Aether's Legacy | Elysium [Dreamnotfound]

Denver Meltdown

Missouri was a breeze. George barely remembered any of it, seeing as they opted for eating in the car and driving straight through for ten hours, Dream and Sapnap taking turns at the wheel. He also slept through most of the ride, fading in and out of consciousness, blank visions and old memories scrolling through his mind. Luckily, he didn't have any nightmares. Though he could still feel the tense presence in the back of his head like someone was constantly at his shoulder, watching.

They stopped at their third run-down motel in the-middle-of-nowhere, Kansas. This one was the smallest by far, with a parking lot of only ten spaces, three of which were taken up by the large dumpster in the back.

The desk lady was nice enough, although her smile was too big and rehearsed. It unnerved him, especially with the way she was staring at George like she recognized him. Their single room with two queen-sized beds was decent enough. There was a TV with an antenna and it smelled faintly of artificial lemon air freshener. The bathroom was also the cleanest they had, even if small.

Sapnap sprawled out on the first bed the second they walked in, opening his arms and legs wide and closing his eyes like he was readying to trace a snow angel into the sheets.

"You look dumb," was all George said. Sapnap stuck his tongue out at him.

Dream moved to the front of the room and regarded them with a sigh. "Alright, children. We get back on the road first thing tomorrow to get to Denver."

"That's like a half a day drive," Sapnap whined.

"Then we better rest up."

Groaning, Sapnap buried his head into a pillow and released a muffled scream into it.

Skeppy seemed a little calmer. His aura felt less uninviting and more placid. The previous night when Dream and George had gotten to the hotel, they had walked into the odd sight of Skeppy dead asleep snuggled right beside Sapnap on one of the beds with a movie playing in the background. Sapnap had put a finger over his lips and hushed them before they could make any noise. Dream and George had exchanged looks, but they hadn't questioned it. All George knew was that Skeppy had woken up in a better mood the next morning, and it was all that mattered to him.

It was boring, to say the least. When George wasn't enraptured by his novel (which he only had a few pages left of), he was either napping or watching the 24-hour rom-com marathon Sapnap had put on.

An hour before the night came, Dream suggested they go watch the sunset to get some air, and having nothing better to do, they all agreed. Thus, there they were—all four lying and sitting on the back of the pick-up watching how the sun fell behind the flat horizon of vegetation extending for hundreds of miles.

George's shoulder was rubbing against Dream's, and he found himself swallowing. The closeness wasn't unfamiliar, but ever since their moment back in Nashville, it was like a flip had suddenly switched back on. Every little graze was charged with a dozen bolts of electricity. Every gaze was packed with so much intensity, he felt it burning through his skin.

"Have y'all thought about what'll happen after we save Bad?"

He contemplated Sapnap's question. Although he had definitely thought about all the dangers their mission was posing, about everything that could go wrong, he hadn't exactly considered what would happen if everything went right.

They couldn't exactly go back to living normally. If Bad was okay (which he didn't want to think about the alternate possibility), then they would escape, but they wouldn't exactly be able to return to AGE and pretend nothing happened. The headmaster would know and so would the woman they saw him talking to. Sarah would know. His parents would likely be informed as well. If the news figured out their identities, then the whole country would too. They would be antagonized for breaking into a government facility. For the trouble they had caused on the cruise. For everything.