Shoulder to Lean On

You Weren't There

He was in the desert this time.

Running for his life, feet sinking into the sand and slowing down each step by a painful amount. His only saviour was the fact that sand is an unbiased third party. It slowed his pursuers down just as much as it slowed him. Sand was awful to run across. He dodged a few cacti and weaved through a small section of underbrush. The sand also muffled his opponents' footsteps, making it impossible to guess how close they were without looking.

"OH DREEEAAAAM!"

Dream risked a glance over his shoulder and almost instantly regretted it. His three friends were less than twenty feet behind him.

Three?

Dream did a double take, stumbling in the sand and loosing a few feet of buffer in between the Hunters and himself. Bad, Sapnap, and Antfrost were following his path through the cacti and the underbrush. George? Where is George? He wasn't sure to be relieved or terrified that the British boy wasn't with the others.

Suddenly, Dream spotted a looming structure in the distance. A mountain? A hill? The edge of the desert perhaps? He realized that it was a Desert Temple and swore under his breath. Completely useless unless the Hunters stopped to loot it (which was unlikely).

Suddenly, Dream had a brilliantly wicked idea. He changed his course slightly, heading straight for the temple. He could hear the Hunters shouting behind him, some mocking him and some questioning why he was headed towards a complete dead end. Dream felt a sick sort of relief as the building came closer, so grateful that soon this would all be over.

He tore through the doorless entryway, running for the center and kicking open a hole that would allow him to get to the area down below. The area that all the chests were in.

Dream was not here for the chests.

He had no other choice than to jump straight down and let himself hit the ground, the force of it sending him to his knees. He flopped over, taking a few deep breaths.

"He jumped down!" Bad called.

"Wait, it could be a trap!" Sapnap warned. Dream looked up and saw the three hovering around the hole he had made, obviously confused. Dream smiled.

Then he slowly rolled over.

He heard the click of the pressure plate and felt the cool metal shift downwards a bit against his back. He smiled again, closing his eyes. It would all be over in a matter of-

BOOM!

His body was flung in the air as the world exploded around him. Sand and dirt flew everywhere, bits of wood and metal shrapnel mixed in. His body was flung against the wall like a ragdoll before gravity dragged him firmly downward towards the earth once more. To Dream's horror, he didn't die upon impact. Why didn't he die upon impact? The initial explosion burnt the outer layer of his flesh off, and when he hit the large crater in the ground he felt a pain like no other.

He had no choice but to scream in agony, his voice making horrible and nasty sounds he didn't even know he could make. He felt as though he had been thrown in a pit of lava. The smoke made it nearly impossible to breath and his screams began to become choked off by the thick foggy ash surrounding the still enclosed space. Dream writhed around, every movement bringing more horrendous fiery pain,

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Three sets of feet hit the ground next to him. Dream choked over another scream and let out a sob instead. Why hadn't he died? He was supposed to have died a quick and painless death and woken up and escaped this awful reality. How the hell had he managed to live? Why couldn't he ever get away?