A Brain In Chains [Inactive]

Ben was relaxing in his dorm room with Xavier when all of a sudden he heard a scream. It startled him and he jumped. It sounded like something right out of one of his nightmares. In fact he had to take a couple of seconds to make sure he was actually awake right now. Once he was sure he quickly stood and jogged over to the door peeking out the door. "What was that?" He asked urgently. Turning back to Xavier he spoke quickly. "Come on, someone could be in trouble!" With out checking to see if Xavier was coming he ran off in the direction of the scream.
 
Kayla's hole body was frozen, she was helpless until the wave of panic subsided or she found a way to calm herself. She could hear the nurses and a few residents buzzing around outside her door. All of this just made the panic ensue. She felt a hand on her shoulder and a nurse say "Hun, I need you to steady your breathing and try to calm yourself." Kayla tried her hardest to control her breathing, "Come on, stop making an idiot of yourself in front of all these people." After a couple minutes her breathing returned to it's normal state and she could feel the control of her body coming back. She pulled her legs up to her chest and buried her face in her hands. She wanted to hide from all the people who had just witnessed her freak out, if she could have run away she would have.
 
Eventually Ben found the source. People were gathered outside and he could tell the nurses had made their way to whoever it was. His fog now mostly gone from adrenaline, he pushed his way through the crowd. Why, he wasn't entirely sure. When he got closer to the door, he could a nurse attempting to console someone, and upon further inspection he could see that it was Kayla. He remembered her from earlier, and that she had said she too had hypnophobia. 'She must have fallen asleep.' He thought to himself. He immediately felt sorry for her. He knew how awful it was, and he wouldn't wish it on anyone. He shoved his way a little closer to the door. Part of him wanted to go to her, see if she was ok, but another part of him wanted to let the nurses handle it. After all that's why they were there. So for now he just stood next to the doorway.
 
She heard the nurses talk amongst themselves before exiting the room leaving her to herself. She lifted her head from her hand keeping her eyes closed, a tear rolled down her cheek. It wasn't that she was upset that this happened, it was more embarrassment. She could tell that the nurses pitied her, that was the last thing that she wanted in all honestly, she just wanted to be better. Blinking, she looked around the room trying to gather her scattered thoughts and trying to get rid of the fog she was in. She noticed Ben standing in the doorway, "Oh."
 
When Kayla looked up she realized he was staring and immediately felt his face get red. "Uh, h-hey." He said tugging on his hood and looking at the ground. It was a real habit of his, pitifully trying to hide his face. "Are you ok?" He look up a tiny bit. He could see the stream of tears down her face. He knew that feeling, and he felt a small twinge in his chest. All this time he didn't know anyone like him. And now that there was, he kind of wish he really was the only one. This wasn't something that he felt anyone should have to go through, and he would rather suffer alone, than know someone else was hurting.
 
Hiding her face once again she wiped away the tears, hoping he hadn't seen. "Yeah I'm fine, it's whatever." She tried to put up a front, she hated letting people see her when she was vulnerable. "But you, better than anyone, know that is all a lie." She let out a sigh as she turned back to face Ben. She fell back on her bed and let out a long groan, even though she managed to sleep for a little bit, she was still exhausted.
 
Ben took a quick look down the hall to see that Xavier hadn't caught up yet. He figured he would be here soon so he walked into the room, "If you want to talk about it..." He let the sentence just trail off there. He wasn't entirely sure if she even wanted to talk, or wanted him there at all. Why would she? They had only juts met and the only thing that he knew they had in common was the fact they were afraid of sleep. That wasn't a whole lot to go on. He waited for a second silent in thought expecting her to tell him to go f-off or something, that she wanted to be alone.
 
"Ummm not really. The only ones I had attacked me with knives out of jealousy."


He wasn't sure how to word the situation.


Sent from Nexus 5 because yay phones and Tapatalk
 
Kayla stared up at the blank ceiling, "What is there to talk about. I'm a freak, I can't get one nights rest without waking up screaming." She quickly became disgruntled and rolled to her side facing away from the door. She could feel herself shutting Ben out, she didn't particularly want to. It was nice to finally have someone who understood, but at the same time she wasn't good with talking to new people. She sighed before saying, "I'm sorry I must sound like a bitch."
 
He walked over and sat across from her on the bed. He hopped he wasn't intruding on her space, but he felt that she really needed to get it out of her system. After all, he had always wished he could do that, but his parents never understood and they were the only ones he was close. The closest he ever got to letting it out was doing his drawings. He looked at the ground as he talked, hiding his face, "It's ok, your not being a b**** at all." he was trying to be reassuring but wasn't entirely sure what to say, his own sleep deprivation made it difficult for him to think. "If you're a freak then so am I." He tried to sound funny, and hoped it work. Xavier lightened up when he joked, maybe she would too.
 
She smiled and laughed a little at his comment. "I think we're all freaks here," She said sniffling a little bit. She didn't bother to turn herself around to face him. She just knew that she probably looked horrendous right now, with mascara, and more thank likely her eyeshadow too, running down her cheeks.
 
He was glad he could make her laugh. At least he could do something right. "Yeah," He said in a slightly mumbled voice. He tried to think of other ways to make her feel better. A strange idea came to him, but it was worth a shot. "Do you...do you wanna see how I deal with it?" He asked hesitantly, there was still a chance he could over step the boundaries and he wanted to be careful.
 
She turned and glanced over her shoulder, "Uh, sure." She said with a muffled voice. Sitting up she wiped her eyes again before lifting herself to her feet. She was curious to find out what exactly he did to help, and she secretly hoped that it was something she was capable of doing herself. She tucked her hair behind her ear before walking over to face Ben.
 
He stood up off the bed and walked over to the door way. Looking at her teary face hurt him a bit inside. Reminded him of when his mother didn't know what to do for him. "Come on, " He said, his voice choking up a tiny bit from the thought of his mother. "It's in my room. I'll show you."
 
Xavier missed Ben's question, his mind wandering, but he sat up and snapped out of his daze when someone screamed. It took him several seconds to even register what the sound was, and by that time Ben had already ran out of the room to help. Scrambling oh-so-gracefully out of his bed, taking almost all the sheets off in the process, he stepped out into the hall and looked around. It was mostly empty after the excitement was over, but a few seconds later Xavier saw Ben and Kayla exiting her room. "Kayla!" He called and jogged over to the pair, looking over Kayla to see if she was alright. "Are you ok? You're not hurt or anything, are you?" He didn't even realize how mother hen like that sounded until it was too late to take it back, and he blushed just a little in embarrassment.


((Sorry for late reply. Internet has been iffy and hasn't worked long enough for me to post))
 
Kayla followed in suit keeping her head down, until Xavier's voice snapped her out of her daze. She looked up at him to see his rosy red cheeks and concerned face, "I'm fine. Just a nightmare." She said slightly flustered. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She looked down at her feet again and tucked her behind her ear. She felt horrible creating a scene like this
 
"I was jut about to show her my drawings." Ben said trying to take the attention off of Kayla. He knew she needed to be cared for, but still out of the lime light. He remembered that he had been talking to Xavier about his pills before, but that was conversation that could wait until they were alone again. Unfortunately Ben could feel all of the excitement getting to him, already tired before he realized that by the end of the day he would be exhausted. It would be incredibly hard to stay up tonight. That made him worry a bit but he tried not to let it show, keeping his hair and hood in his face enough to hide most of his eyes. "So shall we?" He asked trying to be as happy sounding as possible, he then lead the way back to the dorm room.
 
((Sorry I haven't been on at all this week, I got sick and on top of that I just had a busy week. I'll be on all weekend, but not much tomorrow.))


Quinn offers him a shy smile before dipping his head back down to hide the slight redness coming to his cheeks. Why was that simple sentence making him blush? It shouldn't. There's no real explanation. That's the problem-- Quinn thrives on logical and rational answers. These butterflies are being conjured up out of nowhere, and it's worrying him. Maybe he should visit a nurse, ask for a checkup to see if he's sick. Yeah, that's what he'll do. After talking to Noah, of course. "That's a very optimistic view. I've never been an optimist. But, I suppose I'm still glad I got to make a friend. You're my friend." He winces at his own words-- you're my friend. I believe they had covered that already. But there's no taking back words once they leave your mouth, so he lets them lie there, out in the open, blunt like a dull knife. "Hey, maybe we're cured now. We can go home." Cured-- hmm. Maybe they're curing each other? Quinn doubts it. He doubts that anything could cure him. His books will always be there, crying out for attention.
 
((That's okay, I understand. ^_^ ))


Although Noah was unsure of why Quinn had put his head down for a moment, he was grateful that the other had. An almost ridiculously giddy smile had crossed his face for a second; friend. Quinn had called him his friend too. He didn't inderstand why that left such a warm feeling in his chest, but it was pleasant so he didn't really mind it.


An optimist? Noah had never really been one of those either until today. The thought of being cured was a nice one, but at the same time it seemed so out of reach. To not be weighed down constantly by fears of judgment and change...he couldn't even imagine it. "Unfortunately I don't think it's that easy."
 
Xavier shook his head quickly. "Don't you go and apologize to me now missy," Xavier chastised her softly, throwing in a really fake and terrible deep-south accent to try and make her laugh or something. He didn't like seeing anyone sad or scared looking, and seeing Kayla after she just woke up screaming made him have the sudden urge to hug her. But he didn't, deciding that distracting her with something was better than physical contact.


"That sounds like a good idea," he said in response to Ben's suggestion. Then Xavier smiled a little and started walking backwards after noticing how Ben seemed down as well, turning his head to look over his shoulder and stumbling on his feet once or twice on absolutely nothing even as he tried his hardest not to. It helped that Ben was leading, and also that no matter how many looks he got Xavier's mind refused to admit he was acting weird. Finally at the room, Xavier flopped down on his bed and looked at the ceiling, mentally tracing the little spots and cracks as he let his mind wander.
 
Once the three of them were back at Ben and Xavier's room Ben went over and sat down on his bed facing the wall covered in strange pictures. "Well, this is it." Ben said, a slight sigh exiting his breath as he talked. "This is how I deal with...with the monsters." He hoped that showing Kayla the pictures would be helpful to her, and wouldn't freak her out.
 
(( Sorry it's taking long to post, started a new job x.x ))


Kayla laughed at the impression Xavier did, she could see that he was doing his best to make her feel better. "You got it sir." She said jokingly giving him a salute as he flopped onto his bed. Turning on her heels she came to face the wall of drawings, "Woah..." She muttered under her breath. Her eyes glazed over the drawings, taking in the hauntingly familiar images. "You...drew all of these?" She was still in awe of the sheer volume of drawings. Even though they depicted the creatures of her night mares, there was something comforting about them. Maybe it was just the comfort of knowing she wasn't the only one.
 
Ben took in a deep breath exhaling as he responded. "Yep, every last one." He gazed at them for a moment just as she did. After snapping himself out of it, he looked over to realize that she didn't seem scared. In fact she maybe even seemed a little more relaxed. He was glad, he didn't enjoy scaring people at all. "I draw about, "he paused to think for a moment, "4 or 5 every time afterwards." He always felt comfort in drawing those things. As if trapping them in paper made them seem less real, less haunting. They were no longer beings who over powered him, now they were nothing but an illustration.
 
"They're amazing." She said sounding almost winded. She took a step forward to examine them closer, her eyes focused in on all the small details. She let out a breath of air, not in a sad way or out of frustration, but a breath of relief. She kept her eyes locked on the drawings, "I'm going to have to try this sometime." Pausing, "That is if you don't mind." She said looking over at Ben.
 
A grin spread across his lips and he felt his face get hot. He looked down in an attempt to hide it. He had done it, he actually managed to help someone, at least a little. This made him feel happy, a feeling he truly wasn't all to familiar with. A soft chuckle escaped his smile, "Yeah, sure. Go ahead." He told himself to calm down, and eventually the heat receded. Once he was composed he smiled at her, genuinely. "I'd love to see them."
 

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