Free Single (Stockton Beavers #1) by Collette West Page A

to grab on to, nothing to slow my descent. The wind whips by my face as I pick up speed, and I think to myself, this is it. This is how I'm going to die. However, my downward plunge suddenly stops, and it's like I was never falling at all. Instead, I'm standing upright in a shallow pool of water.
    It's dark down here, cold and wet. Scared, I run my hands over the brick wall, turning around in a complete circle, realizing I'm boxed in. I splash around, desperate to find a way out, but there isn't one. Sloshing through the ankle-deep water, I look up, only to see a lone star, shining down on me. I smile up at it. It's the only source of light I have to dispel the thick curtain of darkness that's surrounding me. Until little by little, someone starts covering the opening above my head.
    "No! Please don't!" I yell up. "I'm still down here!"
    Whoever it is pays no heed to my cry. Instead, all I hear in response is, "Lukey! Where are you? Lukey?"
    My heart starts pounding even harder inside my chest. "Ma? Ma, is that you?"
    "Lukey…help!"
    Mom needs me. I need to get out of here. I need to get to her.
    "It's him!" Mom calls down, absolutely terrified. "He's going to take you away from me."
    "Who, Ma? Who is it? Who's up there with you?"
    "It's him," she whimpers back. "The pitcher who hit you."
    Nichols?
    But her voice gets drowned out once he slams the lid down on top of the well, the echo of finality reverberating all around me.
    Nichols has Mom, and I can't protect her. I start to panic when all I sense is a steady drip of water falling on me from above. I move to avoid it, but no matter where I go, it just keeps hitting me smack dab on the side of the neck.
    "No…no…NO!" I scream, clawing the walls. "NO!"
    "Luke, shhhh. It's okay."
    My eyes fly open and I find Roberta hovering over me, shaking me awake. For a moment, I just stare into her pretty blue eyes that hold the same shade of light as the star as I try to grasp what she's doing in here.
    "You were having a nightmare," she whispers, kneeling down beside my bed. "I hope you don't mind that I barged into your room like this, but when I heard you yelling through the wall, I was worried."
    I sit up, kicking the covers aside, agitated that she had to see me like this. "Sorry," I mumble. "I didn't mean to disturb you."
    She sighs, sitting back. "It's okay."
    The night-light in the hall is extending a diagonal beam of light from the door across my bed. Though now that she's outside its reach, I can't really see her, but I can feel her eyes on me. I run my hands over my face, needing to reassure her somehow. I don't want her to be scared of me. I don't want her to leave.
    "Living here…" I start, unsure of where to begin. "You may hear me call out in my sleep sometimes, and if you do, please…just ignore it."
    It was kind of her to check on me, but she really has to be regretting her decision to move in with us right about now. Getting up with Mom in the middle of the night is going to be hard enough on her, and I'm not about to have her lose any more sleep on account of me.
    "So tonight isn't the first time this has happened?" she asks.
    Resting my head in my hands, I let out a low groan. "No."
    But she keeps questioning me, seemingly undeterred. "When did they start?"
    I lift my head to answer her. "Right after I got hit. Can you believe it's the same thing I saw when I blacked out?" I pause, not sure how she's going to handle that much truthfulness. And when she remains silent, I get nervous and chuckle halfheartedly. "I guess having a near-death experience at home plate will do that to a guy."
    I wait for her to bolt, make some hasty excuse to get up and leave, but instead, she asks gently, "What is it that you see?"
    I run a hand over my jaw. I've never really talked about this to anyone before, and I'm not sure how to put it into words. Usually, I don't remember much after I wake up, just the main points, mostly the fear. "Well," I begin slowly, talking faster as I go