Molly and Topaz || Nightmares

[x-topaz.livejournal.com]

Between Topaz's nightmares and her own, Molly doesn't stand a chance.



Running.

That was what life had become. In a matter of hours they'd gone from living in the shadows to running for their lives, always looking over their shoulders, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Waiting to die.

Molly was at the subway station. It was dark except for the overhead lights but they kept flickering. A cold wind blew through the station, scattering old newspapers and food wrappers around. She didn't see anyone else around. She didn't even hear the city up above. It was quiet except for the wind.

Movement out of the corner of her eye made her look, but she saw nothing. The subway tunnels were pitch black, gobbling up the subway tracks. And then she heard it, a rhythm, like walking, or a beating of a heart. The sound came from both ends of the tunnels. It was getting closer.

She saw a slip of black first, a tendril, like a snake. She slowly backed up, her skin crawling, threatening to run away. So she decided to listen to that idea and headed for the station exit. Halfway up the steps she saw a figure darken the doorway.

"We'll always find you, little one," a voice said. It stepped into the pale light, showing pale grey skin. Famine. Marius. The fake Marius. He was real here.

"You can't run away."

Another voice joined him from the other exit. She sounded too happy about the idea of this, with her red hair and her white armor.

"You can't hide."

Suddenly the subway started to rumble, as something emerged from one of the tunnels, its head nearly clearing the top. A steady whirr followed, along with a lot of pink. It belonged to a man in a giant mechanical suit and a woman with a hoverchair.

"You'll never stop us, dear. Better to give up now."

Molly shook her head, taking in gulps of breath. She searched for an exit. The shadows had grown thicker and started to pour out of the subway tunnels. One of the tendrils lashed out, grabbing her by the ankle. A head of smooth, featureless white, poked its head out of the darkness. It's head split open, revealing rows of teeth.

Eyes widening, Molly twisted and turned, trying to get away. The tendrils started to pull her toward the subway tracks.

What she didn't know was none of it was real. As she struggled she yanked herself up out of bed, knocking over her lamp on the bedside table. She stumbled, tangling herself in her bedsheets, which, in her mind, were a slender man's tendril, and ran into the wall mounted shelf that held her books and other knickknacks, which fell on her head and translated to an attack by Nanny and the Robot. So, naturally, she swing her fist at the Robot, making a giant hole in the wall. It felt odd, especially when the wall gave way much too easily. She fell.

In reality the only thing she had struck was the window, and her momentum had launched her out the window, sending her tumbling to the ground below.

Normally the lamp falling over would have been enough to wake Topaz up.

But in that moment, Topaz was too wrapped up in her own nightmares - fighting her own demons. Ironically, the fear she had originally (unintentionally) fed into Molly was now going back to Topaz, creating a loop and pretty much cementing her in her dreams.

At the sound of the bookshelf crash down, Topaz finally jerked awake with a startled scream, still half asleep as her head snapped left and right, trying to figure out what was going on. She could just make out the tiny form flailing around the room. "M-Molly--" She stuttered, accent thick from confusion and exhaustion (this was the first night she'd fallen asleep without issue in quite a while).

Another crash, this one of glass, and it was suddenly much, much colder in the room. The frigid air swept over Topaz, and she shook off the last of the sleep, eyes widening when she realized what was happening.

"Molly! Molly!"

The young witch threw herself out of bed, diving for the blonde, but it was too late. She caught herself on the window sill, heart pounding in her chest as she watched Molly plummet down to the ground far below.

Molly hit the ground with a sickening thud but it didn't seem to phase her, or wake her. Topaz's fear bled into the dream and Molly clenched her fists as the robot attacked.

"My my little one. Such a fall," Nanny coddled. "If you stop fighting now we can go and get some milk and cookies."

"NO!" Molly said, swinging her fist, which in reality only made her punch at the air.

A tendril wrapped around her ankle, the result of her bedsheets still wrapped around her, and she struggled to fight her way out.

Normally, Kurt would never teleport into a student's bedroom, but after that noise from the floor below, he'd waited only long enough to get a fix on which room it was.

"Girls? What is happening?"

Topaz was still standing at the window sill, very nearly worked up into a panic (an uncommon sight for the normally composed teen) as she watched Molly thrash around on the ground below. "I...I dunno." Her voice was hopped up a few octaves, accent thick. "I dunno, w-we were sleepin', I heard crashin', I dunno what happened, she just fell out the window!"

With only a week left until her restaurant opening, Catseye was having trouble sleeping in the mansion and had been spending the past few nights roaming around the grounds. She heard the musical tinkle of shattering glass while prowling around a deer trail in the woods, and though she knew the noise didn't necessarily mean something dangerous was happening, the catgirl figured that since it was coming from the direction of the mansion, it was better to check it out than leave it. Probably some new demon invading, she thought ruefully as she scampered towards the sound in her housecat form.

It took a moment to process the sight of a form thrashing about on the ground underneath a window when the housecat's keen eyes spotted the sight a moment later, but when she digested the thought that yes, it was a person, not a demon, Catseye ran full-out towards the body. Her heart sunk when she got close enough to realize that the fallen form was Molly. Shifting back into girlform in mid-run, she skidded to a stop next to the girl and started shouting "call the medlab, someone call the medlab! Molly? Molly?! Are you okay?! Please be okay please be okay!"

Catseye's voice made her pop up in the dream, running down the subway steps to try to help.

"No! Run! They'll get you!" Molly shouted. Her eyes widened as evil Marius pounced on her and shoved her to the ground, a grin crossing his lips that also seemed to form in his mouth hands.

"You're right. She'll make a tasty morsel. Just like the last one. She was delicious," he said.

Catseye struggled in the dream, crying out when the hands broke skin and blood pooled underneath her.

Molly screamed. "No! NO! NO! Let her go! Let ME go! " She thrashed around, her fists and feet striking the ground, kicking up dirt and dead grass, striking at anyone who got close.

Kurt gave Topaz' shoulder a quick reassuring squeeze, then without another moment wasted, teleported to the ground and tried, cautiously, to shake Molly awake. "You are dreaming, kleinchen. All is well."

Catseye's eyes widened as she stared at Kurt. "'All is well?!' She fell out of the window!!" Why wasn't anyone calling the medlab? She'd have to do it herself. "I'm going to call the doctors," she announced with a swish of her tail, shifting back into catform and running off.

Topaz watched Kurt disappear down to the ground and slid down to the ground, trying to breathe. Molly was indestructible, Molly had thrown a car once, Molly was currently thrashing around on the ground, completely unharmed. Molly was going to be okay. Molly was going to be okay.

Breathe, just breathe, Molly's okay, Molly's still asleep, Molly's okay, breathe, calm down, panicking isn't going to do anyone any good...

At first Kurt appeared in the dream, stepping out of the dark tunnel, looking normal until he reached for her and his mouth split open and unhinged, revealing rows upon rows of sharp pointy teeth. She instinctively grabbed his hand and had started to squeeze when she smelled it, the stinky smell of rotten eggs. The slendermen didn't make that smell at least, not the kind Kurt made. This....this wasn't....

Her eyes snapped open and she quickly let go of Kurt's hand, blinking rapidly. Everything was foggy, and parts of the dream already started to fade as she found herself definitely not where she was before.

"What's going on?" she said, her voice quiet and extremely sheepish.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Mr. Kurt. Are you okay?"

"Fine, my dear", he reassured her, shaking out his hand. "No harm done. But are you all right?"

Molly looked down, sitting up as she patted herself. "I think---Oh," she said, frowning. Her pajamas had holes in them now and there was glass everywhere. But she was still unsquishable so nothing hurt her skin.

"Yeah," she admitted, even if her clothes were messed up.

She glanced up to see Topaz peering out of the window. "What happened?"

Topaz stared down at Molly, breath caught in her throat. What happened? Molly was a little too far away for her to actually hear the words, but it was the obvious question given the situation, and the one that was right at the front of Topaz's mind.

What had happened?