ic Night Terrors (IC)

[Thevshi]

Rita Kord Dormitories, Third Floor
Claremont Academy, Freedom City, New Jersey
Wednesday, January 15, 2025, 1:32 AM

 

Over the last several months, Mattie Hopper had generally gotten accustomed to her roommate Lynn Conners having trouble sleeping. There were days where for whatever reason, things just got too overwhelming for Lynn, and she would cry herself to sleep or have to take some medication to help her get to sleep. It was also not at all uncommon for Mattie to be woken up in the middle of the night by Lynn having a nightmare. Sometimes, Lynn would toss and turn a bit, but rollover and settle down without ever waking. Other times, she would be jolted awake in tears, often taking some time to settle down and be able to go back to sleep.

 

Tonight was completely unlike any of those other times.

 

Mattie was jolted awake by the sound of Lynn screaming at the top of her lungs. The blonde sixteen-year-old was violently tossing in her bed, almost as if struggling, and continuing to scream so loud Mattie was sure others in nearby rooms could hear. Unlike other times Lynn had a particularly bad nightmare, this time she did not seem to be waking up.

 

A few doors down on the floor, two of the upper classmen on the floor were indeed jarred awake by what was going on in Room 306. To Carmen Alvarez Arrache, Lynn's screams were as ear piercing as if she were in the room right next to her. 
 
Meanwhile, Iris Miller was awoken by a completely different stimulus. The young telepath felt the feelings of terror that were gripping Lynn's subconscious mind in her nightmare, ringing out as loud as any auditory scream…
 

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra "Carmen"

 

For most people, it would be perfectly easy to ignore the light unassuming sound of someone groaning or snoring in their sleep. Screaming, even with the thick and sturdy old walls was something that was easy to ignore. Not for Carmen however, who's hearing well beyond that of any Human being could hear it all, especially when someone was doing the later as she looked up towards the ceiling, staring up at it with annoyed look on her face. If there was one thing that was keeping her up it would be the screaming, and it was starting to become an odd pattern that had now evolved into what it was at that current moment as she sat up, bedraggled and hair wild in light bed clothes as she turned and stood up on the floor, looking to her roommate before heading out the door, grumbling to herself.

 

"¿Por qué no puedo dormir en paz?"

 

"Hey!" she was banging on Mattie and Lynn's door not too long after, grumbling to herself, ¡Tengo una test mañana! You hear that, a test!"

[RocketLord]

BOUNCE!

 

It takes half a second for the sound to register to Mattie. She sits up instantly.

 

Lynn! Lynn is in trouble! 

 

Usually, Lynn calms down again or she wakes up and Mattie helps her calm down and sits with her, or... or something else. Not like this! 

 

Almost falling out of her bed, Mattie stumbles across the floor towards Lynn and reaches out for her. "Lynn! Lynn! Wake up! It's a nightmare, you're alright, I'm here!"

 

And there's knocking on the door to add even more to Mattie's own growing panic. Oh no, somebody else heard Lynn and got woken up! It's Carmen! 

 

Looking back and forth between the door and Lynn for a moment, unsure what to do, Mattie finally stretches an extra arm out from under her night shirt, reaching the door and opening it. 

 

"Carmen! You gotta help me! Lynn's completely out of it! She's havin' a real bad nightmare!"

[Dracostern]

Cerebral

 

Iris would wake up as soon as she felt Lynn's distress. Not just her physical screaming but mental one as well. The blonde would throw her blanket aside and get up, nodding to Carmen and rushing out with her roommate in her PJs, she arrived just after her roomie and would have ripped the door open with her telenieksis had Mattie not opened it. The young woman took a deep breath and would hold out her hands towards Mattie. "Take a deep breath. We're here. Is she still asleep?" Iris asked, but would look towards Lynn (if she could see her) and attempt to telepathically link to the young woman.

[Thevshi]

Slipstream

 

As Mattie let Carmen and Iris into the room she shared with Lynn, the blonde teen had, for the moment, stopped screaming. And while she was no longer violently thrashing in her bed, she was still tossing and turning, her expression seemingly one of distress. "Mom! Where are you?" They heard her mutter as she seemed lost in whatever nightmare had gripped her.

 

As Iris reached out with her telepathy toward the young speedster, she felt her attempt rebuffed rather forcefully by….something. She was certain it was not Lynn, but some other mental presence.

 

But before she could react further to her failure to connect with the girl's mind, or tell the other two what had happened, everything around the teenagers started to blur and start to shift in random directions. It was generally disorienting, and then as suddenly as it began, everything snapped back to normal.

 

Only they were no longer in the Claremont dorm room. They appeared to be standing in the middle of a long hallway of a building, a pair of elevators to their right. Further up to their left was an open doorway that appeared to lead into another room. In the distance, they could hear some sort of disturbance, shouting and some loud crashes of heavy objects falling and glass breaking.

 

And Mattie, Carmen and Iris realized, Lynn was not with them…
 

[Dracostern]

Cerebral

 

The psychic would blink in surprise as she found herself unable to connect to the other's mind...something she could normally do. The teen's heart began to race with worry as their reality began to shift a little bit. Not this crap again! Iris wastried of reality manuplation like this. Still this was concerning. She would look around the hallway and the different exits. 

 

She then turned to Carmen and Mattie to make sure they were ok. If they were with her she would speak up. "So...I couldn't connect to Lynn's mind. Something pushed me back, I suggest we stick together if we want to help her." 

[RocketLord]

BOUNCE!

 

Mattie was frantically explaining how Lynn was still sleeping, how she usually woke up when Mattie got to her, and this all seemed different, and then... 

 

Then they're suddenly not in the room anymore, but in a big long hallway.

 

Suddenly being in a different place like this is enough to shock Mattie back to her senses, or at least calm her down enough to take stock of the situation. She looks around. What is this place? Where are they? 

 

"Where are we? What is this place? Where's Lynn?" 

 

It's not normal for the others to see Mattie like this, but she is, quite frankly, panicking. She had promised Lynn she'd be there for her, and now look at everything that's happening...

 

"Something pushed back? Is this a, y'know, a mind thing? Like a, what's it called... y'know, the thing you and Daniel can do? A mind thingie?"

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra "Carmen"

 

Crossing her arms and looking down slightly towards Mattie as she opened the door, her eyes' not showing much sympathy going towards them as she looked over towards Lynn. It wouldn't occur to her that Iris was right behind her until she managed to get around her. What mattered much only to the irritable cat girl was that her precious sleep was being interrupted, fixing the wild hair that sat atop her head. It was never a dull moment at Claremont as she looked now to Lynn, who screamed into the night, as if unable to escape from whatever sort of bad dream she was in, as if there was invisible hand gripped around her. It was then that she stopped screaming.

 

"What do you mean she's still asleep, she's been yelling the whole time," Carmen spoke, clearly not understanding what was going on, "If we need to wake her up then I'll do it. Quicker I get to go to.... sleep"

 

Disoriented was an understatement as Carmen fell back on her behind, outright confused at what had just happened. There wasn't a twitch of the ear or a sudden smell, more so, just a lack of near everything for a few moments as everything seemed to change as if in a flash, "What?" she spoke as she slowly got back up, "What do you mean pushed you back, like physically? Where are we?"

[Dracostern]

Cerebral

 

"Ok Mattie take a deep breath." Iris was panicking a bit too but had to remain calm, like Carmen...or at least how Carmen seemed to Iris. At their questions the young woman would shake her head. "No, I tried to connect to Lynn's mind with my psychic abilities but was pushed back by something. This...has not happened before with her. That's why there is more going on...though I am unsure where this place is. I think we should explore however, sitting around will not help us. We need to save Lynn and get out of here." 

 

The sounds in the distance unnerved her a little bit but she soildered on. That was likely their destination. "The question is, do we go right or left?" 

[RocketLord]

BOUNCE!

 

Mattie looks up at Iris and nods weakly. There's tears welling up in her eyes, but she nods again and does her best to take a deep breath. How does that even work if they're inside a mind thingie? Can they even breathe in here? Now she's overthinking it and it feels weird and...

 

And Lynn is still in trouble.

 

She takes a deep breath. Steels herself. Her lip is only quivering slightly, as she reaches up and wipes her eyes with the back of her arm.

 

"We need to find Lynn."

 

A quick pause, she considers her options.

 

"What's all that noise? Maybe that's Lynn, or someone chasin' her or somethin' like that?"

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

At first, she sniffed the air, trying to scope out whatever this supposed dream was hiding out in terms of smells, if there was at all anything to go on in such a reality as she assumed none of this could be real at all. Inside someone else own mind wasn't something that she was planning on doing tonight, and the act of being in such alone was a growing annoyance to the werecat, who focused to listen and hear the surroundings that seemed increasingly ominous. Whatever was down these halls wasn't a good thing and she was making sure that they were definitely not caught off guard if she could help it.

 

"Stop crying," she spoke with a partially uncaring tone.  Abrasive it was, Carmen would close her eyes and listen in, focusing and feeling out the sounds for what she could. Such a foreign world this dreamland was, out of some weird horror book she read it felt like, "I got to hear what's around us alright?"

 

After a time, Carmen started to hear something, what sounded like the panicked voice that was familiar to her and then, another voice. A more quiet voice but still one that seemed far troubled, "Left and down the hall, pick your poison I guess."

Edited 12 hours ago by MoonSimply