The Lost Boys | I Dreamed a Dream
Aug. 28th, 2025 03:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsTrapped in a nightmare, two boys try to outrun the end.
The boys' footing faltered in the darkness, but they could not stop running, not with their pursuer gaining on them. The crunch of leaves under their feet was muted by their panting and the pounding of their hearts as their bodies pumped everything into their escape. They turned a sharp corner, passing through an open gate, and got several meters in before one of the pair ran into something knee-high and tumbled, banging his jaw on the hard ground. A headstone, he saw when his vision adjusted. They had stumbled into a graveyard.
The other boy was much faster, and turned to tug up his brother. (No, not his brother. His twin.) “Get up! We must hurry.” The voice coming from his mouth was young and accented, frightened. He did not know what was chasing them but knew they must not let it catch them.
"This is not right, this is not right," the other twin insisted, grasping tightly onto his brother's sleeve as he was pulled back up. They could barely make out each other's faces, but the faster twin's stark-white hair nearly glowed in the moonlight. A beacon of safety. "Why are we here? We shouldn't be here."
“I don’t know.” They began to weave through the graves, occasionally glancing back behind them. It seemed a neverending sea of the dead. Even through confusion, he knew to keep pushing forward, an unshakeable urge. “Do you know where we are?” It crossed his mind that they didn’t know where their parents were - did they have parents?
A bellowing roar that shook the ground they stood on interrupted the dark-haired brother before he could answer. Adjusting his grip to his brother's wrist, he pulled him down the path a ways and pulled them down to hide behind a marble angel monument. Moonlight seemed to run patterns along the statue's outstretched arms and flowing robe, forming impossible shapes like tattoos of sacred geometry. It hurt their eyes to look at for too long.
"I'm scared. Where do we go? Where is safe?"
“Me too.” They held onto each other tightly. Safe for only a moment in the shadow of the angel. “I’m sorry.” He could feel the air getting warmer, yet a chill ran down his spine as it approached them. “I don’t want to die.”
The boys tried to scream, but no sound came out, as if the monster who had smashed the guardian angel to pieces with ease was stealing their voices directly from their throats. They tried and tried and tried, hoping against hope they would call someone to find them and save them. But there was no one. They were alone, just the two of them, as the beast's maw came down on them.
~*~
Tommy found his voice as he jumped awake, sweat sticking his undershirt to his skin. Quickly, he clamped a hand over his mouth and listened for a moment. No guard footsteps followed.
Breathing a sigh of relief, the boy turned over to face the door, gazing out into the darkness as he tried to make sense of the dream that was slipping away from his memory. In the dim light it was almost like the shadows were looking back.
~*~
Miles away, Billy Kaplan also awoke to his own hoarse screaming. He promptly buried his face in his pillow, not to keep prison security away but his parents. His overly concerned, overly cautious parents whose nervousness did nothing to quell Billy's actually pathologic anxiety. He could not risk them finding him in this state, body trembling and chest heaving as he fought for his breath, or else it would be another round of doctors and clinics like when he was a kid.
Once his breathing returned to normal, he flicked on his bedside lamp and retrieved a small notepad from his nightstand. A book on interpreting dreams that he had borrowed from the library a couple weeks ago when these nightmares started recommended writing down details before they faded. He did not get far before the only things he could remember were the terror and the white-haired boy.
"Who are you?"
The boys' footing faltered in the darkness, but they could not stop running, not with their pursuer gaining on them. The crunch of leaves under their feet was muted by their panting and the pounding of their hearts as their bodies pumped everything into their escape. They turned a sharp corner, passing through an open gate, and got several meters in before one of the pair ran into something knee-high and tumbled, banging his jaw on the hard ground. A headstone, he saw when his vision adjusted. They had stumbled into a graveyard.
The other boy was much faster, and turned to tug up his brother. (No, not his brother. His twin.) “Get up! We must hurry.” The voice coming from his mouth was young and accented, frightened. He did not know what was chasing them but knew they must not let it catch them.
"This is not right, this is not right," the other twin insisted, grasping tightly onto his brother's sleeve as he was pulled back up. They could barely make out each other's faces, but the faster twin's stark-white hair nearly glowed in the moonlight. A beacon of safety. "Why are we here? We shouldn't be here."
“I don’t know.” They began to weave through the graves, occasionally glancing back behind them. It seemed a neverending sea of the dead. Even through confusion, he knew to keep pushing forward, an unshakeable urge. “Do you know where we are?” It crossed his mind that they didn’t know where their parents were - did they have parents?
A bellowing roar that shook the ground they stood on interrupted the dark-haired brother before he could answer. Adjusting his grip to his brother's wrist, he pulled him down the path a ways and pulled them down to hide behind a marble angel monument. Moonlight seemed to run patterns along the statue's outstretched arms and flowing robe, forming impossible shapes like tattoos of sacred geometry. It hurt their eyes to look at for too long.
"I'm scared. Where do we go? Where is safe?"
“Me too.” They held onto each other tightly. Safe for only a moment in the shadow of the angel. “I’m sorry.” He could feel the air getting warmer, yet a chill ran down his spine as it approached them. “I don’t want to die.”
The boys tried to scream, but no sound came out, as if the monster who had smashed the guardian angel to pieces with ease was stealing their voices directly from their throats. They tried and tried and tried, hoping against hope they would call someone to find them and save them. But there was no one. They were alone, just the two of them, as the beast's maw came down on them.
~*~
Tommy found his voice as he jumped awake, sweat sticking his undershirt to his skin. Quickly, he clamped a hand over his mouth and listened for a moment. No guard footsteps followed.
Breathing a sigh of relief, the boy turned over to face the door, gazing out into the darkness as he tried to make sense of the dream that was slipping away from his memory. In the dim light it was almost like the shadows were looking back.
~*~
Miles away, Billy Kaplan also awoke to his own hoarse screaming. He promptly buried his face in his pillow, not to keep prison security away but his parents. His overly concerned, overly cautious parents whose nervousness did nothing to quell Billy's actually pathologic anxiety. He could not risk them finding him in this state, body trembling and chest heaving as he fought for his breath, or else it would be another round of doctors and clinics like when he was a kid.
Once his breathing returned to normal, he flicked on his bedside lamp and retrieved a small notepad from his nightstand. A book on interpreting dreams that he had borrowed from the library a couple weeks ago when these nightmares started recommended writing down details before they faded. He did not get far before the only things he could remember were the terror and the white-haired boy.
"Who are you?"
