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Walking the path, I take the porch steps slowly. Filled with fear that I’m going to get ripped away, just like I did last time, I take measured steps in an attempt to prepare myself, but as I near, I hear my parents laughing on the other side of the door.
It has to be a dream. It has to be. I should wake up. I know I should, but I can’t deny myself the guilty pleasure of being in their presence again.
Lifting my fist to knock on the door, I startle when it opens before my knuckles hit the wood, and my father stands on the other side.
“Son.”
One word.
One word and my heart cracks in two.
The word is accompanied by the sound of scurrying feet in the distance, and a moment later, my mother appears behind him.
“Brax.”
Fuck.
I shouldn’t put myself through this. It hurts too much, but I crave it like I crave oxygen.
“This is a dream,” I rasp, my chest aching, and my mother shakes her head.
“No, son. This is where we exist.”
“Exist?” I repeat, confused, and they both nod nervously.
“Then why am I here?”
A look passes between them, a look I can’t quite decipher, before my mother takes a step closer. She was always the one better with words.
“We’ve been trying to understand it since the last time you were here, but it doesn’t quite make sense. You should have stayed the first time you were here, but you disappeared just as quickly as you appeared. Then the second time, my heart broke all over again, because you didn’t stay for long. Now, I have no clue about this.”
I frown.
I’m assuming this is where I came the last time I saw them, but the first time… I don’t understand.
“Where is here?” I ask, my fingers flexing at my side as nerves get the better of me.
They look so real, so present, I could just reach out and touch them. But the fear of my hand going right through them like projections makes me refrain.
“Honey, we’re in the Realm of Shadows.”
TWENTY
RAVEN
Asudden jolt beside me stirs me awake in a panic. My heart races as I pry my eyes open to find Brax sitting up in the bed. Even in the darkness of the room, I can still make out the crinkle of his eyes, the tightness of his shoulders, and the smallest tremble to his hand as he runs his fingers over his cropped hair.
“Brax?” He startles at my voice, his head whipping around to face me in an instant as he frantically searches my gaze. “Is everything okay?” I whisper, knowing it’s a dumb question.
He slumps back against the headboard as the other guys sleep around us, dragging his hand down his face as he exhales. It takes a moment, but when his eyes find mine again, I see the truth before he even speaks it.
“No.”
My heart aches the moment the word leaves his lips and I shuffle to sit up beside him, trying my best not to wake Eldon as his arm drops from my waist. Brax stares up at the ceiling while I watch his chest rise and fall with each breath, slowly calming with each repetition.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I finally ask when his head tilts my way once again, and he sighs before nodding ever soslightly, but no words follow. I give him a few minutes to try and piece it together, but when he exhales in frustration I know it’s not going to be as simple as that. “Do you want to talk about itnowor in the morning?” I prod, trying to get a read on what he actually needs from me. I want to reach out and lace my fingers with his but I can’t tell if that’s going to make the situation better or worse.
He purses his lips, taking another deep breath. “I’ve been having dreams.” His voice is groggier than I expect, a hoarseness I’ve never heard before, and it twists something inside of me. His emotions are thick with whatever this is. A few minutes pass, but I don’t push. He needs me to be patient with him right now, and if it’s time he needs, it’s time he’ll get. “Dreams where I see my parents.”
