Something was constricting my chest in my dream. My breathing becoming shallow as I tried to find the cause. Coils of rope twisted around me as they held me to the chair. It reminded me too much of some of the worst lessons from my parents.

  With all my might, I tried to break the rope. Not that it did any good. It just adjusted itself before tightening back down. Giving up on that, I did find that I could shimmy the rope up a bit. Enough to slip a coil or two over my head every few minutes.

  Every time I managed to slip out of some of the loops, the end would lift up and twist around me again. Over and over, this happened. Only stopping when I felt a kiss on my neck.

  The kiss caused everything in me to rex. All the fear and stress that had accumuted without my notice suddenly vanished. Groggily, I opened my eyes to see a red-haired girl with her nose buried into my neck. Her arms wrapping around my chest and squeezing.

  “I thought you went to sleep in your bed,” I said. I heard some mumbling, but I couldn’t make it out. Laughing a bit as the vibrations tickled my neck I asked. “What did you say?”

  Pulling slightly away, she said, “I said I couldn’t sleep no matter what I tried. So, I came out here to cuddle with you.” Then she promptly returned her head to its original position.

  “And fell asleep?” She nodded. Not knowing what to do but knowing I stood no chance, I said, “At least let me get the bnked out from between us. No point in you freezing.”

  In an instant, she rolled off of me and reached for the bnket. Barely giving me enough time to get off of the edge her hug had forced under me. My arms wrapping themselves around her waist as she held onto my neck. With her soft body against mine, I fell back asleep. My st thought was that I needed to ask her what was up with her and my neck.