A Living Nightmare - (MCSM FANFIC - Collab with eternal-eloquence) DISCONTINUED

Chapter 6 - The Tension Between Us

Chapter written by eternal-eloquence
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"—and all of a sudden, there were two of you!"

The coffee mug that Petra had been holding fell to the floor with a crash, but nothing was faster than the speed of which her jaw hit the ground at what had just come out of Jesse's mouth.

"Y-you what?"

"I know right?" Jesse said casually, propping her elbow against the chair while simultaneously rolling her eyes playfully. "It's crazy. I wanted to see what happened next, but the shock of it really ruined it for me. I woke up right away."

"Wait wait wait—so that was your dream?"

"Yeah. Well, it did happen in real life at one point." She sighed, almost sadly, before continuing. "You know. When still ventured together."

The gears clicked in Petra's head, everything finally making sense. But there was no way... that was impossible. No, that wouldn't explain why Jesse was so against going to bed at night. Then again, potions were quite unpredictable, especially coming from a witch.

Everything was contradicting itself. It made no sense to Petra, none at all. This whole thing was stupid, something that never should have happened in the first place. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"Hey guys," said a voice that Petra wasn't expecting to hear.

"Lukas?" Jesse said. "Where'd you go?"

"Oh, uh, you know." Lukas plopped down into a chair next to them. "I-I uh," he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I went to check on Dewey! Haven't seen him in a while... heh..."

"Aw, that's cute," Jesse said. "We haven't seen him here forever, have we?"

"Yeah..." Lukas trailed off, staring at Jesse like she had sprouted an extra head. "You seem awfully cheery this morning. Not that it's a bad thing!" he quickly added when he saw the death look she shot at him. "It's nice to see you happy."

Jesse smiled. "Thanks, Lukas."

"So." Petra suddenly cleared her throat, interrupting the awkward silence that had settled upon them. "Don't you have some paperwork to do..?" she asked Jesse, who nodded.

"Yeah. I guess I should get started on it. It's not every day I'm this well-rested."

Meanwhile, Lukas stared at Petra mysteriously. Well, that sounded awfully rude. Was she all of a sudden shooing Jesse off? There wasn't something they needed to discuss in private, was there? He noticed her looking at him through the corner of her eye, and that's when he knew that something was definitely up.

Jesse made herself a fresh cup of coffee before bidding them farewell and shutting herself inside her office, where'd she'd surely remain for a few hours at least.

"Okay, what's up?" Lukas asked suspiciously when Petra had finally faced him again. A part of him expected her to brush him off, but she spun around with mischief dancing away in her irises.

"First thing's first. Lukas, where did you go last night?"

"Oh, I uh...heh, I tried to squeeze a word out of Ivor to see if he knew anything about this. Yes, again," he added, when he saw the questioning look Petra shot him. "I need to know what's going on here, Petra, and I just know it has something to do with that potion."

"Well, I don't think you have to look far."

Lukas looked up, only to see Petra looming over him excitedly, with her palms planted firmly against the wooden table.