CHAPTER 3:
A GLIMPSE OF US.
Morpheus

These days in my glass prison has started to fade. Minutes turned into hours, hours into days, and days into decades. I had no idea how long it had been besides when the young boy had started to grow older. That's how I kept track, but it did not matter.

For I deserved it.

I deigned all of my actions, every single thing I had done in my life as an Endless, as justified for it was for dreams, nightmares, my realm, and the humans. Any love I held for another Being in my billions of years had started to fade because it felt more like a chore than something of benefit to me.

Even when I felt it grow within me, I cut it off. I snipped it before it could fester within me and take control of all of my thoughts and actions, but I learned quickly that one cannot live a life without that feeling.

The feeling of when you first see them, you notice all of the flaws of an individual. You notice how awkward they are, or how they seem too naive for such a harsh world. Yet as you keep interacting and aall of their flaws seem to fade into all of the things you adore about them. They become a singularly perfect being in your eyes, and all you wish to do is tell them how much you love them. Yet words are not enough. You must do so through actions, taking note of the things they adore themselves and what can bring them the utmost pleasure. You will do anything and everything to see them happy, even if it means losing yourself in the process.

"Still nothing, then?"

The droning voice of Roderick Burgess penetrated my thoughts as I stayed staring at the ground beneath me.

"You must be insufferable if no one has come to your aid. Oh wait, there's that fucking bird. That's got to be something, right?" His voice was condescending and I would love nothing more than to make him aware of how he should handle his tone around me, but for now, I await the day I will make him suffer.

"No wife? No children?" I merely glanced up at him, my eyes completely pitch black as I stared him down.

"Do Endless get divorced? Or do you just stick it out until one of you dies from boredom?" He laughed, forcing the security to laugh along with him as I looked away again.

Humans. . .

Why did you love them so?

I forced the thought of her from my mind, for I knew if I let my mind linger on her for too long, I would find myself wanting her. I would find myself wishing that she was beside me, so that even if I was imprisoned, she would be beside me with her brilliant smile and adoring laughter. I did not deserve to see nor hear such a beautiful thing.

But that laughter faded away long ago, and the picture in my mind with her smile was starting to fade away.

Roderick Burgess had left, and the days began once again. I would hear humans above me, laughing and eating their lives away with an alcoholic beverage in their hand. Some had even wandered down here for privacy from time to time, but never too far to where they might spot me. Only to indulge in their desires.

"I do find some things the humans desire to be quite lovely, don't you?"

I hissed. The first sound I've made in decades was a small wince as the memory of her appeared in my mind, and I had to push it away. Why? Why now? Was I that desperate for the mere thought of physical interaction that I had to think of her merely using suggestive wording?

"Are you hurt?"

I looked across from me to see the young boy, who was no longer a boy, staring at me as he left the gate behind him open. He approached me, stopping at the water surrounding me and keeping anyone from even touching the glass.

"I heard you. Do you need anything?" He repeated, looking at me as if I was an animal in need of help.

I need nothing from you.

Absolutely nothing.

"I overheard my father earlier, and he was conversing with a man. The man said that you had a wife. Will she come for you? Does she know what has happened?"

I glared at him.

"If there is a way to contact her-"

"No."

That was the one and only word I have spoken. My voice was darker and angry. These mortals did not have the right to speak of her, nor did they deserve to know the adoration she had for them. My harsh gaze was enough to send him away, and I did not even acknowledge the fact that he had mentioned that someone had known of her.

And that is all I allowed myself to think of her.

For I, Dream of The Endless, did not deserve to even think of her. I was cruel, I was horrid, and she was a truly wonderful Being of love and light.

Someone for which I did not deserve.

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Obviously there's something that happened between Morpheus and Arcadia. Whatever could that be?