#for anyone wondering: he has Stigmata so he bleeds when he's hungy but I sorta headcanon that sometimes he just doesn't realise he's hungry

[the-hunting-hawk]

Nightmares

//ooc: anyone wondering how Victor’s doing? :)

note: this is unedited and pretty much a spontaneous piece so it isn’t that good??? but I do not have the energy to edit this so I’m posting it nearly exactly as I wrote it :)

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Daysleep, he found, could happen in one or two ways. If he was settling down in a comfortable bed - it felt as natural as falling asleep without the long stressful hours of insomnia that used to chase him when he was alive.

But then there was the times, like now.

The laptop screen was giving him a headache, he’d been staring at it so long. He’d tried anything and everything he could think of to no avail. He wasn’t a hacker, but he was trying - learning. He unlocked his phone at the table, ignoring the time and the feeling he felt of daysleep approaching. He typed up all his current password attempts.

He yawned and rolled his shoulders a bit, he’d been sat here since he’d woken up. Ellie was next to him on a perch that Ash had brought over as he still flitted about between the addresses they’d acquired.

‘Victor,’ Ash said with a wide yawn, placing a hand on his shoulder.

‘You’ve been at this all night, time to sleep,’ His dad said, leaning down to hug him and resting his head on his shoulder.

‘I have a little bit more time,’ He replied back, swallowing the yawn his throat tried to release.

Ash sighed and gave him a gentle squeeze as he stood and let him go.

‘Just don’t pass out on the laptop, hm?’ He said as he stood.

‘I won’t,’ He said with faux confidence.

His dad looked back at him for a moment, and he glanced up at him for a moment. He watched Ash shake his head from the corner of his vision but did leave him to it.

He was alone in the library, Bartholomew pretty much had left him be since he handed Victor the laptop - Ash had mostly been out in pursuit of addresses and his own contacts to try find any thread they could pull on.

All alone again, working on a laptop with little to hope of opening it. But he was going to try, even if Shadow McFuckface decided to teleport in at any port and shank him for it.

He gently lifted the laptop with shaky-with-fatigue-hands and placed it back a little, so his hands barely touched the keys on the keyboard.

The library was concealed from the sun, but he felt it rise and he stubbornly tried to resist his daysleep. He managed to hit the enter key on a certain password before he completely blacked out as daysleep slammed him down into unconsciousness despite his valiant protests.

-

He was in a lake of blood, chest deep in it. When he moved it felt himself sink further so he stilled - the tactic one would do in quicksand. He look around to try find a way to get out.

The lake of blood he was stuck in was surrounded by trees, one with a particular root that was stretched out towards him and within arm reach. It looked thick and sturdy. He did look around, making sure no one else who could him was around before he slowly moved his arms - moving them about to get them out of the blood and grab onto the tree branch and slowly draw himself towards the tree. And towards the shore.

Within the blink of an eye, a figure was crouched on the source of the root - himself. But not him - an exact replica except this one had blood red eyes and was covered in it head to foot - even in clothes.

‘You never give up, do you?’ It asked with his voice as it tilted it’s head at him.

He stopped moving for a moment and clung to the branch, staring at this figure before he kept moving - feeling the blood of the pool clinging harder to him - trying to make him sink.

‘Oh but you have hope, silly thing you are. That maybe you can keep living and being human. Have friends and a family - pretend to be normal,’ It singsonged to him pleasantly as it sat down and kicked it’s legs out freely through the blood with ease.

‘I took control once. Twice. You really don’t like that, do you?’

The lake had somehow risen up to his shoulders - and he was breathing heavily with the exertion of trying to pull himself up and along. Half way up the branch towards this thing - towards the shore.

‘You can’t ignore me forever. One day you’ll have to stop running,’ It said with a wide smirk - an expression that looked contorted and exaggerated.

It was certainly a foriegn expression that had never graced his own face and it did not belong on his face.

‘You’re not me. I’m me,’ He retorted as he struggled to pull himself upright to a thicker part of the branch that would likely support him.

He was still away from shore - but the branch here was thick enough to support his weight. He knew it. But he struggled to pull himself upright.

A throaty heart laugh was his reply as the fake him easily got to its feet and strode over to him with easy. Crouching and extending it’s hand toward him. That same contorted expression on its face.

‘We’re one and the same now. You’ve lost your one and only friend. You’re not going to find her, you’re not some excellent hacker or even a excellent tracker. Though you could be that second one if you stopped suppressing me - you know that,’ It still held it’s hand extended.

Victor growled, grabbed the fake by the hand and with a surge of strength took it by the hand and threw it over his shoulder and used the strength to pull himself upright.

‘I don’t need you. I’ll find her,’ He said as he pulled himself to the branch and into a crouch.

He got up, looking down he saw none of the blood had soaked him and his fake self had seemingly disappeared. He turned to run up the tree branch like a tightrope walked in a performance - agile and quick of foot until the scene melted away in an instant.

He was in Chicago - bathed in the light of a street lamp and facing an alleyway where he could see Rosary. She was being held, neck bent backwards at such an angle that couldn’t have been comfortable with a knife held to her neck lightly - enough to let her scream for his aid but not enough for her to have any room to escape.

The figure holding her in this dark alleyway as a shadow - not so much literal as a blank faced figured with no discernable facial features but a tall strong pale man with dark hair in a dark suit.

‘Help me!’ Rosary screamed.

‘Come any closer and she dies,’ The figure said - a deep rattling voice that echoed off the walls of the alley - especially ominous given it had no mouth.

‘Rosary…’ He was torn.

Run to help… But she’d die. She was a hardy vampire… Could he move quick enough to get her help? To prevent her death?

He moved forward in an instant, going to knock the knife from the hands of her captor. But he didn’t know who or what they were beside Lasombra. He didn’t expect the man to have the strength to use the knife to decapitate her within barely a second. He watched the man dissolve into the shadows as he dropped to his nears next to where Rosary’s ashes were.

‘Why didn’t you save me?’ The voice of Rosary whispered in his ear.

‘You should have helped me,’

‘I don’t know why I befriended some useless man like you. At least Micheal has his uses,’

‘If you can’t save me, someone more superior - how are you supposed to protect yourself? Keep pretending you and your little family are going to be perfect together forever?’

The whispers of Rosary kept whispering as the scene of the Chicago alleyway went dark.

-

He woke crying, sobbing. Every doubt from his dreams being whispered by the inner voice of his mind as he woke up thinking about the dream. It took him about a minute to register the soft feel of Ellie up against his arm - mostly concealed by his hoodie and then he released - the laptop.

He sat up and saw someone had covered him in a blanket - a covered in crows that he had definitely left at home but he ignored it as he swivelled the chair away from the desk as he cried so the liquid would invade the laptop and break it.

He was alone except for Ellie who hopped up to coo softly on the back of the chair for him as he untangled himself from the blanket. After he did he saw his hands were covered in blood from his tears and tried to wipe it off onto his jeans and saw the blood ooze out of his hands - given he was crying and upset… It was likely he hadn’t noticed the bane of his own blood manifest.

He didn’t want to get up, he didn’t want to deal with it. He felt more than heard Ellie get off the chair and go fly somewhere he swiveled the chair back around. The laptop was safe. Where he’d been sleeping was covered in blood but he’d pushed the laptop away thankfully…

Despite the blood pouring out of his hands - he picked up his phone, his bane now obscuring his vision of his tears but typed in what he remembered trying last night. His phone was probably blood proof… right?

He didn’t care. He made a new list of passwords to try but he felt no inclination of getting up. He heard a door open somewhere, he wasn’t sure and after a minute Ash appeared with a mug for him.

‘A little birdy told me you needed something to eat, baba,’ Ash said and put the mug down on the table for him.

He sort of looked at the mug, looking at his hands and just felt how soaked he was - could smell the almost intoxicating smell of his own blood and drank the blood from the mug like one would do a coffee.

‘We’ll find her,’ Ash said as he rested the side of his hip against the table as he watched Victor drink.

‘But -’ He softly clanked his upper fangs against the ceramic mug to not finish that thought - voice what he’d seen in his dream.

It felt real but it wasn’t real… It felt real but wasn’t real…

‘Ibn, did you have a nightmare?’ Ash asked.

He nodded.

Ash leaned forward to gently tousle the dry parts of his hair that weren’t covered in his blood.

‘I know your nightmares feed you lies. Don’t listen, we’ll find her and bring her back, yeah?’ Ash said.

Victor didn’t reply and finished drinking the blood and felt all the wounds close up so he finally wiped his hands on his jeans. He looked up when Ash gently pulled out a piece of cloth to gently wipe up the blood on his face, including where it had crusted and dried around his eyes from his crying…

‘We’ll bring her back… I want her to be okay,’ He said softly to Ash.

‘Then you can go back to playing bodyguard instead of me, hm?’ Ash said with a grin.

Victor snorted but nodded. Then Ash came closer to clap him on the shoulder.

‘Go shower and get changed, we have a day of hacking to attempt,’ Ash said, practically pulling Victor out of the seat as Victor nodded and went to go shower and get dressed….

Though he would probably have to do some minor cleaning because of his stupid spontaneous hunger bleeding… but first a shower…