In My Dreams || ✔

Oh, Great, Life Hates Me Again.

Life is like friends. It can stab you in the back just as quickly.

°°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°°

Alex and Arthur continued to meet every night for the next two days. They kissed and talked and kissed some more. Alex was growing to be dependent on their nightly visits. She had grown dependent on Arthur's soothing voice to calm her nerves. She had grown dependent on him in general.

It was the middle of the day in the Gordon household and Bree was over. Alex had stopped being sad and jealous whenever Conner and Bree were together, which utterly confused her brother.

The teenagers were setting the table for lunch and Conner was arguing with Bree.

"You can't learn how to ride a motorcycle!"

"Why?!?"

"It's too dangerous!"

"I'm glad you care about my safety, but when have I ever been known to take a risk when it wasn't needed?"

Silence.

"Dang it," Bree muttered, realizing that she most certainly did take risks when they weren't necessary.

"Will you two stop bickering about this!" Alex said. "If Bree wants to ride a motorcycle, no matter how dangerous that is or isn't, it's her choice."

"Thank you!" Bree said triumphantly.

"This is what I get when I have a sister and a girlfriend. They both gang up against me! You're insufferable! Both of you!"

"What if after I learn, you ride with me and you can see how safe it is?" Bree tried to compromise.

"Absolutely not! I will never ride a motorcycle!"

"You'll just have to deal with your insufferable sister driving you everywhere, then." Alex retorted.

"You'll be in The Land of Stories with Arthur too busy to think about me,"

"Oooh," Bree said like she was watching a net drama.

"Don't you oooh, Bree. And Conner, I will not be too busy for my insufferable brother." Alex huffed.

"So I'm the insufferable one now?" Conner asked incredulously.

"You always were," Bree muttered and Alex laughed.

"That's not fair!"

"Neither is you not wanting me to make my own decision to ride a motorcycle!"

"I'm fine with you making your own decision, but this is going too far!"

"How so?"

"You- you-you just can't!" Conner stuttered, trying to find his footing in the battle.

Bree leaned over and kissed him. "You really are insufferable,"

"You both are insufferable!" Alex said and walked into the kitchen to help her mom bring food to the table.

-

That night Alex laid in her bed thinking of everything she would tell Arthur when she saw him. She would tell him about Conner and Bree's stupid fight. She would tell him how much she had missed him. She would tell him that she had scheduled another visit to her parents next month.

She felt the reoccurring feeling of her body and mind slipping into subconsciousness and smiled as she melted away. She arrived in their normal meeting area and looked around for Arthur. He wasn't there. She looked around into the forest to see if Arthur was playing a trick on her. When she didn't see him anywhere she decides to sit down at their regular spot to wait for him. She decided that he must have been delayed for going to sleep and would be there soon.

-

Alex didn't know how time worked in the dream world, but she knew it was long past midnight by the time she started panicking. Arthur wasn't there. Arthur wasn't going to show up. Arthur hadn't forgotten, he was gone. Not gone as in dead, but not sleeping.

Alex searched the forest expertly four times until she came to the resolution that he wasn't coming. That made her worry. He would never miss it. He loved her, he wouldn't purposefully miss this last night that they had together. Alex's mind never wandered in the direction of cheating, she knew Arthur better than that. If he wasn't there, that wasn't his fault. He was somewhere else, taken.

Alex knew that Arthur would tell Mother Goose or Merlin if they were keeping him. Alex knew that Arthur would make a point of trying to sleep no matter the conditions. Alex knew that Arthur would do anything to make it here.

She tried to think rationally, but with Arthur and how loyal he was, there was no excuse that her mind thought of that would suit Arthur standing her up. He must be somewhere and in the hands of something of someone where he was never meant to be. Someone must've taken him.

The thought jostled Alex so much she woke up. She sat up and looked around her room in fear. Alex had to get to Arthur no matter what it took.

She stood up from her bed and crossed to her door. She peeked into the hallway, and after seeing that her brother's light was on she walked over to it. She opened it quietly and poked her head in.

"Alex?" Conner asked in a concerned tone.

"It's me," she said and realized that her voice was shaking.

Conner must've noticed too as he sat up from reading and put his book down. He patted the bed. Alex crossed to the bed and sat down, her body shivering.

"What's wrong?"

"Arthur...wasn't...there....,"

"Arthur wasn't there? Where was Arthur not?"

"We...we've been meeting in our dreams,"

Conner's eyebrows raised. "Meeting in your dreams?"

"Yes. The Otherworld's time zone is much more similar to Camelot's. He had been trying to contact me for a while and we finally got in touch."

Conner forced the joke from his mind, this was serious. "Okay,"

"We've been talking these past few nights and this time, he wasn't there," Alex said, feeling the crying coming on. She breathed in slowly and breathed out even slower.

Conner knew by the way she was shaking and on the verge of tears that this was very important. The situation was worse than it sounded. Conner knew that Arthur would never stand his sister up, and only the worst type of situation would cause him to be away from her.

"What do you think happened to him?" Conner asked and his tone surprised Alex. She had expected Conner to make jokes and make fun of her. But he was being serious, he knew how important Arthur was to her.

-

~ edited 25/6/2022