Title: Use As Directed

Series: Moments Out Of Time

Author: Len

Rating: K

Words: 300ish

Disclaimer: not mine, borrowing characters for recreational use.

Notes: Drabble, based on the prompt dream. This one features two characteristics that are uncharacteristic of me: angst, and brevity.

More Notes: What an addictive fandom. The story possibilities are limitless when the universe is actually set in dreams. Whee!


On the bad nights, Ariadne still dreams. She dreams in tangled moments, like a film that's been edited poorly and never completed. They flicker one after another though her mind, saturated with emotions she's never felt. Some images are tragic, some are innocuous but matched with inexplicable terror. She sees a boy weeping over gravestone in a muggy cemetery, skies bright with sunshine and buzzing insects (such a good boy why couldn't you run faster mummy's little man yell louder fight back).

She hears screams, gunshots. A woman pleading and falling, bleeding, at her feet. Other shadows rush by, licked by flames, and she tastes the acrid smoke (oh great merciful god choking dying confusion must find him how did they know).

Sometimes she sees herself. Older than she is now, fine lines across her skin, around tired eyes. Older Ariadne stands on an empty plane, and turns to meet the eyes of the dreamer. She screams without opening her mouth (stop please wake me up no don't go in there no no help me). Then there is a burning, panicked fear unlike anything she's ever known.

Ariadne wakes exhausted and strung out after these nightmares. She's new to Extraction, but smart enough to know that they do not belong to her. In the mornings it's hard to meet the eyes of her teammates - she feels like she's been caught committing the worst violation of their minds. She wonders what twisted part of her own psyche they're being treated to. Doesn't really want to know. Ultimately, it's just another item she can add to the "side effects may include" list. After a while, these nightmares become part of a routine. Make a dream, share a dream, take a dream. There's little rest for those wicked enough to play God. And they've no-one to blame but themselves.