Inception {Dreamnotfound}

16 | Vanish | 16

-George's POV-

"Hey sunshine, are you alright?"

There are arms wrapped under mine in seconds, and I'm not sure I've ever seen so much fear in Clay's eyes. He helps me to the floor, most likely petrified I'll collapse if I remain standing.

The room is a blur, dizzying and nauseating even when everything is spinning too quickly to make out the scene around me anymore. In a horrible way it's better like this, better I can't see any of it for fear of what that'd do to me.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry sunshine," Clay repeats over and over, and there's sudden pressure on my shoulder. Then the dull clunk of something hitting the floor, accompanied by quiet sniffling.

"Stop, it's okay," I tell him, pulling off my gloves partially to prove to myself that he's still alive. Through my haze I manage to remove Clay's as well, a tiny smile tugging at my lips once I see both of those turquoise bands.

I notice that Clay is no longer wearing his mask, and that it must've been what fell to the floor.

When my vision starts to return I can see those beautiful eyes again, as well as the tears staining his cheeks. "Hey, it's alright," I tell him, cupping his face in my hands and brushing away the stray tears. "You did what you had to, it's okay."

It takes him a few minutes to calm down, and I use them to do the same, too stunned by what just happened to process anything else. I attempt to organise my thoughts, think through the situation and try to prepare myself for what's still laying in the doorway.

"Why would they only send one person?" I ask, trying to work out what the point of that attack even was. "As a distraction," Clay mutters bitterly, pressing a gentle kiss to my cheek before standing. He steps back towards the body, and I force myself to watch despite how much I really don't want to. It's a struggle to fight the sickening feeling in my stomach, but I'm proud of myself for at least trying to withstand it.

It's much further than I got the first time.

"One of those hooded guys," Clay observes from the cloak. Black with red stripes, just like theirs were when he saw them long ago. "Wonder what they were doing..."

Skeppy said they wanted to kill me.

"Do you think it was intentional?" I question. "I mean, they might not have known it was us here, or that anyone was here at all."

Clay squints at the body as if it'll give him the answer he's looking for, lips pursed in a tight line. "I have no idea," he admits, and I shrug my shoulders, knowing it's the best explanation I'll get. "Should probably check on everyone else," I suggest instead, deciding not to dwell on it.

He's right, this didn't seem like an attack. Planned, almost certainly, but not for that reason.

So for what?

Clay nods in agreement, and the moment of silence makes it terrifyingly obvious he wasn't the one crying. From the next room over, there's the all-too familiar sound of quiet sobbing, and an all-too familiar voice to accompany it.

I can't tell if in some morbid way it's a good thing, a sign that they're still alive. Or that they barely did, leaving the potential for an awful scene to await us next door, potentially, impossibly worse than this one.

When we enter that room, it seems to be a similar situation.

Another cloak laying too precisely over something to have accidentally ended up there, and another room stained in red. The owner of the sobbing, Karl, is curled up in the farthest corner from the cloak, wrapped in his soulmate's tight embrace. Yet despite the obvious bloodstains covering them, both seem unharmed.

"Same situation as us..." I mutter more than question, cringing at the mess beside my feet. I cautiously step away from it, glancing up and meeting the hollow look in Sapnap's eyes. The ex-assassin nods, confirming my suspicions. Karl doesn't seem like the sort of person to do that, so it had to have been Sapnap.

"You two alright?" Clay questions, offering the sniffling Karl an uncomfortably forced smile. It's clearly as much as he can manage currently, and Karl seems to acknowledge that, smiling back equally as weakly in a silent thanks. "Just a little shaken," he replies quietly, voice stuttering uncontrollably as he speaks.

"Any idea what just happened?" Sapnap laughs awkwardly, filling the otherwise silent room with an uncomfortable sound. Clay and I shake our heads in unison, not quite able to meet anyone's eyes anymore.

I'm not sure which one of us is dealing with this worse.

"Great," Sapnap spits bitterly to nobody in particular, glaring daggers at the cloak on the opposite side of the room. He seems more annoyed that it came to this than anything else, irritated to be forced to make another kill. I'll never understand how he can look at a situation that way, feel no remorse for what he did to the person now laying lifeless beneath that cloak.

Although, this is that group. The group that scared Skeppy enough that he'd follow every order of theirs, and even go against his own group to do so. Everyone whose had the misfortune of meeting those people has told me they're like no other, and this may just prove that more.

There was no reason for this. No obvious one at least, nothing to explain the disturbance at such an ungodly hour of the morning. It was sudden and loud, almost like they wanted us to know that they were there. Or that they thought nobody was, and this place was actually empty. They seemed ready to attack though, which makes me think otherwise.

I thought we were safe here.

We're so deep in the forest, so far away from Central City and so out of the way of everything. You don't accidentally stumble this far into the forest, especially not when you've come from so far away.

Those people have settlements in the main city, they must've come all this way for a reason.

"Anyone else think that was a little too easy?" I ask suddenly, cringing at my choice of words immediately after they leave my mouth.

'Easy' definitely wasn't what I'd use to describe what we were all just forced to either do or witness, and the aftermath was somehow even less easy to deal with. A vivid image of that scene is still burnt into my mind, and I'm not sure I'll ever manage to erase it.

"Simple," Clay corrects before I get the chance to, shooting Sapnap a half-glare. The ex-assassin slowly shuts his mouth, swallowing whatever words were about to spill out. "It was strangely simple," he agrees eventually. "You don't send just one person into each room, especially not armed like that. They looked ready to do something, yet were caught off-guard when attacked."

"I don't think they were prepared to attack," I add, remembering what Clay said about the lack of numbers meaning those two were only a distraction. "It's more like they were looking for something."

"Like what?" Sapnap asks, putting emphasis on the last word to show just how ridiculous he believes this to be. "We don't have many supplies, and I'm sure they could get hold of whatever they wanted. Why venture this far into the forest for something?"

"Maybe it's something only we have?" Karl suggests quietly. A small smile tugs at Sapnap's lips, understandably glad Karl is becoming more talkative once more. "Looks like they knew this place was inhabited. They could've known it was us, and sent multiple people to check each room for said thing."

"But what if it wasn't something?" I suggest, and everyone quickly turns to me with questioning glances. Clay signals for me to continue, so I finish my thought. "-Rather, they were after someone. Maybe that's why they came this far out, they were looking for someone specific."

A few moments of silence pass, and I look between people uncomfortably, waiting for it to pass. What can realistically only be a few minutes feels much longer, and I debate saying something if only to fill the every quiet before someone else beats me to it.

"George..." Karl stutters suddenly, hazel eyes blown wide and filled with fear.

"Where's Tubbo?"