Notes: Well...so much for my weekly update plan. Lightning hit our house and fried our internet...we just got the computers back YESTERDAY. And this happened like 2 weeks ago. So my major apologies for a delay. Shorter chapter right here. But hey, better than nothing. Now I'm a terrible person because I usually don't review what I read, but I browsed the selections earlier, and I must say I like what I see. I liked Freddy's Coming for You by AnInfamous Nightmare and October by Returning Moon is top notch (with a few spelling errors. But hey go back and read Another Nightmare and you'll find a few that I made too.) I'm kind of brewing myself into some trouble with the story here. Now its not that I don't know what will happen, its more of how to explain and what needs to happen. More or less its writer's block. I know what to do, just not sure how to do it. Don't worry, I'm doing what I can. So please leave comments and critiques even if you want. I'm all ears.
Riley...Happy Summer equinox too!
Chapter Eight:
Wake Up
Kate held Ellie in her lap while her brother slowly awoke in the sun bleached room. A cheap three-dollar painting rested on the wall, while an outdated TV set suspended into the ceiling. Harry had to leave for work earlier, despite excusing himself from his first few classes. Before leaving, he and Kate discussed what should happen between Danny and Ellie for the next few days. The girl had only just woken up when she heard the two talk about a 'study' involving a quiet room and a place for Kate to monitor her sleep.
"I don't want to do that." She announced immediately, her eyes wide with suspicion.
"Honey," Kate began to assure her, "It's not a painful treatment, I just want to see what else you can do…like what you did with Danny last night."
"I helped him." The girl clarified sternly.
"Yes, you did help him, but what I want to know is how."
"I can show you Mommy. Don't make me sleep. I can show you right now."
"Now?" Harry asked, staring at the girl then at his wife.
Ellie nodded, wiping some hair out of her pale face. Haggardness had overcome her, the shadows under her eyes matured her face with a tired delicacy. Kate didn't look nearly as exhausted as she did. Harry sighed, straightening himself as he stood from the hard chair, "You'll have to tell me how it goes."
He checked his watch, knowing already that he had delayed himself for too long.
"I'll be back after lunch. Keep an eye out for anything weird."
"As opposed to what's already happened?" Kate smirked, causing Ellie to grin just a little bit too.
Harry sighed with a smile, "Exactly." He kissed both the girls goodbye and drifted down towards the elevators. Kate realized that she herself hadn't had any personal time since last night to ask Ellie about the oddity that was her regenerating ability. Now would be just a good a time as ever. They reentered her brother's room, where he lay with his arms by his side and an oxygen tube plugged in his nose. The two watched him uneasily.
Kate finally asked, "Ok Elle…show me."
Ellie gave her adopted mother an anxious stare, "He might not do anything though…"
"That's ok honey, I'm sure you'll be able to do something." She softly told her, eyeing her resting brother as he mournfully slept. The agony he had brought among himself these past years drove an angst of guilt through Kate's heart. She loosened her grip on the girl, allowing her to get closer to Danny. He was almost an adult, though it looked as though he had been through a time tunnel that gave him stress marks and gray eyes. He wasn't the same person Kate had remembered so many years ago.
Ellie leaned over the clean bed sheets, staring directly at Danny's face. Like she had done with his sister the night before, she clamped her tiny hands atop of his masculine one and held a concentrated state of confinement. In her head, Ellie wasn't sure what she was doing. The instinct of last night came as an epiphany almost. From the time she woke up from her dream to finding Danny in the kitchen, she had been in a trance, knowing how and what to do to save him. Ellie derived her method from last night and tried it again today.
The firey intensity that she had pulled out of herself didn't seem to come out today. Her ability didn't wield out of her hands as easily as she had hoped. She shut her eyes, and concentrated hard, wishing and forcing a willfulness into her uncle Danny to just open his eyes. In her head she began to say his name with a powerful voice,
Danny…Danny…DANNY…WAKE UP…
Kate could see a trance come over the young girl. She at first shut her eyes and scrunched up her face, trying to inflict the telekinetic force without a purpose, but something in her position changed. She relaxed, her small features eased, and Kate found herself holding the girl again so she wouldn't fall over. Staring with awe, Kate heard a low murmur coming out of her daughter's throat. It sounded almost like a vibration in the floor. But Ellie's head fell back, her hair draping down over her shoulders, as the humming became slightly louder. Her face darkened, there was a gauntly expression, as though the soul was being sucked out of her. It innerved Kate deeply.
She jerked, frightening Kate in the process. She nearly fell out of her hands, but regained consciousness immediately. Gasping for air, Ellie turned to face Kate, who immediately grimaced at the sight of blood on her face.
"Elle you're bleeding."
The girl held a fragile hand up to her face, her nose had two thin streaks of blood drizzling out of her nostrils. Danny remained motionless. Even though something hadn't happened to him, something had definitely happened to the child. Pinching her nose as she fished for a tissue on the sidetable, Kate asked, "Are you alright Ellie? What happened?"
The girl took the tissue and wiped her nose, the bleeding didn't last very long. Staring at the blood clotted in the tissue, she sweetly looked up at Kate again, leaving the darkness that had risen in her face for another time. She looked over her shoulder, and found Danny in the same state as he had been before. She sighed in defeat, "Nothing huh?"
"I don't think so kid. Something happened to you. What was it?"Kate stared at her deeply, reading the expression off her face. Ellie blinked her soft eyes and finally asked, "Whose Karen?"
A lump lifted up into Kate's throat.
Shyly, Kate replied, "…I'm Karen. How did you know that?"
"Danny called you that."
"You talked with him?"
She shook her head, "No. It was like watching a movie. I was there, and so was he. But he was really little, like me. He was talking with Karen…or you…about a boogeyman. Is there one?"
The memory seemed to flood back into Kate's mind as though it had happened yesterday. It was when Freddy Krueger began his murder spree. It was the same day that Danny's insides were ripped out across the wall for Kate and Harry to find. The sun's shine in the room seemed to fade, as a cold draft swept over Kate's shoulders. She wanted to hug herself in comfort, but she simply stared at Ellie.
"Some people," She cleared her throat, "Think that the boogeyman exists. But its just made up. He can't hurt you if you don't believe in him."
Ellie considered, as Kate stroked her hair, "Do you think there's a boogeyman Elle?"
Shrugging, the girl said, "Sometimes I think he took away my real mommy and daddy. But I think I'm safe, if he's real or not."
Kate sighed happily, "You're smarter than a lot of girls Elle."
"You looked scared Mommy. I don't want you to be. Danny will be ok."
Watching her daughter, Kate thought aloud, "I think so too."
"Then why are you scared?"
Kate held her daughter closer, embracing her as she said quietly, "I've had a lot of nightmares about these kinds of things. I don't like to lose people. Danny's my brother. I love him very much. And just seeing him in pain, hurts me too. I guess you could say, I've seen things like this happen before."
What chilled Kate the most about what she said to Ellie, was the fact that Ellie seemed to understand completely. Sitting there for a moment, Ellie's head tucked under Kate's chin, they watched Danny rest. Kate almost expected something sinister to happen before their eyes. She had seen such chaotic things before, she wondered if seeing it all again would even stir her.
Ellie waited too, unsure what would happen. Things were changing, she knew it. She had lived in happy solitude with Harry and Kate for too long. It was time that the past came after her. She wanted to tell Kate the rest of what she saw in Danny's head. She wanted to tell her about the blood, the house, the mystery that circled around in Danny's mind. He had seen things too. She saw monsters, bloody, horrifying monsters, distorted and contorted, the imagery was too realistic. It was unnatural, it was almost impossible for a human being to dream up such horrors.
After a moment, Ellie said quietly, "I don't think I should do that again."
"Do what?"
"Look in Danny's head. I get a bad feeling about it all."
Kate told her it was alright, she didn't have to do anything she didn't have to.
Still Ellie felt uneasy about the scene. In the vents, she could hear something crawling around, not a creature or the wind, but a voice she hadn't heard in a long time.
It's good to see you again Ellie…it told her.
I think it's time I help you out again.
Ellie gripped Kate tighter but said nothing.
I think it's time you finish what I've started.
Oh how Ellie wished for Kate to hear the maniacal laughter that she heard screaming out of the vents. But Kate didn't know who was talking to her. She didn't hear it. Danny didn't either. However far off in the distance, stirring in the back of his head, Harry heard the voice that he wished to never hear again.
He tuned it out with the radio.
