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“Yeah.” Dio struggled to his feet, leaning on one of the metal trays to catch his balance.
“You okay?”
He shook his head but otherwise didn’t answer, and I let it go.
“Why are we here?” he asked instead of answering me.
“I followed a thread of connection that felt similar to the one I have with you. I thought maybe we’d find Baz.”
A dark notion flickered through my thoughts. Had that really been my reason, or had I been afraid my friends weren’t safe and I’d only shadow walk myself into the blast if I went to them? No, I’d been thinking of Baz. That nasty thought hadn’t surfaced until Dio had questioned me. I shivered.
“This place feels as empty as the other.”
“We’re in a forgotten Nightmare. It has a little more substance than the dream we just left, so I suspect this one has a few mortals still sending it energy. But it’s not long for the realm. At least in its current state.”
“We should look around, see if we find Baz or something else important.” I offered Dio my hand.
After a small hesitation, he accepted, his hand smooth and warm when he grasped mine.
“I’ve missed you,” he admitted.
“I’ve only remembered that you three existed for a few weeks, but I’ve missed the time we could have had together now that I remember.”
He squeezed my hand, and we picked a direction to explore. Straight through a set of heavy metal doors. Hallways stretched out to either side, fading into blackness, but the metal doors were in full detail, and I suspected the dream ended not far into the shadows.
We pushed through the double doors together, him opening one, me the other. We stopped on the other side and stared.
The room was large, gymnasium style. Row after row of large cylindrical machines held above the ground by metal supports filled the room.
“What the hell are those?” I breathed, a chill trailing down my spine.
Dio’s hand tightened on mine. “Iron lungs.”
It took me a few minutes to remember what those were, then a shudder wracked my body. “A lifesaving nightmare, but holy crap.”
“Well, let’s see if we can find Baz.” Dio tugged on my hand, and we made our way through the nightmare polio ward.
The banks of iron lungs seemed to stretch forever, but eventually we reached the end of one row. We turned and walked another. Hours passed us, feeling like an eternity and no time at all.
“Dio, what are we going to do?” I turned another corner.
“About?”
“Us.”
“Oh.” He ran his free hand through his curls. “We don’t have to do anything.”
I stopped and faced him. “I can feel your energy waning, especially in this mostly forgotten dream. You’re not completely you.”
“And you think sex will help that?” he bit out, though he didn’t take his hand from mine. “I’m not even sure I have the energy for that.” The last, he said more quietly.
“I meant letting me see if I can give you some more energy. We don’t need to have sex for that. One of the first things I had to learn was how to syphon Nic’s energy, and I’ve since learned to feed it back to him.”
Dio raised his hand and made as if to brush his fingers along my cheek before he let it fall to his side. “I can’t.”
“Fine. Let’s finish searching and get out of here.” I dropped his hand and hurried away, knowing he would follow.
The scuff of our shoes on the tile, soft thuds, and the occasional squeak, were the only sounds other than our breathing in this tomb-like ward. The machines were silent, long since they’d been needed, and the nightmare didn’t include any other audible elements in this room.
