Page 48 of Sett and his King

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Was this a dream?

Was this afterlife?

Is this what happened when someone died? They relived their biggest regret?

My hand hovered over his face and I slowly pushed it across his cheek.

I expected it to be cold, but it wasn’t.

He stirred and brought his hand up to cover mine as he blinked and smiled.

“Hey,” he said.

“H-hey,” I answered but my voice was hoarse.

“Drew, are you okay?” he sat up and searched my eyes, worry crossing his expression.

He felt so real. So human.

Maybe…

Maybe this wasn’t a dream. Maybe I’d just woken up from one.

But it had felt so raw. So real.

The passion. The need.

But also, the guilt. The death.

That was so weird. And even weirder was the fact I still had to do it. This time for real.

"Yeah…yeah, fine. I'm fine." I rubbed my face and with it pushed the dream back into oblivion. “Just a nightmare. That’s all.”

“Are you sure?”

I opened my mouth. I wanted to say it. To tell him what I had to do. What my orders were but…I had no control over my actions.

It was the one thing I couldn't say to him.

As if Horus was playing mind games with me or his brother. As if he knew his brother would fall for my tricks if I was able to tell him all the horrors I’d endured.

But this was the one thing I wasn’t allowed to say.

"Why I…” I started but had to stop and breathe again. “Why don't I go make us some coffee? Maybe that will help me shake this dream off.”

I walked to the kitchen fully aware it wouldn’t. I felt like crying. I felt like screaming. I felt like giving up, but I had no time for that.

I got the coffee machine running, then got busy with my very own brew.

I put a pot on the stove but unlike other times, Spiti didn’t rearrange everything to help me. As if it didn’t want me to do this either.

“You know I have no choice,” I whispered and went through all my kitchen cupboards to find what I needed.

I searched for minutes. Or was it hours?

Was the house playing with me? Hiding things from me to stop me from doing what I had to?

“Would you stop? You know if I don’t do this Gene is dead!”

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