Log: Marie, Dani and Jennie

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

A bad dream becomes a living nightmare.

“Another sleepless night found Marie wandering the corridors of the school aimlessly. She had gone to the gym and finally relaxed enough to go through some basic asanas. Returning to the room long after the sun had risen, she was hopeful that her body was so exhausted it would finally succumb to a deep and dreamless state.

Walking into the room, she nodded to Dani, who was relaxing on the suite’s couch. “Ah’m gonna make some tea and then try and take a nap. You want some?” she called over her shoulder as she walked into the kitchenette.

Between the two of them they could keep several tea shops open and quite possibly did. "Sure," she replied, watching TV. "You were up early," she noted. Neither girl slept well and was accustomed to being up at random times, but every time Dani had woken up it had seemed like Marie was gone.

“Haven’t been sleeping much,” Marie said as she bustled around the kitchen with preparations. She tried to mostly tune out the TV, as it seemed every station was still having special bulletins about the earthquake in California. Pouring two cups of a special blend of chamomile and lavender, the words “unspeakable devastation” filtered through her attempted block and she couldn’t prevent herself from shuddering. Walking over to Dani, she handed her the cup. “Ah’m gonna take this in my room. Hopefully Ah’ll finally get some sleep.”

Shutting the door behind her, Marie sat on the edge of her bed. Blowing on the liquid to cool it, she then gulped it all in one sip. Setting the mug on her nightstand, she laid down, not even bothering to change into pajamas. The sleepless nights seemed to have finally caught up with her and she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Dani had been glued to the TV, watching the disaster with horrible fascination like the rest of the country. Except she knew the people there, working as hard as they could to minimize the devastation and repair things. She'd been up worrying with everyone else still at the school and had prepared a smorgasbord of food for when they'd returned. It was the least she could do. She was so engrossed in an update that she didn't even notice the itch at the back of her brain.

The blissful black void Marie had fallen into shifted and took shape. First, a log cabin formed and suddenly she was inside it, watching a scene that seemed strangely familiar. A Native American woman reached to turn on a radio, singing along as she straightened up. Opening a cabinet, she pulled out two chipped plates and set them on the table. A smile tugged at her lips as checked the pots simmering on the stove. She paused to look in a mirror, admiring the fit of the dress she had chosen especially for this evening.

A noise at the door and the woman turned, her face breaking out into a smile. Marie screamed out a warning, unsure why she felt the need to do so, but the woman continued moving toward the door. Unable to see who opened the door, Marie’s ears filled with the sound of her scream as a steel blade pierced her skin.

Jennie raised a hand to knock tentatively on the door to Marie and Dani's room. No answer, Jennie waited for a several seconds before knocking again. "Dani? Marie?" She called, still no answer. She shrugged. "I'm here, I came to check in, I'm fine, so I'm just going to --Ah!" She yelped when she saw blood seeping out from under the door. "Fuck!" She opened the suite door with a jerk. "Oh my God."

Dani looked up from where she was laying on the couch, completely unconcerned with the blood, "Oh, hey Jennie," she said, sitting up and turning off the TV, "What can I do for you?"

Jennie stared, horrified. 'You...you...." She put her hands to her face and leaned hard against the wall. Couldn't she see it?

In the other room, Marie was tossing and turning, her moans growing louder as the scene continued to unfold. The blood kept pouring down the woman’s chest as the knife flashed again and again. The dream Marie took several steps back, but couldn’t avoid the spread of the blood as it crept towards her. Watching the woman fall to her knees, Marie screamed as she finally recognized the man holding the knife. She immediately sat up in bed, clutching the blanket close to her, as streams of sweat poured off her brow.

"You okay?" Dani asked, concerned. She got up to check on the other girl, worried that she might need to get a trash can or something to throw up in. "Oh, the blood. Don't worry about it," she tried to sound relaxed and unconcerned, but that she had been projecting - without realizing it - was a big problem. But not one Jennie needed to worry herself with at the moment.

It was the strangest thing, two images overlapping in the room. In one, a very familiar scene, body contorted on the ground, pools of red and brown tacky stuff all over and the buzz of flies in the remains of the left eyesocket. The other, a wood cabin and an Indian woman, being stabbed over and over again, the knife making a sickening "pop" sound as it went in and out. The murderer large, hairy and indistinct. And everywhere was the smell of blood.

Jennie wimpered and slid down the wall, burying her face in her hands.

A pale faced Marie emerged from her bedroom, intending to go seek out Logan or Angelo for some comfort from her nightmare. The thought of finding someone to talk with was quickly replaced by panic as she saw her nightmare alive around her. A glance at her roommate and realization dawned on her at the same instant that she noticed Jennie slumped down on the floor. Barely noticing the extra dead body contorted on the floor, she bounded over to wrap her arms around the younger girl and whisper soothingly to her before turning her attention to her roommate. “Can you make it stop?”

Dani startled from inside the dream and looked at her roommate incredulously, she would have stopped it if she could! "Ain't that easy," she managed, trying to regain her focus. Visions tended to creep up on her and once they hit it was like trying to stop a
car with a person. Possible, but difficult. Especially without hurting yourself or someone else in the process. The car could be sacrificed. Or she could let it continue unhindered until it ran out of gas. A mixture of both methods was what she normally employed. Slowly the blood began to recede back into the body on the floor, although it remained lifeless and gutted.

Jennie couldn't stop shivering. I must of walked in on a powers loop, she thought to herself. She buried her face in Marie's shoulder and fought down the waves of nausea. Blood smelled so salty.

"Come on, let's get you out of here." Marie gently helped Jennie to her feet and looked at Dani with concern in her eyes. "Ah'm gonna get her back to her room an' get her a glass of water, then we'll figure out what's goin' on." Hoping that her fear wouldn't
be able to follow her down the hall, she gently urged the shocked girl out of the room.

Jennie shakily got to her feet, head still firmly presse into Marie's should, breathing in her slightly floral scent. Somehow they managed to get her out of the room without Jennie ever looking up.

Jennie leaving helped and Dani slowly calmed her breathing like she'd been taught and concentrated on what she knew was real. The blue cloth couch. The beige carpet. The TV. All these things were real. Dead Indian women were not real no matter how much they might seem to be. A minute later the images faded completely and the room looked as though nothing had happened.

Marie's face was still incredibly white as she returned to the room. Slowly closing and locking the door, she crossed her arms as she turned to face her roommate. "What just happened?" she asked, a slightly incredulous tone in her voice. While she knew what had happened, she didn't know what else to say.

Dani had already moved into the kitchen to boil water for more tea and was mixing little tins of teas and herbs together to make her 'special' blend. She shrugged, hair obscuring her face. "I mentioned I was crazy," she finally managed to force out, back to Marie. She did not want to face her roommate right now even if she knew she had to.

"Ah know, we kinda all are here...but that has never happened before," Marie said managing to keep her voice steady. Not to mention that Ah was dreamin' something that wasn't mine. "Are you ok? Do we need to tell someone?"

Dani shrugged again, noncommittal, "I'll tell Haller and Samson and write it in my private journal. I'm fine, one of the biggest problems I've had to learn is understanding that they aren't real, ain't it? I can control them better now that I know that," which isn't saying much in the first place, but still a start.

Walking over to the couch, Marie sat and curled herself up into a ball. While not entirely satisfied with Dani's answer, she knew it was the best that she could get without more prodding and the last thing she wanted was to talk more about what she had just dreamt. "Musta been bad, when y' didn't know they weren't real," she said softly after a period of silence.

Dani busied herself with pouring the hot water into the tea cups and adding honey, sugar and other tea essentials to the mugs. Truth be told, she was embarassed. Not merely a lack of control, but in front of a student too. Dani was not one to be easily embarassed either. Natural was not embarassing to her, but scaring people, especially unintentionally, was not right. She'd apologize to Jennie later after they both had some time to calm down. "I got caught in a loop with Marius once, in the kitchen. That's why I never feed him. He...Lorna was not happy with the mess we made," she carefully handed Marie a cup of tea, "I scare people to death."

Marie accepted the mug gratefully, inhaling the steam rising from the liquid. It struck her as strangely humorous that statements people made everyday had a different meaning at Xavier's. Afterall, how often did someone say 'You nearly scared me to death?' but at the mansion, it wasn't just an expression.

"We've all been pretty stressed lately...and no one was hurt, so it's not so bad." She intentionally refrained from mentioning the effect this little encounter may have had on Jennie. She smiled weakly and gestured around the room with her free hand. "Not even a mess to clean up."

"Tell that to Jennie," she muttered, sitting with Marie on the couch, annoyed with herself. "It seems unclimaxic with no mess. Should be something to show for it all."

Marie couldn't help but agree and had no words of comfort left, so she just sat and finished her tea. The silence that fell over the two girls was an uneasy one, both blaming themselves for the afternoon's events. Getting up, Marie set her mug on the kitchen counter and nodded at her roommate, still maintaining the tense silence as she retreated to her room.

Sighing, Dani put her own mug away and headed into her room. She would not wish her powers on anyone and it was times like these that she questioned why they were even given to her. "My creator didn't make no mistakes on me," she reminded herself, although she didn't quite believe it.