Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 186: Light In Her Dreams

Chapter 186: Light In Her Dreams

The dreamworld was a strange place.

There was a band and she was the lead singer. It was a kingdom and she was the queen. It was an army and she was the general.

But most of all, it was an execution and all eyes were on her. That was where Emily was. Alone, on a stage that would serve as her death bed. With nothing but a sea of grass as spectators.

A noose was fastened around her neck by phantom hands, and try as she might to turn her head this way and that. Emily could not see the face of her executioner. She could only feel their cold breath against her neck, and their even colder hands, getting her into position. In the next moment it did not matter that she could not see them.

What mattered was that she could not breathe. She was hoisted higher, and higher. The noose tightening around her neck, the rope digging into the skin there. She felt the bones of her throat grinding against each other, cartilage snapping in half at the pressure.

She tried to scream. No sound came out. Her voice box having been the first casualty of the noose.

’I cannot breathe, I cannot breathe. Please do not let me die like this,’She thought desperately. Her legs swung wildly, kicking at the air as she tried to get free. Her hands going from clawing at the rope behind her neck, to trying to get it off from around her throat. Nails breaking against skin and rope.

But her struggle was useless.

As she was trying to get it away. The rope was getting tighter, and tighter, its hold on her unrelenting. Her head feeling as though it was about to explode.

Emily felt all of the strength leave her, her hands falling limply to her sides.

Her body was still moving, but it was not under her own steam. Instead it was the wind moving her from side to side. A child playing with a broken toy.

I am going to die, she realized, her eyes slipping shut.

The terrible realization had just begun to sink in, when out of nowhere something changed.

A ray of light made it through the thundering clouds. Feeling it across her face, Emily forced her eyes open one more time. What is that, she thought. Then she shook her head before tilting her chin up. Trying to feel more of the warmth across her face. Not a what, but who. There was something very human about her saving light. ’Who is that,’ she wondered, trying to figure out where she knew that warmth from. In the next moment, the ray of light touched the rope, and just like that it caught fire and she fell almost immediately.

Her knees dug into the dirt as she pulled the remains of the rope away from her neck. Taking her first gulps of air, wonderful, wonderful air. Emily could not help the hysterical laugh that bubbled from her throat.

"Who is there? Who did that?" She asked, looking up at the sun, but there was no answer. Instead, there was only warmth. And when Emily closed her eyes and tried to feel it better.

She could swear that she heard something. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump, it went.

I know that sound, she thought. I know that warmth, but she could not place it.

But whatever it was, it had to be friend, not foe.

In the dream, it was kept her safe, and that was more important to Emily. And so, in the very earth where she had nearly breathed her last. She curled up, and fell asleep.

The rays of sunlight as her only protection from the audience that wanted her execution for entertainment.

In the real world, there was no rope, no noose around her neck, and there was no grass cheering silently for her death. All there was, was Emily having a nightmare, and Derek unconsciously reaching for her. Offering comfort in his sleep.

And in doing so, chasing her nightmares away without even trying. And Emily, though she did not know it, was not just taking comfort from Derek. By holding her, and by her holding him in turn. Emily was able to be the anchor that Derek needed.

Making sure that he was grounded in the land of dreams. When his mind wanted nothing more than to kick him out, and have him once again facing the harsh realities of day on his own without a moment of rest. And that was exactly what the two of them were to each other.

Comfort.

Even if they were unaware of it. They were the comfort that they had always needed. Comfort that they should have had when they were children. But since they had been robbed of it from such an early age. The universe was doing its best to try and right that wrong, after years of them suffering.

It was not something that would be erased by just a few nights of sleeping well. But what they were doing was a start, and a good one. And so Derek and Emily slept all through the night. In the morning when they got up.

The first thing that they did was smile at each other. Both of them just taking a moment to embrace the pure serenity that came with waking up after sleeping at night. Just like other people in the rest of the world.

"Good morning,Emily," Was swiftly replied with a "Good morning,Derek"

For the two of them.

It was the first time in years that they were honest when they said that. And the next night when they told each other good night, they also meant it.

When they woke up together again the day after that, and said good morning, it still had not lost its shine.

Then come Friday night.

Emily walked into Derek’s penthouse and the two of them just stood for a moment, smiling at each other, anticipating the sleep to come.