Viola felt it even before she was fully awake. She was deep in her usual dream, one she knew the whole pattern of by now, but this time the whimpering and groaning she heard wasn't coming from inside the dream at all. She slowly opened her eyes to their dim room and realized, with a jolt, that the sound was coming from right beside her.
Still a little disoriented from being pulled out of sleep, she turned toward her husband and sat up to find him twisted up in the sheets, his fingers gripping the fabric tight, forehead damp with sweat, eyes squeezed shut as though trapped mid-struggle. He was whimpering, moaning out broken words.
"...forgive me... I'm sorry..."
