~10~

Sapnap's POV

"George-!"

"Hehe, sorry Sap."

I get up and groan. Me and George were outside our new apartment playing tag. After the incident with Dream a month ago, me and George took his advice wisely and moved to the other side of the state. We didn't bother to take any chances ever since Dream went haywire. We haven't seen him since, but I hope he's doing alright. I had told George we should try to help him, but we couldn't find him at all. We deemed it useless at that point and decided to move. It felt like the smartest idea at that point anyways.

After a while we went back into the apartment to make a few more changes. We didn't like the apartment we were living in, and since we had found better jobs, we decided it was a good idea to move into a house. The apartment we were currently in was a bit cramped to say the least. We didn't have much space to work with when we first came in, but we made it work somehow. We were just relieved that we were able to get away from Dream.

Dream seemed on edge when we went over to his house to meet up with George again. He didn't really seem like himself. I knew it had something to do with his...disease... but I didn't expect it to be as bad as this. I had understood why George acted like that when he saw him. The way Dream acted whenever he heard George's name, or when he saw hallucinations of him made it seem like he was going crazy. I knew him and George were BFF's, but I didn't know their friendship was that strong. It had almost seemed like they liked each other. But that couldn't have been a possibility. I know Dream because I've been friends with him for a very long time. I knew how he acted around people he liked, and I knew what he would do around them too. But then again, this sickness made him do all sorts of things out of the ordinary, especially when it came to George. So that could've been the reason.

George looked over at me and waved a hand in front of me. I quickly came back to reality and looked back at him. He seemed a bit worried for me ever since, just like he was with Dream. He became a little on edge when I would doze off, probably because it brought back memories of Dream. I reassured him saying that I was fine, that I was only thinking about the past. He sighed and smiled at me, but I could tell something was wrong. I haven't brought it up though because I was, and still am, afraid that he would lash out at me or become very scared. I didn't want George to go through the same pain he did last time, so I avoided it at all costs. It would only hurt us in the long run.

George went back to his room to pack up some more stuff. I headed down to the kitchen and made myself a simple sandwich. We ran out of groceries not too long ago, only had just enough to eat for maybe a day or two. I was the one this time to go out for groceries. Every week or so, me and George would rotate between getting food and making food. It was simple, if I went out to the store, George would make lunch/dinner and vice versa. It made everything a lot easier, and less complicated.

I finished my sandwich and headed towards the door. I put on my shoes and was about to leave before George came up to me. He looked at me with a small smile, then looked down to see my shoes.

"Wait," he said, "hold on. Don't go yet." He ran back upstairs. I could hear a bit of shuffling, and then it stopped. George came running back down with a box in his hands. It was a very small box. He gave it to me and I opened it up. Inside the box was a silver necklace, with a fire emoji on the end of it. I smiled and looked at George who was grinning. I put the necklace on me. It match with my fire hoodie, the one I was wearing to head to the store. I hugged George, and he hugged me back. When we parted, I slipped on my shoes and waved goodbye, then headed out the door, on my way to the supermarket.

I reached the supermarket and pulled down my hood. There were a bit of people in here already, from children in carts to men and women roaming the aisle. It seemed like an ordinary day, and I was ordinarily shopping. Nothing new.

While walking down an aisle, I had accidentally bumped into a tall man. He looked familiar, but I couldn't see his face. He was wearing a green hoodie with a smiley face, the same hoodie Dream had. I knew his merch was in stores, but the way he wore the hoodie seemed awfully familiar. I apologized to the man, who only shrugged, and walked away. I walked a little bit faster out of the aisle, and went straight to the cash register to pay for my things. I was missing a few things, just simple stuff like snacks, but after running into that man, I didn't want to stay there any longer. He had this weird thing about him I couldn't really describe, but the only thing I could describe was that he didn't seem to friendly.

After paying, I grabbed all my bags and started my walk home. I felt a bit safer and pulled out my phone to text George that I was on my way back. The walk was only a few minutes long, so it wasn't that bad. When I stopped at a crosswalk, I realized I forgot to push the button so I could cross, so I turned around. When I did, in the distance, I saw the same man behind me. He was about 30 seconds away from me, but I still couldn't help but feel like he was following me. I spammed the walk button and waited anxiously at the crosswalk. He was getting closer and I didn't like that. I spammed the button faster and waited. He was even closer now. Before he could get any closer though, the walk light turned green, and I speed walked across the crosswalk. When I got to the other side, I turned around to see that the man was stuck at the light, so I sighed and continued my walk.

I got to the apartment and George let me in. I set the bags down on the table and flopped on the couch. George started to unpack everything into the cupboards and the fridge, while I turned on the TV and watched the news. When George was done, he came and sat next to me, and we watched the news together.

"Sapnap? What's wrong?" George noticed that I looked a little shaken up, and began to become a bit worried. I only told him that something had happened at the store, nothing else. He didn't take that for an answer and continuously asked me what had happened. I finally gave in and told him everything. He stared at me in shocked. He got up and closed all the windows. We lived on the first floor of our apartment, since it was the only one available at the time. We were against it, but there was nothing we could really do.

When he locked all the windows and closed the blinds, he sat back on the couch and snuggled next to me. He had seemed genuinely scared of what I told him, and I didn't blame him. I put my arm around him and brought him closer to me as he started to tear up. I hugged him as tight as I could, hoping that whoever that man was, it's not who we think it is.

I really do hope so.