Chapter 6: Night Terrors
They temporarily moved into a small, quiet apartment on the other side of town. The first few weeks were a nightmare of a different kind. Leo would wake up screaming in the middle of the night, swatting at invisible hands in the dark, crying out for his mother.
Ryan spent countless hours sitting by his son's bed in the dark. He would hold the small boy, rocking him, humming soft lullabies until the dawn broke through the blinds.
""I'm the shield now, buddy,"" Ryan would whisper into the boy's light hair. ""No one gets to you unless they go through me."" It took immense patience, but the screaming slowly turned into whimpers, and eventually, the boy found peaceful sleep again.
May you like
