Prompt: 050 - Surrealism - Fiction

[laurtew.livejournal.com]

Title Nightmares and Dreamscapes
Author laurtew
Rating PG
Word Count 912
Prompt: 050 - Surrealism
Characters: Rupert, Buffy, Xander, and Willow (With a short appearance by Angel)
A/N: This takes place at the beginning of season two. Don't ask me. I don't know.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Rupert looked into the vampire’s eyes, seeing certain death. He could feel breath ghosting over his skin and was struck by how cold it felt.

And then he was falling, endlessly falling, as countless lives swirled around him, misty and bold. His whole body shook with the impact as he landed on the plush cushions of an antique chintz couch.

He looked around, struggling to get his bearings. A dark figure stood to the side and he tensed his body, preparing to fight for his life. It turned to face him and he was confused to see a woman in a floor length black dress with her dark hair in a severe bun. She looked at him with pleading eyes, her expression anguished.

“Where am I?” Rupert asked, rising from the couch.

“Where are you not?” she responded.

“I’m sorry?” Perhaps he simply misheard her.

“Don’t be sorry; be right. Only you can stop him from hurting her and ending the world.”

He frowned and walked towards her. Maybe if he were closer to her he could hear her better. He was within five feet of her when she was suddenly surrounded by light. Before he could really process that, she was gone and in her place was a glowing blue stone. Rupert bent to pick it up.

A noise made him look up, the smooth stone clutched in his hand. The world was dissolving into nothing, becoming shimmering specks of dust that spun around him like a tornado. He put his hands up to protect his face and suddenly he was standing in the library.

The children were there, sitting at the research table, reading books. Rupert blinked. He stepped forward, coming up behind Buffy.

“What are you all doing here at this time of night?” he asked.

“If you don’t know the way, I can’t help you, G-man,” Xander replied, not looking up from his book.

“If I…what are you talking about?”

“It all leads back to love,” Willow said quietly. “You shouldn’t have let her listen to him.”

“What in the name of holy Hell are you talking about?” Rupert asked, frustration making him terse.

“If you don’t know, who does?” Buffy asked.

He looked up to see Angel standing behind Willow, his face twisted into the features of the vampire.

“For a man with all the answers, you are truly dense,” Angel growled. “Your blindness and your soft heart will be the downfall of them all. And then I’m going to break you, Watcher.”

“I…” Rupert turned away from them, putting a hand to his head, starting to pace. “I don’t understand.”

He turned around to ask them for further clarification, only to find that he was no longer in the library. He was in a dark forest, surrounded by a swirling mist.

And then it was there again; the vampire with its glowing eyes and deadly fangs. He stepped back, alarmed at the way his mind seemed to slip slide. Why had it wandered at all?

The fog began to clear and suddenly he knew. He swallowed hard as he looked into the twisted faces of Buffy, Willow, and Xander. They smiled malevolently at him, spreading out to circle around him. His heart ached as he watched the people he loved the most…no, not them. The demons that had killed them. Mustn’t forget that. They were gone and he was left to fight a war that he couldn’t win. The lone survivor in this battle with pure evil. And really, what was he fighting for? Without his Slayer, what was left to win?

He took a deep breath and looked at Buffy.

“I was yours in life and I shall be yours forever.” The words came so easily to his lips.

“It’s good that you know your place,” Buffy hissed to him. “But what makes you think we want you?”

“But…you need me and I want all of you,” he replied.

“All I’ve ever wanted was your heart,” Buffy said. “Maybe I’ll just take that.”

She reached into his chest and waves of pain washed through him. She pulled her empty hand out and looked at him baffled.

“It’s not there!” she cried to him.

“Of course not,” he gasped, falling to his knees. “I gave it to all of you long ago.”

His hands began to shake. He felt the blue stone slipping from his fingers and he looked down to see it hit the ground and shatter into a million shards of light.

“You shouldn’t have let her listen to him,” Willow’s voice ghosted, surrounding him.

“You have to see the storm that’s coming,” Xander’s voice echoed. “Only you can stop it.”

“Love conquers all,” Buffy said as the light exploded around him, blinding him.

He could feel himself screaming, but he couldn’t hear it. And suddenly, he could, his voice sounding impossibly loud in the darkness. He was sitting up in his bed, screaming into the empty night.

He paused, drawing in a breath, panting from the terror coursing through him. His skin was slick with sweat and he was shaking as he looked around the room. It was just a dream. Only a dream. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply and willing himself to relax. But he couldn’t get rid of the niggling feeling that this dream was trying to warn him about something. It wouldn’t be the first time.

With a sigh, he got out of bed and went downstairs to make tea.

The End

Comments

[laurtew.livejournal.com]

I know this is months late, but I wanted to thank you for the review. And I have to say, this review was poetry. Very cool. Thank you so much!