Who: Chloe Halloway [THE BEAST] What: Chloe has a night terror. Where: Camulus When: About 3AM Status: Complete
Chloe’s eyes opened wide in the darkness. She was panting and sweaty and it wasn’t from the heat in Victory. She sat up, completely and utterly frightened, panting. Her shirt stuck to her back, completely soaked with her sweat. Her seats were tangled around her feet, they were wet too. She didn’t want to remember what she’d dreamed, it was a horrible mess, she’d had bad dreams before, but they couldn’t be considered nightmares compared to the horrible images she’d seen in her dreams or the ones she’d seen while inside Zdenka.
Everything seemed so large and overwhelming and for a moment, Chloe thought a creature was going to come out of the carpet or creep up through the crack in their door. Never in her life had she been more afraid or felt more alone, even all the years she’d spent in the laboratory. Panicked, she grabbed her lighter, the cigarettes that were on her desk and walked to the door before she remembered she wasn’t wearing shorts or shoes. She grabbed the first pair of bottoms she could find and shoved her feet into shoes, she had to get out of there. The darkness was overwhelming.
She ran out into the hotel, forgetting to close the door behind her, she just knew she had to keep walking, one foot after the other, if she could just make it until sunrise, it would be okay. She ran down the hallway of Victory and then out the door. The air was hot and muggy but she didn’t notice. She just had to keep moving, keep walking until dawn. Then it would be okay. It would be fine, she would be fine.
If there were cameras around she didn’t notice, when she hit the lawn of victory, she didn’t stop moving. If you stop they’ll get you she told herself. If you last until dawn, you’ll be fine. She walked towards the houses, the feeling of complete and utter dread on her. It seemed to her that all the trees had eyes and there were creatures everywhere just waiting to snatch at her ankles to take her back into the terrible and horrible void. She could almost hear the footfalls behind her and for a moment thought she could turn into a troll, that would save her. No one – but then in another terrified second, she was afraid that she would be stuck that way, so she kept moving, she had no idea what Z had done to her powers anyway. Human and completely vulnerable.
She wasn’t aware of where she was walking until she showed up on the Amazon lawn. She immediately headed towards the pool, maybe a swim would help her relax but when she looked at the normally cool and comforting blue water, the terror rose up again. What if it was waiting in there, waiting to pull her under and drown her. She ran back the way she came, falling down at one point and scraping her knees and hands. She ignored the pain and the blood and kept running, running from whatever was chasing her.
If Chloe had been a rational buman being she would have realized that this was crazy and she was insane, but she wasn’t. Whatever part of her was still in the nightmare was taking control and it just kept directing her feet to walk faster and faster, away from everything. It craved light and human contact, but at three in the morning there wasn’t any to be had. If only she could make it until sunrise, then she was certain things would be okay. She glanced up at the sky hoping for a ray of light, but all she got was the cold light from a waning moon.
She needed to get off the ground, where the monsters couldn’t get her. That was the decision she made, she could try the roof of Victory but the idea of going back in where the monsters were made her sick. She threw up in the grass before she started climbing the nearest tree, scratching up her hands and knees. Towards the top of the tree she stopped climbing and clung to one of the branches, terrified to let go and terrified to sleep. Anxious, she waited for the morning to come.