KARLS PERSPECTIVE:
I'm streaming as usual on the SMP when suddenly a familiar name, yet I haven't spoke to or heard anything about or seen or even been active on social media with for a good year and a half.
Dream.
I freeze. My face cam is on, but I freeze.
"I-" I stammer, trying to speak, but I physically can't.
"Um- if you- I think you all know who that is, but I'm- um- he hasn't been... like... anywhere... for almost two years-"
My chat is freaking out. Tommy types in the server 'WTF' and everyone else on there is just frozen. I click onto Tommy's stream, and he's shaking whilst calling Dream.
He actually picks up.
"Hello?!" Tommy asks frantically.
"Hey," Dream says so casually, as if he hasn't been MIA for two yesrs.
"Is that- is that actually you? Holy shit, man-"
"Yeah. It's me," Dream replies. I'm so invested. I forget I'm even streaming.
"There's no way," I whisper to myslef.
"I thought you were dead," Tommy says to him. Dream stiffled a chuckle. There's a lot of silence. Neither of them know what to say.
"Where... have you been?" Tommy asks politely.
"Um- I've been home, mostly. I've been in and out of places." Dream replies. Tommy finds Dreams minecraft character and he's just jumping around in creative, building little things.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. Or do." Tommy says to him. "I'm really- I'm in shock."
"Yeah," Dream says. "It's okay. This is s shock, I know. I haven't done anything in public for like two years." dream somehow laughs. I feel tears gloss over my eyes. I don't know why I'm about to cry.
"Are you gonna address anything?" Tommy asks. "You know, um, your fans- they've been worried. To death. You left without a word, no warning, nothing. You just disappeared out of thin air."
"Um, yeah, I don't know yet. I just came back. This is my first time speaking to anyone other than George, Nick and my family." Dream replies. His minecraft characters continues to jump around.
"So, why- why did you leave?" Tommy finally asks.
"I just wanted some time to myself. I will come back officially in a while. I'll probably pop into a few peoples streams every now and then. You won't see me much for a good few weeks."
It's been another year. Not a word. That was his last sentence. And I'm finally over it, I'm driving to Orlando right now. In fact, I'm pulling up to their house right now,
I knock on the front door.
George answers it.
"Karl?-"
"Where's Dream?" I immediately asks. George looks like he's upset now.
In fact, now that I'm looking, he looks like shit. The house is messy, he looks messy.
Oh. Oh no. No, no, no.
"We don't know." Nick says, coming up behind George.
"I'm tell you everything. Come inside."
They sit me down, pause the TV and George sighs.
"This is what happened when he went away, like, two years ago. He disappears for months, years at a time. We just wait for him to come back around. Eventually he does. Whether he's pounding on the door begging for us to let him in, or whether we think he's stable enough to be allowed in." Nick says.
"Where/ where is this coming from? This is so unlike him, I-"
"We don't know. Okay? We really know as much as you," George says. "And you cant tell anyone, okay. He'll find out. He'll freak out, and it'll come down on us."
"What do you mean?" I ask panicked.
"Why do you think we wouldn't let him in the house? He loses his mind. He HAS lost his mind. He tore his phone apart because he said he was being watched, or some crazy delusional bullshit like that. He's ill, he's lost his mind." George mutters.
"You're lucky you weren't here the last time he came around, about 2 days ago, actually. He was on something. Definitely." Nick leads me to his room. "And he did this to his room."
It looks like a crime scene. There's dried blood on the walls, the bed, the floor. His computer is absolutley smashed. So are his closets, his draws, his bed head, the TV... there's shards of glass everywhere. Everything is broken, there's not one thing in this room that isn't ripped apart.
Apart from Patches.
"She barely leaves this room," George says. "You could tempt her with anything, she'll only ever come out once everyone's in their rooms. Then she'll eat her food, do what she needs to do, blah blah blah."
"Don't you think you should call the cops?" I suggest. Nick looks at me like I've got five heads.
"He'd kill us. Actually. He would find a way to murder us. There's no doubt in my mind about it."
"This all started, what, 3 years ago? When he first disappeared, we called the cops. They found him unconscious in some building that was vacant," George explains. "Brought him home, once those cops left he told us he'd kill us if we did that again."
Nick continues, "we were so terrified. And then the next day he asked us why we were so hesitant around him. We told him he threatened us, and he said he didn't even remember. We forgave him, because he seemed sorry. Then, 4 hours later, gone. We haven't called the cops, since."
"I don't know what to say." I tell them.
"Say nothing. Get out of here, Karl. And if he finds out you were looking for him, move houses, state, anything. I swear he'll kill You. Don't take the risk."
They walk me down to the front door.
But it's too late. Because then there's pounding on the door and you can very much so hear Dream telling them to let him in. It's about 1am.
"Karl. There's a window in Dream's room you can jump out of-"
"George, he can't go in his room," Nick says.
"Well he's gonna have to." George says. I bolt. I'm trying to be quiet though, and I duck around the corner as soon as they open the door.
"Who's here?" Dream immediately asks. He sounds kind of normal, I don't think he's on anything or been drinking.
"W-what?" George stammers. "It's just us here."
"Then who were you talking to?"
GEORGES PERSPECTIVE:
My heart has never beat faster for someone else.
"We were just talking to each other," Nick says.
"So if I go and look around this house, no one's gonna be here."
I nod.
Dream pushes past me, looks around the kitchen first. I look at Nick, who's starting to sweat. Then I realise, when I go to wipe my face, I'm sweating too.
He moves over to the lounge room, nd obviously doesn't see anyone.
Then he turns down the hallway. Silence. Five seconds later, he walks back around holding up a vent cover.
"What's this?" He says. "Tell me who's here right now or I swear I'll kill you right here, right now."
KARLS PERSPECTIVE:
I'm somewhere in the vents of the house, but Dream is smart. I feel an icy blast overcome me as he turns on the air conditioning to the whole house. I can hear him downstairs with George and Nick, so I must be above the living room.
"Tell me who the fuck is here," Dream says. "I'll give you one more chance."
"It's Karl." Nick blurts out. "He knocked on our front door 5 minutes ago. We told him what happened. We told him to leave but he didn't, and then you knocked on the door, and we didn't know what you'd do so we told him to go through a window or a back entrance."
"See? See?! That's all I needed," Dream says. "Thank you, Nick. That is all I needed."