Little Shop of Horrors (Nat)

[Deleted]

@natalia

There was fire everywhere. He was in some sort of giant bramble, every branch around him burning. He heard his father's voice calling out to the villains he knew were in the air whisking students away to unknown horrors. Struggling through the thorns and flames, Phil burst into a clearing, his father's back visible for only a moment before a small flower popped out of the ground at his feet.

Attention instantly averted he knelt down and cup the flower, a smile on his lips. The horrors of the last few minutes seemingly forgotten. It was the echo flower Andy had given him, blooming with iridescent petals. His fingers brushed the step and the plant was instantly ten feet tall looming over him. He fell backward. The bell of the flower hung down over the top of him, flames dripping from the stamen, falling on him and spreading like water over his clothing. He struggled backward, trying to brush the glowing embers from his clothing, only succeeding in spreading them farther.

"Phil? Phil, where are you?" Andy was calling for him. He gave his clothing one final swipe then stood and ran through a doorway into a dark meadow. The fire was gone. The grass was soft under his bare feet. He felt a wave of calm spread over him. Mounds of brick were piled around the meadow, situated mainly behind the silhouette he thought was Andy. Walking forward, with hand reaching out for her he tried to say her name, but his voice didn't seem to work. Each step he took seemed to take him in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go. He kept finding himself at different places around the meadow, never any closer to Andy. Frustration lead him to closer observe his surroundings. The pit in his stomach seemed to swallow him, sending Phil spiraling down a dark hole only to end up right back where he was in the meadow. This was Andy's parent's house. The house she had destroyed. The ground zoomed underneath him until Andy was barely an arms span away from him. He reached for her, brushing the end of her jacket. When she turned around her face was bloody, the neck of a shattered violin in her hand, the piece on the ground. "Why weren't you there Phil? I needed you and you weren't THERE!"

Andy morphed into the demon of Phil's childhood nightmares, a fiend he had not seen for years.

Rolling over in his bed, sweat dripping from his forehead, Phil clutched the blankets tighter. "No." he whispered, his voice breaking.

@lestrange for reasons

[Deleted]

Sleeping had become a bit like gambling for Natalia. While she wasn’t often pulled into the dreams of others, she did sometimes find herself in a dreamscape that wasn’t her own after her eyes were closed. Actually, Nat thought with a frown, she hadn’t had any dreams of her own since her first accident regarding Eliza’s dreams. That was puzzling. If she ever figured out what was happening in regards to showing up in others’ dreams, she’d have to see if there was anything that would suggest that those dreams were replacing her own. Natalia lay down to sleep, wondering what the night would bring.

---

Natalia felt distinctly nauseous when she became aware of her consciousness again. The world around her looked like a kaleidoscope, or a shattered mirror, fragments of light and color bouncing around but not creating any distinct shapes. She heard a voice – a familiar voice. I needed you there, and you weren’t there! Andy? What was her sister doing? Who was she screaming at? Natalia was in the midst of figuring out how she had found herself in the middle of another of Andy’s nightmares when the images around her crystallized, so she could see something more than just abstract shapes. This wasn’t Andy’s dream, was it? It was… “Phil?” Nat called, watching her sister morph into something she didn’t recognize. “Phil!” Natalia repeated, louder, hoping she could get her adopted brother’s attention before the nightmare progressed.

@philiplongbottom

[Deleted]

@natalia

The ground seemed to envelop him, keeping him from moving, forcing him to fall backward. Unable to move he was forced to stare up at the Andy/creature. His breath was coming in short bursts, tears streaming down his cheeks. This couldn't be happening.

Suddenly a figure sprouted from the ground next to him. Neville Longbottom stood there, feet literally rooted to the ground. Unworthy. The air hissed around Phil's ears. The pained and disappointing look on Neville's face tore at Phil's heart. His father then split in two, sliced in half. Vines squirmed at the split trying to connect him back together. The monster Andy's hand sat at the base of Neville's feet, the culprit of the slicing.

"Phil?" A far away voice, a familiar one, but more importantly, a friendly one. Phil tried to glance to the side to see who said it. The ground still held him. Andy strolled toward him, giving him the fear to break out of the dirt and scramble back. "Come back, Phil. Don't leave me again." She said with a hiss. He stood as fast as he could and turned to run. On what could have been a hill stood a figure. "Phil!" It called. If he could get to that figure, maybe he would be safe. He took a step forward, reaching out.

The ground sucked his foot down, dropping him to his knees then pulling him through a hole. He spun in darkness for a moment before he was spit out in a white room. Silence echoed the maniacal laughter of monster Andy. He pulled his knees toward him and curled up in the corner, terrified of moving and being transported to another place. There was a door at the far end of the rectangular room, infinity mirrors on either side.

[Deleted]

Natalia felt like she was watching her worst fears unfold before her eyes. It was made even more terrifying by knowing that Phil was also living out his worst fears, and despite her shouts, he didn’t seem to hear her. Nat felt something tear at her throat, somewhere between a scream and a gasp, when Phil was pulled through the ground. Not a moment later, she was whirling through darkness. Nat wondered what had happened – had Phil woken up, or was this a part of his dream? Her question was answered when she was dropped unceremoniously into a stark white room. Phil was in the corner, and Nat tried to run to him, but it was like she was rooted in place. Was this a product of Phil’s nightmare, or was it her own fear that was doing this to her? Natalia took a deep breath, and tried again to move. This time, she was successful. “Philip!” Nat admonished, using her best big sister voice. “Look at me.” Maybe she could get through to him now there wasn’t Andy to distract him. Maybe, even if he couldn’t hear her, he could see her. Maybe this nightmare could end – for both of them.

@philiplongbottom

[Deleted]

@natalia

The room seemed to go on forever. there was no telling when it ended. When he even thought of walking toward the door it seemed to zoom backward, snapping back into place when he turned away from it, curling back into his corner.

"It's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's just a dream." he told himself, rocking in the corner. It wasn't real. He wasn't here. Andy wasn't like that. He was safe in his bunk at Hogwarts. why didn't he believe that?

A drop of black splashed in the middle of the room. the tiny sound echoed and reverberated throughout the room. The noise startled Phil, the tears he had been holding back suddenly released. With wet cheeks and his chest hurting from racking sobs he glanced in the direction of the sound. Another drop joined the first and they spiraled in a circle. He would have fixated on those spots were it not for the stern voice amplified throughout the room.

"Philip, look at me." Nat. His eyes searched for her, locking onto her face on the other side of the room. All he had to do was get to her. Or have her get to him. Or... anything.

"Nat. Help." He whispered and closed his eyes, wishing he was next to her instead of by himself. Surely the dream wouldn't effect her, she was dream walking or whatever. He would be safe by her.

The dream seemed to listen. When he opened his eyes he was sitting on the ground next to Nat's feet. Sure it wasn't cool, or charming, but Phil didn't care as he threw his arms around her, hugging her as tight as he could, anchoring himself to the one safe thing in this horrifying dream world.

[Deleted]

Natalia wanted to help – she was trying to help, but she didn’t know how. She could barely control whose dreams she stepped in on, let alone what was happening in those dreams. She needed more practice, but nightmares weren’t practice! She didn’t blame Phil for having them, of course, just like she didn’t blame Andy, but it was difficult for Nat to see the people she loved hurt. There was a world of difference between hearing someone talk about nightmares and living those nightmares alongside them, and Natalia was trying to figure out how she fit into everything now that she had that ability.

In a split-second, Phil was sitting at her feet. Natalia was pretty sure that she hadn’t been the one to make the change happen, which meant that Phil was at least cognizant of the fact that he was dreaming, and making efforts to change it. He threw his arms around her, and Nat didn’t hesitate to pull Phil as close to her as she could. She could protect him – she could keep him safe. No one was going to hurt Phil when Nat was holding onto him – not even the twisted version of Andy that Phil’s nightmares were made of. “I have you.” Nat whispered, running her fingers through Phil’s hair squeezing him even tighter. Maybe if she held on long enough, or tight enough, the rest of the world would melt away and then they’d just be in a dream, instead of a nightmare. Natalia wasn’t going to hold her breath, but she was going to hope.

@philiplongbottom