dǫçţǫŗ şɭęęƥ (shone) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-03-19 16:59:00 |
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For all the time he spent helping other people sleep, Dan wasn’t getting any peaceful shut-eye himself as of late. They weren’t good dreams and his visits with the Sandman were fitful - sometimes he couldn’t recall his dreams but those nights were just floating through the black heavens, wrapped up in the silk of the entire galaxy and adequate rest. Not so much recently. The trap was suffocating, constantly bringing him back to the Overlook and the boozy gold of the ballroom and the stark artificial light of all the bathrooms - back to his unhinged father, and sometimes even beyond that. Sometimes he saw himself losing everything. Waking up here with Allison gone, her and Claire having vanished like so many others beforehand. Sabrina was gone too, the mortuary an empty shell; he had dreams of relapsing, of tempting fate with the bottle, of falling back into who he once had been with a debt miles long. Nothing cheery, that was for damn sure. Meeting Sabrina in her own dream had made him realize this was all being done on purpose and they needed a plan to get it to stop. It was difficult to wake up, however, when one was trapped in a never ending loop of despair - he knew what he had to do, but all the lucid dreaming tricks he pulled out didn’t matter because he was still covered by the haze of his nightmares. Both Azzie and Salem were on the job, however - they managed to nudge the bedroom door open all the way and jump up on Dan and Allison’s bed, where they were both asleep. Maybe cat telepathy took place, or they knew what to do, because they both let out loud mmrrrreeeeows and swiped at the both of them, claws out; the pain definitely woke Dan up, enough to snap him out of the loop, and he shot up with a gasp. “Allison??” Allison was dealing with her own nightmares. Not all of them were new. She’d had enough dreams where she woke up and all of this was just a dream or that Patrick still had Claire. She hated the feeling of it. She hated even more the dreams where she forgot herself and found herself using her powers on the people she loved and cared about again and the look on Dan’s face shifted from the way she was used to him looking at her to the way Patrick looked at her. It broke her heart to see it. The ones where Dan left and went back home, back to his inevitable death were bad, but at least there he would eventually get some rest. Even if she was there and alone with Claire. Though, not fully alone. She had dreams where all her siblings left, too and she didn’t like those ones that much either. Getting scratched was enough to wake her up and she made a small noise of complaint. “Ow. Shit.” But then she heard Dan’s voice and she felt a wash of relief. She rubbed at her eyes. “Yes. I’m awake. I think. God, I hope I’m awake.” The long red scratch on Dan’s arm still throbbed - Azzie had clawed him hard enough to draw blood, little red droplets, but he couldn’t be worried about that now. “You’re awake,” he confirmed, reaching over to rest a hand on the side of Allison’s face, kissing her out of sheer relief. He wasn’t sure what would have happened if the (asshole) cats hadn’t come to snap them out of it - they probably would have been tormented forever by Batibat, a fucking sleep demon. Who was somewhere in the house. Right now. He knew Sabrina planned to stay behind with the others, walking to and fro in dreamland in an effort to keep Batibat distracted - so it was up to Dan to do what needed to be done, to lock her away in a box and shove that box in the corners of his mind where the demon inside would rot. Only he could do that, but he’d prefer to not have to do it alone. “We have to find her,” he said, tossing the covers back, stretching a little because his muscles felt like lead. “I’ll put her into a lockbox but - I could use the backup, wifey.” Allison was glad for the touch and the kiss, the added knowledge that she was actually awake, but now they had to contend with a demon. She hadn’t ever tried to Rumor a demon, but she would do her best to try or at least lend whatever strength and energy she needed to to help Dan do his thing. Only she wished he could do without more ghosts and demons locked in boxes in his mind. With some reluctance, Allison also started to drag herself out of the bed, grabbing for the nearest robe. “You’re ridiculous and I’m going to need coffee and potentially also a nap at some point without dangerous dream invasions and an endless loop of nightmares when this is done.” She rubbed at her eyes, only fixing her hair enough to not look terribly messy. She wasn’t as concerned with her appearance for this fight. It wasn’t like they were going outside. “Okay. Let’s find her.” Dan found a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, since he was prone to sleeping in far less than that, and didn’t want to have to trick a demon wearing only his underwear. Either way, he’d do what he had to do - but Jesus, could they get a straight month of a break from bullshit here in Vallo or was it always going to be a few days of respite followed by Something to deal with? Of course he’d take it, however. No matter what he had the people he loved here and it was better than being dead. Right now, he was also glad Claire was at a slumber party elsewhere. He wanted to avoid her having to need therapy for a few more years yet. “I’d say coffee and a nap will be well earned,” he replied, voice still a little crackly from that deep sleep. “She’s - “ He let the Shining extend, unfurling in one exhale and touching each corner of the mortuary. Dan picked up on the buzz of the minds of those still asleep and there - something else. “In the greenhouse.” The extension off to the side of the kitchen. “Let’s go - here,” he offered his hand to Allison. “You’re the one with the ninja skills.” Allison was still amazed by the Shining for what it was. Even with Klaus. It was different. Ghosts and just being able to sense people and things. She was intensely glad that her dad would never be around because she was sure he’d have been drawn to too many people’s powers here and she didn’t need him to set his sights on Dan. She couldn’t help the smile even with the less than funny situation that they were currently in, but Dan’s comment about her ninja skills was enough to draw it out of her. “Yes. My ninja skills,” she replied as she took his hand. “Do you think a demon can be Rumored or do we think we’ll have to rely on your mind trapping abilities and my sneaking abilities?” Because she was fine if sneaking was all it was, but she wasn’t sure if Sabrina had mentioned anything specific. She hated demons officially at this point, though. Probably just the sleep ones that made sleeping a terrible experience, though. She didn’t really know too many other demons. “I’m pretty sure a demon can be rumored,” Dan said and if it didn’t work - well, it’d be enough of a distraction for him to lock Batibat in a box to add to his hedge maze psychic landscape. The thought of it made his heart pound uneasily but they really didn’t have many other options - it wasn’t as if they could stick her into a jar again. Clearly that hadn’t gone well, because she’d escaped somehow - either by someone accidentally knocking the jar over or just Vallo’s general asshattery. He was perfectly willing to believe the second option. It happened frequently enough to sound legitimate. The greenhouse was warm, the air gentle with its added mist - it actually served to help wake Dan up a little more too, clearing the rest of the haze that had been cobwebbed around his mind after being trapped in his nightmares. Salem ran out like a bat (ha?) out of hell, apparently leading the demon on a chase - Dan was almost knocked over, but he managed to get his bearings and see the twisted features that Batibat wore, some cross between an actual bat and a woman. Her voice grated like chains run over concrete. “Oh,” she hissed. “And what’s this?” Well, they officially had two seconds to see if rumoring would work on a demon; now was a good time to try it out. Allison had jumped herself when Salem dashed past, the increased heartrate and added adrenaline enough to make her a little more alert. She was careful as she stepped, but it was pointless to do once she saw the demon show up. She glanced at Dan briefly before trying to emotionally set herself. She was going to try something simple just to see if it worked. If it did, then she was going to do something that might be a little more distracting. “I heard a rumor that you tripped.” It was the first thing she thought of that she could easily see a reaction to. On cue, as Batibat stepped forward, she tripped, nearly falling. “Okay. So that works.” Batibat’s reaction was a screeeech of indignation, flailing her limbs and her fingers curled into claws like she was fit and ready to rip someone’s face off. Highly doubtful that she’d expected someone to do that, and while she was flustered Dan poured all of his focus into giving her a psychic shove - she could switch between the waking world and dreamland in the blink of an eye, so he needed to stay on top of the game here. They ended up in the cold and the snow which looked like white sand, green hedges spiraling on and on in a maze that plunged into darkness, into the recesses of Dan’s mind - this was where Batibat was fated to remain, if only he could trap her here to give her a taste of her own medicine. She fought him, however, pushing back and lunging at him in the material world in order to try to break the psychic connection. “Allison,” he coughed - or more like wheezed, since he just caught a bony elbow in his stomach. Allison was glad at least that she could at least help. “Yeah. I’ve got it.” She did her best to come up with new rumors. “I heard a rumor that you walked backwards.” And she did. “I heard a rumor you had pillows on your hand.” Okay. That was a little weird, but she was going to do what she could to keep Dan safe from whatever was happening to her. Things that were distracting seemed to work. “I heard a rumor you threw yourself to the ground.” She hoped that it was enough to keep her both physically and mentally distracted to keep her from slipping into dreams and from breaking out of Dan’s psychic hold on her. “I heard a rumor you couldn’t go in dreams.” And that should at least keep them from having to worry about that part of it. She wished she’d gone with that one first, though. Batibat screeched again, growling as she was forced to do everything she was compelled to do - and that included basically moonwalking backwards, checking her hands for pillows like she fully expected to see them there. “Stop!” she demanded, clearly agitated. “Stop with your games!” But that wasn’t going to happen and she couldn’t stop - though I heard a rumor you couldn’t go in dreams caused her to pause, cogs in her brain turning; it elicited a moment of panic because she momentarily forgot how to enter dreams. The couple of seconds were all Dan needed - he gained traction again and yanked the demon back onto the psychic plane, snowflakes falling around them. Knowing that Sabrina was doing something similar in dreamland his eyes fogged over, white erasing the pupil and iris with a surge of concentration - the lid of a lockbox flew to the side, and when Batibat saw it she screamed in agony before she was even contained. “No!” It didn’t matter. The cold had her frozen and so did those commands - there was another scream from her, a crack, and then the slamming of a heavy lid once she was inside the box. He made sure to lock it, the ominous click muffling the last of her cries. If it hadn’t been so serious, a part of her recognized that it would have been funny. She was sure Klaus still would have laughed at it anyway while shouting out suggestions on things to do. She was glad he wasn’t there, though, to be affected by this. She didn’t need him to get hurt or anything. She watched Dan carefully once Batibat disappeared. She reached out to hold his hand just in case. It was weird only really seeing part of what was happening. She hoped that it worked and that everyone would be able to wake up now and that Dan would be fine after the fact. After a few moments passed, her voice softly called out to him, “Dan?” She moved a little closer just in case he needed support or not to fall to the ground when he came back from the place in his mind. His eyes returned to normal (sleep-crusted as they were - it was some ungodly hour, anyway), back to their denim shade and Dan’s face relaxed from where he’d been screwing it up in concentration or some kind of grimace - he had his head angled too, like he’d been trying to crack his neck, which he finally let happen and that was a satisfying pop as he eased into himself from the dredges of his own mind. “Allison,” he said her name again, though it wasn’t tinged with stress this time - just more relief. He reached out to wrap his arms around her. “Hey honey.” It was fine, he was fine - Batibat had disappeared and was now locked away until he let her out which would be never. She wouldn’t get to terrorize the sleep cycles of anyone else here. He kissed Allison’s forehead, her cheeks, the corner of her mouth. “We should go check on the others - then maybe cash in on that nap and coffee idea.” Or the nap first, followed by coffee. Either way, he needed some closeness with his favorite person. Allison smiled as he came back to himself. She wrapped her arms around him as well, snuggling in briefly. She was relieved he was fine and the whole situation was over. She hoped this meant that they could actually sleep and not have nightmares at all, but she wasn’t sure that was strictly the end of them. Just no demon behind them. The kisses distracted her slightly from her thoughts and she allowed herself to relax a little. “Yeah. We can go check on them,” she said softly. “At least to make sure they’re okay. “At least we can knock and then let them get back to sleep if they want. Because she wasn’t sure about the others, but she wanted to sleep. “So let’s do that and then definitely get to the sleeping. I’m definitely too tired for coffee to work yet.” Restful sleep was something that Dan definitely wanted - he sometimes had bad dreams on his own (they all did in this house, given everything the occupants had been through), but he was able to wake up and greet the new day, leaving the not-so-great parts behind. Knowing that you were stuck but unable to escape nightmares just added a whole other level. “Definitely get to the sleeping,” he agreed, clasping Allison’s hand in his. “Come on, let’s go.” He planned to keep the contact between them all the way up the stairs and then back to their room too - because all of that had been a lot, and he was just so glad it was over. Then there’d be something else at another point, but wasn’t that always how things went around here? They’d handle it, whatever it was. They always did. |