powerdealer: (10 | Angry | Brooding)
Seth ([personal profile] powerdealer) wrote in [community profile] applesaucedream2014-05-19 03:47 pm

[open] Locked within a room of memory, locked up away with no light of day

Seth sits in his bed, back against the wall, facing the door.

This is not his current room. No trace of the sleek, clean style he favours. No decorations, no furniture at all except for the bed. The walls are brick and stone, the floor dirty cement, the air musty and heavy, with just a hint of smell from the sewers coming from the toilet in the corner. There's a constricting feeling of anxiety and dread, his attentions focused on the heavy, bolted door.

There used to be books and writing equipment at least, but they took that away before they returned him here. They even took away his nice blanket. It's funny the simple things you get attached to when there's nothing else.

Any moment now, he knows, one of the rebels will come through that door and discipline him. Tell him he'll do as they say, or else. He wonders what it is he did this time. There's been quite a few times over the more than three months they kept him here that he didn't want to do what they told him to.

He's had this dream before. He doesn't quite know it's a dream yet, but it'll soon come to him. And while it's not a nightmare that makes him wake with a start and a strangled scream, it's the sort that weighs heavily on him the entire following day, like a weight on his chest, making it hard to breathe, making any small room feel like a trap.

The door opens, and someone steps in, the door closing heavily behind them.

[This is a recurring dream for Seth, so he can have a different visitor on different nights. If you tag in, merely pick a date.]
johnny_truant: (desperate)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-02 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
Johnny lets go of his hand as soon as he's up - he isn't Charley, he's not gonna hold hands with Seth the whole way out. But as soon as he turns he sort of misses the contact. His adrenaline spikes and he feels like he's going to be sick.

The door, the door he just came through, is gone.

"No!" He lunges forward, instantly panicked, pressing his palm flat against the wall. He tears it apart in his head, carving out the gap, fitting the door back into the space, but it won't come. The wall is solid beneath his fingers. He drops his hand and staggers back, shaking. Oh god, not again. Not now.

"Fuck!" He swivels sharply toward the adjacent wall, slamming his palm against it, hard enough to hurt, trying to make an exit, to collapse it, something. He doesn't want to be enclosed here. Nothing's working. He knew this was a trap.

He can't do it. He backs away, breathing heavily. Ostensibly they're in no danger here, but he knows that won't last. The dread, creeping up inside him, that iron taste in his mouth. Any minute now something's going to come out of the dark and devour them both. And it'll be his fault.
johnny_truant: (oh shiiiit)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-02 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
Johnny lets Seth guide him, slumped and frustrated with himself for having failed. He tries to tell himself it's okay, it doesn't matter, as long as one of them can keep it together at a time, they'll be fine.

Moving through a wall is a pretty bizarre experience, unsurprisingly, but it's painless and it's over quick enough. He staggers through and is about to offer thanks, but he's cut short by the discovery that the setting has changed. They're not at all where they were.

Everything is dark, almost completely lightless, low ceilinged and untextured. Not wood, or earth, or stone, or metal beneath their feet - soft but solid, almost like ash. The space is broad and expansive, from what he can make out, a network of walls and no doors, just vast, labyrinthine space.

It's the house.

"Oh no," he says quietly, wanting to sink into the earth. "No, no, no."
johnny_truant: (scared)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-02 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
Johnny can't quite reply for a few moments. He's never been here, not really, but he knows it, intrinsically. The details are cut into him like scars.

"It's-" He shakes his head. How can he explain this? "We have to get out of here." He grabs Seth's hand again, automatically this time, and starts moving. "Stairs. We have to find the stairs."

It all makes sense now, doesn't it? Why he couldn't use his power. He can't use it here. This is where it comes from. The house has reclaimed it. Reclaimed him.

They haven't made it far at all before the noise starts, inevitable and blood-chilling, a loud, sharp BANG in the distance, of a door being slammed, or pounded on. Johnny starts and jerks around, still clutching at Seth, staring terrified into the dark. It's coming closer. Coming for them.

"Shit," he whispers. He's made this so much worse. He always makes it worse.
johnny_truant: (disbelief | pain | disgust)

cw: brief but graphic violence

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-02 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't know," says Johnny, hurrying alongside him, and it's only half a lie, he sort of knows, but it's impossible to explain. "I know we don't want to find out."

If he'd had a moment to understand where they are, what's happening, he might have been able to keep it from finding them. He could have grounded himself, knowing it wasn't real, and given them the stairs to climb, back up out of the earth. But as it is, mere horror at the idea of it catching up to them is enough to manifest it at his back, unseen in the void but heard and felt well enough, carrying the smell of smoke and blood, enough that he can taste it on the air. Too late to turn or try to lose it. He leans heavily into Seth, shoving him aside, and feels it rush at him, all claws and teeth, slicing into his back, dragging four long gashes from hip to opposite shoulder. He screams and collapses forward onto the ground, and it's gone for now, swallowed back into the dark, but he knows it's still there, waiting.
johnny_truant: (despair)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-02 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
For a moment Johnny remains, trembling, unable to move or think or even really listen to Seth. He's sure it'll be back any moment. He's sure it will kill them both. He doesn't really know what's happening when Seth takes his hand, but the light snaps him out of it, so brilliant and such a relief against the dark, until it fades, leaving him more blinded than before. Almost immediately he feels the pain dissipating a little, just enough that he can come back to himself.

"Th-thank you," he murmurs shakily. He pulls himself up partway, still huddled on the floor next to Seth. "I'm sorry I brought you here. I didn't mean to."
johnny_truant: (bad memory)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-02 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"It doesn't matter." Even as despair begins to overtake him, Johnny struggles to get to his feet, leaning part of his weight on Seth. He's never been the type to lie there and die, even when it's the only sensible option remaining. "We're not gonna find them. Even if we do we won't make it out. The house won't let us."

He stands a little unsteadily, offering his hand to Seth. "If it wants to keep us, it will."
johnny_truant: (whhhat)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-03 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
What. What. Johnny stops short as soon as they clear the wall, staggering back against it, rather painfully given his wounds. The pain is forgotten for now, though; they're outside. They're above ground. Johnny could care less about the setting; for him, the open air is all kinds of improvement.

"How - how did you do that?" He steps forward, relieved beyond caution. "I don't understand."
johnny_truant: (say what now)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-03 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh," says Johnny. He frowns. Wasn't the house meant to be in Vermont? Or Maine, or somewhere? But if Seth knows this place, then... well, it doesn't matter. At least it's not there.

He wanders further out, amidst the tombstones, looking around at the expansive distance. "Which way should we go?" he asks, turning back.
johnny_truant: (oh shiiiit)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-03 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
"Seth?" Johnny frowns as Seth moves over toward what looks like an open goddamn grave, like that's something worth investigating. Seth seems totally drawn into it, though, ignoring him, so he follows, jogging a little to catch up. "Seth, what-"

He stops dead when the girl sits up. He can hear the emotion in Seth's voice, and he remembers hearing this story - dead girlfriend, undead girlfriend. She doesn't look happy to see him, though. She doesn't look anything. Except maybe hungry. Shit. Shit.

"Seth, we have to go." He grabs Seth's shoulder, trying to pull him back. "Seth, come on."
johnny_truant: (disbelief | pain | disgust)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-03 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
"Seth-" Johnny lets him slip out of his hold, not sure what to do. He's still feeling too weak to try anything more effective, like tackling or bodily dragging Seth away from his zombie girlfriend, which he probably couldn't manage anyway, so instead he stares, helpless and a little bit repulsed, as Seth approaches her and then kisses her.

"Oh, god," says Johnny, now thoroughly disgusted. "Holy shit, dude. No. Stop that."

It's right around then that he notices they have company. A lot of company. Closing in around them on all sides. Johnny spins around, looking for an way out, which they don't have, of fucking course.

"Oh, fuck, oh fuck," he snaps, feeling desperate. He storms back over to Seth and Shannon and forces them apart. "Seth, wake the fuck up. We have to-"

He's cut off when Zombie Shannon, with a sudden aggressive snarl, wraps her arm around his throat and jerks him back, immediately trying to bite him. Johnny makes a desperate grab for her hair, holding her back as hard as he can, struggling awkwardly. "Fuck off!" he says shrilly, entirely terrified.
johnny_truant: (desperate)

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-03 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
"Fuck!" Johnny rocks back, staggering from the sudden loss of tension. He stares for a moment at the re-dead girl, then looks at Seth, gasping slightly.

"I'm okay," he says, though he's not, really. "But there's like, a fuckload more of them." He makes a sweeping gesture to encompass the approaching hoard.

Where did the shovel come from? Johnny casts a look around and notices, even more confusingly, a baseball bat. Well okay. Whatever goddamn works. He picks it up and hefts it. "Please tell me you have a better idea."
johnny_truant: (caged)

cw: more grossness/blood/graphic violence with sound effects

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-03 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
All right. Great.

"I can't believe this is fucking happening," mutters Johnny as he follows Seth, keeping relatively close. He draws a breath and exhales slowly, leveling the bat at the nearest zombie. Freaking zombies.

He pulls back like he's about to hit a pitch, then swings and smacks it neatly across the skull of his would-be attacker. Actually, not that neatly. Quite messily, in fact. It makes a sickening crunch, and the zombie person staggers to the side, looking dizzy and dazed, before crumpling to the ground.

"Oh fuck," he says, breathless, but he can't stop there; they're off and running now, and he's swinging left and right, keeping Seth close but always outside his bat radius. Blood is fucking everywhere. All over him. Goddammit.
Edited 2014-07-03 05:22 (UTC)
johnny_truant: (disbelief | pain | disgust)

cw: yeah that

[personal profile] johnny_truant 2014-07-03 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
"Seth!" Johnny turns frantically, trying to swing his bat around to help, but someone's grabbed it - these zombies are not movie zombies, not even close - and yanked him back, and at least three of them descend on him and start biting into him. He screams and struggles, but to no avail; he sinks into the mass, overcome by pain and terror, until--


He wakes up screaming. Not unusual.

He sits up hard and fast, making himself a little dizzy. Scout's agitated, whining from the little bed Johnny made for him. Johnny swings over the side of the bed, breathing heavily, bringing himself back down. "Come here, Scout," he murmurs, holding his hands out, and the dog hurries over for some whispered comfort and scratches behind his ears.

"I'll be right back," he mumbles, getting to his feet and staggering to the door. He fumbles it open and steps into the hallway, angling toward Seth's apartment.

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