Empty Promises, Hallow Comfort {Apollo & Pariah JB //Marree}

Pariah Possine

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Every night, I see him. I thrash in my sleep, I'm told to the countless times that I had been dragged out of the safety of my closet in the wee hours of the very early morning. With each night, his face some how tortures me, but also in the wake of the torture, I find a gentle - mother-like face to soothe me back into the serene reality that now wraps around my body and my soul. She cradles me until I wake and only then do I feel at peace.

If only I were able to enjoy a full nights rest without having to keep her up. If only, she wouldn't waste herself on my own pitiful life and go get the rest she deserves. She should just let me fight the man in my dreams over and over again. Maybe if she did, I would become stronger then him and when the time comes, I'll be able to show him that I'm not a weakling.

But she's always there.

Apollo is always there. She's never left me for long because she has this gentle hand that touches my face. Something about her gentle sighs puts me into this calm manor that no one else has ever been able to do so before. The other kids that live here don't understand me nor what troubles I had to endure before I was whisked away to this safe house. What awful voices would grumble out from the walls and the heavy creaking floorboards that foretold my future that would only tell me that my waking world was fixing to become the worst nightmare that I could never wake from.

She does though.

She understands me because she saved me.

Apollo saw me that very early morning as my body was thrown so haphazardly upon the stairs, fighting the consciousness that wanted to consume me.

And just like that, last nights dream didn't include the man with whom I shared blood relations with. What my mind played for me was the inevitable amount of blood being spilled all around me. It was Pherick's coin that crushed my body and tore into my mind. It was his daring and courageous voice to summon me from perishing only to feel the pain ripping through each limb as he punished me for being in his way.

Apollo's voice had been silenced. I could not see nor could I hear her when Pherick's evil deed came to a sudden, grinding halt. I woke to an empty room and she wasn't there for once. I wondered if the dreams were getting better. Instead of sleeping any further, a yawn escaped my mouth and I brought out a small booklet to jot down the most recent of reeling dreams.

I hadn't any clue, that after breakfast, I would be forced to face the most awful of nightmares. Even though she claimed everything would be fine, this was my first reaping. I was being shoved into the darkness of routine that I would have to endure for the next six years. If only this could never happen, it would make it so much better.

Her voice does make it better though. "Everything's going to be okay, my fierce little one... you'll sleep good tonight." And I believed her. I believed that hopefully, for one night, that true rest would befall upon the house in which we resided. I was getting too old for nightmares. Tonight I would conquer them for sure!

I just had to get through the reaping first...

"Apollo Salon!"

Tears sprung forward immediately as her name had been called. I looked to the twelve year old boys in my box and watched as they only looked forward to the girl whose name had been called and they were so unaware that the person that had been named was my only salvation and savior in that household. She had rescued me. She had healed me and rested with me so that when I woke thrashing in my bed from fevered dreams, she would be the one to calm them immediately.

This had to be another one of the nightmares and I couldn't wake myself up.

"Apollo. No, wake me up. Wake me up please. Don't walk away from me. Don't go up there. APOLLO WAKE ME UP." I begged her as the distance between us had become further and further. No matter how much I tried to move closer to her, there was a force that pushed against my chest. Arms tangled against my body, pushing my arms downward and words of harshness invaded my ears.

"If you don't settle down... settle down. NOW." I fearfully hear them and feel the pressure of something against my shoulder blade. My mouth wouldn't utter anything else. A barrier kept me from furthering my nightly terror. In a matter of moments, I watched another boy ascend to the stairs and as he grew the same distance as my mother-like figure, it was clear that the force holding me back was in fact my own self.

Everything was a dream as I watched her take her place and I was left stunned, unable to move the entire time.

A vision of what I wanted to do played itself out like a scene but I was purely in shock.

Then she disappeared and I felt my legs turn to jello. I crumpled to the ground in a simple heap and my hands dug deep into the dirt beneath my fingertips. Everything felt so weird. What was this reality I was in? Why wasn't Apollo waking me up already? Why is she letting me endure this horrid nightmare?

"Apollo..." The crowds dispersed evenly out and happy families uttered wishes and praise but I pushed against the ground to move. I needed to see her before I never would again. "Apollo." My voice sauntered out in a meek way as I struggled with the talk of walking. Inside the justice building put my mind into so much of a tizzy that I couldn't see straight. My vision was swimming with me. The walls moved and the dull pictures on the wall danced. Everything that was normally quite still had some form of movement and when I approached the room that the man in white stood guard in front of -opened.

The door opened and at first I saw nothing as I inched my way to the threshold and then like a boat on the still waters, everything just stopped. Warmth surrounded me immediately as I raced to her arms like she wasn't already doing the same. I heard her heat racing against her chest and the sound of the rhythm made my own breaths calm down to match the steady life that she had.

"It going to be okay, Pariah. Salem's been working on a remedy to help with your night terrors... Cal's been with us... run the house better then I can..." Bits and pieces register in my head but I try to block out all the words she's trying to coddle me with, but Instead I listen to the tone and the soft breaths that she is whispering just for me. I wrap my index finger around the opposite index finger. I don't ever want to let her go, but this nightmare won't ever end.

"You said everything was... going to be okay, Pollo. You won't be there tonight. You won't be there with me when I have my nightmares. I won't wake up and see you. I won't wake up and have your hand against my cheek anymore. You... took me away to save me and I can't do anything to save you. Pollo, please tell me this is just another nightmare and that I will wake up. Please..." I beg her and look up at her with tear stained eyes now. "wake me up and make this all go away. I don't want you to leave me. I don't want you to go away. You are the only person I want."