@sirens-wrath continued from here
Zer0 hadn’t wanted to get any sleep, not around the others, not around anyone really. But Maya had been insistent, especially when they’d started to falter for lack of sleep. Exhaustion hung heavily about their body and dragged them down into the depths of sleep before they could really try to fight it off.
Sleep was welcome at first, a deep dreamless nothing to vanish into. However, it didn’t take terribly long for things to devolve into a nightmare, a twisted version of reality where the shadows and wraiths of their past kills taunted them from the darkness. A small voice called for them, desperate and terrified, and they ran to find it, hindered by claws and teeth from the void. They can’t find the source, no matter how fast they run, how hard they push. The voice calls and screams and Zer0 catches another voice calling them and they can’t find either and the wraiths are there around him and dragging them down, claws in their back burning and they scream-
And snap awake, panting as if they’d run a marathon. They’re seconds away from snapping out a knife and lunging but the other voice solidifies into Maya’s and her hands are on their shoulders and they shudder, dropping their hands and focusing on trying to breathe again. Shuddering and shaking and panting for breath, they don’t even acknowledge her presence for several moments. They can’t, not with the high voice still echoing in their ears.
After a few moments, they reach up and lightly place their hand over the blue patterned one on their shoulder.
“I will be alright,” they say quietly.
