Daydreams and Nightmares (Complete)

[Tess Abrahams]

"I'm pretty sure if it could get out, it would've by now," Tess said. The claws waving about hit upon the nightstand at a discordant angle and a high-pitched scratching noise followed the trail of gouges that it left, sending a nervey shiver all the way down to her bare toes.

They had to get rid of it. Of course, when they'd been making the dreamcatchers Tess hadn't thought to look up the proper disposal for bagged nasties since it wasn't supposed to work like this.

What the heck was it? And what were they supposed to do? The dreamcatcher rattled and a frustrated screech echoed from it's depths.

"This is the only chance we've got to take a shot at... it," Tess glanced at Anna, "while it's contained."

[Anna Fernandez]

"Right." Anna squared her shoulders, and then looked down at Jamie. "Don't worry, I do this all the time." She laughed a little nervously, and fished her cell phone out of her pocket.

"Wake up Aidan or Alex if this doesn't work," she said quietly to Tess, edging into the room while the thing in the dreamcatcher screeched and scratched at the headboard. Praying constantly, Anna took a few pictures of the creature with her phone, and then tossed it to Tess, who caught it nimbly.

She licked her lips, feet planted firmly on the floorboards as the nightmare maw of the monster slashed frantically at the small opening of the dreamcatcher. Lifting her arms Anna focused her energy, and the air around her dropped several degrees as the skin of her hands paled to a blueish white that crept up towards her elbows.

"Dios nos ayude..." She blasted the center of the dreamcatcher with ice, her power sucking the heat out of the exposed parts of the creature and crystallizing whatever liquid was inside it.

[Jamie Morrigan]

The sound was terrible. Once Jim had brought home a bucket containing a few small blocks of dry ice that were left over from an eleventh-grade science project. Under Anna's very watchful eye, the kids had experimented with it - dropped it into a bucket of water to make smoke, used the gas to fill a balloon. Then Jen, with a mischievous "hey watch this" sparkle in her eyes had come out of the kitchen with a serving spoon that was hot right out of the dishwasher. She'd pressed the bowl of the spoon against the dry ice, and it had made an ear-piercing, warbling squeal that made everyone clap their hands over their ears and sent Jim into speeding figure-eights around the lawn.

The sound started there, and only got worse.

Frost built up around the edges of the dreamcatcher, and Jamie's window fogged over from the outside. Neither Jamie nor Tess could see what was happening in the dreamcatcher, but Anna was still blasting away, and the whole bed was shaking. The creature's banshee screams reached a fever pitch and then, very abruptly, ceased altogether.

Frosty mist rolled out of the openings of the dreamcatcher, and the space beyond faded, leaving the dreamcatcher frozen in a thick glaze of ice against the damaged bedpost.

[Tess Abrahams]

They were so lucky to be living in a technological age. No one was going to believe this - not without proof.

With Jamie secured against her side, Tess thumbed at Anna's phone and scrolled through the tools until she found the camera setting. Switching it to video, she pressed record just in time to catch the first eardrum-shattering notes of the thing as it discovered just how fierce the ice age had been. The tiny mobile speakers were hardly up to the task but Anna's display of power was impressive, even in lagging megapixel.

In the room the noise was like a drill to the skull, so sharp that even when it came to a thankful end, their skulls rattled with the echoes of it. Tess didn't let go of Jamie, watching the dreamcatcher intently, cell gripped in her opposite hand. This was the part where something jumped out unexpectedly, just when they'd let their guard down...

A full thirty seconds later they were still waiting. Tess let out a cautious breath and took a step towards Anna. "Nice shot."

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna flexed her hands, clenching them into fists and then stretching her fingers out to warm them up. After using her power her joints tended to feel stiff from the cold, at least in her furthest extremities. "Gracias."

She took a step forward, and then another, approaching the bed where the dreamcatcher was fused to the bedpost with a few inches of ice. There was no evidence of the misty otherworld that had been visible before, only wood behind the center of the dreamcatcher. Anna reached out slowly, and tapped on the ice, making sure it was really there.

Jamie bumped against the door where she was trying to stay in the hallway but also see as much as she could, and Anna jerked backwards, startled. Then she laughed, relief making it almost impossible to stop once she'd started.

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie took that as a signal that everything was all right. She entered the room and stepped around Tess so she could get a clear look at her bed and see for herself that the monster was gone. At least she knew for certain now she'd made the right decision naming one of her bead-spiders "Anna."

She stepped closer to the frozen dreamcatcher to inspect it. She wasn't certain what freezing and melting again would do to it, and now that she knew what nightmares looked like, she knew that durability had to be a premium. Two grapevines might not be enough.

"I think," she said, turning to Tess and Anna, "I might need to make a bigger one."