Fortis et Inferior | DreamNotFound

Chapter 10: Sanguis

Tw: blood

Present time

George struggled to move, his body feeling stiff from the coldness. He began to feel sleepy, but he knew as soon as he'd fall asleep here, he would not survive. His eyelids began to grow heavy, closing slowly. With all his strength he slapped himself in his face in attempt to stay awake. A pain shot through his face, clearing his mind. It had been one day since he left the cave, and he had realized his mistake immensely.

After he and Dream had come home, he had packed his stuff. They had both agreed on George leaving, to preserve his safety. He had immediately left, not taking the weather into account. He was regretting it enormously now.

Before he left, Dream had told him how to get back to Recedem, which they weren't that far away from. He just had to walk in one direction. In the distance, he could already see the lights, but it was a long walk towards them. He pushed himself forward, keeping himself awake by thinking about his mother. She wouldn't want him to die here, did she?

After a painful ten minutes, he reached his own house at the border of the village. It was burned to the ground, ash covering the white snow and instead making it black. What had he done? He burned down his own house, and for what? To express his anger? Where was he supposed to go now?

He knocked on his neighbor's door, hoping she'd help him. He lived next to her since five years ago, but he hardly spoke to her. Maybe one or two times? Every time he would say hello, she would just stare at him angrily. Kinda creepy. No one in this town really knew each other, he didn't even know everyone's names, and the town is very small. His house and his neighbor's look very alike, or at least they did. Both were small, just enough space to live in.

The door opened, a grumpy face popping up. She looked at him from the top to the bottom.

"You're the child that lives next to me, right? He was going to correct her on 'child', but he didn't have the strength to do that, so instead he just nodded weakly.

"Go back to your own house, kid." And with that, she closed the door in his face.

How fucking blind was that woman? She literally lives next to my house, how can she not see that it's burned to it's dead? Cursing at his neighbor under his breath, he stumbled back to the remainders of his former home.

A bit of the wall was still standing, blocking out the wind. He decided to stay there until it got a bit less cold. He pulled his legs to his chest, covering his hands with his sleeves, and his face buried in his knees. He let out a soft cry. This was his fault, he had burned down the damn house. If he could have, he would've burned down the entire world at the moment, but sadly he couldn't do such a thing.

He sobbed even harder when he thought about Dream. He was probably sitting in the warmer cave, totally forgetting about him. It was a good thing, in that way he stopped caring. But it didn't make it less heartbreaking.

He wished Sapnap was here, but he hadn't seen him for years. They were best friends for ages, but suddenly, after four years, he broke all contact. He never spoke to him again. He would've known what to do, how to live through the night. Slowly he fell asleep, hoping to survive the cruel darkness.

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The hay was tickling his cheek, forcing him to wake up and scratch the spot. He groaned, rubbing his eyes. As soon as he was a bit awake, his stomach growled. He tried to find any food in the cave, maybe a leftover from yesterday, or something he had totally forgot about. Then he realized that he didn't eat yesterday either because he didn't catch anything while hunting. It was like all the food had vanished from the earth. Very strange.