Daniel

Two warm hands moved on my face and softly touched my jaw and made me look upward. Dark blue eyes stared down at me and a smile split his face.

"Do me a favour Danny," he rasped and his hands on my jaw slowly pry my mouth open.

"Please don't," I whimpered, the words coming out of my mouth and burning my lips.

"Come on, it will be alright, okay?" he pressed on and moved closer, his smile turning a little more twisted.

"Please, Ev, don't make..." a sob cut through my words and I moved my head down, despite his hold on my chin. I couldn't stay looking at him.

"I said it will be alright!"

I flinched so hard, I was ripped away from sleep, at once sitting up on the bed and sobbing out loud. It took me a moment to place myself, slowly realizing I was in Ev's bed with him deep asleep next to my shaking form. The second I noticed him the dream I had just seen came rushing back and I sat up and ran to the bathroom, the sudden need to vomit too intense to ignore.

I doubled over the toilet, my whole body shaking as I emptied my stomach. I pushed down all the memories of my nightmare, trying to focus on something nice, something that didn't make me sick.

Ev would never do that. He didn't want to do that to me. He didn't want to hurt me. Think nice thoughts. I thought about an old video game idea that I had and desperately clung to it, sitting back and away from the toilet. Think of the game.

It had been a stupid idea about this character who had been stuck in the ruins of Cyrene in Libya -I wasn't really sure how they would have ended up there, but I was toying with the idea of them getting stuck there after a plane crash-. They would have to go through the ruins trying to find some old, Ancient Greek silver coins, the tetradrachm, with which the character could pay the Guardian by the entrance of the city and leave. If they tried to leave in any direction without the coins, they would get petrified and die.

Throughout their search for the coins in the old ruins, they would be chased by a giant basilisk that could breathe fire, crush them to death, poison them or petrify them. The whereabouts of the basilisk, as well as how to win the game, was to listen for the deadly song the creature let out and avoid it at all cost.

I had come up with this game idea about a year ago, a little after my seventeenth birthday, right after I had come across the history of the ancient city of Cyrene. Not knowing how to design a game, much less create an incredibly smart AI for the basilisk, I had kept it to the back of my mind but recently with Ev's encouragement I was starting to think more and more about game design. I was itching to create a game, and this one was amongst my best ideas.

I closed my eyes and slumped as I imagined the world I wanted to create, the majestic ruins and the terror of the singing basilisk. I wasn't aware how many minutes passed before I started to feel better, but when I did, I closed the lid of the toilet, confident that I wasn't going to vomit another time. I stood up, smiling down at Omen who had come in the bathroom and rubbed her head on my calf.

I looked at myself in the mirror after flushing the toilet and stared at the black circles under my eyes. I still needed a little more sleep, I felt that. I was exhausted but after that dream, I doubted I would be able to fall asleep again any time soon. I threw water on my face and gargled some to get the taste of vomit off. Then I went to the main room, sitting on a table and looking over at Ev who was still asleep. He had been working endlessly on creating something I would like as a tattoo in the last couple of days and he seemed to be close to figuring something wonderful out. We had actually talked a lot more about it and I had settled to wanting something colourful. It wasn't exactly his style of doing things, but he seemed confident in his abilities and just as thrilled as I was with the idea.

I searched the internet until he woke up. Found some free online classes for programming and game development. I didn't think I'd be able to start learning how to make games any time soon, considering that game development required better equipment than a simple laptop, but I still felt a need to know. Know how much money I would need in order to start designing stuff. I wanted to know.

Without being aware of how I ended up watching videos of some people making games and didn't even notice when Ev woke up until he stood up and smiled at me. When my eyes met his, a shiver went down my spine, a reaction I had no control over as I remembered the dream I had seen. Maybe if he knew...?

"Morning," he said with a smile and stretched his arms upwards. Omen jumped on the bed and meowed at him to pet her and I took off the earplugs he had given me and paused the video I had been watching.

"Morning," I muttered back and let out a small breath.

"Have you been up for long?" he asked me, his eyes leaving me and checking his phone.

"I wouldn't say long but I have been awake for a while... saw a nightmare," I explained and hugged myself with my arms. I saw him frown and he slowly came closer.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked me. I shook my head a little with a half-smile, grateful that he had asked me that but not finding the power to tell him though. "You want tea? Or coffee?"

"Eh... tea, thank you," I said under my breath and watched as he put water to boil. "Do you have work today?" I asked him and he filled a glass with water and drank it.

"Nope, but I have a six-hour shift tomorrow. I am closing up the shop too, so I'll probably come home late," he replied and leaned against the kitchen counter. I nodded. "I finished a design that I think you will like. For your tattoo. Do you want to see it?"

"Yeah," I immediately exclaimed a big smile splitting up my face. He smiled back and pushed away from the counter. Slowly he leaned down and searched for his sketchbook in his bag.

He came to sit down next to me and opened his notebook to a beautiful drawing. It was of a landscape with a clear blue sky and a snowy mountain in the distance and a lake in the front. In the middle of the drawing, right behind the lake, there was a tiger that was sitting down, its orange and black fur contrasting with the surrounding blue and green and white. The clear water of the lake was perfectly reflecting the tiger, creating a beautiful copy of it.

"Ev..." I said, my voice fading out as I watched in awe. How had he managed to do that?

There were so many details to it. So much fine work. The lines were so small. My mind couldn't fathom how a person could have made it. It was clearly a drawing, but it was so beautiful I almost didn't believe it was.

"We can work on the edges; I could do a frame or round it out or something, but what do you think?"

"It is so freaking beautiful..." I managed to somehow say. A delighted smile split his face and he sat back with a happy sigh.

"I remembered that you liked tigers. And you said you wanted something colourful... so yea..." he replied.

"And the sky's blue," I noted.

"Yeah, we don't see that very often so I figured it would be nice," he said and stood up to make us our tea.

My gaze remained on the drawing, thinking about how beautiful it was and that this would be on my body in the next few days. Part of me still found it surreal that I was getting a tattoo. I had never been told not to get one, it was just something that I hadn't felt the freedom to do.

"When can I get it?" I asked and turned sideways to look at him better.

"Eh, I don't know... if you feel ready tomorrow is alright with me. I think I have some free time right before closing up. I could call Marci and schedule it then. Only my co-workers will be there too. At least for the start of the session," he replied and came to sit next to me.

"Okay... will that be a problem?"

"Of course, not... I mean, well, technically you're still a missing person, but now that you've changed your hair colour and you look healthier than you used to... you could wear a mask and say you are feeling a bit under the weather?" he said and looked at his drawing again.

"Yes... I guess I can do that..." I replied and looked down at the drawing too. A small smile danced on my lips and I found it hard to believe that this was actually happening. I would be getting a tattoo. I would be getting this beautiful tattoo. And the person who would be doing it was Ev. Not the monster from my nightmare. Ev. My friend.