One awful side effect of being unemployed is how much it fucks up a sleep schedule. Falling asleep in the very late hours of the night and waking up in the afternoon felt so horrible and wrong on so many levels. In Nathan’s case, it made him feel like a slob.

Thankfully though, every morning Astian made sure to come to his room to wake him up, usually just by shaking him.

Nathan pretended to still be asleep when he heard Astian come into his room. He just needed a few extra minutes to rest.

To his surprise, he was suddenly lifted off his bed. He managed to stop himself from flailing his arms, but he still had a freaked expression on his face as he opened his eyes and saw Astian carrying him.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” Astian said with the same weird grin that was quickly becoming burnt into his mind.

“What are you doing?” Nathan asked, in probably the most nonchalant way he could, given the situation.

“Just making sure you’re awake.”

“Did you have to do it like that?”

“Well it worked, didn’t it?”

Astian still had that grin on his face as he said that, and it was beginning to make Nathan feel very uncomfortable. This was not at all a normal way to wake someone up. Not a friend at least.

Astian laid Nathan back down on his bed. “Breakfast is done, you might want to come out if you want it hot.”

He left the room after that. Considering the point in him going in there in the first place was to wake him up, Nathan thought he did a really good job. He had no desire to go back to sleep. But still, everything about that interaction was wrong. The ‘sleeping beauty’ comment really stood out to him. Nathan had been called stuff like that before in his life from other guys, but it was always in a mocking tone. The way Astian said it was just… gross.

He really needed to have a talk with him about this.

***

Astian handed Nathan a plate, a waffle made with his own family recipe. It smelled and looked delicious. Truthfully Nathan was a bit angry he was never told what exactly this recipe was. He supposed life couldn’t give you everything.

Taking a seat at the table, he saw Astian about to leave the room. He didn’t have to leave for work for another ten minutes, he could spare a short conversation. And this was one that needed to happen.

“Astian.” Nathan called.

Astian walked back into the dining room. “Look, I’d like to leave now. You realize traffic is a thing, right?”

“Astian, I need to talk to you.” Nathan said. “It’s about whatever the hell you think you’re doing. It’s going too far.”

“What are you talking about?”

“These weird ass comments like ‘sleeping beauty’ and such. It’s getting weird. It’s starting to make me uncomfortable.”

For a second Nathan swore he saw Astian look surprised or almost panicked, but that was gone in an instant.

“Oh, that? That’s just teasing. It’s not a big deal.”

“You slapped my ass a few days ago.”

“That was a joke. If you don’t want to get slapped then don’t bend down like that.”

“I don’t care if it was a joke. I want it to stop.”

Nathan must have said that very harshly, because Astian looked disappointed. Seeing him look like that made Nathan feel guilty, as if he just did something extremely wrong. He almost wanted to apologize, but only almost.

“Alright, I’ll stop. I didn’t think it was a big deal but I’ll stop. Still, I think you’re being too uptight. You really need to hang out with more people.”

Astian’s last comment before leaving the apartment hit Nathan unusually hard. He didn’t know why he felt so awful about what he said. Astian had been pushing his boundaries for days, and definitely crossed the line multiple times. Nathan had every right to tell him to stop, but for some reason his heart was etched with guilt.

Nathan tried to eat his breakfast in peace, but he just couldn’t. For one thing, he noticed he had to adjust his hands more times than he’d like. He could swear they were a touch smaller than they should be, but that was likely his imagination. It wasn’t like focusing on that could make him ignore the guilt eating away at him, anyway.

Astian was just having a little fun, wasn’t he? Maybe he was right to say Nathan was being uptight. A couple harmless jokes couldn’t hurt, and it wasn’t like he was in any danger.

After finishing breakfast, Nathan went outside to try to walk off his thoughts, and it only half worked. Ignoring the fact that his shoes were just loose enough to be barely noticeable (had he really been stretching them that much), he just couldn’t shake off the feeling that he did something wrong. It made him walk faster than he otherwise would’ve.

At least it was a nice day. If there’s one thing Astian was right about, it’s that he really needed to get out more.

***

When Astian came back from work, he spoke and acted as if the conversation from that morning didn’t happen. It was strange, but Nathan welcomed it. He didn’t want to bring it up again either. Especially when just thinking about it made him feel compelled to apologize. Talking about it would make suppressing that urge a real challenge.

When Nathan went to bed that night, his feelings of guilt were mostly gone, but at this point they were replaced more by concern at how strong that guilt was. What was going on with him?

Being unemployed must really be fucking with his head. He needed to get a job, and fast. If only any of the companies he applied to would call him back. He groaned, life was really shit right now.

***

Natalie had no idea what to expect as she gazed out the car window, watching building after building pass by. Her first day at this new program. She was going to be talking in a room full of identity death victims. God, what was she getting herself into?

Her day back in the real world was pretty unnoteworthy. Ashley had tried to lift up her spirits, but none of her efforts managed to do anything. She may as well have been talking to a brick wall.

Come evening she was really starting to notice how lonely she was getting in that apartment. She couldn’t help it, a part of her missed Astian. Missed talking to him, missed watching movies with him. Missed hugging him, kissing him, and having sex with him. Even if most of those experiences were deliberately put into her head by him, she couldn’t deny how good he made her feel.

She shut her eyes tightly at the thought of Astian. No, it was good that he was gone. Not just because he was a bad person, but because with his magic, who knows what else he could’ve done to her. If he was willing to brainwash her into being his girlfriend, there was no way he would stop at that. He might have turned her into his full worshiper, or made her completely dependent on him. He might have even made her his slave. There was no way to tell how far he’d go.

The dreams she had just before arriving in this car were deeply disturbing. Thankfully after she fell asleep in the hotel no lost memories of Nathan came back to her. It seemed they only came once during sleep. She wished they wouldn’t come at all, but she couldn’t deny a part of her was morbidly curious to remember how Nathan dealt with his change.

It seemed like he actually fought back some. Good for him, even if she knew that he lost in the end.

What caught her attention the most though was Astian. Looking back at that memory now as she experienced it, she had a hard time believing the guilt she felt then was genuine. It had to be magically influenced. Astian wanted the perfect girlfriend after all. It made her wonder just how much she was brainwashed. Could she even leave Astian at all? Had he forced her with magic to stay with him at all costs? To overlook his flaws and his clear psychopathy? From his perspective, they had only actually dated for one week, and that week was the only time she knew the real Astian. He didn’t act any differently than in any other week, but if he was given more time…

Natalie shuddered at the thought.

***

Here it was, their destination. Finally, they had reached it. Unlike whatever the world that monitored magic abuse was called, the world she was in now was not a white void. It had scenery. Grass, trees, and cars were as far as the eye could see. She could even feel wind blow across her as she walked out of the car. The driver, a man who looked to be middle aged, waved as he drove away.

She walked across the expansive parking lot to the large building in front of her. It looked like an ordinary psychiatric institute, being very wide and quite tall. All things considered, it looked pretty inviting. She went inside and as was told, reported to the third floor.

As she walked through the place, she was extremely curious what all these rooms were for. What went on here? Was it just a psychiatric institute for the people that lived in this world, or something different? What world was she in anyway? It looked a lot like Earth, it even had something that looked very much like the Sun in the sky, but she knew that couldn’t be the case. Was it on a real planet, somewhere in some universe? Maybe.

It just hit Natalie that she was about to talk to people who literally lived in different universes.

THAT was going to be a trip.

She checked herself in and reported to the room just down the hallway to the left. She opened the door and was immediately greeted with the faces of ten other women looking right at her. Great, she was already having second thoughts. She only just got here.

“Hello Natalie.” Sara greeted her from one of the front chairs. “I’m happy you could join us.”