Chapter Text
Friday, December 29th, 1989, morning
A nightmare. A memory. Arms and legs pumping, running full-out through the yard in Santa Carla, as Sam struggled to untie Nanook’s leash, knotted to the gate. Michael’s whole body thrumming with fear, with the quickening that overcame him at sunset. Neither fully human, nor vampire. In between. On the precipice.
“Michael!” Star, screaming behind him, back at the front door. “Michael, they’re coming!”
He kept running, but somehow never closed the distance to the fence. Sam and Nanook and the yard faded, leaving nothing but the night. And still, he ran.
“Michael…”
Not Nelson.
Darker, more seductive.
“Michael…”
David.
“Listen to Star, Michael. They’re coming. You need to wake up, Michael.”
Images. Clawed fingers. Fangs dripping saliva and blood.
Fiery eyes and sinister laughter. Predators too fast, too strong to avoid.
And stranger things, beside, made of night, itself.
Familiar, strong hands shaking his shoulders. A kiss brushed against his temple, fingers sweeping his hair back from his sweaty brow. “Wake up, Michael. Michael! Wake up.”
Michael sat bolt upright just as the scream tore loose. “David!”
A sad sigh. “Just me, Michael. You were dreaming. Nightmare, I think.”
He took a deep breath and held it, trying to get a grip on his nervous system. “That was no mere nightmare, Nelson,” Michael said at last, once he’d fought his way free to the surface, to the waking world. “They’re coming.”
Nelson stilled beside him. His sudden tension broadcast against Michael’s skin, everywhere they touched. “Who, Michael?”
“We’ll never outrun them, Nelson. We’ll have to fight.”
Nelson shook a cigarette loose from the pack on the bedside table. “Michael, what are you talking about? You’re scaring me. What did you see?”
Michael closed his eyes. Willed the visions to return, seeking clarity. That other presence… “Vampires, Nelson. And something else. Older. Deadlier. All coming for us.”