Enchanted [Logince]

Someone to Catch Me

Roman had fallen many times in his life. He was almost used to the feeling, so much so that sometimes he forgot to fear it. Because though he'd felt the air rush past him as he tumbled down, he had never hit the ground. Someone was always there. First his father. Then Remus. Now Dolion. So when he realized the ground was no longer under his feet, he didn't scream. Instead, he waited for that pair of arms that always appeared. He waited for Dolion to bring him back into his grasp. He waited.

And the longer he waited, the more he realized there wasn't someone there to catch him. His eyes flew open. Beyond the skirt of his dress fluttering up, only stopped by his legs, he saw Dolion standing on the edge of the well. His eyes were panicked and his mouth moving, but Roman couldn't hear him. He still didn't scream. In fact, he instinctually just shut his eyes again, as if his body were still clinging far too tightly to its belief that there would be arms to catch him eventually.

The next thing his body hit felt like water. It stung as it slapped against his skin, but afterward, it was nice that that awful feeling of falling was gone. He opened his eyes. Now he was floating in an ocean of stars. He could breathe, but he still felt as if he were surrounded by a liquid.

A lump suddenly grew in his throat as his body finally realized there had been no one there to catch him. He let out a sob, then took in a sharp breath. He opened his mouth to shout, but the name he wanted to call wouldn't pass his lips. He tried to swim upward, flapping his arms and kicking his legs. He didn't move, but his hand grazed one of the sparkling objects surrounding him and it latched to his skin. He looked at it and tried to shake it off, but felt another one cling to his cheek, then his chest, his shoulder.

Roman blinked only once and his vision of the starry ocean was abruptly taken over by hundreds of little lights binding together to blind him with their brightness. He didn't have any time to wonder about it, however. That feeling of being tossed through the air came back even harsher than before. He was jostled and whipped around for what seemed like only a second yet also forever before he slammed into something hard and flat.

He was afraid to open his eyes again. He just wanted it to be over, to wake up in bed and find that it had all been a dream. That he'd fallen asleep while waiting for his bath to heat up after he'd returned from his adventure. Yet somehow Dolion would still be there, without this damn well ever getting involved. The ledge wouldn't have crumbled. Dolion would arrive and simply confess his love, no rescue required.

But Roman knew the hard concrete he was pressed up against wasn't his soft pink sheets, nor his rosy red duvet or one of his soft, fluffy pillows. He knew that this time he couldn't just call for his brother to whisk his problems away. Not yet. He'd have to wait. Remus would—Dolion would come to rescue him. In the meantime, he should figure out where he was. Slowly, he pushed himself off the ground, his eyes taking their time in opening and letting him take in his new surroundings. Not that there was much to see. All around him was a black nothingness except right below him where his hands still touched. It was there that six holes let light into the darkness.

Roman waved his hand through the beams of light. He couldn't feel anything, not even heat. He cautiously leaned down, closing one eye and peering through one of the holes. He couldn't see very much. He pressed his face against the wall, getting as close as possible. He gasped and leaned back when the wall budged just slightly. His mind screamed at him to just sit and wait for Dolion, but that rush that had flown through his hard just then was addicting. He hadn't felt something like that in so long. He needed to do more. He needed to know more. He needed to see more.

He pressed against the wall with all of his strength and it once again began to budge. He scrunched up his face, grunting as he pushed as hard as he could. He saw a sliver of light appear like a crescent moon. He pushed the wall piece further to the side until there was an entire hole in the wall. He crawled through, finding gravity suddenly shifting, forcing him to pull himself up out of the hole.