A/N: Sort of a short chapter, but I couldn't add to it. I guess it's not too short. I do like it though, I liked writing it because it's kind of dark and different. I kept flipping out as I was typing it in the car though, haha, I'm fairly certain my dad thinks I'm crazy. (But then again, people generally do, so it's all good.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.
EDIT: This is a dream, in case it was hard to tell, sorry I forgot the italics. Fixed now! :)
"Katie," she heard someone whisper from across the room.
She looked up from having her face buried in her knees. The people outside had shown no sign of letting her out of this tent all alone, and so she had sunk to the floor to sob with her knees pulled up to her chest. Any other voice and she would've wiped her eyes and tried to regain her composure first, but her head shot up as she looked at the source of the sound. "Mom?"
She stood and ran to her mother, throwing her arms around her and feeling around six again, as she had with her dad. What had been happening at the time when she'd been little and ice-skating? She pushed the thought away. It didn't matter, not really. Her mother was there, the person who had fought away all her nightmares when she was young and became part of her nightmares when she was older, having haunted her dreams for years. So which was she now? The protector or the source? Kate backed away slightly and examined her mom. Johanna Beckett smiled at her. "You're okay, Katie. You're okay."
Kate let her mother bury her in her arms, like she'd needed for twelve years. Twelve years since her mother had hugged her. The tears came even harder now. "Mom, what's going on? They won't tell me anything, I've been all alone-"
Johanna shook her head, smiling sadly. "You're not alone, sweetheart, you're never alone. You've always got someone to stand with you. You're lucky. Now, I need you to fight, you have to fight-"
"Fight what?" she asked. Her mother's voice had turned frightened and it scared her. If her mother was scared then she should be too. It was no secret that Kate Beckett was fearless, but that courage stemmed from Johanna. The words seemed so familiar to Kate, as if she'd heard them...as if she'd said them.
"Fight, Katie, fight," Johanna said sadly, looking down at her daughter's torso. Kate followed her gaze just as a searing pain shot along her ribs, and seeing the red blossoming on her shirt, she started to breath faster as though she could not get enough air and then not at all, and then she collapsed once again. Her mother watched her fall, not able to do anything to help. The last thing she saw before the blackness was Johanna's despair as she fell away from her, never able to stay with her. But did her mother want her to?
The black shot forward as though she were moving through space, and colors appeared in lights, which came down in flowing sun rays and flashing lights painting a picture around her, the colors dripping down around her, as if someone was dripping paint down the side of a glass cylinder that surrounded her, that she was trapped in. Like the colors created the world from some divine hand outside of this cage that surrounded her on all sides that she couldn't see but knew was there. And he stood in front of her, smiling, and she looked up at him in confusion. "What's going on?" she asked.
"You don't get it," he chuckled, but his face soon became serious. "Typical Kate. Always too blind to see what's right there. And now it's too late."
"Too late?" She spun, trying to figure out what was happening. The police car held Harrison Tisdale, the red and blue lights flashing. The day she'd walked away from him for the first time. She looked back at Castle, who had lost all semblance of humor on his face. "Always, Kate. Didn't I promise always? If you don't come back there is no always. And all because you were too late, too late to say it-"
"Say what?" she asked desperately, but he put a fingers to his lips and turned to walk away despairingly. No, that wasn't right, she walked away first, and he watched her leave, not the other way around. She tried to lunge after him but hands caught her, holding her back from following and calling after him what was the matter with him, and she struggled; she glanced behind her to see Hal Lockwood, his face completely expressionless, as though he was merely a shade of what he had been alive, pulling her away, holding onto her arms. She screamed against him as the scene changed, just the two of them moving through space and time to land in the hangar. Roy was on the ground, she was watching herself kneel over his body, heard her own sobs, and Lockwood's body lay beside them both. But he kept pulling her farther as Castle ran inside to comfort her; she watched herself lean into his chest and cry. Her movements seemed slow, like she and her captor moved through molasses while the rest of the world sped up, spinning faster. She screamed and fought but his hands were like lead, and he managed to spin her around, away from the scene, and he held one of her hands in an iron grip, while the other circled her waist, and suddenly he made her dance, spinning and waltzing around the hangar, so full of death, and the other souls appeared above their bodies, lying on the cold floor. They moved closer together, watching, closing a circle around her and her evil dance partner. He spun her out and let go, and she switched hands, dancing with another killer as the first shrunk back into the circle. Within a minute she was passed around to each person standing there, while still on the outside, oblivious, she and the only dance partner she wanted sat over their Captain's body. She spun back to Lockwood, who stopped the dance abruptly and leaned down to kiss her, missing her lips when she struggled and meeting her jaw. He caught her chin and smirked as she attempted to pull away. "Come on, Detective, that's not very kind of you." And he kissed her again, and she had no control but to kiss him back, as though he controlled her, controlled her mind. Once again this seemed so familiar, and when she closed her eyes she could pretend she was kissing another man. After quite a bit she realized what she was doing and her eyes opened; she screamed against his mouth and pushed away suddenly, stumbling to the floor at their feet, and then Dick Coonan approached, holding his knife, and as he descended, crouching beside her, no emotion flitting over his face as Lockwood had remained so devoid of emotion, she scrambled backwards, screaming more, until her screams subsided to choked sobs. He laced the edge of the blade around her jaw gently, not enough to break the skin. Her breathing was shallow as she tried to shrink back further but found her way blocked by Lockwood's faceless men. Coonan smiled and slid his knife slowly through her skin, and she found the breath to scream again as pain shot through her stomach, blocking every other thought and blinding her to the world.
A/N: Hope it was good! I don't know if liked is quite the word for it, but if you did then let me know!
Indy
