I look into the mirror one last time and say,

"It's all a dream, nothing more"

After one last quick sanity check, I head back to the living room.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

As I walk back into the living room Zack being Zack approaches me and ask if I'm alright.

"Yeah you're right, it was probably all just a dream. I must have hit my head on a branch as I was walking back." I reply feeling a bit calm now.

"See Ace, I told ya he just needed to cool off" Zack butts in.

It's times like this I start to appreciate him. He just knows how to get the mood going.

"Alright, Dray we gotta head home. I'm sure our parents are freaking out by now" Ace says jokingly.

I give him a light laugh and punch him in the shoulder.

"You better head home Mama's boy," I say back to him.

"Hey it's not my fault I'm her favorite" Ace says with a smirk.

"Alright Dray takes care of yourself and lay off the alcohol, you still gotta recover from your Wolfie PTSD," Zack says laughing as he walks out.

"Haha very funny, bye dickhead" I say back to him as he puts up a middle finger just before he closes the door.

"Asshole" I mutter to myself.

Well, at least that's over.

Now, what's next?