Crash's Apartment - Unpleasant Dreams

[The Huggernaut]

Nighttime was usually when one could have restful sleep, to let your mind sort out the day's experiences, and more or less recover. But for some people... sleep was anything but restful.

Crash was one of those people. To someone watching, he tossed and turned slightly on the couch, letting out an almost pained groan. Because in HIS dreams... he relived a personal hell.

He was standing in a street... 15th Avenue in Westopolis. It was just past noon, but the sky was dark, almost blood red. And the streets were in chaos as monsters attacked... everyone.

No... not this again...

"No..."

[Leedzie]

The sound of rapidly swirling water filled the quiet night air, and Julie stepped out of the bathroom a moment or so later. As she was about to head back to bed, however, the sound of a devil groaning caught her attention. Head into the living room, the image of a thrashing thrope made her frown. "Crash? ... Hey, Crash, wake up..." she coaxed, shaking his shoulder.

[The Huggernaut]

Crash's response... was none at all, the devil tossing a little more. "Nn..."

As if on autopilot, he'd skated down the street, towards a bus surrounded by more of those aliens, some unarmed, one weilding some kind of sword. Against his will, he yelled at them, some kind of indistinct threat... maybe a battle cry, before he started fighting. Surprisingly, most of the creatures went down easily, except the leader, the one with the sword.

HE managed to get a swing in, slashing across Crash's muzzle, and blinding the devil for a crucial moment. And he was only saved by the driver of the bus running the monster down.

"Get in!" The driver yelled to him, only to be waved off.

"I'm gonna find more people!" He yelled back, over the sounds of the fighting going on just a few streets away.

Crash, for a moment, -jerked-, letting out a soft, bitten back yelp.

[Leedzie]

"CRASH!!" the pangolin shouted. So what if she woke the neighbors. Julie's hands grasped firmly over the devil's shoulders and gave him a forceful shake. "WAKE UP! You're having a nightmare!!"

[The Huggernaut]

Crash didn't resist as he was shaken, though he still felt tense in the pangolin's grip as he shuddered.

"You sure, kid?" The driver looked unsure, his hand resting on the door lever for the bus.

"Yeah, I'm sure." The devil smirked, having wiped the blood from the slash across his muzzle out of his eyes... mostly.

"Go on, I'll be fine."

With a small frown, the driver nodded, closing the door on the bus, and driving off, making it about a block before a pillar of light lit up around the fleeing vehicle.

"What the..." No... NO! Crash's gaze turned upwards to the source of the light, a hovering ship... that let loose with a destructive beam of energy centered on the bus, that simply vanished in the resulting blast, as Crash screamed, helplessly looking on.

And jerking upright, almost headbutting Julie as he cried out, eyes wide, and flicking around the room before fixing on Julie's eyes, his breathing short, like he'd ran a marathon in those few moments the dream had REALLY taken.

"... I-I..." His voice faltered, his hands tightening into fists as he trembled.

[Leedzie]

"It's okay, you're okay," Julie said in a steady voice, sitting at Crash's side. "You're safe. It's not real. You're here at home with me. Everything's okay."

[The Huggernaut]

Crash seemed to take a lon time catching his breath, sharp shudders rolling through him with every few breaths. Most shocking of all though... the fur on his cheeks was moist as he looked at Julie.

"It was real once..." He murmured, the usually confident devil slumping against the back of the couch as he wiped reflexively at his muzzle, for blood that hadn't been there... for quite a while.

[Leedzie]

Showing an uncharacteristically soft demeanor, Julie adjusted her seating to scoot closer and rubbed reassuringly at his arm. "What happened?"

[The Huggernaut]

The distraught devil didn't answer for several moments. For a moment, he held a hand near Julie's, as if he was going to rest it on hers, before letting it fall into his lap.

"... it was about six... maybe seven months ago now... I used to live in a city called Westopolis. ... Don't bother looking it up... it's ruins now... thanks to some creatures the news called 'Black Arms'. That didn't matter to much to me when they invaded, though. I tried to fight them... did a pretty good job... at first." He paused, rubbing the scarred, bare skin across the bridge of his muzzle.

"There was a bus... people from my neighborhood. It got surrounded by a bunch of those things... so I tried to fight 'em off so the bus could get away. The leader got me across the nose with a sword. The driver of the bus ran him over n'offered me a ride. I turned him down, so he drove off."

Crash paused again, taking a shakey breath. "One of those things' ships lit it up with some kind of laser... in less than a second there was just a crater... ... and me."

[Leedzie]

In an even more surprising move, Julie wrapped her arms around her roommate and cuddled him, a frown etched deeply into her face. "That's not your fault."

[The Huggernaut]

Crash shivered a little, leaning into the cuddle as he closed his eyes.

"I keep telling myself that... it... it doesn't help much..."

[Leedzie]

"It was out of your control. You did everything you could; I'm sure a lot of people DID survive because of you." Stroking carefully at one of the devil's ears, she added, "You can't control those creatures, anymore than I can control the dimensions."

[The Huggernaut]

Crash blinked a little in slight surprise as Julie stroked one of his ears, which twitched a little at the contact. He knew she was right. It didn't make the pain any less, but... Maybe it made it a little easier to bear. Besides...

Julie had basically lost her whole world, in a way. Crash had just lost a hometown. But still... He could see the similarity between the two of them.

"Thanks, Jules..." The devil managed a small smile, but small though it was, it was definitely an improvement.

[Leedzie]

"You've been here for me all this time," the pangolin calmly answered. "This is the least I could do back." Resting her cheek against Crash's forehead, Julie took a slow breath and released it. It was like comforting one of her brothers; she only hoped she'd be as effective with her best friend as she was with her kin.

[The Huggernaut]

It was definitely effective. At first, the devil closed his eyes, trying to match Julie's breathing, his hands relaxing, and resting on his knees. At first, he just seemed quiet. But then his head slid against the pangolin's cheek, and wound up resting on her shoulder, his breathing slow, steady, and above all... calm. It seemed he'd relaxed enough with the calming contact to drift back off to sleep.