[merged dream] [Week 14, Day 3] When the water's gone, we'll drink the sand

[mightstealyrcar]

Who: Mello, Matt, and anyone who gets sucked in
Status: Open!
Style: Third person, present
Where: Raisato, sort of
When: Week 14, Day 3, after Matt and Jessica make it to Raisato
Rating: It'll probably end up R.

Comments

[gonnabe1st]

It's a dream. Mello knows it's a dream when he steps out of the burning church. The smoke stings in his lungs, burns him from the inside, but he feels no urge to cough, even when he steps out into the open to pass by more fire. Parliament, was it? But not explosions or fireworks, just the smoldering ruins of its old glory. Bodies on the ground, the burnt out remnants of tanks, the sickening smell of burnt flesh, but he walks by. That's not his world, not the point of this dream.

He walks for a while, and like some twisted tour guide his mind keeps replaying familiar locations to either side of his path but never in it. (And to your right you see the famous wammy's house orphanage; ... to your left, the estate of the esteemed Shirogane detective family;...) ...all ruined. Whose fire was this, he wonders, who reduced all of this to cinders, but there's no answer he can think of besides a hint of guilt in the pit of his stomach

[mightstealyrcar]

Someone's calling for help somewhere, someone's screaming, and Matt huddles miserably, hugging himself tighter. The smoke keeps leaking out around his fingers, staining them black and sooty. "Wake up, wake up," he chants under his breath.

And Mello's there, strangely and suddenly in that way of dreams, when one shifts into something else, and Matt wants to reach out, reassure himself that he can still touch something at least sort of real here, but he can't seem to uncurl. It's hard enough to lift his head and meet the blond's eyes.

"Why're you--" No, not important. One thing is. "Don't touch me, I'm. This stuff, it's poison." He catches himself mid-slip, but he thinks Mello will hear what he almost said anyway.

[in_starvation]

The one who is screaming is a young girl who lost the air in her lungs a long time ago. Fire, fire is everywhere, every stroke of it hurts and the warmth prickles and all she can do is run, run, run. Her red hair glistens in the firelight and some strands are already smoking. Jessica stumbles, calling for Matt, for M, for Chrome and Mukuro and Sookie and Bill and her momma and daddy and her little sister. She calls out to them, terrified, fire reaching for her vulnerable dead flesh but somehow barely out of reach.

And there, there is Matt and M - not the M Jessica knows but still M - and she runs to them, trying to get to them. She stumbles and this times fall, hot coals raking her skin. She lets out a sobbing scream and crawls on her belly, knowing that some of her skin has already blacken. She reaches out her hand toward her boys.

"Matt," she chokes. "Matt, here."

[gonnabe1st]

(("Don't touch me,")) it's a moot point anyway. He grabs Matt by the shoulders and his hands move right through. Like none of this is real. Like Mello himself isn't real.

He shies back, stumbling, and finally the screaming registers, even as he's still staring at Matt. Who's even real anymore, here- The voice isn't one he's accustomed to, but he has heard it before. Talked to her before. It takes him a moment to turn around, to spot her in the smoke, black with soot and red with blood. Mello stands, wants to go and help her, but waits for Matt. It's only right, isn't it? That's who she called for.

...and maybe he won't be real enough to help her either.