2008-06-29: Bad Dreams

Starring:

Niki_icon.gif Sophie_icon.gif

Summary: With their dreams interrupted, seemingly by the dream-walker, Niki and Sophie try to track down Kory and Peter with some unconventional detective work.

Date It Happened: June 29th, 2008

Bad Dreams


(Previously on Heroes MUSH: The Final Hour)

Deveaux Building, Upper West Side, New York City

…No more words. The bloody hand stops trying to hold on…

…Kory's crying openly now, tears streaming down her dirty face…

…she whimpers, voice breaking in a sob, and then rising in a keening wail of grief…

  • * *

Once upon a time, in a land that seems far away and blissfully normal now, dreams used to just be dreams. Random firings of thought and emotion. Maybe something to laugh about after looking up the symbolism in one of those dream dictionaries can get for six bucks in the bargain bin at the bookstore. But when Niki wakes in the dead middle of the night, bolting upright in bed after dreaming about Kory Alexander, the woman who walks in dreams, screaming, crying, and covered in blood in an alley, interrupting otherwise mundane (troubled, always troubled these days, but not unusual) dreams…

Well, she doesn't need a dream dictionary to tell her that it might mean something. Still, it would be easy enough to pass off as nothing— but when Kory doesn't answer her phone, home or cell— she's only a few floors up. The least Niki can do is check.

* * *

At an absurd hour of the morning too unholy to be called morning in her book, Niki can be found hurrying down the hallway of Kory's floor. She has a lavender-coloured tank top on, wrinkled from bed, and jeans that were most definitely thrown on not five minutes ago, and she's clutching a cell phone and a sheet of paper that she holds close. Seems she has more than one reason for tracking down Kory.

Once there was a time that dreams were fantasies, but that time has passed for Sophie. Even just being some tangled, metaphorical message is now questioned. When Sophie darts awake, gasping and sobbing at the image of Kory, bloody and also crying, she immediately tugs on her clothes, walking to the hallway to pace, worriedly, while she thinks of what to do.

A little high-strung in her presently paranoid state and all the more on edge after the rattling dream and running on only a few hours' rest, Niki turns on a dime when she so much as hears a rustle of someone in the hall with her. Instantly critical eyes soften with relief when she sees who it is. "…Sophie?" she says with a hint of question and heads for the pacing woman. An impatient look is thrown in the direction of Kory's apartment before she reaches out to touch Sophie's arm … and hen Niki, smartly, thinks better of that notion. She lets her hand just hover. "Are— are alright?"

Sophie shakes her head, then she nods, and sighs. "I am, I think. Its not me, I mean. I just got the most horrible dream, it seemed so real, about Kory." she frowns, "Too real. I'm worried that maybe.. maybe it wasn't just a dream."

Sophie's words are like a dead weight dropping into her stomach. There's a faint sheen of sweat on the blonde's skin, made of bad dreams and summer heat in the old building with its old walls and no air conditioning in the halls. It's almost a sickly sweat and, suddenly, matches the gleam of worry in her eyes. "…Yeah," Niki says quietly, quickly. "Yeah, me too." She gestures with her phone and the sheet of paper. "She's not answering her phone. Come on," she says, heading down the hall to Kory's apartment. Knock knock knock. Niki leans her head close to listen anxiously.

Sophie's eyes widen, and she pales more. She brushes a hand through her tousled hair, a sign of anxiety more than worrying about her appearance. She hurries after Niki, as she says, quickly, "It was her, it looked like she was on a stree.. no, more like an alley. She was crying, and there was blood…"

There's no answer. Of course there's no answer. That would be too damn easy. Niki looks over her shoulder at Sophie for a second or two, vexed face all too knowing— she had the same dream. She knocks again. "Kory?" she shouts cautiously, but with enough insistence to possibly wake a neighbour or two. Knock knock. "Kory!" Nothing. She hesitates, splaying her hand on the door and slamming her palm on the wood. "Peter? Someone! Open up!" Slam. "…come on…"

Still, no one answers.

Sophie gives a penetrating glance at Niki, merely saying, "You too?" then she shakes her head, "That's not good.. there's too many alleys in this city." she then mutters, "I really wish I could get something from objects." with a sigh, "We don't know anyone who's a human GPS, do we?"

Answer: yes, but Niki doesn't quite know what's so unique about a certain Walker girl. "I can maybe get her phone traced." She takes a step back, looking dismally at the door, heaving a sigh herself. "Can you stay here for a minute? I'll be right back."

Sophie nods, "Of course. I'll try to keep an ear out for her phone. If I have to break in to answer it.."

"She has like seven locks," Niki reminds Sophie with just a hint of a smile. "One minute," she says before she takes off at a jog down the hall, disappearing around the corner and into the elevator.

It takes longer than a minute, but, true to her word otherwise, Niki comes back — just several minutes later rather than one. The somber, undeniably troubled expression on her face as she comes walking down the hall toward Sophie says it all. "Her phone's dead. It's fried or something. She could be anywhere."

Sophie frowns at that, looking horribly worried. "Peter isn't answering either. How can we even start? The dream.. is there anything we can remember in it that might narrow down the area?" thoughtfully.

Niki comes to lean against Kory's door. She tries to think, wracking her mind, looking up toward the ceiling, but she just shakes her head. "I dunno," she says helplessly. "You're memory girl, right, if you can't remember…"

Sophie says, "Its, well, harder for me to access my own memories." wryly, "Like psychics and their own future. Would you mind if I…"

"Oh, um— sure. I guess. If you think it'll help." Niki stands up straighter, pushing off the unanswered door slightly, unsure of what exactly she's supposed to do. "Do what you have to."

Sophie says, "It won't be bad, if I'm braced, and you are, and I'm looking for something specific." as she reaches out to simply touch Niki's arm with her hand, eyes closed as she concentrates on what she wants to find.

Niki instinctively closes her eyes, letting her hand be taken. She's tense, as it happens; she can't help it. The last time someone searched her memories… Someone else was taken away because of what they found.

Crying. Blood. Screaming. Flashes of a dream memory that don't quite jive with the woman's own mind. Kory, in an alley, exactly the picture in Sophie's dream. It's dark, and somewhere along the way some details have been smeared. There's graffiti and tattered flyers on the walls, though, typical of NYC. FEATURING DJ IAH, one says.

Sophie frowns, sorting through the very disturbing images. Then she focuses on something, "Yes, that's IT!" taking a quick breath, and moving her hand, "There was a flyer, on the wall. It said 'Featuring DJ IAH.'" excitedly, "Its an alley, so I doubt that that'd be too far from the club, itself. Its an alley near where she plays!"

Niki's eyes fly open, surprised at the other woman's exclamations. "Is it far from here?" She's already moving away from the door, ready to be on the move. "Do you know what club?"

Sophie nods, "Well, I don't know where it is.." with a bit of a rueful glance over, "I'm not really.. much for parties. Especially lately. But we can look it up in the phonebook, right?"

Niki takes in a breath, think-think-thinking. "Right. Okay. We'll find it and- God, I hope we're not too late. What does it even mean?" She looks back at the door; sighing, she shakes her head with a sort of determination. "I can't go without checking. Besides, she might have a flyer inside. Save us some time." The woman turns and grasps the door's handle with her free hand and gives it a solid twist and push.

…Remember that bevy of locks of all sorts Kory has to prevent anyone from possibly breaking-and-entering her apartment? There's a sharp crack, vicious splintering of wood, jingle-jangle of metal and falling of bits of plaster and the door, its edge a bit worse for the wear, opens in a matter of seconds — to an empty, dark apartment.

Sophie's eyes widen, with a 'whoa'. She clears her throat, "That's probably a lot more handy than what I do." as she peeks in, "We're gonna owe her a door." as she calls, just in case, "Kory? Peter?"

Why is it the only time Niki breaks into someone's apartment is to try to figure out if they're alive or dead? It's not a trend she wants to be used to. "Don't sell yourself short." She's quiet, letting Sophie do the calling out this time as she turns the light on. She leaves the sheet of paper she's brought with her downturned on Kory's table and does some cautious snooping.

Sophie walks in after Niki, slowly. She looks around, "Well, it looks like it always does. At least, I don't think it looks like she was taken out of here forcibly."

That's something, at least. "I hope it wasn't Pinehearst," she half-mumbles under her breath, as bitter as she is hopeful. She finds a phone book and holds it out to Kory. "We'll go look. If we can't find her— then we come back, call the hospitals. Maybe they'll come back here."

* * *

Under the dark cover of the sky still far from breaking with the sunrise, but lit by many a light from the city of millions, a plain white Honda drives along a rather forlorn street in Manhattan. There's a dent in the passenger side door. Never mind that. Niki, at the wheel, is relying on Sophie to be the eyes and tell her when to stop.

Sophie keeps her eyes peeled, as the saying goes. She has the image of that alley, and as much of the view of the alley as she could get, memorized. She is muttering to herself, "I know we can find her. I hope she's alright. I hope.. I hope that wasn't her…"

Niki keeps an eye out for the vicinity of that nightclub, at least — they're on the right block, at any rate. She drives slowly, creeping along close to the curb. "Me, too. I can't lose anyone else," she says quietly in response to Sophie's mumbling mantra, although she says it mostly to herself. "Hey, can you see anything that looks familiar? I can't tell."

Sophie points out the window, saying, "There, STOP.. that's it, I think, at least." waving toward the entry to an alley, arm moving toward the back of the car as we slowly pass it.

Niki forces the car to stop with an ungraceful jolt. STOP! they certainly do. Draping an elbow over the back of her seat, she backs up in front of the alley and parks, wasting no time in getting out of the car and marching out. A hint of colour, a flyer, catches her eye, but the shadowy alleyway is only just engulfing her when something else draws her attention … if only because she's all too familiar with the substance. Niki goes down on one knee and touches the ground.

Blood. "…I think we found it…"

Sophie ows, as she bumps her head against the door frame, having had it halfway out. But that's not important, as she pushes open the door. She walks into the alley carefully, after all.. if this is where Kory was hurt, or someone was, then.. maybe the source of the hurt is still there. She scans, then she points, 'There's the flyer we saw.' she sucks in a breath, as she kneels, "So much blood.. Wait, there's something dark in..' she looks over, "Should we.. I don't know if calling the police will even help us now." she points, 'Its a cellphone, I think.'

Niki is distracted by looking down at her hand, her fingertips touched by red. She looks over to Sophie, open-mouthed and speechless for a few moments. "…'Cause we'd tell them what — we're here because we saw it in a dream?" She sighs and pushes to her feet, heading further into the alley. More blood — like someone was dragged — but nothing else but trash, and so she turns, heading back to Sophie while wiping her hand on her jeans. She tries for a tone of encouragement. "If Peter was with her, she's probably okay," Whether Niki believes it or not is another story, but she has hope. Or faith.

Sophie nods, saying, "I know, I know. Who'd believe that? We'd either be thought nuts, or accused of it ourselves." Yeah, she's seen enough tv shows to know this. "We can take the phone. If its salvageable, or if we can find her account and see what numbers she's called. Maybe we can do that at the house. This.. though, this doesn't look good." She's trying to keep it together, keep thinking positive.

Niki could do without being part of another… oh God, she thought it without realizing: murder scene. No, that's not what happened here. It can't be. What happened to that faith? She latches onto it, trying, like Sophie, to keep it together, to keep thinking positive. It's tough. Life hasn't taught her to be an optimist, conviction in Peter notwithstanding. Walking alongside Sophie, she heads back to the car — back to Kory's. "Yeah. Yeah, let's go."

TO BE CONTINUED…

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