Daniel sat on the living room couch, hands slack over his knees, eyes unfocused. The window before him reflected the room back at him, the empty coffee cup on the table, the uneven stack of plates on the counter of the kitchen, the curtains fluttering in a breeze he couldn't feel, inside a house that didn't belong to him.
Behind him, in the dining area, Anna tried to distract the twins with cooking. And it was working, as they giggled and screeched in playful manners.
"Okay, girls," she said brightly, too brightly to make everything seem normal and not out of place. That they weren't stuck in a nightmare town where monsters whispered things. "Crack the egg gently. No- no, gently-"
A soft giggle. Then a gasp. "Mommy, I got a shell in it." The eldest twin.
"That's okay. Happens to everyone. We'll pick it out. See?"
Daniel heard their voices as if through fog. His families' laughers and giggles were nonexistent as his eyes remained outside, to the trees that made him feel unease. He wasn't sure if it was just the fear of the unknown or something else.
m̶m̶m̶m̶… ki̵l̶l̷ h̴e̶r̵… the g̷i̴r̵l̸… the g̴i̶r̷l̵…
His head twitched as they started again. Ever since he saw her outside the diner with the short man, her husband. A time when he thought he was a man protecting his family from strangers.
He stared at the window. The trees… Something about the trees outside made his skin crawl. Like someone unseen was pacing their edge, waiting. Most times, he felt like something or someone was watching him behind the trees.
"Dan?" Anna, his wife, called softly.
He didn't look away from the window, from the trees.
"Dan…"
He didn't blink.
She stepped closer, wiping her hands on her apron. "Sweetheart. Are you-"
Her hand touched his shoulder.
Daniel sucked in a violent breath like he'd been underwater for minutes. His whole body jerked, eyes wide, trembling, and the voices gone.
"Oh my, Dan- hey- hey," she whispered, moving to kneel beside him. "You scared me. What's wrong?"
He shook his head. No words. Just fear. And shame. And something he couldn't name was twisting deep in his gut.
"I'm fine," he managed, voice hoarse. "Just tired."
"Let's take you upstairs," she murmured, rubbing his arm, even when she didn't believe him. "You need rest."
He nodded too quickly and stood. "I'll be fine. Just-... stay with the kids." His legs felt wrong beneath him, like he didn't fully control them. He climbed the stairs, leaving Anna behind. Through the hallway. Into the bedroom. But he didn't rest on the bed.
He paced. One step. Two. The whisper threaded through the air like smoke, coming back in his ear.
sh̴e̴'̵s̶ a̸l̷o̶n̵e̴… ki̵l̴l̶ h̶e̶r̴… ki̵l̴l̸…
He stepped to the window to distract himself, but it didn't help. Instead, it worsened his situation as he saw the target they were whispering about.
Ariana walked toward the barn with a basket in her hands, a little tired and sweaty-looking and in a good mood.
Daniel stared as his breathing evened and the voices grew and slid deeper.
you̶ kn̶o̶w̶ wh̵a̵t̴ yo̵u̷ m̴u̶s̸t̴ d̶o̴.
His fingers curled around the windowsill. His head tipped.
And he nodded.
—-
LEVI'S POV
Levi rested on the couch, Ariana curled atop him, her head on his shoulder, her breathing soft and warm against his neck. The afterglow made her limbs loose, her body heavy. He kept one hand on her hip, thumb tracing idle circles.
He stayed vigilant.
Always vigilant.
But the house was silent tonight. Not even wind. Ariana's breathing slowed further, deep and rhythmic, until the weight of her and the warmth lulled him.
His eyes drifted closed. As he thought of his life before her. Levi couldn't help but shake his head with a smile. How ironic, if it can even be called ironic, that he found the love of his life in a nightmare when he had dreamed of it in the real world.
He thought of his house and smiled. Hopefully, Dean had settled in due to him going missing from the point of view of the outside world.
He hoped his brother in everything but blood would find his journals, both the written versions and the video ones and do something about it. Maybe, really write it in a novel version and publish it. Detailing all his nightmares, every single little thing he had forgotten.
And maybe, hopefully, he would get a copy of it in this town.
With a sigh, his imagination kept spiraling in the darkness behind his eyelids…
He dreamed.
Not the town.
Not the nightmare.
A house. His house.
Ariana laughing in a sunlit kitchen.
Dean at the table, arguing with his wife over something stupid again.
A pot simmering. A window open.
Normal. Warm. Alive.
A life he'd stopped allowing himself to imagine.
His chest ached.
His eyes fluttered open.
Confusion fogged his thoughts. Where was he-?
Right. Back to the real world. Inside the bunker with Ariana asleep on his lap.
He closed his eyes again, not to sleep, but to rest-
A creak.
Coming from upstairs.
Levi's blood ran cold.
It wasn't the building settling or something. Nor wind.
Someone was walking across their living room floor.