right where you left me

chapter one

Present Day

"Thank you, Dream, for showing up for us today."

Dream smiled at the lady sitting in front of him. Her platinum-blonde hair fell down her sides in stiff ringlets, wrung so tightly he wondered if they were still warm from the curling iron. The silver dress she wore hugged her figure shamelessly, and Dream would be a liar if he said he hadn't let his eyes wander below her pearly teeth.

"It's my pleasure, really."

"The pleasure is all ours." She clasped her hands together, grinning manufacturedly before turning towards her assistant behind the camera, "Now, for the last bit of our time, we're going to pull in some questions from our viewers."

Dream's fake, pleasant expression faltered for a moment. Green eyes frantically met the confused ones of his manager, who only reciprocated with a shrug.

Whatever. He'd been in tough situations in front of an audience hundreds of times, this was no different. Except for the fact that this was his first in-person interview after face revealing two years ago, and it made it a make-or-break opportunity to revive his slowing career.

He shifted his attention back towards the teleprompter behind the camera holding his fate. A tweet emerged, one with a profile picture of his face. He skimmed over the words as it was read out to him.

What's one thing you've been looking forward to in your career, and has it, or will it, come true?

Alright, easy question.

Dream cleared his throat, "Well, a lot of things have changed and thrown me off course during my time as a creator. The 2020 pandemic, for example," he looked at his interviewer, who nodded understandingly. "Being faceless during the majority of the growing period of my career really added to that, and it kind of forced me to interact with my community in creative ways— Ways in which other anonymous creators weren't already doing."

"Creators such as Corpse Husband ?"

"Yeah," Dream nodded. "Not that anything he was doing was bad, I just needed to find different ways to accomplish the same amount of success. During it all, however, the one thing I really was looking forward to was meeting the people I'd worked with all this time, including my fanbase. It was a dream, pun not intended, of mine since the beginning, and I'm happy to say that it has come true."

"Who are some of these people you were excited to meet?"

"Well, many of my friends lived in England at the time. TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot, Tubbo," Dream listed. "Even people in the U.S., like Karl Jacobs and Quackity, who lived pretty far from Florida were only able to see me in person after I showed my face."

She smiled, looking back at the teleprompter, "Speaking of friends, let us answer the next fan-sent question."

Any feeling of confidence he'd garnered from answering the previous inquiry was wiped by the next submission. An all too familiar sense of ache settled into his muscles again, velvet inside his veins freezing over.

Have you spoken with GeorgeNotFound at all after his infamous disappearance? If not, do you know of his whereabouts and/or what he's been up to?

The petty white demon in front of him cocked her head innocently. Any attraction Dream felt for her was long gone, replaced by a deep hatred for everyone in the room.

"No, unfortunately, I have not spoken with George," Dream squawked. He ran a hand through his hair, laughing awkwardly to stall the conversation. "I'm sure he's still in London and living his life out, he's twenty-eight now. His birthday was last week, you know. He'd always talked about wanting to spend ' just a little over halfway to fifty' with Sapnap and me, but I guess that plan fell through. We'd actually had this whole thing set up, a trip to the Bahamas, drinks by the beach since Sapnap would be legal by then, partying with just the three of us—"