Two Halves | Book One of The Judgement series

Chapter 24

Dream's Point of View

This is bad. This is really bad. Nightmare went back on our deal. This wasn't supposed to happen. Raven was supposed to wake up after Dove was dropped off. Now, Sci says that Raven's in a coma. I punched the wall, feeling the tears stream down my cheekbones. "Dammit!" 

"Dream," Ink called out to me. "What did you do?" 

"What did you do, Ink?" I turned to the Creator. "Do you think I didn't feel the RESET?" 

"I did what I had to. To protect them." 

"I simply did the same." Even though I said the words I didn't believe them. No, I just wanted my Raven back. It didn't matter the cost. 

"Dove is gone, Dream. Don't you care?" Ink's eyes glowed red. His rage mode was about to enable. 

"Of course I care. I care about Dove just like you do but I care about Raven more." I ignored Ink's stare, went over to the comatose girl, and took her hand. It was colder than normal and that scared me. 

"You have feelings for her." It wasn't a question but I responded anyways. 

"I'm not sure how I feel about her. I just know I care about her." 

"When did this start?" 

"She doesn't know." 

"That isn't what I asked." 

"I know." Raven's heartbeat picked up and her breathing became sporadic. My thumb caressed the back of her hand and I used my magick to calm her the best I could. My magick took effect immediately. 

"You know that this," Ink gestured between Raven and I, "can't happen. She'll be put into constant danger." 

"I know, Ink. That's why she doesn't." I looked at the pale ravenette fondly. 

"You traded Dove for her, didn't you?" 

"Nightmare went back on the agreement." 

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get our girl back." I stayed silent. "Dream?" 

"Shush." I stood up. The amount of negativity I sensed was incredible. Was this from Dove? My eye sockets widened at the thought. Raven started thrashing again and crying out but the voice that came out wasn't her own. It was Dove. 

"No! Nightmare! Stop it! Please! I don't like this!" She begged and pleaded for my brother to stop whatever he was doing. I had a feeling it wasn't something good. I stared at Ink. Fear was etched into his features. 

"Two shall come together..." 

~~~~~~

Lune's Point of View 

Things felt wrong. It was like something was missing. I found myself looking at the empty house next door a lot, like I'm expecting someone to suddenly live there. Even being on the roof like I am right now feels wrong. There should be someone with me. I don't know where the thought came from but I knew that was what's been bothering me. No one's there. 

It was strange to think about. Normally I wanted to be alone. It's why I come up here. Especially when I need to cool down. Like today, the reason I came up to the roof was because I threw a vase at my brother's head. I've been really ill tempered with him lately. More so than usual. Maybe it's because things feel so off. I glanced at the house next door again and something caught my eye. The window that faced my room was open. Upon instinct I looked around. All of a sudden my arm was twisted behind my back and something cold was pressed against my throat. 

"If you don't want to die then I suggest you don't move." My tentacles wrapped around my assailant's arms and tossed him. I turned around to see a skeleton with black dripping out of his eye sockets, a crazy smile, and a knife in hand. 

"Who are you?" 

"Doesn't matter. You just need to come with me." 

"No way in hell. Why should I?" 

"I have someone who wants to see you." 

"I don't trust you."

"Fair point." The skeleton rushed at me and I jumped backwards, onto the roof next door. My tentacles defended me from the attacks that were sent my way. My attacker cut me whenever he could, causing black goop to fall out of me like blood. I summoned my gaster blasters to my side but my attacker waved his finger at me, smirking. "You don't want to wake up the whole neighborhood, do you? You especially don't want your brother finding out you're in trouble." 

"Leave my brother out of this." 

"Protective over him? Oh, I see. The corruption hasn't taken you completely. Something's holding you back from it." I glared. All of a sudden the skeleton in front of me disappeared. I stayed on guard and kept glancing at my surroundings. Unfortunately, he took advantage of my blind spot and managed to get right behind me. "Does it have to do with Dove?" I felt myself freeze. I knew that name from somewhere. "Sorry, kid." My attacker punched me in the ribs and knocked me out. 

~~~~~~

When I came to, I still couldn't see anything. It was just too dark. My tentacles reached out into the darkness in an attempt to feel my surroundings but came into contact with something much stranger. I heard a small scream and shuffling. I tried to focus on whatever was moving. When my eyes adjusted to the little lighting in the room I still didn't recognize where I was. It was like I was in some sort of cell. 

Looking around, I noticed a human girl around my age huddled up in the brightest corner of the room, which wasn't very bright. She was a platinum blonde girl with dull grey eyes that looked like they were once blue. She was really dirty and skinny. She's been here longer than I have that's for sure. For some reason, it felt like I knew her. Hesitantly, I called out to her. "Are you Dove?"

Her breath caught and she hugged her legs closer to her body. "T-The goop.." The girl's voice was quiet, timid. I could barely hear her. 

"Huh?" 

"G-Get rid of it please." I did as she asked almost immediately. It was weird to be a normal skeleton again. Nothing dripping off of me, no tentacles to control. Just normal. The girl tried to stand but fell back to her knees. She was too weak to hold herself up. 

"You shouldn't push yourself, Dove. You'll hurt yourself more." My gaze turned to the cell bars, where the skeleton that attacked me was standing. He had two loaves of bread in his hands. He held one out to the girl. "Eat. Regain your strength. Then we'll see how you feel about walking around." The girl, Dove, nibbled on the bread. The skeleton turned to me. "I'm sorry about how I got you here but this one really needs you." He offered me the bread, which I hesitantly took. Dove grabbed my hand before I could go back to my corner. 

"Stay..." The skeleton who gave me the bread looked at me as if I performed some miracle. I sat down next to Dove, who leaned her head on my shoulder. This whole situation was strange but I got the feeling that if I was with her, everything would be alright.