Dreamnotfound but Oneshots

"I thought I lost you."

A/N: one of my more angsty works, but it ends happily. Also this is the first fic I've included Antfrost in, so I hope he's alright with being in a fic (2,150 words)

Dream had watched it happen right in front of him, being held back desperately by his arms, shouts and horrified shrieking ringing in his ears as his throat burned with his own screams. He had watched George get swarmed by those wretched, giant spiders, watched as he was buried under them, and finally picked up and carried away enveloped in sticky webbing, his shrieking the most painful sound Dream's ever heard. Dream had tried his hardest to break from his friends' grips as he watched George disappear and heard his shrieking falter and silence.

Hysteria coursed through his veins as Dream came under shock, his worried screams shifting into howls of agony, as he finally stopped fighting against his friends and sank to the stone ground of the cave they were in, tears cascading down his face like small waterfalls. He wasn't able to register the sound of spiders as they returned to the remaining group, wasn't able to register himself being hauled by his arms by Bad and Sapnap to the safety of the surface. The only thing he was able to focus on was the pain, the pain that made his chest feel like it was caving in and like someone had thrown acid on it, and the fact that he just lost his best friend and there was nothing he could've done to save him.

Bad, Sapnap, and Antfrost grew increasingly worried when their friend remained unresponsive to their words and actions, his eyes glazed over with constant tears and being unable to stand unless someone was helping him. They crowded over him as he laid reclined in one of the chairs in their living room, unmoving, his screams having fallen to whimpers and soft noises a long time ago.

"We need to snap him out of this," Antfrost quietly began, voice trembling. "We already lost George, we can't lose Dream too."

"I've already asked Punz to look for a glistening melon," Bad replied, unable to hide the few tears that slid down his face. "The only thing we can do is wait until he comes back with one."

That evening and night were spent slowly, numbly. Punz had returned with a melon, much to everyone's appreciation, and the three of them spent half an hour force-feeding Dream the enchanted food in order to bring him out of shock, and they watched as the tears slowly began to cease and his eyes droop closed.

The three of them then ate the rest of the remaining melon to quench their own shock, and sat silently in the other chairs, trying to ignore the chair that remained empty, missing its owner.

"How did that even happen?" Sapnap quietly began. "He was with us. How did he get separated?"

"I don't know," Bad replied. "It was dark in there, and I didn't realize he had gone forward until the screaming started..."

"Do you think we could've saved him?" Antfrost suddenly asked, his question almost too quiet to hear. "Do you think if we didn't hold Dream back, he could've gotten George out of there?" Bad and Sapnap shook their heads.

"There were too many of them," Bad explained. "Even if all four of us ran over to help, there would've been too many to deal with. We would've been overwhelmed."

The trio fell silent again as their minds were filled with thoughts of regret, thoughts of what if's and grief. They sat together the entire night, unable to sleep, and could only watch the sunrise through the windows as night turned into dawn.

Dream woke up disorientated, his throat sore, his eyes feeling dry and his face feeling sticky. He blinked a couple of times, and looked around the room, finding Sapnap, Bad, and Antfrost looking at him, looking exhausted as they sat in their chairs. Dream's eyes flickered to the empty chair stationed across from him, and parted his lips to ask where the last member of their group was. No words ever made it out, however, as memories from the day before crashed violently in Dream's mind, and numbing pain erupted throughout his body.