Who: Romana and Severus What: She had a dream When: The middle of the night ; recently Where: Their home Warnings: Romana has a nightmare, and Sev’s wand shows up... they think they see Vashta nerada... O_O
Romana was tossing and turning in her bed. It was late, she had been asleep for some time. The dreams didn’t come very often, but when they did they were quite violent. Odd things happened and she was always restless. In her dreams, she was with the Doctor again but then something happened. She changed faces. Just like that, her face was completely different.
With a shout, she awoke and startled herself out off of bed, eyes wide. Sweaty and gasping, Romana finally realized that she was here in her home. Just a dream. Just a dream.
Severus jumped out of the bed, groggy but concerned, and rushed to her side. “Ro, are you all right?” He asked, bringing his hands to her arms. He was clad in his boxers, hair rustled from sleep. Her tossing and turning had roused him, but when she left the bed, he woke completely.
She blinked a little, realizing he was there and shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean.. it was just a dream. I think. My heart is just..racing.” Putting her hand over her heart, she took a deep breath. “I’m sorry to wake you. That.. dream. I died. But it wasn’t even that.. bad. I don’t know, it was confusing.”
“It’s all right.” Severus said, lifting and helping her sit down on the edge of the bed. “Do you want to talk about it?” He hadn’t met his own death in his dreams yet, but he had a feeling it was coming.
Sitting down beside him, she just tried to catch her breath for a moment. “The Doctor and I met these.. Guardians. And there was this princess. She didn’t look like me either though. But there was something about her. I changed into her. Or well it was like I knew I was going to change into her. I.. I guess I died? And I took over some other woman’s form. It was really.. strange.”
She shook her head a little. “I kept changing my shape, and eventually I took hers. And it wasn’t even me..I still look different. Ugh, bloody time lords.”
Sev kept his arms wrapped around her, one hand moving up and down her arm. “It’s all right.” He said, though it sounded as if she was really shaken. “Is that something that all Time Lords do? Shapeshift?” She’d mentioned being a Time Lord before, he thought. Though, they didn’t talk about their dreams together as much as they probably should have.
As shook up as she was, she was clearly better off having him there. “Apparently. They regenerate when bad things happen. When they die, and change faces. I mean that’s why that woman looks nothing like me, I suppose.” She wondered if that meant that one day she’d have a dream where she would change to her own face. “Dying in a dream is not as amazing as people say it is.”
“No.” Severus shook his head. In every dream in which he’d died, he’d simply woken and forgotten slowly over time. His dreams were mostly normal, and those realistic ones he’d had were terrifying, but he hadn’t died yet. Yet. “It’s going to be all right.” He said, lifting one hand to touch her cheek. “You’re here with me now.”
Leaning into his hand, Romana sighed and pressed up against him some more. "I don't know really what was going on in that dream. I'm definitely a time lord though. I even have two hearts." She smirked slightly "You're married to an alien, love." She didn't quite mean it though. Alien? No way. "I'm sorry I woke you. Thank you."
“Stranger things have happened.” Severus said, lifting his hand to rest against her chest. “I only feel one heartbeat.” He whispered, then leaned down and pressed a couple of soft, tender kisses against her cheek. “I love you. Wake me anytime.”
“Oh? Like what?” she teased. She put her hand on top of his and leaned in when he kissed her. “That’s good to know, I suppose.” Though sometimes she did worry. Romana heard things about that sort of thing happening to people who had a lot of dreams. “I love you too..” she leaned up and pressed her mouth against his a little heatedly.
“Oh, I dunno.” Severus said. He’d really just been saying it to make her feel better. But there was something. Something on the end table. He blinked at it, filing that away. He could look into it in more detail in the morning. Right now he wanted to focus on his wife. He kissed her hungrily, letting the passion grow. It was easy when he was filled with so much love.
She did feel better in fact. Though it was a good thing that she couldn’t see whatever was on the end table. It would have freaked her right out. She slipped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer to her. It didn’t take long though for her to be caught off guard by something on the wall. Like a dark spot.. growing. “Severus.. what is that?” she asked, pulling away and pointing.
Severus pulled away from her when she did, and turned to look. Something on the wall? He wasn’t sure. Instinct took over, and he reached to the bedside table, picked up the object there, his wand, and pointed it at the wall. “Lumos.” He said. The wand lit.
As the light shone on the wall, something skittered away, like a shadow moving. It wasn’t Romana’s shadow, she knew it. She frowned. “Vashta narada..” she mumbled, though she wasn’t even sure what that was. It was just something that popped into her mind. “There is something over there.” The shadow was turning to mist almost in the corner. “We need to get out of here and get Daisy.”
Severus climbed up from the bed, keeping the wand pointed at the light in the corner. He noticed that the shadow--or whatever it was--moved when he pointed the light toward it, so he used the light to herd the mist into the corner as he ushered Romana toward the door. He flipped the light switch once they were there, but kept his eyes and wand pointed straight at the darkness. “Ro, go get Daisy up. Keep all the lights on. I’ll meet you in the hall.”
Getting up, she moved back away from the shadow. That was more than a little creepy. “Okay..” was all she said before she turned and dashed down the hall to get Daisy. The poor girl was asleep of course, and she barely stirred as her mother scooped her up and moved down the hall. As she went, she turned on every light that she could possibly find until she got there.
Severus backed up into the hallway, holding his wand up. It was strange. He’d just seen this for the first time tonight, but yet he knew it like the back of his hand from the dreams. And he knew how to use it, too. “What did you call that?” Severus asked her. “Nagara?”
“Vashta nerada.. I’m not quite sure what it means. Except it’s shadows like that. And just.. bad ones.” Daisy was starting to stir, but Romana rubbed her back a little. “Let’s just get out of here.” She moved to head down to the front door, only to find that it wouldn’t open. She tugged and tugged on it. It wasn’t locked, it was just stuck.
Severus turned around to look at the door. “Is it locked?” He asked, then pointed his wand at it. “Alohamora.” He said, then nodded for her to try again. Hopefully his spell would unlock the door.
Though she figured whatever he was doing had something to do with magic, that could wait. Right now she was tugging at the door but it still wouldn’t work. “It’s not letting us out. Let’s try the back. Hurry.” By now Daisy was fully awake, and looking a little worried but unsure of what was going on.
Severus lit his wand again and followed Romana and Daisy through the house and the kitchen to the back door, turning on every light along the way. He pointed his wand toward the hallway where the bedrooms were, keeping that lit as much as he could with the light from the tip of his wand.
There were noises and creaks as they moved through the house. Something was following them. She tried the next door, and it didn’t budge like the other one. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered to Daisy as she struggled with the door. “We have to find a way to get out of here. Can we break a window or something?”
“Let’s not panic.” Severus said, lifting his hand to brush some hair out of his face. He still had bed hair. He was still wearing only his boxer shorts. He felt naked, ill prepared, still clutching his wand and holding it up in the doorway. “How do we get rid of these Vashta Nerada shadows?” He asked, wondering if they hated light, maybe he could create a powerful, magical light that might kill them.
Right, not panicking. If they could get out of here, then she wouldn’t be panicking. “You can’t.. if that’s them.” She glanced down to make sure that neither of them had two shadows. They seemed fine so far. “They’re not shadows, they’re microscopic.. beings that will devour you in a second. I hope this is something different.”
Severus paused. “If they’re beings, they can be killed. We just have to figure out how.” He wasn’t in study mode. This was fire first, ask questions later. Would fire do it? He wouldn’t want to set anything on fire unless he knew they could get out.
“I’ll blast the back door off it’s hinges.” He said, motioning for her to move behind him as he raised his wand. Now he really wished he had something to wear besides his boxers.
Romana certainly hoped that he was right. Something told her he wasn’t, but she didn’t say anything. “Okay.. go for it.” Even if they had to fix the door later. She stood back from the door, shielding Daisy from the blast. She wished she was wearing clothes as well. Daisy too was in her nightclothes.
Severus put himself between his wife and daughter and the door, and lifted his wand. “Confringo!” He cried out. There was a loud blast, a shock of bright light, and a puff of smoke. Severus held his breath as the air began to clear. He hoped that wouldn’t attract... whatever it was that was in their bedroom.
That seemed to do it. The door was blasted open. Romana had covered Daisy up, protecting her from the explosion. She looked like she might start to cry because of the noise though. “Let’s just get the heck out of here. We can go to a hotel or .. something.” She didn’t know, but she didn’t want to be here.
Severus nodded. He ushered his wife and daughter out of the house. “Get in the car, Love, I’ll grab my keys.” He pulled keys and coats off of the rack by the door, then hurried through it, turned around and repaired it with a flick of his wand. It only took him another minute to catch up with Romana and Daisy at the car, and pass out coats. Thank God his wallet was in his coat pocket. “We can go to the Holiday Inn near the Interstate. Do you think it’ll be safe to come back in the morning?” He asked, unlocking the car and letting them in.
Heading out of the house, Romana went right for the car and got in. She started it up, if only to get the heat on while they waited. She looked worriedly out the car until Severus showed up with their coats. “Thank you.” As she buttoned Daisy up in her coat, she nodded a bit. “I think so. It better be.” Morning was good when there was plenty of light. “I’m exhausted though.. hopefully we can get some sleep somewhere safe.”
“I’m sure we can.” Severus said. He pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket, really glad that tonight he hadn’t plugged it in to charge it. He held it out to Romana as he climbed into the driver’s seat and took them out of the drive and onto the road. “Call ahead? We can get a reservation on the way. Save a few minutes’ time.” He was exhausted, too, but more scared than exhausted. He watched his wife carefully, and when her reaction was to feel terror, he felt it, too.
Taking the phone from him, she called up the Holiday Inn and booked them a room. All she wanted was for this to be over. She didn’t think any of them would be getting a decent night’s sleep, but hopefully they would be safe.