Page 48 of Elemasters

“Can’t we just speedrun this bullshit?” Chris snapped, “if he’s stuck in a forest, I can just burn it down and clear a path. And then we can move the fuck on,”

“Yeah, because that worked so well when you tried to evaporate the water during Dustin’s trial. Nothing you did had any effect at all, and he had no idea you were even there, even after you jumped in like a maniac” Chloe bit back.

Dustin stopped in his tracks.

The others… had been there while he was drowning?

His stomach twisted. Did that mean the voices he heard; Bailey’s disappointment, Chloe’s cold judgment, James’s panic, had been real in some way? That the Lotus Garden had taken their cries for him and warped them into weapons?

His chest tightened as the truth settled in.

They had seen it. All of it. And they hadn’t been able to do a damn thing.

And if that was true… then neither could he.

The realization hit him harder than the water ever had.

James wasn’t waiting for rescue on the other side of this forest. There would be no door to kick down, no current to redirect, no clever way to shoulder the burden for him.

James would have to survive this the same way Dustin did.

Alone.

By facing whatever the Garden decided to drag out of him.

Dustin barely even had time to register that reality, before the others emerged through a cluster of trees in front of him. Their eyes went wide at the sight of him, and Bailey immediately rushed over and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.

“Thank God you’re okay Dusty! Seeing you in there and not being able to help you was like getting hit by a fucking train!”

“I wouldn’t be so feely about it, but… it is nice to know you’re alright,” Chloe added with a soft smirk.

Chris on the other hand, hung back closer to the trees, eyeing Dustin like he wasn’t quite sure how to approach, his face a strange mix of frustration and deep sadness.

Dustin wanted to call out to him, to finally try to talk him out of the funk he’d been in since he got out of the hospital. But he didn’t have a chance before a distant sound like screeching tires caught everyone’s attention.

Chloe’s eyes were the first to snap in the direction the sound came from.

“Over there! That’s gotta be where James is,”

Chris immediately stormed off, with Chloe following closely behind, but Dustin’s eyes just lingered on him for a moment longer; torn between calling out to him, and running off to find his boyfriend.

“He’s seriously fucked up, isn’t he?” Bailey asked, her eyes locked onto Chris’s back as well, “what are we gonna do? If he won’t talk to you, he won’t talk to anyone,”

“I… really don’t know,” Dustin admitted, his voice barely taking shape, “I guess what we have to focus on right now is just making it through this,”

James had no idea how he’d ended up here.

One moment he was stuck in a black void with the others, watching Dustin writhe, struggle, and scream against an invisible current. The next he was… wherever this was; stumbling around an endless husk of a forest completely alone.

Well, alone except for the gleaming silver Lexus that was completely totaled with the airbags deployed and the windshield shattered.

Exactly like the night of Junior Prom.

James’s eyes went wide and his breathing got shallow, his hands trembling as he took in the scene before him.

“No… no fucking way,” he muttered, stepping back so fast that he nearly tripped over his untied shoelaces, “S-Sima? Sima can you pull the plug on this? It’s not funny man, please!”

No response. He didn’t really expect there to be… but the enduring silence shook him to his core.