For Chuck and Dan

[already_lost]

When Laura slept, she dreamed.

Her dreams, for as long as she could remember, were so vivid, often so clear and familiar, that she couldn't distinguish them from consciousness. She had memories she couldn't be sure had actually happened to her, both horrific and mundane. Evil things, greedy things, had visited her all her life in her dreams, and she often sought out the things she wasn't supposed to want during the safety of sleep.

Lifting her head, Laura wiped at her mouth, frowning at the dried piece of hay stuck to her cheek. Was she dreaming? It was dark, a glowing red flare of light piercing the blackness ahead of her, but she couldn't focus enough to tell what it was. Her vision swam, her head pounding with each heartbeat, and she prodded at her hairline with a wince. Her fingertips came away stained with her own blood.

"Am I dreaming?" She murmured to herself, swaying woozily as she pushed herself upright. She sat, wearing the pajamas she'd slept in the night before. It had been cold, even piled under blankets, and she'd burrowed under the covers in an oversized sweatshirt belonging to Chuck, and a pair of flannel pajama pants. Now, she was burning up, sweat prickling at the back of her neck. Groaning, she plucked at the front of her sweatshirt, peeling it away from her body, scrambling up onto her knees and shuffling forward until she was pressed against the bars of her cage.

A cage.

"Oh my God," she moaned, rattling the bars weakly. They were heavy, rusted metal, too narrow for her to fit through, and beyond, there was a huge, raging fire... A coal burning stove.

"Oh my God," she wailed, yanking harder on the bars, an angry sob caught in her throat. "Hello! Hello! Is anyone there? Hello! Let me out of here! Oh please, God, let me out!"

Comments

[already_lost]

"Laura," she answered softly, letting her knees buckle and sinking down to the straw-covered floor of her cell. During any other moment, she might've been wary of him. He seemed so nice. Too nice. But right then, too nice was maybe exactly what she needed.

"They took me out of bed. I was sleeping, and then..." She shook her head slowly, a frown creasing her bloodied brow. "What do they want with us?"

[shine_again]

Dan gives her something that might have been a smile once, and just focuses on pushing a little of the shine her way, something he hopes is light and comforting. He has the oddest sense of Abra through her, Abra through the prism of a not so loving world.

"I was trying to get to a friend's house," Dan says softly. "I think-- Jesus, I'm sorry, I'm going to sound like the worst kind of creep. But Laura, has anyone ever said you're special before? That there's something different? I always called it the shining, growing up."

[already_lost]

"What? No," she said, shaking her head with a bleary frown, though there was something about him, something calming and familiar, and she found that holding onto that kept some of her panic at bay.

"The only one who ever said anything like that was the man who killed me." She realized, as soon as the words were out of her mouth, that she must've been hit in the head a little too hard or drugged, because there was no way she would've been so candid otherwise. "The thing that killed me. I'm... I'm not special. I don't know what you're talking about."

[shine_again]

"I'm not going to hurt you," Dan says, though he realizes it's not particularly meaningful to just say. "I want to help you. Get you through this safe, or at least... help. Whatever it was that killed you was fucked up, but it knew you were special then, maybe. And that's how these things are, they want us dead because we have a light. We've both got to turn down that light so they can't see us as well."

He huffs a laugh and rests his forehead on the bars.

"I sound insane, I know, I'm sorry."

[already_lost]

"I know you won't," she said, lifting one shoulder in a weak shrug. With a heavy sigh, she reached out to touch his cheek, her fingers coming away flecked with his blood.

"The whole world's insane. We just live in it."

Blowing a wisp of hair out of her eyes, she said, "So, how am I supposed to turn down this light, if I don't even know what it is?"

[shine_again]

"You're doing better already," Dan promises, taking some comfort in the touch-- a rare thing that's begun with Marcus, and while Laura's touch isn't the same protective quiet, he can feel the light seeping into him. "It can take a lot of practice, but seems like you're a natural."

He presses his fingers through the bars. "Keep calming down with me, okay?"