VMK. FEATHERS FOR ONE, A CROW FOR THREE.

04

The air was burning up.

     The statement hit Jeongguk with the force of a cast iron pan. His chest rattled. His bones were moving again, warping and restless, desperate for a new home. Wanting peace. Reality had slipped off its neat timeline with a beat of its own, giving no care to the people it affected. Jeongguk felt hollow and used up, a carved pumpkin with no real destination or candle to give him a purpose. He was left to rot alone through the season until the stench became unbearable and was dumped into a bin without a second thought.

     "You were asleep?" He shook his head, inky strands fluttering from the force. "That makes no sense."

     Taehyung spread his hands, helpless. "That's how it happened. A dream." He winced, correcting himself. "A nightmare."

     "So you're saying I was, what, daydreaming?" Jeongguk looked incredulous, eyebrows bunched together, dark eyes swallowing up the dwindling sunlight. It had been one thing to witness something paranormal come to life, swishing through the atmosphere without any indication, sweeping Jeongguk off his feet. It was another to hear that it was his imagination.

     Taehyung claimed he saw the shadowy form in a nightmare. Jeongguk witnessed it while he was wide awake during the day. How was that possible? To see the same horrid creation in different states of cognition. The angelic boy fidgeting across from him perceived the being as a projection of struggles from his own life, something that could only haunt him in his sleep. Jeongguk, on the other hand, saw it as something tangible and most concerning of all, a threat to his own life force.

     If nightmares could become true, the raven boy knew he was living in one.

     "Of course you were."

     "What a fucking mess this is."

///

     Jeongguk left Taehyung in the alleyway, muttering nonsense under his breath. He hadn't looked back to see Taehyung's face. Hadn't wanted to. They were seeing the same monster. A sick duplicate having everything in common and yet sharing no similarities.

     His vision swam, black spots floating across his line of sight. Blinking did nothing. The street would only come into view once more with dark fuzzy edges creeping forward again, threatening to stamp out his vision with the same inky mass he knew he was doomed to catch sight of once more. Nightmares were always recurring. You'd hope it was the last of it after awakening but when you least expected it, the terrifying prospect came back into your sleep.

     What were you supposed to do when your days became night and your mind existed only in dream-like states? Was it just a horrifically twisted state of reality?

     Jeongguk felt trapped. A bird in a cage witnessing his captor swallow the key with a savage grin. The dreadful knowledge that there was no way out except through starvation. Who was starving Jeongguk out?

     A groan left his chapped lips. He nudged off his chunky boots with his heels, leaving the pair messily in the doorway. His father was going to get aggravated at the sight but it would have been the fifth time that week anyway. Jeongguk got pretty good at blocking out the constant influx of curses and grumbles and insults. The harsh words were always met with ones of his own, so what did it matter?

     The air was hazy with smoke, the smell dense and acrid, already clinging to his clothes, mouth, overcoming all of his senses. Just another worn habit his father couldn't shake. Jeongguk wrinkled his nose at the ever-present intrusion. He ducked his head into the living room to see if his dad was sitting on the couch. He was.