Fill: Challenge #22 (DW)
Mar. 2nd, 2022 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Still thinking about "Snakedance", and I couldn't resist.
Anger. Hatred. Greed.
The face of a friend - though he couldn’t place her name - floated before him, her sneering smile mocking him, mocking his impotence, daring him to stop her. She raised an arm to point at him, and her hand transformed into a snake, its fangs glistening with venom as it stared him down. It reared back and, with a hiss, struck…
John jerked awake, eyes wide in the utter blackness of the rural night, sweat plastering his fringe to his forehead. Taking a few laboured breaths, he fought the sleep overtaking him to no avail. He couldn’t go back and face that…
She laughed, throwing her head back and chortling with abandon. Nothing could harm her here, nothing could stop her regaining her power, least of all him.
“Doctor?”
At the touch on his arm, he looked down at another face, another friend he couldn’t remember.
“It’s just a dream, Doctor.”
“Dreams are important, Nyssa,” he heard himself say, though the name he spoke meant nothing to him. “Never underestimate them.”
John found himself staring again, marvelling at how his dream self managed to advise him. The importance of his dreams sat as dead weight on his chest, threatened to choke him in the darkness, but they always evaporated with the first light of day, try as he might to hold on to them. Never underestimate them, he repeated to himself. Easier said than done, but I can keep them if I try, pry out their secrets. I simply must engrave them in my memory. I must remember it all, the woman, the snake, the…
John’s breath rattled softly as his eyelids drooped shut.
Anger. Hatred. Greed.
The face of a friend - though he couldn’t place her name - floated before him, her sneering smile mocking him, mocking his impotence, daring him to stop her. She raised an arm to point at him, and her hand transformed into a snake, its fangs glistening with venom as it stared him down. It reared back and, with a hiss, struck…
John jerked awake, eyes wide in the utter blackness of the rural night, sweat plastering his fringe to his forehead. Taking a few laboured breaths, he fought the sleep overtaking him to no avail. He couldn’t go back and face that…
She laughed, throwing her head back and chortling with abandon. Nothing could harm her here, nothing could stop her regaining her power, least of all him.
“Doctor?”
At the touch on his arm, he looked down at another face, another friend he couldn’t remember.
“It’s just a dream, Doctor.”
“Dreams are important, Nyssa,” he heard himself say, though the name he spoke meant nothing to him. “Never underestimate them.”
John found himself staring again, marvelling at how his dream self managed to advise him. The importance of his dreams sat as dead weight on his chest, threatened to choke him in the darkness, but they always evaporated with the first light of day, try as he might to hold on to them. Never underestimate them, he repeated to himself. Easier said than done, but I can keep them if I try, pry out their secrets. I simply must engrave them in my memory. I must remember it all, the woman, the snake, the…
John’s breath rattled softly as his eyelids drooped shut.