Sabrina shifted through the liminal spaces of the dreamscape. She’d found Nick and Roz already, hopeful that the two of them would be able to handle Batibat and whatever else the sleep demon might try to throw at them, while she searched for Dan. There was no Lilith in this world to try and wake her up and her Aunt Hilda’s spiders had left when her aunt did. Both of the things she’d used to stop the demon the last time were out of her reach. But Sabrina knew that Dan had his own way of dealing with ghosts and thought he might be able to do the same to the creature currently haunting all of them.
She wasn’t sure what she needed to look for as far as spaces went, but the invisible thread that connected her to Dan was easy enough to hook onto once she thought to feel around for it. She let it pull her in his direction, shifting through everyone else’s dreams before she landed in the middle of his.
“Dan?” Sabrina called out, looking around to see if she could spot him.
Let’s just say Dan hadn’t been experiencing the greatest dreams - but that was to be expected, when you were trapped in a loop where you lived out what could only be your own personal set of nightmares. He saw the Overlook, because it was ingrained in him at this point - a part of him, as he’d already figured out when it appeared in Vallo, all with its garish carpets and looming staircases and chandeliers. Tacky furniture that would also always be a part of him.
But that wasn’t what Sabrina landed in the middle of. Not only did Dan have dreams of his childhood trauma, but he had dreams of who he had become after that - an alcoholic drifter using booze to dull the ache of horrific memories, and also literally dull his shine because he was tired of seeing ghosts. He had dreams of who he hurt along that rocky journey; he saw their faces in his mind, ticking up the debts he owed because he was a rabid dog without a leash and could only connect with the father he was unable to save when he was out of his mind in a sea of anger.
He dreamed of diving back into the false comforts of his addictions. How easy it’d be, how much better it would be - but when he heard Sabrina’s voice, he tossed the bottle of alcohol he had in his hand and listened to it shatter everywhere, whiskey running in rivulets. “Sabrina?” he called back, heading toward her. “I’m here. I don’t - I don’t know what’s going on.”
Seeing everyone’s dreams was never a pleasant experience. She’d witnessed one aunt killing the other and being unable to bring her back, the other permanently tied to her sister and Ambrose dissecting himself the first time around. This second time dealing with Batibat’s manipulations weren’t any better. More people had been caught up in her web but that wasn’t what she should be focusing on.
“We’re trapped in dreams--nightmares.” Dreams were pleasant and their current experiences were anything but that. “I think someone accidentally released Batibat. She’s a sleep demon and was trapped away in one of the jars in the greenhouse.” No one had mentioned breaking a jar over the last week. They might not have remembered doing so if Batibat was trying to hide her appearance. It could have also been Vallo screwing with them and releasing the demon for some unknown reason.
“We’re going to be trapped in here unless one of us can wake up and then physically trap her outside of the dreams.” Sabrina just wasn’t sure how to get them to wake up. That was always the hardest part with this.
Oh.
What the fuck?
Dan blinked those cottony blue eyes though he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. A sleep demon on the loose just seemed like another day in Vallo, to be honest. Though the idea of being trapped here would test his sanity - his current dream took place in a bar, dark and dim, with other bleary-eyed patrons who were just as lost as he’d once been. Dirty glasses that didn’t match and health code violations broken every which way - it reeked of sweat and despair, and he wanted out.
“Okay - if we’re all asleep, maybe I can send a message to Salem?” he suggested. The cat communicated with him telepathically, and it seemed like the best bet to get someone who wasn’t trapped on the job. “But...how do we trap her? Do you have any ideas there?”
And did Batibat know they were plotting right now? Dan was suddenly on high alert - it felt like lucid dreaming and then some; he knew he needed to wake up but he couldn’t, which was frustrating as hell.
Sabrina nodded. Salem! Of course! Her cat would definitely be able to wake one of them up. He’d probably want to try for her but without Hilda’s spiders around she wasn’t sure she could trap the demon again. She might be able to with her Hell powers but Sabrina wasn’t sure that the demon would even listen to her. Not with how heaven-bent she was on destroying all of the Spellmans the last time around.
“Salem should be able to wake you. I’ll try contacting him too but it has to be you that he wakes up.” Not her. Hopefully her familiar would listen to reason. “I think your boxes could work? If you can get her in one?”
Sabrina knew they worked on ghosts but it was possible they could work on a demon as well. Especially if they managed it simultaneously. “I can try it on her here in this dreamscape if you can do it out there in the waking world, maybe?”
Dan exhaled, attempting to focus - everything about his consciousness seemed hazy, a fog that felt like a wet blanket. He was weighed down by it, but he had to do his best to get a message to Salem - to really reiterate the fact that this had to be a team effort from the inside and the outside.
“A double whammy should work,” he agreed - and maybe he didn’t know that for sure but it was probably the best plan of attack they could execute right now anyway. “And the others?” Mostly he wanted to know if they’d be okay while all this was happening - or if they had a role to play as well.
And he was sure a box would do the trick too - he’d trapped the god in Serefin’s head inside of one in the guy’s own psychic landscape, and it held steady. A sleep demon wouldn’t present much of an issue on that end.
Hearing Dan think that it should work helped increase Sabrina’s own belief that it would and she knew that believing in the outcome was half the battle when dealing with demons. They were really good at digging into someone’s fears and insecurities and using those against them. If they thought this could work then there was a much better chance of it working.
“We’ll stay inside. Nick’s...awake in his dream now. So he knows he’s dreaming. And Roz [I WILL UPDATE WHEN THE LOG IS DONE LOL].” Sabrina wasn’t sure about Ambrose. Hopefully Nick had managed to find him and help him realize what was going on.
“I’ll regroup with them and we can try and distract Batibat in the dreams. Make her move from one to another so she’s not focused on what you’re doing in the waking world.” Doing that had worked before. Sabrina hoped it would work this time around as well.
It sounded simple enough - distract Batibat, get Salem to wake him up (and hopefully Allison too - they were in the same bed and not only did Dan not want his wife to continue suffering through her worst nightmares, but he could use some backup in the form of her abilities), track down the sleep demon. Then lockbox her. Right - what could go wrong?
He wasn’t going to think about those potentials - he had to remain confident and do what needed to be done.
“Alright, so we have a plan,” Dan nodded, doing his best to ignore the surroundings of his current vision quest - which was dark and depressing and tinged with fear; he focused all the psychic energy he could summon to attempt to ping Salem, to reach the cat familiar from within the confines of this space. Astral projection was out - while that state and a lucid dreaming state were similar, he was in too deep of a sleep to fire up the cogs right now. “We’ll get this done. Everything will be okay.” Probably.
Plans were good. At least it meant they had an idea of what to do and weren’t running around aimlessly and just hoping for the best. “I’ll see you soon in the waking world. Good luck, Dan.”
Sabrina offered up as much of a reassuring smile as she could muster and then she stepped sideways, out of his dream and into another, intent on finding the others to fill them in on what they needed to do next.