thechanged | SLEEPING BEAUTIES EPILOGUE: THE KISS

"As sure as anything around here," he says, shrugging. "I dreamed about it too after I went to sleep, but it was way more pointless and weird. I guess I'm just the kind of guy who dies doing stupid shit a lot."

"Well..." She pats his arm, while she thinks about what she really wants to say. "Try not to die anymore, okay? I don't think I would like to have dead friends."

He is her new hero, after all, and she is pretty sure that qualifies him as a friend, whether he likes it or not.

"Doing okay so far," he says, "despite all odds. Hey, if I get murdered, at least I'll probably see it coming."

Except, on second though, that actually sounds terrible.

Is that supposed to be a joke? She's not really sure if that's supposed to be a joke, and so she just winds up laughing uneasily.

"I guess so." And that's all there really is to say about that. "Did you sleep well, at least? Any interesting dreams?"

Joke or not, it's factually true, he thinks. At her question, he just kind of made a face.

"Fuck no. I just floated around for hours and argued with some assholes. Not only was it confusing, it was boring. I've been somewhere like that before, I'm sure of it."

"Are you so sure that was a dream?" He is kind of cagey. Just a little. But in a weirdly endearing way. "Maybe you'll have a better one next time. --next time you sleep on your own, that is. Not next time there's attack vines on the loose."

"I saw some other people there," he says, shrugging. "I guess I'll know how much of a dream it actually was if they remember the same thing. Like I said, totally would not be surprised."

"Speaking of people," because now seems as good a time as any to mention it, "Have you ever seen a girl here? With red eyes and long red hair? Longer than mine, even!"

Maybe, she hopes, he remembers seeing her somewhere-- if she was actually real, and not just a creation of her dreams.

He takes a moment to think about that.

"No, but I'm pretty sure I did see a dude with hair like that. Why?"

"Because that's what I saw in my dream." The corners of her lips turn down every so slightly, and the furrow in her brow is barely noticeable, but there. Trying to remember it all clearly brings up a whole new bout of worry. "She said she was somewhere in the house, like she couldn't wake up like we did. I think someone was stopping her?"

The details have grown a little fuzzy, or at least harder to put into words, but the feeling is still vividly there.

"Oh." He's frowning now, too, not that it's apparent. He focuses on that idea, searching for any kind of portent for the subject. It's annoyingly inconclusive.

"Like, it would actually make sense for there to be people still sleeping in other parts of the house, so I guess we're bound to find her as quickly as we'll find anybody else the house is locking up. Which is...you know, probably not fast at all." He eases up a little. "But still theoretically possible, I guess."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She's a little dejected, but it's true, he is. Seeing her rather than just imagining some faceless, formless being asleep elsewhere in the house had made it so real for her. But there was really no reason to think she might be the only one. Something about the idea that she might be kept asleep by another, someone who could be reasoned with, stuck with the fairest.

"We should probably go wake up the others right now anyway. We'll want them to come too, if we're going to searching the house."

He raises his hands as if to suggest that she slow down a moment.

"Hey, I'm all for striking out or whatever, but you've got to be careful. Too much fucking around at this point will just piss the house off and lead to more of this shit." He lifts himself up, so he's properly floating in the air. "Just gotta bide your time, FG."

"But yeah, I've got at least half a dozen more hot makeouts left on these lips so I may as well spread them around."

"FG?" That gets a quizzical look out of her, but she brushes it off quickly. "Well, if he doesn't want use poking around, then he had better start telling us some things!"

Sorry Mason. She likes you and all, but she's kind of getting bored of running over the same old ground. Swimming to the nearest edge, she hoists herself out of the water and starts wringing out her hair.

"I'll be a minute, but you should go. It will be faster if we split up." There is a lot of hair to wring out, and it's cumbersome to carry around if she doesn't. "You should come by later, when things quiet down again. If they quiet down again."

When she questions it he actually has to think about what he just called her, and he actually isn't totally sure. He blinks.

"Uh...it was for 'fish girl', I guess, because it sounds like moderately less stupid of a thing to call a person." Seems reasonable enough to him, right?

He lifts up into the air.

"Right. Later."

And then he's off.

SLEEPING BEAUTIES EPILOGUE: THE KISS

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whoops totally misread that have some alterations

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