Chapter 2
1 AM. 2 AM. 3 AM. 3:30 AM. 4 AM.
By the time Victor managed to drag his ass off the sofa, it was 4:45 AM, and the first slivers of morning light were peeking through the window.
Hitting the main control switch in the main hall, the whole Creed household descended into darkness and Victor began to climb the stairs, his eyes still picking out every detail in the darkness as they would in the light.
He took his time walking to his room on the top floor, doing anything to avoid getting to the room, and to his bed. He'd sat up for a week straight, too intimidated by his own dreams to sleep. Layla had started insisting he sleep, and her whining was beginning to rub him up the wrong way.
Even at his slow, steady pace, Victor got to his room far too quickly for his liking. Thoughts about the dreams he'd have as soon as he let himself slip into sleep ate away at his mind, causing him to hesitate at the thick wooden room to his room. He sighed. The nightmares never let his sleep soundly as long as he killed people for money or his own sick pleasure.
Victor Creed would do anything for a decent nights sleep.
Closing the door silently behind him, he drifted to his bed and dropped himself onto the abused mattress, the springs giving a slight squeak as he did so. He'd have to get Burns to order a new one. Victor rolled onto his back, his hands gripping the covers, and let himself go.
The blackness. The dark. It filled his mind, his sight, and his senses. He hoped this would be it. Victor sat alone in the dark, praying this was it. He sat hunched up, arms wrapped around his knees as he waited. He could feel them around him, waiting. Just waiting. He hadn't sat like this since...No. Victor refused to think of it. Not now. If he did. If he thought about it, the names, the pliers, the axe, He'd never make it through the night. But it was already too late. The memories forced him to drop his guard, and that's when they came for him.
A whimper, soft and pained pierced the darkness behind him. Victor didn't turn. He knew who was there. It was the same little boy that was always there, that always started his nightmares. The whimper from the little lad became stronger, turning into a groan, like a zombie, waiting for him to turn.
"Fuck off." Victor mumbled. All he wanted to do was dream peacefully.
The groan sounded again, being joined by a second.
"Fuck. Off." Victor growled louder than before. They were coming for him.
Hands began to pull at him. At his sweat pants and his hair, their nails biting into his skin.
"Please. Just fuck off!" he hissed through gritted teeth. "I had ta do it. It's my Job." More voices came from the darkness as more hands pulled at him. Victor began to lash out at the blooded, cut, gory faces and bodies that edged toward him, their dead eyes fixed on him and only him.
"FUCK OFF!" He yelled, springing to his feet and trying to charge his way through them.
Victor recognised every face. Their names had faded and become lost in time, but their faces remained. They were all victims. People he'd killed, whether it was for sport, or business. There were always new ones joining them too, as he continued with his work. And they were forever pulling at his mind while he dreamed.
"STOP!" He roared as bloody hands caught his ankles, stopping his escape. They came for him quickly then, pulling and forcing him under. Their dead, pale eyes focused on Victor, desperate to take him with them as they faded into his dreams.
"NO! STOP! GET THA FUCK OFF ME!" He roared as they drove him under. Somehow, he managed to surface again, gulping and sweating with his struggling.
"Stop yer strugglin' boy!" yelled a voice from the darkness as Victor was suddenly pulled from the sea of grasping hands, only to be slammed back onto a cold stone floor, his hands and feet bound.
"I'll fix you." Hissed the voice again, coming from a shadowy figure as it approached him. Victor eyes widened with terror and he began to pull at the restraints.
"No. No! Please pa, PLEASE!"
"Ya got the devil in you boy. I'm gonna fix that though. Fix you once and fer all!"
Victor was yelling for help by then, screaming at the black outline of his mother in the door way to stop the man that had spent so many years subjecting him to horrible punishment Victor had done nothing to receive.
"Please Pa! No, I'm beggin' ya! Please don't!" He bellowed at the top of his lungs as his father learned over him, pliers in hand. Victor's mother turned her back on her son, yet again.
Victor yelped, eyes popping open in shock and fright. He quickly sat himself upright, still panting from the nightmare when a single shiver ran down his spine as phantom pains made his claws and teeth ache as if they had been pulled free from his person.
Holding his head in his hands, Victor whimpered quietly to himself, one eye looking through the crack between his fingers at the clock on his bedside table. 5:37 AM. Shit...
He'd only been in bed just less than an hour.
With a yawn, He ran his fingers through his sweat soaked hair before looking at the clock again. It was too early to wake Layla, or was it? No, it wasn't fair on her, waking her up every time he had a nightmare. He scoffed at that thought. Sabretooth. The biggest and meanest merc out there, running to a little girl for comfort every time he had a nightmare.
Jesus, my rep would go down tha shitter if anyone ever found out. Victor thought with a shake of his head. But, despite his doubts, Victor got out of bed and left his room, plodding, barefoot, down the hall to Layla's room.
Her once bland door had been decorated over the years. The decoration reflecting her change in tastes. At that point in time, her door was covered in band posters. Pictures of men in eyeliner or full face make up, pulling, what they must have thought were threatening, faces. Clad in leather and spikes, with curious names like 'Cannibal Corpse' and 'Napalm death'. Victor snored in amusement. They actually sounded pretty interesting.
He didn't bother knocking. He never did. She'd learned to live with it, even if it meant him walking in on her in an 'awkward' moment. In Victor's opinion, they were the best times to walk in on someone. Opening the door, he entered quietly. Her once light violet walls had long since been changed; with every surface now covered in more posters of random things she seemed to take interest in.
His gaze fell to the ball shaped creature, curled up in middle of the queen sized bed, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth as he watched her wiggle further under the covers as a cool breeze from her open door ran over her.
The door was shut soundly, and Victor finally stalked over to Layla as she slept, crawling onto the end of her bed and leaning over her sleeping form.
"Layla." He purred to the tuft of blond hair poking out from under the covers. When she didn't stir, he rasped her name a little louder, relishing her little shiver. But the game soon became old, and Victor impatiently stabbed at the covers with his finger. "Layla, Wake up!" he growled.
A small hand came from under the covers suddenly, sleepily trying to swat his hand away with a little grumble of annoyance.
"Frail, wake tha fuck up already!" He finally snapped, shaking her roughly by the shoulder.
Layla groaned and rolled onto her back, rubbing her face with her hand. "What do you want from me?" she whined. Eventually, she opened one lazy eye and spotted Creed's scowling expression.
"Oh Vic. It's you." She yawned.
"Yea its me." He grunted.
Layla just about managed to push herself up onto her elbow to look at him properly. Victor looked away gravely. He looked desperate for a decent nights sleep and smelled like sweat. Layla pushed her hair out of her eyes and shuffled up closer to him, gently resting her head on his shoulder.
"Did you have another nightmare?" she asked, another yawn following soon after.
Victor shrugged and grunted in response. He'd never been one for sappy moments where he'd go into detail about it and maybe have a little cry. But Victor was confident that Layla understood. They were that close at least. The teen girl gave a tired smile and brushed her lips over the skin of his shoulder.
"Ok." She yawned once more. "but when Burns comes to get me up in the mornin', you can explain why your asleep in my bed with me like some giant, feral teddy bear."
The larger mans smirk went unnoticed by her and she wiggled back under the covers on one side of her bed, throwing the covers back for him to join her. Happily, Victor obliged, crawling into the space next to her and wrapping an arm protectively around her waist.
"Was it bad?" Layla finally asked, barely feeling the pull of sleep anymore. Victor grunted in response and nuzzled closer to her, sucking in a deep breath as he smelt her hair.
"I'm sorry Vic." Layla cooed to him, stroking the arm around her waist.
"You aint done nothin' wrong girl." He mumbled back.
"I know." Layla sighed. "But I really hate seeing you so distressed about shit like this." She continued, still caressing the skin of his arm.
"What yer mean Lay?" Victor frowned. His skin began to prickle with excitement at her touch. Being fifteen, Layla's body was going through the normal puberty changes. Her hormones tended to exaggerate any mood she may have been in; this included the recent scents of arousal she'd began to give off. These hormones played havoc with Victor's nose and senses and had become increasingly harder to control himself at moments like that.
Layla turned in his grip, coming face to face with a beast many prayed never to, but Layla wasn't many, and everything about Victor was amazing to her young mind.
"I wish you didn't have these nightmares. I just want you to be able to chill and sleep without getting so tense." She pouted.
Victor gave a snort and stared back at her with curious amusement at her behaviour.
"Yer and strange girl Layla." Her purred, pulling her closer and tucking her head under his chin.
"Yea. But that's the reason you love me." She purred back. Victor really couldn't hold back the laughter at the statement. Love her? Victor shook his head.
"Go to sleep Lay."
I just wanna say sorry about this chapter peeps. It does suck and I'm nowhere near happy with it. but I was falling asleep trying to write it. maybe I should sleep a little before writing in future. yes? lol