June 9th, 2018

Hope you enjoyed!

:)

-V-

Waking Nightmares

"'That's not the point. You died - that's the scary part...'"

(Rated T)

No One's Perspective-

Sweat beaded from her temple, trailing down her cheek and neck. Being backed into a corner generally was one of the worst things that could happen to somebody's ego - and for one's survival, though Tori knew high-school-ers rarely thought that way. And, this wasn't a normal circumstance: The ground shook and creaked below her feet, all while her friends cowered around her, the red glowing eyes of a large, black beast glaring down at them.

Cat had screeched, holding her purple giraffe whose body now more resembled a lanky horse, its head still caught in the monster's mouth.

Beck remained stock-still, lips pursed to retain his own scream; he remained adamant that the monster would attack at any noise.

Andre began rambling, wide-eyed like his grandmother.

Robbie pissed himself while holding Rex - whose plastic face remained slacked, mouth open - in his arms.

Jade was the only one watching the monster carefully, her scissors clutched in her fists whilst her other grip was tight around Tori's wrist.

And Tori, while the monster grinned down at her, felt herself melt to the floor.

The monster snarled menacingly, snapping with its long fangs, "If you don't crumble with the school, you'll crunch in my mouth!" Everybody didn't want to take the chance. In pairs - Andre with Beck, Cat with Robbie and Tori siding with Jade - they darted everywhere the could manage. The first pair hurled themselves over the stair railing; Cat and Robbie bolted between the monster's legs, after the awkward boy ran into the lockers; the last two sprinted down the hall after Jade threw the scissors at the monster's face. It shrilled loudly, backing away on its purple hooves. "You'll pay for that you rotten squirrel!"

Jade and Tori were unfazed, hurtling over the lockers as they tumbled to the ground. Tori thought of herself competing valiantly in the Olympics. "Jade!" she wheezed as they neared the back stairs, which were used far less than the ones in the main hall. "We need to get rid of that thing! I have a paper to write for Mr. Wentworths!"

"Yeah," Jade agreed in a gruff voice, "and I need to polish my scissor collection. I can't do it with that thing chasing us."

The ground trembled once again, the lights flickering above them. "Let's go upstairs! Maybe we can escape the monster and earthquake there!" Jade nodded in agreement before pushing Tori along, their steps determined to reach the safe-haven that was only a few more feet away.

The stairs collapsed into a ramp, sending both the girls groaning on their hinds. "Jade!" Tori shrieked, clutching the other's bicep tightly. "We're slipping!"

"Of course, you dumb-ass!" was the only thing hollered back as they rocketed down the stairs, the floor below opening. The girls tumbled through the trap door, the mouth then closing moments later. The room was dark aside the eerie green glow. Jade took out a long flashlight from her back pocket, flicking it on to allow a bright, pink beam of light into the shadows. "We're underneath the school."

"Of course, you dumb-ass!" Tori parroted. Jade gave a stern glare over her shoulder, rolling her eyes once she earned a shrug.

"Anyway, we're underneath the school. Do you hear that?" Tori paused listening to the thundering, constant stream of boom! ringing in her ears. She nodded as Jade flashed her light towards the edge of the room. There was a door, a long, wooden one with foggy glass. Tori squinted before moving forward, noticing printed words on the glass; the door read:

666 B

C. L. Fang
Terrorizing Agency

Call (213) 666-8014 for Services

"That must be the monster's office!" Tori exclaimed.

Jade grinned. "We can see its plans. It's still upstairs, isn't it?" Tori nodded before her steps bounded towards the door. She wrenched it open, covering her ears a second later. The aggravating sound came from this room; based on the shadows, there were machines pounding against the ceilings with frightening force. Jade flashed her pink light towards them. "They're stone fists. The monster must be causing all of the earthquakes in Los Angeles!" Tori squirmed as she watched the machines - stone fists - smashing against the ceiling with brutal energy, the ground shaking above them. Dirt dribbled on Tori's shoulder before she dusted it off - which occurred every other step.

Before she could open her mouth to say something, the room began to grow in a red haze, a copper mist plaguing the air. The girls immediately twisted towards the doorway, the monster stomping towards them with a wide smile. Tori whimpered once she recognized all of her other friends' dismembered arms within the cracks of its teeth. "NO!" she screamed. Jade held her hand in comfort.

"What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here!" it roared.

"We're sorry! We slipped and found your door and went in!" Tori blubbered as she backed away, Jade at her side.

The monster blinked towards Jade, smoke beginning to dwindle from its mouth; the arms began to blacken, burning ashes sizzling at its feet. "I said you would regret this, you rotten squirrel," it scowled, pointing at it's eye-patch with a printed, white skull.

Jade's eyes widened before she looked at Tori tearfully. She opened her mouth before abruptly disappearing. "NO! JADE, NO!" Tori screamed - louder, this time. Jade fell through the floor, a fiery abyss at the bottom. A sink-hole - to Hell!

"Now...what to do with you. You know, the reason why I'm here is because of you..."

Tori - her eyes still straining on the glowing, circular pit - grimaced. "W-what do you mean?"

"I mean, somebody called and I have to destroy your future! Might as well start with your school and friends." The monster grinned before stepping forward, backing tori into another corner. It snatched her arms before throwing her against a stone fist. "Now I shall crush you and make you my soupy-dinner!" He tossed her underneath the machine as it raised, her doe eyes wide with terror.

"N-no, please! I beg- NOOO!" she bellowed as grey rocketed towards her head.

. . .

She jerked from her pillow, sitting upright with a cold sweat. Her eyes darted around the room. Instead of the hot, humid room that the monster had as an office, a chill prickled her bare skin. Tori raised the sheets to her shoulders, abruptly aware of her immodest state. Good, she thought, it was just a nightmare. She gave a meek smile, recognizing the room as Jade's, who never had the AC higher than seventy. Tori turned towards the blue, illuminated light beside her; the alarm read 2:44.

Tori turned towards the pillows, jerking slightly. She could feel Jade's scowl, even in the dark room. "What's wrong?" she scowled, obviously still irritated from her interrupted sleep.

"I just had a nightmare."

She could even feel Jade arching her pierced brow. Tori shifted under the covers, her naked shoulders and chest begging for warmth. "Just a nightmare? Tori, you were screaming like a fucking goat."

Tan cheeks warmed with a blush. "It was scary..." Jade turned to her side, sheets draping underneath her arms.

"Try me."

Tori sighed, and began retelling her terrifying dream. "So, school had a lockdown because of an earthquake-"

"So you were screaming my name? Tori, that is inappropriate."

"-and all of the teachers were disappearing when they left the classrooms," Tori pressed on, ignoring the comment. "And so we all looked around and there was this great, big mole-monster! And it had eaten the teachers and using their legs as toothpicks." She paused, playing with a loose string from the pillow cover. "So we all split up and you and I went upstairs to escape the monster and earthquake-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You went upstairs to escape an earthquake?"

Tori scowled. "I'm not done! It's a nightmare and you agreed, so..." Jade scoffed as she continued. "Anyway, so we were going upstairs and it became this slide, and we slid underneath the school. It was like this den, and so you pulled out your flashlight that you had when you were in girl-scouts-"

"I thought I told you never to talk about that thing again," she snapped.

"It was in my dream, okay? I can't control what I think!" Tori whined. Jade rolled her eyes, though burrowed into her pillow, waiting for the rest of the tale. "So, yeah, you pulled out your pink flashlight, and we looked around the room. We ended up finding this door that was the monster's...I think his name was C. F. Fang, or something like that. Anyway, it was for the 'Terrorizing Agency', and we opened the door and it was his office." Jade snorted, a tight smirk playing her lips. Tori was glad that she didn't say anything other than that. "And then we found out that the earthquakes were happening because of it, and these stone-fist machines were breaking the ground. Then the monster came and everybody's arms were in its teeth... Oh, and before you threw scissors at it-"

"Yeah, fuck mole-monsters."

Tori frowned. "So it was wearing the pirate eye-patch-"

Jade growled in the dark bedroom, "Why?"

"W-well, I don't know! It was a nightmare!"

"Uh huh... Still waiting for the scary part of this 'nightmare'."

The half-Latina found herself stumbling over her words. "W- I- It... It was scary!" As Jade's tongue clicked at the roof of her mouth, Tori only groaned. "Well, erm, okay, so then he had you fall through this sink-hole to Hell... And then he squashed me with a stone fist..." Her words trailed off as her heart slowed. Once the nightmare had left her tongue, she did feel sheepishly stupid. Jade waited, in the dark, for more before cracking a smile.

"That's it? That's the scary dream?" Small, snarky giggles and chortles erupted from her, leaving Tori feeling a tingle of embarrassment. She shifted uncomfortably under the blankets, her lips pursed. Once she realized that the chuckles wouldn't be dying down - if anything, gaining volume - she twisted around to her other side. "Tori," Jade wheezed through a laugh, "come on, it's funny."

"No, it wasn't," she retorted stubbornly. "It was really terrifying actually."

There was another snicker before Jade murmured, "Oh come on...it's not that bad." Tori still heard the wide smile. She remained with her back towards Jade. "Baby...don't be like that," Jade then purred after a few moments. Tori felt her wall weaken: Jade knew honeyed names would give her an advantage. But she remained resilient, even with the soothing nails grazing across her shoulders. "Tori?" she whispered quietly. "You can't argue with that. It was funny, alright?"

"No it wasn't..." Tori mumbled into her pillow. "You died right next to me."

Hands curled at her waist, rubbing against her smooth skin. "Really? Tori, I died because of a sink-hole that some pirate mole-monster made for me to go to Hell. If anything, that's probably the least fun way to go."

Of course she would say that... Tori's thoughts hummed. She felt her breath hitch once Jade pressed her body against hers, lips pecking her shoulder.

"Tori... Come on, the dream was stupid and you know it." There was another peck, right at the crook of her neck. "Babe, it's just a stupid nightmare."

"That's not the point. You died - that's the scary part."

Jade remained quiet beside her, arms still around her - warm and snug - with fingers dancing along tan skin. "I'm not going to leave anytime soon, Tori, you do know that, right?"

"Well, I- yeah, I know that."

"So what? I'm still here. You even had to tell me that I died - from a mole-monster that makes earthquakes." Tori shifted, her irritation slowly slipping away. Her intoxicating touch was beginning to be too much.

She sighed, hesitantly mumbling, "Yeah...I guess."

Tori twisted over, finding Jade with a soft smirk, an eyebrow raised. She cupped her cheek before leaning forward, pressing pink lips against her own. She felt her grin against her mouth. Once they broke away, Jade grumbled, "See? Not leaving you."

"I know that."

Jade gave a short laugh, pulling the sheets back to their shoulders. "And if you tell me another dream about me dying again from that stupid monster, I'm shoving my pink flashlight up your ass."

Tori released a relaxed snicker. "I know."

. . .

Her foot tapped anxiously against the white tile, her eyes examining the white room in the white light. Everything was too clean - even the trashcan. Jade always hated doctor offices; not that she had anything against doctors, no. If fact, she actually respected them. But that didn't stop her from never wanting to go into an office, just because it was so unnatural. She growled, checking her phone. Thirty minutes had already passed and she still didn't have a doctor check up on her.

Emitting a long groan, Jade sunk into the patient's bench - or whatever it was called - the paper rustling against her shirt.

The door swung open seconds later, a man in a long white cloak entering the room. Dr. Butternut was printed across his nametag. "Miss West, I have your results."

"Okay," she muttered slowly, sitting back up. "What?"

He took a deep breath, and examined the paper once again. "You have Coffeelongitis."

"Wh...what?" Jade asked.

Dr. Butternut sighed, settling into a chair in the corner of the room. "We examined your results with every kind we could think of...every bean from each continent and, well, I'm sorry Miss West."

Jade rolled her eyes before pressing, "Well what is it?"

The doctor took in a long breath before explaining, "You're allergic to every coffee bean imaginable."

She paused, her eyes widening. "What? That- that can't be true, no! It must've been something else in the coffee, it has to."

He shook his head slowly, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news. "You drink the coffee black with two sugars. There's nothing other than that in it; Miss West, you can never have a cup of coffee again. If you do, you may run the risk of human combustion." She shook her head, feeling bile begin to pool in her mouth.

"No... No, impossible! No! You're lying!"

The white room began to spin.

And the floor began to topple over, sending Jade down a spiraling fall. Her flesh began to blister as she felt coffee run against it. Jade was drowning, burning, melting.

. . .

When Tori began sipping her water, Jade jerked violently from under the small blanket, grunting irritably. Tori found herself covered in water once she slopped it all over herself. "Bad dream?" she asked once Jade began observing her bedroom, growling tiredly.

"It was just a stupid one," came an answer as Tori's laptop was examined; what water was on the screen was wiped away.

"What was it about?"

Jade glanced over towards Tori, doe eyes giving undivided attention from behind glasses. "You better not laugh..."

"I won't," Tori promised.

She felt a small pang, knowing the vow to be true. If only Jade were the same. Nevertheless, she sighed. "I had a doctor's appointment and I was allergic to all the coffee in the world." Tori felt a quirk of a smile nearly show itself, though she restrained herself.

"That's sad."

Jade grumbled, "I don't need your sympathy." Even so, she rested her head against Tori's side, watching as a history mid-term paper was typed. Her eyes slowly closed once a soothing hand rubbed her arm, ruffling the long-sleeved shirt.

"Are we going to have these talks every single time one of us sleeps over?"

"Hmm?" Jade hummed, her eyes closed. "Maybe..." she muttered sleepily. "Now quiet, I need to rest for the tests tomorrow." Tori chuckled, her hand continuously stroking her side. After a few moments, Jade asked, "So when are you sleeping?"

"After this paragraph."

Pale eyes blinked open, the conclusion a sentence in. She shut them, the illuminated light being too bright. "You better protect me from evil doctors when you're done." Jade grinned once lips pressed against her temple moments later.

"Yeah, and you better protect me from monsters."

Yes, I know, should've updated somethin' else since...whatever. I think I enjoyed writing this more than I should've. That, and I figured I could give another one-shot an announcement. And if it makes you feel any better, I gave myself the challenge to do this within an hour or two. So, not much time spent. ;) Also, I drabbled with different page-breaks - how exciting.

Hope you enjoyed!

:)