Nightmares *HF*
By Gomurr
nIGhtMaReS
He awoke like he had almost every night since arriving at the academy....covered in sweat and panting for breath. The clock read 2:30, showing him he had only been in bed a little over two hours. The nightmares refused to leave him, and the strain was beginning to show. He had actually almost harmed GlitterGirl in this afternoon's workout. His super strength made him incredibly dangerous, but he was usually so careful that it made him almost fearful of physical contact. In this case, however, in the heat of a battle scenario in the holographic training room known as the "War Zone", he had thrown off an attack by GlitterGirl with such force it pushed her against the wall and knocked her unconscious. The scenario automatically shut down when the fail safe activated and the Morlock healer was on hand to diagnose and treat Shae. If he hadn't been though, the cracked rib and concussion she refused would have been a serious matter. DarkWolf cursed himself silently.
"Way to go, nimrod.......beat up the one person that's made an effort to make you feel welcome here," he cursed under his breath.
Justin Mills, a.k.a DarkWolf, realized with another maddening realization that tonight would be another near sleepless night. The dark haired youth got up from his bed and padded softly to the bathroom which connected his room to Belasco's. He turned on the faucet and splashed the cold water on his face. His hazel eyes glittered in the mirror as he turned to go back to bed. Why won't these dreams leave me alone?
This time he woke up screaming. He could still taste Paramount's blood on his tongue....still feel the insane shapeshifter's flesh give way beneath his claws.....but it wasn't him that killed the former White King. It had been the mutates. He had been mind-linked with them as the tore the man apart, but he wasn't in control. Why couldn't he shake these images? He looked to his side and the clock mocked him with a reading of 4:10. Suddenly there was a timid knock at his door. Justin jumped to his feet wanting to get the door open and assure whoever it was that he was o.k. before they woke the entire floor. He swung the door open...and there standing fully clothed and looking incredibly sexy stood Shae Marquette, a.k.a. GlitterGirl.
"Justin, are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah...yeah...i'm fine......What are you doing here? Could you hear me yelling all the way over in the girl's wing?" DarkWolf asked.
"Ummmmm, not exactly," Shae stammered. "See...ummmm....well...Sasha and I...we ummmm....OK...here's the deal. Sasha and I went to a rave tonight, and we had to sneak back in, so Gomurr wouldn't bust our chops about breaking curfew...and seeing as how the Morlock tunnels open up into the boy's wing of the dorm, I just happened to be sneakin' by...Anyway....so what's up with you?"
Justin for the first time realized he was standing in his doorway wearing only his boxers, that he realized with some embarrassment were the ones that said "yes yes yes" all over them in big glow in the dark letters. He noticed Shae's eyes sweep over his rather scant wardrobe, and he blushed a deep red and stammered out the first thing that came to his mind.
"I'm sorry...you know..umm..about tossin' you around like that today in the War Zone."
"It's okay," giggled GlitterGirl picking up on DarkWolf's embarrassment. "I'm good as new. I danced all night. If that doesn't prove I'm in tip top shape nothing will."
"Ummm..so where's Sasha? I thought you said she was with you," said DarkWolf trying to get Shae to forget about the reason she had knocked on his door in the first place.
"Well, being able to morph into a super agile were-creature is sort of a bonus when sneaking into windows...she like went up the trees and into the window...i'm not much of a tree climber...especially in these heels......but anyway...what was all that commotion earlier?" pressed Glitter Girl.
"It was nothing," lied Justin. "I just ummm...it was the TV."
"Didn't sound like the boob tube to me, dude," said Glittergirl. "Sounded like somebody had a mondo bad A Class nightmare."
"Well, so what if I did," said DarkWolf a tad too upset. "Everyone has bad dreams.....I mean it was probably something I ate."
"Yeah....probably," agreed GlitterGirl. "That or maybe being new in a strange place and all that mess that went down with Paramount has you a little creeped out."
DarkWolf just looked at GlitterGirl. Their eyes met for the briefest of seconds and he knew that lying wouldn't work with this one. He saw in her gaze that maybe she understood what it was like to be out of place......to be alone even in a crowd...but how could this beautiful vivacious creature ever be out of place?
"You know, I used to have nightmares too...back when I was a kid ofcourse," said Glittergirl as she moved into Justin's room. "I had the same nightmare every night. I used to.....in my dream that is...get locked in the closet while these people that I thought I knew raged and screamed outside. I used to be so scared in there...in the dark..all alone......that's when I learned what I could do...and then I was never afraid of the night again."
"And what did you learn?" asked DarkWolf as they sat down on his bed.
"I learned that the only light we need......is the light inside of us." Shae said quietly. "It will set us free and we won't have to be sad ever again."
Shae Marquette slowly reached her hand up beside the face of Justin Mills. It began to glow and a small orb of light formed in it. She rolled her fingers and the sparkling ball of light tipped from her hand and hung in mid air.
"Take it," she said. "It's for you...it's your own personal nightmare guard. As long as that light burns you'll sleep like a rock."
Justin reached out his hand, and carefully ran his fingers over the floating orb. The hair on his hand stood on end, but it wasn't hot to the touch. It seemed to pulse with a steady rythym. Then tuning in his acute senses, he realized it was the beating of Shae's heart.
"Thank you," he finally coughed out.
By this point the two teens were sitting face to face on DarkWolf's bed. His acute senses now picked up not only her heart beating through her light creation, but the sweet scent of her perfume. The smell was still delightful even mingled with the evening's sweat from dancing. He leaned toward her and she turned her head to meet his. Her hand came up and brushed his cheek and his entire body was filled with the same sensation he felt when he touched the orb. Their lips grew close.
Suddenly the bathroom door connecting his room to Belasco's flew open and the young demon lord came busting in.
"DUUUDE....you gotta check out this video I bought...it's the "Too Hot for TV Jerry Springer Thingy"...and you gotta see the cushions on this chic..," said Belasco as he barged in. "Oh...sorry...I didn't realize you had ...ummm...company...ummm....i'm ..umm.....ok.....see ya."
With that, the young demon, quickly shut the door and left. Glittergirl immediately busted into raucous laughter followed by quickly by DarkWolf. They smothered their faces in the pillows until they could finally stop. Then Shae got up to leave.
"That light should burn until morning. I gotta get back in my bed before the "little magic guy" catches me," she said.
"Thank you," Justin said once again....and he meant it from the bottom of his heart. Not for the too bright glitter globe that she had left him, but for the light she had turned on in his heart. DarkWolf laid his head down on his pillow and went directly to sleep, and didn't wake up for the rest of the night. His last thoughts were. "I don't think I'll have to worry about nightmares tonight."....and the truth is, for that night and several nights afterwards, he never did.
Glittergirl closed her eyes and thought of DarkWolf. The kid was really a scrapper.....and he was a hottie standing there like that in those boxers. She laughed thinking about the way he blushed when they talked......the way he would creep around in the "War Zone" being soooo careful not to hurt anyone, but he was no demon lord of Limbo. She then thought of Belasco.....the way he always seemed at ease and knew the right thing to say....his grin when he was getting into mischief...the way his long blonde hair probably felt. It was all so confusing...but what was the use anyway? If she let either one of them know how she felt, they would just hurt her in the end. When you give your heart to someone it always ended up like that. It's just like she told Justin.....all you need is yourself.
Darkwolf's situation was bad enough, Shae thought. He felt so uncomfortable here around all the new people here. It's hard trying to build bridges...to make friends.....He was so much braver than she was, but it was hard to be brave when you knew the way the world really worked....when you knew that if you ever give your trust...your love completely, it would destroy you. Sometimes, even the people you trusted most.....like your own parents......wouldn't accept you for what you were. Sometimes parents would try so hard to control and protect a child that seemed different, that they'd try to cover up the very thing that made that child special, hoping they could put out the light of diversity if only for a little while. Shae Marquette's mind was in turmoil. She didn't know what to do. Could she ever bridge the gap and truly care for someone again.
"No," she thought, "It's no use, what could either of them ever see in a runaway coward like me anyway."
Shae Marquette suddenly began to cry. It was at times like these, that the tears usually came. When she was alone....in the dark.....when all the masks were put away. She was no longer the wise cracking wildly flirtatious Glittergirl. At times like these the sparkling world of light that she could create was far away and she was just Shae Marquette again locked away in the darkness of her own loneliness. Slowly but surely the sobbing stopped, and she drifted off into a fitful sleep on a pillow still damp with tears, and as she slept, she dreamed.....dreamed of little girls, and the smell of dust and dark dark hallway closets.
Belasco shut the door quietly and returned to his video. Somehow the antics of crazed strippers and fueding lovers seemed not as interesting as they had earlier. He thought of Shae Marquette....the way her eyes lit up when she laughed.....the way she didn't bow down to anyone even in combat. She was so brave and pure. A girl like that could really turn someone's life around. But what would someone like that want with a filthy demon, like him? If she knew the things he'd done or seen in that hellish dimension where he was raised, she'd run screaming from him in terror. What would a happy and beautiful girl like that be able to share with a demon whose dark soul threatened to consume him at every turn. He ran his fingers through his hair and felt the small nubs of horns on his scalp that remained even in his humanoid form. He cursed himself silently and drifted off to sleep, silently hoping that nightmares would not come.
Mystikal
Grey Pawn
Official XMBB Scribe
"I hate redundacy and reptition"
"I try to hide my intellectual inadequencies with a bad attitude and big words like intellectual inadequencies."
Hellfire Court Webpage