brendan scott ( earth elemental ) . (liveandlearn) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2012-08-29 19:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-09-15, brendan |
when did i wake up, or am i still dreaming.
Who: Brendan, featuring Ronnie (NPC).
Where: The Court; Brendan's apartment.
When: Mid-morning.
The force with which he came jolting back to consciousness dislodged the headboard from its simple bracket and it rattled loudly against the wall, but the sound of it was lost to Brendan beneath the din of his own breathing, ragged and desperate. Sucking in great, greedy gulps of air, he shakily disentangled himself from the sheets and the comforter, feeling trapped and claustrophobic; the shirt in which he slept was plastered to his skin, he had been sweating so profusely. When his legs were free and the covers had been all but hurled clean off the other side of the bed, Brendan sat with his head hung and his damp hair falling limply around his face. He couldn't catch his breath.
Another nightmare. The worst one yet. The imagery came flooding back when he closed his eyes, driving him to lift his head and stare at the window, half-covered by the plain drapes that had already been in place when he'd signed the lease for the apartment.
The water had been everywhere, surrounding him on all sides and filling his mouth and his lungs, drowning him, dragging him down, down, down, all the way to the bottom. There was no way to reach the surface, no way to get back to oxygen and the rocks from which he had slipped. But it wasn't him. It hadn't been him at all. The face he had seen in that mirror at the end of the dream, like a scene from another movie that had somehow found its way into the one he had been watching all night, had not been his own. Younger, rounder, bright blue eyes and longer hair. A girl. Brendan had seen the face before, in flashes, in the other nightmares, swimming out of the chaos of the other terrible dreams he had experienced. It was a face he wasn't likely to forgot, not after this.
And the voice. So specific, so coherent and precise, like nothing Brendan had ever heard before, certainly not in any dream. Any nightmare. One day, it had told him. He had one day, or this would spread. Whatever this was. Whatever was going on, Brendan didn't want it happening to anyone else like him. What if it went after Fable next?
The thought drove him up from the mattress and into the bathroom, to the mirror above the sink. It was his own face staring back at him, a little paler than normal but recognisable, the same face that had been staring back at him for years now. His hair was a state and he needed to shave, but it was him. The girl's wasn't going anywhere soon, nor was the warning that started to cycle around and around, like an never-ending echo. One day, one day, one day.
He had to find the girl, the one from the dreams. Somehow that would help, he felt that with more certainty than he had felt about anything in a long time, but as he turned from the mirror and started to make his way back into his bedroom, thoughts a clutter in his mind, the phone started ringing. From the pocket of yesterday's pants he extricated the device to see Ronnie's name on the screen. Putting his reservations aside he answered it. "Hey, Ronnie."
"Everything okay, kid? You sound a little rattled."
"Strange dream. It's nothing." That couldn't be further from the truth but Brendan had burdened his boss enough. This was his problem, it was down to him to put it right. Somehow.
"You sure?" When Brendan didn't change his mind, Ronnie went on, "If you're feeling better, I have a job for you. A solo run."
Brendan almost smiled at that terminology. Ronnie had a way of making landscaping sound much more dramatic than it really was. The smile was quickly killed by the reminder that his abilities weren't working anything like they ought to be. Biting his lip, he debated telling the man on the other end he couldn't take any jobs yet, but Ronnie had been so patient already. Anything more would be pushing it, surely. Ronnie wouldn't fire him, Brendan didn't think, but he just couldn’t bring himself to take advantage of the older man's good nature. It wasn't fair. So he asked, "What is it?"
All the while Ronnie was describing the job for him -- nothing major; trimming, mowing, the basics, beginner's stuff really, the sort of thing even he could do in his sleep now -- Brendan was replaying those ominous words in his mind, the girl's face at the front of his memory to go right along with them.
One day, one day, one day...