𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐏 , v:ld [𝘋𝘐𝘚𝘊𝘖𝘕𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘜𝘌𝘋]

21 ★ FIRST DREAM

❝ FIRST DREAM. ❞

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.
tw // idk but i got some anxiety writing
this chapter it may just be me. there's nothing
gorey or in your face, just proceed with caution.

Rowan felt like he was drowning. It wasn't in a metaphorical or poetical sense (not in this moment at least)— but instead he literally could not breathe, and whatever liquid he was thrashing around in reeked like candle smoke.

Unlike a normal suffocation though it seemed prolonged, almost in slow motion, like he had the lungs of an Olympic swimmer. And he knew he wasn't going to die. A strange calmness seemed to have its hold on his thoughts. All he knew was serenity, and even as he swam for air he couldn't help but want to stay in the dark with his waterlogged lungs.

Rowan did not feel fear until he threw himself onto the rock hard shore and realized he did not know where he was. The ocean that had stilled everything around him was just as unfamiliar as the sheen glass below him and the dark purple sky above him.

He suddenly found himself grateful that whatever was lapping at his feet was warm, and that he was not shivering in the dark like a wet puppy abandoned in the Grim Reaper's alleyway. And it took him a few minutes, but eventually he managed to stand on his feet and climb up the slope that could barely be considered a beach.

There was nothing. And the nothingness was terrifyingly empty.

Before him was just the glass floor, stretching perfectly horizontal until he could squint no further. Behind him was the ocean, with waves moving in sync and not faltering once. Even the sky did not change. There was not a single cloud, not a star nor a bird. Nothing that could distinguish one area from another. All of it evenly glowed that menacing purple, the only source of light in whatever this hell was.

Purgatory? Could he be in purgatory? It couldn't be hell because there was not one flicker of fire, yet it couldn't be heaven because... well what kind of heaven would be this barren? That rose another question: was he dead? He doesn't remember dying, there was no pain as his eyes closed for what was supposed to be an uneventful slumber.

Deep down Rowan didn't want to die, but if he had then he found comfort in knowing that he was with his friends for his final days.

Finally there came a noise. It wasn't his own steady yet piercing breaths or the small taps of his feet against the ground. It was a low mumble, one clearly meant to be words but blocked out. It sounded like his TV as a child when he would throw his pillow over his head to try and block out some noise. It sounded like he was still sinking in the sea he had clawed his way out of.

It sounded... familiar. Not to him exactly, but maybe to his soul. Or a spirit that had clung to him. He blinked, and there it was. A... human.

He couldn't make out many details. The person was standing far in the distance and they seemed much hazier than their very sharp surroundings. They continued to mumble with their back facing towards Rowan, their fuzzy fingers cupped around their mouth and their head slowly swiveling to different directions.

Rowan realized they were yelling. It was not good enough, for he still couldn't hear. Maybe getting closer would help? And so he began moving forward.

But his legs were dead weight. His sleep clothes were like lead, the liquid of the quiet sea taking over each and every atom of the fabric. And he felt tired, more tired than he had going to sleep on any night during this trip. The few steps he did manage didn't help any. The figure only became more unfocused, and the words only became more inaudible.

I'm... I'm over here... Rowan tried to shout, his arm raising as if he could close the distance between them and grab ahold of the stranger. His arm fell, and his shout refused to raise above a whisper.

Rowan could feel his eyes closing. He had anchors on his eyelids, anchors that would any moment now hit the sand thousands of miles beneath and drag him along with it. He couldn't control them as everything faded away, he couldn't control his feet as the ocean behind him suddenly appeared once again at his toes.

Maybe this was purgatory... but apparently it wasn't his time.

All he saw was the strangers assuring smile, all he felt was the liquid around him, and all he heard was Save me, before he woke up.

★★★
these next 2 chapters are going to be fairly short but plot heavy 😼

today marks the babs 3 year anniversary😳😳😳😳 so i will be publishing one chapter for each year bc thats my max LMFAO. i dont have anything to say that they havent already heard but i love yall and stan the babs