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He was being plagued with those dreams again.
In his naivete, Norman had tried to sleep. Even knowing what he was going to see, he had attempted to doze off. And that is when the images returned.
Scalpels and knives laid on a sheet. Both fresh and dried blood stained the edges of the blades. Next to them laid the syringes– a motley of different chemicals and poisons in them.
Screams echoed from nearby rooms and soft sobs were heard from other rooms. But it was impossible to see beyond the white, sanitized walls that surrounded him.
“Now…” the scientist whispered. He grabbed one of the larger knifes and turned around to face him. “Let’s take a look at that healing ability again…”
It was Norman’s screaming that finally woke him up from the nightmare.
Sweat dripped from his forehead as he recollected himself and realized that he was merely in his office. No sanitized walls nor any knife-bearing scientists were there to greet him.
He shook his head and relaxed back into his chair. With each second, he took the time to push the images further away.
But as he started to calm down from the adrenaline high, there was a sudden knock on his door.
“W-Who is-” he paused and allowed his voice to steady. “Who is it?”
“Its Emma.”
Upon hearing her voice, Norman breathed a sigh of relief. “You can come in.”
When she walked inside, she still appeared groggy with sleep. “Norman…” she began. “I thought I heard you scream.”
It was embarrassing to know that he had woken up Emma, but there was no way to hide it. “Um… yeah. Sorry about that. I’m fine. You can go back to sleep.”
“Nope!”
With a few steps, she had cleared the distance between them and she embraced Norman in her arms. “I’m not going anywhere!”
“Emma… please.”
“Sorry, but I’m staying here so you can have good dreams!”
Norman chuckled in defeat. There was no way that Emma was going to give up when she felt that she had to help someone. He relaxed further into her grip.
Being close to her felt right.Being close to her always made him feel better.
Those memories of Lambda quickly became distant as he took in everything in front of him at that moment. He closed his eyes and breathed in Emma’s smell.
She smelled like fleshly planted flowers and summer days spent playing in the forest. The smell brought back old and forgotten memories of his childhood at Grace Field.
It was nostalgic.
It felt like home.
“Emma-” he muttered as he felt sleep threatening to take him once again. But this time, he wasn’t scared of his dreams.
“Yeah?” she responded, never once stopping as she slid her fingers through his hair in a rhythmic fashion.
“Can we just pretend like we’re normal… for once?”
Emma nodded. “I think I’d like that a lot, Norman.”
He said nothing more as he finally drifted off back into sleep– lost in his memories of childhood.
