Page 37 of From That Moment

And the hands around my neck clutched harder.

I blinked, and the woman above me had my eyes and my smile, but there was something evil in it.

“Mom.”

She didn’t answer. She just kept squeezing.

She was killing me. My mother was killing me.

Like she’d helped to kill Tracey.

I blinked again, and it was no longer her.

Now, it was my dad.

And just like my mom, he wasn’t the age he should be now. He was the same age he had been when he killed me.

No, not me. My sister. When he killed Tracey.

There was no going back. There was no fixing this.

I was dying, screaming.

Help.

Then, somebody helped me.

“Paris.”

“Paris.”

My eyes shot open, and I sat up and screamed.

Suddenly, Dakota was there, holding me softly as I cried against her neck, her hands smoothing down my hair and holding me close.

I clung to her as I never had before. I hadn’t let anybody hold me like this before.

No, that wasn’t the case, was it? I had cried in the others’ hold when they were here for me throughout the past week when I woke up and screamed because the nightmares were back. There was no holding them back any longer.

“You’re safe. You’re here. I’ve got you.”

I pulled away then, needing to suck in gulps of air as I wiped my face.

“I’m sorry.”

Dakota looked at me and shook her head. “Stop it. Do not be sorry.”

“I hate crying on you. I already cried on everyone else.”

Dakota smiled softly, looking more motherly than I had ever seen her before. “The fact that you trust me enough to even cry in my presence means a lot. And you’re allowed to feel like this. You’re allowed to be scared. Something horrible happened. But you’re safe.”

“Maybe.” I ran my hands over my face a few times and then let out a breath.

“My ribs hurt.”

“I’m not surprised. They’re bruised. So much so that the doctor thought it might have been better if you had broken one.”

I tried to laugh and then held my side as I let out a slow breath. “Great. Breaking me would be better than what I’m feeling right now,” I grumbled. “I hate sounding like I’m riding the pity train.”