WHO: Quinn and Tessa WHAT: dreaming WHEN: Saturday night WHERE: dreamland prison RATING: pg13? language/some violence STATUS: In Progress | Closed
Tessa was dreaming, though she didn’t know she was dreaming. To her, everything was real. The cell was real, the guards were real, the inmates were real. So were the gremlin like monsters that were attacking the place, and like any horror movie, the authorities didn’t believe her. She was caught in her cell, her cell mate dead on the floor, and that creature was eating her face and throat.
Tessa was backed against the far wall, trying to think of something to use as a weapon, but she knew her shiv was between her and it, so it wouldn’t do any good. It’s needle like teeth were stained with dark blood, and she must have made some sort of noise, because it’s eyes were abruptly on her, and it growled low in it’s throat. Several more seemed to melt out of the darkness, and she was surrounded.
She got pounced, and she felt their teeth biting down into her flesh, and she screamed.
The scream was like a summons, or maybe they had been so close for so long that a part of them had twined together a long time ago. Whatever it was, Quinn found his way into the chaos of Tessa’s dream and it was like going to sleep in one dream and waking up in another. For a second, Quinn didn’t know if he was lucid or not.
Whether or not it was a dream didn’t matter, because that scream was Testy’s and he wasn’t going to let her tough it out no matter the situation if he had anything to say about it.
Quinn saw the shiv but he went for Tessa, instead. The vividness of the dream was starting to wear off, and for him, the magic had ended. He knew what this was and he knew that none of it had any power over him, just like he had no power over it. It meant that his actions might mean nothing, but he could only hope that Tessa could identify him on some level and let him in.
He grabbed the one that was ripping at Testy, his strong hands gripping its throat as he tried to choke it out and force it to let go of the girl. The evil little motherfucker was relentless, until he jabbed his thumbs into its windpipe.
The gremlin he grabbed did let go, howling some guttural cry of pain. She pulled another one off of her and threw it as hard as she could at the metal bunk bed, before she looked up and saw Quinn. Relief flooded over her, and tears stood out in her eyes for a moment as she was swept up in it. In reaction to that, a few of the gremlins that had been there a moment ago seemed to be forgotten and disappear. She understood that she'd be okay now, she wasn't going to die, even if she was bleeding all over and in pain.
“We have to get out of here!” she said, trying to push herself to her feet, her hand leaving blood streaks on the cinderblock wall behind her.
Tessa’s dreams were remarkable and as straightforward as the woman herself. Quinn couldn’t help but feel a warm affection suffuse him - no matter nightmare or dream, he was comfortable with her dreamspace. Much like in the waking world, if it was monsters and hellfire they had to work through, they would work through it together. If it was something else, well, Quinn could just enjoy her company and it didn’t matter if she knew he was there or not.
So, he didn’t try to tell Tessa that this was just a dream. He just nodded and grabbed her arm to help her up. With one of her arms pulled over his shoulders, he started to run as best as he could. He let the sense of urgency sweep through him and he heard his own blood like thunder in his ears.
“Tell me where you’re hurt, and where we should go.”
She just noticed then that he was dressed as a guard, and her mind incorporated that as him having somehow run a con to get her out when she most needed it. Screams rose up all around them from other inmates, and she heard the gremlins growling and hissing from the passing cells as they ran.
“I don’t know, how did you get in?” she said. “The guard station! Up there!” she said, doing her best to point them in the right direction. She could see it, brightly lit against the dimness of the rest of the prison. Like a beacon in the dark. “From there we can get to the infirmary!”
Quinn shook his head. He hadn’t expected Testy to tell him how hurt she was but it had been worth a try. She was moving quickly enough, with enough ease. That had to be good enough. Quinn stepped into the role she made for him easily enough, building his own story as they ran past the cells.
“I came in as a guard. There should be several exits near the infirmary for easy evacuation of this hellhole. I wouldn’t try the main entrance since that’s where security is heaviest.” He considered colouring in other details but that would only be futile. The dreams shifted with the dreamer’s logic, not the logic of the real world. For all he knew, they could open the door to the infirmary and end up on a spaceship leaving Earth.
They raced up the stairs to the guard station and behind it was a corridor that led out of the holding area to the rooms that weren’t meant for detainees. On the security feed, they could also have an overall view of what was going on in the holding cells. A few cameras had gone offline and a high-pitched whining came from the bank of monitors.
In the infirmary, Quinn finally forced Testy to sit down on a cot after he had blocked off the entrance. “You’re not going on until we’ve treated your wounds. I am not going to carry you through the rest of this so stop being so damn stubborn, you crazy woman.”
She sat heavily when he made her, and the act of sitting down had her shaking with the adrenaline rush. Her hands trembled as she reached up to push her hair out of her face, finding some of it matted to her cheek with blood. She pulled at it, grimacing slightly as she tugged at a wound, but she didn’t make a sound.
“I thought…” she started, but she didn’t finish the thought, eyes on a middle distance. It all seemed to be crushing in on her then, though the gremlins were ebbing back in her mind, the prison surroundings a more prominent theme in her dream’s focus. She forced herself to blink, and looked up at him as he gathered medical supplies. “Did you come to break me out?” She asked, confusion pinching between her brows ever so lightly.
“I thought I was just lost here. Forgotten. Thrown away, and I’d never…” again, she didn’t quite finish off the thought. “I’m glad to see you, Quinn,” she said, heavy emotion thick in her tone. In her dream’s mind, she hadn’t seen him in forever. She hadn’t been near him in years. Time had blended into an endless stream of nothingness, and she abruptly felt the full weight of the lack of him pushing in on her chest.