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The warm sun streams in through the car windshield, and John hums along with the radio. It seems to be a basic four beat pop song of some sort, but you can't remember its name to save your life. It's nice, though. It's good background noise to go with the sound of the car's tires on the road.
You don't know where you're going, but you know it's gonna be fun— John seems to be happier than usual. Thank God. He deserves it. The Game messed everyone up, but you've watched him struggle up close and personal.
The outside of the car is almost nonexistent due to the bright sun, and you're glad John is wearing your sunglasses. You don't have any eye protection, but it doesn't really matter if you can see since you're not the one driving.
"You know you've always been a really good friend, right?" John says, and you let out a good-natured laugh at his sentimentality. He gets like this, sometimes. Usually when things are pretty bad for him, but things seem okay right now.
"Bitch, I know," you reply and laugh again. You used to talk about going on a road trip together all the time over Pesterchum, way back before the Game. You're both very excited to finally see it through.
"Seriously dude! You've been an amazing friend, and I was so lucky to've had you in my life. "No homo" or whatever the fuck we used to say."
A pause.
Was? Had?
A jolt runs through your body, because maybe things just got weird in a really bad way.
Wait.
"What d'you mean? Why're you talkin' in past tense?"
John just smiles. The sunlight starts to dim, but you still can't see anything outside of the car. Shit.
Panic hits you like a ton of bricks. Not John. Not John not John not John.
"John, we don't have much time- you have to tell me how you're going to die," you say, turning in your seat to face him. You know what's happening now. The anxiety of the situation is like hot coals in your sternum. It's burning and you're panicking but you can't fuck this up you just can't.
The sunlight is now completely gone, and the outside of the car is just black. It reminds you of the blackness that surrounded the meteor for those long three years. You can feel yourself starting to fade.
"John! Tell me! Please!" You're desperate and scared and hot and cold and running out of fucking time.
John sighs and takes off your sunglasses. He turns his head to look at you, a gentle smile still on his face, and places the glasses on top of your hair. "We have time."
His touch feels like the touch of a ghost. Maybe it is. It's cold.
You know time like the back of your hand, you were time at one point in your life, and you know for a fact that the one thing the two of you don't have is time. You can feel it ticking away and when the ticking stops you'll lose a piece of yourself so monumental that you might never recover.
You open your mouth to demand more information, but something distracts you— headlights, bright and cutting. A shock to your system that's already being electrocuted.
A large semi truck is barreling toward you both out of nowhere- it's going to hit John's side of the car head on. It's going to fucking demolish the car with how fast it's going.
Got it— time to go. You close your eyes and move your body— your real body. It feels like learning to walk again.
You try not to think about how this could be the last time you ever see John alive.
Years of nightmares have conditioned you to be able to wake yourself up quickly, and years of what caused the nightmares have conditioned you to be ready for anything as soon as you're awake.
You jolt up. Karkat puts a hand on your shoulder, and it helps ground you for a second.
"What's wrong? Nightmare?" He's wearing reading glasses and holding a book with a small light attached to it.
You shake your head vigorously. You roll away from him and struggle out of bed. Your bones feel heavy with sleep, and your eyes aren't working very well. You stumble through the chilled dark house, knocking into doorframes and end tables as you hurry your way to the kitchen.
For once, you remember where you left your cell phone. You usually have to turn the house upside down in the mornings looking for it when you forget to plug it into the charger the night before.
You grab it from the counter beside the refrigerator and start trying to unlock it.
"Dave, what's going on?" Karkat asks, worried. He catches up to you and puts a hand on the small of your back. His reading glasses are gone and his hands are empty. He looks concerned.
You don't have time for comfort or explanations.
You finally get your tired body to do what your racing mind is telling it to. You're a bit out of practice— during the Game (or before it) you would've been fully functional by now. Safety and contentment breed helplessness. You'd have a bigger problem with it if being safe and content didn't feel so damn good.
A call goes through to John's cell phone. Before you put the phone to your right ear, you catch sight of the time. Why is John driving at four in the morning? Is he driving? It would be fitting that the one time you catch a dream on time, it would be just that— a dream.
This isn't the first time that this has happened.
"Asshole, it's so early- who're you calling?" Karkat asks. He hugs you from behind and puts his head on your left shoulder.
You hope to God he can't hear John's side of the line. If you're too late, you may be just in time to hear the crash. You can handle that— you'll find a way to deal with it— but Karkat won't be able to. He's already lost too many friends.
"Hang on, Kat," you reply quickly. Dial tones ring out, and you feel your brain speeding and your body trying to slow down, and you feel like you're outside of it all. You feel like you're still in the car with John, listening to vague pop songs, and going somewhere mysterious. Weightless and not worried, but also dissociated and foggy— not quite comprehending anything.
"Hello?" John answers.
He actually answered. He actually answered.
"John, where are you right now?" You ask urgently, skipping the greeting.
"Uh, heading to Jade's house. She's upset about something, so I thought I'd-"
Fuck, he is driving!
"Where exactly are you?" You interrupt.
"Um..." he hesitates, probably looking for a landmark or sign. "Oh! I'm just about to cross I-89," he responds.
Your heart drops and your body tenses.
Shit. Some instinctual part of you knows that the timer is almost up, and it urges you to make John stop immediately.
"Pull over! Now!" Your voice rings out. "Do not cross the interstate!" You've never heard yourself sound so desperate and commanding.
You hear the subtle background noise coming over the line dissipate. He's pulling over.
You did it. You did it. You fucking did it.
Karkat pulls away from you and turns you around. He looks at you with wide, concerned eyes, but you don't care.
You finally saved someone.
"Dave, what the hell is going on?" John asks.
Karkat nods along with the question, wanting to know the answer, too.
Shit, he can hear the call. At least you don't have to worry about him hearing the crash.
"I can't explain. Trust me, though—" you begin, but a noise stops you.
The distant honking of a semi truck echoes through the line. You hear the roar of the engine getting louder in the background of the call. It sends shots of dread, sharp and quick, straight through you.
"John—" you begin, alarmed, but John cuts you off.
"Dude! That semi is going way too fast. His hazard lights are on, and he's honking, too!"
They better stay in their lane. They better speed past John. They better not hit him. You swear to God—
You stare at Karkat and he stares back. The panic is friction in the air between you two, and it's ready to catch alight at any second.
Your rising panic falls away as the loud engine over the line fades. You almost fall to the floor in relief. You sag a little, and Karkat reaches toward you, ready to catch you.
"I think their brakes aren't working! There's an uphill bit of road just a minute or so from here, though— they should be able to slow down and stop there. Wow, that could've been a problem for me! I would've been in the middle of the road when they... Dave." John's voice turns from surprised rambling to serious. "How did you know that was going to happen?"
Karkat's mouth drops open.
You're already going to have to freak Karkat out by explaining this, so you might as well spare John.
"I just had a bad feeling. Call it a lucky guess," You say, and the two of you stay on the phone for the five minutes it takes for him to get to Jade's. He arrives safely, and you think you have him convinced that it was just a lucky shot in the dark. He really is very gullible sometimes (all the time). Part of you knows he'll ask questions later, though.
You hang up, and turn to face Karkat.
"What just happened?" He sounds worried and slightly shocked. You can't fault him— you'd be pretty freaked out, too.
"Well, John was about to cross I-89—" you begin, trying to figure out how to tell him the truth without freaking him out.
You apparently still sorta have your Game powers.
"No, I'm not talking about what almost happened to John— I'm stark fuckin' clear on that part— I'm asking how you knew it was going to happen."
You sigh and glance at the stove clock. "Kat, it's four-thirty in the mornin'. Let's talk about this tomorrow, okay? I promise, I'll tell you everything."
You might be stalling. You might be just as freaked out as Karkat. You might think it's a bit unfair.
Everyone is human now— all the trolls had to give up their species-hood or whatever and become sucky-ass humans. Not only did they have to get used to their new bodies while pretending like they were just normal humans to the rest of the world, but they had to get used to Earth itself, too. Alternia didn't make it into this universe (at least from what you can tell).
So the trolls have gotten the short end of the stick (even though Karkat swears it's fine because Alternia wasn't the best place anyway), and you're getting your powers back? So fucking unfair. Nobody else has mentioned anything about their powers. Why are you the only one getting them back? If anyone deserves to have their Game powers, it's the trolls.
Karkat contemplates what you said for a minute before nodding his head. You really expected him to demand an answer right here and now. Wow. He has settled down a good bit since the end of the Game, but it still takes you by surprise sometimes.
He takes your hand and leads you back to bed, where your exhaustion quickly catches up with you.
You'll talk about it tomorrow.
Maybe.