what you don’t know can’t haunt you, @warsk: juwon.
a dream in a dream. to be exponentially honest, baring himself piece by piece, he has to concede to his own lament over taking juwon in for the feelings still harbored. by far, the feelings have been the most overwhelming, threatening to spill out of his mouth. it’s feral, barbaric, all the intents that speak in syllables he cannot decipher. call it love, call it lust. whichever— he doesn’t care about the difference. not anymore. and feels naked every single fucking time after juwon is tethered to uriel’s subconscious, watching as the feelings had prior to all this, prior to juwon’s leaving, unfold before juwon’s eyes. it’s like witnessing some carcinogenic metastasis after being told, a long time ago, that it would be nothing if not benign. he’s dying with each reminder that he has to restrain in every mission: juwon, exiting the scene to never come back. juwon, vacating the stage to never look back.
and tonight, the creed lets him dive into juwon’s mind. the vessel is reversed, and uriel is nervous. not because of his architecture, no. he’s doing just fine with his job. it’s more about the fact that he’ll be able to confirm that juwon has never been in love with him anymore since that damned day. tonight, all his thoughts, they will all be a reality, transformed. he can no longer indulge in the what-ifs when the facts are checked. how can he retain the lies told every time he looks at the reflection in the mirror, telling himself that this, too, shall pass? an old saying retained from a religion long-forgotten, he still bleeds each time, the verse nothing more than a facade of void. nullified, this is nothing if not the aperture of self-preservation acts. he’s just lying, lying to himself until he grows too weak to come up with new excuses. the what-ifs wither at the base of his skull as long as he enters the chamber, now, with the man that has fallen for their tricks.
the mind is a trap.
as much as he wants to concern himself with juwon’s ability to perform it, he’s more caught up in the story rimming its edges. typically, they would be unreachable for the subject, in this case the victim. however, uriel has dreamwalked for long, long enough to tilt the balance, seeking weaknesses in others’ heads without being noticed, and he’s certain that juwon is aware of this. this is a test. juwon’s first extraction by himself, with uriel to watch his back. he is a plan b, tonight, so he can afford walking on a tightrope that would bring him across, towards the subconscious that buries the memories of them. they did not speak during the trip, the tinges of bitterness still outlining uriel’s choice of words whenever he’s around juwon, sometimes inscribed in sarcasm uncalled for.
they’re seated in a vip room borrowed for the sole purpose of conducting this business. how to get wealthier, the man asked— and of course, the creed lied. and now, uriel lies, for to erase the fear of risks would be too much. no one can be so impenetrable, not even the creed, not even himself. he lets juwon do the rest of the work: injecting anesthesia into the man’s veins. diluted, the man is fast asleep on the chair, and as juwon closes his eyes, uriel does, too. naturally falling asleep, they enter the crooks of juwon’s first layer of the subconscious. this is uriel’s design: the arching bridges, the towering edifices. they’re about to enter the realm of the man’s subconscious to extract ideas, concepts. fears. stored memories. he lets juwon deal with the man as he constructs the snare, creating streets after streets to ensure that the man cannot escape.










