Predator (DWT x OC)

100

"I love him." The words rip my throat as they leave, like I'm forcing myself to hack up barbed wire. Dream doesn't even blink, just drops Punz unceremoniously on the floor, who lies there, gasping for air.

It's silent. I don't have anything more to say, and Dream doesn't move. I don't know what he's thinking. I can feel the rage, but it's not all of it, because otherwise Punz would already be dead.

Me too, maybe. I don't know how far he can be pushed anymore. I don't know the limits.

Wilbur's body lies down the hall from us, but it barely crosses my mind. I know Tubbo and Tommy need help, I know Niki doesn't know yet, and I also know the two men I love are standing before me now, in the crux of a terrible equation.

A selfish, vain, human equation. Who lives? Who do I love?

Dream finally blinks, and it's like the seal of the vacuum has broken, air rushing in all around us, and the sound and the world filling the corridor. I can hear yelling, arguing, frightened voices. Someone is crying. Punz is heaving on the floor.

Doors slam open and closed, clattering against their frames, I can hear Sam as he boulders through the corridor, shoving people out of his way. He wasn't at the meeting, I think, wide-eyed staring at the commotion in front of me, he must have heard.

Someone helps Punz off the floor. Dream's face, still bruised from the explosion, is impassive, not a single flicker of feeling crossing his features. His eyes bore holes through me, I can feel them worming through my skin.

"Rosie? Rosie?" Sam's frantic voice echoes in my ears, and his face swims into view. "Rosie what happened?"

I shake my head, pushing his hands off me and walking foward. I can't speak. I don't want to, not after the ruin my words have caused. Sam's yelling at Dream behind me, but the words fade out again, a roar in the background

"Rosemary."

The one word that does register is cold, slithering into my ear. Dream calls it from my back. I can't do anything but turn, stopping dead.

"What do you want?" My eyes fill with tears, my voice strangled and desperate.

"To talk."

Sam put a hole in a wall over the suggestion. There was a lot of screaming, swearing, general concern and rage at the idea of me being trapped in a room with the man who just found out I love someone else, but it didn't matter in the end.

That's the lesson he loves to teach us, isn't it? Resistance is useless, it only takes and takes and you lose anyway.

Punz is going to die, and maybe I will too, and this might be the one chance I have to save his life. This might be my last chance to say goodbye. 

"Wilbur was right?" Dream finally speaks from the middle of the room. Alone, the calm, cruel veneer has split. There's brokenness seeping through the cracks. Regret and guilt swirl in my stomach.

"I love you, he was wrong about that, but I love Punz. I love Punz and it doesn't kill me."

He gives a snort of disgust. "And loving me kills you?"

"It always has. I've been dying since the day I met you."

I'm too tired to lie anymore. I think the biggest bit of kindness I can give him now is the truth.

"So everything, that's all just been pretend?" He arches an eyebrow.

"No." I dig my fingernails into my palms and still, still see the concern flash on his face for a second.