2042, Frank: 13 years old

Frank had no idea where he was.

His surroundings were unfamiliar, but it looked and felt like soft green grass was underneath his feet. He could see his sneaker covered feet planted to the ground, but they were slightly dirty like he had walked a distance to get to where he was now. If he paid close attention, he could hear the bubbling of a stream ahead and the random chirps of birds in the sky and in the lush trees ahead. The sun was setting, the affect painting the horizon a light pink and orange with swirls of purple tinted clouds over the plains of grass Frank saw straight ahead.

Frank had never been to this place before. All of it was new, but it was so beautiful that Frank couldn't find any way to complain. He looked down at himself to see that he was wearing simple black jeans with a striped black and white long sleeved shirt. He tugged on the hemline of his shirt nervously, biting his lip and looking in all directions. The last thing he wanted was to get lost. After taking a few paces forward, Frank concluded that he was already lost and he had no idea which direction he had come from.

"Shit." He muttered under his breath. He looked down at the random wildflowers swaying in the breeze and started to panic. He did not remember how he got here, why he was here, and he certainly could not identify where he was. The glass plains and wild flowers did not look like the green that grew in Battery City - the green in the city was all deep tall grass and miles of trees with fruit or flowers upon the leaves. The color was dark unlike the lightness of the grass surrounding Frank. This was a field he had never seen before.

The place was beautiful, Frank wished he had his camera with him so he could snap pictures of all the gorgeous and unknown flowers in the grass, but it scared him to death that he was in the middle of no where.

There was no city in the distance, no skylight, no nothing. The temperature was lower than the city's and Frank was grateful that a long sleeve was covering his arms. There wasn't a sign of life anywhere, not animal nor human-

That was Frank's impression until his ears picked up a sound. It was carried over to him by the breeze, skimming across his skin and ruffling the gentle curls on the tips of his hair. Frank felt the wind brush through his eyelashes and the sound of soft singing was making its way into his mind. He could hear the gentle melody, the calming yet eerie voice of somebody singing to themselves. At first, the lyrics were hard to understand. But once Frank found the direction of the voice and turned towards it, he could hear that the person was nearby.

"Saints protect her now . . ." the voice sang in a trance like state, borderline whispering with their achingly sad voice. "Come angels of the lord . . . come angels unknown . . ." It was a male, Frank could tell from the deeper quality of the notes and the bit of rasping the voice made in its words. Frank felt his chest constrict from hearing the utter hopelessness the voice carried. But it was so beautiful, not in a way that the entire world would praise it for being perfect radio material, but in a way that it was unique, so different from what Frank had heard.

The person continued to hum the same tune over and over again. The haunting melody confused Frank, he had not heard it before, but he supposed that this song had a personal story behind it that maybe Frank would never know about. He walked closer to the voice and approached an opening through a tall collection of trees. The bark was rough and dark with age, chipping off of the trees. Frank hesitantly placed his hand on one of the trees as he got closer, quietly peering over to see who the person was.

Finally, Frank caught sight of a person sitting down with his back against a tree, looking over at the stream bubbling just a few feet away. It was a boy, Frank could tell from where he stood. He was dressed in a worn out leather jacket with a black button up shirt underneath it and his legs were clad in tight black jeans with holes in the knees. He had his knees drawn up to his chest as he stared at the water. His hair was a mop of unbrushed raven black hair on his head and his eye color was unidentifiable from where Frank stood.

But Frank could tell that the boy was around the same age as him. And that he looked just as unique as he sounded.

The boy stopped humming suddenly. He instead leaned his head back against the tree and his strawberry colored lips parted. He mouthed a few words to himself and closed his lips again. Frank only heard two words - 'what' and 'doing'. He barely picked up the extremely short sentence from how quiet the boy was speaking. After all, it wasn't meant to be heard by other people.

But the moment Frank saw a tear run down the boy's perfectly smooth and pale cheek, Frank felt his stomach plummet. The crystalline bead of water rolled down the boy's cheek and over his quivering bottom lip. It looked so very wrong for someone as beautiful as this person to cry. Frank never thought he would call a boy beautiful but it was the truth and the only word that popped into Frank's brain when he looked at him. He heard a soft and gasping breath come from the boy, his eyes screwing shut with an expression of pain on his face.

Frank did not know what to do. If he approached the boy, he would probably scare him or make him angry for walking in on a private moment. But if Frank did not confront him, he would keep suffering without help. He really did look like he was hurting, Frank could hear it in the sharp breaths and soft whimpers coming from the boy. Frank bit his bottom lip and glanced around. Of course, no one else was there besides the other person and Frank, the boy was all alone out here. He wondered how he got out there in the first place and why he did. Maybe he knew where the City was?

With a silent sigh, Frank knew that he needed to make himself known. He already felt the blush spreading on his cheeks when he stepped out from behind the trees.

"H-Hi?" Frank stuttered and his greeting sounded more like a question. He felt his cheeks blazing and his eyes begin to grow wide when he knew the other person had heard him.

"What the-" the other boy jumped and looked at Frank with wide eyes, wide hazel eyes to be exact. They were still shining with tears. He wiped his tears away quickly with the back of his hand and scrambled to his feet, backing up towards the trees.

"I didn't mean to scare you! I'm sorry."

"Who the hell are you?" The boy's eyebrows pulled together and he locked his almond shaped eyes with Frank's. For some odd reason, this action caused Frank's nerves to skyrocket and his stomach to flip in a way he had never experienced before. He passed it off as the nerves he felt from the intensity of the boy's deep hazel eyes.

"My name is Frank." Frank answered slowly. "I just - I have no idea where the hell I am, I saw you there and I- well- are you okay?"

The boy looked shocked at Frank's question. His eyes widened and he took his pastel pink lip between his teeth, biting down on the tender looking skin. He glanced behind him for a moment with an unsure expression on his face, deciding if he should just go or not. Frank tried his best to seem harmless but what could he really do when he was never a threat in the first place? He stood there awkwardly, his hand going up to his hair to run through it nervously.

"How long have you been standing there?" The boy asked Frank after a long drag of silence.

"Long enough to see you crying." Frank shuffled back a step and smiled sheepishly.

The other person blushed, color rushing into his pale and chubby cheeks. He jutted his hip out and placed his hand on it, giving Frank a short glare. "Watching people is weird and an invasion of privacy."

"I didn't do it on purpose, I didn't even know there was anyone else out here!"

"Well you're-" the other boy struggled for words and when he could not find any, he sighed and gave up. "What do you want?"

"I want to know where I am." Frank took a couple hesitant steps forward. Although the boy narrowed his eyes again, he did not move back anymore. Frank continued. "I have no fucking- ah, language, sorry - no freaking clue how I got here."

"Please understand that I can't help you, you're on your own, kid." The boy put both of his hands on his hips and sighed.

"Kid?" Frank cocked an eyebrow. "You look the same age as me."

"But you're smaller than me."

"Wha-" Frank glared. "Don't say that."

"Don't get an attitude with me, you're the one asking me for help." The boy rolled his eyes and fueled Frank's growing irritation.

"I'm getting an attitude? You're being sassy and I really do need help! How did you get here? Where is this place?"

"I wish I knew the answers." The other kid snapped. He saw that Frank flinched and then he softened, sighing and turning the other way. "You wouldn't understand if I told you."

"Please, just tell me so I can get home." Frank felt an unexpected lump form in his throat. His voice started to fade towards the end of his sentence and the words wavered. The boy noticed that and he brought his eyes back to Frank, widening them. Frank looked away from his intense eyes and settled for staring at the ground. Silence filled the spaces between the two for a long stretch of time. Frank knew trying to get help out of this boy was pointless, and he thought of leaving for a moment, but the boy started talking again.

"It's a dream." He said quietly. "It's my dream to be exact. I come here every night. I don't know how you got here, but I can promise you that there's nothing else beyond the trees. I've wandered before, there's nothing."

Frank swallowed nervously, lifting his eyes again to find the boy staring at him with an expression that crossed between wariness and curiosity. He felt his heart begin to thump loudly with nervousness and his palms started to sweat.

"A dream?" Frank whispered. "That's impossible."

The breeze carried the few words over to the other boy. He heard them and nodded in confirmation. Then he licked his lips and took a few cautious steps forward, holding his hand out.

"My name is Gerard." He stopped in front of Frank with his hand extended, a forced smile on his pink lips. Frank could still see the hesitation and weariness in the other's eyes. His hazel irises were swimming with doubt, and Frank understood that because Gerard could not just trust someone right away. Frank did not trust Gerard, yet he had a lot of questions for this person.

Frank discreetly wiped his palm on his jeans before going to meet Gerard's hand to shake it. "You know my name already, I guess." Frank smiled awkwardly and put his hand in Gerard's -

Only to witness the strangest thing ever.

Yes, Frank and Gerard's hands were clearly clasped together, the other's pale and artistic hand clutching Frank's tanner and callused hand, and their skin was touching. There should have been the sensation of warmth and the tangle of fingers and palms touching.

But there was not. Frank couldn't feel anything. He might as well have been clutching the air for all that he felt. All sensations were absent, not even on his fingertips could he feel Gerard.

They both looked up at each other with confused and slightly frightened expressions. Both of their eyebrows were furrowed and their lips were set in a deep frown. As if to see if he could get any feeling out of Frank, he squeezed his hand, but nothing changed. They could not feel any contact whatsoever, as if their hands weren't touching at all.

"What the hell?" Gerard whispered. He dropped his hands and stared at Frank. "Can you feel me?" He reached his hand out and placed it on Frank's shoulder.

Frank looked at Gerard's hand with a gulp. No, he could not feel the boy's touch and for certain Gerard could not feel Frank's. His heart was thudding with nerves and fright - was Gerard even real? He said this was all a dream. Gerard could have been just a figment of his imagination. Dreams were not reality, they were so different, which would explain why the setting was a place Frank had never been before. He had never seen Gerard until then either, and though Gerard claimed that this was his dream, Frank knew it was impossible to just walk into another person's dream - especially one that he had never met.

Frank looked at Gerard, his beautiful face and remembered his equally beautiful voice, and it hit him like a pile of bricks that Gerard truly was nothing more than a dream, the main character in his subconscious mind. He had never dreamt someone so clearly, but the fact that he could not feel him proved that dreams were in fact just dreams.

"You're not real." Frank said quietly. "That's why I can't feel you." He said it more to himself, but Gerard clearly heard him.

The raven haired boy raised his eyebrows in disbelief, removing his hand from Frank's grasp. "I am real! If anything, you're the one who isn't real!"

"It's impossible to just walk into someone else's dreams, Gerard." Frank shook his head. "It's unheard of."

"Somehow you managed to do it." Gerard crossed his arms across his chest in an insecure fashion and backed away from Frank. "I don't know who you are or why this is happening, but I don't want any part in it." And with that, Gerard started to walk away.

And hopefully, Frank would never see him again.