Night time cometh with demons

Posted on Sat Jul 4th, 2020 @ 3:18am by Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: S'hibs quarters
Timeline: Sometime after rescue
1314 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

S'hibs throat roared into action as he was violently ejected from his nightmares, screaming in a half dazed and confused state as he desperately searched his stomach and chest, trying to find the sharp blades and even sharper fingers he had again imagined harvesting his insides.

It had been a reoccurring theme that had left him unable to sleep since being rescued; something he found deeply ironic considering his trapped mental state, still locked in a cage and made to endure everything again, and again, and again.

Panic slowly subsided as his hands were left wanting, unable to find any wounds or misplaced organs that he had so vividly seen just moments ago.

Hooves fell out from his thin bedsheets, testing to make sure the floor was there before stumbling out of bed towards his bathroom, fear still gripping his chest as his heart thundered underneath his ribs, beating so fast it felt it might explode.

Anxiety spread throughout his muscles with a numbing chill as he collapsed to the floor, gripping the rim of his toilet as he expelled the meagre contents of his stomach into the shallow water.

Fear had seemingly consumed him, refusing to remove its boney claws from his mind long after leaving that depraved dungeon, even the smell of the bile now at the bottom of his toilet reminded him of the hood they had made him wear.

"Sheh..." He gasped in his native tongue before dry heaving, unable to throw up anything more than air.

"Computer... what time is it." He sighed, a trembling exhale leaving his lips as he looked back into his fully lit quarters, unable to be awake in the dark anymore, let alone try to sleep; not that it helped with that either.

"The time is currently O four hundred." Chimed the computer in response

"Four hundred... " Groaned the tired and stressed Sequus, realising that he had woken up several times in the past few hours. "Damn it." He cursed under his breath, figuring he had spent more time trying to sleep than actually sleeping.

Standing up on uneasy hooves, he waved the sensor to flush his stomach down into the ships bio recyclers, glad he had actually made it to his bathroom this time. "Computer..." He coughed, running cold water onto his hands. "Please could you notify Lieutenant Hol that I need to see her immediately..." The water was cold, grounding him to reality as he threw his hands over his face and mane.

Lunara awoke to a soft, but persistent chime coming from her PADD. "Mmf..." she moaned, rolling over in bed to check what it was. A counselling alert. That certainly woke her up. Was it Liselle, Carter, S'hib, or somebody else? She swung her legs off the bed, sitting up as she read the message. It was S'hib. That only made sense - he had been through a lot.

She tapped her commbadge on the bedside table. "S'hib? Can you hear me? How are you doing?"

"I can hear you, Lieutenant... and no, I'm not doing very well." He croaked, the lump in his throat making itself more than known over the comms.

That didn't sound good. "All right, I'll be right over. Don't go anywhere, okay?" Lunara lifted herself out of bed, and went to the replicator. "Computer, one usual energy shot... you know the drill." The machine complied, and a small glass of an amber colored liquid materialized on the pad. She snatched it up as soon as she arrived, gulping the contents down before tossing it back. She took a quick look in the mirror. She was wearing her pyjamas - shorts and a tank top - but they seemed modest enough. The last thing she needed was her first aid kit. Good to go, she was ready for this. She took a deep breath and sprinted out the door.

"Don't go anywhere?" He thought, walking tiredly back into his living area. He could be on the holodeck, soaking up the beautiful warmth of the sun on Sequella's beaches...it made no difference where he was, his mind would still be in that cave.

A few minutes later, Lunara arrived at his quarters, panting. 'I really need to get on the treadmill more,' she thought to herself. She shook her head. Now wasn't the time to think about that. She pressed the door chime and took a step back. "S'hib? Are you in there?"

"You can come in, doors not locked." He replied while tugging an armless nightgown tightly around his body, it's dark greens unintentionally blending in with the foliage that covered the majority of his quarters.

Lunara took a deep breath and stepped through the door. After looking around in the dim light for a few seconds, she found S'hib. "Hey." She began walking towards him. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm not," Was all he said, briefly looking up at Lunara as he sat on the edge of his bed. "I keep having nightmares..." He sighed deeply, resting his head in his hands and feeling utterly defeated.

"Nightmares, huh?" Lunara took a seat next to him. "Do you mind telling me about them?"

S'hib was quiet for sometime after Lunara spoke, his tongue and throat making subtle noises as he swallowed excess saliva. "They're to do with what happened, what they did to me... on Casperia." his eyes glossed over as he spoke, replaying events in his mind.

"They um... the Orions had someone, someone working with them. She was able to make me see things, feel things that weren't real... but, on top of everything that did happen, everything I know... happened." He sighed, looking over at Luna. "I think I lost my grip on reality,"

he laughed, finding everything to be one big cosmic joke as his eyes fell back to his lap. "Even now, there are little voices in my head questioning everything, telling me I'm still in that cave... and the dreams don't help."

"Well. I can promise you right now that I'm as real as anything, and I'm right next to you now." She exhaled. "Do you think you could tell me a bit about what happened?" S'hib's symptoms were familiar to her - her friends had the same sort of reaction back on the Legacy.

"They uh, they had this bag... this hood they put over my head," S'hib said staring at the floor, the ease of which he could recall every little detail made explaining what happened incredibly uncomfortable.

"It was the smell..." He said quietly, glancing over at Luna. "People had died while wearing that hood, I could smell it." His broad and proud posture melted away as he spoke, folding in on himself to cross his arms over his knees and rest his long skull atop. "Thought I was going to die inside it as well..."

Lunara shook her head. "But you didn't. You fought and survived, and we found you."

"I didn't survive, I was their entertainment... if I didn't do as I was told, they killed others..." He said with a croaking voice, struggling to keep his composure. "The things they made me do to stop them from killing," He added, leaning his head over to look at Lunara. "It might have been kinder had they killed them."

"I..." Lunara exhaled. "I know how... difficult this is, believe me." She paused. "What did they make you do there?"

S’hib exhaled slowly, words on the tip of his tongue as he looked at Lunara. “I... id rather not say,” he said finally, feeling equally ashamed he was unable to speak of the things that had happened as well as the fact he had done them. "Least not yet." He added, glancing out of the mildew covered window of his quarters.

OFF:

Lieutenant S'hib
Security Officer
USS Elysium

Ensign Hol
Former member