Predator (DWT x OC)

13

Turns out, being a badass heroine who rescues herself was a lot more difficult than I first thought. For one, trying to escape your ex-friend's creepy dungeon lair in the middle of nowhere is hard enough. Add in several injuries and weeks of being kept inside, and you've got yourself a pretty shitty time. 

I limp slowly down the track I've managed to spot. Obviously Fundy uses this route, and hopefully it'll lead me back home, or at least somewhere I recognise. The danger with this however, is running into him on the way, which would probably result in either my immediate execution, or a slow painful crushing of the last of my will to live. Either way, I just hope he doesn't come back soon. Or that Dream kills him. 

I clutch my injured hand, which is swelling at an alarming rate and steadily turning a shade of deep purple. At best, it's fractured, and at worst it's completely shattered to pieces. My tailbone is excruciating, sending sharp pain up my spine, as I hobble through the forest. I'm praying that it's just very badly bruised, because I cannot handle it being broken right now. 

I manage to slowly make my way through the forest, as the sun casts it's rich golden afternoon glow over the unfamiliar trees. I lean against one, breathing hard from the effort required to even just walk. I don't stay for long though, even though my eyelids grow heavy in the late afternoon peace of the woods. I painfully push myself upright with my uninjured left arm, whimpering at the pain in my tailbone. I follow the track, shuffling unsteadily into the forest. 

The first thing I see is the roof. The faintest outlines of wood peaking up over the tree line, stark brown against the pale blue that now fills the sky. I stand on the hill, marvelling at the sight, and I could almost cry. 

Home. Beautiful, safe, home. 

The sky marbles with peachy pinks and oranges, rippled by soft purples and that static like grey-blue that seems to turn the sky into a calm void. The bright white light of the sun peeks just above the horizon, casting a final warmth over the land. Clutching the rough marred trunks of trees, I climb back down the hill, and start walking in the direction of my house. 

------

He hated having meetings here. Everything just reminded him of her, the stone bench top of the organised kitchen where he kissed her on the cheek, the smooth oak dining table that he taunted Tommy over, while she glared at him. He can feel his throat tighten as the kitten he gave her mewls from the couch seat. He wants to throw something, or break something, or just fucking scream.

"Surely the easiest thing is to just grant L'manburg independence." Wilbur says, face in his hands, elbows resting on the dining table. Dream stands stiffly behind the couch. 

"I don't trust him. You know what he told me today, Rosie could be anywhere and he might not be so keen to give that leverage up." He grits out.

"We don't have a choice. He doesn't want to negotiate, he doesn't even want to talk to me, and this is the only thing he says he wants." Wilbur argues.

"Dream's right, we don't know if we can trust him. But at the same time, we really don't have a choice, who knows what he's going to do to her if we don't give in. A least we can avoid giving him a reason to hurt her." Niki says, walking into the room. She's wearing a set of dark denim overalls, over a large green top that falls to her elbows, icy blonde hair pulled back. She looks tired, but they all do, and Dream can't help but feel a pang of jealously at how normal she can make herself look. 

He looks like he's been dragged through hell and back, and then again. 

He nods appreciatively at her. He readjusts his mask on his face. They've all seen his face now, when they were camped in l'manburg together, and he had stopped caring. He'd stopped caring about anything at all really, except finding Rosie. But even then, there was an understanding that whatever happened during that time remained there, so he makes sure to carefully fix the mask over his face at all times.