Hell's Princes

The Dreams

**3 years and 361 days later**

Riley’s POV

It has now been almost seven-year since I came to Blue Vill, and during the seven years I have graduated high school-yes, I'm 15 and have graduated high school, I'm very smart,-, I started some online college classes for business so I can open a bakery, I have mastered everything type of martial arts, I have mastered every type of weapon I have ever held, I have learned different languages- I know English, French, Spanish, German, Italien, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, portigues, and Latin. I have also learned the language of the gods,- and in 4 days I'm going to be 16. In 4 days I get to meet my brother. Right now I'm making dinner with Izzy, and we are making stuff for fajitas. We cook in silence as we are both in our own little worlds. Soon enough we are done and I head up the stairs so I can put a shirt on for dinner. Yes, I still don't like to wear shirts, but I do for dinner every day. As I go through the living room I tell Adam that dinner is ready and he heads to the table. As I'm going up I'm thinking about asking my parents,-mum and dad. I see them in the dream space. We talk and they teach me about the supernatural world, and different types of martial arts, so when I say I’ve mastered every type believe me I have- I'm thinking of asking them to tell me where Ryan is, I mean our birthday is in 4 days and I don’t know how long it will take to get there. As I was thinking I got my shirt and headed back down. As I sit I feel the air thick with tension, I know they want to tell me something I just don’t know what. After I sit we start eating, but no one has said a thing, and normally during dinner, we talk and laugh but not too might. 10 min later I have had enough of Izzy, Adam and I not talking to each other and snap saying “I don’t know what happened or what’s going on, but please tell me.” they look at each other then Adam says “well we wanted to talk to you about the gym and our wills.” “why, you're not dying.” I say, and I know that for a fact because when someone is sick I can smell it and their aura changes slightly. Izzy says “well we know that, but people need to have these talks just in case something happens. So. we wanted to tell you that if something happens two us that we have a plan, there are papers in the top drawer of the desk in Adams office and that we would like you to maybe start helping out at the gym more cause at some point we would like to give the gym to you.`` I'm probably looking like a fish out of the water right now. After I have pressed this I say “so you're going to be giving the gym?” “yes, along with everything else. The car, the house, the gym, all of it.” Adam says. “Wow, I don’t know what to say. I mean you guys took me in when I was 9 and treated me as if I was your own son.`` I say, thinking back over the years, I then continue saying, “when the time's right I would love to take over the gym, but I'm not going to be able to help out at the gym for a while.” Izzy then quickly says before I can stop her “What is it something we did, is it because of this-'' I cut her off saying “Izzy calm down. You And Adam did nothing wrong. It's just that this year for my birthday I want to go somewhere else by myself, then visit the cottage I grew up in with my Aunt Ellie.`` I see them visibly relax after I say that. “Ok, where will you be going, and when were you going to tell us that?” Adam asks. I say “I don't know where I'm going yet, and I am going to tell you tomorrow after I figure it out.” “Ok then, but when you're gone you better send us updates and call us every day.” Izzy says. The rest of the dinner went as it normally does. After we did dishes, played a board game, and then went to our rooms to do our nightly routine to get ready for bed. I go to my lay down and go to the dream space. I walk over to the pond where I first saw Ryan, I put my hand in it like I have every other night and I check on him. I do this every time, it lets me have a calmer mind knowing he’s safe. After I look around and see the guys coming over, I walk over to them and say “tonight’s the night.” they look at me with knowing looks and Mason says “we know, and we know you're ready. Let's go find your parents.” off we went, in the direction of the house I first met mum and dad at. Morpheus was kind, and let us see each other whenever we wanted, and had put mum and dad’s house in the same direction every night. When I got there I knocked like I always do, even though they have told me I don't need to, I just don’t want to walk in one day and see something I never wanted to, and will never be able to unsee. As soon as I knock I hear mum say “come in Riley '' they used to say ‘come in Riley, and you don’t need to knock’ but they gave up after a month of me saying I won’t come in without knocking and getting a come in. I go in and see mum and dad in the dining room eating what looks like a cake, so obvious, ly I say “is that cake, and if it is where is mine?” They look at me and point at the counter. “So.” I start, “what are you doing.?” “nothing, your dad was just going over the new warrior applications for hell. What about you, how was your day?” mum says. I say “I was good, nothing out of the normal, except for Izzy and Adam saying that when the time's right there's going to give the gym to me-”

 “that's great. You and Ryan can run it together.'' Mum cuts me off with a smile on her face. 

“Ya, and I was also hoping to talk to you about something,'' I say, and mum's smile fades off her face. 

“Mum it’s not bad, I promise.” I tell her “go on son.” dad says seriously. 

“Wow, you guy went from happy, to serious, in 0.5 seconds. Anyway, I wanted to ask if you could tell me where Ryan is, so we can be together on our 16th birthday.” I say and as I'm saying this they get the biggest smiles on their faces, the biggest ones I have ever seen and I'm pretty sure that their faces are going to cramp if they don't stop.

 “I almost forgot. You're turning 16 in 4 days!” mum yells “babe we’re right here, no need to yell.” dad says

 “well maybe I want my brother to know too.” says mum. 

“We can talk to him?” I ask. 

“Yes, he can hear, see all of our dreams and dream spaces, he can con in them if he wants as well.” dad says. I say “so.. I’ve never met him before… why?” mum yells “MORPHEUS!! MORPHEUS GET YOUR a*s DOWN HERE AND MEET MY SON!!!!” After that mum and dad are quiet. Then there’s a knock at the door. Mum goes to open it, and dad and I follow. At the door, there is a man with dirty blond hair, sea-blue eyes, a sharp jawline and pretty much what you would expect a god to look like. He was about 6.8ft and lots of muscles like dad and i. 

Then he says “what’s got you talking like that to your big bro Am? I mean if your mate is the cause of you yelling at me then maybe I should separate your dream spaces.”

Mum then says “my mate is not the reason for the yelling, it’s the fact that my son has been coming to the dream space for almost 4 years now and has never met you, you idiot.” 

“well, I thought you would like some family time together. So... I never came” he tries to defend, keyword tyres. I say “well if you are mum’s brother then you are family” mum and dad nod in agreement.

 “Well. I'm sorry then, I didn’t know it would be ok.” he says to mum, he then turns to me saying “Hi Riley, I’m you Uncle Morpheus, or Uncle Morph if you prefer, and it’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

 “same, and I have a 2 part question,” I say “go ahead.” 

“If you're the god of dreams, and know what people are dreaming, do you know what my brother is dreaming about?” I ask “yes I do,” he says “then can you tell me if he’s having nice dreams?” I ask. He has a somewhat shocked look as do mum and dad. “You want to know if Ryan is having nice dreams?” he asks to verify what I want. I nod and he says “Ryan’s dreams are good. They're full of race cars, sports cars, motorcycles, and he only ever gets the odd nightmare when he watches a movie that's too scary for him.” as he says this a smile appears on my face. 

“Thanks,” I say “no problem” he replies “but if you lie I will punch you,” I say

 “I’m not” 

“good” 

“well I thought your parents were going to tell you where Ryan is'' he says “Right.” dad says. 

“Well, Ryan and Lizzy are in Canada, Montreal to be exact.” 

“WHAT!!” I yell “they have been nine hours away this whole time?” I ask, mum and dad nod. Right now I feel like I'm going to cry. They have been so close to me for 6 years, 6 YEARS. I stormed out to the backyard because I needed the punching bag. When I get outside I run to the punching bags and I punch the first one till it falls off then I move to the next and the next and I punch all 10 of them until they're on the ground. Even after being there on the ground I still need to punch something, so I run over to a tree and punch it. As I was punching it my knuckles started to bleed, but I didn't care. I punched that tree until it fell over. Only then did I stop. I know they were watching me, probably to make sure I didn't hurt myself too much. When the tree was down I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. When I knew I wasn't going to punch someone opened my eyes and turned around and looked at them. Dad looked calm, mum did too, but Uncle Morph had a shocked and amazed expression on. 

“My brother was only nine horses away, for the past 6 years. 6 years ago I was nine horses away, why didn’t you tell me?” I say in barely above a whisper, but I know they heard me. 

“You told us not to, not until you asked.” dad says.

 “I was 12 when I said that.”I sat in a cold voice, I saw them flinching a little from my tone but I didn't care. 

“I was 12. A 12-year-old, that didn’t think his brother would be that close, a 12-year-old who thought his brother was at least 3 days of travel away,” I say in the same voice. I then walk away, not giving them a chance to say anything. As I'm walking back I hear their footsteps, but I don't care. I walk through the trees back to the pond and sit putting my hand in it. When I put my hand in it I saw Ryan. he was sleeping, like normal when I saw him, every once and a while he’s at one of his friend’s houses for what I'm told is a sleepover, they normally are watching movies by the time I see him. Today as I watched him I looked around his room, he had blue bed sheets, a black bed frame, grey walls, a desk on the right side of the room, and some posters on the walls. I hear the footsteps stop then Morpheus says “let me” and then another set of steps start coming. I don’t move. I don’t want to move, I just want my brother. He sits down beside me and asks “how are you doing that?” 

“I don’t know, it’s something my spirits showed me the first time I came here.” 

“Well then you are special because everyone has a pond like this in their dream space, and every spirit hopes that their human will be able to use its power, but none can.” 

“Then why are the ponds there?”

“They're there because of how I pass through dreams and go earth, Olympus, and the underworld. They're like portals.” 

“That's cool, can you show me more of their power?”

“Not today, you aren't in control of your emotions.” 

“I understand, maybe another day…. are you sure he rarely has nightmares?” I ask

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“I’m assuming you’ve seen what plays in my head when I sleep.”

“Yes, they're horrible dreams”

“There are no dreams,” I say. Morpheus’s face turns to one of horror as he realizes it. “Their memories.” I continue. 

“Those are your memories?” he asks. 

“Yes,” I say. That one word is all it takes for him to realize why I was asking about Ryan’s dreams, why I was so worked up about being so close to Ryan all these years.

“Do your mum and dad know?”

“No. They would lose it, wouldn't be able to accept the fact that they sent me off with Ellie to make sure I live and have a better life, only to realize it all went to hell a week after my 7th birthday.”

“You were 7?”

“Yes. I was on my own for 2 years before I ended up in Massachusetts, I'm scared physically, emotionally, mentally and probably always will be.”

“Well how about I help you get to your brother, I don't need to be in my office monitoring dreams 24/7. So I will meet you at the Blue Ville Train station the day after tomorrow, and tomorrow we can talk about what you should pack. Ok” he says with a little smile

“Ok, but please don’t tell mum and dad about the memories.”

“I won't, I won't say anything until you want to,” he says.

“Thanks. I should probably get going, but if Ryan does have a bad dream please tell me.”

“Will do” uncle Morph says. With that, I take my hand out of the water, close my eyes, clear my mind and I'm back in my bed.