The Nightmare Glitch

III

After the movie, Seán helped me repack for my trip and he fell back asleep. Those nightmares lately were getting to him, and with the new development, I'm worried. I mean, this is Anti we're talking about, who knows how he could hurt Seán. He's already slicing him up, I don't want to come home to an empty house.

I took a deep breath. Calm down, Nate will be here, he'll let me know if anything happens.

I then realized I actually hadn't called Nate yet. I whipped out my phone and clicked his number, putting it up to my ear as it continued to ring.

After a moment, a voice spoke. "Hello?"

"Hey, Nate," I greeted. It'd been some time since I last talked to him and I missed his voice. We used to be closer, but after everything with— her —we kind of just drifted apart.

"Oh, hey, Mark. It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has. Hey, are you busy for the next few days?"

"Umm, let me check." It was silent except for the faint sound of paper rustling. "Umm, nope. Surprisingly, I'm free for the next week. I guess I'm more ahead on my shit than I thought."

I chuckled. "Well, I'm glad. I kind of have a huge favor to ask of you."

"What about?"

I explained to him the whole situation with our sides, seeing as he's kind of been out of the loop. Needless to say, he was shocked. I didn't realize but we'd forgotten to tell him about Leni, so he had no clue she'd died. He actually apologized profusely for not being there, even though it wasn't his fault.

"I'm so sorry for everything man. You don't deserve that shit, neither of you does."

I wiped away a few stray tears. Talking about that time always destroyed me. "Yeah, I know. Anyway, about that favor."

"Yeah, of course, man, whatever you need. What is it that you need?"

"I'm gonna be out of state for I'm not sure how long for a conference and I was wondering if you'd come and spend a few nights here and watch over Seán?"

"Not that I'm against that, but why? He's a big boy."

"Yeah, he is, but he's not safe alone." I could almost hear the smile slip off his face.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, remember Anti?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, he's decided to make a reappearance. Seán rarely gets nightmares, and if he does, they're usually premonitions. But he's been having the same Anti-related nightmare for the past two months, slowly building up in occurrence until they're every night. However, when I finally found out about them two nights ago, it changed. Now, any injury he gets in the nightmare, he gets in real life."

"Holy shit. Are you fucking serious?"

"Yeah. An hour or two ago, he woke up from a nap with a bruised ankle and a gash running down the length of his left arm."

"Fuck. This is serious."

"Yeah. Seán won't let me stay home from the conference, but we decided that if you agreed, he wouldn't mind you staying here to help him."

"Yeah, yeah, totally. I'll be there in a half-hour."

I sighed a breath of relief. "Thank you, man. This really means a lot."

"Hey, what are friends for? I'll see you in a bit."

"Alright, see you." I hung up and fell back onto the bed. I looked back over my shoulder and smiled. Seán needed to get out more. He'd been cooped up for too long. Cringemas was the first time he's seen his friends face-to-face since the funeral.

I snapped back to attention when I felt eyes on me. Seán was awake and staring at me with a small smile on his face.

"Were you staring at me, you weirdo?"

He chuckled. "Says the one watching me sleep, creep."

"Hey, that rhymed."

He smacked me in the arm, then winced as that jostled his injured arm.

"I called Nate. He'll be here in half an hour."

Seán nodded, "how long till you have to leave?"

I checked my watch, noting that it was 8:30. I sighed for like the hundredth time in the last four hours. "As soon as Nate gets here."

The silence stretched on as neither of us knew what to say. We were both consumed with worry and fear, not knowing what the hell the future would hold for us concerning one glitch demon.

We eventually headed downstairs and played some video games until Nate showed up and I had to leave.

There was a knock at the door, so I paused our game and got up to open it.

Nate was standing there with a duffel over his shoulder and a smile on his face.

I smiled back and opened the door further to let him in. "Hey, man. Glad you could make it." After I closed the door behind him, I turned and hugged him.

"Me, too."

Seán stood up and circled the couch to hug him. "It's been a while."

"It sure has," Nate chuckled. "It's good to see y'all."

Seán then looked at me. "You have to go soon, don't you?"

I nodded.

Nate looked between the two of us, "I'm gonna head to the bathroom," and he walked out of the room.

I leaned down and picked my own duffel off the floor by the front door before turning to look at Seán. "I really don't want to go."

Seán smiled and nodded. "I know, but we both know how important this conference is. Plus, one of us has to go and I went last year. What would Leni say?"

Immediately the smile slipped off his face, and I could tell he regretted the words. "Babe, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean—"

I shook my head, cutting him off. "No, it's ok. I needed that." I took a deep breath and smiled. "She'd probably call me a big bubble-blowing baby and that I need to man up."

Seán wrapped his arms around me, being careful with his left arm. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him on the neck, the only place I could reach, as tears descended my face. "I miss her. I miss our baby girl."

"I do, too," he whispered into my neck.

After a moment, we separated and I bent down to pet the dogs who'd been nuzzling our legs. "I have to go. I'll see you in a few days."

"See ya. Tá mé I ngrá leat (I love you)."

I smiled. Seán didn't speak Irish often, but I always loved when he did. His gravelly voice was just made for it, which I guess makes sense because he's Irish, but he didn't grow up speaking it. He grew up speaking English and he learned a few phrases as he grew up, but he's not fluent. "나도 사랑해 (I love you, too)."

I went outside and threw my bag in the front seat of the car, got in myself, and drove off, starting the 9-hour journey to Arizona for a stupid business conference.