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Running, running, running. He was being chased. Whatever had come for him in his dreams was there in his bedroom, was there in the halls. The lights flickering, and the darkness creeping after him. He could blink, just once, and that's when it would have him. It's claws like bones and it's wicked laughter digging into his skin.

Otto had woken up from a terribly vivid nightmare, and even awake, he felt as if it was still too real. The dark room closed in, the closet breathed, the corners cackled and the windows were portals to a darker abyss just waiting to grab hold and drag him away.

Otto ran down the hall, his leg red from where he'd tripped over his coffee table running out of his apartment. He was in his pyjamas, and his bare feet clapped against the cold floors of the hallways. Chance. He clung to the offer made by that man, to go to him if his nightmares were ever too much to handle alone. Normally, they were just above tolerable. But Otto had woken up as if his life were in grave danger. As if staying alone in his room was like waiting in a baited trap; as if he were standing in a dark alley just waiting to be hunted.
Even though he'd been happier lately, his nightmares were getting worse.

His heart was painfully thudding in his chest, his lungs tightening as he exerted himself from running to Chance's room. He threw open the door as he slammed into it, shutting it firmly behind him and his eyes desperately searching for Chance.

Be awake. Don't be asleep. Don't be somewhere else. Say you're here and not in someone else's….

He stared at Chance, still not able to breathe God he couldn't breathe. Terror had gripped every nerve in his body. He'd suffered from night terrors since childhood, but one this bad hadn't struck him in some time. Here in Chance's room, the lights were bright, the walls were white, and the only thing that scared Otto now was the darkness of the window, and the crack under the door, as if ethers might sneak and grab his ankles and crush him under the narrow gap and snap his bones an---

He shuddered and unsteadily edged towards Chance. "Y-you um... said I could come if.. if I.."

It had felt too real. The danger felt real and he was scared. Otto's face contorted, wrought as he tried not to cry, because he was truly that terrified of the dream, terrified he was still dreaming and it would just repeat. Repeat the finding of safety before tearing him away and throwing him into terror once more.

Chance's hands were light on his skin, and he shuddered until he finally allowed himself to believe he was real. Otto choked, and wrapped his arms suddenly around Chance, burying his face in his collar. Cami used to comfort him after a nightmare, and he'd often done the same. He hated putting a burden on someone, and worrying them with Otto's needy nature, especially when it came to the dark horror that his own mind could produce in sleep.

Something in his mind was reminding him that there was a danger he was neck deep in. Something that was waiting to take it's claim, as if his life had a time limit, ticking down until his soul would be reaped. Was it death that scared him? Was it something else? Whatever the dream had meant, it had terrified Otto so badly he wasn't even able to calm down from it.

So he buried himself in human warmth as he trembled and held back sobs, and away from the cold icy tendrils of whatever darkness hunted him.

"B-but it still feels real..." He stammered, his voice thick in fear and misery. He felt better in his arms, but even when the immediate danger began to alleviate, he was still left with something dark and menacing looming in the background.

What if the dream was a warning? What if his hourglass mark had run out of time? What if his key as going to unlock something terrible? He felt like the dreams he had hinted that it was coming. He was scared for his own life.

He was soaking poor Chance's shirt in his tears from crying. He felt bad, and he felt embarrassed. He hadn't wanted to make Chance deal with him like this, but... but he'd offered, and Otto just needed someone right now.

"I'm scared." He murmured miserably. He needed to face it. Those marks weren't going away without some consequence, and he had literally no one who could help him.

He couldn't accept that comfort of Chance's words. Not yet. Maybe he did need to talk it out; get it out of his head. He was slowly peeled from where he stood, and led to the bed, where Otto immediately crawled over and curled into a ball in his lap, holding on and burying himself in his chest.

"I been havin' this really bad recurring nightmare." He admitted, muffled in his shirt. "Not every night, but it's always the same feeling. Theres this thing.. I cant see it, but it's chasing me. And when it grabs me I feel like I'm gunna die. I feel heavy like its crushin' me.. like gravity just got more powerful or sumthin'. It's dark.. and it's just.... it's really ********' evil."

It felt evil. That was the word. That was it exactly.

"Tonight.. I thought I saw it's face. N' I just..." His voice quivered, and he sniffed back a runny nose.

Otto nodded. "Like it's a real thing... I can't even say what it looked like... but it was all of that." Real, yet looming and untouchable.

He hiccuped from crying and clung a little tighter. "Like.. six or seven times? Maybe? It's usually the same.. sometimes its somehwere else, but the thing that chases me is the same.. sometimes it takes like.. hidden forms. The first time I had the dream.. it was a dog.. and then once it took over someone's body.."

"And one time it was under my skin, and I could see it trying to rip it's way out."

He was right. He wasn't dreaming now. But he was on alert. In danger. Certainly...

"Yeah." He admitted gravely. "I know why..."

Otto stared back, his eyes still wet, but a hopeless distance slowly growing in them. "You can't help.." He murmured timidly. "It's.. real bad.. I can't..."

He grimaced.

"I trust you, but..."