Sang the Setari

34. Night Terror

The outing with the boys was fun.  Gabriel worked his magic and no civilians recognized us. We had a blast. Laughing and cheering and eating food suited to spectator sports. It was just what I needed. When we arrived back at North and Silas' apartment for dinner, I was happy and convinced it had been one of the best days.  It's too bad that it quickly turned into one of the worst nights....

**********

"Princess, are you sure you don't want to eat anymore?" Victor asked from across the table.

"Urghhhh," I sort of moaned, with my hand on my stomach.

Nathan chuckled and put his arm over my shoulder, then teased, "I think she's eaten more today than Silas.  I'd have been shocked if she even finished half of her meal tonight."

"It was the warfle chips...or maybe the sugared nardyls....I just couldn't resist," I confessed.

Luke smiled dreamily and sighed, "Oh yeah....sugared nardyls....mmmmm."

North scowled from his seat and chastised, "You know better than to let them eat all that junk. Just look at Sang. She's about to crash from the sugar high she's been on all day."

Even thought it was still rather early, my eyelids did feel droopy and a telling yawn snuck out. North shot an 'I told you so' look that Nathan simply shrugged off.

"Come on, Peanut. Let's get you to bed," Nathan said helping me stand and pointing me in the direction of the bathroom.

I prepped for bed quickly and found myself collapsing into North's bed alone. It struck me in that moment what a rarity that was. Normally, one or more of the boys was tucking in with me, but they were busy cleaning up and doing other...uh, guy stuff I supposed. Exhaustion was tugging me down and robbing me of intelligent thought. I knew that someone would join me soon, so I crawled under the covers and dropped off to sleep immediately.

*****

At first, I thought I was waking up...that North sliding in on my right had just briefly roused me. However, I was suddenly in the corner of the room, looking at myself and two of the guys sleeping in the bed.  My attention was abruptly caught by the sound of scraping, like nails on a chalkboard. It seemed to come from above, growing in intensity.  The ceiling ripped open like a seam and black tentacles were shoving their way through. North and Silas jumped up from the bed, yelling out in horror. My mouth gaped in a silent scream as the creature, some version of the Massive, started attacking North and Silas.  The other me remained in the bed sleeping.  I fought to move, but whatever I was in the dream, I was paralyzed...frozen and unable to help them.

"Sang! Sang!" I heard from the doorway.  It was Kota. He was shouting at the sleeping Sang.

Silas cried out in pain and Kota ran in to help free him from the crushing tentacles. North was already blood spattered, chopping away with the swords he'd used his ferrokinesis to manifest.

Kota shouted back to the doorway, "Get Blackbourne! Now!" 

Victor jumped into the fray only to be swept up by one of the tentacles. His shouts dying quickly as the creature squeezed, cutting off his breath.  I could feel tears sliding down my cheeks and see the same for the sleeping Sang.  I continued silently screaming, but powerless to do anything. 

"Miss Sorenson, you need to stop this," called out a steel voice. I looked back to the doorway. Tsee Blackbourne stood calmly at the threshold.  Instead of looking at the sleeping Sang, he was looking straight at me. I hadn't been able to get the attention of the other boys and had assumed I was invisible as well as silent, like some ghostly observer of the chaos and terror.

"Sang. You are doing this.  It's all in your mind," Tsee Blackbourne said in that cool calm voice.

I stared in disbelief.  I was dreaming? 

"Now.  Wake up. Now," he commanded firmly.

******

I woke up with a gasp. My eyes flying open and my body jerking upward against hands that were holding my shoulders down. The lights were on.

"Easy...Easy," Kota said gently. "Just breathe, Sweetie."

I blinked rapidly taking in the scene.  North and Silas were at my shoulders, now releasing their holds on me. Beside them stood Kota and Victor on either side.  From the bruised feeling on my legs, they must have been restraining me, too. And then standing at the foot of the bed was a pensive Tsee Blackbourne...with rumpled hair and wearing sleep-clothes. It was suddenly easier to think of him as Owen dressed like that.  The other boys looked down on me with concern filling their faces.

"Princess, are you okay?" Victor finally asked after a joden of silence.

I breathed out a long sigh and sat up, saying, "I...I think so. It was a nightmare."

"Not just any nightmare," Owen said.  "Please describe what you saw happening."

I related what I had seen in the terrible dream. "And... near the end of the dream the boys were either unconscious or badly hurt."  I blinked back the hot tears that stung at my eyes.

When I finished, North grunted, "You started thrashing in your sleep.  Silas and I couldn't wake you or hold you down to prevent you from hurting yourself, so we called in Kota and Vic. That's when the noise started."

"Noise?" I asked, expecting and fearing the answer.

"Scraping...discordant," Victor replied. "And it seemed to come from the ceiling." His eyes flickered upward, lightning sparking across the pupils to reflect his anxious thoughts.

"Then marks started appearing on our skin," Kota added.  I looked over at Silas. Fading red welts covered his arm.

"Oh my...No! I did this to you?!" I exclaimed, horrified.

"It's okay! It's okay, Sang! It wasn't hurting us," Kota rushed to assure me. I glanced over and saw red marks fading from all of them, except Owen who had not been attacked in the dream.

"We didn't feel anything, Baby," North added, stroking my arm and taking my hand in his.  "I promise that you didn't hurt us."

"Did you see anything...the ceiling breaking open...the tentacles?" I asked next.

"No," Silas answered. "We only could hear the noise."

"However, it is clear you manifested something," Owen interjected, pointedly looking at the remnants of the marks on North's bare chest. He continued in Tsee Blackbourne mode, "I am not sure if this is some kind of projection or illusion talent, but you'll start Sights training tomorrow. You will need to learn to control this before someone does get injured. Meet me in Training Room Five at seventh hour of first shift. As for the rest of you, take shifts in pairs observing for the remainder of the sleep cycle. I expect reports every kasse." He briefly  patted my foot over the blanket before turning to leave.  Just before passing through the doorway he paused and softly added, "Try to get some rest, Miss Sorenson."