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

Chapter 8: Worth

(**Note: contains blood, profanity, and physical violence. Reader discretion advised.**)

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Peter
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I was standing in a dark space, surrounded by water and low rolls of thunder. The cold air chilled me to my bones as raindrops fell against my cheeks. Lauren was crying. He stood there, his slender frame drenched in the rain his hands covering his face. Water pooled at his feet, the reflection of the night sky giving the impression that he stood atop a giant mirror. Deep thunder rolled overhead, the fresh smell of rainfall lingering in my nose as I stared at him. I could hear his quiet sobs through the cascade of rain.

Why . . . was he crying?

When I attempted to move, my legs remained rooted to the watery surface and my brows knit together in confusion. Several feet away, Lauren slowly sunk to his knees, his body outlined through his wet clothes.

A hollow sensation pulsed deep within my chest, coiling down tight my stomach. Who was it that had made him cry like that?

"Lauren," I murmured, trying my best not to spook him.

He froze, dropping his hands as he lifted his eyes to look up at me. I choked upon seeing the utterly heartbroken look on his face. Glistening tears streamed down his soft cheeks, his sorrowful gray eyes shining like radiant moonbeams. His mousy brown hair was plastered against his forehead and slender neck, drops of rain clinging to his body.

"Why, Peter?" he sniffled, taking a step towards me. He looked so 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 griped my heads, desperately trying to recall what happened last. I remembered us entering a building in Elyria, followed by a jumble fragments of memories. Fuck, why couldn't I remember anything? Had something happened to him? Did we get separated?

From seemingly everywhere and nowhere, a deep chuckle echoed through the space around me. The laughter was uncomfortably warped, penetrating my ears like an invader to my own mind. My eyes darted around as I sought out the misty landscape for where the nefarious laughter was originating from.

"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 appeared 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. "You are a fool to think you can have what is mine," the man mused, his ominous words making my skin crawl. "But now, thanks to you, I have found him at last."

Something dark twisted viciously within my gut at seeing this man place his hands possessively on Lauren. "Get away from him," I snarled as I fought to move even as my feet remained glued to the water. Striking my leg, a sharp curse left my lungs at my body's inability to cooperate.

A whisper drew my attention and I lifted my head to see Lauren reaching his hand out to me, eyes flooded with fresh tears as he pleaded for my help. Drops of bright crimson fell from his fingertips like a spring of scarlet.