#i'm crying the medium place for him is a place with scratched mirrors that he can only half see himself in

[rachelbflynn]

alrightnik·:

.

nik had heard it before. everyone he ran into ( who was in on it ) had told him the same damn thing: you’re not dreaming, nik. this is real, nik. but that was exactly the kind of thing his dreams would say ! he could outsmart his brain, he knew it better than it did ! sure, the average human being apparently only used – what was it ? 5% ? – but he still knew it well enough to know that they were all figments of an annoying dream ( that wasn’t even guilt-inducing, not yet ) that he would eventually wake up from. maybe… maybe myah marie britney would stop singing and start talking to him – that would work ! or maybe, even better… ‘chillin’ with you’ would just start playing endlessly. that would be even worse than getting strangled by a snake-like creature that bore some kind of resemblance to nina ! 

“ i’m done with this, ” he stated, tone flat. “ i know it’s a dream, mate, ” he called, looking up, as if speaking to his own mind. “ give up on the charade already, get back to the old workings. don’t try to fix what isn’t broken. ”

.

Is it any surprise that convincing Nik he was wrong was proving to be difficult? The man’s ego was bigger than Cyrelle’s house, which was truly saying something. Rachel lets out a huff of frustration, before snapping at him. “I’m not your fucking mate.” Before the film, Nik had been just another person in Darkwood that Rachel wasn’t exactly fond of, but didn’t actively dislike. In fact, she did her best to avoid him, and that worked perfectly well for most of their time growing up. Now, however, even hearing the casual term makes her blood boil. 

She briefly glances around the thankfully empty store, before fixing him with an expectant stare. “Fine. If you’re so sure that you’re dreaming, what do I next? If this were really a dream, what old workings would you be waiting for?”

[postmortem-bookworm]

Bright - Bucky Barnes - Part One

Fandom: Avengers

Type: Series

Word Count: 1,753

Character(s): Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers, Shuri, T'Challa

Warning(s): Cussing, Mentions of attempted suicide (but shouldn't be anything triggering), smut (maybe), mentions of X-Men, Steve is crushing

A/N: This picks up almost right after Black Panther, but before Bucky is awake, there is no Thanos, and everyone is alive.

My first series! Please enjoy!

Shifting nervously in her seat, she watches though the window as Steve and Natasha talk to the King and Princess of Wakanda in privacy. Steve seems to notice her watching as he looks over at her, giving a small smile, which Natasha seems to notice, because she turns to look at her with a unconvincing mirror of the Captain's, and her blood runs cold. Steve hasn't smiled much, since the battle of team Iron Man verses team Captain America at the airstrip. Natasha does smile much, period. This can't be good. She twirls a lock of burgundy hair around a finger, her nail is painted with chipped black varnish, something she'll miss from now on, unless someone in this almost alternate dimension, has any.

"-hut all ready for her stay." The King says as the door to the room opens, the four of them exit as she shifts in her seat once again, gnawing at her bottom lip as Steve nods to the King, before walking over to her, grabbing the suitcase resting at her feet.

"Good news, you can stay. They even have a semi secluded area where they've prepared your hut." She narrows her eyes at the Captain, his baggy eyes and mussed up hair, like he's ran his fingers though it a thousand and one times, doesn't help convince her much that this is for her safety, and not their own. His emotions are chaotic as they practically slap her in the face. "Maeve?"

"You should shave." She says as he reaches up to rub the beard that isn't quite stubble anymore, but isn't a full on beard yet, the apples of his cheeks are red, and the Princess giggles.

"I am princess Shuri, I will help deliver you to your new home, and help explain our culture to you, as best as I can." She says in a friendly manner as she steps up to Maeve, holding out a hand to the American. "Welcome to Wakanda, Ms. Smithe."

"Hello, Princess Shuri. I am pleased to meet you. Please, i-if you don't mind, please just call me Maeve, or Mae." She smiles, shaking the princess's hand, and Shuri drops her hand, smiling.

"Only if you call me Shuri." She says. "Come along. Brother, are you coming?" She asks, looking at the King. T'Challa nods and smiles, everyone following the Princess. The King is close to the Princess, Mae falls behind to talk to Steve and Natasha.

"We will be at your call, anytime you need us, Mae." Steve says as he puts his free arm around her shoulder. Regret and thankfulness emit from the Super Soldier, her exhaustion at everything lately makes her unable to shield against the emotions, though she's grateful she still can fight back against his thoughts.

"You know we won't be able to be here right away, but we'll be here as soon as you need, Mae. This isn't us abandoning you." Natasha says, draping her arm over Mae's other shoulder.

"I'm used to it." She says, ducking out of their hold, moving to follow the King and Princess closer. Natasha and Steve exchange looks with sadness radiating from the duo, as the burgundy haired mutant reflects the emotion back.

The hut sits in a grassy meadow, it's a medium size made out of wood, with a pergola off to the side, and stream in the back behind the small forest. Another hut sits not far away, but other than that, there isn't another in sight. The hut has modern equipment in it, a TV, fridge, stock and oven, running shower, and toilet, with a small bedroom tucked into the back, with a queen-size pillow top mattress. The floor of the hut is wood, with a nice rug every few feet, and plush couch in the living room. A modern house with an un-modern appearance. Outside the pergola is white, with ivy and flowers twining up the posts, a bench sits on the inside, and a foldable art easel is tucked in it, to the side.

"This is nice." Steve says after he sets her suitcase on the end of the bed. "It's remote, so you won't have to feel all of those emotions, of a bunch of strangers. You won't hear their thoughts." He smiles at her as she touches the drapes over one of the windows, before looking over at him.

"It'll do." She says simply, causing Natasha to give him an almost patronizing look, and Mae turns to her. "It's not just his fault." She looks at Mae in confusion, like she's not feeling what Mae knows that she knows Mae can feel. "I can feel your irritation." Natasha sighs as she walks over to rest a hand on Mae's shoulder. The air is tense, making her grateful that the King and Shuri decided to stay outside, to let the three of them have their time.

"This isn't like your parents, Maeve! We're not abandoning you, but we need to do this, for everyone's safety. Not just our's, but for your's as well." Natasha says in anger.

"Bullshit!" Mae snaps, jerking away from the two of them. "You can lie to me, and to yourselves, but your emotions betray you! You think that I'm too dangerous after what happened at the airstrip!" She clenches her fists, before wrapping her arms around herself. "Ju-Just leave! You did what you set out to do, so just go!" She turns away from them, fighting back tears as Natasha looks at Steve, who nods as he leaves the hut.

"I'm not leaving, Maeve." Natasha wraps her arms around the young woman, who is curling into a ball. "Not while you're like this." Natasha pets her hair, holding Mae close. "You're my sister, Maeve. You're my sister and I love you, and I would NEVER abandon you." Her whispers are soothing, her emotions just solidifying the affection she has for Mae.

"I'm sorry, Nat." She sobs, curling up against the assassin, who caresses her hair, silently crying as well. "I just can't forget about how it felt, when my parents left me at the School." Natasha shushes her, and pets Mae's hair.

"It's alright, Mae. I'm not going to hold it against you. We have to protect ourselves, but you too. Your emotions affect your abilities, and we can't have that happen when we're on the run." Natasha explains, and Mae wipes her face, and nods.

"I understand. It's okay." She takes a deep breath, and Natasha smiles at her as the two of them stand up. "Promise me, you'll be safe." She says as she hugs Natasha, who hugs Maeve back in return.

"We'll try, but we can't promise that." She points out, causing Mae to nod sadly as they part. "Now, go tell Steve goodbye." Mae smiles as she walks outside, Natasha is right one her heels. Steve smiles as Maeve smiles sadly at him, leaning up to kiss his cheek with a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry." She murmurs, causing him to shake his head, his cheeks taking on a ruddy color as he cups her cheek with a free hand.

"No, doll. It's not your fault. I'm just sorry we can't stay." She smiles up at him, leaning up on her tiptoes to throw her arms around him.

"Please be safe, try and protect each other." She whispers in his ear as he places his hands on her waist, hugging her back.

"Of course, doll. And, don't forget that we're here for you, no matter what." He murmurs as she nods, leaning back on her heels. She ignores the rush of warmth in her chest, knowing that it doesn't belong to her. "You take care of Bucky for me, when he wakes up, okay?"

"Of course, Steve. You can count on me." She promises, causing him to smile, and scratch his scruffy cheek.

"I know, doll. I'll... give you two a minute to say goodbye." He says, gesturing between Natasha and Maeve. He walks a bit away as she turns to Natasha, who is smirking at her.

"What?" Natasha shakes her head and laughs, yanking Maeve by the wrist into her arms.

"You couldn't be more oblivious, even with your powers." Natasha says, hugging Maeve.

"No, I know how he feels. But, it's just a crush for him. He feels warmth when he's near me, but elation at the mere mention of Peggy's name." She steps away from Natasha. "And, I don't feel that way about him. I don't feel that way, after..."

"Logan, I know." She grinds out his name, before kissing her forehead. "Rat bastard." Her snarl has Maeve throwing her head back, laughing as Natasha blinks, before smiling. "Good to see you laughing. I love you, sis."

"Love you too, sis." She hugs the assassin again. "I'll see you soon, yeah?" She grins.

"It'll be fun." Natasha promises.

"Bye, Nat." She says, and the assassin nods as she starts to walk away, the King nods the Maeve, before walking towards the other two, walking them back toward the castle as one of the women warriors comes into view, standing on the hill with her spear in hand, waiting as Shuri rolls her eyes.

"Mae, these are you Kimoyo beads." She hands the to Maeve, who slides them on her wrist. "I've personally designed them, they will allow you to make calls, and purchases. Brother has taken care of funds, so you need not worry about it." Shuri explains, causing Maeve to nod as she studies the beads. "There are many other things they can be used for, but you can learn about them later."

"Thank you, Shuri." Maeve says as she slides the bracelet up and down, looking at them before, looking up at the Princess. "Would you- I mean... Could you- I feel..." Shuri was her stumble over her words, before nodding as she gestures towards the door.

"I will stay, until you are settled." She says with a smile, the two of them duck inside the hut, the lights coming on as the sun starts to set outside. The two young women talk for a few hours, about the world outside the Wakandan boarders, and Maeve's history with the Avengers and her life before. Shuri talks about the culture of Wakanda, her shenanigans with her brother, and his wife Nakia, and even life inside the castle. It turns out, they're just two lonely girls, craving a friendship. This might work out for the two of them, after all.

[iluvzfewdnstoreyz]

Nightmare Dream Home

Afew years ago my ex husband and I moved our new little family into a cute 3 bedroom little house. It was painted blue, and therefore has since been called the blue house. The 1st week there we were in our living room watching television, when a massive shadow went up the wall behind us, onto the ceiling where a mist formed with it. It moved across the ceiling down the hallway and disappeared into the nursery. I was a die hard skeptic at this time. My ex husband asked me if I saw it. I am ashamed to say, I told him I had and that it was merely someones headlights outside. He argued that the windows were not near any road and the mist was not explained by this theory. I shrugged it off and accepted my explanation anyway.

We began having experiences hearing footsteps running down the hallway to bathroom; banging and scratching on the walls; toys turning on and off without batteries; hearing children cry outside the nursery window; large shadow and mists movement daily; a full body apparition of a woman, the kids complaining they could not sleep because "they" would not leave them alone; cold spots, lights flickering and going off, sounds of heavy furniture being moved around in the vacant bedroom; the television coming on and or going off on its own accompanied by an odd high pitched hum and sometimes a faint sound of music. I continued to find explanations for these events and ignored what I could.

As things escalated everyone in the household experienced nightmares, and some of us began sleep walking. I was one of them and I had the most frequent episodes. I would wake up under the kitchen table; on the floor in odd places; and even outside. There would be mud on my feet and other signs I had been outside. My family said I would have my eyes open but I did not respond to them like myself and I seemed vacant.

We were advised to try and get EVP. To talk to it. To ask questions. Doing this was our undoing.

We caught some low class EVP's in the question and answering stage. Nothing alarming or conclusive. Following our EVP session when we went to bed something growled. I was in bed and my ex husband was reaching up to the ceiling fan to turn the light off leaving the fan on. Something growled angrily from the foot of the bed. I thought it was our dog. I found her at my mother's feet, in the den, where she had been when I left to go to bed. We searched our property outside and found nothing. Even after all that I was convinced some stray or even my dog growling must be what we heard.

Later that night I woke to something strange. My computer monitor was visible at the foot of the bed. Standing in front of the monitor was the silhouette of my shirtless ex husband. His back was to me and he was just standing there. I called out to him but he didn't answer or turn around. Something told me to look at his side of the bed. I did and nothing was there. I looked back and my husband had vanished into thin air.

I realized that what I had seen couldn't have been a person. I smelled something burning. Then the covers began to be pulled down off of me. I froze. The air conditioner was a window unit. It began to beep and go from low fan to medium fan to high fan then back to low over and over. In unison with each fan cycle change the blinds were flipping open and shut, along with banging on the walls.

I suddenly became a little girl. I felt like all the air hang been sucked out of my body. I could not take air in to make a sound. I am embarrassed to say I urinated on myself. When I finally could take air, I gasped and began screaming for my mother like a child. I mustered the courage to finally move and reached for the door knob next to the bed. At that moment my husband came in and flipped the light on at which point it all stopped. He had been in the bathroom vomiting. His mysterious illness stopped right then as well.

I looked for a new home. I no longer was the skeptic.

Before moving I found a necklace on my dresser one day. I thought it was left there as a gift so I put it on thinking nothing of it. A couple days later I woke to a blinding headache. My husband got up to get my migraine medicine but fainted just outside our bedroom. I got up and went down too. I crawled to the kids room. I found my son first. I got him aroused enough to help walk him outside. I went back into the house for my daughter and husband. My husband crawled out while I located our daughter. She was 3 at the time. I found her tiny little body blue and unresponsive in her bedroom. I drug her out the front door thinking after I called 911 I would return to the home and lay down. I believed my daughter dead and wished to follow. My thinking was very muddled.

I went in and retrieved the phone. Passing out twice in this process. When I returned to the front door, my daughter's eyes were open. So I laid down in the yard and called for help. When paramedics and firemen arrived, I was told we had carbon monoxide poisoning. The firemen said 30 per square feet was lethal. My home was over 500 per square feet. Just short of barbecuing in the living room, no explanation for those levels was found in the home. No one in my family knew where the necklace had come from. I removed it at the hospital and left it there.

We moved shortly after that. The last night everyone was at our new home while I was at the blue house cleaning so we could collect our deposit. I was tired from the night before. The whispers and banging on the walls were relentless. I was in my bedroom when someone knocked on the door. I went and looked through the peephole and see the silhouette of a man I believed to be the neighbor across the street. I saw him lean down and look into the peep hole, then a bright light behind him appears and he turned and walked away. I opened the door and no one was there.

After shutting the door I realize he had stooped down to look in the peep hole at me. How is that possible I thought. He wasn't taller than me. Anxiety hits as it begins to hit me that the tall man could not have been my neighbor or any normal human being. My lungs seize up. I rush to the bedroom to get my rescue inhaler out of my purse.

That's the last thing I remember. The next thing I can recall I am slamming into a wall, falling from a standing position. I am in the living room. I am freezing. I have never been so cold. I looked around and was very confused about where I was. I didn't recognize it without the furnishings.

I am so cold my jaw was chattering. I wander briefly through the home trying to get my bearings as to where I am. I go into the bathroom. At this point, I begin to have a dejavu feeling, like I know, that I know this place, but I can not put it together in my head. It is fuzzy and slow moving.

I am desperate to get warm. I can see in the mirror that my lips are blue. "What the hell is wrong with me" I think. I begin filling the tub with hot water and I strip quickly climbing in.

As the water fills and my body begins to warm I see my cell phone on the floor next to the tub. It must have fallen out of my bra when I was undressing. I used to keep my cell phone in my bra along with money etc. I pick it up and call my husband.

When he answered I started crying. "I just woke up. I'm so cold."

He was frantic, "where are you! Where have you been! I have been calling you for hours. You didn't come home!"

I looked around the bathroom. I finally recognized it. I told him I was at the blue house.

"Babe where have you Been? We last spoke over 5 hours ago. Its 3am." He said.

I took about half an hour to warm my body enough that I would get out of the tub. My husband came and got me. I was too confused to even figure out how to get home on my own. I can not express how terrifying this was.

It turned out the man I thought I saw had passed away.

I don't know what I was doing in that 5 hours. It's scary to be up doing things with no recollection of it.

I don't know what happened to me that night or why. Seizure maybe? I try not to think about it.

We have continued to have issues, but very mild in comparison. We did lose one of our children to suicide about a year after moving. I can't help wonder if it had anything to do with what attacked me. Had it attacked him after leaving the blue house? He left no note. I am left never knowing.

I have accepted that there are no answers for me. My best friend lives next door to the blue house. She says that the new neighbors do not complain of having any issues. She had experienced something every time she had come into the blue house when I lived there. She has not experienced anything while on any of her visits to the new neighbors. I am too terrified to even pass the house. I do not visit her in her home. She comes to visit me.

I am a shadow of the person I once was. The events at the blue house severely traumatized me and my family. My son's death sent me over the edge into a full nervous breakdown. Which is not as dramatic as it may sound. I simply quit functioning. I closed myself off from the world and just stopped. I could not remember how to do a job I had done daily for 5 years. I had to be walked through it daily until I was terminated. I cried so much that my face was chapped all the time. Even now, 4 years later, I am struggling to reclaim my life. I pray no one else comes into contact with whatever that thing was.

Thanks for reading my story. Sharing it helps me let it go and heal. I am open to alternate explanations and discussions. You do not have to agree with me, and you can even think I am crazy. I only ask that you be respectful. Crazy or not, my life has been shattered into pieces because of what I experienced. Thank you. Shine on.