Title: Heroin Nightmare
Original post date: 19th February 2006
Spoilers: up to 2x11
Summary: Charlie gets so caught up in his own dream that when he wakes he thinks he's still dreaming.
Disclaimer: Oh how I wish this was mine all mine.
A/N: The plot bunnies attack and I obey. Not my strongest work but it needed to be written or my muse would have been hitting me over the head with a cardboard tube forever and a day.
The sound of a twig snapping jolted him awake and he sat up, eyes wide, staring into the darkness, feeling very exposed. It was a hot night and he'd paused to take his shirt off before falling asleep but now there was a chill wind blowing and he shivered a little and rubbed at his goose bumped skin as he glanced automatically down the beach at Claire's shelter where she and her son were still sleeping, oblivious.
He got to his feet and moved cautiously towards the tree line, peering blindly into the darkness. His breathing seemed much louder than usual and he tried to quiet it.
Snap.
His head whipped around to the source of the sound and he felt the adrenalin begin pumping through his veins, as someone emerged from the trees a little further down. He was surprised to see that they were wrapped in a blanket of some kind and hesitated for a moment.
When they turned and looked directly at him however, he froze. The person began to walk towards him slowly and Charlie found himself rooted to the spot. It looked like a she, it moved like a she but…
As she came closer Charlie took an uncertain step backwards.
The woman before him was familiar but impossible. Long hair. Soft eyes. Pale, almost ashen skin. And in her arms – Charlie swallowed hard – she held a bloody swaddle of cloth.
Silently she stepped up to him, barely as tall as Claire, and offered him the bundle in her arms. Charlie took it, suddenly trembling at the feel of cold blood dripping into his hands.
Open.
Terrified but filled with a morbid curiosity he pulled back a corner of the soiled blanket in his arms and gave a cry of horror, dropping the mangled and bloody remains of a baby onto the ground.
He took several rapid steps back, staring horrified at the still form on the ground, and then looked down at his own hands, covered in blood.
The woman gestured at Claire's shelter and Charlie felt his mouth go dry.
Inside.
Within a frantic moment he was inside the shelter and within another he was back outside again, retching violently in the sand. Her body was spreadeagled, mutilated almost beyond recognition and there was blood, blood everywhere. A man, his eyes dark with murderous lust and scratch marks down his cheeks knelt over her, grinning horribly at Charlie – his shirt black with her blood.
'No…' he gasped, threads of saliva connecting his mouth to the nauseating puddle of vomit before him. He spit and felt his stomach clench as he began to cry, huge gasping sobs, as he retched again. And then the woman was clawing at him like some wild animal and Charlie was screaming, pushing her away as she chanted his name over and over in a mocking singsong voice.
Charlie…Charlie…Charlie…Charlie…
'Charlie!'
His eyes burst open and he screamed again, pushing himself away from the apparition in front of him.
'Charlie?'
He was still sobbing, gasping for air and he could taste the bitterness of vomit in his mouth, still trapped in his nightmare. The woman before him was Mary, her hair dark not golden, her unsoiled shirt unstained with Claire's blood but she was still Mary.
'Charlie!' She caught hold of his flailing wrists and held them still, speaking very clearly. 'It's Kate. You were having a nightmare.'
Charlie barely hears her words; he can feel the tears burning down his face and all he knows is that Claire is dead. Aaron is dead. He can see their bodies in his mind, can feel their blood on his skin, but when he looks he can't see the bloody remains of a child lying in the sand and somehow his hands are unsoiled…
'Mary!' he pushes her away with a force he didn't know he possessed and she sprawls backwards as he clambers to his feet. 'Don't touch me! I'll kill you! You killed her!'
There are other voices now; people are crowding around to see what is wrong as Charlie fumbles through his possessions. Finally his hands close on something cool and hard and he pulls forth his greatest treasure and greatest burden. He runs to the closest fire where he smashes her into a thousand pieces and pours her blood and body into the ravenous flames and then he stands back and watches as it all burns and crisps into ash.
After a few minutes he feels the dream begin to fade away and he relaxes a little. His pulse slows. His breathing becomes normal again. He even smiles a little. He's won.
'Charlie?' He turns. Kate's voice is tentative and she looks afraid. 'Are you…okay?'
He nods, panting slightly and turns back to the flames.
'I've killed her now. She can't have her.'
'Who can't…?'
'I've killed her,' Charlie interrupts dazedly, his eyes still on the fire in front of him, not even hearing Kate's voice. 'She can't ever have her now.'