dreamwaker | bex & nell
PREVIOUSLY: dreamstalker (bex solo). LOCATION: the dreamscape. PARTIES: @inbextween & @nelllraiser. SUMMARY: bex crashes nell’s nightmare. TRIGGERS: sibling death, torture mention.
Nell’s house was completely empty, save for all the decorations that usually hung on the walls. They seemed almost...slightly off. As if someone had taken them all off the walls and moved them one inch to the left. Somehow, the fog was inside the house, too. The little birdy from outside had followed her in, fluttering around the house. Bex watched it for a moment, before it zoomed off towards the back of the house. “Wait!” she called out, following after as best she could. The house felt too eerie, too strange. The emptiness of it was making Bex’s skin crawl. The bird led her to a door, fluttering just outside out of. It knocked its beak against the door. “Is this--” Tentatively, Bex reached for the door and opened it. It creaked loudly and she peered inside. The bedroom was empty save for its decorations, but somehow she just knew, this was Nell’s room.
The little bird zoomed inside and nestled into the bed. Bex blinked and in the next moment, Nell was sleeping in the bed. “Nell?” her eyes perked up. “Nell, you’re he--” she started, but her voice was cut short, as something pulled at her insides. That familiar feeling she always tried to ignore. “Wait, no, stop, I don’t want to--” but it was too late. Her hand touched Nell’s head and she tumbled through darkness.
Her back hit the ground in a sudden rush, but it didn’t hurt. When Bex was brave enough to open her eyes next, she was in a dank room, dripping with moldy water. She could smell rusted iron and stale water and blood. She sat up quickly, the liquid splashing around her. Someone was crying. She turned in circles, squinting through the dark, and saw a figure inside a cage, hands reaching through towards someone, something. Her voice was familiar. “Nell?” she stuttered, began crawling towards her. Yes, it was her. She knew it, it had to be! Bex broke into a sprint, slamming into the side of the cage, tears of joy, relief, streaming down her face. “Nell, I found you! I found you! I’m here, you’re here! You’re--” but something wasn’t right. Nell was crying, too, but not out of joy. She was caged behind bars, and when Bex followed her line of sight, a sense of dread began to fill her up. Blood pooled in the water, and the source-- someone chained to the wall, chopped and bloody. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth as she fought off the sudden nausea. “Nell, who is that?” she muttered, “Wh-what’s going on?”
It was happening again. Ever since that fateful day in late spring of last year- the day she’d watched her sister fall apart before her very eyes— Nell’s sleep had been plagued by frequent nightmares. They were enough to make her dread sleep, and seemed to only grow worse whenever Bea wasn’t sleeping in the Vural home with her sisters. Without her presence there...it felt far too similar to the month following her death, an emptiness in the eldest daughter’s room making for a matching vacancy in Nell’s sleep patterns. Beyond her usual nighttime terrors, Nell had been avoiding sleep after hearing of the increasing pattern of unwilling sleepers, unwilling to fall into the same pattern that seemed to be gripping the town in its claws. If she fell asleep and didn’t wake up, who would make sure the demon cult didn’t eat Adam alive? And who would ensure that Bex didn’t stay in her state of unconsciousness for the rest of her life?
Nell couldn’t fail Bex. It’d been so long since the witch had someone relying on her in the way the younger girl did. Come to think of it- had she ever had someone rely on her in such a way? It felt nice to be needed in the way Bex needed her, and Nell wasn’t going to let the girl fall. She’d do most anything to protect Bex from even half the things White Crest had thrown her way. These were the thoughts that had run through her tired mind while sleep took her. It was unplanned, and brought about by the simple inability to stay awake after refusing to sleep for so long. Unfortunately this was how she also found herself without the only defense she had against nightmares such as these, her bottle of Aram forgotten on her bedside table.
How long had Nell been watching the ever shifting figure of a twisted Montgomery and Jax hybrid torturing her sisters against the wall, forcing her to bear witness from the confines of her cramped cage? Her breaths were coming far too fast, and she couldn’t tell whether it was from the feeling of the cage closing in on her, or the blood trailing down the necks of her sisters. But then...something changed. Another presence that didn’t match the energy around her. It wasn’t a calm in the night, but it was certainly less worrying than the murderer standing before her. That voice. She knew that voice. The cloudy panic of her eyes cleared for a moment as she looked over to her student in magic, confusion finding her before frantic concern quickly replaced it. “Bex? Bex! You can’t be here- you have to get out of here before he hurts you too!”
“Hurt me? What? Nell, I-I don’t understand, what’s going on? Where are we?” Bex looked around again, before settling her eyes back on Nell. “Who are those people?” They looked oddly familiar, but Bex couldn’t quite place their faces. Either way, all she knew was that she needed to get Nell out of this cage. She started yanking at them, searching around for a door, a lock, anything. It felt as if out of nowhere a lock appeared as Bex’s hands grazed over some of the bars, the world shifting and manipulating around them. She plucked a bobby pin from her hair and set to work. “Here!” The door swung open and she reached a hand in for Nell. “C’mon, w-we gotta get out of here.” Wherever here was. Bex didn’t like the feel of it. A shadow crept up behind her and she turned to look but there was no one there. “Nell, what’s going on?”
Nell couldn’t take her eyes from her sisters, pain carved into every crease of her face as she watched their lives drain away into nothingness. She’d brought Bea back. She’d brought Bea back only for her to die again. She’d raise her again. She’d raise her sisters however many times it took for them to be by her side. One without the other two was incomplete, a set that no longer matched. But Bex shouldn’t be here. She’d only get herself hurt, and Nell didn’t know if she’d be allowed to bring Bex back. “You have to go, Bex!” Nell began desperately, her hands clutching the bars of her cage until the knuckles of them turned white. A lock appeared before her very eyes, and bewilderment was once again claiming Nell’s face. “How’d you do that? I didn’t teach you to do that.” Making a lock appear from nothing may have been instinctual magic, but it was more detailed and finite than Nell would have guessed to be possible at a time like this. But Nell was free. Immediately she stepped from the confines of the cage, her lungs filling with to the brim for what felt like the first time in years as she stood. “My sisters- I can’t leave them-” she continued, already reaching for their bodies. “But you- you need to go, Bex!!” A machete came down before her fingers, narrowly missing its mark. Nell turned to look into the vacant eyes of the patchwork man wielding it, eyes ablaze. “I’ll fucking kill you- I’ll kill you, and then I’ll send your soul to rot in fucking hell.”
“Do what?” Bex asked, blinking in confusion. Nell darted from the cage and started rambling about needing to get out and killing and-- “Nell, stop! Wait!” But when she turned, there was a disjointed figure swinging at them. Bex screamed and leapt out of the way as Nell turned towards the figure, poised to attack. “Nell, who is that? What-- what’s happening!?” Something flickered in her outburst. The world around them distorted for just a moment, and Bex could see out back into Nell’s room, as if looking at it through a telescope. She was thrust back into this place quickly and she stumbled, blinking again. Her head was spinning and she tumbled over, splashing in the murky waters. “What…” but when she looked up again, the shadowy figure was still there and so was Nell. Anxiety began building up inside of her again. She hated this place. She hated whatever was going on. Why was she here? Why had the bird led her here if Nell wasn’t going to help? “Nell, I--” she started, but suddenly the figure turned and it was bearing down on her. It was the darkness again, staring down at her with two beady eyes. “Nell! Help me!”
Nell had barely opened her mouth to answer Bex’s questions before the world shifted around her, the familiar sights of her bedroom momentarily stunning her into silence. What the hell? The moment was over as quickly as it had come, leaving Nell dazed in its absence. But she didn’t have time to process what it was she had seen before the darkness was upon Bex, and instinct washed away rational thought as she ran for the shadowed figure, attacking it from behind as it loomed over Bex, a violent yell tearing its way from Nell’s throat. “Don’t you dare hurt her!” Nell screeched in a fit of rage, hands searching the places on her body where her knives were usually hidden. The multifaceted man turned to face Nell with a sharp grin as she barreled towards him. After all- he was her nightmare, not Bex’s. The thought came without warning, and suddenly things began to click into place. The flickering of the bedroom, the reason she couldn’t remember how she and her sister had gotten her in the first place, how Bex had seemed to materialize out of nothing...she was dreaming, wasn’t she? None of this was real despite the way it made Nell’s stomach turn in fear. Standing tall, she glared down the men who dared to terrorize her sleeping hours, trying her best to ignore the still frantic cries of her sisters. The sound of them made her want to vomit, just as she had when she’d woke up next to Bea’s body. It’s a dream, she desperately tried to remind herself. “It’s okay, Bex. It’s okay- none of it’s real. We gotta- we gotta get out of here somehow. Go someone else. Somewhere better.” But dream walking had never been Nell’s forte, and she hadn’t the slightest idea of how to escape her own mental hell.
Nell’s yell of anger startled Bex and she scrambled away as the shadowed figure turned back towards the other girl. Her back hit the wall and she curled her legs up to herself, but suddenly the mood around everything began to change. Even the whimpering cries of the two women tied to the walls began to dissipate and Nell’s eyes turned sharp as Bex watched her. The shadowed figure was melting away, fading back into the darkness that it came from. “Yeah, no shit!” Bex said, hands tight around her knees. “But from what I’ve figured out, it’s not a normal dream!” At least, out there it wasn’t. Was this the same as out there? She didn’t know. She hated all of this. It was so confusing and scary and she just wanted to go home. No, not home...somewhere safe. She wanted to be somewhere safe. Her mind zeroed in on the first place she thought of. The dream flickered around them again, but this time, instead of Nell’s room, it was a house full of plants. The garden. Nell’s garden. A shadow crept towards her again, loud voices, angry whispers. Bex stood up quickly, scrabbling against the wall. “Why is this happening? Nell, what do I do? How do I make it stop?” Her voice wavered, full of fear. “Make it stop!” Louder now, the world shifting again. “Make it STOP!”
And suddenly, everything was quiet. A bird chirped somewhere, and she heard distant crickets. Bex opened her eyes slowly, and found herself pressed between two bushes. “N-Nell?” she stuttered, glancing around. “Nell?”
Surprise flickered over Nell’s features as Bex proclaimed that she’d already known it was a dream. From what she’d experienced figments of a nightmare weren’t usually so self-aware. At least- they usually weren’t in her nightmares. Despite the misunderstanding of thinking Bex to still be a part of the older witch’s dream-world, Nell instinctively reached out to Bex as she began to fall apart, trying to grab the girl’s hand in her own to give it a calming squeeze. “It’s alright- it’s okay,” she tried to comfort fervently. She hated seeing Bex in distress, even if it was simply a dream Bex. But as her garden came into view it was, once again, Nell’s turn to look around in surprise and vague confusion. “How did…?” Shifting her dreams wasn’t something Nell was adept at, not being much of a lucid dreamer magical or otherwise. After taking in the serene surroundings of her backyard, and her treasured flowers, her gaze finally landed back on her young student. “Bex?” she asked tentatively, trying not to be too hopeful that this was the actual consciousness of the girl, and not a structure of her dream world. “That’s really you? And you-” fixed my dream? There was a brief moment of eagerness, excitement, and pride that flashed over Nell’s face. Bex was a dreamwalker! If she was doing all of this so instinctively, surely that meant she had a natural proclivity for mental magic and dream magic! Oh, she couldn’t wait to tell Morgan that they’d found the young witch’s specialty. Unfortunately the enthusiasm was quick to wane as she remembered that Bex had been trapped in the dream world for quite some time now, and showing no sign of waking. “Oh Bex- I’m so happy to see you. How have you been doing? Are you okay? You’re not hurt, right?” People didn’t really get injured in the dream world, right? But perhaps the strange magic keeping everyone asleep played by different rules.
Through the quiet, Bex heard Nell and felt her hands on her arms-- like actually felt. Not that strange, there but not feeling one usually had in a dream. It was solid and real and visceral and Bex immediately felt herself wanting to break down into tears. How long had it been since she’d felt that? How long had she been stuck here? She’d lost track of time so easily. She collapsed into Nell’s arms, relief flooding through her body like the breaking of a dam. “It’s me,” she said, “it’s me, it’s really me. I’m real. I’m the real me.” At least, she hoped it was the real her. The rational part of her knew it was, but the part of her that wanted to keep denying all this told her that it wasn’t possible, that this had to be some sort of very bad, very vivid dream. She’d been having vivid dreams and night terrors since she was a child, after all, this wasn’t any different than that, right? “I-- I’m not hurt, no. I just-- I don’t understand what’s going on. Is this a dream? How am I here? How are you here? What is-- what was that just now?”
As Bex crumbled in on herself, Nell steadied her legs to support the taller girl’s weight, wrapping her arms around the other witch as if she were trying to make sure she didn’t break apart into little pieces just like the pot had done at the Vural home. “I’m so glad you’re here,” Nell sighed with relief, feeling some of the tension that had been living in her shoulders for the last few weeks dissipate. “I uh- well you’ve been asleep for so long now, and I’m trying to find a way to wake you up- but I’m just glad to see you. To talk to you.” Even if Bex wasn’t in the waking world, at least Nell had confirmation that she was still alive inside her mind. “There’s a lot of people asleep in town right now. And they won’t wake up, just like you. But don’t worry, alright? I’m working on figuring things out, and trying to get you awake.” Nevermind that Nell hadn’t made any promising progress on the matter. Why did mental magic have to be her absolute worst discipline? “Yeah- it’s my dream. I think you...brought yourself here.” That was the best Nel could do as an explanation when she wasn’t mentioning magic or anything of that like. Still- she couldn’t help but feel another blossom of pride as she thought of how Bex had done this on her own. If she was so naturally gifted- who was to tell how well she’d do once she was trained? The stiffness of her shoulders returned as Bex asked about the nightmare, Nell almost embarrassed that her friend and student had seen such a dark piece of her mind. “Ah- a nightmare. It’s fine, though. I’m used to it.”
Bex let herself enjoy the feeling of someone solid holding onto her as she held onto Nell, the feeling so foreign at this point she’d wondered if she’d ever get to feel it again. But she was here, she was really here, and so was Nell, and that meant that she was going to be okay. Nell would help her, she would save her. She’d said she would fight for her, even when Bex couldn’t fight for herself, and she really needed Nell to fight for her right now. Not that she’d ever admit that out loud. Needing other people wasn’t what she was taught to do, to know. She pulled away enough to look around, taking in the garden-- it was just like she last remembered it. “H-how long have I been asleep? How many people? So it’s not just-- it’s not just me? How come I can’t find anybody else in here then?” Words and questions tumbled out of her mouth before she could contemplate them herself, but it didn’t matter. She was safe here, she could feel it. “How did we get in your garden? I-- I don’t know how I brought myself here if I did. I was just following this little bird and it led me to your house, but your house was empty, so I was looking around for you and I texted you but I couldn’t understand what you were saying, a-and then I went to your room and the bird was there again and you were sleeping in your bed and then I touched your arm to try and wake you up and now I’m here.” Did people not need to breathe in dreams? She inhaled sharply. “Sorry. That was a lot, sorry. That-- nightmare. You-- who were those women? And that man? Who was he? Why did he want to hurt you? Are you in danger?”
While Bex stepped away, Nell held onto the tips of her fingers, keeping her hand wrapped around the other girl’s as if she were trying to anchor Bex to herself. “It’s been a few weeks,” Nell answered quietly, knowing the truth would most likely give Bex a nasty shock. No doubt time in the place she was trapped passed strangely. “Where have you been? Just in...other people’s dreams? I don’t know the exact count- but it’s at least a couple hundred or so. There’s more every day so it’s hard to completely keep track.” Nell waited patiently for Bex to finish her sentence, endeared all over again as she talked far too long and fast. It’d been so long since she'd gotten to hear one of Bex’s barely breathing tangents, and she’d begun to think that she might neve get to hear one again. But she’d take all the train of thought word vomits from the girl in front of her she could get while she was able to. “You don’t have to apologize,” Nell waved Bex’s words away, the slightest of grins on her lips. “It’s good to hear your voice. But I’m pretty sure you’re the one that brought us here- like I said.” From what Bex said, there was no doubt in Nell’s mind that she truly was gifted when it came to dreams and mental magic. “It’s sort of like the pot you fixed. Maybe...some part of you wanted to see me? So then you let yourself have it, and you brought yourself here. What did the bird look like?” Nell asked curiously, uncertain what a bird might mean. Maybe it was a spirit guide of some sort. As the conversation turned back to the nightmare, Nell’s answers were short. “It’s fine,” was her knee-jerk response. “They’re my sisters. Bea and Luce. The man was...a combination of people who hurt me. But it’s okay- I’m not in danger from either of them.” Not since Remmy had killed Jax, and Nell and her sisters had made sure to give Montgomery his long and tortuous penance.
“A few wee--” Bex started, but the word caught in her throat. She felt suddenly dizzy. “Week-weeks. Weeks?” Oh god, her parents were going to absolutely kill her. Her heart seized and she subconsciously squeezed Nell’s hand extra tight. “Where have I-- oh. Um...I don’t...I don’t know. Maybe? I’m not sure. This place is-- well out there it’s like White Crest, but not. Everything is strange or twisted or messed up. And there’s something-- I think there’s something following me. Or chasing me, or something. It’s just-- dark. All the time. When I stop moving it catches up and I can’t get out. Well, mostly. The-- the bird helped. It helps me get out of wherever that place is. It um-- kinda looks like a little falcon? It’s got really sharp claws, and a tiny beak. It’s kinda cute, actually.” She scratched the back of her neck. “I’m-- I mean, maybe? I just...this place is frightening and I feel so out of control and you’re always so nice to me and you’re teaching me control and I just thought, if anyone knew how to help me, it would be you.” Bex might not have been the most intelligent with intrapersonal emotions, but she understood that Nell didn’t like talking about her nightmares. Bex understood-- she wouldn’t want anyone to know about hers, either. “I-- sorry. I’m sorry you...see that.” She held on a little tighter and stepped a little closer, glancing around. “So how-- how do we get out of here? I wanna go home, Nell. I wanna wake up.”
“It’s alright!” Nell assured hastily, even though she was certain the words would have little effect when it came to actually calming Bex. Still- she couldn’t just standby and watch Bex have a potential meltdown. “I’m gonna find a way to wake you up- I promise,” the witch said fervently, echoing the words she’d sent to Bex online that had never been properly delivered in their entirety. “Shit- I’m sorry Bex.” The dreamscape that Bex was trapped in seemed just eerie enough to set a person on constant edge, no way to relax with a literal shadow watching over your shoulder at all times. “I think you have more power here than you realize, though.” If she could convince Bex that she wasn’t entirely a victim to the dreamworld due to her abilities- maybe she’d stand a better chance fighting back. “You can take control just like I taught you.” With that she gave Bex’s hand another reassuring squeeze. “And...I’m glad you thought of me.” These words were softer, a little more bashful than Nell’s usual and brazen way of speaking. She’d always been lackluster when it came to speaking in softer and more sincere tones. “It’s okay.” It seemed that Bex had gotten the hint that Nell wasn’t all that fond of speaking about her night terrors, or even acknowledging them in the first place. “It just is what it is.” Now...how to get out of here. For Nell, the answer was clear- she just needed to wake up, and then she’d be back in the real world granted the same mysterious sleep that had trapped Bex hadn’t taken hold of her too. But what about Bex? Nell still didn’t have a way to get her out. If anything, Bex probably stood a better chance of getting herself out with a proclivity for dream magic. “I think you could be the key, Bex. You brought yourself to me. And then you brought us to my garden. I think you could maybe bring us back into my room, too.”
“Don’t-- you shouldn’t say that,” Bex said quickly, shaking her head. “Deirdre and Morgan and Mina all said you shouldn’t make promises. They’re dangerous.” She shook her head again, trying to not let everything that had happened bare too much on her. She didn’t want to have a breakdown again, in front of Nell. All she did was breakdown in front of Nell. “It’s fine. I’m kind of used to being alone, anyway.” And it had made her prepared for situations like this, hadn’t it? Not that she’d ever noticed that. In fact, Bex often only felt weak, small, easy to control. She rarely had control, instead allowing others to take control of herself. It was one of the things she hated most about herself. “Me? Oh, n-no, I don’t--” she started, then stopped. “I’m not-- I don’t have power. I just happen to blow things up from time to time.” Well, at least she could openly admit that now. She looked away, shame sculpting her face. “I’m not anything.” But Nell’s soft words made her heart unclench, just a little, and she gathered enough courage to look up at Nell again. “I’m still sorry,” she mumbled back quietly. The sounds of the garden penetrated the silence for a moment before Bex spoke up again. “Wha-- me? No. I didn’t-- it was the bird. I can’t do anything. I’m not-- There’s no way I did this. I can’t do something like this.”
Despite the inconvenience of the situation, Nell couldn’t help the dry half-smile that came over her as she realized White Crest was already teaching Bex the smaller ins-and-outs of the supernatural world. It was good that they’d taught her to avoid promises, and even better that Bex heeded that warning. “Don’t worry- I know what they’re talking about. It’s okay if I say them to you. You’re smart not to make your own promises, though.” The mention of loneliness made Nell’s grin turned to slightly pursed lips, already knowing as much from conversations with Bex, but still finding no joy in the truth of her situation. “That doesn’t make it okay,” Nell replied softly before taking Bex’s other hand into her’s, giving both of them a squeeze of reassurance. “Isn’t that power?” Nell pushed ever so slightly, perhaps a little more than she would have had circumstances been different. But desperate times often called for desperate measures, and if Bex had dream magic- there was a possibility she could get herself out of here. “That’s not true,” Nell began fiercely in a protective tone, hating that Bex thought herself to be anything less than a person who could take control of her life. “I know it’s scary for you. All the strange things that happen. And I know you wish it would go away. But taking responsibility for your successes like the bird...and the pot, and anything else you’ve accomplished with your control is something you deserve. You deserve recognition for the good you do. And you deserve to have the faith in yourself that you can get us out of here. I would do it for you if I could but- this is something only you can do. And I know you can do it.”
“People keep telling me that, too,” Bex frowned, but she supposed this wasn’t the time to have that discussion, was it? She didn’t know all the rules around saying those words, only what Mina and Morgan and Deirdre had told her about them. She looked down when Nell took her other hand and felt another wave of relief go through her. Feeling someone solid, someone real, gave her true hope that she’d be able to get out of here, that she’d be able to wake up somehow. “I-- I mean, technically, sure, yeah, I guess, but I-- it’s not a good power. It’s not like-- I’m not like--” she stopped talking, though, because she didn’t know what she was arguing for, or what she was trying to say. Nell’s words were sticking to her and making her skin prickle. Why did Nell believe in her so much? What had she done to deserve this sort of compassion from her? She had to look away, tears forming in her eyes. “But how-- how do I do that? I don’t know the first thing about any of this, I don’t-- I’m not like you, Nell. I’m not good at whatever this is. I’m not--” magic. She didn’t want to say it. Even here, she couldn’t admit it. The pain tore through her like a knife and she screwed her eyes shut. “I don’t know how I did any of that. I just-- when I got here I was lost and scared and all I wanted to do was find you because I knew you would help me. And now I did, and I--” she opened her eyes to look at Nell again, wet with her restraint. “Tell me what to do. I-- I wanna help you. I wanna get out of here.”
Nell waited patiently for Bex to find her words, knowing that this had to be entirely overwhelming for the young witch who had barely even scratched the surface of understanding her abilities. “It’s okay, Bex,” she comforted again, using the sleeve of her nightshirt to wipe away some of the moisture from Bex’s eyes. “I know you can do it. And even if it doesn’t work- I promise I’m not gonna be disappointed or anything like that. You’re already come so far in such a short amount of time, and it’s not fair that you have to do something like this so soon. But what’s important is that you try. And then if it doesn’t work we can figure something else out. Just the fact that you’d take the first step is the most important part. From there anything else is just a plus.” Nell took a deep breath that filled the entirety of her lungs before slowly letting it out, as if signaling to Bex to do the same. “You know what to do. Like I said- you wanted to see me, and you probably put some intention behind it, and then you found your way here. It’s the same formula we’ve used for everything. Want it. Envision it. Let it build up in you. Guide it. Release. And then you have it. Follow the little piece of you that knew how to get here in the first place, a part of you that feels like home but also new all at once.” Not for the first time, and feeling for certain that it wouldn’t be the last— Nell wished Bex could see herself through the summoner’s eyes. The fact that Bex had already begun to use magic intentionally was astounding to say the least, a feat that wasn’t easily managed, and something any mage wielder should be proud of. “We can get out of here. Together. And I can help with powering us out- you just have to be the one to guide it.
“Try,” Bex repeated quietly, nodding. “I-- I can do that. I can try.” Cause this was all just a dream after all, right? And in dreams, you could accomplish anything. Right? She squeezed Nell’s hands tighter and followed suit, breathing in deep and letting the air sit in her lungs before letting go of the breath. She felt her entire body relaxing as she did so, something buzzing inside of her. It was the feeling that often came with her anxiety, came with broken windows and headaches and nosebleeds and cracked sidewalks. But this time, it felt different. It felt soft. It felt...safe. Holding onto Nell made her feel safe. As she listened to Nell’s words, her instructions, she let her eyes close, let the energy of the world around her fill her up. Her faith hadn’t given her much, but it had taught her how to connect to the world around her, to spirits and the energies that flowed through the earth. She let those feelings guide her and she picture Nell’s bedroom, clear as day. Suddenly, another energy began to mix with her own. At first, it scared her, but without even opening her eyes, she realized it was Nell. It just...felt like Nell. She squeezed her hands tighter and tethered herself to the other girl. Let her energy guide her. Let her words guide her. Together. They could get out of here together. The garden began to melt away, Bex could feel something pulling but-- it wasn’t pulling her. The garden was phasing between Nell’s bedroom and something else. “Is-- is it working?” she asked shakily, her voice wavering. “Nell?”
Nell let her magic flow through her, rebounding back and forth between herself and Bex as she did her best to power Bex’s natural gifts. It was always special to channel magic together with someone new, the melding of energies in a way that could never be put into words or explained no matter how hard one might try. It was two mixing and melding, working towards one united purpose in a dance of intentions and magic. She still wished it could have been under different circumstances- that this didn’t have to be Bex’s first experience with the intimacy of joining one another’s innate abilities. But this was simply how it had to be. As the magic worked and swirled within them, the details of Nell’s room began to take place, and she could see her body somewhere beneath her as she began to descend upon it. “It’s working!” Nell exclaimed in the pure joy that could only be garnered by a hopeless situation suddenly finding new life. “I knew you could do it, Bex! You can see it right? My room? I knew you’d be able to-”
Nell looked up to the other girl, suddenly realizing that she was floating away from the other witch. “Bex?” Her exuberance was quickly turned to concern. Something was wrong. She could see it in the way that Bex seemed to be fading before her very eyes as Nell grew closer to the real world. She could feel it as their magics began to pull apart, unable to stay aligned while they began to exist in different realms. “Bex!” Nell called out to the girl, a hand reaching as high as it could go to try and grab for her. There wasn’t much time left. Nell could feel the link of their abilities growing weaker by the second. “I’ll come back! I’ll come back, and you can find me again- and we’ll try again, okay?” She wanted to tell Bex that she’d done amazing. That even as the fear of losing Bex gripped Nell’s chest in a vice-like grip that there was another sensation buried beneath that worry. The blossoming pride of a job well done, of a teacher- a friend watching their companion succeed. “I’m not leaving you, Bex! I’m gonna find you a way out. I promise!” I promise. Nell heard the last two words echo against the walls of her room as she jolted awake in her bed, the last of her vow to Bex ripped away from the pair of them as the waking world greeted a dreamer back into its grip.
“It’s working!” Bex exclaimed with Nell, her eyes lighting up. She could feel the energies around them pulling them together, mixing, and shooting back out. It was like nothing she’d ever felt before. It was the same energy that always burst from her when she worried or got too anxious or too upset or too angry-- but this time it was hopefulness, and excitement, and something peaceful. Even as the world whipped around them and started to flicker in and out, nothing felt terrible or scary or frightening. But then Bex began to feel Nell slipping away from her. Her hands faded straight through Bex’s and the world around her began to change again. It wasn’t Nell’s room, it was an empty field. “Nell?” She began to feel that panic again, and the energy inside of her slipped. She felt the world tilt sideways, she could barely see Nell anymore, floating below her, falling away from her. “Nell!” she called out, tears already forming in her eyes again. “Nell, don’t leave me! Nell, please! I don’t wanna be alone anymore! Nell!” She reached for her back as well, fingers close, so close. If she could just reach a little farther, then she could--
The world slammed her down and she landed hard on her back. Bex wheezed. She hadn’t felt pain in this place before, but it was there. Dark circles pricked at the edges of her vision as she looked up at the sky, around the enclosure, but Nell wasn’t there. She was gone and Bex was alone again. Find me again. Bex rolled onto her side and curled up. “Come back, Nell,” she muttered, “please come back for me.”