darker_london | Dream Clip (Peter) (Reply)

Smoke coated the inside of Peter's nostrils, making breathing quite a difficult matter indeed. Smoke and ash surrounded him, obscuring his view of everything that was not within six feet of him in every direction. Ash rained down on him from above, and it coated everything that did come within his view with eerie greyness. His eyes were red and they stung, and Peter had to keep them trained on the concrete at his feet with his eyes opened no wider than tiny slits. His lungs laboured with the lack of fresh air, and everywhere around him he could hear Things in the distance. Moving. Breathing. Rumbling. Watching him.

Hunger curled and snarled in his belly, but Peter hadn't seen anything resembling life in days. You couldn't eat smouldering wood or crumbling stone. Peter's throat burned worse than his eyes, but there was no water to be found. Only more smoke. More ruin. More road to travel. And more fear.

A sharp sound in front of him caused Peter's head to snap up. His eyes widened, despite the pain. Something was growling. Peter froze in his spot and he looked behind him, though he saw nothing but sickly-tainted smoke hazing out the distance. Peter faced forward and he heard the growl again. It was growing closer. Peter prepared himself to run, and in an instant a dark shape darted forward out of the gloom and jumped at him-

"AAUUUGGHHHH!" Peter sat bolt upright, his throat aching from the force of his scream. He was Liz's living room, having fallen asleep on the sofa. And Caleb was in front of him, looking more than slightly worried, a laundry basket on his head. "C...Caleb."

"You hurt my ears, Daddy." Caleb said, sounding slightly accusatory.

"I'm sorry." Peter's breath was slowing, and he was pleased to note that when he breathed, there was no trace of smoke to choke him. The dream had felt so real... "Son? Why...do you have a laundry basket on your head?"

"I'm Pyramid Head." Caleb explained, as if it should have been obvious. It wasn't to Peter, however, as he had never played Silent Hill, nor did Peter realise that Lydia had let her nine-year-old brother play it... Caleb then dropped the basket down, and ambled away, dragging a rather large knife he had fashioned out of cardboard along the ground. He made ominous growling noises and headed in Tasha's direction. Peter watching him go, looking quite bemused.

"Oh that...that explains everything..." Peter said, though his tone of voice was quite enough to prove that it did, in fact, explain nothing.