Home Sweet Home (mxm)

Chapter 15: Caught

Blinking open heavy eyelids, Taylor felt like he had just fallen asleep when something tugged at his mind. Sitting up slowly, he rubbed at his left eye with one hand as he opened his right one... only to choke on his current inhale of breath as he scrambled away from the skeleton on the bed beside him. 

After several seconds trying to calm himself, he realized what was going on. He wasn't in the basement. 

A dream? 

Looking around, his eyes widened when he realized that he was back in Caleb's dream world... but it had changed. The stove against the wall before him was still there,  but the strange apple peeler and tomatoes had vanished. 

Moving his gaze along that wall, he noticed the calendar hanging up, a new lamp nearby illuminating the paper. It had been flipped. Carefully climbing off the side of the bed the skeleton was not occupying, Taylor walked over to the calendar to examine what else had changed. 

He noticed the date that was now circled and read the tiny scratch of marker on it. 

Taylor came home. 

It had been the day he'd moved in. 

The words brought a small smile to his lips as he turned. The massive wall of fish was still there, but it had expanded by a good amount. He had no doubt that some of the new creatures were because of their recent trip to the aquarium. There was even a larger tank near the center with a big octopus in it. 

Walking up to it, he stared at all of the new animals, in awe that Caleb could remember each and every one in such detail. All of a sudden, the fish began swimming downward, starting from the left side of the tank, then gradually moving toward where he stood. 

Turning, Taylor watched as footsteps appeared in the thin layer of sand on the floor. 

Oh  no. 

He quickly began to retreat back towards the bed. 

I thought he was stuck in Adon's body. Can he still infiltrate Caleb's dreams, too? 

Considering that banshees were supposed to be less powerful than wraiths, Nikolai was sure showing off a fair amount of skills in succession. Right as he was forced to stop or risk stepping on the skeleton on the floor, Taylor gave out a quiet gasp of surprise. Caleb stood before him, his form a mixture of faded, see-through colors. 

Is he still recovering from our trip to the aquarium? 

When he realized that it wasn't Nikolai, Taylor relaxed a bit and stepped forward with a smile. 

"How are you feeling, Caleb? You still look really tired," he said, curious as to why he wasn't resting. 

The hot tub beside them suddenly turned on, making Taylor jump and glance toward it before returning his attention to Caleb. To his surprise, the guy had vanished, only to reappear squatting down on the edge of the hot tub, leaning over slightly to look at the rumbling water. 

After a few moments hesitation, Taylor walked over and stared down into the agitated water. It almost reminded him of the ocean during a storm. He was just opening his mouth to speak when he suddenly felt dizzy. His hands skidded on the damp surface edge when he tried to brace himself, then hot water was dragging his body beneath it and filling his lungs. 

He awoke with a startled cough. His eyes were slow to blink away the darkness. After several tries to better his vision, he tried to focus through it. Squinting, he realized that he was staring at the front door, but something was off. Besides his vision being cut by nearly eighty percent by darkness and turning blurry, he quickly realized that there was nothing by the door. He knew that he had left his shoes in that area. Adon's should have been there, too.