Who: Jules and Mike When: Late, late evening, Monday, October 23rd Where: Overlook Estates Status: Complete
It felt like Jules knew what was happening. She knew she was dreaming, standing in the middle of a road, the dark trees around her out of focus and unfamiliar, and yet the area felt familiar to her. Like she had been here before. And like before, she wasn’t alone. There were other people around her… men. Vaguely familiar, like the road she was standing on, but Jules couldn’t talk to them. She opened her mouth a few times to speak, but it was like she was paralyzed, struggling to force the words out. What was she even trying to say? Jules had no idea. Hello? Help? Who the hell are you people? Something of that nature, she was sure of it.
Oh, but just like the last dream, Jules finally felt like she could move and she began to walk toward them, her feet warm against the road. She barely got three steps in before she heard that scream again, the kind that had her covering her ears to try and block the horribleness of it, because it was getting louder and louder, like it was barreling down upon her from the darkness. It, whatever it was, was coming straight for her, as blurry and unfocused as the scenery around her, but terrifying and deadly.
Jules clenched her eyes shut and began to scream, the vaguest of hopes in her mind that maybe if she couldn’t see it, it couldn’t see her. It barely registered to Jules that she had woken up in that moment, because she was still standing in the middle of a street, her bare feet sore from walking. Her eyes opened, but her hands were no longer covering her ears. Her throat felt raw, like she had been screaming for hours, even if knew she hadn’t been. Had she? It hadn’t quite clicked in her head yet that she was truly awake, because she wasn’t home in her bed where she had fallen asleep. This had to be another dream, except she was alone now, those men were gone. She began to shiver, making small noises in her throat as she tried to process what happened and where she was. It didn’t occur to her to get out of the road, because none of this could be real.
Mike had just gotten through the gate and was heading home. It wasn't uncommon for him to be out this late and he'd probably stay out even later if there were bars open at a time like this in Point Pleasant. He liked driving this time of night because there was no traffic, barely another car on the road, especially when he got to Overlook. He was singing along to a song on his playlist, drumming along on the steering wheel when he spotted someone out in the middle of the road and hit the breaks. He wasn't going fast which was a saving grace, This street wasn't really made for speeding and this was a rude reminder of why there were speed limits in the first place.
He didn't need to look at Jules twice to know something was wrong. She wasn't dressed to be outside at all and while her back was to the car it was clear from her body language that she was not okay. Mike killed the engine and got out, hesitating slightly and holding onto the door. "Hey," he said quietly. "You okay?"
It took a moment to process what was happening, that the lights and noise behind her actually belonged to a car and not some creature coming out of the woods to tear her apart. Jules heard the man's voice and released a noise that bordered somewhere between a sob and a gasp. She was awake, and this wasn't a dream. Recognition was beginning to settle in as clarity took over. The road... it was Rosewood, a couple of blocks away from her house on Magnolia Way. She drove through this area all the time. But she didn't know how she got here. She had fallen asleep in her own bed. Breathing heavily as her heart pounded in her chest, Jules found she wasn't paralyzed, and she could move. She turned toward the car stopped behind her, lifting her hand to try and shield the brightness of the headlights from her eyes. Had he asked her a question?
"I'm..." Her voice was raspy and Jules paused to clear it. "I don't know how I got here." And she didn't recognize him either. Or maybe she did, and it was just too late and she was too shaken up to think clearly about anything. She was starting to realize how chilly it was outside, especially standing barefoot on the road in her pajamas.
Mike recognized her when she turned around, not like he knew her but they lived in the same neighborhood and he'd stumbled into her one of her parties at some point. She was pretty far away from home for someone barefoot and it wasn't exactly warm out. Mike leaned into the car to turn off the headlights so she could see who he was and hopefully not get all paranoid. "Looks like you sleepwalked," he guessed with a little frown. "Get in, I'll drive you home. You're still up on Magnolia, right?"
Sleepwalked? Jules's brows drew together in confusion. How the hell did she sleepwalk without anyone seeing her? She would have had to leave her bedroom, walk all the way downstairs, turn off the alarm and walk out the front door without anyone in the house hearing her. Jules lowered her hand once the headlights had turned off, and the street lamps illuminated Mike's face. He maybe looked vaguely familiar, but she had no idea what his name was, or where he lived. Wrapping her arms around her body to try and fight the chill, Jules stared at him for a moment. "How do you know where I live?" she asked, only because she wanted to make sure he wasn't some creeper who liked to roam the streets at night and kidnap pretty girls to torture and mutilate. Really, she wanted to get into the car, because it was probably warm and her feet hurt pretty bad, but she was still scared and uncertain, remnants of her dream lingering in the back of her mind.
Mike couldn't blame her for not trusting him, it generally a great idea to get in the car with some guy in the middle of the night but he felt cold just looking at her and he really couldn't leave her out there like this. "Mike Alton," he said as he gestured to himself. "I came to your Halloween party last year and I've lived in this neighbourhood since I was three." He smiled faintly and shrugged. "Drowsy Getaway?" She might not know him but she might know the band. He didn't know how else to put her at ease but maybe he could at least call someone for her if she didn't want the ride.
Jules squinted into the night as she studied Mike. Everything still felt so strange and surreal and she wasn't entirely sure this wasn't a dream. But he did look familiar, and the name was definitely one that she'd heard before. She began to relax, as much as she could relax standing outside in the middle of the night in her pajamas. But her bones were starting to feel the chill and Jules just wanted to be back home in her bed. Finally she nodded and began to walk cautiously toward Mike's car, her arms still crossed against her chest. If he had been to her Halloween party last year, he would know where she lived. "I've never sleepwalked before," Jules said, as if that could somehow prove she wasn't crazy, because she felt kind of crazy. "I don't know how this happened."
Mike didn't know anyone who wandered around while sleeping so he was just as at a loss as Jules. He shrugged his jacket off before getting in the car, offering it to her once she'd gotten inside. She looked cold and while the car was warm it just seemed like a nice gesture since she was only wearing pajamas. "New meds? Under a lot of stress lately?" he suggested and turned the car engine on, turning down the radio once it started up again.
Jules didn't think twice about taking Mike's jacket and she draping it over herself like a blanket. The car was warm, but her body continued to shiver as it it dealt with the temperature change. God, she really hoped he wasn't about to drive her out to the Fallows and try to murder her, because Jules was just too tired to fight back if he was. She tugged his jacket more tightly to her chest and closed her eyes, trying to refocus her thoughts. All she could think about was her dream, and the people in it, and how scared she had been. Her feet still hurt and she had the horrible feeling that her pedicure was probably all fucked up.
"No meds," she murmured, thankful that Mike's jacket at least smelled nice since she had drawn it up to her neck now. Was she under a lot of stress? Other than scary dreams and terrifying mirror experiences and her boyfriend's sister going missing? That was stressful, right? "I just... don't know how I got this far without anyone seeing me. Like, my step-dad sets the alarm every night. How'd I get out without it going off? Was I doing all this normal stuff in my sleep?" She knew Mike didn't know, but she was just thinking out loud, needing to fill the silence so she knew this wasn't another dream. Jules gave Mike a thoughtful side eye before her hand slipped out from beneath the jacket to reach over and poke him in the shoulder, just to make sure he was real.
Mike shot her a little smile back at the poke. She was definitely not okay and the thought that maybe she hadn't walked out there by herself crossed his mind. Maybe she'd been drugged, carried... "You feeling okay?" he asked as he drove slowly to the next corner to take a turn, unable to keep himself from looking out for any other people who might be wandering around. "Do you want to call someone?" He didn't think it'd be a good idea to just let her out so he decided he'd walk her in and make sure someone else was home and awake - just in case.
"Sorry," Jules muttered. Her hand slipped back underneath his jacket. "Just making sure I'm not still dreaming. I'm fine." But was she though? She sleepwalked all the way to Rosewood. Someone could have hit her with their car, or snatched her, or something. Jules shivered again, though it had less to do with being cold now. What was wrong with her? She swallowed hard and shook her head at his question. She didn't want to call anyone. The only person she would even feel comfortable calling would be Jasper, and it was late and he had enough to worry about with Amelia being missing. "I don't need to call anyone. I just need to put better locks on my door, I guess," she said wryly, at an attempt to try and find some humor in what happened. It wasn't funny, but it wasn't like she could freak out in front of a near stranger. "Thanks for not running me over, though."
"The very least I could do," Mike said with a faint smile. He could have, he knew on some level he could have been in a state or he could have been going too fast. It was late, nobody was around and he sure as hell wasn't expecting someone to be standing in the middle of the road. Lucky stars and all. It was probably a good thing she hadn't been wearing all black or he might have seen her too late. He turned in on Magnolia and tried to remember which house it was he'd stumbled into a year ago. "Somewhere over here, right?"
Being in Mike's car now felt almost as surreal as waking up in the middle of the road, a few blocks away from her house. Jules wondered if she would freak out about it later, once she was more awake and clear headed. Right now she felt too numb and confused to do much more than stare out the car window as her street came into view. "Third house from the end," Jules murmured. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone in the house had woken up, or they were all asleep, completely unaware of what Jules had done. She was betting it was the latter. Rubbing her hands together beneath his jacket, Jules glanced at Mike again. "You're in a band?" She wasn't aiming for small talk, but she was trying to remember his face a bit better because Jules had a feeling tomorrow, or later today given the hours, she would want to try and think of something nice to do for him for helping her - and not flattening her on the pavement like a pancake.
"Yeah," Mike replied with a little smile. He understood the need for a normal topic, thinking about weird or depressing shit was draining and he knew that all too well. "It's called Drowsy Getaway, you might know the others, Vicky Thibault and Jack Williams?" She was probably more likely to know Vicky who was closer to her in age and also grew up in Overlook but then the two girls were pretty damn different. He slowed to a stop when he came to her house, peeking up at it to see if there were any lights on. "I'll walk in with you," he decided as he turned the engine off and pulled the key out. "Then you can keep the jacket on."
The band name she knew, and the names of his friends were familiar to her, but Jules was finding it difficult to really concentrate and picture their faces. She nodded anyway and peered up at her house. No lights were on, not even in her bedroom. She knew the outdoor sensors would pop on as soon as she got to the door, but her mom's bedroom was in the back of the house, so Jules wasn't worried about it waking her up. Jules didn't think Mike really needed to walk her to the house, but she was still feeling a bit too disoriented to say no. And maybe she had the tiniest bit of fear that whatever she kept hearing scream in her dream would come out of the shadows and try to eat her. So Jules thanked him and climbed out of the car, moving his jacket around to drape over her shoulders. Her feet protested as soon as they hit the pavement in the driveway, but she ignored the lingering soreness as she walked with Mike up the pathway to her front door. "Hey, do you know anyone in town with like... one leg? Or like, one of those fake legs that look like... a blade?" It was probably a super weird question, given the circumstances, but that was one of the only notable traits from the men in her dream that Jules could describe. Mike may not have a clue who she was talking about, but it never hurt to ask, especially with the dream so vivid in her head.
It was such a random question and not just given the circumstances that Mike faltered for a few seconds and shook his head until she described the prosthetic which up until that moment he was for some stupid reason picturing as a peg-leg. "Oh, yeah, uhm," he mumbled, deciding not to question on her on why. She was clearly a little disoriented still and if she wanted to talk about random shit to divert her focus from her sleepwalking Mike wasn't going to stop her. "I know there's one guy who works at the gym," he said and he'd honestly only remembered because said guy was stupidly hot. "The Waterfront one? I think he's a vet."
Jules inhaled softly, her heart beating a bit harder now that there was the possibility of the people in her dreams being real. Obviously the guy in the gym might not be the same person at all, but at least she could go check. For a second she was confused, because did Mike mean the guy worked at the gym and was a vet? "You mean, like with animals?" Jules asked before it clicked and she closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. "Oh, you mean like an army vet. Duh. Sorry." Her brain really wasn't working. She tried the front door and found it unlocked. Her mom would totally freak if she knew the house had been unlocked for... however long Jules had been out sleepwalking. She realized she didn't even know what time it was. Pushing the door open, Jules held her breath to listen for the alarm, but there was nothing but silence. She carefully pulled Mike's jacket from her shoulders and offered it back to him. "Thanks, Mike. Like, a lot. I don't know what happened, but... it could have been a lot worse if you hadn't come by."
Mike furrowed his brows and peeked past her into the house as he took the jacket back. "Are you gonna be okay?" he asked skeptically because there was no telling if anyone else was home and he felt a little weird just leaving her there by herself. What if there was something really wrong with her? What if someone had snuck into the house while it was unlocked, just waiting to hurt her as soon as she was alone? "Are your parents in?"
Honestly, Jules had no idea if she was going to be okay. She had never sleep walked before, and her weird dreams were starting to freak her out, not to mention the stuff that had happened when she hit her head during the bus accident. Maybe she was just going crazy and didn't realize it. "I think I'll be okay," Jules promised, curling her arms around herself again. "My mom and stepdad are sleeping, and my brother is down the hall from my room... I just... they must not have heard me leave. I guess I'm a ninja when I sleepwalk? That makes most sense." There, an attempt at humor, if only so Mike didn't think she was in any real danger, or scared.
"I can wait out here while you check it out," Mike offered. "Do you want to wake someone up?" He couldn't shake that feeling that if he just left her something horrible would happen and he'd get to hear all about it tomorrow. Girls were always more at risk than guys, that was just how it was, and while they were in a gated community and things were pretty secure up here, weird shit had been happening in town lately and a little girl was missing. He also couldn't shake that weird conspiracy theory of Alex's from his head so maybe he was a little extra paranoid tonight.
Jules looked horrified at the idea of waking someone up. “Oh god, no. No. If my mom found out what happened, she would freak. I can’t deal with her.” Edward was a triple No and Jason... he’d probably look at her like she was crazy. She was guessing Mike was trying to do the noble thing by sticking around, but if someone, or something, was waiting for her inside, was he really going to be able to stop it? It was a morbid thought and prompted another shiver before Jules managed a small smile. “I can turn on the lights and show you that all is well if that’ll make you feel better about leaving. I just really don’t want anyone to know what I did. It’s embarrassing.”
She might have a mental disorder or a brain tumor or someone might have kidnapped her and drugged her but yes, it was embarrassing. Mike smiled faintly at her choice of words but funnily enough he understood. He hated it when his own problems became a Big Deal and having an episode in front of his friends was mortifying. "How about I sit out front in the car and listen to one song and if you're not okay you can come back out," he suggested. "If I don't see you in four minutes I'll assume you're okay and leave."
She nearly pointed out that she might not come out because she was being murdered, but that was super creepy and Jules didn’t want to give Mike any reason to stick around. He had already given her a ride home, which was more than enough. And Jules so didn’t need her mom waking up while Jules had a strange guy in the house. Licking her lips, Jules looked up and nodded toward the double windows to the right on the second floor. “That’s my room,” she explained. “Once I get up there, I’ll turn on my light and wave to you, so you know I’m okay.” That way he could drive away and not wonder if her name would show up in the news tomorrow. It very well could have been if he hadn’t stopped to help her. “You seriously already did more than enough. I’m sorry if my spontaneous late night walk derailed your plans, or whatever you were doing.” Oh yeah, she would definitely freak out about it soon, but having Mike to focus on had kept the fear at bay some. She couldn’t totally lose her shit in front of someone she barely knew.
"No plans," Mike reassured her. "I was just heading home, no work in the morning or anything." He leaned back to take in the view of the windows, biting his lip and narrowing his eyes before straightening up again. "Should I call the cops if the light doesn't come on?" he asked in a tone that suggested he was joking, even if he probably wasn't. It was morbid, yes, and he knew she was going to freak out about it all soon enough. He would, if he woke up in the middle of the road not knowing how he got there.
She considered the question for only a brief moment before giving a small nod. "Yeah, probably." He might have been joking, but she wasn't. Jules was suddenly overcome by the worry that maybe she had done something horrible while she was sleepwalking. What if she had bludgeoned her entire family to death or something? Except she wasn't covered in blood or anything, so that seemed unlikely. Ugh, but still. For a split second she considered asking Mike to come inside with her, but Jules bit back on the urge, feeling like maybe she was overreacting. If her mom woke up, Jules would have to explain herself, and she would either have to tell the truth - ugh again - or lie, and she wasn't feeling up to either of those things. Jules rubbed her forearms and gave Mike a small smile before turning to step into the house. "Thanks again, Mike. I totally owe you one, or like... ten or something."
"Really not that big a deal," Mike said with a little shake of his head. "But you can be a designated driver sometime if you really wanna do me a solid." He didn't think he'd ever call in those ten favors she thought she owed him but telling her that would probably just make her insist. "Go try to sleep in one place only, okay?" He backed up and pulled his jacket on since it was a little chilly. "Night, Ms. Cooper."
It was a big deal, at least for Jules. She had woken up in the middle of the night, in the middle of the road. He could have driven around her, or left her there and then Jules had no idea what she might have done. She couldn't even say she wouldn't have totally flipped her shit if no one had been there to talk to her and help after she had come around. It was getting colder at night, and people could die out in the elements. What if she had just kept walking? What if it had been snowing? All these things raced through her mind as she nodded at Mike. She would thank him somehow, eventually. "I'll do my best," Jules told him with a tiny smile. "Night, Mike." She shut the door quietly and locked it, shivering as the warm air in the house settled over her chilled skin. Jules quickly set the house alarm again and headed back up to her room. Everything was quiet in the house, and her mom's room, and Jason's, remained closed. Her own bedroom door was open and Jules walked inside, unable to keep herself from looking in her closet and then under her bed. She wasn't feeling brave enough to go into her bathroom where the mirror was. When it seemed like everything was in place and normal, Jules flipped on the light to her bedroom and walked over to the window to look down and see if Mike was still in his car. She brought her hand up in a wave, so he would know she was fine and he could finally leave.
It didn't take long for the lights to turn on but just long enough for Mike to start fretting a little. Maybe he should have insisted on going inside with her, maybe she was getting murdered while he sat in the car like an idiot. It was a relief when her bedroom window lit up but he watched it for a bit, smiling a little when she showed up to wave. Okay, she looked fine and he could leave now. It was up to her what she did about this weird thing that was going on with her, if she was smart she'd tell her parents and make sure she was safe from now on but that was her problem, not his. He waved back and started the engine again, turning the car around to head back the way he'd meant to go.