“Haven, it’s Nurse Raine. Can you hear me?”
In spite of what she saw Raine moved forward, through the horrifying phantasm. It swirled around her, dancing along her skin, but it never singed a hair. It got scalding hot for just a moment, then her mind caught up. It was all illusion.
“Haven!” she screamed.
The flame rippled, intensified and abruptly guttered out. Haven sat curled in the corner of his room, shuddering, arms around his knees. Her heart broke for him as she crossed the room and she knelt down. She gasped in a breath, then another, starved for oxygen as if she’d really been in the maelstrom. “Thank you for getting rid of the fire, Haven.”
The doctors had determined several weeks ago that the visions were based on actual memory. One of the other prisoners had been in the same Army Ranger group as Haven, and brought in from the same testing group. Alex Bosch had thought Haven dead for many months and he almost hadn’t recognized him when he did see him. It was only by chance when he’d passed Haven’s bed when he’d been on the lower, medical floor.
Paul had told her about the revelation just the other day and Raine could tell it hurt his kind heart at least as much as it hurt hers. No one deserved to be thrown away like that.
Haven didn’t outright acknowledge her other than getting rid of the fire. Raine looked up and saw Noah at the door, gun held at his side. His eyes were wide with excitement and his chest was moving like a bellows. She took a moment to point angrily at the gun and hike a thumb forcefully in the opposite direction, trying to tell him to get out of there with it, but it was too late.
Haven must have been part hound dog when it came to guns, because he knew that Noah was armed. The arms around his knees tightened and it was like he was trying to sink into the wall. A form manifested standing protectively over top of the two of them, and it pointed a long black gun at Noah.
Being the former soldier he was Noah immediately lifted his weapon to fire, then hesitated. The apparition hadn’t fired yet and he didn’t want to be the first. It gave Raine the few seconds it took to lunge in front of him and push the gun high. “Get out,” she hissed. “No guns I said!”
Noah blinked down at her and seemed to see her for the first time. He glanced into the room at the apparition, but it had already begun to fade.
“He reacts this way when he feels threatened. Go!”
The big man scowled and backed away from her and the room. He looked rattled, like the reports that he’d read were finally starting to sink in. It had taken several similar incidents before they’d begun to figure out the pattern.
Raine hated to yell at Noah. It probably put the kabosh on any other kind of interaction they might have. Sighing as she watched him walk away, she returned to the room. Paul blinked at her, looking shell-shocked. “I’m okay,” she told him. “Go back to the floor and make sure the rest of the men are behaving, please.”
He nodded without a word and followed Noah down the hallway, leaving her to return to Haven’s room. The apparition had disappeared completely, though Haven was still curled on the floor. When Dr. Wilkes had described their living conditions in the camp Raine had been horrified. The men had been in literal cages, sometimes with dirt floors. No clothing, no comforts at all. They’d been in a jungle so they hadn’t been supplied with a blanket or anything. It had been, from all accounts, a literal hellhole.
It had been a process to get them to accept even the most basic of comforts, so when she draped the super-soft blanket over his naked shoulders she didn’t know if he would take it. There was no response, so she sat down on the floor beside him, very sure not to touch him. That was another of Haven’s triggers.
Tension still hummed in the air, so she did what she always did when she was calming him down. She began to chatter.
“That was some excitement, Haven, but let me tell you, my mood is over the moon right now. I got permission to decorate the rec room for Christmas. It’s only a week away and I thought it might be something you guys would enjoy. Do you remember celebrating Christmas?”
There was no response; she hadn’t really expected one. But when she shifted to lean against the wall and looked back at Haven, his deep-set sorrowful brown eyes were staring at her. Raine gave him a gentle smile and continued with her story.
“When I was growing up we didn’t have much. Mama came from a poor family and so did my daddy, so there was never a lot at Christmas, but man, that woman could stretch the pennies. I don’t even know where she got everything but she always decorated like a mad woman. I won’t do all that but some of my fondest memories are of Christmas lights.”
In her mind’s eye she could remember running out onto the front yard, snow softly falling, as daddy flipped the switch to turn on all the lights on the outside of the house. They’d worked for hours untangling and changing bulbs and hanging before they were finally allowed to appreciate the final product. Raine could see her mama’s eyes, and the wonder in them, as she looked up at their shabby house finally shining beautiful.
“My mother absolutely lived
