666/Dreamscape

Dreamscape
Date of Scene:	28 May 2017
Location:	Harry's Apartment
Synopsis:	After a few weeks, the nightmares return with a vengeance.
Cast of Characters:	Harry Dresden, Karrin Murphy

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Harry Dresden has posed:
It's late, or early...it all depends on if you have gone to bed before midnight. For Harry, it's late.

He hasn't slept for who knows how long, and it shows on his face. Sunken eyes, disheveled hair and stubble on his face that is closer to a beard than any type of O'clock shadow. He stumbles down the steps to his place, zombielike, and opens the door, making his way to the bedroom as he strips down and discarding clothing on the floor as he goes. Jacket, shirt, pants, socks, etc make a trail that Hansel and Grettel could follow easily towards the bedroom. He flops onto the bed unceremoniously, passing out with a snore escaping his lips even before he even hits the mattress.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
Sleep. It hits easily when one is that tired. But, of course, a peaceful rest can never last long. The commotion at his door is loud. A fight outside and Harry's dog starts barking in a panic a moment later. They don't actuall break into his place, but, instead, something slams against the outside of the door three times and then disappears away. It seems his wards are holding up against something. A woman's voice yells, violent cursing, somewhere down the street. The fight is carrying on. Mouse's barking grows more insistant.

Harry Dresden has posed:
"Hell's bells.." it muttered from the exhausted wizard at the first sign of a commotion. However, when Mouse starts to bark the adrenaline starts to flow and he sits up in bed with a start. When something slams into his wards, the fear joins the adrenaline and he jumps out of bed, rushing for the door and grabbing his staff on the way. Someone is in trouble. A woman. Harry's chivalristic tendencies kick in and he opens the door, rushing out into the early morning air. His lack of dress unimportant at the moment as he rushes up the stairs to see what is going on.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
There is blood on his door, trailing down the steps, away from his apartment. A lot of it. Down the street, the fight is still raging. Four lovely, darkly clad individuals. Faster than normal humans, dangerously so, and fighting hand to hand against a single, small blonde cop. Karrin has a gun. She's shot it a few times. It doesn't seem to matter to the foursome she's fighting. She takes another shot, just barely ducking one of the vampires as she goes in for Karrin's throat. But the short cop just manages to somehow dodge.

"SUSAN! Stop this insanity! You REMEMBER me!" Karrin's ragged voice cracks out. And that's why she's not shooting that one. She knows her. It's Susan. And the brunette woman she's fighting doesn't seem to give a single shit. As she and the blonde dance in a fight on the sidewalk once again, spinning around each other, Harry's eyes will finally be treated to the sight of Susan's face. Fully vampire, fangs extended, eyes lost in blood rage, her once olive skin a paled, deathly white.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
It's late, or early...it all depends on if you have gone to bed before midnight. For Harry, it's late. He hasn't slept for who knows how long, and it shows on his face. Sunken eyes, disheveled hair and stubble on his face that is closer to a beard than any type of O'clock shadow. He stumbles down the steps to his place, zombielike, and opens the door, making his way to the bedroom as he strips down and discarding clothing on the floor as he goes. Jacket, shirt, pants, socks, etc make a trail that Hansel and Grettel could follow easily towards the bedroom. He flops onto the bed unceremoniously, passing out with a snore escaping his lips even before he even hits the mattress.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
Sleep. It hits easily when one is that tired. But, of course, a peaceful rest can never last long. The commotion at his door is loud. A fight outside and Harry's dog starts barking in a panic a moment later. They don't actuall break into his place, but, instead, something slams against the outside of the door three times and then disappears away. It seems his wards are holding up against something. A woman's voice yells, violent cursing, somewhere down the street. The fight is carrying on. Mouse's barking grows more insistant.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
"Hell's bells.." it muttered from the exhausted wizard at the first sign of a commotion. However, when Mouse starts to bark the adrenaline starts to flow and he sits up in bed with a start. When something slams into his wards, the fear joins the adrenaline and he jumps out of bed, rushing for the door and grabbing his staff on the way. Someone is in trouble. A woman. Harry's chivalristic tendencies kick in and he opens the door, rushing out into the early morning air. His lack of dress unimportant at the moment as he rushes up the stairs to see what is going on.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
There is blood on his door, trailing down the steps, away from his apartment. A lot of it. Down the street, the fight is still raging. Four lovely, darkly clad individuals. Faster than normal humans, dangerously so, and fighting hand to hand against a single, small blonde cop. Karrin has a gun. She's shot it a few times. It doesn't seem to matter to the foursome she's fighting. She takes another shot, just barely ducking one of the vampires as she goes in for Karrin's throat. But the short cop just manages to somehow dodge.

"SUSAN! Stop this insanity! You REMEMBER me!" Karrin's ragged voice cracks out. And that's why she's not shooting that one. She knows her. It's Susan. And the brunette woman she's fighting doesn't seem to give a single shit. As she and the blonde dance in a fight on the sidewalk once again, spinning around each other, Harry's eyes will finally be treated to the sight of Susan's face. Fully vampire, fangs extended, eyes lost in blood rage, her once olive skin a paled, deathly white.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
As Harry hits the top of the stairs, the sight in front of him stops him dead in his tracks. "Murph?...Susan?" The adrenaline seeps from his body and his arms fall limp to the side, his staff lowering as he takes in the sight of Murph fighting Susan.

"NO!" he screams as he takes a step forward, and then another, "Nononononononono....Susan, Stop!"

His movements are still sluggish, but the absurdity of the situation is loosening its shackles. As he moves forward, he lifts his right hand, snarling out a "Fozare!" as he unleashes a gout of fire, one uncontrolled by his blasting rod focus, at one of the three vampires that are not his ex-lover. "Get away from her! Susan, you don't want to do this! I know you don't want this!"

Karrin Murphy has posed:
The cop doesn't have time to react to Dresden coming out, not really. She's barely staying ahead of the vampiric woman across from her and that isn't going to last long, evidenced by the, at least, two bite wounds she's actively bleeding from. Did that mean Murphy was going to be turned as well? She didn't know, but she had to fight back. She had no other choice. So she turns her as Susan leaps at her again, reaching a hand up to try and toss Susan past her, but the vampire is too strong and suddenly, tightly wrapped around Murphy's body. Going for her throat. The women tumble down into the grass of the yard across from Harry's.

The other two vampires, thinking the cop is done for it, are now dashing in the direction of the wizard. They aren't high level, probably fairly newly turned and still just having made their first kills. But they are both still faster than humans, and stronger.

Harry Dresden has posed:
The sight of Susan pouncing on Murphy and the pair of them disappearing into the grass causes Harry's blood to run cold, but it also stokes the fires of his rage and concern. The two vampire that start to charge at him have made a grave mistake. He channels all that rage and focuses it down the length of his hand, shoving all that power down to his hand as he screams out 'Pyrofeugo!' and loosing a jet of white hot flame towards the pair of bloodsuckers.

Even as he unleashes hell upon them, he moves towards the grass. "Murphy!' Susan!" he calls, as he stalks forward, "ohgodohgod". He calls out again, "Muph! Susan!"

Karrin Murphy has posed:
The two young vampires didn't have a chance. But then, they really weren't a part of this, were they? Just a speed bump in the road of this fight. Their screams still rip across the neighborhood and Harry probably has a few minutes at best before cop cars start screaming into the area, but the noise of the fight has suddenly and dramatically died down. Murphy isn't cursing any more. Nor is she firing a gun. Dimly in the background, Mouse's bark echoes from behind the bloodied door of the apartment.

It's Harry's voice calling Susan's name which finally makes the vampire stop. The woman he once loved, she jerks her head upwards, dark curls flying back, away from her blood covered face as she stares at him. Her eyes are silvered with hunger and her entire mouth covered in candy apple blood. She still breathes hard, but that might be habit more than necessity. "...You. Are. Mine." She hisses at him before going back to her meal. Once the competition is dead, she can secure her lover.

Harry Dresden has posed:
Harry freezes. "Oh god. Susan...no." He looks at the vampire, the blood, the body beneath the vampire. "No. What have you done. NO!" He screams, lifting his right hand and triggering the ring on it to shove the force kept within at the Susan, no...the vampire. He rushes forward, tears forming in his eyes and falling down his cheeks. "God, Murphy...be ok. Please be ok..."

Karrin Murphy has posed:
The force works, of course, knocking Susan off of Murphy violently. She tumbles and flails back, snarling as she goes, viciously angry to have been taken from her prey. Murphy isn't gone, not yet, but she's probably close. The side of her throat and top of her shoulder are just so much meat, blood flowing free enough that it's pooling in the grass beneath her. Her eyes track Harry slowly, trying to reach for him. "I... I tried..." She rasps. She barely has any vocal chords left.

And then Susan is coming BACK, slamming into him, using every last bit of speed and strength to knock him away from Murphy. She wasn't going away. She wasn't going to give up. Hands slick with the woman's blood, she attempts to pin Dresden down, "DON'T TOUCH HER!" She hisses, a mix of jealous, rage, and pure hunger in her eyes.

Harry Dresden has posed:
Harry Dresden says, "It's ok, Karrin...I'll get help." He starts to put pressure on the wound on her neck, futile as it might be as the blood oozes out between his fingers. "Don't leave me, Karrin. Stay with me."

And then the vampire is on him.

He is knocked aside, staff flying off into the grass as it is knocked from his hand. He struggles as his shoulders are pinned to the floor, legs flailing as he tries to get some leverage to lift her off of him, but she is too strong. "Susan! Stop! This isn't you! Don't let it win...you need to fight it.""

Karrin Murphy has posed:
It's too late. It's not Susan, surely not. She's too fast. Too strong... But then something in his words makes her hesitate. Stop. There is a flicker of the woman he loved -- loves -- behind her eyes. The woman who knows she'll be entirely gone the moment Karrin Murphy stops drawing breath. She reaches one hand up, clutching against Harry's chest, tears and blood glimmering in her eyes. "...kill me, Harry. Please... before it's too late. Please... end it..." She begs him, panicked eyes flickering between his face and the dying blonde on his lawn. They probably had a handful of seconds before she became a full fledged vampire and this turned even worse.

Harry Dresden has posed:
The tears, the flow freely. His vision blurry from them as he stares up at the monster...woman that he once asked to marry him. "Susan..." he says softly, the word coming out as choking sob. "I..."

Words fail him as he lifts up his right hand to cup the side of her face gently, brushing the hair away from her face in the process. He tries to speak again, and manages to get out a 'sorry' though the sobs as he closes his eyes and focuses his will and mutters a soft 'fuego'.

The problem with magic is you have to believe in it for it to work, and Harry's heart nor his head have it in him at the moment. The spell fizzles, instead of fire there is a wisp of smoke and a spark, like a circuit shorting out.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
The last scraps of Susan Rodriguez brace herself for what she knows is coming. She holds still. She doesn't attack. She waits for him to release her to sweet death. But his heart isn't there. It doesn't succeed. "...Harry... no..." Her silvered eyes flicker back open, a single moment of genuine fear behind them...

Then he can see the very moment Karrin Murphy dies. Not because he's next to the blonde, or listening to her breath, but because that's the moment every last trace of Susan leaves her eyes. The monster takes over with her first completely kill, eyes going completely silver ice and fangs extending just a bit. She hisses in hunger, a vicious strength in her arms as she drags him forward. She is a baby vampire and she's still starving. Fortunately, he's a nice meal...

Harry Dresden has posed:
It's over. Harry knows it. He can see the change in Susan's eyes. He knows Murphy is dead, and he isn't far behind.

"I'm sorry..." he mutters under his last breath as Susan plunges her fangs into his throat, tearing it out with a jerk of her head.

And then he wakes up screaming. His body glistening with a sheen of sweat, his sheets showing the outline of where he was laying due to it. His breathing is rapid and ragged as his hands move to his throat unconsciously to make sure it is still there. He looks around in a panic. "Hell's bells..."

Karrin Murphy has posed:
It's not even a second before a whimpering, worried Mouse is awake and standing at his side. The big fur ball is beginning to lap up the sweat off his cheek and throat, almost reasuring Harry he is in one piece by that licking tongue alone. Murphy hasn't stayed over since that night, the one followed by the almost fights in the morning, so he is alone other than his trusted dog and the sound of his quite alive, racing pulse in his ears. Somewhere, muffled by the sound of his own heart, his old phone begins to ring...