Rescue Me

Ella jolted awake breathing heavily in a cold sweat from the previous nights weird nightmares. She pulled herself out of her bed feeling as tired as she did when she had crawled in. She tossed her case files on her desk, neglecting to finish it before she'd gone to bed. She drug herself in the shower, brushed her teeth, made her morning coffee and reluctantly went to work.

When Ella returned home from work she was completely drained. Her legs, and arms felt like wet noodles daggling from her body. Her head hung, and her eyes would barely stay open. She was surprised she made the long drive home without careening off the road into a ditch. She walked in the front door, and closed the door behind her slowly. Walking to the couch as if she were some kind of zombie, she grabbed the phone on the way, and plopped her body on the couch. She dialed Arianna's number, trying desperately to keep her eyes open.

"Hello?" Arianna answered her phone.

"What's going on?" Ella could barely form the words she spoke.

"Ella?" Arianna asked, "Are you okay?"

"Tired," Ella replied with all she could say.

"I'm coming over. Leave your door unlocked, and go to sleep, I'll come keep an eye on you," Arianna ordered.

Ella replied quickly without thought, "No! No sleep. I can't sleep"

"Why?" Arianna asked.

"Bad dreams. I can't figure it out." Ella replied.

Arianna paused for a moment before she replied, "I'm coming over. Stay right there." She hung up the phone without even saying goodbye.

Ella hung up the phone and let her arm drop off the couch, and drop the phone on the floor. Her eyes became more and more heavy as she laid there. Until she finally fell asleep against her deepest efforts to avoid it.

When she awoke from her deep sleep she jumped up and looked around the room. Arianna was sitting on the chair across from her reading a book peacefully. "What's wrong. Another bad dream?" Arianna closed her book quickly and hurried to her friend's aid.

Ella rested her head on her aching head, "No..." She replied still in a sleepy haze, "No dreams at all." She looked completely confused.

"That's good then, right?" Arianna said.

"Yeah," Ella pulled herself up to a sitting position on the couch, "Yeah I guess so."

"I brought you some soup, and stuff. I thought you might be sick," She rested her hand on Ella's forehead, "No fever, so maybe some food will make you feel better. I'll get it for you." Arianna jumped up, and got the soup for her, sitting it on the coffee table in front of her.

"My head is killing me," Ella looked at the warm soup trying not to show how much it make her stomach feel unsettled. Arianna wasted no time to hop up and fetch some aspirin for Ella. She heated up a cup of tea for her, and brought everything out placing it on the table. By this time Ella had pushed the soup out from in front of her, sitting in the middle of the couch with her head between her hands. Ella picked up the bottle, and took the medicine given to her. She took the warm cup in her hands. The warmth was soothing to her.

"Okay...now tell me about your real life Freddie Kruger nightmare, "Arianna pulled her chair closer to the couch to get the full scoop.

"No Kruger," Ella laughed a little, "It's not really like that. It's just..." She paused for a moment searching for the words to discribe the feels she felt, "Have you ever been alone? I don't mean like, 'I'm sitting alone in my bedroom, and nobodies around, but I'm okay.' Not like that. I mean like, 'I have nobody, I'm in danger, and nobody is coming to help me. There's nobody in this world who wants me, and I will never find anyone who can understand what I'm going through. Nobody...who cares. You're nothing, and you're shit.' Have you ever felt like that?"

Arianna seemed to take offence to what Ella had said, "You think people don't care about you?"

"I didn't say that," She corrected her, "I said, "Have you ever felt that way?"

Arianna humored her and thought about it for a moment, "I guess I haven't, no."

"Well, up until my grandmother died. Neither did I," She started to explain, "My parents died when I was really too young to remember. Gran took me in and she was the only thing I knew for the longest time. You've always been my best friend, and if I ever lost you I'd be alone. Completely alone. Nobody in this world would even miss me if I disappeared."

"Okay," Arianna did her best to understand.

"I THINK that's why my dreams are so....scary. Every night I go to sleep and something really weird happens. The first night I was in this place with so many people, but it was like nobody saw me. Then I was here in this house, but I knew for the first time I was alone. I was crying, and Johnny Depp popped up out of nowhere...and he poked me!" Ella said.

Arianna couldn't help but laughed, "Poked you?"

"Well I poked him first, but...." Ella started, "That's not the point."

"Okay...okay. I'm sorry," Arianna apologized.

"The point is that no matter what I always feel like I'm in danger. Like something horrible can happen at any moment, and there will be nobody here to stop it from happening. It's not Johnny Depp. He's anything but scary. It was just the feel that comes with it," Ella said.

Arianna nodded, "Alright. I get it." She reached for Ella's hand and squeezed it in comfort. "You got me kiddo...and I'm not going anywhere."

"I know, it's just...hard," Ella fought back the tears. She looked away to gather her thoughts, "The weirdest one was last night. I went to bed expecting something weird, and I was in completely darkness, with one light over me, I was so freaked out, and scared. Then this guy showed up. I've never met him, don't know him, and I've never seen him before. There he was....he was kind of thin. He had dark hair, and brown eyes. He wore black, and was kind of emo. He said his name was Bill, and it just seemed like he came to me to answer my prayers. Like he was my angel."

Arianna raised her brow at Ella, "I told you this place was haunted."

"Arie!" Ella hissed, "He's not a ghost. He was real." She did her best to ignore Arianna's weird looks, "When he held my hands, and talked to me. I was okay. I wasn't alone anymore."

"Did you make out with an emo boy?" Arianna asked out of the blue.

"NO!" Ella laughed and smacked her friend's arm.

"So your emo angel saved you. What's the big deal?" Arianna failed to grasp the concept.

"The 'big deal', "Ella made air quotes in front of Arianna's face, ...Is that when he told me to close my eyes, and calm down. When I opened them again. He was gone."

"Men never stick around when you need them the most," Arianna replied picking up the bowl of soup Ella didn't eat, and started spooning mouthfuls in her own mouth. She spoke with her mouth half full of chicken and noddles, "Want to know what I think the problem is?" Ella just shook her head, and smirked, letting Arianna continue anyway, "You need to get laid. You have a crush on some kid that doesn't even exist. Besides...when did you start liking goth boys?"

"I don't!" Ella replied just as shocked as Arianna, "That's why it's so weird that my mind would manifest HIM as my 'angel'."

"You're such a dork, "Arianna shoveled more soup in her mouth as she rolled her eyes. "Is he at least cute?"

Ella's smile got wide as she thought about him for a moment, "Yeah."

"Really cute?" Arianna asked nudging her playfully.

"He's gorgeous," Ella blushed as she spoke.

"Does he have any angelic singe friend's?" Arianna joked.

"If I ever see him again...I'll ask," Ella sighed with a pouted frown.

"You poor thing," Arianna comforted her, "I'll tell you what. I'll spend the night with you here tonight. That way if anything bad happens, you'll know that someone is here to help you. I might not be Bill....but at least I'm not emo."

Ella laughed, "Thanks Arie." She got up and hugged her friend.

"Now off to bed with you. You look like Bill the angel should be taking you back to heaven with him," Arianna dragged Ella upstairs, and tucked her in bed. She knew Ella wasn't quite right, but she didn't know it'd gone quite as far as it has. She spent most of the evening straightening up the house. All the flowers Ella had picked and placed around the house where started to dry out. Arianna gathered them all and threw them out. She went upstairs to the guest room, and went to sleep herself.