No one sleeps when I'm awake Who: Elaine and Natalisa Where: Natalisa's house When: Like four a.m.
Awake? No, no she had been asleep. It had not been real. Things like that absolutely did not really happen. People could turn into birds, make the weather do as they pleased or be angels and demons but that did not happen. Would not. Could not. No, never.
Elaine was seated in her bathroom with the light turned on, hands extended under the faucet that was running full-tilt while she repeated to herself over and over again that it had not really happened. It had all just been in her dreams and there was nothing at all to be afraid of. No, no nothing. Nothing. And yet it had seemed so real that she could still feel the blood warm and sticky on her hands, smell the burned flesh and hear the screaming. Her screaming. Elaine touched her throat just to make sure that she was silent then. No screams were coming from her. Yet everything was not fine because this was the fifth time she had gone through this process. Sleep, have nightmares so vivid they seem real and were impossible to wake up from, go back to sleep and have them again. It was like it was happening on purpose. How could it be happening on purpose? "Him," Elaine told her reflection, voice ragged. Derrick had told her that he could be in dreams and he had even proven it to her. But he had said that he needed permission. He had promised that he could not just come in them whenever he wanted. And Elaine had only given him permission the once and she had believed him when he said he needed it. Why would he lie about something like that? he had no reason at all to lie. None. Or he had had every reason and Elaine had just refused to see that it was right there.
Why else would she be having these dreams? there was no other reason for them. Elaine never dreamed of killing people. Certainly not of killing her parents and - no, she would have never dreamed of killing Natalisa. Any dreams she had had of the angel when she was younger had been positive, or the ones of fear that came after she left, and now... now she would not dream of killing her. And yet she had done it in those dreams. With her bare hands. Among a multitude of other things that she wanted to forget. Once had been bad enough, it really had, but the second time had been worse. Then the third and the fourth and the fifth... Elaine had endured nights where sleep was scarce or nightmares plagued it, but they had never been like this. This was too much, but at the same time she was too tired to stay awake. Splashing her face with cold water was hardly helping. If anything should have helped it should have been knowing what was waiting for her, but Elaine was one of those people who would get as little sleep as she could manage and then have a night when she just needed it. That night usually fell a few nights after the full moon. Tonight was that night. No matter how that date with Derrick had gone - and it had gone bad - she would have been in bed by ten. And she would have slept until it was time to go to work the next day at noon. Oh yes, all that sleep and she would have been fine. Better than fine. Without it she was going to be a mess and worse than not getting it was being denied it because of dreams that had no business being anywhere in her head. And yet they were.
Pushing herself away from the faucet, Elaine tied her hair back with a drenched hair tie and struggled back into the boxer shorts that had originally been part of her pajama choice and then gotten discarded after she woke up the third time drenched in sweat. Her first thought was that she was going to find Derrick and rip him apart with her beak, but her second told her how very bad of an idea that would be. So she was going somewhere else. And she was walking. Natalisa lived oddly close enough for her to get away with that. And the cool night air would do her some good, keep her awake. And I really hope that this is the right house, Elaine thought as she walked up to the door, with no idea of how long she had even been out of her trailer or if she had locked the door or if Cow was still inside, and hit the doorbell. Then she hit it again. And then she abandoned it in favor of hitting the door. Not knocking, no that was more subtle, she was actually hitting it. Because if Natalisa did not come to the door right now then she was going back to option number one and then things were going to get ugly. "Tali! Tali, please be home." She rested her forehead against the smooth wood and closed her eyes. Please, please, please.