Page 86 of Diluted Truths

I barely remembered being asleep when I opened my eyes and stretched my arms out. I felt around and couldn’t feel Will’s body. I opened my eyes slowly and took stock of my surroundings. I wasn’t in his room. I wasn’t in his house.

I looked around more frantically. I was in the woods. When did I get here? I continued to look around. The trees towered high above my head. It was still night, but the tree coverage was so dense I couldn’t see any stars or the moon. I slowly stood up and continued to look around.

I took a step forward when I landed on a branch.

“Ouch.”

I looked down at my feet. I was barefoot. Why in the world was I in the woods with no shoes on?

Wait.

This was it. This was the nightmare. I was just having a nightmare. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing none of this was real. I started walking through the woods. I didn’t remember all of the details but I knew it was important that I find… someone? Something?

I wasn’t sure. I continued walking for what felt like hours when I wandered into a clearing. This was it. This was what I was looking for. There was a cabin in the clearing. But it seemed… different? I couldn’t fully remember it from before, but it felt different. There were boarded windows on the second floor and a single door on the ground floor. There was light filtering out of the cracks of the windows.

I made my way toward the cabin, hoping to find some clarity. I stopped when I heard a rustle in the woods. I looked but didn’t see anything. I started to make my way towards it where I heard the sound when I was stopped in my tracks by a voice.

Thevoice.

“Don’t follow him, Jack. It’s not safe.”

I turned, not believing what I heard. The voice I had been hearing, that felt familiar, was here. When I finally faced the cabin again, the door was open and there stood a man in the opening.

“Nate,” I cried and ran.

I ran full speed into his arms. I knew he wasn’t real. I knew this was just a nightmare, but I didn’t care. It felt real and that was all that mattered.

Nate held me tight against him. It was as though he was scared to lose me just as much as I was scared to lose him. I shook in his arms. He smelled the same, like dust after rain. I smiled in his arms.

“I missed you, Nate,” I whispered.

“I’ve missed you, Jack, and Theo. And Kai. God, I missed all three of you,” he responded.

I pulled back to look up at my brother. He was as tall as Kai at six foot four with blonde hair that matched my own. Out of all of us, we looked the most similar. The biggest difference was our eyes. His were blue like Theo’s.

“I wish this was real. You were real,” I exclaimed.

“Who said I wasn’t?” he responded with his signature smirk.

I laughed. This was just like him. “Well, you’re dead,” I teased him back.

He waved his hand, brushing off my comment. “Semantics.”

“Has it always been you? Talking to me in these dreams?” I asked.

He nodded in response. “You remember.”

It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah. Why do I remember now?”

He didn’t answer for a moment as he looked at me. It was scary just how similar he was to the Nate I knew. If I wasn’t already positive this was a dream, I would think he was alive standing in front of me. “It means it’s time.”

“Time for what?” I asked.

He took my hand in his and led me around the cabin. There was a small hill towards the back. He sat down and ushered me to do the same. I sat on the grass beside him, just now noticing I was only in my underwear and Will’s t-shirt. Fuck, that’s embarassing. I tried pulling the shirt down, as if it would make it longer.

Nate chuckled next to me. “I like him, you know. Will. He’s good to you.”