Please Let Me Go (dnf)

Sober Thoughts

Freezing air pushed persistently against Dream's sweating face, the AC finally cooling down. The hum of nightlife was completely shrouded in the sound of the car's engine, the air conditioning on max power, and his heart beating in his ears. Desperate eyes scanned across the simple message time and time again. His eyes were the only part of his body that seemed to still be able to move. Dream's thumbs were paralyzed over his keyboard, refusing to type a response- like his mind could come up with anything appropriate to say in this moment anyway.

"I need you."

Three words that his mind had taken completely out of context, his imagination running to the deepest parts of his mind with them. George had said those words aloud to him before, countless times even. Any time they played a video game together, it always inevitably led to the moment where George was cornered and would call out 'Dream, please! I need you!'. To which Dream would come running in each and every time. George hadn't said once he needed Dream since he arrived. Not in a sarcastic way, not tied into a joke, not even referencing a previous time he said it. George hadn't admitted he needed Dream the same way Dream hadn't told George he loved him. George had made it clear from the moment he landed that he didn't need Dream for anything, and Dream was still trying to cope with that.

Dream had gone from being a knight on a white horse, gallivanting into any predicament George had roped himself into, trying effortlessly to fix the situation for George, to- nothing. To being completely useless. Left behind. Irrelevant. The savior finally met a situation he couldn't fix- a person who didn't want to be saved. Well, to be saved by him anyway.

This wasn't even an 'until now' kind of moment. George wasn't the one who needed Dream, and he knew that. Karl needed Dream, George was simply the messenger. But, god, did it feel amazing to be the savior again. To know that entering a room, just gracing them with his presence, would be enough to ease their minds. He was finally provided the opportunity to feel like his old self again. Dream felt like he had been invited back on his white horse, by none other than the man who knocked him off.

(9:58pm) Karl's room?

Dream typed with his left hand, practically ripping the car keys out of the ignition with his right. The moment the frosty air conditioning turned off, the heat in the car instantly started rising. There was no relief met when Dream opened his car door, the thick, humid air rushing to meet him. He was practically falling over himself, his eyes glued to his phone while he climbed out of the car. George still hadn't responded by the time he was walking through the front door, the echo of the door closing bouncing through the silence. Footsteps hurled themselves in Dream's direction, halting at the top of the balcony.

"Karl, it's just-"

"Is he with you?" Karl's voice cracked through his desperate sentence, interrupting George's warning in the distance. Dream looked up to Karl with heavy eyes, shaking his head no. Just watching Karl's face drop, the way it looked like the life was being sucked out of his body, was enough to bring Dream back to reality. His footsteps weighed heavily as he ascended the staircase, the feeling of selfish pride taking a permanent place on the backburner. He really had become self absorbed- manipulating his friends' honest pain into some kind of ego trip for himself. Who did that? Dream could feel his own heart begin to beat irregularly, both from the guilt and just from looking at Karl.

Dream followed closely behind Karl, placing his hand between Karl's shoulder blades to usher him back to his room. Karl had abandoned the modest hoodie from that morning, now wearing a loose t-shirt. The neckline had no success in hiding the marks Sapnap had left behind, meaning Karl was probably ready to share his side of last night's experience. Dream averted his eyes from Karl's neck when he looked up to him. Bloodshot eyes, tears clinging to the tips of his lashes, and a look of desperation Dream had never seen in Karl's eyes stared back at him.