Nightmares
Evie's POV
'I was running faster than I ever had before. I had to get to them. I had to save them. I ran as fast as my feet would carry me. I ran into the bank and through the corridors, his manic laughter echoing through my head. I stopped dead as I saw Alan, Tintin, Fermat, Brains, Kyrano, Onaha, Lady P and Parker all stood on the walkway above the mole.
"You failed them. You couldn't save them." The Hood said, suddenly appearing behind me. "They died, because of you."
"NO!" I screamed as the platform disappeared and they fell to the mole.
I was suddenly up on Thunderbird 5, watching as my brothers and father took their last breaths.
"This is because of you. They died because of you. Because you left." The Hood said.
"No! Dad!" I shouted. An alarm went off and the space station began to plummet to the earth below.
"This is your fault. All yours." His voice rang in my ears. "They died because you were too weak to save them."
I was suddenly on a field, looking at the wreckage of the fallen Thunderbird.
"NO!" I screamed, falling to my knees.
"You weren't strong enough. You were weak. Now you're all alone. The world will forever hate you. The woman who killed the Thunderbirds."'
I sat up in my bed, gasping for air and covered in a cold sweat. I looked around, taking in the familiar space of my room on Tracy Island.
"It was just a dream. It was just a dream." I whispered to myself, trying to control my breathing. I took in the lump at the bottom of my bed that was my older, blonde brother and sighed in relief. He was fine. He was alive.
I quietly stood up and made my way out of my room. I went straight to the kitchen and got a bottle of beer out of the fridge before heading towards my Dad's office. I sat in the chair behind the desk and grabbed the plans for Thunderbird 5 that I had left there earlier. I started making noted on everything that needed fixing or replacing and made a rough time schedule to get her online again as soon as possible, if John wanted to go back there that is.
"I thought you'd be here." I looked up to see Scott walking into the office. "You are the only person that would be awake at 2am working… And drinking." He said, taking note of the beer sat on the desk.
"Hi." I said, turning back to my work.
"What's wrong?" He asked, leaning against the desk.
"Nightmares. And don't pretend you don't know I'm still having them. I've woken up to one of you asleep at the bottom of my bed since I woke all of you up." I said, referring to the incident a week ago after John, Gordon and I returned from London and I had my first nightmare, waking them up when I screamed.
"We're worried about you, Evie." He said, looking at me with concerned eyes. "What happened?"
"It's nothing." I said.
"No Evie. I'm tired of that answer. Nothing is when you throw Gordon in the pool. Not working on stupid plans at 2am because you had a nightmare!" He snapped, grabbing the pen out of my hand and spinning the chair till I was facing him. "Why do you think we still sleep in your room? You may not wake us up screaming, but we notice when you leave the room. "
"Scott…" I sighed.
"No. I am not leaving until you tell me what it is you keep dreaming about." He said.
"I dream that I lose you! All of you!" I snapped before I could stop myself. His eyes widened and his jaw slackened.
"What?" He asked.
"Every night, I watch Alan, Tintin, Fermat, Brains, Kyrano, Onaha, Lady P and Parker fall of the damn platform and onto the mole, before watching the rest of you taking your last breaths on 5 before falling to Earth. And the whole time I have the Hood's voice in my head telling me that it's my fault you're all dead! That I wasn't strong enough to save you!" I said, tears leaking from my eyes. Scott pulled me into a hug, letting me cry into his shoulder. "I wake up feeling scared and alone and I don't know how to stop it."
"It's ok. It's not your fault." He said, running a hand through my hair. "We'll help you through it."
I sat up, wiping my eyes and looking down at the desk. "I've…um… I've got to finish this." I said, picking up the pen again.
"That will still be there in the morning." He said, pulling me out of the chair. "Come on, you need to go to bed."
"Yes, Smother Hen." I said, earning a small smile. He walked me to my room and waited for me to lay down before leaving. I saw John was still asleep at my feet and waited until I heard Scott's door close before getting back up and walking out of the house, pulling my denim jacket on over my tank top and shorts. I went straight to the beach and sat down in the sand, looking out at the moonlit water. I thought of everything and knew that I shouldn't shut them out, but I couldn't help it.
I sighed and stood up, running into the water and swimming around to relieve stress. I used my powers to make some jelly under the water which a school of fish started swimming round before swimming to my cave, the cave I found where I first became a mermaid. I lay on the rocks, my tail in the water and let my emotions consume me.
Gordon's POV
I suddenly woke up to the klaxon going off. I jumped up and ran to Dad's office, only to find Scott and John stood behind the desk as the rest of us ran into the room.
"Boys? What's going on?" Dad asked, pulling a shirt over his shorts.
"It's not a mission." John said. "Evie's gone."
"What do you mean gone?" Virgil asked, panic setting in.
"We don't know." Scott replied. "I saw her earlier and sent her back to bed. She had another nightmare."
"I heard her when she went back to bed, and then she left again. I thought she was just going to get a drink or something, but she didn't come back." John said.
"Did you ping her watch GPS?" Dad asked.
"It's offline." John said. "Which means she's a mermaid…"
"Or she disabled it." Scott finished.
"Why would she do that?" Tintin asked. She and Brains had run into the room soon after we had.
"Maybe she's leaving again?" I said. I didn't want to say it, I didn't want to even think about it, but someone needed to say it.
"She wouldn't leave." Virgil snapped, glaring at me.
"Gordon was only suggesting a possibility son." Dad said, putting a hand on Virgil's shoulder. "What does she keep dreaming about?"
"What do you think?" Scott asked. He looked at all of us, seeing our confusion. "She dreams about spring break. She said that she watches us take our last breath on 5 and she watches everyone else fall onto the mole in the bank. And the whole time she can hear the Hood saying it's her fault."
"What?" I asked, not believing what I had just heard. "Does she believe it?"
"I think she might." He said. "I know she still feels guilty for leaving us."
"Right. Gordon, swim around the Island for a bit, see if you can find her. Brains, see if you can get her GPS to work." Dad said.
"What about the rest of us?" Virgil asked, wanting to help find his twin.
"Go back to bed." Dad said before leaving the room before anyone could argue.
I ran to my room and quickly changed into my swim shorts. I grabbed the oxygen tank and mask from the cupboard on my way out and ran down to the beach. I dived off the pier and started swimming around the Island, looking for any sign of my sister. I watched a school of fish as I passed them. They seemed to be circling something. I looked closer and saw it was jelly. Evie had been here. I saw what looked like an underwater cave and went in, seeing something just above the water. I surfaced and saw Evie lying on her front on the rock, her tail slightly in the water.
"There you are." I said, pulling myself onto the rocks and taking off my gear. "We've been looking for you." She didn't say anything, just flicked the small pool of water in front of her. "You ok Belle?" I asked, using her old nickname.
"Fine." She muttered. I looked around the cave, wondering how she had found it.
"This is a nice place." I said, trying to defuse the tension. I looked back at her when I didn't get a reaction. "Scott told us about the dream."
"And what? You're here to make sure I haven't killed myself?" She asked, her voice dead.
"Actually, I'm here to make sure you're ok." I said, looking for a reaction. "Come on FishButt! You can't stay down here forever!"
"Try me." She said, but I caught the smirk, right before I was hit in the face by water.
"Hey!" I yelled, making her laugh. "There's my big sister. I thought I'd lost you for a second there." I said, happy that I made her laugh.
"You should know by now Gordo, you can never lose me." She said, turning over and sitting up. I could see tear tracks down her face and her eyes were red and puffy. I knew this nightmare was effecting her more than she let us know.
"Why don't you tell me what's really wrong." I said. She sighed and flicked the water with her tail.
"The dream. I see everyone I love die and there is nothing I can do about it." She said, closing her eyes and leaning back. I stayed quiet, knowing she needed to let it out. "I just feel so helpless and scared! It feels so real. And then I wake up and someone is lying at the bottom of my bed. Do you know I nearly shot Scott the first time I woke up to him sleeping on my bed? I just feel so alone and I panic."
"Evie, as long as we are here, you'll never be alone." I said, grabbing her hand.
"That's the point! What if you weren't here? What if the Hood had succeeded and killed all of you?" She asked, tears springing to her eyes.
"Evie, you can't focus on 'what if's. You've got to get past them." I said. "But I know where you're coming from. I never realised how close we all were to dying until I saw everything that needed fixing. I guess we've all been so focused on getting back online that we haven't had time to just sit and think about it." She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed.
"When did you turn into a Smother Hen?" She asked, making me laugh.
"When my big sister refused to talk." I replied. I noticed the time on my waterproof watch and sighed. "Come on. Let's get back before they send out the search party."
"I thought you were the search party." She said, sliding back into the water, keeping her shoulders and head above the surface.
"Yes, but the next one out will be Scott." I replied, making her eyes widen.
"Let's go." She said, going fully underwater before I even had my mask on.
"Hey! Wait up!" I yelled, quickly putting the mask on and diving under. I saw her waiting for me and she grabbed my hand as we started swimming. We swam back around the Island and came up close to the house. I helped drag her out of the water so she could use her powers to dry off. Her legs quickly replaced where her tail had been, along with her shorts, tank top, denim jacket and watch.
"No shoes?" I asked, helping her up.
"Nah. That would have woken John up." She said as we started walking back.
"He was already awake." I said, looking for some sort of reaction. "We're worried about you."
"I can take care of myself, Gordo." She replied with a small smile.
"I'm not saying that you can't. I just want to know if I'm going to have to scour the Earth looking for my sister again." I said. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder with a laugh.
"I'm going nowhere, Little Red." She said as we walked up the steps to the pool deck. "You're stuck with me."
"I'll hold you to that." I said as 8 figures ran out of the house.
"Evelyn!" Dad shouted, pulling her into a hug. "How many times do I have to tell you not to do that to me? You're going to give me grey hairs!"
"Dad, you've had grey hairs for a long time." She laughed before pulling away and looking at him. "I'm sorry. These nightmares just scare me more than anything and I don't know what to do. The swim helps clear my mind."
"Just don't scare me like that again. I didn't know what to think when we couldn't ping your watch." He said.
"Well, I'm here now." She smiled before Virgil grabbed her arm and dragged her away. "What are you doing?
"I am going to tie you to a bed in the infirmary. That way you'll stay in one place." He said.
"What? Virgil! No!" She protested as they vanished into the house.
"Looks like you're going to have to rescue your sister." Dad chuckled.
"Even I know better than to mess with Virgil when he's in the infirmary." I said as I walked into the house. I wanted a bit more sleep before my morning swim in the pool. Hopefully our lives would go back to normal now. Well, as normal as it can be for a Tracy.
Here's a nice little one shot for you guys.