The Rookie

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

Chapter 9 (The Unexplained)

Initially Shannon was surprised when Beck woke her up, but she was pleased to be able to let him talk and rest while she made him tea to calm his nerves. He preferred coffee, but late at night a bit of chamomile was often best. No matter which, they were better than whatever sleeping medication and otherwise were out there as options.

As for Beck, he'd been able to return to sleep. His slumber was only disturbed by a dream that had been far different from his recent night terror. No, this included Renee Jacoby in the cemetery where Mr. Sikowitz had been. She had nothing to do with Hollywood Arts, Sikowitz himself, or even the group of friends; but she was there staring at the scene Beck had seen before.

Mr. Sikowitz had been frozen in time, the storm quieted, and the strange grave marker and statue still there. Perhaps it was a penchant for investigation, Beck wasn't sure, though he knew the girl clearly relished getting involved in investigations even if it potentially cost her, her life; but Renee seemed to be focusing her gaze intensely upon his old teacher as if she were trying to say something important.

The answer had come shortly after following her gaze, albeit he didn't remember seeing them. Standing behind the statue were the figures of both Andre and Cat, their heads bowed and eyes shut. What this meant, he hadn't figured out.

While in the waiting room for Dr. Alexander's clinic, Beck surmised he might bring up this secondary dream regarding his current murder investigation victim. Most of his life, he figured dreams were subconscious, and related to recent memory, which would explain his dreaming about Renee. What it did not explain was the night terror just hours before, which included Cat.

He'd had nightmares with Andre before, he'd seen Sikowitz as well; but Cat never showed up in a nightmare prior to that night. What truly surprised him was Jade never did either, nor did Robbie or Tori.

Peering at the book in Shannon's hand, he scrunched his nose. It wasn't that he didn't like the Haunting Danielle series, and all of the frequent Ghost of… books; but after the night he had, the last thing he wanted to think about were ghosts. Shannon's gaze flickered over to him and she tilted her head a bit. Raising his gaze to hers, he motioned to the book. "Where are you at in the book?"

"Oh, Walt Marlow is trying to convince Lily's boyfriend, Lily is Danielle's boyfriend, to open his mind to the concept of the existence of ghosts." Suddenly sorry he asked, Beck shifted nervously in his chair.

"Ghosts, huh." He wasn't a believer of ghosts himself, although he didn't doubt there could be something there. After all, he knew the world was full of unexplained mysteries and phenomena that had never been discovered. He believed in a heaven and hell, perhaps there was a chance that ghosts could be around if they hadn't gone to either place for whatever reason. "And how is Walt trying to do that? I thought he was the main ghost in that series."

Shannon's gaze flickered back to the book. "Via a dream hop." Beck shut his eyes and withheld a groan at the words. "In this, ghosts are able to visit and communicate with the living in what Danielle calls a dream hop. The living can recall the dream more vividly than a normal one, because it isn't exactly a dream. It's actually a neat concept to think about."

"Awesome." He opened his eyes and looked to the door where the clinic staff walked through, eagerly awaiting his name. "Kinda funny, it was my dreams about Andre that made me want to get on with the department and see if I could find out what happened to them."

"Who knows, maybe Andre was visiting your dreams after all," Shannon teased.

"Yeah, except he's never talked." No, the only vocal one was the most recent addition to his nighttime ghouls, and that was Cat. The very thought of her being a ghost was chilling, because he was fairly certain she'd never been found yet; and if she was dead, what did that mean for the rest of them?

Minutes later he was in the office with Lane, sipping on a cup of herbal tea offered up by the therapist. Beck had taken a strange liking to tea recently, especially since he preferred coffee, yet the soothing aroma and taste welcomed him.

Lane sat across the end table with his right ankle over his left knee, his hands were clasped together in his lap. "So tell me about last night, Beck. You say the nightmare was worse?"

"I would classify this as more of a night terror, though I didn't really feel threatened until the end."

"You say you felt threatened?"

"Yeah." Beck counted off on his fingers. "First was Andre, laying on the ground where he died. He was pointing off to a pair of graves nearby." His eyebrows rose and he shook his head, recalling the dream as if he'd just watched a movie. "Then I saw Cat."

"Cat? You saw Miss Valentine?"

"Yeah, I'd never seen her in one of my dreams, and she did not look happy." An understatement, to be certain. Lane raised a hand towards his chin, stroking it gently. "Did you ever see that horror movie back in the day? She came out of this swamp behind the graves like something out of an Asian horror movie."

"And were you watching any scary movies recently?"

Beck frowned, gently slicking his tongue across his teeth. "No. I see enough dead bodies with my job, and I suffer from night terrors involving the chopped up corpse of my best friend. I'd prefer not to add to that with horror movies."

Lane closed his eyes and nodded. "Fair enough." Lane dropped his hand to his ankle. "So what else did you experience in this? Was this when you felt threatened?"

"No. Actually, Cat was screaming like she was the one that had been hurt." An interesting concept he hadn't considered until the words left his lips was the fact that Cat appearing like a standard murdered Asian horror woman might make sense. Those ghouls tended to be the result of a gruesome murder, and for all he knew, Cat may have suffered greatly in death. Assuming, of course, she was actually amongst the deceased. "No, it was what happened next that made me feel like my life was actually in some kind of danger."

Taking a deep breath, his gaze connected with Lane's calm, understanding expression. Somehow, talking through this dream was not as troublesome as he thought it'd be, whether it was the herbal tea or his therapist's unwavering demeanor, he wasn't quite sure.

"I'd seen him a couple times but last night was the first truly terrifying moment. I saw Mr. Sikowitz." Lane gently leaned forward, his eyebrows rising gently to meet his hairline. "He was standing in front of this rather large grave and a statue of a martial artist, I think he was grieving at first."

"Okay."

"There was a storm, it was growing worse with each second. I only realized it was him when the lightning flashed; but when that happened, he started to turn and looked at me with this murderous rage." Lane furrowed his brow, tapping his chin with the knuckle of his index finger. "He lunged at me, and I swear he was going to grab me and kill me where I stood. But he never got me."

"I imagine that's when you woke up."

"I don't know why I didn't wake up before." He nodded, setting his cup of tea onto the table next to his chair. Remembering Mr. Sikowitz's ghoulish figure rushing towards him was horrifying to think on, and now the terror of recounting the dream was beginning to cause him a deal of unease. "That's not the extent of it though."

"You said you woke up by that point?"

"I did, but something weird happened later on." He recounted how sister calmed him down the night prior with some chamomile and when he was finally willing to go back to sleep, he had a new encounter. Lane leaned back in his chair, astonished at the details of this second dream. "I've never actually had one of my case victims pop up in a dream, much less be a part of this personal horror."

"You say she's got nothing to do with your friends, or even Mr. Sikowitz?"

"To my knowledge. She's younger, lived in a different part of town and when we ran her background check before, she's never even attended the same schools as any of us."

"And yet she showed up in this dream, showing you the scene you just witnessed and revealing Andre and Cat standing near their teacher…." Lane dropped his foot back to the ground and leaned sideways into the arm of his chair. A long pause created a sense of curiosity as Beck pondered what his therapist must be thinking.

"Am I going insane?"

Lane smiled and shook his head. "No, I don't think so. It's entirely possible that because this is the first homicide case you're taking charge of that your subconscious has made her appear. Still, it's intriguing to think that she might have been trying to show you something. I do wonder, however, if you believe in ghosts by any chance?"

"I'd like not to think that my dead friends, or teacher, is trying to communicate with me in some way. Besides, I don't even know if Cat is dead. Sure, I'm afraid for her, I'm terrified they're all gone."

"You've never had such a terror with Jade showing up."

"No." Thinking on it, he let out a chuckle. "If anyone would show up as one of those creepy Asian horror girls, it'd be her, never Cat. She loved those horror movies."

Lane took a moment to sip on his own tea, humming softly as he took in the liquid. After a few seconds, he set the cup down. "Speaking on Mr. Sikowitz, one of the last things I remember before he went missing with your friends…He came to me to discuss his nephew."

"His nephew?"

"Yes, Jason had been staying with him for a few years and I believe looking to go back to Texas where the family ranch was." The name sounded familiar, but Beck couldn't place it. "Do you remember him? The boy. He would have been around Trina's age, but older I believe."

Beck snapped his fingers once the recollection struck, there was a moment where he'd met someone at the teacher's house. "I remember we all were doing this costume party at Mr. Sikowitz's place, kind of creepy to look back on being at our teacher's place like that, but there was a guy that seemed to be staying there. Pretty sure Cat dragged him off somewhere."

Lane started to laugh. "I do remember hearing about that. Mr. Sikowitz was none too pleased at that, since he got an earful from Jason later." Arching an eyebrow, Beck motioned with his hand for Lane to continue. "Well, Jason had a girlfriend at the time, so getting dragged off by a random girl at this party wasn't something he cared for. You remember Cat's typical demeanor, so if I remember, Jason didn't want to be rude and diss her in front of all her friends; but he did dismiss her after the fact."

"Can't say I remember Cat saying anything about being dissed." It made sense she wouldn't say anything about that, however. "I imagine she'd be upset if she realized she was trying to hook up with someone that wasn't single."

"Yeah, I'd say she was embarrassed. Still, old Erwin was not too thrilled about that." Lane crossed his legs and wrapped his hands around his knee. "But that's all beside the point. I was going to say, you mentioned him standing in front of a statue. Have you ever been to Jason's grave before?"

Beck's eyes widened and he shook his head. "Jason's dead?"

"He died in a horrific accident. Erwin himself never got over it." Beck felt his heart drop to his stomach. "Jason was involved in martial arts, studying to be a professor as well."

"Jesus. I wonder what happened." Beck ran his hand up and down the length of his arm, shaking his head once more. "Even still, what does that have to do with me or the others?"

"As I recall, Erwin blamed your friends for what happened to his nephew." Beck froze as Lane's words hit him like a tidal wave, suddenly he had a different view of his former teacher; but he didn't understand why the man would blame them.

"I didn't even know the guy!"

"Guilt by association, I imagine." Lane shrugged and took another sip of his drink. "Erwin suspected one of your friends had something to do with whatever caused Jason's accident in the first place. Never told me what it was, but interesting how you describe that storm in your nightmare. I'd say his rage was just like that, a hurricane. Do you recall any of your friends ever talking to Jason or talking about doing anything?"

"Not at all. Like I said, I never met the guy outside that one night. I didn't get the impression he wanted to stick around us either. How much did you know the guy?"

"Aside from Erwin mentioning him once or twice, I can't say I ever knew him either. Still, as you say, if you've never visited Jason's grave it's interesting that it appeared in your dream."

"How so?"

"Because his grave is an obelisk and Erwin commissioned a large statue of a martial artist to be put there."

Thoughts thus far?