If I Should Die Before I Wake 
chapter VI. Pegasus
Page 1 of 19
I stop breathing as my eyes meet his. My lungs only fill with the poison of despair.
I’m unable to even think while he continues to stand there under the archway, his expression unreadable in the dark. He’s mad at me, I tell myself, I hope for myself. I couldn’t play anymore anyway. My hands are shaking too much. Beyond that, I can’t move, can’t speak, can’t feel anything but an intense fear, crawling its way up from the pit of my stomach and trying to escape my mouth.
I want to be sick, I’m so afraid.
This intense silence seems to last forever, like the swirling vortex of insanity my own mind has become, until finally, he takes a step forward, then another, and another, and now he stands before me at the piano, gazing down into my face.
I draw in a sharp, ragged breath as the light finally reveals the expression in his eyes.
We were almost happy together, today. Me and him and Damien. Why did I have to be so stupid? Why did I have to go and spoil it all?
I can’t take my eyes off him as, very cautiously, he reaches down and takes hold of my hands, circling my wrists and palms with his thumbs. A small sigh escapes his lips, before he drops them back in my lap, and runs one hand through my hair instead, stopping at my neck.
The expression in his eyes…
I hadn’t been able to sleep at all tonight. Shortly after we went to bed, I’d heard a soft knock on the door, and froze, holding my breath like I’m holding it now. Don’t make a sound and they won’t know you’re there, won’t come in and hurt you. The logic of a child, alone and afraid in the dark.
But who could it be? I’d wondered, terrified. Raven?
“Pegasus, are you awake? Can I come in?”
