Chapter 101 Chapter 101

Chapter 101 Chapter 101
The touch grew firmer. Fingers pressing into my shoulder, sliding down to my forearm. My breath stuttered. 

Then— 

“Sabrina.” 

The voice cut sharper now. 

I jolted. My eyes flew open. Everything snapped into clarity. 

Ace was sitting on the edge of my bed, his hand still resting on my arm where he’d been shaking me awake. His brows were pinched with concern as he leaned over me. 

“There you are,” he said, exhaling with relief. “I’ve been calling your name like twenty times.” 

I blinked hard, my heart racing so violently my ribs ached. I pushed myself upright. My breath came out in a shaky rush. 

“It… it was a dream,” I whispered to myself before I could stop the words from escaping. 

Ace frowned. “You okay?” 

I nodded. 

None of it had happened. 

Relief washed over me so suddenly that it left me dizzy, like stepping back from the edge of a cliff I hadn’t realized I was standing on. 

I dragged in a deeper breath and finally looked at Ace properly, his face grounding me back in the present. 

“I’m fine,” I managed, though my voice was still thin. “Just… a bad dream.” 

His expression softened, his hand squeezing my arm gently before he let go. 

“Well,” he said, offering a crooked smile, “you looked like you were about to fight someone in your sleep.” 

I swallowed, trying to smooth out my breathing, trying to erase the last phantom traces of Michael’s voice from my mind. 

“Yeah,” I murmured. “It felt that real. How long was I out?” 

He didn’t even pause before answering. 

“I don’t know exactly when you fell asleep,” he said, scratching the back of his neck as he exhaled. “All I know is that I stopped hearing your voice. And after Michael beat me in another round of the game—” he rolled his eyes dramatically “—I turned to look at you, and you were sleeping. So, I let you sleep for a while and just came up to wake you.” 

I sighed, rubbing at my eyes until the blurry exhaustion softened a little. My throat felt tight, my chest even tighter as the full relief of being awake and being safe settled over me. Without even thinking, I pushed myself toward Ace and wrapped my arms around him. 

He caught me immediately. 

His arms slid around my waist, pulling me against him. My forehead landed on his chest, rising and falling gently with each slow breath he took. I held him tighter, almost desperately, like I needed to feel something real, something that wasn’t Michael’s smirking face or the locked door I’d imagined pinning me in. 

I whispered into Ace’s shirt, my voice was small and shaky. 

“My goodness, Ace. You won’t believe how grateful I am that I was sleeping.” 

Ace’s hand paused on my back, then resumed its slow, soothing movement. “Hey…” he said as his voice softened even more, tinged with concern. “Are you okay?” 

I nodded, though the motion was stiff and far from convincing. I didn’t want to lift my head yet as his chest felt too calm. I breathed him in. His faint cologne. All of it reassured me that I was here and safe and awake. 

Still, I swallowed hard and whispered, “I want Michael gone.” 

Ace stilled. For a moment, he didn’t move at all. Not his hand, not his breathing, not his posture. His chin dipped slightly, like he was trying to understand what I had just said. 

He gently loosened his hold and pulled back just enough to look down at me. 

“You want him gone? Sabrina... what happened?” he asked quietly. “What did you dream about?” 

I lifted my gaze to his. The vulnerability must’ve been clear because I saw worry slip into his expression immediately. My fingers curled in the fabric of his shirt. 

I hesitated only a moment before saying it. 

“I think Michael is planning to rape me.” 

Ace blinked. 

Then— 

He chuckled. 

It wasn’t mocking, it wasn’t harsh. It was just one stunned puff of disbelief as he raised a brow and let out a short, strangled laugh, like he genuinely didn’t know how else to react to something that sounded so surreal. 

Before I could respond, Michael called out from across the room, oblivious. 

“Ace! Bro! Come on. I’m ready to keep whooping your ass. Let’s go!” 

Ace didn’t look at him. He kept his eyes on me. 

“One second,” Ace called back over his shoulder. “I’m with my girl.” 

“That’s not your girl, bro,” Michael scoffed. “That’s your stepmom.” 

“Hey!” Ace snapped. 

Michael groaned in annoyance from the other side of the room, but Ace ignored him completely. 

He leaned down to me as his voice lowered into something softer, like something protective. 

“Hey… whatever happened to you was just a dream. Okay? That’s all,” he said as his thumb brushed my cheek gently as he tried to soothe the fear still gripping me from the inside. “Michael is just… Michael. Stupid, annoying, dramatic, loud, but not that. And even if he ever even thought about doing something like that, I’d never allow it. You hear me? I’d never let that happen.” 

My chest loosened a little, enough for me to breathe fully. 

I nodded slowly, the tension in my shoulders easing as his thumb grazed my skin one last time. I trusted Ace more than I trusted anyone else in that house. His reassurance, simple as it was, rooted me firmly back in reality. 

With a soft sigh, I rested my head against his chest again, just for a second. Long enough to calm myself, long enough to let the last of the dream’s shadows evaporate. 

Then Ace kissed the top of my head. A gentle, grounding kiss. One that made warmth spread through my neck and shoulders, dissolving what remained of the fear. 

“Good,” he murmured. “You’re okay.” 

I nodded again. 

Then he carefully pulled back, giving my waist one final squeeze before he stepped away and turned toward Michael. 

“All right!” he called out, instantly slipping back into his lighthearted self. “Let’s go, man. One more round.” 

Michael cheered, pumping a fist in the air dramatically. 

Ace glanced back at me with a small half-smile, the kind that silently reassured me he was still here, still paying attention, still making sure I was okay even at a distance. 

Then he sat back on the chair, controller in hand, ready to get back into the game like nothing had happened. 

But I stayed on the bed for a moment, hands curled in my lap, the fading remnants of the dream dissolving completely as I watched the two of them prepare for another round of their battle. 

It was over. Just a dream. 

A stupid, twisted, terrifying dream, but nothing more than that.