Peppermint

Chapter 25 - Shepherd Of Fire

***GABE***

"What the hell, you cheeky bastard?"

That's all I can say after not only do I see Alex appear on the club floor with Fionna, but then he disappears only a second or two after I spot him. Which, normally, means the dream is over because he's usually the anchor point for these shared dreams. Fionna's said, more than once, that whenever Alex wakes up in the real world, she wakes up herself. But not today - she's still here, looking around as if hoping he just teleported away, as am I.

I check to see how many songs are left on the playlist. Plenty to keep going for at least three more hours. I'm thinking I'll be good to go down and talk to Fionna, but dream time can be a fickle thing, especially when Alex isn't here. Although why am I so sure he's the anchor? Maybe if I'm the one to wake up first when we share a dream, then he wakes up as well, right away. To be fair, he and I haven't shared dreams as often as he and Fionna. Mostly because I died more recently.

When I'm on the floor, I see Fionna running back to the chairs on the side of the club. The same place where she and Alex started talking, I think. Or, at least, where I first remember seeing them. What was I playing at the time? Some silly club track, I think, the kind that would normally send Alex screaming from the room. I'm not proud of it, but as a kid, I used to make Alex melt down just by playing Bieber at maximum volume. At least until Mom caught on to what I was doing and grounded me for the rest of fifth grade. I guess I'd picked this playlist without expecting Alex to show up.

Have I ever apologized to him for that? I don't think so, but then again, that never stopped him trusting me enough to play blood brothers with me.

"Fionna?" I wave to her until she gets up from her seat and hugs me. Giving her a kiss on the cheek - it's our thing, taking turns kissing each other every time we meet - I say, "Sorry about the soundtrack. I guess I'm an EDM guy deep down."

"I didn't know Avenged Sevenfold was EDM."

"I'm a man of many tastes, you know." I look over the crowd, and there's still a bit of a gap in the middle, left behind when I passed through at a pretty fast clip. "Step into my office, we can talk there." I watch as a shadowed look crosses her face. "Unless you're afraid you'll lose me too? The way you just lost Alex?"

"I'm not."

"Why? Not that I'm, uh, afraid or anything-"

"You say that like I'm not." She takes my hand, again like she did with Alex, and walks me back through the parted Red Sea of costumed clubbers. We get back to the DJ booth without disappearing from the club, so I close the door behind us and sit in my chair while she takes the chair next to me. Good thing I have two - wait, did I even have two when I left? I guess I made a second one subconsciously. I just hope that, like the dancers below us, it's not some kind of Inception-style projection, just waiting to catch her off guard and drop her flat on her ass. Or wake her up.

"How'd you know we wouldn't just leave the dream?" I ask her.

"Because if we're right, I can wake you up myself right here and now."

I scratch my head. "Who's 'we?'"

"Me," Fionna says shyly. "Uh, also the Patels. And a couple of others working with them. Jackie and Liz. You haven't met them yet, but they've been watching you the last couple of days-"

"What?"

"'Cause...well, you know you've been asleep for a few days, right? I mean, other than getting up to use the bathroom and shit-"

"No, that can't be right-"

"That's what Alex said when I told him you were sleeping too."

I think back to the vision I saw in that piece of white space rock. "He's not dead, is he?"