Chapter 9: A soldier in the night.
1146 Words
Tanner was walking his usual nightly route through his cabin. It seemed like it consisted of trips to the coffee pot, past the window to check on Talia’s cabin, and then back to his room only to start it up again before finally passing out on his bed from exhaustion. He chuckled to himself at the thought that this woman was going to be the death of him without even touching him once in anything other than the training circle. Just as he was about to close his eyes for the night he heard the most ear splitting scream. Realizing it was Talia he tore through the door and into the night, heading straight for her cabin without a single thought of anything but getting to her.
Tanner reached her door as the second wail escaped her lips, finding it to be locked. The thought only crossed his mind for a second before he stepped back and kicked the door from the hinges with all his might. It splintered and flew into the room landing just a few steps away from the jamb and he was through it an instant later, checking the area to be sure that the room was empty of all threats as he heard the third scream tear from Talia’s small body on the bed just to the right in the next room.
Once he realized that the room was empty and the only sounds he heard were his jack-hammering heart and Talia’s pained wails he rushed to her side and grabbed her shoulders in his hands. He was saying her name and shaking her gently when she came awake with another blood curdling scream. Sweat poured from her and for an instant he felt relief that whatever fresh hell she had been living was over, and then she began to thrash against him with all her might screaming once again. Tanner realized that she was still in the nightmare and must not realize it was him holding her, but instead she thrashed and clawed at him like some beast trying to get out of the trap that had snapped her down.
“Talia, Talia its Tanner! It’s me, you’re safe! It’s over.” Tanner just kept repeating the words to her over the top of her screams until she slowly calmed and looked at him like he was the only anchor she could find to cling to. She was trembling in his hands and she looked at him and repeated his name as if she had forgotten for a second who he was. Her heart was hammering and she was drenched in sweat but the emotions that fled across her face as she looked at him made his heart race for a whole other reason.
As if she saw the look in his eyes she slowly looked around the room settling on the decimated door lying just outside of the doorway to her room on the floor of the living room. Talia looked at Tanner and deadpanned.
“I am not paying for that door.”
Tanner chuckled as he reluctantly let go of her. It was the hardest thing to do, but he forced himself to do it anyway as she shifted away from him slightly. He hid the small pain her actions caused in her chest as she then attempted to apologize for waking him up. He just shrugged and told her that he hadn’t been sleeping, it wasn’t completely a lie. He had only just started to doze off for the night when he had heard her screams. He looked at her and felt the familiar pang of pain that knowing she had been through something terrible made him feel. She seemed to catch something in his eyes that made her stiffen slightly and yet also seem to respond with a glimmer of hope. He hoped that eventually she would realize it wasn’t pity he felt for her. Never pity, anger and frustration yes, but never pity. He cared too much for her to relegate her to a woman to be pitied; instead he wished he had met her sooner so that she would never have had to live through her pain. Ironic since that pain and pinnacle in her life is what had actually brought her to Tanner in the first place.
Tanner saw her appraise him taking in his disheveled clothing from their dinner and weighing how much of his statement of not having been sleeping was true. The only give away that he might have been heading to rest was his bare feet. He shuffled on them now as she gave him a subtle nod and half smile. Then she seemed to realign herself and stood, untangling the sheets as she headed to the kitchen attached to the living room. As she passed him and into the doorway the light from the entryway crossed over her back and before he could stop it Tanner took a sharp intake of breathe. Having been told of her hours of torture when they first met and he demanded she tell him her true story hadn’t prepared him for the sight before him. She had always trained in a short sleeve t-shirt during their training sessions. She had conceded to shorts once, only they went down to her knees. Now her back was on full display with the spaghetti strap tank and those pajama shorts left very little of her legs unexposed to his vision. The crisscrossed scars that covered her back showing the true nature of the psychopath she had been lucky enough to survive.
As of realizing how much he could actually see Talia snagged a button up flannel on her way to the kitchen and shrugged it on. Almost as if she was grasping at anything to change the subject before he could ask she looked at him over her shoulder and asked him if he wanted coffee. Sensing that she was not in the mood to talk about it yet and needed a change in the mood of the room Tanner walked to the small kitchen table and sat. Pondering how to get her out of her clear funk he simply asked her if the coffee was going to be drinkable. In all reality it was a valid question after her previous trials with any kind of attempts at food, or boiled water. He was rewarded with their usual banter on her inability to make nice with kitchen appliances. However, when he learned about the many coffee pots she had apparently purchased online to replace the ones she had broken thus far Tanner couldn’t help the genuine laughter that struck through him. He couldn’t see life with Talia being boring, expensive if he couldn’t keep her out of the kitchen, but definitely not boring.
- Writer
