Who: Jane & Neil What: Dreaming is free Where: Neil's dreams When: Saturday night, 10/14 Status: Complete
Neil didn't often remember his dreams but when he did they tended to be somewhat lucid. He knew he was dreaming but he had very little control and it was very frustrating to go through the motions. It was too often the same theme and similar events throughout the dream which meant he was trying hard to keep the timeline straight so things wouldn't end badly. Of course it rarely worked, dream logic wasn't logical at all.
Tonight he was back at the AIR building, though in his dream it looked like the library but with every aisle stretching farther than it should. He had his arms full of books, each one of them about another child in the program. He had to organize them quickly because if he had any books left when the time was up that child would burn. He was halfway through the pile and he kept dropping books when he tried to get one in its rightful place and time was running out. It was about that time when he was getting frustrated and anxious that he remembered he'd had this dream before. His shoulders slumped and he looked down the long stretch of bookshelves as he warily started picking up the books again. He still had to get it done or this dream would turn ugly and he hated it when it turned ugly.
Jane hadn't been dreamwalking as frequently as she used to since arriving in Point Pleasant. She wasn't sure what it was but she was willing to chalk it up to the lack of interesting people. That, and she didn't really want to draw too much attention to herself yet, and people tended to get a bit weirded out, dreaming of people they barely knew, or had never met and then suddenly seeing them on the street. But she was starting to feel the effects of it and soon the temptation grew to be damn near irresistible, so when she fell asleep she sought out the one person in town she knew would not be happy to see her, both consciously and in dreams.
It took some time, pushing through darkness as she focused on Neil in her mind. She knew she had found him as soon as she stepped forward through the colorful shadows and found herself in a library. The stacks were bigger than the library in Point Pleasant, and much longer, it seemed. She wondered if they would just keep on going with no end in sight, no matter how much distance she covered.
When Jane found Neil, he was picking up books from the floor, looking quite resigned. Had he had this dream before? "It looks like you need help," Jane said, though she was still several feet away from Neil, and she made no move to approach him just yet.
Neil looked up at the sound of her voice and sighed when he saw who it was. At first it felt normal for her to be there because this was AIR, even if it looked like the library and Neil shook his head. "I'm fine," he muttered because she certainly wasn't offering him help and even if she was there was a trick to it, he was certain. Without much fanfare the shelves blurred out and became white walls, stretching long and bare in each direction and leaving them standing in fluorescent lights.
Neil no longer had books in his hands and even if it had been a frustrating chore he kind of felt more vulnerable for it. He looked at Jane again and furrowed his brows as he began wondering if she really was a part of this dream or if she was an intruder. "What are you doing here?"
Jane watched with mild fascination as the library seemed to vanish, leaving them standing in what felt like a sterile environment. AIR. Was that because she had shown up? Or would his dream have shifted on cue without her presence. Jane reached out to touch one of the walls. It was cold under her fingertips, but that wasn’t unusual. The AIR building had never been overly warm to begin with. “I was bored,” she told Neil, grazing her fingernails along the wall as she walked closer to him. “There were quite a few of us in Point Pleasant, you know, and they’ve started to disappear again. I wanted to make sure you were still around.”
She seemed so much bigger than him and Neil realized belatedly he was eleven years old and this dream absolutely sucked. "You could have just called," he snapped at her even if it would make more sense for her to come to the library. It wasn't like they exchanged phone calls on the regular - or ever. "You're really here, aren't you," he added with narrowed eyes and dwindling patience. Of course she was. God he hated it when she did that. He could hear the flutter of small wings somewhere over the stacks and there was that familiar feeling that if a bird could get in, he could get out. "Might as well make yourself useful if you're here," he sighed, stuck between his rational mind and the logics of the dream. "Help me find the bird."
"Phone calls are so impersonal," Jane countered simply. She didn't even know Neil's phone number, if she had wanted to call, which she hadn't. Besides, Neil would have never picked up the phone. Ever. She couldn't help but smile then, looking quite smug that he knew the truth and could do nothing about it, beyond waking up. "Maybe I'm really here, maybe I'm not. It's your dream." Jane shrugged before arching a brow. "Is that how you spend your dreams? Putting books away and searching for birds? I can create something more enjoyable for you, if you want. Do you want beaches? Or maybe to be on top of a mountain somewhere? Clowns? Spiders? Beautiful women on their knees? I can make it happen."
Spiders? Clowns? God she was a such a bitch. Neil bristled again and turned around to face her, hoping she wouldn't conjure any of those things. She was likely to do it, just to mess with him and he knew she could do it. "Don't change anything," he said sullenly though she'd done a good job of reminding him it was a dream and the bird wasn't really going to help him. "What do you want?" he asked and crossed his arms over his chest, adult again now though he didn't quite feel right, like maybe he was being someone else in this dream, some story protagonist with a slightly different face. He liked it when that happened. Neil never particularly liked being himself.
"I don't want anything," Jane said, starting to walk toward the chirping of the bird in question, though she wasn't sure where it was. She didn't want to alter Neil's dreams too much. Not yet, anyway. "I guess that's a lie," she added after a brief moment, "I always want something. But you should stop pretending I don't exist, or that was happened didn't happen. If I walked into the library to talk to you, you would avoid me. So this is the best way to do it." Jane looked up and watched as four blue birds suddenly appeared, swooping low toward Neil before taking flight again and disappearing into the ceiling. No spiders, at least. Jane smiled. "You do know they're keeping tabs on us, right?"
The birds were pretty but Neil did not like how close they got so he covered his head and cowered until they were gone. Straightening up again he narrowed his eyes at Jane, certain she'd done that, a little reminder that she could turn this boring dream into his worst nightmare if she wanted to. "You mean the people who have been coming into the library lately asking all sorts of strange questions aren't just random strangers?" he said, not even trying to feign surprised. "Of course I know. Why do you think I pretend it didn't happen? People who acknowledge it go missing. I'm surprised you're still around, to be honest." The walls were no longer white, it was as if he could see the library shelves through them but it was all blurry and nonsensical. At least they could talk in here without anyone listening in, though a part of Neil wondered if that was even true.
"Not those people," Jane said with a roll of her eyes. "Those people are just trying to find answers to things we already know. I'm talking about them. Come on, Neil, you can't be that oblivious." The scenery was trying to shift again, become his 'safe place', which she assumed was the library. Jane reached out to touch one of the walls, bringing it back to the walls that she remembered. White, sterile. Doors appeared with numbers on them. The rooms they'd slept in for years, away from their families. It got colder. "I don't think you have to acknowledge anything to go missing. I think they'll take whoever they want, whether you talk about it or not."
"You ask too many questions and make a scene, you go missing," Neil said stiffly because he needed to believe that to be true. "The facts speak for themselves." Who was she to claim she knew a goddamn thing anyway? She knew as much as he did, though she had been older when they got out and probably remembered more than he did. He tried not to look at the doors but even without looking he knew his door was there so it was no use pretending it wasn't. The numbers were crisp and clear and in order, so unlike a normal dream, so he knew she had put them there and not his subconscious. "What do you really want, Jane?" he asked, though this time he kept his hostility in check, knowing full well angering her in here was far more of a gamble than in the waking world.
"And yet, I'm still here," Jane retorted. No, she hadn't made a scene yet, but it wasn't like she was hiding away, terrified to peek her head out for fear They would come get her. Sometimes Jane found herself hoping for Them to knock on her door. She was starting to feel like she would be more beneficial to them than anyone in Point Pleasant. The people she had gone through these experiences with seemed content to pretend it didn't happy, to brush her off, or treat her with hostility the way Neil had when she first saw him in the library. It didn't please her. Her gaze narrowed at Neil and she had to bite back the urge to fill the hallway with spiders...or blood. Knock him off his high horse and watch him cower. "What do I really want," she repeated after a moment. Then she scoffed. "Don't you want them to stop? They're back, and they're watching. Hiding won't help you, Neil. Neither will running. They know we're here. But I think we're stronger than they are. I bet we could make them go away for good if we wanted to. Why are you okay with ignoring everything?"
Neil didn't trust her but it was a good question and he looked a little taken aback by it. "We don't even know who they are," he said quietly. "They know everything about us. How are we stronger?" Yes he remembered the fire and yes, Jane could walk into people's dreams, but that wasn't him. He was nobody, just a librarian. "Wilkes is dead." He was the only one he remembered by name. The rest of the white coats seemed to blend together into faceless blobs and Neil was sure most if not all of them had died in the fire too.
Jane struggled to keep a lid on her patience, but good lord, Neil could not be this naïve about what they had gone through. They had kept Neil for a reason, just like they had kept Jane and the others. Who knew where they would be today if not for that fire? Sometimes she wished it had never happened. Her life was so ordinary... at least it had been, after moving away. Wasn't that why she came back? Jane sighed and studied Neil, her hands resting loosely on her hips. "Wilkes is dead, sure. Some of the researchers and scientists... not all of them. I can't really fault you for not knowing, but you're a librarian, so I guess I assumed you paid closer attention to the local news. The building is reopen. Wilkes's son is heading it up now. They know who we are, but we could know who they are too, if we really wanted to. See, if you would just talk to me, I wouldn't have to disrupt your dreams," Jane admonished. "This is all stuff you should already have known. You're way behind, Neil."
Neil had known about the new AIR building but only from recently and her reminder did nothing to make him feel like they had any better chance at knowing anything. "What are planning to do?" he asked rather than correct her or argue about how wrong she was. There was some defeat to his voice and demeanor but he still didn't believe they could do anything at all.
"We could storm the fort! Demand answers!" It was Honeycutt speaking, his boss at the library, only in the dream he was wearing a labcoat and scribbling down notes as if his life depended on it. "Neil has a gun," he said as he looked between Neil and Jane, his face just a little wrong even if it was obviously him. "That's where they're keeping the kids!"
Neil bristled a little though he tried to subdue it. "Is this you?" he asked with strained patience as he gestured at Honeycutt. If Jane hadn't made Honeycutt appear that meant his subconscious was fucking with him too and he really did feel like he was between the rock and the hard place. His subconscious certainly wasn't on his side either.
Jane shook her head, staring at the man she didn't recognize. He hadn't been a part of AIR when she had been there, at least. Though she did wonder if Neil has a gun was a true statement. He was just skittish enough that she bet he would use it in a heartbeat if he felt threatened. "That's all you," Jane explained. "Though I don't see anything wrong with storming the fort, I think it would probably blow up in our faces." She paused and turned Honeycutt's pen into a gun. "Do you really have a gun?" she asked, amused now that the lab man, whoever he was, was brandishing notes and a firearm. Neil's brain was fascinating, to say the least.
It was none of her business and Neil didn't want to say but she scared him and he had a feeling she'd know if he lied to her. "Yes," he grumbled, wincing as Honeycutt started frantically shooting at his notepad until it was filled with holes. At least it was a quiet affair, like it was just a scene on a muted television set. "I am under no delusion that it will keep me safe from them but there is a sense of safety in having a pistol in the house." That's all it was too, a small pistol. He didn't really like the thing and he only used it for practice so far but knowing it was his and he knew how to use it was a small comfort on the worst of nights. "Don't you have one?"
Jane watched the older man destroy the notepad with his silent bullets and she shook her head. Neil's brain was a strange one. She exhaled slowly, staring intently at Honeycutt until the man brought the gun up to his temple. He didn't pull the trigger, but Jane kept him like that, a small smile playing on her lips as she shifted her gaze back to Neil. "Maybe I do. For the sense of safety, of course. Even though we know that they're not afraid of firearms. They could come in and take you before you had even a second to pick one up. They could be in your place right now, while you're still asleep, talking to me."
Neil knew this was a dream, he did, but on some level he doubted it and a wave of anxiety washed over him when Honeycutt put the gun to his head. "Don't," he said a bit shakily, turning pleading eyes at Jane, one hand raised in a stop expression. It wasn't just Honeycutt, it was the thought that she might be there to make sure he stayed asleep. Could she do that? Could she trap him in this dream while They carried him off in the middle of the night? It was a horrifying thought, knowing there was an out there where he was absolutely helpless while he was stuck in here. "Come talk to me at the library," he said in an attempt to placate her. "I will speak to you there."
Jane knew it was dishonest to put those thoughts in his head just to get a reaction out of him, but honestly, she didn't care. If people weren't going to take her seriously, if they were going to blow her off, she could punish him. Sure, a dream was a dream, but she could make it feel real, even after they woke. Jane thought very briefly about making Honeycutt pull that trigger - the sound might have been muted, but the mess wouldn't have been - but Jane opted against it, since it seemed as if Neil was ready to cooperate. She eyed him silently for a second before nodding. The gun - and Honeycutt - disappeared, as did the stark white walls of the AIR building. They were back in the library, surrounded the books Neil seemed to think was his sanctuary. "Don't hide from me," she warned. "I won't be this nice next time."
Neil didn't relax because he knew better than to assume everything was okay just because she made it look like it was. Jane was unpredictable and he had forgotten just how bad she could be. Maybe a part of him had hoped she had mellowed out now that she was all grown up but apparently she hadn't. Not enough. "I won't," he promised with a little frown. "Though I don't know where we can safely speak out there... Why don't you talk to me here?"
"Contrary to what you probably believe, this isn't easy for me," Jane said irritably. "When I wake up, I'm going to feel like death warmed over. The longer I do this, the worse it is. Don't you have any side effects to what you can do?" It would be just her luck that he wouldn't. Neil probably didn't even use his abilities, too scared or timid to try. He could probably take out AIR in one fell swoop if he knew what the hell he was even doing.
"I didn't know that," Neil said quietly and tried to feign sympathy even if he was relieved to hear it. That might mean she wouldn't do it often, especially if he agreed to talk to her. He avoided the topic of his own powers completely since he didn't believe he had any and he didn't need her to argue that he did. "We'll talk... out there then. I just don't know where it's safe, you know?"
Jane shrugged. "I don't even know that it's safe here," she said. "If I can do this, who knows who else can, or what else... if they're going to come for us, they're going to do it. But we'll try to be as safe as we can." Whatever that meant. But if it helped Neil relax some, then fine. She stepped toward him and offered her his hand with a grin. "Let's try to be allies, okay? We have a common enemy, after all. We shouldn't be fighting each other."
Neil didn't trust her at all. Allies? It was a laugh. He also knew she could do a lot of damage, both in his head and out there in the real world so he wasn't going to tell her how much he didn't trust her. He took her hand, warily as if expecting her to do something terrible with that handshake, then nodded timidly. "Allies," he agreed. "Come by the library after the weekend and we'll talk." What about he wasn't exactly sure, he just knew she wanted to talk to him and it was clearly time to stop dodging her.
Jane took his hand and smiled, aware that he was feeling tense. Sometimes the anticipation of bad stuff was worse than the actual bad stuff. Oh, she knew Neil didn't trust her. Nor would one dream visit change that, but that was okay. He was afraid of her, and that was much better than trust. "I'll be by," she promised as she let go of his hand. Then she lifted her hands up to gesture around her. "Do you want to keep this? Or I can change it for you... a nice, warm beach, maybe? Do you want to dream fuck a beautiful woman? Or I guess I could just wake you up. Are you sure you want this dusty library?"
Neil wasn't sure if he trusted her to actually wake him up or if she'd just manipulate the dream to make him think he was awake only to turn it into a nightmare. He really did not trust her one bit. "This is fine," he muttered, even if he really wanted to wake up now. She'd gotten under his skin and he couldn't stop thinking about what the odds were that AIR people were already in his apartment, doing terrible things. He did not want to dream fuck anyone, especially someone Jane had conjured. The thought alone made him feel slightly nauseated. "Good night, Jane."
Jane's laughter bubbled up in her throat, and she clasped her hands together tightly. "Night, Neil." She winked at him before pulling back from the dream and waking up in her own bed. She hadn't been lying to Neil. She did feel terrible, her head pounding as her vision grew adjusted to the dark. But that was okay. For Jane, the dreamwalking was worth the pain.