I woke up in space.

Literally.

I was floating in an infinite space, and I turned around just in time to witness a falling star. It fell in my hands before zipping all around me and going on its’ merry way. After it left, I looked around only to see darkness with twinkling stars in the distance under a candlelit moon that shined overhead.

This must be a dream.

The thought wandered through my head randomly, and I chuckled to myself. It’s been a while since I’ve had a dream that doesn’t involve Jeremy. I used to dislike them because when I did have a good vision, I’d wake up to being in a cage again.

I watched as a star whizzed by my head, kissing my cheek as it passed. I followed it and watched it explode into more blinking lights. The new light illuminated a silhouette just a bit farther away.

The outline was of a man.

Before I could realize it, my legs were moving on their own towards the man. He blended in with the background, but the stars gathered around him like they were telling me to go to him. It made me confused, but I figured I’d run along with the course of the dream because I wanted to enjoy a real dream as much as I could.

My feet stopped running on air and stopped once I got a couple of feet away from him. I panted as he turned around and opened his ebony eyes in my direction.

His appearance was, even more, striking up close. He wore some grey shorts but had no shirt on so my eyes went directly to the chiseled pecs that looked too good to be true. He looked like he was glistening in the blacklight and it took every fiber of my being to look away. My eyes traveled up his physique with no shame, and I saw how taller he was compared to me.

He completely shadowed me.

The man walked towards me, and every time he walked stars collided with each other under him to create a path of light underneath his feet.

He stopped directly in front of me, and his hand grabbed my braid. He picked the black band off and the twist cascaded into rippling waves around my face. I was sad that my braid was gone, but I reminded myself that this was a dream and it was a dream. My hair tickled my back, and I forgot for a second how much hair I had. I internally shrugged off the added hair and looked back at the man who was watching me with curious eyes. He smiled and showed off his purely whites that mimicked diamonds under a light.

He bent down to my height and took both of my hands. He placed them in his hair, and I felt myself smile.

It was the softest thing I’ve ever touched. Ever since getting out of that cage, I’ve been surrounded by smooth things lately, and I wouldn’t mind being surrounded by his hair when I woke up. It was the equivalent of getting into bed after a long day- calming and very peaceful.

I pulled out his white hair band on accident and took my hands out of his hair. His hair fell in front of his eyes and fell just a bit below the ears. I was about to apologize, but he chuckled, and it made my heart skip a beat. I was confused as to why my heart reacted in the way it did, but I overlooked it. His chuckle sounded sincere, and the vibrato of it made me enjoy it even more.

I didn’t notice when he stood up and started moving again, but he walked behind me- the trail of stars following his every command like obedient followers. I felt him gather every strand of hair and start to weave it back into a braid. Every time his touch graced my skin, my body shivered with more of it. I was getting agitated with the state of my own body because it was reacting to the smallest things. I rolled my eyes as he reached over and grabbed the white band in my fingertips. I hear the sound of elastic thwacking and figured he wrapped the end of the braid with it. I turned around to him pulling his hair back to a loose bun with the black bun that was in my hair.

It took every fiber of my being to keep my eyes at his face and not his body.

I was going to fight these foreign urges.

Once he finished with his hair, he gently grabbed my hand and led me to the clear ground. As we sat, the stars around us engulfed our shadows and created a circle underneath us. He picked up my other hand, and my attention went back to him.

“What’s your name?” His voice sounded like liquid gold. It traveled like butter on a hot roll and made me lose my voice.

“K-Kye” My voice shook and made me cringe and look away. These urges were making me put a foot in my mouth.

“Don’t look away” He grabbed my chin with his coarse hands and led my face back to his. He let go of my hand and jaw and clapped his hands together. When he separated them, the stars spelled my name and sparkled like firework sparklers.

I smiled as the stars faded. He returned it with a smile of his own.

“My name is Liam. Nice to meet you Kye” He held out a hand that I slipped my hand in and shook. Our hands fit like puzzle pieces and when I let go my hand immediately felt cold.

“Likewise,” I grabbed my hand that still had his fading heat attached to it. He smiled and tilted his head back. I looked around the atmosphere as a shooting star shot in the distance. “Have you been here often?”

Liam chuckled and tilted his head back towards me. He nodded and gestured towards the sky. “I’ve always adored space as a kid, and I guess my adoration transferred over to my dreams” He smiled gestured to me. “What do you like?”

I racked my brain of the endless lists in my head.

“I like food,” I said with rosy cheeks.

The figurative foot in my mouth drove a bit deeper.

He laughed so loudly that it shook all the stars in his little world. They all danced in response to his voice but changed to a slight vibration once he dialed it down. “That caught me off guard, but I like the way you think.”

I sighed once the stars stopped moving and went back to being stoic. “I was worried for a minute there that the stars would come raining down.”

“Oh well, that would suck” Liam looked at me with earnest eyes. “These stars led me to you.”

I blinked at his statement. “I honestly think you got the wrong person.”

Liam looked dumbfounded. “W-what do you mean by that?”

I started feeling weird, but I was glad the figurative foot was gone. My body has been reacting to him like a teenager falling in false love, and I didn’t like it- not one bit. I blamed this eerie atmosphere we met on for putting my logic on hold, and I didn’t like how I had no control over how I felt.

I stood up and turned away from him. I could hear him shuffling behind me, but I wanted to leave. I closed my eyes and imagined the door to my room.

I was started to get frustrated, and my hands clenched into tiny fists. I opened my eyes and was relieved to see my bedroom door standing in front of me.

I opened the door to a black abyss. Before I could take a step forward, Liam grasped my shoulder. “Kye, wait!”

I looked at him over my shoulder. Whatever expression my face gave him caused him to let go and take a few steps back. He looked at the floor with an expression I couldn’t place, and I turned back towards the door.

I walked through the door, letting the door shut loudly behind me.

***

I jolted awake.

I was breathing hard and felt sweat all over. My hair was drinking the sweat as the wasps clung to my forehead. The sheets were tangled around my legs, and it made my body hot with heat. I huffed and slowly untangled myself as my dream came crashing into my head.

The stars. The moon. Liam.

I sighed and held up a finger to calm me down.

28. At least I could dream again.

I could imagine myself with smoke coming out of my ears like a train as I flipped towards the open door. I huffed to myself and tried to get comfy again so I could go back to sleep again. I sank back into the bed and ignored the fact that the chair I left by the window was now sitting across my bed.

I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to take me.

Wait, the door was open?

The thought crossed the street in my mind, and I opened my eyes wide to see a door slightly open.

Right next to it was the chair I sat in, but an unknown dark mass sat in it.

I slowly rose from the bed as my heartbeat in my ears. Keeping my eyes on the mass, I glanced at the bell Donna left for me on the dresser. I turned back to the mass and was slightly relieved that the body was still there.

I reached the bell and without thinking of the repercussions, started shaking it.

No sound was made.

I looked at the bell and shook it again out of desperation.

No sound was made.

“Are you looking for this?”

My heart dropped to my gut, and my body ran cold. I turned around saw a man with the same physique as Jeremy. He stood in the moonlight and had his belt undone, but his pants stayed at his hips. His hair was disheveled, and he was bigger and taller than me.

He held up a small part that was supposed to make the noise in the bell.

I raced out of bed as fast as I could- sheets latching onto my ankles like tentacles. I stumbled a bit once my feet hit the floor, but I was able to stable myself quickly and make a getaway for the door.

As soon as my fingertips grazed the door handle, arms encased my torso and lifted me into the air. Terror wrapped their hands around my throat as the man used one hand to hold both of my wrists and the other to pull down my white shorts. I kicked and thrashed, but he ignored it, and panic clawed at the insides of my skin like a cat outside a closed door.

“I want to be able to enjoy you before I give you back to Jeremy” he kicked the door closed with his foot and licked my cheek. I visibly shook and stopped thrashing- turning into a limp ragdoll until his control.

He slid his hand into my shorts.

“Such sweet skin. You’d be the best deflowering I’ve done in a while” He started to feel around in my shorts, and I felt his hand travel to my backside.

My eyes widened as air coiled in my chest. Before he could do anything else, I shrieked so loud that it tore through his malicious thoughts and he dropped me to the ground. The sound harmonized with the walls, and the man clutched his ears in agony.

I heard footsteps running towards my door, and the door swung wide open to reveal a furious Xavier.

Disregarding me, he ran in and punched the guy in the face. Before the man could retaliate, Xavier kept hitting him in the face repeatedly. The man was fell like a tree and was out like a light.

Xavier was seething. His breathing sounded animalistic as he stood over the body with malice. I tried to get up but the man made my wrists weak with bruises, and I whimpered at the dullness my hands sported.

Xavier stopped looking at the man and switched his attention to me. He ran over to me on the ground and saw how I looked. My pants were to my knees, and my underwear was disheveled and pulled lower than usual.

Xavier looked at me with intense eyes that made me want to cringe. “Did he touch you?”

“Y-yes” I spoke weakly. My body felt like it was shutting down and it got harder to stay focused on Xavier. My mind kept replaying him pulling my shorts down and putting his hand in my underwear. It made me want to barf and slip away into oblivion.

My body felt sore, and my mind just felt weak with emotions I haven’t felt in years.

“What the hell!” Donna was heard from the doorway. She and Nicole saw the man lying face down in a small pool of blood that was running away from the man. Donna and Nicole walked into the room astonished and, on the ground, next to Xavier with my pants down.

Two seconds passed before they rushed in and started stomping on the man that lay defenseless on the ground. They shouted profanities in their pajamas which was beginning to have crimson stains from bashing the man’s face into the ground. Xavier sighed and started pulling my pants up as Kyle ran in and tried to detain the ladies. If I had the energy and the situation was different, I would’ve found it funny how Donna elbowed her husband, and Nicole slapped him so hard he fell into the puddle of rubies. My eyes went droopy with sleep as Xavier picked me up bridal style and swiftly carried me out of the room.

Xavier put my loose braid on my chest and briskly walked away from the room. I looked up at him and then down at my twist.

My eye registered the white hair band at the end of my hair as slumber tucked me into its’ dark sheets once more.