In Dreams fanfiction!
I decided to write a Claire/Vivian and it was hard to justified it, but after some help I came up with a way. Unbeta'd.
Title: Life is Stranger than Fiction
Fandom: In Dreams(with a character from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at the bottom)
Pair: Claire/Vivian
Summary: She never thought the rest of her life would be with him.
Claire knows that psychics existed in the world, in fact she came from a family of psychics. She knew she was part of the group of people where some are able to read minds and have visions, where others are able to control inanimate objects or even the mind of a normal human. She in particular doesn't really know the full potentials of her abilities, having forgotten about it since her high school days. While some are accepted after coming out with being a psychic, others are not so unfortunate. Sadly the society she lived in says it is better to keep the abilities to yourself, that one will end up being ridiculed and shamed for it. You will get more places if you were normal. She knows its wrong and she wishes that everyone would be more accepting of psychics. That everyone would stop seeing them as monsters and freaks with the potential to kill people. Most of the ones she met have expressed wanting to use their powers to help people in the general public.
She knows it would be a while before the world at large embraces her kind. The reason she stop using her powers after high school was because she didn't want to deal with the questions from the ignorant people, the possible discrimination from the teachers(she made the mistake of telling one teacher she thought she could trust in high school. She ended up having to take her tests in another room due to she might cheat by reading other people's minds. She always protested, but never was listened to). She also didn't want to risk the chance of having her friends suddenly not wanting anything to do with her. She knew that pain, the gut wrenching, heart being ripped out feeling after having a friend of a few years suddenly cutting off ties with her cause she was worried that she was gonna get hurt or something. Plus she couldn't take it anymore, being called a freak or weird or whatever. She didn't want to lose anymore friends so if someone in college asked her in a judgemental way if she had powers or not, she would hold back her desire to tell them off and say no.
One other thing psychics had going for them was an ability to telepathically link with someone that was supposed to be the other's soulmate. They could also link with other psychics, but the bond between soulmates were stronger, the two would be able to see each other's pasts, their experiences in school, with family, friends as well as their future. Most of the time two soulmates would immediately know they were the one after seeing the other person. They couldn't explain it, but the bond would feel stronger. They would know right away things about them, where they lived, their family, where they went to school, what they do for a living, their personality. Basically their background as well as their hopes and desires.
With Claire and Vivian however, it look them a little longer to find each other and a little more to realize they were meant to be together, as weird as that sounds since Vivian was a known killer and Claire was a good girl from Cambridge, Massachusetts. She met Paul after moving to the small town and started dating. She, every now and then, would get a nagging feeling that Paul wasn't the right guy for her and that they would just end up divorced. She ignored it as she wanted to suppressed her powers and believe that yeah Paul was the right guy for her. She didn't give a fuck that Paul was normal, like that had stopped other psychic from marrying people without the abilities. Sometimes the bond thing just meant the psychic being able to see the non-powered other's life story. She didn't with Paul, but she ignored that and the other warnings signs like Paul taking a business trip somewhere and meeting up with another girl. The first time she told herself that she was overreacting and Paul was actually a nice guy. The second, third, and fourth time she couldn't really proved since she knows Paul would come up with an alibi if she asked about it. That and she knew she didn't really have a good strong basis for the evidence since they were just dreams, visions she had.
Plus she hasn't told Paul about her powers. She wanted to tell them, but she wanted to first see what he thought of psychics in general. He told her that he thought they were monsters, freaks. He thought they should be all just live in one area. Of course hearing the news broke her a bit. Why couldn't everyone lived in peace, coexist in harmony? She told him that she thinks they should be able to live just like the rest of us.
She thought her mind was just being tormented by a killer when she started having those dreams of a girl being kidnapped by a long red-haired man. She at first thought it was just the random strange dreams that everyone has every once in a while. The kind that makes you go "what the fuck did I eat last night?" She realized that they were premonitions after a few days, that they were clues being given to her as to what the next crime he was gonna commit. The first few times she thought it was about a past crime until she realized the girl being led through an apple orchard was her own daughter during a play.
They couldn't find her child's body and she tried to tell the authorities where her daughter was after having dream. No one believed her so she decided to lead them or at least one cop there by driving to the man-made lake.
It was very distressing and frustrating to her when her husband and pretty much everyone in town didn't believe her when she told them about her visions. They just thought she was going crazy due to the grief of losing her child. A part of her came to expect that, but she had wishful thinking that someone would have the gene in them and vouch for her. She later came to realization that except for Vivian, she was the only one with the ability in the small town.
She came to that conclusion one night in the mental hospital she was sent to, laying her bed thinking for a few minutes while staring at the ceiling. She was thinking about how Vivian able to enter her dreams and give her clues about his crimes, as well as scenes from his past here and there. She was thinking about the apples in her kitchens and how the computer of hers seemed to have a mind of its own. She didn't know how extensive his powers was, but she came to the conclusion that he mostly likely have some form of the psychic gene.
After having yet another vision after going asleep, she woke up and escaped via the same route that Vivian took when he was a teenager. Minus the murder of a staff member of course, she walked out of there and about a half an hour later found herself watching Vivian walk up to her as she put the car in park. It was surreal, and a little be frightening, that a killer was coming up to her asking if she wanted to go to his house. She nodded and Vivian walked around to the other side.
The next 10 minutes consisted of awkwardly looking at each other and having an awkward conversation. As soon as Vivian closed the door and turned to her to tell her to go, the bond flared up inside both of them and left them just staring at each other before turning to face the road. In addition to the bond, the information dump came flooding into their minds, giving them unexpected insights about the other. Any doubts the two had about ,or in Vivian's case didn't even think about it, the other possibly having the ablities were confirmed and set in stone that moment.
Vivian meant to say go now or I'll get really upset and I wouldn't like that cause then Ruby won't have a mommy and I promised her a new mommy, but all he could get out was after mustering back the ablity to talk was a few incomprehesive sounds. He wasn't exactly sure what just happened. Neither did Claire for that matter.
"Ireland." Claire said, after a minute of silence. Vivian then gave her a quizzical look, "You..um...you were born in Ireland then came over to Massachusetts when..you were a baby."
The bond thing really knew when to fucking come into play Claire thought to herself.
"You were born in South Dakota." Vivian replied back.
"Pierre." Clair confirmed.
"Dublin, and I was 8 months when we came over here."
A few more moments of awkward silence filled the car, the two of them sitting in the seats forgetting about the present before Claire spoke, "We should, um get going to your house. We wouldn't want you to get upset."
"Yeah that...that wouldn't be good."
The drive over was spent in silence save for the occasional direction given to her by Vivian. She wanted to forget what just happened. Vivian was a killer for fuck sakes, he killed her only child and husband. He couldn't be her soulmate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She found herself in a coma after having taking the fall over the railing into the lake with Vivian. She wanted to get revenge on him so she spend the next week invading his dreams, tormenting him, scaring the crap out of him just as he did to her. She made the walls bleeds and everything she could think of. This particular night however unexpectedly changed up her schedule. Instead of the usual present time dream where she would easily find the serial killer and drag him through the same shit, she was met with a dream, or more accurately vision, from his past.
More specifically she was at the mental hospital where a young Vivian was forced to stay at. She looked around expecting to get caught for a split second, but realized they can’t hear or see her as this was a dream.pretty quickly. With that thought having passed through her head, she started walking around, noticing she was in the front desk area. She then walked down the hallway, eventually reaching the rooms where patients were treated.
Even though she knew she was practically invisible, she can’t say she wasn’t still creeped out from the place. She was as well as a little nervous of what she is going to find. She looked and noticed two empty rooms across from each other, she slowly entered the one on her right like if she was gonna run into something horrible. It was a big room, not that big, but still bigger than the ones at the hospital. There was tables around full of small instruments and an electric chair using for shocking the patients.
She walked up to one of the tables filled with papers and files. It was kind of cluttered she noticed as she picked up a few, just glancing at them. She did that for a minute before one file caught eye. It was Vivian’s file. She picked it up and opened it, not quite sure what to expect. She is expecting some type of mental illness as she got a sense that he wasn’t well in the head back in the car, as she was reading the papers that had his information and other things.
It was on the second page that she got her confirmation, that Vivian had some sort of mental illness, but they didn’t say what exactly, hence all the other tests that they had added to the schedule. The sound of a crying child and the door shutting abruptly turned her attention around to see two people in white coats forcefully putting the young version of Vivian into the chair and restraining him.
A feeling of dread started to built up within her as she had a feeling what was coming next. She really didn’t want to see the anguish, pain look on his face, the heartbreaking scream that will inevitably come out. She tried to will her legs to move, but she just stood there frozen in place. She suddenly dropped the folder when the screams started, instantly covering her face and looking away as she wished for the horrible scene to stop. As if on cue, the feeling of heartbreak came washing over her as the sound of a little child’s voice still filled the room, it was enough to get the urge to tear up.
------------------------------------------------
Vivian found himself in a school's hallway instead of the usual room he was assigned to at the mental hospital. He turned around looking everywhere expecting Claire to suddenly come out with her revenge scheme of the week.
"Claire...where are you?" He shouted. his question was met with silence. He then noticed the door to a class still in session and walked up to the window. He then opened the door, but no one seemed to noticed.
"I see you..." Vivian said in a higher pitch before shouting in his usual voice. "Come the fuck out! I'm ready for whatever you got cooking. Don't think I'm not used to your revenge tricks now!"
"I..." Vivian stopped suddenly as he realized how the fuck does he know what Claire looked like as a teenager. Then he remembered the incident in the car a couple of months earlier. He had saw images of what she looked like at various points in her life, including this moment.
Snapping back to what he was seeing, he bucked up in preparation for whatever she was gonna do to scare him this time.
"Don't think I'm not used to all of your little ways to scare me! I know your tricks!" He shouted, young Claire and everyone else seemingly ignoring him.
"You better not upset me Claire cause you know what happens when I get upset, everyone turns into dolls!"
A couple of seconds passed before he let out a yell and momentarily forgot he was in a dream as he rushed at the teacher to tackle him down and choke him to death. He went to grab his throat, but instead passed right through him and fell down to the ground. He stood up and shook of the daze he had, stumbling a bit before taking a swing at the teacher again only to have his fist connect with nothing, but air.
He let out a frustrated yell before trying again only this time he went for Claire. The same result happened, and he hit his head on the ground.
He let out a groan in pain just as the bell rang. Everybody got up, starting to leave and mingle as he got up. Students passing through him like he wasn't there. Of course he wasn't there, it was a vision from Claire's past. Speaking of Claire, said teenager was talking to the teacher. Vivian walked closer until he was behind Claire, almost standing next to her. He can now clearly hear the conversation between her and her teacher.
"Well I just wanted to ask you a few questions Miss Cooper. You got a hundred percent on this test as well as the last two.."
"That's good isn't though? I thought you would be happy with that?" Said Miss Cooper replied.
"I am, but at the same time this concerns me."
"Why?"
"I've recently been informed about your little....paranormal ablities."
Vivian watched as Claire's eyes widen in surprise, "How..how did you know that?" Her voice tinged with surprisement and fear.
"Your English teacher told me and all of your other teachers." the teacher replied as she started breathing more, "I have reason to believe that you might've read the other students minds and therefore cheated."
"What? No, I would never do that. I never cheat." She protested.
"How do I know you are telling the truth?"
"Because you can...take my word for it."
"I'm gonna have you retake the last 3 tests in a separate room by yourself." He said, matter of factly.
"You can't do that! Not all of us cheat and...." She started to yell but was cut off by the teacher.
"I'm sorry, but I just can't take the risk Miss. Cooper. You'll retake them in a couple of days." Claire tried to protest, but her teacher wasn't having none of it as he just ignored her.
Vivian watched as the teacher left the room living Claire standing there with betrayal and anger showing on her face. She also close to crying as Vivian took a glance at her before waking up in his cell.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
He didn't see Claire again in his dreams until a couple of days later, he was sitting at a table in the cafeteria when he heard footsteps coming. He looked up to see Claire in a t-shirt and jeans walking towards him.
"This place is still creepy even in a dream." She remarked, trying to break the ice in some way as she sat down across from Vivian.
"No argument there. This is a scary place...wait is this part of your plan of scaring me today, first striking up a conversation..." He started, but was cut off by Claire.
"No. I think its safe to say that fucking done, due to what happened lately and all."
"Yeah."
"I am keeping my eye on you though."
".....Fair enough. So what brings you into my dreams today Claire?"
"Just wanted to talk," She said, before looking around a bit, the place looked like it came out of a Silent Hill game or something she thought amusingly before facing Vivian, "Your last name sounds familiar, but I can't place it."
"Oh, well do you remember when the apples appeared in your kitchen?"
"Yeah, that scared the shit out of me, I really don't want to relive that again."
"Did you ever stop and wondered how those apples got there?"
Claire was then taken aback at the question and thought back. That was a good point he brought up, how did those apples appear when he wasn't even there. She knew no one else was home at the time but herself and she didn't hear anyone else coming in. She only stepped out of the kitchen for a few minutes before returning. She didn't really think about it at the time, but now she was a little puzzelled on how the apples just appeared out of nowhere unless....they were materilized there. She remembered being told that, among other things, being able to materilized objects is part of a rare form of the psychic gene and there was only one known family with that gene.
"Oh my fucking...you mean you're part of that Thompson family?" Claire asked, gasping a little only in realization.
"Yeah," Vivian said, his voice soft as Claire just looked at him smiling as if to say wow, "I got it through my dad, my mom was normal."
"Oh I see. So the computer and the radio..."
"I controlled them with my..um..telekinesis. I can do this out of body thing and yeah."
"Wow. that's amazing despite the circumstances back then," Claire said, as she noticed Vivian's eyes looking down as if he was feeling sad and ashamed for having this ability.
"Is something wrong Viv?" Claire oddly found herself in a comforting mood towards Vivian. She guessed that it was probably due to the bond link between them.Vivian responded by looking up and facing her with a gaze that looked like an opening to the rest of his soul.
It was like she was looking past the surface, the many layers of him and underneath it all was a little innocent redheaded boy full of life and curiosity.
"Why don't you tell me Claire? We know each other's life stories."
Claire gave a nod as she stared at the other person for a second before continuing," Your mother was a college student when she met your dad. They started off as friends, but found they had more common and fell in love. They got married after a few years of dating, takig her with him to America. Here she became pregnate. She at first didn't care when your father told her about the bloodline that runs in his family, at least not at first..."
Claire looked at Vivian for any signs that maybe it was too much hearing her talk about what happened in his childhood. She paused for a second and kept going when there wasn't any signs of Vivian stopping her.
"....your father left her for another psychic, ran off with her to Europe somewhere. Distraugt she began drinking while at the same time raising you. The resentment and hate came later when you were 2, you were beginning to show you powers...oh you were having a wonderful time exploring what you can do and practicing. You wanted to show you mother but she told you to quit. The powers you were exhibiting reminded her of your dad and what he did to her."
Vivian was currently looking down at the table as Claire took his hands in hers and rubbed them soothingly. Silence filled the dreamworld for a minute or two before he looked up at her. It was a strange feeling in Claire that she was feeling sympathy for the apple loving killer. Claire was about to speak up again, but Vivian decided to explain the rest, as much as he can that is.
"She told me to never use my powers, I asked her why and she told me that people would think I was a freak and that I would be better off pretending I was born a normal person. Of course I didn't understand, I was a kid, but I wanted to keep praticing. So I did in secret for a few years. One day I had my friend over, I was in kindergarten and I wanted to show him you know. We were in the backyard and I was happily shooting off little beams of energy blasts. I was having fun until I heard her yelling at me to stop. Started putting me down, telling me what the hell was I thinking? Do you want the world to know you're a monster? Scared off my friend too and I was upset. She told me it would be better to be like her than my father pretty much....and that meant no using my powers."
"The abuse started around that age too," Vivian started to explain after pausing for a second, "She would yell at me, telling me that she wished I wasn't born a mind-reading bastard. She took her hatred on my father out of me to put it simply. I hated her for hurting me so much, after so many years of trying to deal with it I couldn't take it anymore. She was upsetting me Claire, and you very much know when that happens."
"You...punished her?"
"I tried to scare her into stopping the shit she was dealing on me via dreams. I was eight at the time and I..hahaha..was naively stupid to think that would but nooooo...no..she put two and two together and figured out the boy in her dreams was me. The boy that was making the walls bleed, all that shit....she put me in the mental hospital and she actually fucking told them they could experiment on me."
Vivian let out a sign as Claire looked at him shocked and disgusted at what she just heard. She couldn't believe that his mother of all people would put him in a mental hospital based solely on the fact that he had powers, and told them to experiment on him at that. Just cause he had the gene doesn't make him any different from anyone else. He had the same basic buildup, same needs, he didn't deserve to be experimented like that, no one does.
Claire looked at him, her eyes watering as she rubbed the back of his hands, "Oh Vivian I'm so sorry."
They sat in silence in the dark, creepy looking dream version of the cafeteria of where Vivian was being held at. He looked up at her after a few minutes had passed, neither knowing what to say next. Well Vivian did and he was smart enough know the risk he was taking.
"I had a dream the other day Claire." He said softly, treading carefully, "Would you like to see?"
Claire nodded as Vivian then got up and walked over to where he was behind her. The dreamscape blurred and changed as Claire got up, watching as the setting changed to that of an apartment in Indiana.
"Look at how happy we are? I finally have a wife....and I don't feel lonely anymore and.."
"Wait I'm your wife in this?"
"Well I don't know for sure...at this moment, but I know you love me here, and that you seemed happier with me than your cheating husband. I would never cheat on you Claire.,
Claire watched as the dream version of her was writing on her computer. This version of her looked different, she noticed. This future version of her was smiling like she is at her happiest. Little confused, Claire then turned to face Vivian.
"I will just say this, I know I'm getting the vibe that you think this is fucked up...not the fact that you're having sympathy for me, thats understandable given the commonality between us....a background like mine involving a common thing that you and I have...kinda the same experience...only yours wasn't this extreme...other people would probably find it hard once they knew who I grew up to be...you don't," Vivian was slowly walking around Claire as he was talking, softly in that gravely serious voice of his, "No, the fucked up part you're feeling is actually...what I became, a killer, but let me tell you something should you find yourself running in the other other direction..."
Vivian was now facing her again, "You’ll find it harder to live on the money you make from your books, oh you’ll still do them, but you’ll have a tougher time getting them published. You’ll realize you need a part-time job, just to make it by in that little apartment you’re gonna live in. Sure that second job of yours is a cubicle one, but you tell yourself to be optimistic. Oh it’ll be a fun job, I’ll make some new friends, “ Vivian had changed his pitch to a higher one before going back to normal, “You’ll be living under a false kind of happiness for a month or two, maybe three I don’t know, but I do know it will be short lived. You’ll lie awake in bed for several nights trying to figure out what’s wrong with your life, why you still have that void like something is missing.. You start feeling lonely so you’ll date, and eventually get a boyfriend. You think you love this guy, that he is the one for you, the one you’ll grow old with, but after a few months of denial, you find out that your love for him has faded away. The void has returned and nothing seems fun to you anymore, you’re not happy. Your books are not be published...your dead-end second job is boring,”
Vivian then whispered in Claire’s ear softly.”Do you want to know what happens next?”
“Yes..I do.”
“You’ll start to spiral down into the hole of depression, its one you’ll have a tough time climbing out of. You’ll put on a facade that you're happy with your life, force a smile and all, but you find yourself wanting to shut down, get away from your boring life, you don’t want do anything with your friends or boyfriend. You'll just end up being a doll within the next few years,” Vivian faced Claire before speaking, “The choice is yours and the window is today."
Claire looked at him, not being able to make any comprehensive sounds for a few seconds before simply holding out her hand as her way of saying that she'll run off with him. She was then brought into an embrace much like how they were before back in the cider barn.
"Great, we'll escape as soon as we wake up and we'll meet on the outskirts of town."
"I'm in a coma Viv...and how can I...I mean I haven't used my powers for so long, I don't remember how to..summon them."
"Oh you'll remember." Vivian said as he slowly closed the gap between their face and kissed Claire on the lips. She closed her eyes and embraced the feeling that now have came over over as she kissed back.
She let out a little startled gasp when she finally opened her eyes. She wasn't with Vivian anymore in the creepy building, but rather in a clean room with white walls. She was in the hospital she realized, after her vision cleared and became more aware of her surroundings. She sat up a bit and and looked at the clock on the table next to her bed. 4:32 am, it was early morning she thought to herself and then she suddenly remember the dream she just had.
She remember Vivian appearing and the conversation she had, about escaping and running off together among other things. The vision with them living together, and was she really certifiable insane for even thinking about going along and running off to a new life with a man who killed people? What her husband and daughter think? Wait no scratch that, she could care less what that cheating ass Paul thought.
She also wondered if the last part of the dream was real, she remembered the kiss, it was still vivid in her mind, but was the part about her being able to use her long dormant powers real? She knew she wasn't as powerful as Vivian, but she remembers being able to move things with her mind and short things out too besides the dream parts and reading people's minds. That alone should be enough to get her out of this place.
But could she actually move an object just as easily as she did when she was younger? She had the nagging feeling that the kiss did more than just evoked the warm, fuzzy feelings in her body, it also awoken the abilities she had long kept inside. If she could do it, then that means the vision Vivian showed her was really that, a vision.
She looked around her room for an object she could test on without arousing suspicion. Last thing she wants to do is screw up, make noise and alert hospital staffers to her room. After a minute of looking around for something small enough, she then settled on using the pillow that was on her bed. She sat up and retrieved said pillow and stared for a second. If this works, then she could escape. If she can escape then that means..either of two things, either an overall, unhappy mundane life that'll eventually cause her to be depressed over the years or a(fucked up in a way) life where she is happy and with someone that understood her the most.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The early morning light was already showing up, lighting the trees and ground as she ran a good distance into the forest. She was looking for Vivian when she remember that he didn't exactly tell her where in the forest to meet. She stopped to rest as she looked around as maybe if she stayed, he would eventually show up. They were telepathically linked after all, maybe one of the effects was a sort of GPS tracking, Vivian can track her down, maybe she can too. She wasn't sure, she has to look up more on that.
Sure enough after a few minutes Vivian showed up, holding his scythe and wearing what looked liked a black-haired wig and a black dress over a red shirt. He then discarded the wig as he looked at Claire.
"I would've been here sooner, but I wanted to get Mr. Scythy back." Vivian started explaining, holding said weapon.
"I see. Nice dress by the way." Claire commented, smiling as she took a look at him.
"Thanks," Vivian then handed her an apple he had hidden in his coat pocket. He apparently stolen an apple somewhere along the way, "You must be hungry here."
"Oh thank you. So how are going to get a car or something to get us out of here?" Claire asked, while eating the apple. She still felt a little hungry, but it was enough for now.
"We'll steal a car. The highway is that way," Vivian pointed to his left. They both started walking in the direction, "We'll just wait for a car to pass by, telepathically slow it down, take out the guy and we're on our way."
"One condition, you just knock out the guy alright?" Claire stated, as she looked at Vivian.
Vivian was silent as he thought about it for a second, before agreeing to the terms. They eventually reached the highway and walked along the edge. They were talking about random things when Vivian suddenly stopped in his tracks, sensing a car that was coming up towards them from behind them. The next thing Claire knew she was dragging the unconscious driver to a safe distance.
"Get his credit card Claire." Vivian shouted before getting into the drivers seat
"I'm not stealing his credit card." Claire replied, looking at his wallet, debating how much cash she should steal. She knows she had technically stolen that one car before, but she still felt guilty.
"Hurry up! I don't want us to caught! They'll take us back...to you know." Vivian yelled, getting back out and looking around, checking to see if the coast is still clear.
"I know, I want to leave this fucking town as much as you do..." Claire shot back, voice tinging with anxiety. She really wanted to leave this town and never look back. The sooner, the better. She decided on at least taking just half of the cash, which was about $400 dollars before running back to the car and getting in, "Wait can you drive?"
Ten minutes later Clair found herself barreling down the road as Vivian sat in the passenger seat looking at the map he found in the glove box.
"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," Claire said, giggling happily a bit as Vivian glanced at her from looking at the map, "It feels like I'm leaving and finally burying what made me fucking unhappy for the past 8 years....I never really liked that town anyways."
"Hahaha me either," Vivian gave her a quick kiss, agreeing with her, "Never liked that town myself, full of idiots. Luckily I was able to mindwipe most of the people working at the...uhh place so no one will come after me."
"I only knocked out people, I think mindwiping is too much," Vivian let out a worrisome sound then Claire added, "Don't worry, mommy is not upset." Claire didn't want to ruin the mood, so she decided she'll talk to Vivian about how far she would let him take his powers on another day.
Vivian chuckled in quick in coming relief, "So where to Claire?"
"Somewhere in Indiana?"
----------------------------------------------
They had been traveling for several hours now, having just entered Pennsylvania. Claire was listening to the radio smoking as Vivian was lying down in the back. Lately she had a little guilt gnawing in her gut that she should let him know that something is going on up in his brain. She doesn’t really know specifically which kind, but all she knew was that he had some kind of illness in his head.
She doesn’t really know why she didn’t bring it up already, maybe it was because she didn’t have the heart or...or something. She can’t really answer, all she knows is that Vivian deserves to know what is happening and get the right kind of treatment for it, once they get him properly checked out.
She turned into a rest stop before she turned around to talk to Vivian. She was about to let the words come out of her mouth when she heard the sound of faint crying from.
“I’m sorry..I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to Claire...”He was saying in between sobs. Claire had a look of worry and confusion on her face
“Didn’t mean to do what?” Claire spoke softly in that comforting tone of hers, “The murders?”
Vivian turned over and looked at Claire, face red with tears and eyes still watery, “Yeah..I didn’t mean to kill them. I don’t...I just only meant to punish them...”
Claire was quiet as silence filled the car for a few seconds not knowing what to say or do except for rubbing his arm soothingly, “I forgive you.”
It was Vivian turn to look at her, “How? I...killed those people..”
“You’re sick Vivian, I saw your file...in a dream. Something is wrong in your mind.” Claire simply said.
“Oh...well could..could you help me then?” Vivian asked, in a low, voice to which Claire nodded yes.
---------------------------------------------
5 years passed and they both found themselves living comfortably together in a house in a small town in Indiana. They had since decided to go under a new last name just to be really safe as they really didn't want anybody from their old hometown coming after him. Claire was already used to Vivian's various eccentricities such as smoking apples(Hey, at least it won't cost 10 years in jail and rehab, is now her default explanation to people) and singing that one song by the Andrew Sisters at random times(She found herself loving the soulful, gravelly voice he had).
The townspeople were fortunately more accepting of their abilities so they both ended up opening up a school to help train young kids to use and keep control of their powers. It wasn't a huge class and the building they picked used to be a store, but it was enough to live. Claire would also still write children's books in her spare time and illustrating(she expanded to include illustrating or other people books)
It was a pretty nice day, sunny, partly cloudy and Claire was returning from doing a few errands. She opened the door to find Vivian grinning like he was waiting for her to come back cause he missed her so much. She got confused when she noticed a little girl playing some video games in the living room. Well more like only half confused cause she put two and two together and mentally sighed.
“Welcome back Claire! You know how you said you wanted a family right? Well I got us a daughter.” Vivian pointed to the girl happily while Claire just walked in after closing the door.
“You didn’t hurt her mother did you?”
“No, I just knocked her out...”
“Vivian, I thought I told you I don’t want you kidnapping anymore little girls.”
“I know, I know,” Vivian said, sitting down on the couch, trying to put together the words he wanted to say, “But all I want is a family Claire...you, me and a beautiful daughter, or son. I don’t want us to be lonely.”
Vivian explained while looking at her with his best convincing puppy dog eyes, “How else was I gonna get us a daughter that doesn’t involve kidnapping?”
“Do you know how babies are made?” Claire asked, taking out a small box from one of the bags she was holding, while receiving a half confused stare, “I was gonna wait until afterwards because I didn’t want to disappoint you, but I think I may be pregnant.”
Vivian let the sudden information process in his mind before smiling in joy and walked over and started kissing her stomach, causing Claire to laugh, “You’re gonna have a great mommy little baby. We’re gonna take good care of you and we’re not gonna let any bad people take you away....”
“I don’t even know if we’re gonna have a kid, thats why I got the pregnancy test.” Vivian stood up after Claire explained.
“Oh.” He said, while looking at it before following her to the bathroom. He waiting outside the door, watching the aforementioned little earn a high score on the video game. He got snapped out of his distraction when he heard the door opening to a smiling Claire.
“We’re having a baby.” Claire announced, before kissing Vivian.
“I’m gonna be a Mommy,,” Vivian laughed, happy at the news, “Or is that father?”
“We’re gonna be parents Viv.” The two hugged in each other still in excitement of having a child.
----------------------------------------------------
“Ah Viv haha what are you doing?” Claire said, one morning giggling as Vivian hugged her from behind as she was making breakfast. 6 months has passed and she had become noticeably pregnant. Vivian was giving light kisses on her next as he rubbed her tummy.
“Just kissing my wife haha. I can sense the baby’s gender if you want to know. Or would you rather be surprised?”
“Spoil me.” Came the reply. The sun was shining through the window, bathing the kitchen in a nice warm glow.
“A boy Claire, we’re having a boy.”
Claire smiled as she turned to kiss him before being hugged by her husband. She liked the prospect of raising a kid in general so she couldn’t wait to have her baby boy,
----------------------------------------------
Some people might think she is crazy, hell the majority might, but as Claire woke up in bed one morning to find their one year old son Harry had crawled into bed in the night with Vivian hugging him, she realized something. She realized that she was happy...the bond that flared up between them all those years back did choose correctly in the long run. She smiled as she watched the two guys sleep peacefully.
She was happy, it may be a fucked up kind of happy, but she was happy nonetheless.
Title: Life is Stranger than Fiction
Fandom: In Dreams(with a character from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at the bottom)
Pair: Claire/Vivian
Summary: She never thought the rest of her life would be with him.
Claire knows that psychics existed in the world, in fact she came from a family of psychics. She knew she was part of the group of people where some are able to read minds and have visions, where others are able to control inanimate objects or even the mind of a normal human. She in particular doesn't really know the full potentials of her abilities, having forgotten about it since her high school days. While some are accepted after coming out with being a psychic, others are not so unfortunate. Sadly the society she lived in says it is better to keep the abilities to yourself, that one will end up being ridiculed and shamed for it. You will get more places if you were normal. She knows its wrong and she wishes that everyone would be more accepting of psychics. That everyone would stop seeing them as monsters and freaks with the potential to kill people. Most of the ones she met have expressed wanting to use their powers to help people in the general public.
She knows it would be a while before the world at large embraces her kind. The reason she stop using her powers after high school was because she didn't want to deal with the questions from the ignorant people, the possible discrimination from the teachers(she made the mistake of telling one teacher she thought she could trust in high school. She ended up having to take her tests in another room due to she might cheat by reading other people's minds. She always protested, but never was listened to). She also didn't want to risk the chance of having her friends suddenly not wanting anything to do with her. She knew that pain, the gut wrenching, heart being ripped out feeling after having a friend of a few years suddenly cutting off ties with her cause she was worried that she was gonna get hurt or something. Plus she couldn't take it anymore, being called a freak or weird or whatever. She didn't want to lose anymore friends so if someone in college asked her in a judgemental way if she had powers or not, she would hold back her desire to tell them off and say no.
One other thing psychics had going for them was an ability to telepathically link with someone that was supposed to be the other's soulmate. They could also link with other psychics, but the bond between soulmates were stronger, the two would be able to see each other's pasts, their experiences in school, with family, friends as well as their future. Most of the time two soulmates would immediately know they were the one after seeing the other person. They couldn't explain it, but the bond would feel stronger. They would know right away things about them, where they lived, their family, where they went to school, what they do for a living, their personality. Basically their background as well as their hopes and desires.
With Claire and Vivian however, it look them a little longer to find each other and a little more to realize they were meant to be together, as weird as that sounds since Vivian was a known killer and Claire was a good girl from Cambridge, Massachusetts. She met Paul after moving to the small town and started dating. She, every now and then, would get a nagging feeling that Paul wasn't the right guy for her and that they would just end up divorced. She ignored it as she wanted to suppressed her powers and believe that yeah Paul was the right guy for her. She didn't give a fuck that Paul was normal, like that had stopped other psychic from marrying people without the abilities. Sometimes the bond thing just meant the psychic being able to see the non-powered other's life story. She didn't with Paul, but she ignored that and the other warnings signs like Paul taking a business trip somewhere and meeting up with another girl. The first time she told herself that she was overreacting and Paul was actually a nice guy. The second, third, and fourth time she couldn't really proved since she knows Paul would come up with an alibi if she asked about it. That and she knew she didn't really have a good strong basis for the evidence since they were just dreams, visions she had.
Plus she hasn't told Paul about her powers. She wanted to tell them, but she wanted to first see what he thought of psychics in general. He told her that he thought they were monsters, freaks. He thought they should be all just live in one area. Of course hearing the news broke her a bit. Why couldn't everyone lived in peace, coexist in harmony? She told him that she thinks they should be able to live just like the rest of us.
She thought her mind was just being tormented by a killer when she started having those dreams of a girl being kidnapped by a long red-haired man. She at first thought it was just the random strange dreams that everyone has every once in a while. The kind that makes you go "what the fuck did I eat last night?" She realized that they were premonitions after a few days, that they were clues being given to her as to what the next crime he was gonna commit. The first few times she thought it was about a past crime until she realized the girl being led through an apple orchard was her own daughter during a play.
They couldn't find her child's body and she tried to tell the authorities where her daughter was after having dream. No one believed her so she decided to lead them or at least one cop there by driving to the man-made lake.
It was very distressing and frustrating to her when her husband and pretty much everyone in town didn't believe her when she told them about her visions. They just thought she was going crazy due to the grief of losing her child. A part of her came to expect that, but she had wishful thinking that someone would have the gene in them and vouch for her. She later came to realization that except for Vivian, she was the only one with the ability in the small town.
She came to that conclusion one night in the mental hospital she was sent to, laying her bed thinking for a few minutes while staring at the ceiling. She was thinking about how Vivian able to enter her dreams and give her clues about his crimes, as well as scenes from his past here and there. She was thinking about the apples in her kitchens and how the computer of hers seemed to have a mind of its own. She didn't know how extensive his powers was, but she came to the conclusion that he mostly likely have some form of the psychic gene.
After having yet another vision after going asleep, she woke up and escaped via the same route that Vivian took when he was a teenager. Minus the murder of a staff member of course, she walked out of there and about a half an hour later found herself watching Vivian walk up to her as she put the car in park. It was surreal, and a little be frightening, that a killer was coming up to her asking if she wanted to go to his house. She nodded and Vivian walked around to the other side.
The next 10 minutes consisted of awkwardly looking at each other and having an awkward conversation. As soon as Vivian closed the door and turned to her to tell her to go, the bond flared up inside both of them and left them just staring at each other before turning to face the road. In addition to the bond, the information dump came flooding into their minds, giving them unexpected insights about the other. Any doubts the two had about ,or in Vivian's case didn't even think about it, the other possibly having the ablities were confirmed and set in stone that moment.
Vivian meant to say go now or I'll get really upset and I wouldn't like that cause then Ruby won't have a mommy and I promised her a new mommy, but all he could get out was after mustering back the ablity to talk was a few incomprehesive sounds. He wasn't exactly sure what just happened. Neither did Claire for that matter.
"Ireland." Claire said, after a minute of silence. Vivian then gave her a quizzical look, "You..um...you were born in Ireland then came over to Massachusetts when..you were a baby."
The bond thing really knew when to fucking come into play Claire thought to herself.
"You were born in South Dakota." Vivian replied back.
"Pierre." Clair confirmed.
"Dublin, and I was 8 months when we came over here."
A few more moments of awkward silence filled the car, the two of them sitting in the seats forgetting about the present before Claire spoke, "We should, um get going to your house. We wouldn't want you to get upset."
"Yeah that...that wouldn't be good."
The drive over was spent in silence save for the occasional direction given to her by Vivian. She wanted to forget what just happened. Vivian was a killer for fuck sakes, he killed her only child and husband. He couldn't be her soulmate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She found herself in a coma after having taking the fall over the railing into the lake with Vivian. She wanted to get revenge on him so she spend the next week invading his dreams, tormenting him, scaring the crap out of him just as he did to her. She made the walls bleeds and everything she could think of. This particular night however unexpectedly changed up her schedule. Instead of the usual present time dream where she would easily find the serial killer and drag him through the same shit, she was met with a dream, or more accurately vision, from his past.
More specifically she was at the mental hospital where a young Vivian was forced to stay at. She looked around expecting to get caught for a split second, but realized they can’t hear or see her as this was a dream.pretty quickly. With that thought having passed through her head, she started walking around, noticing she was in the front desk area. She then walked down the hallway, eventually reaching the rooms where patients were treated.
Even though she knew she was practically invisible, she can’t say she wasn’t still creeped out from the place. She was as well as a little nervous of what she is going to find. She looked and noticed two empty rooms across from each other, she slowly entered the one on her right like if she was gonna run into something horrible. It was a big room, not that big, but still bigger than the ones at the hospital. There was tables around full of small instruments and an electric chair using for shocking the patients.
She walked up to one of the tables filled with papers and files. It was kind of cluttered she noticed as she picked up a few, just glancing at them. She did that for a minute before one file caught eye. It was Vivian’s file. She picked it up and opened it, not quite sure what to expect. She is expecting some type of mental illness as she got a sense that he wasn’t well in the head back in the car, as she was reading the papers that had his information and other things.
It was on the second page that she got her confirmation, that Vivian had some sort of mental illness, but they didn’t say what exactly, hence all the other tests that they had added to the schedule. The sound of a crying child and the door shutting abruptly turned her attention around to see two people in white coats forcefully putting the young version of Vivian into the chair and restraining him.
A feeling of dread started to built up within her as she had a feeling what was coming next. She really didn’t want to see the anguish, pain look on his face, the heartbreaking scream that will inevitably come out. She tried to will her legs to move, but she just stood there frozen in place. She suddenly dropped the folder when the screams started, instantly covering her face and looking away as she wished for the horrible scene to stop. As if on cue, the feeling of heartbreak came washing over her as the sound of a little child’s voice still filled the room, it was enough to get the urge to tear up.
------------------------------------------------
Vivian found himself in a school's hallway instead of the usual room he was assigned to at the mental hospital. He turned around looking everywhere expecting Claire to suddenly come out with her revenge scheme of the week.
"Claire...where are you?" He shouted. his question was met with silence. He then noticed the door to a class still in session and walked up to the window. He then opened the door, but no one seemed to noticed.
"I see you..." Vivian said in a higher pitch before shouting in his usual voice. "Come the fuck out! I'm ready for whatever you got cooking. Don't think I'm not used to your revenge tricks now!"
"I..." Vivian stopped suddenly as he realized how the fuck does he know what Claire looked like as a teenager. Then he remembered the incident in the car a couple of months earlier. He had saw images of what she looked like at various points in her life, including this moment.
Snapping back to what he was seeing, he bucked up in preparation for whatever she was gonna do to scare him this time.
"Don't think I'm not used to all of your little ways to scare me! I know your tricks!" He shouted, young Claire and everyone else seemingly ignoring him.
"You better not upset me Claire cause you know what happens when I get upset, everyone turns into dolls!"
A couple of seconds passed before he let out a yell and momentarily forgot he was in a dream as he rushed at the teacher to tackle him down and choke him to death. He went to grab his throat, but instead passed right through him and fell down to the ground. He stood up and shook of the daze he had, stumbling a bit before taking a swing at the teacher again only to have his fist connect with nothing, but air.
He let out a frustrated yell before trying again only this time he went for Claire. The same result happened, and he hit his head on the ground.
He let out a groan in pain just as the bell rang. Everybody got up, starting to leave and mingle as he got up. Students passing through him like he wasn't there. Of course he wasn't there, it was a vision from Claire's past. Speaking of Claire, said teenager was talking to the teacher. Vivian walked closer until he was behind Claire, almost standing next to her. He can now clearly hear the conversation between her and her teacher.
"Well I just wanted to ask you a few questions Miss Cooper. You got a hundred percent on this test as well as the last two.."
"That's good isn't though? I thought you would be happy with that?" Said Miss Cooper replied.
"I am, but at the same time this concerns me."
"Why?"
"I've recently been informed about your little....paranormal ablities."
Vivian watched as Claire's eyes widen in surprise, "How..how did you know that?" Her voice tinged with surprisement and fear.
"Your English teacher told me and all of your other teachers." the teacher replied as she started breathing more, "I have reason to believe that you might've read the other students minds and therefore cheated."
"What? No, I would never do that. I never cheat." She protested.
"How do I know you are telling the truth?"
"Because you can...take my word for it."
"I'm gonna have you retake the last 3 tests in a separate room by yourself." He said, matter of factly.
"You can't do that! Not all of us cheat and...." She started to yell but was cut off by the teacher.
"I'm sorry, but I just can't take the risk Miss. Cooper. You'll retake them in a couple of days." Claire tried to protest, but her teacher wasn't having none of it as he just ignored her.
Vivian watched as the teacher left the room living Claire standing there with betrayal and anger showing on her face. She also close to crying as Vivian took a glance at her before waking up in his cell.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
He didn't see Claire again in his dreams until a couple of days later, he was sitting at a table in the cafeteria when he heard footsteps coming. He looked up to see Claire in a t-shirt and jeans walking towards him.
"This place is still creepy even in a dream." She remarked, trying to break the ice in some way as she sat down across from Vivian.
"No argument there. This is a scary place...wait is this part of your plan of scaring me today, first striking up a conversation..." He started, but was cut off by Claire.
"No. I think its safe to say that fucking done, due to what happened lately and all."
"Yeah."
"I am keeping my eye on you though."
".....Fair enough. So what brings you into my dreams today Claire?"
"Just wanted to talk," She said, before looking around a bit, the place looked like it came out of a Silent Hill game or something she thought amusingly before facing Vivian, "Your last name sounds familiar, but I can't place it."
"Oh, well do you remember when the apples appeared in your kitchen?"
"Yeah, that scared the shit out of me, I really don't want to relive that again."
"Did you ever stop and wondered how those apples got there?"
Claire was then taken aback at the question and thought back. That was a good point he brought up, how did those apples appear when he wasn't even there. She knew no one else was home at the time but herself and she didn't hear anyone else coming in. She only stepped out of the kitchen for a few minutes before returning. She didn't really think about it at the time, but now she was a little puzzelled on how the apples just appeared out of nowhere unless....they were materilized there. She remembered being told that, among other things, being able to materilized objects is part of a rare form of the psychic gene and there was only one known family with that gene.
"Oh my fucking...you mean you're part of that Thompson family?" Claire asked, gasping a little only in realization.
"Yeah," Vivian said, his voice soft as Claire just looked at him smiling as if to say wow, "I got it through my dad, my mom was normal."
"Oh I see. So the computer and the radio..."
"I controlled them with my..um..telekinesis. I can do this out of body thing and yeah."
"Wow. that's amazing despite the circumstances back then," Claire said, as she noticed Vivian's eyes looking down as if he was feeling sad and ashamed for having this ability.
"Is something wrong Viv?" Claire oddly found herself in a comforting mood towards Vivian. She guessed that it was probably due to the bond link between them.Vivian responded by looking up and facing her with a gaze that looked like an opening to the rest of his soul.
It was like she was looking past the surface, the many layers of him and underneath it all was a little innocent redheaded boy full of life and curiosity.
"Why don't you tell me Claire? We know each other's life stories."
Claire gave a nod as she stared at the other person for a second before continuing," Your mother was a college student when she met your dad. They started off as friends, but found they had more common and fell in love. They got married after a few years of dating, takig her with him to America. Here she became pregnate. She at first didn't care when your father told her about the bloodline that runs in his family, at least not at first..."
Claire looked at Vivian for any signs that maybe it was too much hearing her talk about what happened in his childhood. She paused for a second and kept going when there wasn't any signs of Vivian stopping her.
"....your father left her for another psychic, ran off with her to Europe somewhere. Distraugt she began drinking while at the same time raising you. The resentment and hate came later when you were 2, you were beginning to show you powers...oh you were having a wonderful time exploring what you can do and practicing. You wanted to show you mother but she told you to quit. The powers you were exhibiting reminded her of your dad and what he did to her."
Vivian was currently looking down at the table as Claire took his hands in hers and rubbed them soothingly. Silence filled the dreamworld for a minute or two before he looked up at her. It was a strange feeling in Claire that she was feeling sympathy for the apple loving killer. Claire was about to speak up again, but Vivian decided to explain the rest, as much as he can that is.
"She told me to never use my powers, I asked her why and she told me that people would think I was a freak and that I would be better off pretending I was born a normal person. Of course I didn't understand, I was a kid, but I wanted to keep praticing. So I did in secret for a few years. One day I had my friend over, I was in kindergarten and I wanted to show him you know. We were in the backyard and I was happily shooting off little beams of energy blasts. I was having fun until I heard her yelling at me to stop. Started putting me down, telling me what the hell was I thinking? Do you want the world to know you're a monster? Scared off my friend too and I was upset. She told me it would be better to be like her than my father pretty much....and that meant no using my powers."
"The abuse started around that age too," Vivian started to explain after pausing for a second, "She would yell at me, telling me that she wished I wasn't born a mind-reading bastard. She took her hatred on my father out of me to put it simply. I hated her for hurting me so much, after so many years of trying to deal with it I couldn't take it anymore. She was upsetting me Claire, and you very much know when that happens."
"You...punished her?"
"I tried to scare her into stopping the shit she was dealing on me via dreams. I was eight at the time and I..hahaha..was naively stupid to think that would but nooooo...no..she put two and two together and figured out the boy in her dreams was me. The boy that was making the walls bleed, all that shit....she put me in the mental hospital and she actually fucking told them they could experiment on me."
Vivian let out a sign as Claire looked at him shocked and disgusted at what she just heard. She couldn't believe that his mother of all people would put him in a mental hospital based solely on the fact that he had powers, and told them to experiment on him at that. Just cause he had the gene doesn't make him any different from anyone else. He had the same basic buildup, same needs, he didn't deserve to be experimented like that, no one does.
Claire looked at him, her eyes watering as she rubbed the back of his hands, "Oh Vivian I'm so sorry."
They sat in silence in the dark, creepy looking dream version of the cafeteria of where Vivian was being held at. He looked up at her after a few minutes had passed, neither knowing what to say next. Well Vivian did and he was smart enough know the risk he was taking.
"I had a dream the other day Claire." He said softly, treading carefully, "Would you like to see?"
Claire nodded as Vivian then got up and walked over to where he was behind her. The dreamscape blurred and changed as Claire got up, watching as the setting changed to that of an apartment in Indiana.
"Look at how happy we are? I finally have a wife....and I don't feel lonely anymore and.."
"Wait I'm your wife in this?"
"Well I don't know for sure...at this moment, but I know you love me here, and that you seemed happier with me than your cheating husband. I would never cheat on you Claire.,
Claire watched as the dream version of her was writing on her computer. This version of her looked different, she noticed. This future version of her was smiling like she is at her happiest. Little confused, Claire then turned to face Vivian.
"I will just say this, I know I'm getting the vibe that you think this is fucked up...not the fact that you're having sympathy for me, thats understandable given the commonality between us....a background like mine involving a common thing that you and I have...kinda the same experience...only yours wasn't this extreme...other people would probably find it hard once they knew who I grew up to be...you don't," Vivian was slowly walking around Claire as he was talking, softly in that gravely serious voice of his, "No, the fucked up part you're feeling is actually...what I became, a killer, but let me tell you something should you find yourself running in the other other direction..."
Vivian was now facing her again, "You’ll find it harder to live on the money you make from your books, oh you’ll still do them, but you’ll have a tougher time getting them published. You’ll realize you need a part-time job, just to make it by in that little apartment you’re gonna live in. Sure that second job of yours is a cubicle one, but you tell yourself to be optimistic. Oh it’ll be a fun job, I’ll make some new friends, “ Vivian had changed his pitch to a higher one before going back to normal, “You’ll be living under a false kind of happiness for a month or two, maybe three I don’t know, but I do know it will be short lived. You’ll lie awake in bed for several nights trying to figure out what’s wrong with your life, why you still have that void like something is missing.. You start feeling lonely so you’ll date, and eventually get a boyfriend. You think you love this guy, that he is the one for you, the one you’ll grow old with, but after a few months of denial, you find out that your love for him has faded away. The void has returned and nothing seems fun to you anymore, you’re not happy. Your books are not be published...your dead-end second job is boring,”
Vivian then whispered in Claire’s ear softly.”Do you want to know what happens next?”
“Yes..I do.”
“You’ll start to spiral down into the hole of depression, its one you’ll have a tough time climbing out of. You’ll put on a facade that you're happy with your life, force a smile and all, but you find yourself wanting to shut down, get away from your boring life, you don’t want do anything with your friends or boyfriend. You'll just end up being a doll within the next few years,” Vivian faced Claire before speaking, “The choice is yours and the window is today."
Claire looked at him, not being able to make any comprehensive sounds for a few seconds before simply holding out her hand as her way of saying that she'll run off with him. She was then brought into an embrace much like how they were before back in the cider barn.
"Great, we'll escape as soon as we wake up and we'll meet on the outskirts of town."
"I'm in a coma Viv...and how can I...I mean I haven't used my powers for so long, I don't remember how to..summon them."
"Oh you'll remember." Vivian said as he slowly closed the gap between their face and kissed Claire on the lips. She closed her eyes and embraced the feeling that now have came over over as she kissed back.
She let out a little startled gasp when she finally opened her eyes. She wasn't with Vivian anymore in the creepy building, but rather in a clean room with white walls. She was in the hospital she realized, after her vision cleared and became more aware of her surroundings. She sat up a bit and and looked at the clock on the table next to her bed. 4:32 am, it was early morning she thought to herself and then she suddenly remember the dream she just had.
She remember Vivian appearing and the conversation she had, about escaping and running off together among other things. The vision with them living together, and was she really certifiable insane for even thinking about going along and running off to a new life with a man who killed people? What her husband and daughter think? Wait no scratch that, she could care less what that cheating ass Paul thought.
She also wondered if the last part of the dream was real, she remembered the kiss, it was still vivid in her mind, but was the part about her being able to use her long dormant powers real? She knew she wasn't as powerful as Vivian, but she remembers being able to move things with her mind and short things out too besides the dream parts and reading people's minds. That alone should be enough to get her out of this place.
But could she actually move an object just as easily as she did when she was younger? She had the nagging feeling that the kiss did more than just evoked the warm, fuzzy feelings in her body, it also awoken the abilities she had long kept inside. If she could do it, then that means the vision Vivian showed her was really that, a vision.
She looked around her room for an object she could test on without arousing suspicion. Last thing she wants to do is screw up, make noise and alert hospital staffers to her room. After a minute of looking around for something small enough, she then settled on using the pillow that was on her bed. She sat up and retrieved said pillow and stared for a second. If this works, then she could escape. If she can escape then that means..either of two things, either an overall, unhappy mundane life that'll eventually cause her to be depressed over the years or a(fucked up in a way) life where she is happy and with someone that understood her the most.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The early morning light was already showing up, lighting the trees and ground as she ran a good distance into the forest. She was looking for Vivian when she remember that he didn't exactly tell her where in the forest to meet. She stopped to rest as she looked around as maybe if she stayed, he would eventually show up. They were telepathically linked after all, maybe one of the effects was a sort of GPS tracking, Vivian can track her down, maybe she can too. She wasn't sure, she has to look up more on that.
Sure enough after a few minutes Vivian showed up, holding his scythe and wearing what looked liked a black-haired wig and a black dress over a red shirt. He then discarded the wig as he looked at Claire.
"I would've been here sooner, but I wanted to get Mr. Scythy back." Vivian started explaining, holding said weapon.
"I see. Nice dress by the way." Claire commented, smiling as she took a look at him.
"Thanks," Vivian then handed her an apple he had hidden in his coat pocket. He apparently stolen an apple somewhere along the way, "You must be hungry here."
"Oh thank you. So how are going to get a car or something to get us out of here?" Claire asked, while eating the apple. She still felt a little hungry, but it was enough for now.
"We'll steal a car. The highway is that way," Vivian pointed to his left. They both started walking in the direction, "We'll just wait for a car to pass by, telepathically slow it down, take out the guy and we're on our way."
"One condition, you just knock out the guy alright?" Claire stated, as she looked at Vivian.
Vivian was silent as he thought about it for a second, before agreeing to the terms. They eventually reached the highway and walked along the edge. They were talking about random things when Vivian suddenly stopped in his tracks, sensing a car that was coming up towards them from behind them. The next thing Claire knew she was dragging the unconscious driver to a safe distance.
"Get his credit card Claire." Vivian shouted before getting into the drivers seat
"I'm not stealing his credit card." Claire replied, looking at his wallet, debating how much cash she should steal. She knows she had technically stolen that one car before, but she still felt guilty.
"Hurry up! I don't want us to caught! They'll take us back...to you know." Vivian yelled, getting back out and looking around, checking to see if the coast is still clear.
"I know, I want to leave this fucking town as much as you do..." Claire shot back, voice tinging with anxiety. She really wanted to leave this town and never look back. The sooner, the better. She decided on at least taking just half of the cash, which was about $400 dollars before running back to the car and getting in, "Wait can you drive?"
Ten minutes later Clair found herself barreling down the road as Vivian sat in the passenger seat looking at the map he found in the glove box.
"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," Claire said, giggling happily a bit as Vivian glanced at her from looking at the map, "It feels like I'm leaving and finally burying what made me fucking unhappy for the past 8 years....I never really liked that town anyways."
"Hahaha me either," Vivian gave her a quick kiss, agreeing with her, "Never liked that town myself, full of idiots. Luckily I was able to mindwipe most of the people working at the...uhh place so no one will come after me."
"I only knocked out people, I think mindwiping is too much," Vivian let out a worrisome sound then Claire added, "Don't worry, mommy is not upset." Claire didn't want to ruin the mood, so she decided she'll talk to Vivian about how far she would let him take his powers on another day.
Vivian chuckled in quick in coming relief, "So where to Claire?"
"Somewhere in Indiana?"
----------------------------------------------
They had been traveling for several hours now, having just entered Pennsylvania. Claire was listening to the radio smoking as Vivian was lying down in the back. Lately she had a little guilt gnawing in her gut that she should let him know that something is going on up in his brain. She doesn’t really know specifically which kind, but all she knew was that he had some kind of illness in his head.
She doesn’t really know why she didn’t bring it up already, maybe it was because she didn’t have the heart or...or something. She can’t really answer, all she knows is that Vivian deserves to know what is happening and get the right kind of treatment for it, once they get him properly checked out.
She turned into a rest stop before she turned around to talk to Vivian. She was about to let the words come out of her mouth when she heard the sound of faint crying from.
“I’m sorry..I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to Claire...”He was saying in between sobs. Claire had a look of worry and confusion on her face
“Didn’t mean to do what?” Claire spoke softly in that comforting tone of hers, “The murders?”
Vivian turned over and looked at Claire, face red with tears and eyes still watery, “Yeah..I didn’t mean to kill them. I don’t...I just only meant to punish them...”
Claire was quiet as silence filled the car for a few seconds not knowing what to say or do except for rubbing his arm soothingly, “I forgive you.”
It was Vivian turn to look at her, “How? I...killed those people..”
“You’re sick Vivian, I saw your file...in a dream. Something is wrong in your mind.” Claire simply said.
“Oh...well could..could you help me then?” Vivian asked, in a low, voice to which Claire nodded yes.
---------------------------------------------
5 years passed and they both found themselves living comfortably together in a house in a small town in Indiana. They had since decided to go under a new last name just to be really safe as they really didn't want anybody from their old hometown coming after him. Claire was already used to Vivian's various eccentricities such as smoking apples(Hey, at least it won't cost 10 years in jail and rehab, is now her default explanation to people) and singing that one song by the Andrew Sisters at random times(She found herself loving the soulful, gravelly voice he had).
The townspeople were fortunately more accepting of their abilities so they both ended up opening up a school to help train young kids to use and keep control of their powers. It wasn't a huge class and the building they picked used to be a store, but it was enough to live. Claire would also still write children's books in her spare time and illustrating(she expanded to include illustrating or other people books)
It was a pretty nice day, sunny, partly cloudy and Claire was returning from doing a few errands. She opened the door to find Vivian grinning like he was waiting for her to come back cause he missed her so much. She got confused when she noticed a little girl playing some video games in the living room. Well more like only half confused cause she put two and two together and mentally sighed.
“Welcome back Claire! You know how you said you wanted a family right? Well I got us a daughter.” Vivian pointed to the girl happily while Claire just walked in after closing the door.
“You didn’t hurt her mother did you?”
“No, I just knocked her out...”
“Vivian, I thought I told you I don’t want you kidnapping anymore little girls.”
“I know, I know,” Vivian said, sitting down on the couch, trying to put together the words he wanted to say, “But all I want is a family Claire...you, me and a beautiful daughter, or son. I don’t want us to be lonely.”
Vivian explained while looking at her with his best convincing puppy dog eyes, “How else was I gonna get us a daughter that doesn’t involve kidnapping?”
“Do you know how babies are made?” Claire asked, taking out a small box from one of the bags she was holding, while receiving a half confused stare, “I was gonna wait until afterwards because I didn’t want to disappoint you, but I think I may be pregnant.”
Vivian let the sudden information process in his mind before smiling in joy and walked over and started kissing her stomach, causing Claire to laugh, “You’re gonna have a great mommy little baby. We’re gonna take good care of you and we’re not gonna let any bad people take you away....”
“I don’t even know if we’re gonna have a kid, thats why I got the pregnancy test.” Vivian stood up after Claire explained.
“Oh.” He said, while looking at it before following her to the bathroom. He waiting outside the door, watching the aforementioned little earn a high score on the video game. He got snapped out of his distraction when he heard the door opening to a smiling Claire.
“We’re having a baby.” Claire announced, before kissing Vivian.
“I’m gonna be a Mommy,,” Vivian laughed, happy at the news, “Or is that father?”
“We’re gonna be parents Viv.” The two hugged in each other still in excitement of having a child.
----------------------------------------------------
“Ah Viv haha what are you doing?” Claire said, one morning giggling as Vivian hugged her from behind as she was making breakfast. 6 months has passed and she had become noticeably pregnant. Vivian was giving light kisses on her next as he rubbed her tummy.
“Just kissing my wife haha. I can sense the baby’s gender if you want to know. Or would you rather be surprised?”
“Spoil me.” Came the reply. The sun was shining through the window, bathing the kitchen in a nice warm glow.
“A boy Claire, we’re having a boy.”
Claire smiled as she turned to kiss him before being hugged by her husband. She liked the prospect of raising a kid in general so she couldn’t wait to have her baby boy,
----------------------------------------------
Some people might think she is crazy, hell the majority might, but as Claire woke up in bed one morning to find their one year old son Harry had crawled into bed in the night with Vivian hugging him, she realized something. She realized that she was happy...the bond that flared up between them all those years back did choose correctly in the long run. She smiled as she watched the two guys sleep peacefully.
She was happy, it may be a fucked up kind of happy, but she was happy nonetheless.