Face to Face by Eildon Rhymer (PG)

[duonoaikouka.livejournal.com]

Fandom: STARGATE ATLANTIS
Pairing: none; gen
Length: 2,900 words
Author on LJ: rhymer23
Author Website: Author's Site
Why this must be read:

Author's Summary: Injured and trapped in the dark… and they are not alone.

rhymer23 provides us with some dang creepy imagery in this fic. I loved the little details like a green cast on Ronon's face and Rodney's skeletal fingers as they try to figure out a mystery in the dark. This piece plays on the goosebump feeling one gets when you're sitting in a dark room, completely still, and all you can hear is your breath. Each of our team members deals with the unknown that shares the dark with them in their own way; rhymer23 uses the way they deal as a fantastic characterization tool which is another wonderful aspect to this fic. I know you'll be leaving a night light on so you won't be only listening to your breathing tonight after reading this.


McKay's fingers were thinner in the narrow light, like bones. Something brushed against the side of Sheppard's cheek, up into his hair. Instinct had been quelled by now. The first time it had happened, he had brought his hand up to bat it away, and had found nothing there, even as the touch continued.

"Did you?" McKay was clutching the device with both hands. "The haunted house thing, I mean."

Sheppard focused on his face; focused on the pain in his leg; focused on the living ghosts that were Teyla and Ronon. He focused, too, on the past, but the touch on his face did not go away. "Once," he said. "I was twelve, I think. It was a dare – one of those 'pass the test and we won't beat the crap out of you every day just for being the new kid' things. I got as far as midnight, then my Dad hauled me out and…" No. No need to say that. "And, no, before you ask, I didn't see any ghosts."

But he still dreamt about it, even so. Alone in the dark, starting at every sound, gasping at every movement. Twigs like claws on the window, and the wind wailing like a thing forlorn. Desperate to endure, to be accepted… Even in the face of all the horrors the Pegasus Galaxy could throw at him, it was still a recurring dream, though not, as it turned out, the worst dream of all.

"That's because ghosts don't exist." McKay returned to his device, his face shuttered with darkness.

Face to Face