Dreamscapes

Posted on 19 Mar 2013 @ 1:42pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil

1,755 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USSGalileo: Deck 3, Cho's Quarters
Timeline: MD 03: 0100 hrs

[ON]

Kiri was trying what Dawn suggested, what Jessica wanted, not using the medication. Sleep was hard to find and for a long time she tossed and turned, trying not to think before finally. Numbness. Drifting from awake to sleep she slid away into darkness and almost at once her mind lit up. The dream started the same as it always did, despite not having a body, not a real body Kiri felt naked. Exposed to the blackness, it was wetter this time. Moisture clung to the skin she wore, drips running down cold as she huddled to her knees. It didn't make a different if she closed her eyes or not, all she could hear was her own breathing and heartbeat. Then the rain started to come, the drops of water that didn't obey any reasonable rules. Flying in every direction and breaking on invisible something, passing right through her. Kiri wasn't the same person now though, she was scared but she had fight. Breathing sharp, awareness of the pain and terror that would surely follow. Liyar had taught her something though, this dream wasn't so very different from the space he showed her. How to navigate it, not with physical motion.

Reaching out she made a fist, trying to change what was going on. She started to fall. Faster and faster, the water following. This was scary. Letting out a scream that echoed into infinity her limbs failed, then a crunch. The air was forced out of what would have been her lungs, ribs cracking, her legs broken, at least they would have been. The pain felt real, squirming she whimpered but everything still worked, she could move. Time passes before she was able to crawl, rough stone in the darkness before her. There was a down but nothing else, the rain also fell downwards now, downwards alone. Breaking on the stone and making it slick, still it passed through her. Cold she shivered and on she went, slowly finding her feet again, not having a direction. Normally, there would be more sensation soon, light, colour, pain. Could she run away? Could she change more of this world? Did she, could, thinking straight wasn't possible, she was too scared for questions, just reactions. Running seemed a good idea, as fast as she could.

The figure ahead was sodden and crumbled, a broken, bleeding body. Thick ropes of matted dark red hair soaked in rusting blood that dribbled and pooled in the water around and through it. One bone-white hand lifted, pointing upwards, through the cross-falling rain.

As she ran a red hue setting into the world, light showed her the unbroken stone she was running on barefoot. Out of breath and her chest so tight it could burst stopping was almost impossible. There was a person, well almost a person. Tripping over herself Kiri ended up in her own pile, shocked almost as much as she was by the pain. Slowly she looked up to where the body was pointing. Should she do something, help? A roaring boom from the air forced her back to the ground clutching her ears. The pressure was intolerable, her head felt like it was going to explode.

In front of Kiri, the figure struggled to its feet; a glimpse of pale, gleaming toes disappeared beneath several layers of sodden, dark robes, and little else could be seen of it as it continued upwards. When the sound pounded through the space, the figure neither flinched nor fled, but only continued to point upwards. Through the ropes of dripping red, a chasm opened where a mouth might have been and a sound like grinding rocks emerged.

Squinting Kiri became very aware of the fact her body was naked, this person covered in blood, coloured in red light. Then the sound, that mouth. It wasn't like anything she'd see or even imagined. It wasn't right, as wrong as the coloured and sounds that couldn't exist. Sliding backwards Kiri couldn't get up, too focused on that maw.

The figure stumbled towards the girl, thrusting a too-narrow, bone-white finger towards the storm raging above them. It's second cringing croak was lapped by yet another explosion, nearer to, but it's third was nearly a word. Too deep to hear.

Scrabbling on the wet rock Kiri slipped and slid backwards, her heels slapping down. Her voice wouldn't come, her eyes wouldn't blink. Was she going to die? Her chest stung, breath ripping through her throat. Wind and water blowing across her face, it touched her now. Was it more real? It was cold.

The figure rocked, bloody locks swaying without benefit of the wind around them. Slowly, it opened its pointing hand, splaying long, white fingers, and brought that hand down to the gleaming stone. Then up it rose again, up, towards the storm.

If there was a message then panicked Kiri couldn't make it out. Since the moment had stopped and the distance between them greater Kiri forced herself to her feet. There were more colours now, greens and yellowed that lanced across the sky, some sucked in towards the storm. It smelt stale, like the air wasn't circulating. What did this creature want? Was it a person? Was it in her dreams?

The figure surged towards her, speed from stillness, and curled clammy fingers about the girl's wrist. Almost immediately, despite the closeness of the figure, the panic began to abate, drawn out through the contact. Just behind the heavy red ropes, a pair of black eyes peered - weather-beaten - directly at her. The figure's second hand extended above them again and this time, the girl could see where it pointed. What had seemed sky was ceiling; high and lanced with ricocheting energy, flashing light illuminated skittering movement above them.

Kiri froze up at the contact, the eyes. She couldn't look away from them and all she wanted to do was scream. Her jaw wouldn't move though, nothing would. The most she could managed was a shiver that shook her body. This was her body, not a strangers, it just felt different. The one in front of her, an invader, an aggressor, a stranger. Shocked no words or scream came, neither did she blink. Finally she followed the finger upwards, what did that mean? Was was that? Why didn't her dreams make any sense? Then, her perspective changed. She had thought she was down looking up but a jolt to her stomach seemed to invalidate that as she started to fall upwards. Finally able to flail she could still feel the bony fingers latched around her skinny wrist.

The figure stayed with her, siphoning panic away as more surfaced, falling through space. The croak, grinding plates and creaking trees, sounded closer now - the toothless hole as black as the figure's eyes - opening near to Kiri's ear. Through the eerie sounds, an almost whisper. There is no up or down.

The fact she wasn't as scared as she should be was worrying in itself, there was so much Kiri didn't understand here. Her normal tools didn't work and common sense didn't seem to apply. This figure was scary but so far had been the least painful part of her experience. That hole wasn't right, neither was falling upwards, the whisper wasn't human. Closing her eyes Kiri whimpered, there wasn't any air resistance, "Why?" She almost started crying, but not from terror.

The maw, gaping and dank as swampland, ground, croaked, and creaked again. Thoughts belie gravity.

It felt like it was going to suck her in, falling upwards towards the storm but the mouth was so much closer. How could she understand what were barely words? What did that mean? Were her thoughts what was making this happen, well she didn't want to be flying through the air, she liked the ground. The wet hard ground wasn't going to hurt her, at least from standing on it. Yet up they went and the wind started to catch them up.

Thoughts belie all, the figure whispered through another gnawing, jaw-grinding reverberation.

Her thoughts betrayed her? If she didn't think they would they fall back down again, did she want that? Moving closer and closer to the storm Kiri shoot her head, "I don't understand!" Her voice getting as loud as she would let it.

The croak began again, lipless black depths opening wide, but no whisper emerged past the croak this time as the figure was drawn backwards. It grappled Kiri, in some horrid attempt to stay as an unseen force pulled it like taffy, stretching its form out and slurping it through a hole in the storm.

Being alone was the last thing Kiri wanted, even being with a monster seemed better. Gripping onto limbs so thin she thought she'd break them Kiri held fast, closing her eyes and praying to herself. This really didn't make any sense, shouldn't dreams make sense?

Ropes swayed, heedless of wind, lurching ever back into the dragging abyss. Not sense, the whisper hissed through the roaring maw. But senses. Then that too thin, bone-white hand tore from Kiri's hand and the figure disappeared through the rend in the nightmare. The gaping tear in the realm closed after it. And it was gone.

She was alone again, in the darkness. The rain was coming back as she was pulled closer to the storm. It was the same as before, the lights would come, the tastes, smells, sensations, devolving into pain. It always came, she could feel it. She'd learnt something though, thinking, she wanted to fall. Panicking as more and more colours entered the dream Kiri finally got it. Tumbling down faster and faster, then with a lurch she was upright. The room was dark, her breathing tight in her chest and her body feeling sore. She'd woken up for once, still in bed. What on Earth was that?

Dreams were something that for the last ten days had filled her with terror, now they had changed to being no less scary, yet they were different. That figure wasn't one she knew, so was it something else? Could it be an alien, or was she just having bad dreams still? Everyone seemed to think they were caused by stress but, maybe she wasn't crazy? Shivering she went to wash her face, trying to forget about the whole thing.

[OFF]

Kestra Orexil's Nightmare Phantom

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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