⛓ My beautiful caged songbird ⛓

Chapter 4: Team B

—Pandora’s prison—

Everything was a mess.

The once monstrous prison Sam put all his blood, sweat and tears into making for months… was destroyed in one day. It was a shame. Majority of the roof of the prison was gone, as though some God had blasted a hole from above. Walls had major  cracks, and the flooring uneven. There were debris pieces that fell from the ceiling scattering all around the corridor as they walked to Dream’s cell. No need for a security check since all the levers and mechanisms broke down from the blast. However, what was most astonishing for them was the lava. 

The ocean of lava that was used as a boundary was utterly gone.

It had vanished, as though it had evaporated in the air like water. There wasn’t a single trace of the red magma liquid around. Ant explained to them he nor Bad had no knowledge of how this happened, or where the lava went. Punz and George didn’t like the fact that their intel with what happened here had little to go with, and how Dream had disappeared along with the god freakin lava.

Puffy hadn’t said a word since they got here 10 minutes ago. She’d inspected the roof and halls of the prison, seeing if anything was off, but so far nothing.

They finally reached Dream’s main cell

“You know, for a prisoner,” Punz started to say as he looked around, his brows raising in question, “he sure had a lot of nice things.” He touched the books that were stacked in the chest he opened, all neatly arranged from their heights. Didn't Dream only have blank books to write on? Because from what he was seeing, there were even thick varieties of story books and novels. He scratched the back of his head. “I sorta had the image that being alone for 8 months would make him go insane. So he’d tear down the walls, and litter the floor with paper or something. He seemed to have a pleasant stay here.”

George found a couple of clean clothes neatly folded atop each other, and placed on the lectern. Clearly the clothes didn’t belong to Dream as some of them were too big to fit him, and the colors were different from the other, but were neither green, nor black. What were they doing here? Did Sam give him these?

“I think you’re right about that,” Antfrost said as he went to look at Dream’s bed. “Look at this. Seven fluffy pillows and warm blankets.” He looked at the corner and gasped when he saw an instrument resting at the corner. “And a guitar? Did Dream demand Sam to give him all of these? I may be somewhat of a lousy outside guard, but I thought he was doing a better job as a warden.”

“Um, I sent him those,” Puff confessed in a small voice, they all looked at her. “The pillows and blankets I mean, not the guitar.”

“I thought you said you didn’t visit Dream? Why are you sending him gifts?” Punz questioned.

“They’re not gifts, its just…” she sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Okay, I haven’t been completely honest with you guys. Although I didn't visit my duckling these past 8 months, we have been in contact… Sam let us exchange letters with each other.”

Crash!

They jumped.

George dropped the clock he was inspecting. He looked at her incredulously before shaking his head. “He contacted you, but not me, nor Sapnap?” He questioned, sounding hurt.

Dream would talk to someone who hadn’t been with him for too long, rather than his oldest friends?

“Actually, I sent him the letter first.” She corrected, “Just a month after his imprisonment. I was surprised he replied back so quickly.”

Punz frowned. “So you sent him pillows and blankets because he wrote he’d been sleeping on the floors?” He guessed.

She shook her head. Puffy bit her lip, and they were confused by her reaction. “In all the letters he sent to me, Dream’s been refusing to tell me the state of his cell, probably didn’t want to worry me. But that’s not the reason why I sent those pillows and blankets to him…”