Avatar Country

The King Wants you

-Warning: temporary blindness-

*Jonas's POV*
I opened my eyes to see Johannes gasping for air as he held my shirt tightly in his fists. Henrik was trying to help Johannes sit up meanwhile John was trying to calm him down. Tim was rubbing circles on Johannes's back as he blinked back tears. Johannes didn't manage to calm down so he passed out, John quickly took his pulse and sighed in relief. We didn't move from our positions until Johannes woke up again.

"Jonas?" Johannes called out in worry.

"I'm here." I reassured him, what scared me was that he wasn't looking at me or anyone else.

"Johannes, can you see?" Tim asked. There was a long silence.

"No, everything's dark but only a bit of blurred dots appear once in a while." Johannes's voice trembled.

"Maybe it has to do with his vein's situation?" John suggested.

"They do seem like their fading, maybe his vision will return." Henrik pointed at the vanishing vein in Johannes's neck.

"Can we get out of here? I don't feel so good." Johannes groaned. Tim and I managed to drag Johannes between us, although we kept silently glancing at each other in worry. Henrik was walking behind us as if ready to catch Johannes if he collapsed. John was walking ahead of us and was trying to ensure that we were safe. It took us a while but we got to Henrik's house. I was thanking every deity out there that the house was a one story.

"We're in my house, do you want to go to your room or do you want to sit on the couch?" Henrik asked.

"The couch, I figured that I owe you guys an explanation." Johannes told us about what he saw when he first came in contact with the light. We tried not to ask questions until he finished, although I know he wasn't saying the whole truth.

"So how did you come back?" Henrik asked.

"That venom, or serum as Seregor liked to call it, it feeds on your helplessness. If you give up then the venom takes over, if you don't give up then it slowly kills you. When the venom takes over you're not alive, I've seen them walk around with gaping wounds and none of them seem to mind it. Their soulless white eyes don't have any control of what their doing." He explained.

"How did you not die though?" Henrik asked again.

"I spoke to the other dimensional me. We were sharing stories and then I saw Jonas, I knew you found me and it gave me so much hope. It gave me the strength that I needed to come back." Johannes responded as tears slid down his face. He wiped them off his face and rapidly began to blank.

"Johannes?" I went to grab his wrist but he just shook his head.

"I'm fine, just colors coming back. Everything's still blurry. Can someone get me my glasses? Maybe they'd help." Johannes was still blinking fast. Tim stood up and went to the room that we put Johannes's luggage in.

"That light we saw, that was the other you. Why did he try to kill us at first?" I asked.

"He didn't, he just didn't have complete control of what he was doing." Johannes pointed out, he began rubbing small circles on his chest.

"My heart kinda hurts, seems like coming back really does have it's consequences." Johannes breathlessly said.

"I think you have a fever." I stated as I felt his forehead. Johannes just leaned on me as he tried to regulate his breathing.

"Do you need to go to the hospital?" Tim asked.

"No, there's nothing they can do anyways." Johannes responded with his eyes closed.

"Can I talk to Johannes in private?" I asked my band members.

"Sure." They answered as they left the living room.

"Johannes, what really happened?" I questioned.

"I was desperate to get out of there, the original version of me couldn't get me out because the handcuffs around my wrists would kill me if I stepped out of that room. They kept injecting that black venom into me and it hurt every time. I knew the only options I had were to become one of them or die and I was prepared to just die. But the other me offered to curse me into slowing down my heart rate to make them think they killed me, the problem was that I had to get to you before the curse became permanent. It was stupid but what other choice did I have? Anyways, when I reached what he called purgatory, we exchanged stories. They took his family and made them into the dead soldiers and he- he was married." Johannes looked down at his hands.

"He was?" I asked.

"Yeah, he married the king." Johannes hesitated to tell me. The news shocked me for what I assumed was a minute, the panic I saw in Johannes's face was unforgettable. I just hugged him tightly.

"I love you." I said.

"I love you too, although it'd be nice to see you right now." Johannes laughed breathlessly.

"Believe me, I'm a mess right now. It's not every day my best mate dies and comes back to life." I joked.

"I suppose not." Johannes smiled, we sat in silence for a moment.

"If we're going to do this, I want to go slowly. I don't want to rush into anything right now." Johannes spoke up.

"That's fine, I don't want to rush this either." I honestly don't know how to be in a relationship with a man, especially not with the man I grew up with.

"No matter what happens I will save you. Don't ever give up hope." I told him, I felt him nod against my chest.

"I will always save you too." Johannes promised.

Johannes and I fell asleep on the couch. In the morning I woke up to Johannes cuddled up besides me, we were covered my the couch blanket. I just laid on the couch thinking of what it meant to be in a relationship with Johannes and what it meant for our future. I slid out from underneath Johannes without waking him up to go to the bathroom. When I got out I saw Henrik coming out of his room, his hair was sticking out everywhere even when grabbed together by a hair band. This will be fun to explain to the band.