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Sapnap was cold.
The obsidian surrounding him cast a purple shadow over the room, the glowstone lamps doing little to interrupt the gloom. Despite the wall of lava flowing menacingly in front of him, a chill settled deep within Sapnap’s bones. His nerves stood on edge; the anxiety of being on half a heart manifesting itself as a tremble Sapnap didn’t bother trying to hide. He hated feeling vulnerable. Sapnap clad himself in Netherite armor. He was never seen without an axe strapped across his back. He picked fights because he knew he would win. But now here he stood, trapped in an unbreakable vault, stripped of his belongings, one punch away from death.
A predator turned prey.
Sam wordlessly pulled a lever on the wall, and Sapnap heard dispensers far away start to turn their gears. He almost backed out right then and there. No one was forcing him to visit Dream. He could turn around and don his armor- raise his defenses again. He could step out of the prison and never come back. Never think about Dream again.
And then the barricade of lava fell to reveal a white tag reading Dreamwastaken. Sapnap swallowed and forced himself to steel his nerves. He raised his chin and pushed his shoulders back, exuding fake confidence. Sapnap was good at putting on a front.
He never thought it would have to be against his friend.
Sapnap held his balance as the stone platform moved him towards Dream’s cell. For a moment he was suspended in a purgatory of lava- a tranquil space amidst the conflict.
He reached the obsidian all too soon. Sapnap stepped off and examined the room. Dream sat leaning against a wall, silently observing. The cell was stifling: the ceiling stood mere inches above Sapnap’s head, and the obsidian walls seemed to envelop his lungs and seize the breath from his chest.
Sapnap was so, so cold.
The wall of lava descended- the final nail to the coffin that held both men. A beat of silence passed, filled only with the sputtering pops and cracks of the magma. Sapnap broke the tension.
“I like what you’ve done with the place.”
Dream rolled his eyes and scoffed, shaking his head but not hiding the smile that broke his lips. For a moment the boys dwelled in the past- existing only as friends building the community house together, cracking jokes and bantering back and forth. Sapnap’s heart felt heavy. Things were so different now. The man that sat in front of Sapnap wasn’t the same man who spent hours fishing with him, who fought monsters with him, who planted crops with him.
Sapnap wasn’t sure he knew him at all.
Dream pulled him from his thoughts with his response.
“Yeah, I rearranged the cauldron and the chest the other day. Glad you noticed.” It was a half-hearted attempt at humor. Dream let out an ironic chuckle and shook his head, blonde strings of hair falling around his eyes. When had his hair grown so long?
Sapnap chided himself in his head- he wasn’t here to give Dream pity. He deserved to be where he was. No matter how hard it was to admit it.
“Has anybody else visited?” Sapnap asked, trying to sustain the conversation.
“Tommy and Ranboo,” replied Dream. He didn’t elaborate further. An uncomfortable silence was suspended in the air. Sapnap was about to ask another meaningless, surface-level question when Dream spoke.
“Why did you come to visit me?” He raised his head to meet Sapnap’s gaze. Sapnap let out a long exhale and looked deep into the purple contours of the wall, hoping it would provide him with the answer to the question he himself had pondered in the days leading up to now.
“I don’t know. Closure, maybe. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to say?” Sapnap’s words felt hollow. The phrase I missed you sat on his tongue, but Sapnap didn’t say it. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, let alone Dream.
Sapnap countered Dream’s question with one of his own.
“Why did you do the things you did? Why…” The words died on their way out. Sapnap didn’t like how timid his voice sounded.
“Power,” Dream answered, not bothering to sugarcoat it. Sapnap knew how much he valued honesty. “It’s my server,” he continued, “and I wasn’t in control. I wanted to change it.”
“Power,” Sapnap repeated, a hint of disbelief in his tone. “You threw away the community house, your alliances, your friendships- you threw away everything - for power? So you could keep your name in front of the server?”
Dream just shrugged once in response.
Sapnap tried unsuccessfully to keep his emotions from seeping into his speech. “Did any of it mean anything to you? Or were you always planning on blowing it all up? Were we always just pawns on your chessboard?”
“I mean, I never made anything with the intention of destroying it, but I always knew I wouldn’t have a problem getting rid of anything if I had to. Like Eret’s kingship: I didn’t care about taking it away, but it’s not like-”
“Did I mean anything to you?” Sapnap quietly interrupted, his voice wavering slightly.
“Sapnap, of course you meant something to-”
“Then why did you blow up the community house?” Sapnap’s voice rose angrily, words echoing off of the shining onyx walls. “Then why are you stuck in here, and George and I are out there? Then why did you dump years of friendship down the drain?” Sapnap’s throat tightened as he felt tears threaten to prick his eyes. He was fighting hard to keep his emotions at bay.
“God, Sapnap, you don’t understand,” Dream rose from his seated position. “If I had been in control then we could have had that! But I needed to be in power first. Listen, if-”
“No, Dream, you listen! I’m sick of you always putting me second! Power doesn’t matter- it never has. What happened to us singing karaoke with Karl? Did power matter then? What happened to us practicing with our tridents together? What happened… what happened to us ?”
Dream stood silently unmoving, lips pressed together in a tight line, eyes locked with Sapnap.
“If you had asked me to give up a life for you, I would have done it in a heartbeat . A canon one. My last one even, I don’t care! You were my friend , Dream.” Sapnap pressed a button alerting Sam his visit was over. The lava wall once again began to fall. Sapnap asked Dream one final question.
“Would you have done the same for me?”
Dream’s gaze bore into Sapnap’s eyes, yet he said nothing.
Sapnap nodded to himself, Dream’s silence enough of an answer. He stepped back onto the stone platform, facing the cell.
“Goodbye, Dream.”
Dream stayed silent.
The lava cascaded down, obscuring Dream from Sapnap’s view.
He felt colder than ever.