‘Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free,’

- Jim Morrison

Chapter Twenty-Five

Azelie took a deep breath in as she looked from where she stood and out to the bay, the view reminding her of how beautiful everything looked from the other side of the rails - the wrong side of the rails. The group had been lucky as it was a clear, sunny day - perfect for visiting the Golden Gate bridge.

Her eyes scanned across the landscape in front of her, on one side, there was a water, and then land, with the city to the right - the buildings of downtown San Francisco standing tall, and on the other, there was the Pacific Ocean, stretching far into the distance. It didn’t even matter to Azelie that the bridge was busy with cars, the view was too beautiful to care about the traffic. She began to think about everyone who had jumped from the bridge, not just attempted but actually done it. Only a tiny percentage of jumpers ever survived the fall or the freezing cold water below the bridge, perhaps that was why it had the highest suicide rate of any location in the world. The promise of the final embrace of death drew people in, pulled them over the edge, and well, you know what happens next.

“What is it with you and bridges?” A voice questioned, from her left. Azelie turned, to find Cole looking out from the bridge, before looking back at Azelie, his green eyes full of question.

“What do you mean?” she asked, not really understanding his question.

“You get all weird and quiet on them! You’ve hardly said three words since we got here! I don’t know if I should be getting ready to jump in after you,” He clarified, looking away from her and instead leaned over the rails slightly, looking down at the blue ocean below them. She let out a short burst of laughter.

“Jumping in after me would be suicide,”

“And you jumping in the first place isn’t suicide?” He retorted, a slight smile appearing on his lips. Azelie didn’t understand how he could talk about this. After everything with his mother, she would have thought that he would have avoided the subject of suicide at all costs - no matter how they first properly met. Azelie just smiled softly over at him as she changed the subject.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it,” she commented, looking out around the bay. She couldn’t believe that it was the last day of the trip already. She would be home in less than 24 hours, time had just seemed to pass so quickly.

“Yeah,” He added looking out, he didn’t think he had ever seen a place quite as beautiful as the view of the bay. “Come on, Kelly’s been running around with Alex! God knows they will end up under a bus or something!” Cole added, turning to face Azelie. She quickly nodded, adding in a smile as she walked further up the bridge, looking for her loved-up pink headed friend and her as insane boyfriend.

Azelie knocked twice, huffing slightly as she did. The door immediately swung open to reveal Cole who looked like he had just gotten out of the shower, his hair wet while he only had a pair of PJ bottoms on.

“Seriously Alex - there’s a limit to the amount of times you can forget to take your room key out with you!” He spoke quickly, not even looking up at Azelie as he opened the door and walking back into his room, leaving Azelie standing in the doorway feeling slightly confused to what Cole was going on about.

“Em... hi?” she replied, standing awkwardly in her spot. Cole immediately spun around at the sound of her voice, his green eyes wide with shock.

“Shit sorry Azelie! I thought you were-”

“Alex? Yeah, I guessed,” Azelie smiled, interrupting him slightly. His arms stretched up to rub the back of his neck as he smiled slightly back at her.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” He apologized, feeling slightly stupid that he hadn’t even looked up to see who it was at the door. It could have been a crazed axe murderer for all he knew!

“It’s alright,”

“Do you want to come in?” He asked, questions beginning to build up about why Azelie was in his room at 10pm at night.

“Em yeah, thanks,” She replie as she quickly stepping into the room, closing the door behind her. “Cole?” she added.

“Yeah?”

“Well, Kelly’s sort of kicked me out so she had spent time with Alex before we go back... and so I figured that I could maybe just stay here?” Azelie babbled, trying to get to her point. It took all the strength Cole had not to let the giant smile he was just managing to control appear on his lips.

“Sure, you can stay here! Since he’s staying with Kelly, Alex’s bed is obviously free, but since it’s Alex and you really don’t know where that guy’s been - you can sleep in mine, and I’ll take the massive health and safety risk and sleep in Alex’s bed,” Cole smiled softly, internally jumping for joy. He was finding it increasingly hard to hide his feelings around her, although Cole was sure that even if he did slip up slightly, she wouldn’t notice it or figure out how he felt.

“Are you sure, I don’t mind taking the risk,” Azelie replied, motioning to the bed to her left. Her brown eyes scanned quickly around the messy room, and she suddenly realised that Kelly’s pile of clothes that she had been complaining about for the last four days had nothing on Cole’s room! It was awful, clothes were thrown everywhere, half eaten food left piling up on the table - the maid was going to have a heart attack when she came to clean the guys room in the morning.

“It’s fine,” He said, noticing that Azelie was looking around the room. “The mess isn’t me - I swear! That’s all Alex!”

“How can one guy be that messy?” She questioned in disbelief.

“I seriously have no idea! I didn’t even think it was possible!” he smirked in reply, his forest green eyes lighting up in humor.

They continued to talk for another hour, until Azelie started to get slightly sleepy. She had managed to grab the pair of loose shorts and the oversized top she had been sleeping in from her room before she was kicked out and replaced by Alex, so Azelie got changed into those and they both said their goodnights to each other, turning off the light’s in the bedroom. She slowly closed her eyes, letting tiredness pull her into the depth of her sub conscience to find whatever terror awaited her.

She jumped up on her bed as her lungs screamed for more air. Her head spun making her feel dizzy as she tried to calm herself down.

‘It was just a dream,’ She thought to herself, ‘Just a dream’ she closed her eyes for a second before opening them again, looking around the room as her heart beat began to fall back to it’s regular pace. She turned to her left, to see Cole lying in his bed, but something wasn’t right. There was very little light in the room, but she could tell that there was something wrong with him - something just didn’t feel right.

Azelie slowly climbed out of her bed, her legs wobbling under her weight as she tried to walk, finding it incredible difficult to do so. It was almost as if she was drunk, or as if the floor was moving below her feet. Either way, she couldn’t walk straight, the entire room spinning around her.

She stumbled over to his bed, and began to shake his body slightly, trying to get him to wake up. But he didn’t wake, he just lay there, motionless, his face hidden by the covers he was wrapped in.

“Cole,” she spoke, her voice rough, her throat suddenly very dry making Azelie feel as if she had not touched a glass water in days. When he didn’t stir, she spoke again, her voice a bit louder this time, “Cole, wake up, Cole,”

Nothing. He just lay there, silent and asleep. Azelie didn’t bother shaking him a third time, instead she threw the covers off of him, trying to see what was wrong with him. Then, with a scream she took in the body that lay under the covers.

Blood everywhere, on the sheets, the walls, on Cole. His eyes were shut, but not peacefully, it didn’t look like he was sleeping at all. They were clenched shut, as if he was in pain. His lips were pressed together and there were thin scars all over his face; all over his body, blood poured out from the scars, seeping out. Then he began to scream, kicking and screaming, his fists flying in the air as he rolled around his bed in pain and terror.

Azelie tried everything she could to help him, trying to restrain him as he rolled around, the blood pouring out feeling like acid burning on her skin. But there was nothing she could do, nothing that would make things better and then, finally, everything slipped away. His screams started to fade as she began to close her eyes, darkness swallowing her as she began to find peace. It lasted for less than a second, the feeling that Azelie craved like a drug, the feeling of death.

“Azelie!” a voice cried, pulling her out of the nightmare and away from the feeling, two firm hands were placed on her shoulders, shaking her slightly. Her brown eyes flew wide open in horror as she realised that it hadn’t been real. She looked up at the face hovering over her, fear etching into his expression as he looked down at her, his deep green eyes full of concern for his friend.

Cole was alright, he was alright. There were no scars on his face, no blood. Cole was fine, the evidence was right in front of her.

Her heart pounded almost painfully as she looked up at him, trying to catch her breath before she said anything.

“Are you okay?” Cole questioned, sitting on the edge of her bed, still looking down at her as she now lay unmoving, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. She just nodded slowly in reply, still processing everything she had dreamt. That was the first time she had a dream like that, a dream within a dream. She had always considered her self lucky that she had never had one, most of her nightmares were memories replaying themselves, but of course she didn’t have a terrifying memory of Cole, only good.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, Cole almost missing the apology because she was so quiet.

“Sorry for what?” He asked, confused to what she meant? What did she had to apologize for?

“For waking you up. I’m sorry,”

“What? Azelie, you don’t need to apologize for that! Not for something you can’t even control!” Cole argued, shaking his head slightly. Silence fell once again as neither of them spoke. “What was it about? Your dream?” Azelie looked at him, knowing fully that she couldn’t tell him the truth. He would consider her insane if she did!

“Unicorns and pixies,” she joked, a slight smile appearing on her lips as she attempted to push away the nightmare down, trying to never have to think about it again. She couldn’t imagine a world where Cole was dead, the idea itself was too awful to consider. Without him, well, she would be at the bottom of a river, or under a train, or just somewhere stupid. He didn’t keep her hanging on, but he pulled her over, keeping her from the danger she liked to put herself into. He chucked softly, realising that he should have known that Azelie wouldn’t just tell him what she was having nightmares about.

He had talked to Kelly about it after Azelie told him that she suffered from it, and Kelly had described it to him, telling him how terrifying it was to have to listen to her screaming out, crying in her sleep, all of that while you can’t wake her up. It was heartbreaking for Cole, to see her in so much pain and terror when it was only her mind that was putting her through it all. He didn’t know how she could handle it.

“Are you scared?” he asked, turning around to look at her as she sat up in her bed, the tear slowly drying up.

“Of what?”

“Nightmares? Sleeping? Or is what you’re scared of in your dreams?” He clarified, with the amount she was screaming, she couldn’t not have been scared! She must have been! Azelie shook her head slowly, realising that it was a simple thing to assume, that she was scared, but it wasn’t right.

“I’m not scared of the nightmares,” She replied, “Lots of people have their nightmares about ‘normal’ things, like their fear or loosing people or whatever, but for me, it’s usually just memories. There’s times where I don’t want to sleep - or won’t - because I know that I’ll have a really awful nightmare, but I’m not scared, I just don’t want to face it. If I was scared of my nightmares, I would have shares in Starbucks and would never sleep,” She explained, trying not to go into the details about what she dreamt. Cole nodded slowly in reply, realising that it was silly to think that Azelie was scared of something as normal as sleep.

Azelie smiled softly at him as he looked at her. She scanning across the room to see the alarm clock that sat on the desk in the room, the green numbers lighting up in the dark.

‘3:46AM’

“You should go back to sleep, long day tomorrow,” she pointed out, looking back at Cole, only now noticing how cute he looked with his hair in brown tuffs sticking out in random directions.

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you going to go back to sleep?” He questioned, looking into her deep brown eyes. She grimaced slightly at the idea of returning to her nightmare, it was something she would rather leave for another night. He guessed from her reaction, that the answer was a definite no. “Then I won’t sleep either,” he added, sitting properly on the bed, facing her with a smile playing on his lips.

“You’re going to stay up all night just because I refuse to sleep?” She questioned, not believing him.

“Yup,”

“Stop being silly Cole, and just go to sleep!” She cried, rolling her eyes at how idiotic he was being. Just because she wasn’t sleeping, didn’t mean that he had to stay up as well.

“Nope! If I go to sleep, then who is going to keep you awake?” He pointed out, a slight smile playing on his lips.

“I’ll be fine,” Azelie claimed, letting out a slight sigh at Cole. Cole just shook his head, as he remembered the time when Ted walked in on Azelie sleeping on him. Cole now knew why Ted had been so surprised! Azelie had stayed asleep with him then; what would make a difference now?

“Move over,” Cole said, standing up from the bed, and motioning slightly with his hand. Azelie looked up at him with a confused expression, her body refusing to move without an explanation.

“What? Why!” Azelie questioned, trying to figure out what the hell Cole was trying to do, but instead of answering her question, Cole just ignored her.

“Just move over!” Azelie didn’t argue this time. Instead, she just let out a little huff as she shuffled over from the other side of the bed. She watched Cole as he lay down next to her. He then turned onto his side, facing her directly.

“What are you doi-” She questioned, but he didn’t care, he was too tired.

“Just close your eyes,” he interrupted her in a whisper. Azelie looked at him as if he had lost his mind, but instead of arguing, she just went with it. She rolled around as he slowly wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her body close to his. “Just sleep, I promise, you won’t have a nightmare,” he spoke slowly, his exhaustion beginning to show in his voice. If it had been anybody else, Azelie would have argued her point, telling them that they had lost their mind. But she trusted Cole, even if he was making no sense to her at the moment.

Slowly, her eye lids fluttered close as she gave into the fight against sleep. There she lay, tangled up in Cole’s arms, her heart pounding as she slept peacefully and without any interruptions, Cole somehow keeping his promise.

So yes, I finally uploaded! This should have been up yesterday but I thought it was today I was suppose to upload and yeah... anyhoo! Song on the side is 'Sun' by Two Door Cinema Club! I seriously think that's like Cole's song... it's just awesome! :D

Just another reminder about the watty trailer awards, if you haven't, pretty please nominate me :) And if you have did you know you could do it more than twice ;)

You guys keep getting this down into the 70's on Teen Fiction; have I ever told you how awesome you guys are? :D If you get it past 100 again, I'll upload Wednesday and Thursday if it doesn't stay there! I'm really hoping to break the 50 mark sometime, so if you guys could help by voting, commenting and sharing this story, that would be beyond amazing!

Anyhoo, thanks a lot for all of the recent support! Until next time...

- Unicorn Out

(Also, I'm trying to start using my Fb page again, the link's in the external link, I'll be posting Spoilers and parts of future storys there so check it out!) :D