In Between The Stars

Forever

AKIRA'S POV

Darkness never lasts long. I know that I'm sleeping. But it's the last few moments before slumber retreats and makes way for consciousness, the last few moments when your dreams feel more real than ever.

I'm still at my dad's place, sitting on his sofa, safely enclosed in his arms. And there's no Dylan this time. Dad kisses my forehead.

I was only trying to protect you. I love you. More than you'll ever know. Stay happy.

He says this. Except that he doesn't. He hasn't even moved his mouth, but I just know. The way that you know stuff in your dreams.

And then he's gone. He doesn't fade or move away, he's just gone. And so is the sofa and the rest of his mansion. I find myself sitting on a cemented stairway now and the sky is a perfect cloudless pale-blue over my head. I turn around to find Ahaan.

But this Ahaan isn't a ghost. He's as human as me or anyone else. The jeans and shirt he's wearing isn't a luminous silver in coloir but dark-blue and black respectively. And his hair is a dark shade of brown, his olive skin shining, two bright red patches on his cheeks. He runs closer with the broadest smile on his face.

Do the world a favor and go out with me.

I see a pale hand raise in front of me. And the hand is about to tousle his hair when it just disappears.

And then there's Dylan. Looking down at me with a deeply awed expression on his face. I watch a tiny, chubby, pink hand grope the front of his grey t-shirt. He looks away and that enchanting smile disappears and is replaced by a worried expression. A sudden jolt makes everything go dark and a loud noise follows the nothingness. I'm falling, falling down a bottomless hole.

I awake in my own bed. I'm violently trembling and whatever clothes I'm wearing sticks to my body due to all the sweat. I fumble around and my hand is enclosed in another warm hand. My eyes fly open.

My room is exactly the way I'd left it, clothes strewn everywhere and all the lights are still on even though the broad daylight streaming in through the open window illuminates every corner of the room.

"Everything's fine." I hear him whisper into my ear and turn to look at him.

What strikes me first are his eyes. Which aren't golden anymore. Instead, they are the vivid turquoise color of an ocean. Where the blazing golden eyes adorned his face with a fiery, rugged charm, these aquamarine ones offer cool depths to his appearance.

"Everything's fine." He repeats, now with a small smile, as I sit up in my bed, pushing back the comforter and the heavy quilt. I find that I'm in the same clothes as... before.

He climbs to his feet and sits on the bed by my side, wrapping a sturdy arm around my shoulder and pulling me against himself. As I lay my cheek against his firm chest, I hear one of the most unexpected sounds. His steady heartbeat.

"Dylan?" I whisper into his shirt, a pale-green button-down! "What's happening?"

I feel the low rumble of his laughter. "Nothing much right now." He says in a thoughtful voice.

"Your heart. Your eyes." I say, looking up at him. He nods.

"I'm just like you now." He answers.

This sentence evokes a mixture of feelings in me since it is too vague and I don't know what to make of it.

"You're dead, too?" I ask without thinking.

He laughs again, a delicious sound. "You're not dead. We're both alive! I'm human, Akira."