Split / dreamnotfound or gream

XXII. twenty hours until the merge

hi :). Authors note at the end! Please read it!
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It wasn't easy for George to sleep anymore.

The restless nights without the person he loved beside him felt longer and longer each passing day they were apart.

His heart ached, thoughts of Clay, Dream, or both turned his brain into shambles. He didn't know what to do. He loved both of them, granted they're the same person, but different entities nonetheless.

George didn't want to think of what would happen if the merge code didn't work. He figured ILES would assassinate him and Nick for breaching the BBH code, breaking into the facility's private area, and simply finding out about the company's secrets.

Working for ILES opened his eyes, after his aunt's mysterious death he hoped to find answers through his job.

Little did he know the company that singlehandedly killed a family member and kidnapped the love(s) of his life had the answer right in the name. ILES was LIES.

George wondered if this was intentional, if the president of the company knew what she was doing when ILES was established.

He wondered deep down if she knew that George could release every single lie ILES had ever muttered to the public with the click of a button.

The BBH code was the final strand to keep ILES afloat.

George decided that as soon as Clay was safe, he'd send everything he'd unlocked by breaking the BBH code to a news outlet.

ILES could never hurt anyone again.

Not Clay.

Not George.

Nobody.

Not on George's watch.

He and Nick had their plan laid out and memorized it as if it were ingrained in their brains.

He and Nick would get into the facility at a late hour so less people would be in the building and Dream and Clay wouldn't be in an experiment.

Nick would go to the lab and retrieve the contents of the merger code and put them on a hard drive. While it was loading he needed to retrieve the merger headset from the experimental tube. As soon as it was uploaded he was supposed to wait until George returned with the extra merger headset, they'd need to find a way to connect them to a George's tablet so that they could hopefully merge Clay and Dream.

When they got the merger set up, they needed to find Clay and Dream.

"You can't save them without sleep, Gogy." Nick pulled a fake accent, sending a sad smile onto George's face.

"How'd you know I was awake?" George turned over in the bed to see Nick standing in the doorway, a light from the kitchen barely illuminating his face.

"You talk in your sleep and it was oddly quiet from the living room." Nick mused, sitting on the foot of the bed. "You think it's gonna fail don't you?"

"Of course I think it's gonna fail." George sat up and sniffled. "It's us two, against an entire company that has Clay and Dream held ransom somewhere all because I fucked up an experiment."

"George," Nick sighed, he was never the best at advice, he'd rather brush it off with humor. But the brunette was his friend, and so were Clay and Dream. "You're the smartest person I know and if anyone can safe your dumbass boyfriends it's you... and me of course, because you're a little bit scrawny and-,"

Nick stopped when he felt George hug him from behind, laughter mixed with cries escaping his friend's mouth. "Thank you," George laughed.

"We'll save them, Gogy. I promise."

—

Clay took a deep breath, hooking his arms with Dream's. "Alright..." he muttered, stepping closer to the edge. "So we'll lift one foot and push it against the wall to go ahead and get our balance and then... try to make it across..."

Clay made the mistake of looking over the edge, his fear of heights slowly creeping in.

Dream must've noticed the sudden shift in confidence, feeling his doppelgänger's feet practically glue to the ground. "Clay? What's wrong?"

Clay's breathing was ragged and sharp. "We're afraid of heights-," Clay was shaking and Dream knew more than enough to avoid looking into the pit below.

"O-oh right yeah uhh-," Dream pried his arms from Clay's and turned to face him. "Look at me."

Clay hesitated, but looked at his mirror image.

"If we don't do this," Dream pressed his hands onto Clay's shoulders. "Who knows how long it'll be until we see George and Nick again. We might never be back to normal if we can't get to the other side. You've gotta help me here, I know you don't like me all that much- but I'm all you've got to get us out of here."

Dream's words seemed to calm Clay down a bit, he was still breathing quite heavily, but he was no longer shaking. "Yeah..." Clay nodded, turning back around to feel Dream's arms latched with his.

"Here we go... we've got this!"

They started with a simple step by step motion, each of them placing one foot against the wall to start.

Clay's breath hitched in his throat as Dream counted to zero, signaling for them to press their other foot against opposing walls. They did it shakily, taking some time to get used to the amount of force they would need to use to get to the other side. "Okay..." Dream breathed out. "We'll need to step to the side with one foot at a time in sync."

"Yeah- yeah- uh, alright." Clay agreed, slowly sliding his foot against the wall in sync with Dream. The grim and dark lighting of the small corridor casted shadows on their faces, Clay could feel Dream shudder in fear against his back. He could also feel the raw emotion of horror as Dream slipped, their connection forcing the gut wrenching feeling into his body.

Dream's breath hitched within his throat as he regained his balance. He repeated "It's okay... we're okay..." over and over as they slid their feet warily against the wall, inching closer and closer to the door that would take them to who knows where.

Dream heard the thoughts running from Clay's mind to his, mentions of George, flashes of the Brit laughing, snuggling into his chest. "Can you stop thinking about George?" Dream muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

They really were such hopeless idiots in love. So in love that even if they were so kindly knocking on death's door their last thought alive would be of the person who owned their hearts.

The ledge at the end of the drop was closer now. Only a few more feet and they were there.

Clay smiled, a task he'd deemed impossible was almost done. They shuffled against the walls inch by inch, second by second.

Clay couldn't process what happened next.

He was on the ledge.

And Dream was screaming as he fell.

And then there was quiet.

Clay scooted away from the edge until his back hit the door.

Dream?
—

1278 words

Hi! So I know this chapter is long overdue and so is this book, but I'm so thankful for all of the support! I'm really sorry about not posting for a long time, I fell into a writers block at the worst possible time (which I'm still trying to get out of). I'm getting my ass kicked by online courses bc for some reason the work is a lot more than normal.

But! I'm going to try harder at cracking out the ending of this book and even perhaps another one soon! Updates will be slow, so please stick with me here.