Literal Nightmares

[Nox]

After Jensen left it was a good bit before anyone actually stopped in to check on him.  Boredom set in and Nox drifted on the medication still entering his system through the IV. It wasn't a pleasant feeling and he wasn't enjoying lying there doing nothing.  Even his wallet wasn't entertaining -- he needed to do something.

Getting out of bed hurt like hell.  His body was healed but the scars that remained from the prior healings by the girl were still taunt and dense.  Everything about them was wrong, from the way they looked to the way they felt.  His side hurt.  His legs and arms hurt.  But not from the post healing.  Nox stretched each place realizing he was going to have to go back to the basics.  A lot more yoga, and strength training and a lot less of his other things -- except his mind was still sharp.  Though he was fading with the medication running through his veins still.

By the time a nurse finally came into check on him, Nox was seeing things in the shadows.  A pair of glowing eyes stared back at him and beckoned him to follow.  The nurse was in a flurry calling the doctor. "Doctor, the fever is gone.  The ultrasound is clear."

"Can I go now?" Nox interrupted.

They hushed him and started looking through his records, and such and spoke in hushed tones.  "At least stop the medication." Nox said, trying to get things situated.

They rushed out of the room disconnecting the IV from his arm. "Stay in bed, a little while longer." the nurse instructed Nox.

But he didn't listen.  The shadow beckoned him to follow when he was alone.  There were worse things to do.  He reached into the sticky slime of the horde and grabbed the power.  He at least had a weapon to protect himself from wherever this nightmare was taking him.  If he were seeing it at all.  Nightmares were hard to see, harder to kill and Nox had never been beckoned by a monster to follow it before.  Where was it taking him?

[Nox]

No one else seemed to notice the shadow as it lurked in the corners. It made Nox curious as to its visibility. Was he going crazy? Had the healing done more than take the infection? His mind maybe? He chuckled at the thought of it.

They wound through the corridors of the hospital. No one really bothering with the half naked man wandering the halls with nothing more than the gown over his shoulders. He didn't much mind, and it seemed common enough place.

The shadow didn't go in a straight line, and it sometimes disappeared altogether and Nox had to find it somewhere else down the long halls. Up. Down. Through. And finally in snaked its way through a locked door.

[Nox]

Of course it was that ward. The one ward he could very easily get into but getting out could be very hard. He wasn't crazy, but his whole life fit into one of their diagnosis he was certain. But Nox didn't hesitate as he glanced through the small rectangular window and saw the shadow creeping about -- waiting for him.

Nox took a deep breath and placed his hand on the door and delved into the lock and used the power of the gods to force entrance. There was no alarm, it was like using a key. Access might be monitored, and that might flag some bad attention. But that was for later. Right now he was hunting a monster. Though he didn' actually want to hurt it. It hadn't done anything. And if it were a nightmare well they never tried to kill him. At least there was that small mercy. Even in his nightmares he survived where as those he loved did not. Which tore at his heart more so than not.

Nox slipped in without notice. And walking around seemed less that ideal, but he heard people in a room near by and glanced inside. If he could only master an illusion while walking -- he could be nearly invisible. But that was beyond his scope. He could maintain the illusion if it wasn't about obsure him. The other was a completely different type of illusion.

The room was full of patients. Some were painting, others watching TV. Some were even just staring off into space watching whatever played out in the mind. Some talked to nothing, and others played games. But it was the dark shadows that kept his eyes as he followed it to a petite woman sitting in a chair. He stepped through like he belonged, he wasn't dressed much different than the others -- it would be easy to be mistaken. Except he wasn't supposed to be here and his name tag on his wrist said so. He at least had that going for him. He wasn't stealing away time or anything. It wasn't really a B and E.

He sat down across from the girl with the shadow slipping in next to her, hiding in the shadows but clearly there if anyone really looked. Maybe it was a trick of the eye -- maybe not. Nox didn't understand the way nightmares worked. He smiled at her and nodded towards the shadow curled up next to her. "I supposed your nightmares like you." He hoped she didn't think he was crazy. But she was in here so it was probably common place.

[Daiyu]

Mara's eyes slowly lifted from the worn book in her hands. It was a paperback copy, the only version allowed in the ward. The cover was strewn with violent artwork and the author identified as “Mara Sóng” in English.

The air felt colder as she focused on Nox, an unfamiliar face yet eerily reminiscent of a dream.

The silence settled like the many pets sleeping beneath her chair, the somber quiet of the ward amplified by the soft rustling of the shadows that surrounded her like a living cloak. Her gaze was unsettling, a blend of curiosity and recognition that hinted at a knowledge awareness deeper than her youthful and naive appearance suggested.

"Nightmares,” she whispered, her voice like the soft rustle of dead leaves amid her heavy accent, "they do more than like me. They are my companions, my pets.” Her eyes flickered to the nearest one, and it seemed to respond, its form shifting subtly as if acknowledging her words before settling back into its slumber.

Mara tilted her head slightly, studying Nox with an intensity that bordered on unnerving. "You seem familiar," she murmured, her eyes narrowing as if trying to pull a fragment of memory from the depths of her mind. "Have you wandered through my dreams, or perhaps... have my dreams wandered through you?”

[Nox]

She was a little unnerving but Nox didn't let it show. He'd met his share of strange. He was his own brand of strange, after all. Nightmares as pets? That was new. Her question tinged a a feeling of deja vu but Nox didn't know from where he'd thought he might have seen her -- he hardly remembered his dreams. "Given the number of nightmares I have, I think your pets might visit often." Nox didn't add anything about the horrors of his nightmares, the dead bodies, the deaths on his hands that he felt guilty about, and some were just faces he barely remembered, but since seeing Jacob again those memories were coming back ten-thousand fold and the horde loved it.

They itched on the inside and Nox shifted in his seat. The memories flood just a little into his mind and horde latching on to the violence of his past life. The few innocent lives he took, the kids that he just killed -- one out of mercy, the other because he was an evil son of a bitch, quite literally. Ethan would haunt Nox like the others, but that kid chewing on him -- there wouldn't be a day in his life he'd regret ending that evil bastard. Nor any of the other family members that went down with the fucking Rougarou nest.

Though it did put a sour note in his mouth as he thought about what happened if he went rogue -- who would handle him? Who would take him out? He'd made Aria a promise, and he kept it -- ended her life before she could do more damage than she did good in her life. Would Ori? Jay would probably jump at the opportunity. And then there was the Atharim or the Ascendancy, someone would he was sure -- but before he did too much damage.

A shift in the nightmares pulled Nox back to the room with the sorta creepy girl with nightmare pets. "Sorry, long day." He smiled."My name is Nox, What's got you in a joint like this?" Nox could almost fathom why. Nox had to strain to see the nightmares in the shadows. And he knew that they didn't appear in normal days like this. They rarely appeared at night when sucking your soul dry and giving you nightmares -- or whatever it is they did while making you live through your worst nightmares.

[Daiyu]

Mara's eyes glimmered a mixture of amusement and something darker, as she watched the boy struggle with the weight of his own mind. She could see the turmoil behind his eyes, the way his memories clawed at him, just like her pets clung to her in the depths of night.

“The nightmares visit you often?” she echoed, her voice lilting with a touch of respect. "How fortunate you are. They must find you... fascinating." She leaned back in her chair, her movements slow and deliberate, the shadows curling around her  feet like living tendrils. "They feed on fear, you know. They thrive on guilt, on the dark corners of your mind where you hide your regrets and sins.”

The shadows around her seemed to pulse, reacting to her emotions. One of them, bolder than the others, stretched out towards the boy’s feet, its form shifting and undulating like a serpent made of ink, sniffing and exploring him. "They are drawn to you,” she continued, her voice dropping in awe. "Perhaps you are a delicacy to them.”

While her pets explored the source of their next meal, Mara explained her presence. She had nothing to hide; in fact, she was quite quick to respond. "When I was 16, I attempted to end my life. Later, when I explained why, they said I was psychotic. That was two years ago."

[Nox]

Nox didn't flinch when the creatures reached for him. For all he knew they had touched him so many times over they might as well be lovers. He smiled at the thought -- just what he needed yet another monster to cling to him. He was collecting them like he was collecting friends. Things had drastically changed since coming to Moscow. He'd never had friends or monsters attached to him. Now...

"There is plenty of guilt for them to feed on." Nox agreed.

Nox listened to her speak of her reason for being there and knew exactly why someone of her 'affliction' might have attempted. "I had those thoughts. Never pulled the trigger. My dad drank himself until he died in his own vomit. He couldnt deal with my mother's death. I vowed I'd never be like my father, and that included leaving behind people to clean up my mess. What did you tell them that they didn't believe your reasons? You see monsters?" It was meant as a joke, but it was probably partially true.

[Daiyu]

Mara’s expression shifted to something almost human passing over her features before the eerie fascination settled back in place. The pets beneath her seat settled to stillness, as if listening intently to the conversation.

“You understand, then,” she said somberly.

Her eyes darkened at the mention of a father and the tragedy that had shaped the boy’s life. “I told them the truth, of course,” she continued, her tone tinged with a bitter edge. “That I have pets, shadows that twist and coil around the living. That my books are stories of the real nightmares my pets unleash.” She pushed the book she had been reading toward him.

A smile, cold and distant, played on her lips. “They didn’t believe me, naturally. The doctors said it was a symptom of trauma, a fractured mind trying to make sense of the world. They gave me pills to dull the visions, but they only made my pets angry. So, here I am.”

She leaned forward slightly, her eyes locking onto the boy’s with a curiosity that bordered on obsession. “But you, you see them too, don’t you?”

[Nox]

Nox chuckled. "The truth is never believed, but it's probably better that they didn't. It can draw the wrong sort of attention." Attention that he knew all too well. Not only had he hunted people like her, but he'd been hunted himself.

She leaned in keeping eye contact. It only added to the whole creepy affair, and her words made him chuckle. "I can see them if I try really hard. It's harder now that they are here. But one of them clearly wanted me to follow them. And here I am."

Nox smiled and leaned back in the chair. "Is there anything I can do to help you?" Obviously, the creature wanted me here. No idea what it was, but there is no telling what it was. Or if he was wrong. He could be wrong.

[Daiyu]

Mara's eyes never wavered as she absorbed the boy’s words. She considered his question for a moment, her head tilting slightly as if listening to something only she could hear. The shadows beneath her seemed to shift and murmur, a silent conversation taking place in the harsh light of the ward.

“I don’t know,” she said softly, her voice carrying an undercurrent of uncertainty that was rare for her. She looked down, her fingers absently stroking one of the shadows that had coiled beneath her chair. The dark tendril responded to her touch, its form becoming more defined, almost tangible.

Mara leaned closer to the shadow, her lips moving in a whisper that was too faint for Nox to hear. The creature seemed to shiver, then it stretched upwards, almost as if communicating back to her. After a moment, Mara straightened, her eyes meeting Nox’s once more with renewed clarity.

“We would like to leave,” but as she said it, she realized that he was just another patient. “But how can you help with that? Why are you here?”