joe tell me what you want
Everything!
ok i can do that <3
What
Ox.
Ox!
IT WAS two in the morning when my phone rang.
“Huh?” I said into it.
“Ox.” Mark sounded stressed.
Sleep was gone instantly. “What happened?”
“It’s Joe.”
I was up and already scrounging for the shorts I’d left on the floor. “Is he okay?”
“No. He had a nightmare. We can’t get him calm. I think he needs you.”
“Okay. On my way.”
Carter met me at the door. He didn’t even get a chance to open his mouth before I heard a loud cry come from inside the house. I pushed passed him, saying, “Joe,” calling out, “Joe.”
I was on the stairs when I heard him again. “No! Don’t let the man take him. Please, Mom! Please don’t let him take Ox away.” Joe’s voice was broken and wet, and my heart cracked in my chest.
Mark was at the door with Kelly. They both stared at me with wide and tired eyes. I ignored them because I had to get to him. I had to see him and—
He was on his bed. Thomas and Elizabeth were curled on either side of him. His face was in his mother’s neck and he was shaking, and it was so violent, and his hands were gripping her tight as he cried out again, and I said, “Oh, Joe.”
I didn’t think of it too much when I reached down between the two of them and lifted him up. They didn’t snap at me for handling him in such a way. They didn’t try to stop me. Thomas’s face was tight with worry. Elizabeth was crying, great globular tears that tore at my chest.
For a moment, Joe tensed in my arms, and then he held on as if his life depended on it, legs latching on around my waist, hands pulling at the back of my head.
Thomas and Elizabeth stood up from the bed. They touched my arm and Thomas whispered they would tell my mom where I was. They shut the door behind them.
I moved us to the side of the bed and sat on the floor, my back to the mattress. I moved Joe around until he was resting against my chest.
Eventually, he said, “I had a bad dream.”
I said, “I know.”
He said, “It’s always the same. Most of the time. He comes for me and takes me away and does… things.”
I wanted to scream out my horror, but I kept it in and said, “I’m here.”
Joe said, “Sometimes, he takes my mom. Or my dad.”
I put my hand in his hair.
Joe said, “This time, he took you, and if he can find you in my dreams, he can find you in real life.”
I said, “I’ll protect you,” and I’d never meant anything more in my life.