Chapter 24

                                    

                                          
I'm woken up by a scream. Jimin.
I hurry out of bed and head toward the other side of the apartment where Jimin has been sleeping. He's been sleeping peacefully for three nights, but tonight his nightmares have come back to haunt him.
It's actually more of one nightmare that finds its way into his dreams every night.
He's back in the room with the chair. They're always hovering over him, with their sadistic smirks and their cold eyes piercing through him, before cutting him open with various instruments. He can feel his insides fall out as if it was real. But he never wakes up. Then he's drowning, like he had been for several months. The pool is not filled with water. It's filled with blood, his blood, and when the last air leaves his lungs the pool is lit aflame by someone at the pool side. He never sees who, just the hand holding the match. His skin burns along with the red flames...
"Jimin!" I shake him desperately. "Wake up! Jimin!"
And his eyes flutter open. There's fright in them and he flies back when he sees me hovering over him. Then his hands fly up to his stomach, checking for any of the cuts. His eyes search desperately for the burns he just had and he coughs as if his lungs were filled with water. When he realises there are none, his arms fall limply beside him. His head rests on the wall behind him and he pants like he just ran a marathon.
"It was just a nightmare," I whisper, afraid that any sound will frighten him.
He looks at me, his eyes close to the eyes I remember as Jimin's, the ones that used to look at me two years ago.
"But they feel so goddamn real."
It's been weeks since his rescue. The first couple of nights were the worst. He'd wake up several times in screams. The pain from his nightmares wouldn't leave his body until minutes after he'd woken up.
I think he was convinced the dreams were reality and that reality was the dreams. He thought his mind had taken refuge to some place safe while they carried out experiments on his body.
I'm not even sure I want to know what they put him through back there, but it was enough to convince himself that he wasn't actually there. Several times his mind had wandered off elsewhere as they had their way with him.
The pain had been so great he'd started hallucinating. Now, his reaction when seeing me weeks ago made sense. His mind had played tricks on him for months.
What I did know was that they'd tested his limits to the utmost, almost breaking him. Several times a week he'd drowned, burnt to almost death. My nightmares hadn't been my own, but Jimin's memories.
I watch him as his breath catches.
It had taken us a week to convince him he was here, but every step from there had been one in the right direction. Little by little had he gotten his humanity back; himself back. The scars on his skin had faded and all that was left to haunt him were his memories.
"I know."
That's all I can say, all I can answer. There are no soothing words I can tell him to save him from nights like these. None of us have had to endure the terrors he has.
Part of me wishes I could take some of the nightmares from him, share the burden, but I can't. They're his own to fight through, to survive every night.
"When will they stop?"
There's a plea in his voice, the only indication of his desperateness.
I wish I could tell him that they will go away soon. I wish I could say that he doesn't have to worry - but I can't, because I don't know if they ever will go away.
"I don't know."