Monsters 03: Alexa Demont

I felt his breathing slow next to me and I knew he was asleep. One of his hands was tucked comfortably under his pillow. Slowly and quietly, I crept out of our bed, slipped on a bathrobe, and left the room.

I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since Devon and I moved into together. That sounds like I’m regretting it and that isn’t the case. It’s just hard to sleep with all the nightmares I’ve been having.

They are always the same, always about what happened last month; what happened with those men. What they did to those innocent people. My mind keeps going back to him as well. He was the one that saved me. He was someone I met purely on accident one evening. That even had started off nicely, and then it had turned into something terrifying, something neither of us had anticipated.

I’ve never discussed what happened with anyone, even Devon. He already had so much to deal with in the last month. He worked in a law firm that used to be owned by his grandfather, and then it was passed down to his father.

Devon had the same job for four years. He started working there when he was seventeen. He did minor paperwork at first, then as he got older, he was put in charge of more delicate tasks since his father died.

“Alexa?”

I turned my head, my reddish-brown hair slipping out of my fingers as I held it. I was sitting in the den, at the computer, the bright screen the only source of light at the time.

“I’m okay,” I said.

“Liar,” Devon muttered. He moved his hand along the wall until he found what he was looking for.

Blinding light, or it would be to those who spent their whole lives in the dark, filled the seemingly small room, making the wooden walls glow. There were still boxes and papers scattered everywhere.

To the untrained eye, it would look like we just moved into this house. This, before I forget, is Devon’s parent’s house. We don’t live with them, no, but after they died, they left it to him. He did what he pleased with it, and you could tell by the way he decorated, with files and stray clothes.

“Alexa,” his voice drifted into my ear, poking my brain until I listened. “Are you okay, really?”

I looked at him, his green eyes filled with worry. I smiled softly and reached out to touch his hair as he came closer He knelt down and rested his head against mine.

“It’s okay you don’t want to talk about your dreams, you know.” He looked at the blank screen, then back at me. I knew what he was thinking without him having to say a word.

“I’m not going to keep a journal, it’s stupid. Plus, I never remember all of them.”

“You remember this dream,” Devon said, brushing a hand through my hair before cupping my cheek. “Come back to bed, Lex.” He leaned in and kissed me. It was too soft for my liking.

I shook my head. “It wasn’t a dream. That makes it sound tame. Nightmares are anything but.”

I hesitated before agreeing to go back to sleep. As I climbed into bed, Devon’s arms around me, I wondered what he would say if he knew that my nightmares were memories.