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

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Or it's just the whole idea that pointing out something will make it happen (around here, one doesn't talk about the nice weather for fear it will rain... that sort of superstition is very familiar to me). I didn't want to leave people wondering what happened to me, but now speaking of it will probably make it a brief hiatus. I still don't see an update happening for a while, though. I'm thinking a couple of weeks, which isn't really that much of a break... but it is when you consider how often I used to update.

Thank you. I've always really loved that about Tank too. He seems like the type that doesn't let so much come to the surface, and his whole place in the story as the General's "good" son and growing up to find himself in the middle of all that with the military and the aliens, well it just has so much potential, don't you think? It seems a shame to me when people pull him out of that and turn him around too quickly. I think it would take a while for him to wash off the face paint... and even once it's gone, it would still linger on in his mind for much longer still.

[tanathir.livejournal.com]

Very true. It's kind of a "build it and they will come" or maybe "speak of the devil and he shall appear" phenomenon. I'm happy to keep hearing from you, and yes people care a lot about your story and your presence on the internet that an extended hiatus is sad news.

My version of Tank is turning out a bit more resistant to being the favorite son. College has really loosened him up. He still wants to be in Buzz's good graces and still has a -14 relationship with Ripp, but I dunno...things changed with him in my game faster. He's found someone who makes him happy, and any angst about his family has kind of fallen to second place. I'm not very concrete yet in forming what he thinks of aliens, but he hasn't met many.

Your version of Tank is really wonderful to read. He's a strong silent type but definitely has a lot of thoughts going on inside. "Still waters run deep" to bring out another cliche saying. I do get the sense that he's in the middle of a lot of stuff he isn't all that prepared to deal with. His dad is gone, his brothers are reaching out to him, his roommate threw him something intense to think about, so yeah. Tank is turning around but given all that's going on it's no wonder he's turning around slowly.

I just love those little pixellated people!