Fiery embers licked my skin, and I jerked to the side, trying to escape their scorching touch.

"Please help!"

My voice was hollow and unfamiliar. Young and tortured. A heated sting fell upon my arm, and I screamed, the sound guttural and inhuman, leaving my throat raw from the force.

Tears poured from my eyes as pain ran through up arm, the sensation dizzying as I gasped for air. Mustering up some of the strength that was rapidly depleting, I frantically tugged at my seat belt. I sat, suspended upside down, inside the metal cage, as I tried to set myself free, victory held just beyond my reach.

My movements slowed, as my bodies scream for clean air, remained unanswered, and my vision faded from orange to grey, and then to black. Shouts came from in front of me, but everything was too hazy for me to see who it was. Darkness seeped into my eyes, destroying my vision, as terror clawed at my heart, my eyes shifting wildly as sharp tingles ran up my spine.

"Please help me," I whimpered, my voice weaker, as my lungs strained from the choking grip of smoke. "Please."

"Rowan, baby, wake up."

"Help. Please. It burns," I mumbled, my hand flailing around in search of the voice. A homing beacon. A saving grace. "I can't breathe."

The fear in my heart was suffocating, wrapping around me and threatening to drown out whatever bit of salvation I had left.

"Rowan, It's me. Please get up, love."

Hands wrapped around me, heaving me up until I was cloaked in warmth, a sensation that was soothing in contrast to the excruciating heat that had been consuming the air around me. The smell of gasoline along with the nauseating stench of smoke fell away, and I clutched onto my savior, trying to mold my body into theirs.

"Elijah, I can't breath."

"Hey, it's okay. I'm here." The tranquil tone fell upon my ears again, and I craned my head, my vision still hazy. "I got you, baby."

My eyes flew open, and for a minute I couldn't take in any air, as my lungs seized up, collapsing in on themselves. I wheezed, lurching upright, before dropping my head back against a firm foundation, too weak to hold up my weight.

Oh my...

My chest heaved up and down and I tried to answer my body's call for oxygen, my eyes adjusting to the dim light. Everything was still a blur, but no longer were my eyes lit up by the orange hue of fire, and no longer was my skin being singed by its cruel touch. I glanced up when a gentle pressure fell upon my cheeks and my gaze flitted up, and I tried to open my mouth, my gaze aligning with Elijah's.

But I couldn't make a sound.

I shook violently, as tears blurred my vision, turning his eyes into watery mosaics of hazel. The visions of what I had just seen danced in my mind, laughing and taunting my terror. I was unable to process what had just happened.

Unable to accept what I had just seen.

"It's okay, Love. I got you."

I latched onto his voice, trying to ground myself through it as I laid there unable to move; my mind awake but my body not having caught up yet. Elijah's eyebrows furrowed, and he shook my arm, and I winced. It was as if my muscles had locked up and turned against me. I tried to wiggle my toes. My heart pounded, seeking escape from my chest, and Elijah placed his hands on both of my cheeks.

Why couldn't I move?

Panic raced through me as I tried to speak, only to not make a word.

"Rowan? Say, something baby."

Concern laced through his voice, but I couldn't ease his worry. My tears, continued to flow down my cheeks as a tremor ran through me. I wheezed, still feeling like I wasn't getting air into my lungs. Elijah let out a string of curses as he shifted onto his knees.

"I'm going to set you upright, okay?"

I tried with all of my strength to say something, but it was as if the ability to control my movement had been stripped away from me. A familiar fragrance washed over me, as he shifted, and I breathed in deeply, trying to ground myself.

"I need you to say something, Love. Tell me you're okay."

I gasped as my muscles finally surrendered to my command, the weight on my chest easing up some. Elijah grabbed his phone, just as I placed my hand on his arm, as adrenaline fled through my veins.

"I'm okay," I croaked. "I'm okay."

Elijah's eyes trained on me as I pushed up with the palms of my hand, trying to sit up. In a flash he reached out his hand, righting me so that I was sitting straight up. I placed my head in my hands.

I couldn't think straight as the blood rushed in my ears, my entire body glazed over in goosebumps. What I had just seen...experienced had been horrific. I had never been more scared for my life than I had then.

Elijah was still watching me when I lifted my head, his face troubled as if he was torn between wanting to come to me and wanting to give me space. I reached out, only for my hand to fall limply back to the floor as the tears crawled up in my throat, preventing me from voicing my need for his touch.

I coughed, wincing at the rawness in my throat, and Elijah blinked for what seemed like the first time in minutes. I swiped my hand across my eyes, as I sat there not sure what to say or do.

How could I after something like that?

"Don't move. I will be right back."

Elijah left the room before I could protest, and I just sat there catching my breath as I tried to figure out what the hell had happened. It was obvious that I had been dreaming, but it had felt so real.

Too real.

I eyed my alarm clock, my body sagging against my bed frame as if it too could no longer deal with the brevity of it all.

My gaze flitted to my bedroom door and flinched when a crash echoed from the living room, followed by what sounded like something falling over. I jumped when the door to the room burst open, and Elijah rushed in, holding a glass of water. I eyed him cautiously, his breathing was labored as if he had just run a marathon, and his hands shaking slightly.

"Are you okay?" I asked, my voice scratchy, but audible. He didn't respond, instead of walking back over to the bed in silence and holding the cup to my lips. My eyes never left his as I gulped down the cool liquid, smothering the fire that had kindled in my throat.

When I was finished he placed the cup on my nightstand, standing at the side of the bed, just watching me. The look in his eyes was cautious almost as if he was afraid to come too close. But all I wanted was for him to do just do that, and it was killing me that he hadn't yet.

The stream of moonlight that came in from my open bedroom window cast a shadow over his face, but it was still enough to see the concerned lines that were etched between his eyebrows. I wanted to brush them away and make sure that they would never come back.

I hadn't seen Elijah this scared, even when he had awakened from his own nightmare.

"Are you going to come back to bed?" I finally asked, cracking from my need to have his arms to be around me again. He nodded, his hair shifting into his eyes, but didn't move. "Elijah, please get in bed."

I didn't want to be alone.

As if finally gaining clarity, Elijah let out a breath, and was in the bed in less than a second, hauling me against him.

"What can I do? How can I help?"

He pressed a kiss to my forehead.

"Just be here."

I clutched onto the sides of his t-shirt, as he shifted so that we were laying down, our bodies entangling immediately as if we were always meant to be that way. I lifted my head, placing my hand on the side of his face near his temple, and gazing into the pools of worry.

Elijah pulled me closer, against him, pressing his lips into a line. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. I wasn't entirely sure if that was the truth, but I needed him to see that I was okay, even if I didn't know what the heck had just happened. I had never experienced something like that before.

"Do you want some more water?" Elijah asked, reaching over to grab the glass from the nightstand when I nodded. I sat up, taking it from him, and took a sip. He pushed up onto his arms, running a hand through his hair, his eyes never straying from me. I placed the glass down, laying back down and wrapping my arms around him.

He was still shaking.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

His eyebrows furrowed before lifting into what seemed to be disbelief.

"You are asking if I am okay? It is you who I am worried about." He took a deep breath. "I thought that you would never wake up." I rubbed his back, realizing just how badly I had scared him. Heck, I had scared myself too. "Has that happened before?" He asked, looking down at me.

"No." I closed my eyes as images of a burning car ran through my mind, a shudder making its way through my body. Elijah wrapped his arms around me again, but I still didn't feel like I could get close enough. "I have had the dream before, but today it was different. It didn't feel like just a dream. It felt real." I leaned my head back slightly, looking into his eyes. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

Guilt weighed down on me, as I took in the concern in his eyes, making it clear that he was just as shaken up as I was.

He shook his head, fishing his hand in my hair and resting his forehead on my temple.

"Don't apologize, sweetheart. I am just glad you are okay."

Even though he said one thing, the heavy look in his eyes hadn't let up. I tilted my head up, seeking to remedy that, my lips waiting parallel to his expectantly. His lips met mine softly, brushing over them as if he was afraid that I would break. He pulled back way too soon for my liking, but I didn't protest, burying my head into his chest.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Elijah asked after a moment had passed in silence.

I sighed, covering my eyes with my hand, as I tried to put into words what I had seen. The words locked up in my voice box, as a heavy feeling fell upon me.

"I think it was the accident." Nausea arose as the images raced through my mind, and I covered my mouth, remembering just what I had seen. "I saw my parents. My dad. He was..." I sucked in a breath that sounded like a close medium between a sob and a cry, as the visions replayed in my head.

I couldn't suppress the dull sting behind my eyes or the way my throat tightened, keeping my words from coming out. Elijah's arms tightened around me, his body wrapping around mine as I took slow breaths. I bit my lips as the tears continued to flow, the image of my dad's lifeless body not leaving my mind no matter how hard I tried to push it away.

I didn't want to think about it.

"I can't...I can't-"

My words fell away as the horror got the best of me. I held onto Elijah like a lifeline, my trembling hands holding him close. I wasn't even sure what it was that I was trying to say. I just wanted it all to stop. For the first time in my life, I wanted to forget. To never experience again, what I just had.

"Rowan," his hand smoothed down my back, before moving upwards again in calming strokes. "I need you to breath."

I hadn't even realized that I hadn't been.

"It hurts," I exhaled, squeezing my eyes shut, and wishing for the numbness in my chest to go away. For the heaviness that weighed on my heart, forming a pit of despair, to disappear.

It was icelike. As if shards of glass had been embedded inside of my soul where it most mattered, leaving a frost that couldn't be melted.

"Goodness Rowan."

The pain in his voice was almost too much for me to bear. I wanted to be strong like I tried to be, but I couldn't muster up that courage. The tendrils of affliction were too suffocating.

"Just breathe sweetheart. Breath."

I grasped onto the words desperately searching for something to mend the hole that was forming inside of me, threatening to drown out any peace I had built with not knowing what had happened that day nine years ago.

"I'm so sorry Rowan. No one should ever have to experience something like that," Elijah murmured when my tears had settled, my entire body still trembling but not as violently as before.

I shrugged, not knowing what to say. It wasn't his fault that I had the dream.

"You shouldn't apologize, there was nothing you could do about it." I paused, trying to find a way to say what had been racing through my mind for the past fifteen minutes now. " I think it was more than just a dream. It couldn't have been just a dream, it felt way too real."

His brows knitted. "Are you sure?"

I shook my head. "No, I am not," I said truthfully. "But, it was like I wasn't just watching it like I had been last time. I was experiencing it."

I shifted so that my back was facing him, reaching my hand over my shoulder, and pulling my shirt down. Elijah traced the scar that tainted my skin with his fingers. It was something he had seen before, but we hadn't talked about it before.

"I got this scar from the accident. It was a third-degree burn, and I had to get a skin graft to fix the damage."

Elijah said nothing, and a second later I felt warm lips press to where I knew the scar was, before he eased my hand off of my shirt, rubbing the raised skin as if he wanted to make it go away. I turned back around, needing to see the comfort of his eyes again. Needing that solitude.

"Mom said that after they pulled me out of the car that day, they rushed me to the hospital with several burn wounds. When I was dreaming, I felt like I had been burned right in that area."

Elijah shut his eyes, his jaw clenching, and it seemed as if he was finally putting together what I was saying. When he opened his eyes again, pain swam in his eyes, and I knew that he could understand what I was feeling on a personal level.

"I'm so sorry. You don't deserve to have to go through my of this."

"Yeah, well, life is a real pain sometimes."

He pushed a strand from my face, his gaze soft. "You said that you had a dream about it before? Why didn't you tell me?"

"It was before we were together. After that night I never had the dream again, so I figured that it was just a one-time thing." He nodded in understanding, and I could tell that he already knew what I wasn't saying.

I hadn't forgotten the night I had first had it. It wasn't just the fact that I had written the dream down in my journal after I had it, but I had never forgotten it. Most of the time my nights were dreamless, filled with moving pictures I couldn't remember.

But that one had stayed with me.

Maybe because it wasn't just a dream.

I shook my head, trying to think about anything but what I had just relived. I knew that I probably needed to call Dr. Anderson later, but I just wanted to forget.

"Are you going back to sleep?" I asked Elijah, and he shook his head. I knew how he was feeling. I didn't think I could either.

"Do you want to watch a movie?" I asked. "I don't know, I just need a distraction. I don't want to think about it anymore."

"We can watch a movie or anything you want." He stood, walking over to the side of the bed that I was on, and grabbing my hand. He led me towards my bedroom door, and into the living room, my eyes immediately landing on one of my island chairs, which was knocked over on its side.

I glanced at Elijah.

"Sorry." A frown settled over his face as he fixed it so that it was upright again. "I tripped over it when I was coming to give you your water."

"Oh."

I couldn't help but feel bad as he ran a hand through his hair, pushing the chair further underneath the counter. This was the part I had been worried about. The moments where stuff like this would happen, leaving an imprint on not only me but everyone else around me as well.

"Did you hurt yourself?"

My voice was squeaky, my fear that he had hurt himself because of me, causing my vision to blur. When Elijah finally looked at me again, my heart cracked.

He shook his head, placing his hands on either side of my face.

"I can see where your head is at. None of this is your fault."

Part of me knew that he was right, while the other half was finding it hard to believe that it wasn't. They shouldn't be his.

I took a shaky breath, mustering up a smile and doing my best to show that I was okay. Elijah's eyes searched mine, his gaze roaming over my face and the expression on it telling me that he could see right through my mask. He didn't say anything though, his hands leaving my face as he wrapped his arm around me.

I brought my hands to his neck, our heartbeats aligned and synchronizing into a steady rhythm. For that moment I allowed myself not to worry about the load I was causing and just to focus on him. To anchor me in his calming presence.

I wasn't sure how long we stood there, but neither one of us made a move to reach for the remote or to watch a movie like we had agreed to do.

But I found that I didn't need a movie, to keep my mind from wandering into dark places.

Eventually, we moved, not back to the room, but to the couch. He angled us so that he was laying on the edge, sandwiching me in between the cushions of the couch. He covered my leg in his, pulling my quilted blanket over us before circling his arms around me. It was as if he was a shield. Blocking out everything that could harm me.

I didn't need a distraction. Elijah was enough.

It wasn't long before I fell back asleep.