Midnight Company
Echo woke up with an start, she had dreamt again, but it was something else that woke her up this time, her dream after all had been about riding horses in a open field. Her usual dreams were of her running down a mountain, always being chased by a man who shoot arrows after her, sometimes he missed, sometimes he got her. Sometimes she outsmarted him, sometimes she failed.
She preferred the horse-ridding dream, it was serene and beautiful and it bothered her that something had made it go away. The only problem was that she was still in her pod, but she had gotten more curious lately and started to fidget with the ceiling, or sliding door. She didn't know what to call it actually.
At first she could only use her fingers, or more like her fingernails, but she managed to push it enough to squeeze her hands through and open it more to get out. Darkness engulfed her and she couldn't suppress the shudder that went through her body. This wasn't right.
And then she heard the noise again, it was coming from another pod, if she remembered correctly it was Sierra's. She quietly crawled over to it and started the process of opening another sliding door, calling it a ceiling felt wrong now. Maybe she should just call it a sliding door at all times?
Being almost on top of a pod and trying to open it turned out to be harder, since she had to push the sliding door away from her. But to do so, she had to get enough space to squeeze her hands through again and it wasn't that much to work with on the outside as it had been on the inside.
Fingernails hurting, Echo sat down on her knees annoyed, a feeling she normally didn't feel. She wanted to see what was going on, frustrated she put her hands down on the pod and spread her fingers. With all her might she pushed and wasn't ready for it to slide open so quickly, if she hadn't reacted fast enough, she would've fallen face first and landed on Victors stomach. Guess the darkness made it harder for her to know who's pod belonged to whom.
She was holding on the sides of the pod, looking upside-down at Victor, who was clearly having a bad dream, maybe he dreamt of running down a mountain too? Echo looked around to see if anyone had spotted her, she knew this was wrong and wanted to be sure no one was watching. Carefully she descended into his pod, and laid down beside him. She didn't know why she did what she did, but she then slowly closed the sliding doors, leaving enough space to open it later.
It was small when alone in the pod, two made it crowded and with Victor having a nightmare, made it claustrophobic, Echo was laying beside him, head propped up be her hand, the other hand hovered over Victors chest. How would he react if she woke him up? Was it Safe?
Painfully moaning, Echo forced her hand down and shook Victor lightly, it didn't work so she continued and got worried. Also another feeling she usually never felt.
"Victor?"
He flinched but didn't wake up, so she slapped him hard on the forehead, not thinking of the slapping sound it made. It was loud. Not to mention painful as Victor woke up disoriented and right away started to rub the sore spot.
"Ow..."
"Victor?"
Confused eyes stared back at Echo, then turned to look around the pod. Maybe he was afraid to find the man from the mountain?
"Echo?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"I think.. You had a nightmare?"
Victor turned his head upwards again and closed his eyes, still rubbing his forehead.
"It hurts."
"I'm sorry, I tried saying your name so I hit you."
"Oh.. It stings."
Echo had read somewhere in the books they kept around in the common room, that if one had a injury, blowing at it would make it go away. So she leaned forward and slowly blew at Victors forehead, his hand moved away and he sighed almost blissfully.
"That felt nice, thank you."
"I wasn't sure it worked."
"It did."
Echo smiled and laid down again, using her arm as a pillow, Victor turned to face her.
"Why are you here?"
"Something woke me up and I got curious."
"But we aren't allowed to leave our pods."
"I know, but I got so worried and I couldn't see, I thought it was Sierra crying in her sleep again."
"I'm happy she stopped."
"You ever heard her?"
"No. I mean, I'm not sure. I sleep at night."
"And the nightmares?"
Victor sighed. He wanted his dreams about Echo and Sierra back, he liked thinking about them when he was eating alone, because then he could pretend he wasn't. But almost overnight they'd stopped and new ones had arrived, these once were much worse.
"They're.. I don't like them."
"What are they about?"
"Sometimes I'm inside a badly looking house, sometimes I'm outside looking in."
"What happens?"
"I'm always holding something and somehow hurt people with it, but I'm not touching them."
"Like a gun?"
"What's a 'gun'?"
"It's a weapon."
"How do you know this?"
"I read."
He seemed satisfied by her answered and sighed again, he felt tired, but didn't want to go back to sleep, in case the dreams would return. Echo noticed his train of thoughts and put her hand on his shoulder, rubbing it gently. He slowly relaxed and closed his eyes.
"You're a good friend."
"Friends help each other, right?"
"Mm.."
Victor had fallen asleep against his will and Echo hoped he wouldn't have another nightmare and silently slid the door open again and got out. She carefully closed it after herself, not wanting to give away what happened and just to be sure, did her best to clean the marks her hands had made. She then crawled over to her own pod and got inside and closed, feeling like she had done something good. She smiled and then copied Victor's position he had fallen asleep in and quickly did that too.
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AN. Thanks to "shattered-demon", "CptKaydeAdama"
