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Chris
It was a random Thursday evening and they had just finished filming this week's car video. Since it was one of those times they decided to film while it was light out, they still had a few hours left in the day to do something. Someone suggested going to the park for some ice cream, so that's how they ended up outside the parlour just moments later. Chris couldn't focus on the conversation they were having, but he was with his brothers and they were laughing, so everything must be alright.
Then for some reason, Nick had an empty water bottle in hand, so he started walking away to the nearest trash can, while he and Matt just stood there watching, waiting for Nick to throw the bottle away and come back. Suddenly, Chris was overcome with an insane wave of absolute dread. Something was wrong, very wrong. His body was frozen so he couldn’t move, he felt sick to his stomach, he was unbearably hot and freezing cold at the same time. He knew something bad was going to happen and he had never felt such intense fear before.
He forced himself to turn his head and look over to Matt, who was completely still, as if frozen in time. He was pale and staring wide-eyed in the distance. Chris called out to him, but Matt didn’t answer, he didn’t even move. Chris’s chest started hurting from terror and fear, he wanted to get to Nick, he knew everything would be fine as long as he got to him. But when he looked over to the direction Nick just left in, he saw a weird, tall figure standing next to his brother. Despite standing a distance away, Chris could make out the man’s features clearly; he was tall and deathly pale, with heavy bags under his eyes and hollow cheeks. He was wearing a dirty red hoody and torn baggy sweat pants, which was weird since it was the middle of summer and as hot as it gets. The worst thing about him were his eyes – Chris was staring directly in them and it felt like the man was staring through him, directly into his soul.
Chris watched, still glued to the same spot, as this absolute embodiment of fear of a man raised his hand to Nick’s stomach, who hunched forward, then pulled away, revealing a bloodied knife. Chris suddenly became aware of the fact that he couldn’t hear. He also forgot how to breathe. He felt like someone dumped a bucket of cold water on him and he knew words would never be able to accurately describe the disgusting mix of panicdreadfearterror he was experiencing in that moment, watching Nick fall to the ground and lay motionless in a pool of his of red, red blood. Before realising what was happening, he was already kneeling on the ground next to his brother, pressing a hand to his stomach to try and stop the bleeding. Matt was right next to him, trying to keep Nick awake. They were both screaming. As he watched Nick look up to them both one last time before seeing the life leave his eyes, Chris’s only remaining thought was ‘this couldn’t be happening’, then everything faded to black.
...
Chris shot up from his bed with a loud gasp, tears streaming down his face. He was breathing heavily, looking around his room in panic, trying to assess his surroundings and remember what happened. His chest was burning and he couldn’t hear anything over the sound of his heart beating wildly and the blood rushing to his head. A nightmare, it was just a nightmare. He realised this as he started slowly calming down, but it felt so real, he still felt the intense fear and panic from his dream and knew for a fact he had never experienced anything like this before. For some reason he couldn’t stop crying. I have to see Nick, I just need to see he’s okay, he thought, not wasting any more time before springing from his bed and rushing out of his room.
Matt
The first thing Matt registered as he woke up was his overwhelming need to puke. He sat up in his bed, hand clutched over his heart. He was drenched in sweat, vision already blurring, when he remembered to try and even out his breathing in order to fight off an incoming panic attack. For a moment it seemed to be working, but then memories of his nightmare entered his mind uninvited and when he remembered the image of staring down at Nick’s wide, lifeless eyes, surrounded by blood … his stomach lurched and within a second Matt was up and running, praying silently he’d make it to the bathroom in time.
When he finished puking up his mostly digested dinner, he took a moment to collect himself, but was still pretty freaked out. I need to see Nick. I’ll feel better once I see him. He got up and left the bathroom, planning on going straight towards his brother’s room, when he unexpectedly ran into a wild-looking Chris in the hallway.
Matt and Chris
The two brothers made eye-contact and needed a few moments for their minds to catch up to what was happening. They took in each other’s appearance and noticed they both looked completely out of it. Hair sticking in all directions, giant eye-bags, eyes wild and unfocused, both of them shaking and breathing heavily.
Matt recovered first, “W-what are you doing?”, he asked Chris, the situation not helping his nerves any.
“I just, I need to check on Nick. I have to see him”, he answered, already turning away from Matt, eager to carry out his ‘plan’.
“Me too… I need to see him too”, Matt said, feeling his panic rising with Chris’s words.
“W-why, what happened, what do you know?”, Chris asked loudly, panicking again himself.
“Nothing happened, I just had this really sick nightmare and can’t calm down until I see he’s okay”, Matt explained, looking at Chris intensely.
“What the fuck… me too”, Chris looked more scared by the second, “what was your nightmare about?”
Matt started explaining, “We went to the park for ice cream, Nick went to throw something in the trash and then-“, Chris interrupted him, “then a weird scary dude stabbed him and-“, “we watched Nick bleed out in our arms”, Matt finished.
They stared at each other wide-eyed, not believing what was happening. They both had the exact same dream of Nick dying and woke up in panic, rushing to check on him. They didn’t need to say anything else, they just turned and rushed towards Nick’s room, now even more desperate to see their brother.
Nick
Nick was sitting on the edge of his bed, gripping the sheets at his side tightly, slowly calming down from the horrible nightmare he had just woken up from. He was crying, still feeling the overwhelming emotions from his dream. Logically he knew it was just that, a dream, but while he definitely had nightmares before, none were quite as intense as this one. He remembered every detail vividly, the terrifying pale man, the knife entering his body, looking up at Matt and Chris’s pained and horrified expressions, their screams… and the fear and panic were so fierce he could practically taste them.
All
Nick stood up and was just about to leave his room to go get a glass of water when his door was suddenly forcefully thrown open, revealing his dishevelled and petrified looking brothers. Both of them froze when they saw him, and for a moment none of them moved, they just stared at each other. Chris was the first to move, crossing the room in a second, practically throwing himself onto Nick, the force sending them both falling backwards onto the bed. Nick barely managed to register what was happening when Matt also joined them, pulling them both in one of the tightest and most intimate hugs they’ve ever shared.
They just laid like that, hugging each other without saying anything for a few minutes. Nick was putting off asking why they were here, choosing to give all of them time to calm down. Matt and Chris were just glad to see their brother safe and sound, enjoying the feeling of being close to him and holding him, feeling grateful to have him alive.
Then Matt broke the moment, “Nick, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, just a bit shaken. What’s up with the two of you?”, he finally asked. They let go of their hug and shifted to sit on the bed. Matt gripped Nick’s shirt by his shoulder, Chris resting his hand on Nick’s knee, both of them unwilling to let got completely just yet.
“Nick you won’t believe this. Me and Matt, we both had the exact same dream, no, a nightmare”, Chris started explaining.
“We both dreamt we went to the park for ice cream, then you went to throw a bottle away and this crazy-looking man came out of nowhere and-“, Matt was cut off in the middle of his sentence by Nick, “the man had a red hoody on and looked absolutely terrifying. He stabbed me in the stomach-“, then Chris finished, “and we watched you bleed out in our arms.”
Their eyes were wide again, as they looked between each other, checking to see if the other two would start laughing or something, admitting this whole thing was a prank of some kind. But that didn’t end up happening, they were all staring at each other afraid and confused. They were basically scared into silence as they processed what happened, it was probably the longest the three have ever been together without talking.
“No way is this actually real right now”, Chris broke the silence first.
“Please say you’re joking or something cuz’ I’ll actually freak out, it’s not even funny”, Nick said, already freaking out.
Matt tried to get them all to calm down, “Let’s just relax and stop panicking, we’re all together, we’re here and we’re fine, everything’s fine”.
“Matt we all had the exact same dream, the same event from our own point of view. How do you explain shit like that?”, Nick was not ready to let this go.
“I don’t know bro, but at the end it’s just a dream, it’s not like a vision from the future or anything”, Matt reasoned, rolling his eyes a bit. He wanted to appear relaxed in order to help the others calm down, despite still being anxious about the situation himself.
“It better the fuck not be, I am not getting stabbed any time soon”, Nick said in a joking tone.
“No, you’re not”, Chris shot back, coldly. Nick looked at him and was momentarily stunned by how serious he looked. He held eye-contact with Chris, understanding him without needing to speak. Although they knew that there was probably a simple, logical explanation to their shared nightmare, the emotions they experienced during it were so intense and felt so real. They all woke up terrified and overwhelmed, and finding out it was more than just a random dream scared them even further. And while even that wouldn’t normally freak them out this much, the fact that it was something as serious as one of them dying was not something they were quick to dismiss or joke about. Chris may have sounded mean, but they all knew it was just because he worried over his brother and couldn’t picture him actually getting hurt even for a second.
“I know, kid, it’s okay. And it’s not like it’s a hard situation to avoid ‘just in case’, ya’ know?”, Nick said calmly.
“That’s right, we just won’t got to that park or get ice cream for a while and we’ll forget about this whole thing soon enough”, Matt agreed, satisfied they at least had a ‘plan’ to avoid this potential situation. Just in case.
“Agreed, fuck that, we won’t even look at a tree for a month dude, who needs nature when you’ve got concrete baby!”, Chris yelled, feeling a bit better than before.
They all laughed together and talked for a bit more, before getting up and going about their day as usual.
One week later
All
After talking about their shared nightmare that day in Nick’s room, they were all a bit on edge for the rest of the day. They also talked about it more, as expected, and told all of their mutual friends about how crazy it was. If it was about basically anything else, they would’ve told this story in a video for sure, but since they all still got uncomfortable when thinking about the dream for too long and didn’t feel like it was something to joke about, they wordlessly decided not to mention it.
Although it was a ‘big’ deal at first, they thought about it less and less each day, and now, more than a week later, they’ve pretty much forgotten about the whole thing.
Since it was a Monday and they had plans to go out golfing later anyway, they decided to film a vlog for their Wednesday video. So that’s what they ended up doing, walking around the golf course, filming a bit but mostly just enjoying each other’s company and having fun.
Nick
Everything was going fine, they’ve been to this course a thousand times and although they were usually more competitive, tonight they were mostly relaxed and joking around. It was Nick’s turn, so he went up and got ready to swing, Matt and Chris standing by his side, cheering him on.
Nick accidentally hit it too hard and the ball bounced from the side and went flying to the bushes over the course.
“Niiiiick”, Chris whined.
“Ooh shit, oops, my bad”, Nick said, cringing a bit.
Matt got a bit annoyed at that, “Ugh Nick, that’s the second ball today, you know what, no, it’s your fault, go find it.”
“Yeah yeah, it’s not like it went far, no need to kill me over it”, Nick replied sarcastically.
He went to search for the ball in the bushes and after a minute of digging through them he found it.
“Got it!”, he yelled, looking up to his brothers from where he was crouched at the ground.
He watched as Matt and Chris’s happy expressions suddenly turned horrified and panicked, colour visibly draining from their faces. Nick had no idea what was going on, but immediately became tense and on guard, following their gazes to see what made them so scared. It didn’t take long for his eyes to land on a guy wearing a red hoody, quickly approaching him from the side. No way, this isn’t happening, Nick thought, completely rigid. As the man got closer and they could clearly see his face, there was no denying it. It's actually him. No way, no way, no way, am I about to die? Nick’s body was frozen in fear, unable to do anything but watch as his potential murderer was getting closer and closer. He suddenly became very physically sick, he couldn’t concentrate and it was getting hard to breathe. Somewhere deep in his mind he vaguely registered he was probably entering a panic attack, but couldn’t focus on anything for long enough to react. Nick was still crouching on the ground, not moving, staring wide-eyed at the man, who was now barely a few steps away from him. Oh god, please no…
Matt and Chris
Chris couldn’t believe what he was seeing, neither of them could. One second he was chatting idly with Matt, watching Nick a short distance away, when he could practically feel Matt tense beside him. He saw what made Matt freeze not even a moment later and it was like someone poured a bucket of cold water over him, because for a few long moments he couldn’t move.
They both watched as the pale, drugged-out looking guy from their nightmare walked towards their brother, who was clearly frozen in fear himself. Time slowed down, they watched the scene play out in slow-motion and everything went quiet, like all sound was turned off. Chris felt like his life was ending.
Matt recovered first, he was clenching his fists, forcing the nails into his hands so hard they started bleeding. The pain then allowed him to snap out of his trance and he didn’t waste another second before sprinting towards Nick, no plan on his mind, just the desperate need to get to him first. Matt starting to move was what did it for Chris, who then immediately dashed forward as well. (When talking about it later, he and Matt both admitted they would forever feel guilty for needing this long to react. Despite knowing it was a normal human reaction and it lasting only a few seconds, some part of them would always secretly hate themselves for it).
Matt was running a few steps ahead of him, so Chris could see he was going towards Nick, either to shield him or pull him away, he didn’t know, but either way the actual problem would still be there. Matt reached Nick first, but the man was now directly in front of his two brothers and every single cell in Chris’s body screamed at him to protectprotecprotect. So without thinking, he used his momentum from running and threw his body onto the man, tackling him to the bushes in front of them.
Nick
Nick could see his brothers running towards him, but even when Matt reached him and grabbed him roughly over his shoulder and arm he still couldn’t react properly. Of all times to have a panic attack, now was probably the worst.
His vision was blurring at the edges and he couldn’t take a full breath, but none of that mattered when he registered that Chris just fucking tackled the murderer and Matt went to help him not a moment later. Oh hell no, his brothers were in danger, so panicking or not, Nick got up. He had to.
All
As soon as Chris tackled the guy, Matt sprung to him and pulled him back up, wanting to get him away from the guy as fast as possible. Then Nick was with them, checking them both over, making sure neither was hurt, “Oh my god, are you okay, are you injured anywhere?” Luckily, the biggest ‘injury’ was Chris getting a bit scratched from the branches and Matt’s hands were bloody from where he buried his nails in them before, so they were fine. But they didn’t have time to relax, as the man got back up just a few moments after them.
Matt started pulling the others away by their arms, “Guys, we have to get away now, let’s move, come on, go, go, go!”
“Oh shit”, “Fuck”, were the only responses he got before they finally started running away together.
The man didn’t even say anything as he got up, he looked absolutely deranged, eyes wild and unfocused. He swayed a little on his feet, then automatically started walking behind the brothers. Though by that time, other people at the golf course noticed something was going on and someone notified security, so it didn’t take long for three guards to come running up to check what was happening.
The next few hours passed like a blur; two security guards caught up with the brothers and asked them to explain what was going on, while the other one went to stop the man in the red hoody. But the guard quickly noticed the man’s insane expression and called the other two for back-up. That ended up being the right move, since when cornered, the man pulled out a knife and tried to attack the guards, who quickly restrained him. The police were called and the man was arrested, they later found out he was a known criminal, wanted for drug distribution and armed muggings. The brothers were taken to the station, where they were checked over and had to give their statements. They didn’t need to talk to each other to agree to leave out any mention of their nightmare, so they just explained they saw how deranged the man looked and got scared when they saw him walking directly towards Nick with one hand in his pocket. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity later, they were finished and free to go. They rode to the station with the cops, so one of them took them home. They would worry about getting their car back tomorrow.
Nick
They were finally home. Nick’s head felt like it was going to explode, he was still processing everything that happened and assumed it was the same for Matt and Chris. They didn’t talk yet, just looked at each other and instinctively knew that none of them would be leaving the others’ side for a while.
They ended up in Nick’s room, changed in their pjs, sitting on the bed, Matt’s back pressed against the bed frame and Chris and Nick against the wall on the side, all of them close enough to somehow touch Nick, who was in the middle. Usually Nick wasn’t big on touching, but right now he felt like he needed this to ground him.
“I’m sorry”, Nick said quietly, unable to look them in the eye.
“Nick, what?”, “What are you on about, you have nothing to apologise for”, Matt and Chris responded immediately.
“I froze… I saw him coming and couldn’t do anything, I just sat there and watched”, Nick couldn’t hold back his tears, “you had to risk getting injured for me, you could’ve gotten hurt and it would’ve been my fault”.
“Nick, no, don’t say that”, Matt said sadly, on the verge of crying himself.
Chris was rubbing Nick’s knee with his hand, “Absolutely zero per cent of this is your fault kid, you should be angry with me if anything… I should’ve noticed him earlier, or at least reacted sooner… I just… when I saw him walking towards you… I got so scared”, Chris choked, now crying as well, “I really thought I would have to watch you die again, I couldn’t move and it felt like my world was ending dude”.
They were all crying now, each of them blaming themselves for not doing more to prevent the situation.
“Chris sweetheart… never blame yourself for this, you… you legit threw yourself on him, you could’ve gotten stabbed but you still did that for me… please, please don’t say you didn’t do enough, you did everything. I didn’t say it before but thank you… I legitimately wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for you”, Nick was looking at him, desperate to convey how serious and grateful he was. Chris’s eyes widened at that and he started crying even harder.
“Thank you too Matt, you legit covered me with your body, like you were prepared to take the hit for me… I don’t know what I did to deserve you both”, Nick managed to get out in between his sobs.
“Nick… you don’t need to thank me for that, I’ll always be here for you”, Matt said through his tears.
“Everything Nick, you did everything”, Chris cried, “you are the best and you deserve the best and I am so thankful for that stupid fucking nightmare for warning us. I can’t imagine a life without you, either of you”.
“I love you both so much”, Nick agreed, rubbing his eyes.
Matt smiled a bit, “I agree, with both of you, let’s just be grateful for how tonight ended”.
They all hugged and cried for a long time after that. It was a hard night and it would take them a while to get over it, they would all have nightmares about it for months to come. They would never go back to that specific golf course and would get anxious in parks, they also caught each other flinching when seeing someone dressed in a red hoody.
But they were also all alive, healthy and so unbelievably grateful to have each other. They always knew it, but after seeing how far they’d go to protect each other in action, it made them love and appreciate each other just a little bit more.