Nightmare with Consequences

When Julie reached the end of the forest, she saw someone lying on the ground. A crippling fear was already gripping her heart but nonetheless, she decided to approach him. Julie's body froze abruptly when she recognized the person and she could swear that in this moment even her blood stopped running through her veins.

In front of her was the unmovable body of the man, she knew from her dreams. The horrific image of him being covered in so much blood caused bile to rise up in Julie's throat but somehow, she managed to keep it in. After all her body felt completely numb, not even throwing up seemed possible.

She remembered the warm smile this man would always direct at her when she met him at the big oak tree in one of her dreams but now his face was deathly pale and his soulless eyes just starred up to the sky with a hint of agony in them.

It was clear that he was gone and as this realization hit Julie, she felt how her heart was torn into pieces and she started to cry bitter tears. Her knees gave up and she feel on the ground in front of his dead body while emitting a bone schilling scream that woke her up from this nightmare.

In the next moment Julie sat upright in her bed still crying uncontrollably while trying to catch her breath. Her heart was beating like crazy and she was hyperventilating.

She almost passed out from not getting enough air and it took all of her will power to concentrate on her breathing.

After struggling for a while, she was able to catch a few short breaths but she was still breathing heavily.

When she finally felt strong enough, she stumbled out of bed to get a glass of water in the kitchen. She drank it with trembling hands and then Julie lay down on her sofa. She was still breathing like she ran a marathon but at least she was not feeling like she was dying anymore.

Julie couldn't believe that this was happening to her. Why was she being tortured by those visions? She started to tear up again when she remembered the horrific scene that was just shown to her.

When she saw him lying dead with this open wound an his stomach, Julie felt a soul crushing agony. The feeling of someone ripping her heart out was not enough to describe it. She has never felt so horrible before.

Julie was still agitated and tried to calm down by slowly breathing in and out. It was barely working but after some time her heartbeat started to become slower.

The clock in her living room told her that it was 5 in the morning. She probably won't be able to sleep again. How could she get her mind off of the horrible images she saw and just go to bed again? How will she ever be able to sleep again? What if this vision is shown to her again or maybe even worse stuff? How would she be able to bear this? Julie was sure that soon she will reach her breaking point if this keeps going.

Since she couldn't go back to sleep, she decided to watch TV to distract herself. She needed to direct her mind somewhere else but every time the image of this man popped up in her brain, she felt like a new panic attack was coming in and she was back to taking long and deep breath to calm down.

After two hours, Julie had enough of the TV. The program was boring and didn't do a good job to distract her.

She thought taking a hot shower would help better. When she was done showering, she glanced at the mirror in the bathroom and was taken aback for a moment. Her eyes revealed how tired she was and she looked incredibly sad. Julie pitied the person she saw in front of her and she wished that she never has to see her again.

…

Julie wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep tonight. Pierre was the whole night turning in bed thinking about Julie and wishing she was in his arms.

He couldn't stop overthinking what happened. If he went too far or if he made Julie uncomfortable? She didn't want to stay with him overnight and Pierre saw this as a bad sign.

He couldn't stay away from Julie for long that's why he decided to wake up early and buy breakfast for the two of them. He didn't know what Julie wanted, so he got tons of stuff at the bakery. Croissants with chocolate and cream, pancakes and a bunch of bread rolls.

'What if she prefers English breakfast?' Pierre started to think that he should have asked her what she wanted but now it's too late.

At 9 in the morning, he was at her doorstep. He greeted her with his best smile but that smile fell quickly when he saw Julie's expression. She looked at him with bags under her eyes and it was clear that she was in a bad mood.

"Are you okay? Did something happen?" He asked her worried.

Julie shook her head. She didn't want to talk about it. "I just couldn't sleep."

Hearing this Pierre's mind started racing and he just blurted out what was tormenting him the whole night. "I couldn't sleep either. Is it because of yesterday? Do you want to talk about it? I swear I never wanted to force you to anything."

"I know Pierre. I never thought that," she said starting to get irritated. Julie already knew yesterday that she had to reassure him but she felt way to tired to pacify Pierre.

"Then what is it? It must have something to do with me if you couldn't sleep after what happened last night."

Julie had enough. Why can't he just leave her alone. "Not anything is about you, okay." She raised her voice but when she saw the pitiful look on his face she felt immediately sorry. She exhaled a long breath to calm down and rubbed her temples. "I'm sorry. I just had a bad dream."

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Pierre couldn't help that he was curious. He wanted to be there for Julie.

Julie shook her head. 'Why does he have to be so nosy?' "I don't. I just want to forget about it. Pierre, could you stop being so worried. I already told you yesterday that you did nothing wrong."

"I'm sorry. I guess, I am just afraid that I could lose you." He told her with all honesty while looking deeply into her eyes, the door to her soul and he wished that they would reflect his feelings for her.

Julie felt again struck by the way Pierre could convey his feelings. She knew he loved her so much and it made her feel good. But there was another emotion spreading it the pit of her stomach. Guild.

Why was she feeling guilty? Was it because her feelings for him didn't match his love for her? Was she starting to feel that she was using him just to feel loved for once in her life?

Pierre approached Julie and gave her a tight hug while she didn't know what to say. Can she assure him that he would never lose her. That would be a daring promise that she might not be able to keep.

For Pierre Julie's silence felt painful. She tensed in his hug and her reaction told him that his fear of losing her was justified. He felt desperate. What more can he do to make her love him? He tried everything in his power and now he just has to accept that there was nothing he could do except holding her in his arms as long as he still could do so.

After a while Julie peeled herself from his hug and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for bringing breakfast." She decided changing the topic was the best strategy for now. "You can set the table. I will make coffee."

Pierre stood there for a moment watching her walk into the open kitchen and fill up the coffee machine. He had a terrible feeling. Like Julie was slipping through his fingers right in front of him and he couldn't do anything about it. He felt powerless and he couldn't bear it. He wanted to yell at her: 'Why don't you love me?' But of course, he didn't do that.

When Julie noticed that he was still standing in the living room, she smiled over to him. "Aren't you coming? The table is not setting itself."

"Sorry, I was spacing out," he apologized and started to help Julie in the kitchen.

Julie was really enjoying the breakfast. After the stressful night she needed comfort food, so the pancakes that Pierre brought came just at the right time.

Julie noticed that Pierre was uncommonly calm. Usually, he was the one to talk but he was just sitting in silence with slightly furrowed brows and occasionally taking a bite from his food. It was written all over his face that he was still thinking about what happened.

Julie started to blame herself because she couldn't give Pierre the security that he needs even though he always gives her everything. Compared to him she was an awful girlfriend.

A part of her wanted to walk over to him, hug and kiss him but at the moment it didn't feel like the right thing to do. She was desperate to make sense of the mess in her head and the relationship chaos with Pierre is just making it harder for her.