Drabble+: Nightmare

[strangetomato]

There's nothing quite like breaking your own rules, is there? I'm contrary like that, so actually coming out and saying I'm not going to post much will obviously make me want to write something. So here it is... a drabble+.

Prompt: A character wakes from a nightmare in the middle of the night to the person they least want to see at that moment.
Characters: Tank Grunt (and others, but you'll have to read it to see)
Wordcount: 400
Warnings: language, violence




Then Johnny stopped moving. Tank held his neck in his hands, and Johnny looked back at him with lifeless eyes.

He was dead, and Tank had killed him.

Finally.

Goddamned alien piece of shit.

But why did he feel so empty?

Oh, god. He had killed him.

"Johnny... Johnny?!" Tank shook him. "Shit... I didn't mean it. Wake up, you asshole!"

Frantically, he tried to revive him, but it was too late.

Then Ripp was there, wailing. He fell onto the corpse in despair. "Johnny! You've killed him. You've killed my Johnny!"

"Stop it!" Tank yelled, "Stop crying!"

"You killed him. My brother... you killed my brother."

"I'M your brother."

Why, Ripp? Why him? Why not me?

"I hate you."

Had he said the words, or had Ripp?

Then he was choking him, pressing Ripp to the floor, and feeling the life go out of him too.

Why not me?

He was killing him.

He wanted to stop, but couldn't.

He tried to break out of it, but couldn't.

He tried to scream, but nothing came out.

"Tank?" Frances was on him, shaking him. "TANK!"

Tank still couldn't move or say anything. He couldn't even catch his breath. He could see the room around him, and Frances reaching down at him, but he couldn't move. Frances had his hands reaching out towards his neck, and he thought he must be trying to kill him too. He tried to yell, "Get the fuck off of me!" but nothing came out.

"Tank?! What's wrong with you? Stop it! Wake up! You're scaring me." Frances felt his panic rising, and the next thing he knew, he had slapped Tank squarely across the face. "WAKE UP!"

Tank woke up.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. Tank wanted to escape, to shove Frances aside and get out of there, but he felt a strange comfort in having him there too.

He didn't want to be comforted.

He didn't need it.

How much of that had Frances been able to witness? Had he cried out in his sleep? Dreams were blurring into reality, and he didn't want Frances to see that... to see what he had done. He didn't want Frances on his bed either.

"You... hit me."

"I'm sorry." Frances bit his quivering lip, and tried not to cry, but the panic and relief were too much for him.

"God... don't cry."



 

Comments

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

Lol. I finally go to comment on your hiatus and you aren't quite....hiatused. If you do end up disappearing for awhile though, it's cool. You deserve the break and I think we can all relate to burn out/real life stuff/etc. so no sweat. I'll be here when/if you get back.

In any case, I love this drabble. There's something about it that just feels very different from your normal writing. It's more charged with something.

Little things I loved:

"You've killed my Johnny!" The possessiveness of it. Even though it's Tank's dream, there's still something in that cry that drips with Ripp.

"You've killed my brother." And then it the whole reality of Johnny being more of a brother to Ripp then Tank and how it makes Tank feel inadequate. And then, even in his dream, Tank responds with anger.

Then Frances saves the day! Oh and it was lovely. How he wants the comfort that Frances gives off, because Frances is his first real friend and he appreciates that and needs that. I love that he also wants to push Frances away and he doesn't want Frances on his bed, because he's still got so many prejudices. And Frances hit him, and he's apologetic, but Tank's mostly in awe.

Also Frances crying paralleling with Ripp crying in the dream and just.... my heart!

So umm, basically I love this. Awesome job!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a pretty lame hiatus, but I think this drabble might be a blip in an otherwise dry spell (I'm thinking I might get it back together by the end of the month, though, so it probably won't be a really long break). In all honesty, it's mostly the interaction on livejournal that has me burned out, as much as I do like it. Commenting and responding to everyone takes up so much time, and I feel bad for doing a half-assed job with it. It's definitely time for a bit of a break. I'll mostly be a lurker during this time.

Was it more emotionally charged? I'm not really surprised, since writing often reflects the head space of the writer. That definitely makes sense for this drabble, since I'm feeling a little emotional and intense right now. Hopefully, I'll be able to channel that into writing some of the emotional scenes that are coming up in the story.

Ripp refers to Johnny as being "his" in other chapters too (or is it just in things that are coming up... I'm not sure). Sometimes I think that Ripp tends to see Johnny as just an extension of himself (and maybe that's part of why he sees nothing wrong with the three of them being together). Perhaps it's a bit too much insight into Ripp for Tank's own dream, but I think that plays into Tank's fear of Ripp's allegiance to Johnny, and how he feels this coming between them.

That part where Ripp calls Johnny his brother is definitely Tank's own insecurity coming through, and he's frightened by the intensity of his anger there. Dreams where you end up killing someone or being killed are just terrible. I've have a couple of those myself, and they always involve very intense relationships.

Tank and Frances are definitely at an odd balance at this point in their relationship. There's still a great deal of uncomfortableness there, but they're actually relating better than they did before Frances came out to Tank, because Tank really is making an effort to accept him for what he is now, and they're more open about themselves.

Poor Tank... he's always surrounded by guys who want to shower him in their waterworks, and he's just appalled at the idea of a man crying.

Thank you. :)

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

I can totally understand the whole interaction draining thing. Your posts now get like 230834809 comments and I can't even imagine how tiring it must be for you, especially since you tend to be pretty thorough in your responses. It's great to get to hear what you're thinking, but I understand that after the first thousand and some comments it starts to kind of drag.

(probably i'm not helping by leaving such big ass comments. if you feel the need to reply to me but are overwhelmed by the length just leave me: "LONG COMMENT TOO TIRED JOHNNY ROCKS AREN'T JRO SWEET? END." i feel like that is basically covering everything my comments touch upon)

It did feel extra charged!

I love that possessive side of Ripp. How when he has something he really OWNS it. It's probably not a good thing, because it'll really feel like losing a part of himself if that something would ever leave/die.

I've never actually killed someone in a dream. And the only dream I can remember being killed in, it was by someone I didn't know at all. I don't think I have the right amount of intensity inside of me.

Oooo now I want to see Tank cry at some point! Unlikely, sure, but it could happen - not like a Ripp-sob where he breaks down in the bathroom, but something involving punching walls and hot tears.