Reality Check

Fever Dream

Walking The Wire (by Imagine Dragons)

"Do you feel the same when I'm away from you? Do you know the line that I'd walk for you?"

___

Christian Sanderson opened his eyes to white nothingness. It was all he'd seen for the past . . . days, hours? There was no way to tell. Time stood still here. Nothing ever happened, and Christian was tired of it. The last thing he remembered was getting thrown in here by Nobody. He and Orion had tried looking for Bethany, and the next thing Christian knew, he was being held captive by Nobody. Again.

There weren't many things that scared Christian, but not knowing what might be happening to his family did. They could be hurt and he wouldn't even know it. He wouldn't know if they needed help, and if they did, there was no way to get to them. How could you escape a prison with no windows or doors?

Obviously, Nobody had put him here for a reason: to separate him from Bethany and Orion and Jupiter City. But there must've been something much bigger going on. Christian had been fighting against Nobody for years, and he knew that man wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted.

So what was it? Nobody had already separated Bethany, which had infuriated Christian as soon as it happened. He'd tried begging Nobody to restore her to how she used to be, as she'd lost her memories about the nonfictional world. Bethany even had forgotten about her nonfictional mother, who Christian dearly missed.

Shortly after Bethany got seperated, Christian tried finding a way to the nonfictional world, but every last portal seemed to be closed. There was no way to get back. All he wanted was to see his wife again, and to restore Bethany to her normal self. If he knew her normal self at all. Her fictional version was a wonderful person, but he knew it wasn't fully her.

And that hurt Christian more than anything. but he tried his best to move on. He'd told Orion to do the same, and they acted like the Twilights had always been together. It was hard in the beginning, but not for long. Christian learned a lot about Bethany in the three years he got to know her.

He learned that she was so protective of everyone she cared about, something she must've gotten from both of her parents. He learned that she was way more mature than he gave her credit for. She was passionate and competitive and brave. And every time she sighed deeply or rolled her eyes, she reminded him more and more of Catherine.

And yet, there was still so much he was missing out on.

To fictional Bethany, it was like her dad had never left. She acted like they'd lived together all their lives, and she'd been training to be a superhero for many years. They weren't real memories, but until they could find a way to get the whole version of her back, Christian had liked seeing her happy. It gave him a second chance with her, although he wished there was a way to restore her memories.

Then, he could really start over. He would apologize for causing Bethany and Catherine so much pain after he'd disappeared. They hadn't deserved that. Especially Bethany, who'd only been four at the time. Seeing her now, a fifteen-year-old who had such strength within her, reminded him that she was already so grown up.

It was hard trying to be a dad for a girl he'd last seen when she was only four.

Two teenagers living around the house were a lot to deal with, especially when Christian didn't exactly know how to raise a much-older Bethany. Not that it was too hard to do, but he constantly wished Catherine was here, as she'd raised Bethany longer than he had. Sometimes, he didn't know if he was doing it right.

He knew that Bethany and Orion could handle themselves, but he was worried about them. Orion was thankfully still in Jupiter City, but the same couldn't be said for his daughter. It was the first time in years that he didn't know where she was. Anytime he was separated from her caused his heart to hurt. Whether it was in the fictional or nonfictional world, the Sandersons had been separated too​ ​much​ over the past eleven years.