Hunter By The Dozen

Chapter 6

Two weeks. It's been two weeks since any new information came out about the case of Dream's family murderers. He figured that they'd find a stronger lead at this point, especially since he's been doing a good job keeping George safe, alongside keeping up with all of his missions. He grew impatient, thinking every second that was squandered the more and more likely those monsters where to get away.

One night, after another one of his missions, he struggled to fall asleep, feelings of fear, anger, and regret danced around his thoughts. Finally, not being able to handle them, he got out of bed and woke up George.

Being half-asleep when Dream woke up, George fluttered his eyes, saying "Oh, hello... step-Dream."

"What the- STEP DREAM?!" Dream shouted, highly highly disturbed. He gave George the benefit of doubt that he was barely wake up, calmed down, and said, "George, I'm going out to... the store. I need you to go to your hiding spot for the night until I come back."

George and Dream have agreed that whenever Dream goes out on a mission or to the store, he would hide in a loose floorboard under the conch, as Dream has definitely made enemies in his decade and a half of fighting. 

Now, more conscious, George asked, "To the store? Didn't you go two days ago?"

"Yeah, but I... need to get... get.. more ketchup! So, go to your hiding spot now."

"Alright. Stay safe, Dream."

"I will."

With that, he took to the front door, where he booked it to Spirit's stall and jumped on him, riding the horse to the building.

From his years going to that building, Dream's gotten used to the perimeters of the area. He's become aware of the blind spots of security cameras and the vents that go through the building. His plan was simple: Take the vents, go to the leaders' conference room, go through Antfrost's cabinets to find and take a picture of the fingerprint identification papers, and go through the investigation himself. He knew that he couldn't ask for it in a meeting with them, as that paper was leverage for them and without it, Dream could easily bail the mission with George. But would he want to? He's been warming a little up to George, and they've been having easier times making conversations and small talk. Those thoughts will have to come later. He was on a mission right now.

He went to the blind spot with the vents and, unscrewing the screws of the vent with the sharp point of his sword. The metallic sounds echoing throughout the chambers of the vents, Dream navigated his way through the vents. Navigated his way for quite a while, as he got lost several times over. At one point, he somehow ended up where he started. But after hours of crawl through the crumpled vents, he found the leaders' room, and came out of the vent that was at ground level. 

The room was very creepy, creating the right shadows to make it someone, or something, was there. The faint light of the moonlight crept in through the window shades, giving Dream barely enough visibility to maneuver around. He searched each of the drawers, if he didn't bang into them from the lack of light. He occasionally pulled out the light from his phone to rummage through a set of papers.

For a while, it seemed like he'd never find it until he came across one of the documents he was looking for. With painful timing, through, the night guard was passing by, his footsteps echoing down the hallway. Dream quickly snapped a picture of it, shoved it into the drawer where he found the paper, and dove into the vent. It was just at the nick of time, as the door jingled and the guard came to inspect the room. 

Dream crawled through the vents to a safe place and looked through his photo gallery. On it, he found a blurry, unintelligible picture of the document. He sighed heavily and decided, with the sun rising, he headed home. SO he exited the vent he came from, went to the tree that he tied Spirit to, and rode back home.

"You weren't at the store were you."

Dream just got back and knocked on the floor to indicate that George can come out now. George rose from his hideout and began to question Dream.

"Why would you assume that?"

"You went there at 2 in the morning."

"It's open 24/7 and 2 has the least people."

"You stayed there for three hours."

"I was looking for the right ketchup."

George wasn't stupid, so he tilted his head and folding his arms in suspicion. Dream realized this wasn;t going to end until he coughed off.

"Ok, ok," Dream finally said, reluctantly, "The agency I work at, I snuck into the building to try getting more information on... my..."

Dream paused for a moment there, not ready to tell George. But George looked with eyes of concern, and he could tell George legitimately cared, so he continued.

"More information on my family's murders. They were killed when I was younger, and that's why I joined the enterprises. To maybe have a chance at finding them."

Dream's eyes began to water a bit, like they always did when Dream thought or talked about his parents. He quickly dried them up with arm and started to breathe easier.

George put his hand on Dream's shoulders. "I'm very sorry for your loss. I could- I mean couldn't imagine your loss."

"Thanks" Dream said emotionlessly, "It's whatever. It was like, what, 15 years ago, I should've gone over it by now."

"I mean, people deal with loss differently, some take a few weeks, some take months, others take years. But it's what's more healthy for you that's important."

The two were silent then, Dream not knowing how to respond and George not being comfortable to continue.

George finally broke the silence, saying, "Hey, I know it's late, or early, whichever way you want to perceive it, but do you want to teach you have to play the acoustic guitar, you know, to take your mind off things?"

Dream hesitated at first, still have remnants of the cool loner that he used to be. But, realizing that he wasn't going to rest easy, he agreed. So, after George pulled out the guitar from the floorboard, since he used that as a place to keep his stuff, Dream held the guitar and George went through the steps to teach him. He showed him how to play each notes, certain chords, and even helped him play a song he learned when he was young. The playing of the song was horrible, but it was still better than before.

At that point, it was already dawn, and the two went to bed. Before Dream went to his room, he turned to George and thanked George. As he nodded back, Dream went to his room, and slept, slept the best sleep he had in a long, long time.