In My Dreams || ✔

Crap, Alex's Gone Too!

Sometimes even life doesn't understand proper timing.

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

Alex was gone. She was really gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Plucked away in a moment.

Conner paced around the meeting point until he was starting to wear away a path. "She should be here by now!" he said in frustration.

"Maybe she found him and is caught up," Bree suggested.

"An hour behind schedule! She would never do this to us! She would've come here to tell us."

"I- "Bree had no idea what to sya to console her boyfriend. Alex wasn't here, and it concerned Conner. It was starting to concern Bree, too.

"We should look for her," Conner said and started to make for the horse, but Bree stood up and put an arm out.

"No," she said, putting her hands on top of his shoulders. "We should go to the Fairy Council and tell them what the situation is and then go look for her. If something happens to us, then at least someone will know where we were."

Conner grunted but nodded. He knew she was right. She was always right.

-

The wind whipped Bree's face and she held tighter onto Conner's waist. The woods creeped her out a little. Not because they were tall, dark, foreboding statues, btu because she knew the things that lurked behid=nd them. She knew them all to well.

She had been in the forest when the Grande Armee came into The Land Of Stories. She had witnessed the aftermath of a witches curse. She had heard the stories of Conner and the rest of them being in a witches cabin in the woods. She knew the horrors the woods brought.

"You all right?" Conner asked, turning his head slightly towards her.

Bree kissed his cheek. "I'm fine," she said, and buried her head in his neck. "I just remember when the Grande Armee came through the portal into The Land Of Stories."

Bree felt Conner shudder in her arms. He remembered the horrors just as well as she did. Maybe even better.

-

They had warned the Fairy Council. They had warned all the fairies. Then, they had gone out to look for Alex. Which proved to be a bit of a problem.

Alex had said she was going to take the south perimeters, but that was a large expanse. It covered three kingdoms and a few territories. A lot of borders. A lot of places where someone could get lost. Unfortunately.

-

They had been at it for a day. A day. A day.

"Bree, do you think we'll find her?" Conner asked. He felt Bree stiffen behind him.

"Conner!" she said. "How could you say that? You have always been the one to stay nose to the grindstone until something is done! That's one of the reasons I love you. That's one of the reasons I went on the adventure with you back when we were sixteen. You had purpose and drive. Where'd that go?"

"I don't know..." Conner said, slowing the horse down. "I just don't know if my sister is going to be able to be found. What if the same person who took Arthur took Alex and have them far away from here. Someone can cover a lot of ground in one and a half days. We know that. They know that."

"We can't give up on her, though," Bree said.

"It all feels like deja vu from when we were sixteen," Conner said, deflated.

Bree started laughing.

"What?" Conner asked.

"We keep saying 'When we were sixteen,'. We're only seventeen! Only a year older, but so much older since then." Whether the words would ever make sense to someone else, they made sense to Conner and Bree. They had grown so much in so little time.

-

"Wake up," Bree said, nudging Conner. They were in the kitchen, eating breakfast, and Conner had fallen asleep for the third time that morning.

"I'm awake," Conner said groggily.

"Sure," Bree said teasingly.

"I am!" Conner said and shoveled a spoonful of cereal into his mouth to prove it.

"Good!" Bree said, mimicking his previous tone. "We have a long day ahead of us,"

"Oh boy," Conner said half-heartedly. When he caught Bree's glance, he straightened up his posture. "I mean, oh boy!"

Bree shot him another glance.

"Bree," he started. "I really do want to find my sister. More than anything! But, these long days and very short nights aren't very good for my over-all morale. Especially in the morning. Eating soggy cereal."

"It wouldn't be soggy if you hadn't of fallen asleep three times!"

"Fair point," Conner said, and aimlessly stirred his cereal. "I wish things weren't this way. We don't even know who's taken them! Last time we at least had an idea of who had taken Alex."

"You know," Bree started. "I think I know why you aren't as happy to find them."

"Why's that?" Conner asked, completely oblivious.

"You don't want to see Alex and Arthur together! You'd rather your sister not see Arthur, so you're less inclined to find him, which means you're less inclined to find them!"

Conner looked offended, then sighed. "You caught me," he said. "Yes, I don't want them to be together. Is that such a bad thing?"

"Yes! Especially when your sister is kidnapped, maybe with him, maybe not, and that makes you less inclined to find her! You need to think this through Conner!"

"What if they weren't kidnapped? Would it still be such a bad thing?"

"Yes." Bree said, trying to calm down. "It still would be a bad thing."

-

~ edited 25/6/2022