Where a chase leads

Girl in grey

In the moment, you decided to chase after them. Once quite far away, they stopped and stood there, out of breath. They heard your footsteps, as you slowed down.
'Alex, I swear to DreamXD, if you've come to ask me if I've seen Candice again I'll-' She began, turning around to face you and stopping mid sentence. She wore a grey cropped top, skirt and boots, with a small, dark top hat placed on her head.
'Uhm, I'm sorry to bother you but I saw you running and wondered what was going on.' You explained.
'Who are you?' She enquired, ignoring what you said, while glaring at you in annoyance.
'I'm Y/N, you?' You replied.
'Well Y/N, if you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate if you left.' The girl said, pushing a loose strand of purple hair behind her ear.

This started to annoy you. She was ignoring almost everything you said.

'What's your name?' You repeated, deciding to ignore what she said because she had done the same to you.
'Illyria, if you really must know.' She sighed.

Found her.

'Oh, your the one Lilly said about!' You smiled.
Illyria rolled her eyes at the name, you ignored it though.

'Nice to meet you Illyria.' You said trying to be nice to avoid arguing with her at the moment, seeing that you only just met.
'Nice to meet you too.' She muttered, barely audible. The edge of her lip curled into a small smile before quickly being hidden. You must have imagined it...
She looked you in the eyes, seeming to be studying your demeanour. After a long, awkward couple of minutes of her staring at you, she asked a question.
'You look like Tommy, are you related?'

This was the second time your brother had been brought up today. The thought still made you sad. Although you had accepted the truth that you would probably never see him again, you still held onto the sliver of hope that he'd be found and come home. The hope that you'd find him standing happily in the doorway. That he'd run up and hug you as the door was opened. He was probably long gone by now. It had been years.

'Yeah, he was my older brother.' You replied sadness hinted in your tone.
The girl noticed and her expression changed to slight sympathy.
'It's sad what happened to him isn't it?'

How did all these people know your brother and what happened?

You nodded. Illyria put her hand on your shoulder and looked at you.
As much as you hated to say it, you honestly didn't know what had happened to your brother, you just knew he had gone missing. Did Illyria know?
'Uh-' She said, unsure of how to comfort you, 'Do you like this place so far?'
'I guess you could kind of say that, everyone seems really nice,' You smiled sadly, 'I keep getting lost though.'
The two of you laughed. Illyria looked down and noticed patches.
'Why is she with you?' She asked, slightly suspicious.
You looked at her.
'I said... why is that cat with you!?' Illyria said, raising her voice, becoming annoyed again and demanding to know.
'She was with Drista and followed me.' You stated.
Illyria crossed her arms. You were slightly taken aback by her outburst but seeing how she acted earlier, it was expected.
'Right..' She said.
At that moment, Dream walked over to you, his mask now propped on the side of his head so you could see his face. He smiled at you as you turned.
'I see you've met more of my friends?' He grinned.
You nodded.
'Has Alex come yet?' He asked you and Illyria.
Illyria shook her head.
'I'll go and find him, Y/N might as well meet everyone while they're staying here.' He said cheerfully, turning away.
Before you or Illyria could reply, Dream had left.
You and Illyria stood in another awkward silence once again until Dream wandered back, a young boy, who looked around 17 or 18, the same age as you, following closely behind him. The boy had wavy, brunette hair and was wearing a long, dark blue jacket with a white shirt and black, slightly ripped trousers beneath it. His arms were bandaged from his elbows to his palms and he wore black earrings with purple jewels hanging from them.
'Y/N, meet Alex.' Dream introduced.
This was the person that Illyria had mistaken you for.
'Nice to meet you Y/N.' Alex smiled, his brown curls falling idly across his face.
You smiled back, 'Nice to meet you Alex.'
The boy seemed to have a small cut across his left cheek, you noted.
'I'll... leave you guys to talk.' Dream said, acting calm but you could see a sly look in his eyes, as if he was planning something.
Again, before anyone could say anything, he wandered away, seeming to disappear once he got further away. It must have been a trick of the light. It must be your mind playing tricks on you. You must just be tired and didn't see him turn a corner or speed up.

'You seem different from the others...' Alex began absentmindedly.
You turned to him.
'What?'
He looked up, seeming to snap out of his thoughts and realise what was going on.
'Oh, nothing.' Alex said after receiving a glance from Illyria.
You knew you probably shouldn't question it at the moment so you ignored it as you had with everything else. But you'd already ignored so much today... You'd seen so many strange things and couldn't keep just brushing them off.
'That's it, I've had enough, what's going on here?' You demanded. The others stopped and stared at you, even patches seemed to stop in her tracks and stare up at you. Illyria sighed.
'Follow us.' She lowered her voice and turned away. Alex looked down and turned too. You followed them until you reached one of the many doors, this one seeming slightly older than some of the ones you'd seen previously. Illyria opened it and led you inside. Patches tried to follow you in but Illyria stopped her at the door.
'Sorry patches, your Dream's cat and we can't risk anything.'
She shut the door.

Illyria sighed and turned around to face you and Alex.
'Where do we start...'

Alex looked her in the eyes then looked down again.
'Firstly, do you know why you're here?'
You shook your head.
'I was being chased in the forest, then I saw this place and ran inside. That's when I found-'
Illyria cut you off and shook her head.
You stood, staring at the ground, waiting for them to tell you what was going on, it never came. You looked up, they were gone, blood covered the walls and Dream stood there with a sword. You blinked. Blinked again.

'Y/N. Y/N? Earth to Y/N.' Alex waved a hand in front of your face.
You blinked again.
'You alright?' He asked.
'Yeah...just-' You didn't know how to end your sentence so you just stood waiting for them to continue.
When Illyria and Alex realised you weren't going to finish, they continued what they were saying.
'As Illyria was saying, you were being chased here, that was for a reason.'
'Hold on.. Why are you guys telling me this?' You asked.
'That doesn't matter right now.' Illyria said. 'What does matter, is that we tell you what we can about this place.'
You stopped talking to listen, blocking out the thought of your hallucination and questions. Illyria spoke again.
'It's basically our job to gain the trust of those who enter, stop any suspicions until we can-'
You heard footsteps outside the doorway. Illyria and Alex looked at each other frantically then pushed you to the corner of the room. Alex opened the door to reveal Dream kneeling beside patches who was still outside the door. Dream nodded to the cat, then turned to Alex and stood up, brushing dust off his clothes.
'Hello Dream.' Illyria said cheerfully.
'Alex, Illyria, what are you doing in there? And where's Y/N?'
'Oh, Y/N said she wanted to explore again so we came to finish some work here.' Alex smiled.
Dream looked Alex in the eyes for a moment, the tension thickening between them. They seemed to be back to their normal selves.
'Well I'll let you finish, come to my office after, we need a talk.'
'That's what she said... Ouch- sorry-'

First finished: 27/3/22