“Do you get these nightmares a lot?” ((Will for Mikayla))
Showing up late to her sibling movie night, Mikayla felt like she was full of excuses lately. Either she overslept or she was so exhausted that her schedule just kept slipping her mind. She wasn't really sure why these vivid nightmares kept occurring but it was getting harder to convince herself that it was only the stress of being so far from home. Surely she would have adjusted by now.
Still, she shrugged it off because she didn't want to burden anyone with such a stupid little thing. Nightmares couldn't hurt you, not really. Fortunately for her, Sam wasn't here so there'd be no horror movies on the board for their viewings tonight. The Amazing Spider-Man won out so she was happy with that selection. As Peter finally reveals his identity to Gwen though, the movie drifts off as she does.
Suddenly she's at a lake with a secluded cabin surrounded by miles and miles of forest. It's very dark out with an unnerving fog settling over the area and the night is eerily silent. All she could hear were the sounds of the lake, which began to pick up as the water seemingly became restless.
"It's not real," she tells herself quietly, trying to keep calm as she allowed herself to look out toward the shoreline. "Just a dream."
A figure began to emerge from the water causing her breathing to pick up in pace. It was just a shadow of a person, she couldn't make out any features, but they were slowly making their way toward shore. Toward her.
"It's not real," she repeats, "It's just a dream."
They had fully emerged from the water. She couldn't see too well through the fog but they were tall.
"It's not real." She closed her eyes willing the figure to disappear.
The world grew quiet. She opened her eyes and gasped. The figure was close enough now that he was no longer a shadow hidden within the fog. This was a corpse, bloated and decayed with an overpowering stench of death surrounding him. But even through all that she could make out who he was.
"Milo." She whispered, feeling her pulse spike as the corpse of her biological father inched closer to her. "This isn't real," she said, voice shaking before shouting at him as she slowly started backing away, "You're not real!"
Taking a few more steps back, she tripped backwards over a large branch and fell into the dirt with a thud. When she looked back, the figure was gone without a trace. Her breathing began to pick up as she pushed herself back up to her feet, looking around frantically for him.
Mikayla started to run in a random direction, wanting to put as much distance between herself and this lake as possible. Before she even makes it to the tree line though, she runs smack into the zombie-Milo.
"Are you sure about that?" He echoes an answer from earlier, voice sounding unhuman, "Daughter."
He grabs her arm and she screams, suddenly jolting awake with sweat beading her forehead. Her breath came in pants and both her siblings were looking at her wide-eyed and startled.
"Bad dream," she breathes out in explanation, "I'm gonna use the bathroom." She scurries out the room as fast as her legs could carry her and into the bathroom. She splashes some water on her face and tries to calm herself before coming back out. When she finally does, however, both Will and Sawyer are there waiting.
"I'm fine..." She lies even knowing she couldn't fool her siblings. The look she received from both confirmed as much. "It was just a nightmare, okay? Just... I keep dreaming about Milo. It's not a big deal."
“Do you get these nightmares a lot?”
She pauses before shrugging. She wasn't sure why she kept having these nightmares but that's all they were. Right?
"Since coming the college, I guess." She murmurs, "It's not always Milo. Sometimes it's Todd or Hades..." Taking a breath, she knew she probably sounded ridiculous. "When I see them, they're barely recognizable. They're all, like, decayed and gross, but they're scary as hell."
She takes another breath. "I don't know, maybe... Maybe it's just unresolved trauma manifesting in my dreams. Maybe I should've started seeing Olive after all that stuff happened."
Or maybe you're going crazy like your biological mother.
