𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒

010. she's everything to me

HE'D SPENT THE WHOLE NIGHT SEARCHING, armed and furious, scouring the streets for any sign of where she might be. He couldn't find her, and it was driving him to insanity. He never realized how much he missed her laugh, her scent, the way she tossed her head when she was making fun of him. Now that she was gone, he knew everything he had lost. 

Rox found him in the war room, crossing out blocks in a big, black line, entire neighbourhoods scribbled out like censorship in government files. He touched his shoulder gently. 

"Illias," Rox said. "Go wake up." 

"I can't," Illias brushed him off. "I need to find her." 

"We're going to keep looking," Rox replaced his hand. "But I need you to be functioning. If you work all night, you're not going to be able to get any rest. Your brain will burn out." 

"I can't stop until she's back," his voice cracked desperately. "I need her back." 

"You can break. The rest of the world is still moving, Illias. You can't abandon everything for her." 

"She is everything," Illias growled. "She is everything to me. So I will put your war on hold for her. I will stop time and strangle death until she's back in my arms." 

He turned back to his papers, staking his next move. 

Rox sighed, watching him for a moment. His movements were jerky, imprecise, scattered and jolting. Dark circles ringed his eyes, a near-impossible feat in the dream world, but Illias had so worn his brain down, it was manifesting in Mirage as exhaustion. 

"Is Naoki smart?" Rox asked after a moment. 

Illias glared at him. "Of course she is. She's the brightest person I know." 

"And do you trust her?" 

"Who the fuck do you think you are? Of course I do." 

"Then trust her to keep herself safe," Rox's voice was steady, even as his heart shook. Illias had never sworn at him like that, and it made him uneasy. "Trust her to survive for the next twelve hours. Until you can come back, ready to fight." 

Illias burned, but as his words sank in, he seemed to exhale so deeply, the fight whispered out of him. 

Rox hugged him close. "Go wake up." 

So Illias woke up. 

HE SETTLED HER EMPTY BODY ON HIS BED. The last time she had been here, they had been fighting. Now she was nothing but a shell. 

When the others went home, hours before he had woken up, they found themselves at school. Still in detention, with Naoki's body lifeless on the floor. She hadn't woken herself up, the Queen must've kept her from leaving Mirage. 

They couldn't bring her body to her parents. They would call the hospital, trap Naoki in sterile sheets and the smell of cleaning alcohol. So they fetched Illias, distraught and broken, and made him open her phone. 

The password was still his birthday, the lock screen still the photo of senior prom night. Naoki, as student president, had been invited. She'd brought Illias, and they were dressed in mafia-black, with golden accents and she wore bright red lipstick. They were laughing at the photobooth, over some stupid joke he'd told her. They held plastic champagne flutes in their hands, filled with sparkling apple cider. They looked perfect. 

Illias unlocked the phone before he could look at the image any more. 

He opened her messages. The last conversation with her Mum was pulled up, from two nights ago. The night they had made up, sorta.