Sleepless. With chloeas and dl_greenarrow

[need2speed]

Mia had agreed to try sleeping in Oliver and Chloe's room for a few nights, just to see if it would help with the nightmares.  She wasn't really fond of the idea, because she was seventeen and not five, after all.  She couldn't be running to Ollie and Chloe whenever she had a bad dream.  It was childish.

And then Slade had reared his monstrous head

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[need2speed]

In her dreams, Mia was coming home from school, an aced science test clutched proudly in her fist as she entered the watch tower. She waved the test in the direction of the security cameras in the elevator and mimed a thumbs up, just in case Chloe was watching and wanted to come celebrate with her.

When the elevator stopped, Mia waited for the doors to open. But a trickle of something dark and red seeped under the crack instead. Mia frowned and pushed the button again to open the doors. This time they parted smoothly, a rush of the red liquid coming in to wash over Mia's feet. She stepped out into the hallway.

"Ollie? Chloe?" Her feet, which were bare, made squishing sounds against the carpet and came up stained red and sticky. Mia ran to Oliver's bedroom, then the guestroom, and found no one. Finally, she went to her own bedroom door and pressed her ear against it. She could hear a faint creaking noise, like a rocking chair would make but the door wouldn't open. Frantic, she pounded on it, shouting Oliver's name...

In her sleep, Mia curled up tighter in her fetal position, arms protecting her head, knees drawn up to shield her stomach. She frowned and muttered something into the pillow.

[dl_greenarrow]

Oliver turned over onto his side, tucking his hand beneath the pillow, frowning a little as he slept. His eyebrows furrowed a little, and he sighed softly. He didn't dream, but something felt wrong nonetheless.

[chloeas]

Chloe shifted when Oliver did, in the back of her head, she knew she had heard something, but it wasn't loud enough to wake her. Instinctively, she turned her back to Oliver and reached over to Mia's cot, placing her hand on it.

[need2speed]

Mia's fists hit the door over and over, until the wood started to crack and her hands bled from splinters. When the door finally opened from her pounding on it, it was too dark to see anything inside except faint shadows. Mia reached shaking fingers for the light switch, then gasped as the slow creak turned out to be the swing of a rope, Oliver's bleeding body suspended and dripping a steady stream of crimson onto her bed. He was dead, but he wasn't, eyes glassy and dim and mouth open with a harsh whisper on his lips. "Mia, be careful..."

From behind, a hand clamped hard around her arm and a knife point pressed against her ribs. She screamed, she screamed, she-

-moaned and reached for the blanket edge, felt Chloe's fingers instead and woke violently, fighting off someone who wasn't there anymore.

[dl_greenarrow]

Oliver woke with a start at the noise and quickly sat up, flipping on the lamp beside the bed. Instantly he spotted Mia on the cot, struggling against some unseen force, the blankets tangled all around her. "Mia! Hey." He scrambled out of bed.

[chloeas]

Chloe sat up too, her eyes wide and her heard theirs voices and glancing at Oliver then at Mia. Her heart beating fast as she stared at Mia for a moment, then leaned forward, "Mia, it's okay."

[need2speed]

"Don't!" Mia shouted, still half-asleep and bleary-eyed, her chest heaving with panic as she tried to move legs that had become impossibly tangled in the covers.

[dl_greenarrow]

He didn't reach out to try and touch her, simply held up his hands. "It's okay, Speedy. It's just me and Chloe. It's all right," he said gently. "You're at Watchtower and you had a bad dream, but we're right here."

[chloeas]

Chloe pulled back too but kept her eyes on Mia, "it's okay, Mia, everything is okay," she said quietly, a little shaken up herself but managing to calm down with a deep breath.

[need2speed]

Their voices broke through her panic and she blinked up at them as if seeing them for the first time. Shuddering, Mia stilled and calmed down enough to untangle herself. She sat up and pulled her legs to her chest. "Sorry," she muttered, embarrassed that she woke them up.

[dl_greenarrow]

"You don't need to apologize," Oliver said quietly, hesitantly sitting down beside her on the cot.

[chloeas]

Chloe glanced at him and nodded, taking Mia's hand in hers and watching her closely, "just take a deep breath, it was just a dream."

[need2speed]

"It wasn't," Mia said, her voice scratchy and thick from tears she wasn't going to let fall. "It wasn't just a dream."

[dl_greenarrow]

He wound his arm around her, pulling her against his side and kissing her temple. "No, it wasn't," he said, his voice quiet. "It happened. But I'm right here, Mia. And I'm okay."

[chloeas]

Chloe looked between the two of them for a moment then moved to sit down on Mia's other side, wrapping an arm around her too, "do you wanna tell us what it was about?"

[need2speed]

She shook her head slightly, shivering despite the sweat on her skin and the warmth of both of their arms around her. "He's not gonna stop. He's watching us."