Setting Fire to the Stars (a MM Sci-Fi Romance)

Chapter 8: Worth

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Peter
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I stood in darkness. Dark water pooled around my feet, storm clouds rolling over my head, heavy with the sounds of low thunder. The chill crept into my bones, drops of rain kissing my upturned cheeks.

Someone was crying.

Searching for the source of the sound, I turned to see a figure standing several feet away, their feet submerged in the dark, inky waters. My mouth went dry as the person tipped their face upwards.

Lauren. His slender frame was drenched through his clothes, hands covering his face. The cold rain trickled down his legs, his reflection amidst the stormy sky giving the impression that he stood atop a giant mirror. Thunder rolled overhead, reverberating so deeply that the water rippled with waves. The clean smell of rainfall tickling in my nose.

I stared at him, his quiet sobs reaching me even through the cascade of rain.

Why was he crying?

When I pushed forward, the water clutched at my ankles like a pair of cold hands, feet locked in place. I stared down at the ripples tethered around my legs like shackles, teeth grinding as if I could bully them into submission.

Ahead of me, Lauren sagged onto his knees, looking so frail and powerless as if the world had slowed around him. His clothes clung to his legs, water dragging down the lines of his body, and for a heartbeat I swore I could feel the weight of his mournful cries. Something cold and hollow punched behind my sternum, spiraling downward until it knotted in my gut.

His shoulders shook. Silently. Devastatingly. Who the hell had made him cry like this?

"Lauren—" My voice cracked across the water, sounding as fragile as glass.

He froze, dropping his hands before he lifted his eyes to me. I choked upon seeing the utterly heartbroken expression on his face. Glistening tears streamed down his cheeks, those sorrowful gray eyes shining like radiant moonbeams. His sopping wet hair was plastered against his forehead, clinging to his slender neck as drops of water streamed down his face.

"Why, Peter?" he sniffled, taking a step towards me. My heart twinged with guilt. Right now, he looked almost fragile, like he would break down at any moment. "Why did you leave me? I needed you."

That hollow ache in my chest tightened and I balled my hands, desperately trying to recall what happened last. I recalled us entering a building in Elyria. A jumbled fragments of memories cycled through my mind. Fuck, why couldn't I remember? Had something happened to him? Did we get separated?

From seemingly everywhere and nowhere, a deep chuckle abruptly pierced through the space around me. The laughter was uncomfortably warped, penetrating my ears like an invader to my own mind. My eyes darted around wildly as I sought the misty landscape for the owner of the nefarious laughter.

"So, you're the insignificant bug invading his dreams." A deep voice uttered with a lilting accent I couldn't quite place. Seeming to have appeared out of thin air, a man materialized behind Lauren. Clothed in a suit as black as night, the stranger's words dripped with malice, his otherworldly purple eyes watching me like a viper preparing to strike. He had an arm wrapped around Lauren, fingers as pale as death grasping his face.