A Lovely Mess

Day 21

That morning, Dream has snuck out of bed and was now on his way to the church to speak to bad. After all Bad was the only one who knew of Georges immunity, which began to make Dream wonder whether or not he knew of the fungal growth.

He pushed open the church door, looking around to make sure nobody else was present besides and who was sat by the altar, scrolling through the bible

"Dream! What a pleasant surprise!" Bad exclaimed shutting the large book, raising his arms to show his joy.
"Bad is anybody else here" Dream continued to eye around, before looking back at bad.
"Nope! no service today"
"We need to talk"
"What's the matter Clay?"
"George"
"What's wrong with george"
"Don't play dumb"
"Oh, you know" Bad sighed, coming to sit beside dream
"He was bit again a week or so ago"
"Is he okay?"
"He's growing like- mushrooms"
"Fungi?" bad cocked his head back, raising an eyebrow in shock.
"I guess so, light little red mushrooms but there's also brown ones"
"Fly agaric and conopilus, yet that doesn't make sense, the Z's are a cordyceps infection a whole different type of fungi"
"Maybe it isn't Cordyceps then" dream frowned
"People don't just start growing mushrooms dream"
"Well George has!"

Bad tapped his bottom lip in a thinking manner, before narrowing his eyes.

"Fungi tends to grow in warm, damp places yet that wouldn't make sense in georges case, so it could be relating to bacteria, similar to how bread grows mold"
"Are you saying george is moldy?"
"No! i'm just trying to make some sort of explanation in my head, does he have any discolouration?"
"He's turning red"
"Red? like after you get a cut and it swells?"
"No- red as in like tomato red"
"What- you're telling me george is turning into a tomato now?"
"No bad! he's turning red like a tomato, his stomach is like a deep deep red and i think it's spreading"
"has he been acting any different?"
"Sassier, he snaps quicker and he doesn't really think before he speaks, he's being a bit of a jerk"
"It could be cordyceps in the brain, as it can alter your personality and cause a brain tumour to form putting pressure on the frontal lobe"

Dream sighed, running a hand through his hair, the information was a lot to comprehend at once.

"I don't think it's that, he would've been dead by now if it was cordyceps or a tumour"
"You're right, i'd reccomend dosing him up on antibiotics to take that red inflammation down though"
"The hell am i going to get antibiotics!"
"Blasphemy dream! Not in the place of the lord!"
"Sorry, sorry. I'm just stressed bad"
"That's okay, look i've got my own little stash, i can give you some and we can go from there, alright?"
"Alright."

And that was that, bad provided dream with Clindamycin, which could be used to slow down and prevent the growth of bacteria as well as ibuprofen. Dream opened the front door, george was already awake, cross legged on the arm chair reading 'of mice and men' as he usually would

"This books kinda sad" He frowned turning it down to look up at dream.
"How so, i've never read it" Dream chuckled kicking his shoes off and sitting beside george on the arm of the chair.

"Look, i'll read you some from one of the final pages."

George paused, clearing his throat, beginning to read

" 'For the rabbits,' lennie shouted,
'for the rabbits' George repeated.
'and then i get to tend to the rabbits'
'An' you get to tend to the rabbits' "

"I don't understand it" Dream raised an eyebrow, looking down at george who shook his head placing the book down.
"Well, George promised lennie so many beautiful things before murdering him"
"Murdering him! why would he do that?" Dream exclaimed
"It was for his own good, Lennie was being hunted down by the towns folk, George just wanted to make sure that Lennie had happy, safe thoughts before dying instead of being terrified and scared for his life"
"That kinda sucks"
"I think it's beautiful"
"I suppose it is, really" Dream chuckled running a hand through georges hair.

"Yeah, George did the right thing" George smiled, standing, placing the book on the shelving.

"George, i need you to take some medicine"
"Medicine, why?"
"Your stomach george"

George frowned, lifting up his shirt.
"I thought you wouldn't notice"
"We share a bed love, it's hard to not notice mushrooms suddenly growing out of your partner"
George chuckled, "They're sort of pretty"
"Does it hurt?"
"Not really, but i'm turning red"
"Yeah, that's worrying me a little. Let's just hope that the antibiotics brings it down a little"
"Alright, thank you dream"
"No problem my love" Dream kissed georges forehead, going to get him a glass of water.

A/N

Any theories?