Restlessly dreaming
It was warm and dark. Night time. Every now and then, she'd hear a little girl's giggle, and she'd lift the edge of the threadbare blanket she was hiding under to look out into the darkness of the long room that served as the orphanage dormitory.
"//Psst! Nadia! Are you awake? Nadia!//"
"//Quiet!//"
More giggling, some of it hers.
"//Nadia, Naaaadia, I'm not sleepy.//"
"//Neither am I, but we have to be quiet or Sophia will hear us!//" She poked her nose out of the blanket as she peered across to the next bed. Her sister was there, poking her own nose out of her own blanket.
"//I don't like Sophia,//" her sister said. "//She's mean.//"
"//Nuh-uh//"
"//Yuh-huh//"
"//Nuh-uh//"
"//Yuh-huh//"
"So this is what it was like?" A new voice said. Nadia pulled the covers down far enough to peer over at the other side of the bed. Walter was leaning against the wall, a small smile on his face, a cigarette in his hand.
"//Oooooo, now you're in TROUBLE, Nadia!//"
Nadia ignored her sister and lifted her chin to grin back at Walter. "I wanna show you something," she whispered.
"Why are you whispering?" Walter asked, at normal volume.
"So she doesn't hear."
"Who's she?"
"Not now. Come on." She held up a corner of the blanket for Walter to climb under. He put his cigarette out and ducked under the blanket. Through the smoke, she could see someone watching. She frowned. "Go away," she hissed.
The person didn't move. He had wiry black hair and very black eyes. She thought she knew him, but she couldn't remember why. He turned his gaze towards the orphanage window, and she saw something moving in the darkness.
"Go away," Nadia said again, then she pulled the covers up over her head.
Walter was waiting. "Come on," she said, giggling. "This way!" And she started crawling on her belly through the blankets which lifted in front of her like a tent.
After who knew how long of climbing through the tunnel of fabric, Nadia realized that Walter wasn't behind her any more. She looked back over her shoulder, and saw a very shiny shoe disappearing between the folds. "Hey! Hey, that's not the right way!" She started after the foot, and soon was tumbling off the bed, inside the covers, and she could swear, though she could see little more than the tumbling coral-colored fabric, that she'd caught up with him.
She'd caught up with SOMEONE, that much was certain. And as they rolled together in the blanket, it certainly felt like Walter. Her bare knee slid between his. Their shoulders met, separated only by soft pink fabric, and then their lips . . . .
It was quiet, broken only by soft breathing as he ran his hand up her side, and the occasional giggle or snort of laughter as they twisted the blanket around and around them on the floor.
And then--it was over. He was gone again, that shining shoe slipping just ahead of her as she tried to follow, but the blanket was too tangled now and she couldn't keep up. Finally, she found the edge and peeked out.
Pippi was trying on a skimpy suit of armor. Mr. Neilson had a matching helmet and everything. Nadia sat up in her bed, pulling the pink blanket around herself like a toga. "What are you doing?"
"New costume for Superheroing. The other one was too hard to wash peace off of."
"You mean peas?"
"That, too."
Mr. Neilson jabbered something at them in Portuguese, or possibly Betelgeuse, and leaped down from Pippi's shoulder to run over to where Walter and Jamie were sitting on the other end of the big room. Jamie was drawing a long, curling mustache and matching sideburns on the side of Walter's face while Walter fiddled with a slingshot. Mr. Neilson jumped up on Walter's shoulder, and from there onto the book case, where he found a bucket of sweet corn. He started flinging kernels at everyone in the room.
Walter and Jamie laughed. Pippi smiled indulgently. Nadia was outraged.
"He can't do that! Pippi, you have to teach your monkey some manners!"
Pippi shrugged. "He's a monkey."
"What's she going on about now?" Jamie asked, as he put the finishing touches on Walter's left eyebrow.
"She wants to brainwash my monkey," Pippi said, strapping a long sword to her belt. "She's mean."
Walter nodded, causing the eyebrow drawing to squiggle. "She does that."
"//I do not!//" Nadia stomped her foot, but the sound was muffled by the corn all over the floor. "//It's not brainwashing! It's just a tool, like your sword or Walter's wires or Jamie's marker. It's not inherently evil, it's the person who's wielding it that makes that choice.//"
"//Nadia,//" Walter said in perfectly accented Spanish. "//We don't speak Spanish.//"
"//I'm leaving.//" Nadia pulled her blanket, which seemed to have gotten smaller, more tightly around herself. "//Where are my clothes?//"
"You don't need any," said Pup. He grinned at her.
Nadia huffed and stormed out of the room, taking care not to slip on the creamed corn all over the floor. The door opened into the hallway to Xander's apartment.
"La la," Willow said. "I'm on my way to Xander's,"
Everyone was there, walking in a line to Xander's door, and Nadia was at the end of it, still dressed in her pink blanket, which now barely reached the middle of her thighs. As she walked by one of the other doors, a cold wind blew out and she shivered, wishing she'd been able to find her clothes.
Someone, or something, was on the ceiling, braced between the walls, watching them. Nadia could only barely glimpse the figure from the corner of her eye, and then it was gone. She only had the sense of something wild, its face covered in white paint.
"Shouldn't we do something about that?"
"We can't," Bridge said. "Don't worry, it's after all of us."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Nadia shook her head, and, still shivering, continued after the figure, further down the hall. It opened onto the orphanage dormitory.
Someone was standing over her sister's bed.
"//Hey!//" Nadia rushed over, her blanket slipping. "//Hey, don't do that! That's my sister! I only have so many of those,//"
The man looked up. He was bald and he wore thick, black rimmed glasses. He blinked at Nadia. "I'm only seeing if she'd like a bit of cheese,"
"We don't have time for that," Nadia said. "There's something after us."
The man blinked again. "I'm sorry, I'm only here for a cameo."
"What?"
But he was gone. Nadia's sister continued to sleep, so Nadia walked on.
The door to the orphanage opened into the Danger Shop. M was running another practical lesson for class, but Nadia was only wearing the pink blanket, and the room was cold. Marty had on a tuxedo and was exuding calm charm.
"Santos, you're late."
"I'm sorry, I forgot we had class. . . ."
"That's no way for a spy to behave, young lady," M stepped up next to Marty and looked sternly at Nadia. "I'm afraid you'll have to sit this one out."
"See?" Marty looked smug. "I told you you should have listened to me." He practically radiated 'teachers pet!'
"Hey, I've had training too, you know. I know how this sort of thing works."
"Really?" Marty raised an eyebrow. "Then what's that following you?"
Nadia turned to look. There was nothing but an empty, dark hallway, lined with doors.
"I don't know yet, but I'm going to figure it out." She puffed out her chest determinedly, and the blanket slipped further down her chest. She was getting goosebumps. "You don't have to worry about me."
"I always have to worry about you, Santos."
Nadia ignored him. She started into the hallway. The floor was wet, and there was a green light coming from the end. "I'll show him. I'll show him and I'll show Pippi and I'll show Jamie and I'll . . . I'll find Walter. And I'll save the whole party, just you wait and see."
Except that she could see the form moving ahead of her, quick flashes as it turned a corner and went through a door, and she knew she didn't have any where to hide a weapon when she was only wearing a blanket.
She hurried through the door.
And out into the park.
There was snow on the ground and it squished between her bare toes. Aziraphale and Wilson sat on a bench, feeding the ducks, which all wore thick fur coats and hats, and dark sunglasses. The pond was half-frozen, and the strangely painted wild figure was nowhere in sight. "//Excuse me,//" she called to the teachers. "//I'm trying to find the thing that's after people. Have you seen it?//"
Aziraphale smiled warmly at her, patting Dr. Wilson on the leg. "//We don't speak Spanish, my dear,//" he said. In perfect Spanish. Nadia huffed in frustration, and looked around for El Professor or Chad or SOMEONE who might be able to translate. But when she turned back around, the two teachers were gone, and the ducks were all muttering to each other in hushed Russian.
"//WHAT is going on here?!//" she shouted.
"You haven't figured it out, yet?"
It was Walter, and Nadia turned. He leaned against the tree, a small smile on his face, a cigarette in his hand.
"I still haven't shown you what I wanted to," she said.
"But you're running out of time."
"Well, you keep wandering off!"
"That's because I have all the time in the world."
Nadia shook her head. "That's true. I should get going. I have to find--"
"The thing? But it's right behind you."
Nadia spun, the blanket slipping all the way down and off so that she stood naked in the snow next to the pond. The figure, which she saw now was a wild, primitive looking woman in rags of untanned leather and a painted white skull mask, shoved her hard on the chest.
Nadia tumbled backwards, onto and then THROUGH the ice. She floundered in the freezing water, gasping out a scream and choking as she fought to get to the surface. When she finally broke back through, her head tilted up to gasp the frigid air, she saw the woman kneeling by the edge of the pond in the deserted, snowy park. The surface was freezing over quickly, the ice rushing at her open mouth as she gasped, half-air and half-water, and the woman reached out, grabbing her by the hair and holding her still.
Walter stood behind the woman, Marty on one side of him, Pip on the other. All three were smoking.
"//Help me!//"
"What was that?" Walter smiled and flicked ash from his cigarette. "I thought you were going to stop yourself from freezing."
The ice invaded her mouth before she could respond. It clamped around her cheeks and the back of her neck, and swept up her face, into her nostrils, over her eyelashes, until she couldn't even blink. There wasn't enough room to shiver, not enough air to scream, and before she even had time to grasp what was happening, she was frozen solid, eyes wide and staring up at the gray winter sky above the bare trees.
Restless Table of Contents
Where it all begins
Willow's Dream
Xander's Dream
Bridge's Dream
River's Dream
Izzy's Dream
Nadia's Dream
Alec's Dream
Dawn's Dream
Sam's Dream
Mel's Dream
Buffy's Dream
Where it all ends
"//Psst! Nadia! Are you awake? Nadia!//"
"//Quiet!//"
More giggling, some of it hers.
"//Nadia, Naaaadia, I'm not sleepy.//"
"//Neither am I, but we have to be quiet or Sophia will hear us!//" She poked her nose out of the blanket as she peered across to the next bed. Her sister was there, poking her own nose out of her own blanket.
"//I don't like Sophia,//" her sister said. "//She's mean.//"
"//Nuh-uh//"
"//Yuh-huh//"
"//Nuh-uh//"
"//Yuh-huh//"
"So this is what it was like?" A new voice said. Nadia pulled the covers down far enough to peer over at the other side of the bed. Walter was leaning against the wall, a small smile on his face, a cigarette in his hand.
"//Oooooo, now you're in TROUBLE, Nadia!//"
Nadia ignored her sister and lifted her chin to grin back at Walter. "I wanna show you something," she whispered.
"Why are you whispering?" Walter asked, at normal volume.
"So she doesn't hear."
"Who's she?"
"Not now. Come on." She held up a corner of the blanket for Walter to climb under. He put his cigarette out and ducked under the blanket. Through the smoke, she could see someone watching. She frowned. "Go away," she hissed.
The person didn't move. He had wiry black hair and very black eyes. She thought she knew him, but she couldn't remember why. He turned his gaze towards the orphanage window, and she saw something moving in the darkness.
"Go away," Nadia said again, then she pulled the covers up over her head.
Walter was waiting. "Come on," she said, giggling. "This way!" And she started crawling on her belly through the blankets which lifted in front of her like a tent.
After who knew how long of climbing through the tunnel of fabric, Nadia realized that Walter wasn't behind her any more. She looked back over her shoulder, and saw a very shiny shoe disappearing between the folds. "Hey! Hey, that's not the right way!" She started after the foot, and soon was tumbling off the bed, inside the covers, and she could swear, though she could see little more than the tumbling coral-colored fabric, that she'd caught up with him.
She'd caught up with SOMEONE, that much was certain. And as they rolled together in the blanket, it certainly felt like Walter. Her bare knee slid between his. Their shoulders met, separated only by soft pink fabric, and then their lips . . . .
It was quiet, broken only by soft breathing as he ran his hand up her side, and the occasional giggle or snort of laughter as they twisted the blanket around and around them on the floor.
And then--it was over. He was gone again, that shining shoe slipping just ahead of her as she tried to follow, but the blanket was too tangled now and she couldn't keep up. Finally, she found the edge and peeked out.
Pippi was trying on a skimpy suit of armor. Mr. Neilson had a matching helmet and everything. Nadia sat up in her bed, pulling the pink blanket around herself like a toga. "What are you doing?"
"New costume for Superheroing. The other one was too hard to wash peace off of."
"You mean peas?"
"That, too."
Mr. Neilson jabbered something at them in Portuguese, or possibly Betelgeuse, and leaped down from Pippi's shoulder to run over to where Walter and Jamie were sitting on the other end of the big room. Jamie was drawing a long, curling mustache and matching sideburns on the side of Walter's face while Walter fiddled with a slingshot. Mr. Neilson jumped up on Walter's shoulder, and from there onto the book case, where he found a bucket of sweet corn. He started flinging kernels at everyone in the room.
Walter and Jamie laughed. Pippi smiled indulgently. Nadia was outraged.
"He can't do that! Pippi, you have to teach your monkey some manners!"
Pippi shrugged. "He's a monkey."
"What's she going on about now?" Jamie asked, as he put the finishing touches on Walter's left eyebrow.
"She wants to brainwash my monkey," Pippi said, strapping a long sword to her belt. "She's mean."
Walter nodded, causing the eyebrow drawing to squiggle. "She does that."
"//I do not!//" Nadia stomped her foot, but the sound was muffled by the corn all over the floor. "//It's not brainwashing! It's just a tool, like your sword or Walter's wires or Jamie's marker. It's not inherently evil, it's the person who's wielding it that makes that choice.//"
"//Nadia,//" Walter said in perfectly accented Spanish. "//We don't speak Spanish.//"
"//I'm leaving.//" Nadia pulled her blanket, which seemed to have gotten smaller, more tightly around herself. "//Where are my clothes?//"
"You don't need any," said Pup. He grinned at her.
Nadia huffed and stormed out of the room, taking care not to slip on the creamed corn all over the floor. The door opened into the hallway to Xander's apartment.
"La la," Willow said. "I'm on my way to Xander's,"
Everyone was there, walking in a line to Xander's door, and Nadia was at the end of it, still dressed in her pink blanket, which now barely reached the middle of her thighs. As she walked by one of the other doors, a cold wind blew out and she shivered, wishing she'd been able to find her clothes.
Someone, or something, was on the ceiling, braced between the walls, watching them. Nadia could only barely glimpse the figure from the corner of her eye, and then it was gone. She only had the sense of something wild, its face covered in white paint.
"Shouldn't we do something about that?"
"We can't," Bridge said. "Don't worry, it's after all of us."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Nadia shook her head, and, still shivering, continued after the figure, further down the hall. It opened onto the orphanage dormitory.
Someone was standing over her sister's bed.
"//Hey!//" Nadia rushed over, her blanket slipping. "//Hey, don't do that! That's my sister! I only have so many of those,//"
The man looked up. He was bald and he wore thick, black rimmed glasses. He blinked at Nadia. "I'm only seeing if she'd like a bit of cheese,"
"We don't have time for that," Nadia said. "There's something after us."
The man blinked again. "I'm sorry, I'm only here for a cameo."
"What?"
But he was gone. Nadia's sister continued to sleep, so Nadia walked on.
The door to the orphanage opened into the Danger Shop. M was running another practical lesson for class, but Nadia was only wearing the pink blanket, and the room was cold. Marty had on a tuxedo and was exuding calm charm.
"Santos, you're late."
"I'm sorry, I forgot we had class. . . ."
"That's no way for a spy to behave, young lady," M stepped up next to Marty and looked sternly at Nadia. "I'm afraid you'll have to sit this one out."
"See?" Marty looked smug. "I told you you should have listened to me." He practically radiated 'teachers pet!'
"Hey, I've had training too, you know. I know how this sort of thing works."
"Really?" Marty raised an eyebrow. "Then what's that following you?"
Nadia turned to look. There was nothing but an empty, dark hallway, lined with doors.
"I don't know yet, but I'm going to figure it out." She puffed out her chest determinedly, and the blanket slipped further down her chest. She was getting goosebumps. "You don't have to worry about me."
"I always have to worry about you, Santos."
Nadia ignored him. She started into the hallway. The floor was wet, and there was a green light coming from the end. "I'll show him. I'll show him and I'll show Pippi and I'll show Jamie and I'll . . . I'll find Walter. And I'll save the whole party, just you wait and see."
Except that she could see the form moving ahead of her, quick flashes as it turned a corner and went through a door, and she knew she didn't have any where to hide a weapon when she was only wearing a blanket.
She hurried through the door.
And out into the park.
There was snow on the ground and it squished between her bare toes. Aziraphale and Wilson sat on a bench, feeding the ducks, which all wore thick fur coats and hats, and dark sunglasses. The pond was half-frozen, and the strangely painted wild figure was nowhere in sight. "//Excuse me,//" she called to the teachers. "//I'm trying to find the thing that's after people. Have you seen it?//"
Aziraphale smiled warmly at her, patting Dr. Wilson on the leg. "//We don't speak Spanish, my dear,//" he said. In perfect Spanish. Nadia huffed in frustration, and looked around for El Professor or Chad or SOMEONE who might be able to translate. But when she turned back around, the two teachers were gone, and the ducks were all muttering to each other in hushed Russian.
"//WHAT is going on here?!//" she shouted.
"You haven't figured it out, yet?"
It was Walter, and Nadia turned. He leaned against the tree, a small smile on his face, a cigarette in his hand.
"I still haven't shown you what I wanted to," she said.
"But you're running out of time."
"Well, you keep wandering off!"
"That's because I have all the time in the world."
Nadia shook her head. "That's true. I should get going. I have to find--"
"The thing? But it's right behind you."
Nadia spun, the blanket slipping all the way down and off so that she stood naked in the snow next to the pond. The figure, which she saw now was a wild, primitive looking woman in rags of untanned leather and a painted white skull mask, shoved her hard on the chest.
Nadia tumbled backwards, onto and then THROUGH the ice. She floundered in the freezing water, gasping out a scream and choking as she fought to get to the surface. When she finally broke back through, her head tilted up to gasp the frigid air, she saw the woman kneeling by the edge of the pond in the deserted, snowy park. The surface was freezing over quickly, the ice rushing at her open mouth as she gasped, half-air and half-water, and the woman reached out, grabbing her by the hair and holding her still.
Walter stood behind the woman, Marty on one side of him, Pip on the other. All three were smoking.
"//Help me!//"
"What was that?" Walter smiled and flicked ash from his cigarette. "I thought you were going to stop yourself from freezing."
The ice invaded her mouth before she could respond. It clamped around her cheeks and the back of her neck, and swept up her face, into her nostrils, over her eyelashes, until she couldn't even blink. There wasn't enough room to shiver, not enough air to scream, and before she even had time to grasp what was happening, she was frozen solid, eyes wide and staring up at the gray winter sky above the bare trees.
Restless Table of Contents
Where it all begins
Willow's Dream
Xander's Dream
Bridge's Dream
River's Dream
Izzy's Dream
Nadia's Dream
Alec's Dream
Dawn's Dream
Sam's Dream
Mel's Dream
Buffy's Dream
Where it all ends