The screams echoed around the bedroom, bouncing off the walls like rubber. They continued for a good twenty seconds before being followed by a large thud and finally silence.
“Psiksi! Are you alright?” Kass panicked as he flew up the stairs and straight to the bedroom. Psiksi was lying on the ground, rubbing the back of his neck, having clearly fallen out of bed.
“No. I’m not alright, Kass!” Psiksi realised where he was, then curled up into a ball. He was scared and shaking. Kass had never seen him like this before. “It’s all wrong! All wrong!”
“What’s all wrong?”
Kass wondered what to do. He pulled the blanket off the bed and wrapped Psiksi up in it, but he was still shaking.
“It’s all wrong…” Psiksi repeated. “Wrong wrong wrong!”
“What’s wrong?” Kass was starting to panic. He wrapped his arms around Psiksi, trying to stop him from shaking so much. His bare skin felt cold and his plating felt even colder. “Psiksi, please, talk to me, tell me what the problem is! Are you ill? Do I need to take you to a medic?”
Psiksi shuddered, then shook his head. He nuzzled Kass’s arm, seemingly regaining some of his composure. Slowly, he stopped shaking, taking deep breaths to calm himself down.
“Oh. I’m on the floor.”
Kass pressed his hand against the back of Psiksi’s neck and head, feeling for any bumps or injuries. “You fell out of bed.”
“I did.”
“You were screaming.”
Psiksi squirmed slightly, then nuzzled Kass again.
“It was horrible.”
“It was.”
The little green Rethan shook his head, then tried to sit up. The blanket was constricting him and he didn’t like it. Kass loosened his grip on Psiksi and helped him up onto the bed.
“It’s all wrong…” Psiksi muttered to himself.
“You keep on saying that!” Kass was still worried. “What does that even mean?”
“I… I don’t know…” Psiksi finally admitted after a long, drawn out sigh. “It’s like, I don’t know, the entire universe just shifted. Everything’s different now.”
“How so?” Kass kept his hand on Psiksi’s back, doing his best to comfort and reassure him.
“Like… Like time skipped a beat and teleported an event from the future into the now and I saw it all happen. Like the personification of this universe just went on holiday and left it all behind…”
Kass blinked, then patted Psiksi on the back and stood up. He reached for his favourite purple scarf and wrapped it around Psiksi’s neck.
“That’s insane.”
“I know. But it was terrifying… And I was there, watching it all happen… The six of us, all sort of unable to do anything but watch…” Psiksi glanced at his wristband. “I wonder if Arksi and Eksi and Thita all had the same dream?”
“Unable to watch what?” Kass asked. He was concerned about Psiksi, he’d noticed that he was tossing and turning and not sleeping well during the night, but what he’d seen this morning, with his dear partner spasming on the floor, that was something else.
Psiksi thought for a moment, as if he was trying to work out how to form his next few sentences. “I think I watched the three Deities of this universe argue and bicker. The snake wanted to kill us all. The dragon wanted everyone to be happy. The deer was simply annoyed. And we’re all standing there over this rubble, and then Arkay was there and he says something and I…”
“Arkay?”
“Yeah…” Psiksi smiled slightly. “I see him a lot in my dreams. Generally he makes my dreams better, saves me from nightmares…” His smile quickly faded though. “I thought he was saving me in this one, but then the three Deities did something to him and then… I don’t know… He joined them? And then everything was fading and falling and everything…”
Psiksi shook his head, then crossed his arms. Kas sat back down and gave him a big hug.
“It was just a dream, Psiksi. A horrible dream, one that you potentially got telepathic static off of, but a dream nonetheless…”
“No… It was more than a dream. The whole universe just shifted. Things are different now! But we… we’re all the same…” Psiksi sighed as he got up and started putting his armour on. “I don’t know… I just need some time to think about all this…”
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Kass asked.
“No. But I’ll get over it…”