~Jane~

Jane guesses that her hope for a dreamless night tonight was too much to hope for.

She finds herself once again on the endless stretch that represents her last ditch run for her life and the twisted concept of never being able to make it to the hovering shuttle before the Thresher Maw pelts her. Like her shadow, Jameson's pounding footsteps join her in the vain attempt at escape, and it is only a matter of time before the real nightmare begins.

Time slows enough so that she feels the weight of the heavy fluid against her back before an acrid smell hits her nose. The sudden pain of oh yeah, I'm making that smell and it hurts like hell shoots up to flower into a white hot flame in her skull and down to her knees, weakening them and she stumbles not to fall.

Gritting her teeth against the pain she begs to be able to make it just a bit further, just make it to the shuttle, just grasp the shadowed hand before her, but before her feet bring her close enough, her body is slammed to the ground by a dead weight on her back.

"Shepard," Jameson's flooded voice drones in her ear, a mockery of intimacy. "We need to stop meeting like this." He digs his bony, skinless fingers into her neck and hip, laying his weight along her back and growling into her ear with his fluid filled lungs. "People might start getting ideas."

"Fuck you, Jameson!" She grabs at his hands, trying to get him off of her. If she can get just a bit of his weight from pinning her, she can just reach the hand hovering just out of her reach, tormenting her.

He laughs, blood foamed spittle hitting her cheek and making her cringe. In his moment of distraction, she feels his weight shift just enough that she can throw her shoulder and toss him to the side.

Feeling his hands release her, she rushes to her feet before he regain his hold. He falls to the ground and just as she is stretching to the shadowed figure in the shuttle, his hands wrap around her thighs to pull her down. She lands, hard, almost directly on his still laughing corpse, the landing jarring her back and pulling a scream from her lips.

His body stinks of melted suit and skin. His face had been without a helmet and his hands must have scrambled against his back once the acid had hit because she now lays face to face with his seeping skin and wounds. His nose is a gaping hole where cartilage was eaten away, half of his lips are gone, revealing the teeth and tissue beneath, and his eyes are milky white, his left oozing from his slam against the ground.

"Now, Shepard, what's the rush?" His boney hands claw at her back, holding her to his body as she struggles to pull away. "You wouldn't want to leave everyone behind would you? Where would you be without us?"

She screams as some of his fingers dig dip into her fiery wounds. She knows that this Jameson in her dreams is just a figment, the real Jameson was a shy and withdrawn guy despite his size, but her internal pep talk isn't helping to keep this monster from sapping her strength.

The thing below her sighs, seemingly bored with his small effort to hold her. "Why do you fight me, Shepard? Is it really that great out there?" He withdraws his fingers from her wounds and strokes his hands up her back, causing her to tremor in disgust. "You have all you'd ever want here," he pulls his remaining lips up in a sneer, "I'll make it worth your while. You can trust me."

"Shut up, you sick bastard," she balls her hand into a fist and throws it back, preparing to smash the figment straight in the face, but faster than she can comprehend, he grabs her wrist, stopping her centimeters from his ruined face.

"Now, Janey." His sneer remains as she pulls against her mother's pet name for her. "That's no way to respond to my fine offer." He leans up, while pulling her down with his grip on her wrist and his hand against her back, bringing his pungent breath against her ear. "What's he got that I don't?"

A shuddering of the ground, mimicking her own agonized revulsion, brings her eyes up and straight into the gaping, blue mouth of a Thresher Maw where the shuttle was hovering just before. That bright blue is the last sight she sees and Jameson's maniacal laughter is the last sound in her ears before she is drowned in intense burning.