In Real Life (Niam/Nouis/Zarry)

Chapter Fifteen

I wandered around in the forest, fighting against the trees in an insane effort to get to a clearing. "Hello?!" I called out as I searched harder than before. I've never been to this part before, the dungeon of the castle was my domain. This was beyond strange, something that I'd never thought was possible. There was something beyond the castle, something beyond what I was used to.

"So, what are you doing here?" A familiar voice asked. I turned around and a smile crept on my face as I saw my knight.

"Liam?" I asked aloud. The knight grabbed his helm and took it off, showing me his face. I smiled at the guy I couldn't get out of my mind. I ran over and jumped in his open arms. He lifted me up and spun me around over and over. A chill swept through me as my body was held against his metal armor. I grinned at his smiling brown eyes as we sat down together. I looked over at my knight who was staring me down with caring eyes. A smile crept over my face at the intensity of his gaze. "What?" I asked him.

"You're just so beautiful." He whispered.

A laugh broke free from me and I fell over, hiding my face in the grass. "You're crazy." I mumbled. His hands encased my waist and he turned me over. I covered my face with my hands so he couldn't see the deep red blush. His strong hands pried mines away and we just stared at each other once he got on top of me.

"I mean it, you're the most beautiful thing I've ever laid my eyes on." He said, bending lower so that our lips were mere inches apart.

I raised a brow at him. "Thing?" I asked, causing a smile to creep on his face at my light humor.

"Person, you know what I meant." He said, kissing my cheeks right afterwards.

"Liam?" I asked him.

"Yes?"

"Why are you dressed as a knight?"

"I don't know, this is your head." He said, shrugging nonchalantly.

I froze, letting his words register in my mind. "My head?" I asked. "Am I daydreaming or regular dreaming."

"I guess you could call this dreaming."

My blood ran cold as I asked softly, "Am I dead?"

"As close to death as you can be." He said sadly. Liam got up from above me and walked backwards slowly. He held out his hand for me to grab and I did, following him as we walked.

We stepped in silence as I pondered everything he said.  "So I'm not dead, but I'm not awake. Am I in a coma?" He glanced at me but didn't answer. "Then I need to wake up, that's all." I told him.

"We've had this same conversation before." He whispered softly.

"Why do you sound so sad?" I asked him. He came to a complete stop and I stared at him. He wasn't looking at me, just straight ahead. I turned and looked at the bare wall that he was staring at. I looked at it as well, noticing the small niches and scrapes into the bare stone wall. He took his sword out of it's sheathe and brought it up to the wall, making another scratch that matched the others.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I don't want to say, can we just live in the moment?"

"Liam!" I said sternly, not wanting him to keep any secrets from me. He brought his hand to my face and I leaned into it, loving the way he was holding me gently, yet worried about his melancholy expression.

"I'm marking days." He said, looking at the wall. I looked at it too, trying to count the number of marks. After reaching thirty I gave up and looked at him.