Ends of the Earth [DNF]

Chapter 24: The aftermath

It had been three weeks since everything fell apart. Dream was back at the base and had never felt more miserable.

Praised as a hero but felt like the villain. People at the base had greeted him as though he'd found the way to immortality. When in reality, all he'd done was forgetting to turn off a stupid piece of plastic and therefore ruining everything. He could see it now. How the council twisted truths to fit the reality they'd convince people of. His story became their greatest weapon to demonize "the others" even further. People were told that Dream and Sapnap had been kidnapped and how Sapnap was still "the others" prisoner. Which was sort of true. But that's where the reality stops. The official story was that Dream had been so tormented by his kidnapper and found his only way out to play a martyr. Getting close to "the other" and making him reveal their secrets, all while slowly luring him closer to the bunker. They did everything possible to alienate and making "the others" seem like vicious people with more similarities with animals than humans.

Dream couldn't wrap his head around how everyone bought the story completely, no critical thinking at all. Even holding two of "the others" captured managed to get justified. His dad had preached to the people that they were only trying to find a way to negotiate with them in favor of putting an end to the "horrendous" war. The fact that themselves had been the first to make a move against "the others" by kidnapping that girl, seemed to have been forgotten.

A few select people knew what the council ordered the scientists to do to the prisoners. Dahlia was unfortunately one of them and had been more than willing to share every gruesome detail with him. It was obvious that she didn't value their life higher than your common housefly and spoke of the torture that they were put through without any remorse. It got to the point where Dream couldn't stand it anymore. He broke it of with her, blaming it on the "trauma" after his time on the surface. None of them seemed to care much and Dream saw her making out with someone new just a couple days later but it didn't face him one bit.

It became more and more difficult to be in the bunker. Not only did the thought of what George was being put through haunt him night and day. But Sapnap was still "kidnapped", making Dream more alone than ever. He kept to himself, spoke only when spoken to and tried to figure out how to fix this mess. Nightmares kept him awake most of the nights and nothing helped. Guilt was eating him alive.