Chapter Eighteen: Terrors from The Other Side

"Belladonna."

Blake's eyes widened as she heard a familiar voice, one she'd hoped to never hear again. It was a deep, melancholic voice that made her think of the worst time of her life. A time she'd hoped to leave behind her when she fled for Vale.

She looked around, finding herself in a dark room, tied to a chair.

"Where are you? Where are you!" she screamed into the dark.

A dark figure approached, wispy black smoke trailing around him as he stopped just next to her. He smirked, a mouth with far too many red teeth standing bright against the dark. "Did you think you could hide forever?"

Blake struggled against her bonds, trying in vain to summon her stand to her. Yet nothing. She was helpless as the figure approached, trailing a dark red claw across her cheek. She felt a spark of pain as it dug into her, blood dripping down her chin. "It's time to come home, my love."

No…

No!

NO!

Blake shot upright, hand gripping her chest.

She looked around, her stand emerging from her and curling around her in a defensive stance. She saw…her room. She fumbled for the light switch, only to reveal the room exactly as she'd left it. Same tacky, dark-green wallpaper as it had when she originally moved in. The wardrobe nearby had a few new scratches from when she moved in, but she could blame that on From Shadows easily enough.

She fell back in bed, taking a few deep breaths before turning to look at her alarm clock. Four in the morning…just a nightmare. Nothing to worry about. Just need to try and get some sleep, have to work in the morning.

She tried to fall asleep, rolling over and over again trying to get comfortable, but the nightmare lurked in the back of her mind, urging her to stay awake. She sat up after a bit, heading into the bathroom.

She saw herself in the mirror, clad in her white t-shirt and black panties. What she usually wore to sleep, now that she wasn't worried about hypothermia. She leaned her head against the mirror, turning on the sink and getting a glass of water. She raised it to her lips, only to taste metal.

She looked down, eyes wide as she saw the brilliant red liquid in the glass.

"GAH!"

She threw it into the sink, it shattering against it as she fell back, staring at herself in the mirror. She saw and felt blood pouring from her eyes, flowing down and gathering in her palms as she held them up, gripping her hair. She went to scream, only for blood to bubble up from her throat, spilling past it.

She couldn't scream.

She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't do anything but close her eyes and—

"HAH!"

She shot up, in bed again. No blood. No water. No nothing. She dashed for the bathroom, opening it to reveal nothing out of the ordinary. The glass that she'd shattered in what was apparently a dream was still there. That one…that wasn't like the other. It felt so real…

She turned, making her way out of the apartment and heading next door. She pushed open the door—Jaune never bothered keeping it locked anyway—before making her way to his bedroom. She knocked on the door, her ears flattening a bit as she heard the door open.

Instead of Jaune, it was Pyrrha, clad in a pair of frog-print pajamas, who opened it. "Yes, Ms. Blake?"

"Why are you in Jaune's room?"

She looked away in embarrassment. "I had a nightmare."

"That makes two of us."

She heard Jaune groaning from inside, and saw him rise from the bed. He was wearing only a pair of sweatpants, his torso exposed, which now had far more scars than she last remembered, no doubt thanks to their fight with B.B. Laz last month. "Oh, hey Blake. What is it?"

Her words caught in her throat. Was she seriously about to ask for help with nightmares? She was a grown woman, for crying out loud! Then again…

Jaune blinked twice, staring at her. "Blake? Something wrong?"

She shook her head. "No just…had some trouble sleeping. Was hoping you had something that could help with that."

Jaune nodded, walking past Pyrrha and heading into the kitchen. He sorted through his cabinets for a minute before pulling out a box of tea bags and a kettle. "Chamomile—helps me sleep most of the time. Just sit on the couch, it'll be ready soon."

Blake took the advice, sitting back on the couch and letting her head fall back, staring at Jaune upside down. Pyrrha took a seat next to her, mimicking her by crawling onto the back of the couch and laying over it. Only for her to almost fall down said couch, Blake's stand catching her. "Maybe save that for when you're taller, pipsqueak."

Pyrrha giggled, laying back down. Though, she tilted her head for a moment before pointing at her underwear. "Why aren't you wearing pants?"

Blake looked at her, face tinting pink as she covered herself with her hands. "I was sleeping—I don't normally have to."

Pyrrha turned, her chin thudding against Blake's thigh as she fell. "Your legs are really soft. And kinda fuzzy."

Blake smiled down at her, running a hand over her head. "That's because I just shaved yesterday. You're probably feeling the stubble growing back."

She rubbed her head across her leg much like a cat. "It feels nice. Scratchy—but in a good way."

Blake giggled. Most people would probably be insulted by someone calling their legs soft but to Blake? She'd take it over them being skin and bone like they were when she first met Jaune. She'd put on a few pounds since she'd started working at Curative Cuisine—albeit Jaune still tried to get her to eat more since she was, quote, "dangerously underweight", end quote.

To his credit, she was only about ninety pounds when they met.

Jaune came by a few minutes later, laying three cups of tea down on the table. "I went ahead and made one for Pyrrha and me while I was at it. Figured we could all use the help sleeping."

Blake nodded, taking it and sipping from it, only to mewl at the cup and stagger back a bit.

"Might wanna let it cool a bit."

Blake slowly nodded, blowing on the tea before setting it down.

Jaune turned to her, leaning against the side of the couch with one leg pulled onto it, the other draped lazily against the floor. "So, what's keeping you up?"

Blake looked away. "Just a nightmare…couldn't ignore it this time."

"This time?"

Blake looked away, giving a small smile. "I've been having them over the last month, but, it's nothing to worry about. They're just dreams."

Jaune frowned, leaning forward slightly. He reached a hand forward, Blake turning to face him as September emerged, gently tapping below her eye. "The dark circles under your eyes say otherwise. You haven't had a good night sleep in a while, have you?"

"You can tell?"

Jaune nodded. "I can read your aura. Insomniacs have different wavelengths than people who get eight hours a night. Based on that, I'd say you've been getting four hours for the last few weeks."

Blake frowned, leaning back from September. "So? I used to sleep for only an hour or two at a time when I was on the streets. Have to be alert at all times."

Jaune shook his head, withdrawing September. "It's not healthy to sleep like that—even four hours at a time isn't enough. You need a solid eight hours of sleep to maintain a healthy body and mind. The tea should help, but maybe I can help with the nightmares. What goes on in them?"

"Why would telling you help?"

"Speaking from experience, talking about them can help find why they're happening."

Blake rolled her eyes, laying back on the couch. "You act so sure there's a reason. Nightmares can just happen, just like regular dreams."

Jaune grabbed the tea from nearby, sipping it as Pyrrha did the same with hers. "Normally, yes, but repeated nightmares that disrupt your sleep usually have a psychological cause. I'm no expert, but it would be a good start to figure out why this keeps happening."

Blake rolled her eyes as she sat up, sipping from her tea. "Alright, fine. The nightmare was me staring at myself in the mirror. Suddenly I started bleeding from my eyes, the water from the sink was blood, and I started drowning as blood came up from my throat."

Jaune stared at her for a moment, Pyrrha yelping and leaning back. "That sounds scary."

"It was."

Jaune frowned, scratching his chin. "Well, I may not know much about dream interpretation, but fortunately we do know someone who is. I'll give her a call in the morning. In the meantime, try and get some sleep if you can."

Blake nodded, finishing her tea before heading back to her apartment.

Stand Name: ?

Stand User: ?

Stats:

Power: E

Speed: E

Range: A

Persistence: A

Precision: E

Potential: E

Velvet walked into Curative Cuisine despite the closed sign.

She turned to Jaune, giving him a faint smile. "You said someone was having trouble with nightmares?"

Jaune nodded, guiding Velvet back into the building past the restaurant, leading into the apartments. "Yeah, it's Blake. She said she's been having these recurring dreams for weeks now. The last one was something about drowning in blood in her bathroom."

Velvet slowly nodded. "Hmm…something like that does have some odd implications."

The two entered Blake's apartment, where she was currently sitting on the couch, clad in her typical jeans and black t-shirt. "Velvet? That's the girl that can help?"

Velvet nodded, giving a bright smile and closing her eyes as she tilted her head to the right a bit. "Yep! I'm a psychology major, so I might be able to determine the root cause of your nightmares and, hopefully, address it."

Blake rolled her eyes as she laid back on the couch, Velvet taking a seat on one of the nearby chairs next to it, clipboard in hand. "Okay, Dr. Scarlatina, figure out what's wrong with me, or, whatever."

Velvet started writing on her notepad. "Okay, first let's start with what the nightmares are usually. Describe a typical night terror of yours."

Blake sighed, clearly very enthused and not at all skeptical about all this, "It started with me in my bathroom. I went to get a drink of water, but only blood ran out of the faucet. Then it started pouring out of my eyes, then my throat, and then I couldn't breathe before I woke up."

Velvet jotted down a few notes. "Hmm, death dreams are fairly common as far as nightmares go. They can mean a few different things and, believe it or not, it may not be a bad thing. It could be a symbolic goodbye to something, like a relationship, a status of living, part of your personality—anything, really. It could be as simple as reinventing yourself, or it could be as complicated as something in your past preventing you from moving on."

Blake stared at the ceiling. "So what you're saying is, dying in my dream is a good thing?"

Velvet shook her head. "Not necessarily. Now, I should probably clarify that this borders on pseudo-science like aura-reading, but dream interpretation can have its uses. Another example might be your fears made manifest, or the inability to move forward because of something in your past. Sound familiar?"

Blake flinched a bit at the second one. "No."

Velvet's brow furrowed as she noticed, but didn't say anything, simply writing it down. "Okay, let's try something simple: Word association. I'm going to say a word, you say the first thing that comes to mind. Okay?"

Blake rolled her eyes. Oh boy, this exercise.

Velvet smiled. "Dog."

"Cat."

"Man."

"Father."

"Woman."

"Mother."

"Child."

"Rogue."

"Pain."

"Ad—"

Blake caught herself, covering her mouth as her eyes widened.

"Blake?"

She turned back, Blake shaking her head. "Nothing, sorry. Keep going."

Velvet slowly nodded, jotting down a few things. "I think we've found a problem. What were you going to say, Blake?"

"Nothing."

Velvet put down her clipboard, leaning forward slightly. "Blake, I'm your friend. I want to help you, but I can't help you if you aren't willing to let me help you. Please, just tell me."

Blake was silent for a moment.

Then…

"Adam."

Velvet nodded. "Who is Adam?"

Blake cringed as she spoke. "He was…a friend. More than that, actually. He was my mentor before…before Jaune and I met. Before I ran away from him."

"An abuser?"

"You don't know the half of it."

Velvet slowly nodded, writing down all of it. "Well, how about we start with something simple? Why did you run away?"

Blake sat up. "Look, Velvet, I appreciate what you're trying to do. Really, I do. But I don't think I'm ready to discuss that with anyone just yet, okay? Just leave it be for now. If I feel the need to talk about it, I'll find you or Jaune. Okay?"

Velvet slowly nodded, standing up. "Okay, if you insist. Just know that we're here for you, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."