Chapter 38: Waking Alone

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George POV.

The morning was quiet as I woke up, and the bedroom was cold and lonely without being able to share my bed with Karl. As I rubbed my eyes I thought about how I probably deserved to wake up cold and lonely since I had nightmares every night which woke up everyone in the house.

Last night was surprisingly more manageable than before. Instead of screaming and begging and getting everybody’s attention with my fears about Dream and my father and that devillious river out in the forest, I woke up quietly. It was a strange break in routine but it was one that I was fine with.

I woke up with tears rolling down my cheeks and quiet sobs after having nightmares of myself being hunted through the forest by my father with a shotgun and Dream. Just when I thought I had reached the familiar safety of my cabin I was pulled into the river, which wildly dragged my body again and basically tore me to shreds in the rapids.

My head buried itself in Karl’s pillow and I just kept sobbing as the nightmare added itself to the gallery of memories which plagued me throughout the night. Thankfully nobody in the house was bothered and so I didn’t have to feel guilty.

I slunk out of bed, deciding to pull on a hoodie which had been gifted to Karl. Since I started staying here a few weeks ago I usually only wore his clothes. He didn’t mind since we often shared stuff when we were living in the cabin together, and I would much rather wear his things than wear stuff from my room since it might mean crossing paths with Dream.

As I sat up my stomach rumbled, giving me my first job of the day which just so happened to be getting something to eat. I finished pulling on some of my best friend’s clothes before slinking out into the hallway of the silent home. I continued to walk silently down the stairs and to the kitchen.

Usually Sapnap would be cooking all of the meals for me and Karl. He and Dream had originally been switching the cooking responsibilities however ever since I found out what Dream was I had outright refused any of his food.

Since Sapnap wasn’t awake I decided that I would just grab myself some snacks and return to Karl’s bedroom. I wouldn’t wake anybody up, and I wouldn’t hang around. Then I’d return to my room and wait for Karl and Sapnap to wake up and then I’d have an actual breakfast and we could play minecraft or watch a movie or do something else.

Much to my surprise and fear, I wasn’t the first person in the house awake, nor was I the first person in the house to the kitchen. Somebody else had beaten me here and was now moving around and making his own food. When he sensed that somebody else was here he spun around, his eyes glowed brightly but they dimmed when they saw me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, managing to hide my fear as I took a step back.
“I live here.” Was how he responded, turning back to grab the plate of food which smelt so nice that I considered just asking him to make me some then and there, but I resisted. “But if you mean why am I in the kitchen, that’s because I’m hungry and I also had to feed Patches.”

As he said that he motioned over to the cat and I saw that she was by her food and water bowl which sat beside the fridge. She was munching away at some biscuits and didn’t care about the fact that either of us were there, or the standoff that we were having. “You don’t need to worry. I am going back to my room now.”

I didn’t respond as he walked past, his entire body seeming stiff as he turned and walked up the stairs with a glass of water in one hand and a plate with a grilled cheese sandwich in the other hand. When he was gone I scoffed and walked over to the pantry, planning on looking for something to eat.

There was a lot of food in there, as there often was. It was all sorts of different snacks and I rifled through all of the options, trying to see what I felt like. Eventually I grabbed a bag of Sour Patch Kids, deciding that they were better than nothing. I opened the bag and stuffed a handful into my mouth.

As I stood there my gaze drifted around, looking at all of the different things. Patches finished her food before hurrying off to somewhere else in the house. Then I turned towards the window, looking out towards the forest. This was something that I hadn’t done in a long time and I began looking over the distance.

How quickly would I be able to run over there? I asked myself. How quickly would I be able to run the distance between the house and the treeline and disappear forever? It was one of the questions that Karl and I had asked ourselves every time that we tried to escape, back before we began to settle into this life.

Every single time that we attempted an escape we would be caught by Dream and Sapnap, however now I knew that I would not have to worry about that happening. There was nothing and nobody to stop me from disappearing into the forest.

Dream knew that I hated him and he would likely stay isolated in his room the whole day. Karl and Sapnap both cared about me, but they were probably fed up with me sleeping in Karl’s room, which meant that he had to sleep in Sapnap’s room. It also meant Sapnap had twice as much to do to look after us and twice as many humans to take care of.

Humans to take care of’ I was even beginning to sound like them. I rolled my eyes at the thought before taking a deep breath. I really did need to leave. I stuffed the Sour Patch Kids along with a few other bags of food into the large pockets of my hoodie before walking over to the door.

Sapnap and Dream had decided that since we had been growing more comfortable with life here that they didn’t need to be as careful about locking doors and hiding keys. I walked over to the hooks where all of the keys were hung for everything. One of them I recognised from occasionally watching the two of them locking the door and I snatched it.

I walked over to the door and unlocked it. Despite not touching a key for over ten years it was relatively simple to open. Then I dropped the key onto the floor and opened the door, stepping out into the chilly morning.

Although it sucked to be going back to the wild I knew that I was more prepared than I was when I was kicked out of home as a kid. Now I had warm clothes, and I had pockets full of food. After taking a minute to slowly breath and regain my composure I began jogging over towards the treeline.
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1257 words

Isn't George being very (mentally) healthy, by keeping all his trauma to himself and running off into the forest alone since he thinks he's a burden.

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