Hiding in the darkness of his room, Stuart Pot curled into a ball and turned into the cornered section of his bed, burying his face into his knees while his skeletal forearms tightly covered his ears in desperate attempt to drown out the soft, questioning voices. He snapped his eyes shut as his gangly hands tugged at the roots of his hair and he repeatedly hummed to himself a tune of his own.

No more dreams… I'm tired of hurting. No more dreams. I'm tired of you. I'm tired of being stuck here. It's going to be okay if I don't give in. It's going to be okay if I don't peek. I'll be okay- No more dreams- No more…

Hot tears escaped from the corners of his eyes and he crammed himself farther into his dark, cornered area, willing some sort of escape.

He could feel a presence standing beside him, but this didn't keep him from humming to himself or keep him from continuing the waterfall down his busted cheekbones. He didn't care…this was probably just another apparition or figure of the mind ready to crush any ounce of hope he dared give his heart.

But in seconds, he felt a hand brush his shoulder, making him curl even tighter and pop his back. "Go…," 2D croaked. The rubbing on his back stopped and he shuddered before he repeated, "I said, 'go'…I dun care who or whot you are… I'm fucking tired o' this…"

A coaxing voice sounded through his hands and made its way, halfway muted, into Stuart's reluctant ears, "Toochie…? What's happened to you? Why are you hiding?"

"GO AWAY…," he sobbed. At this point, 2D had let go of his hair, leaving his sore tufts of hair alone, and had begun to let his heart pour down his face and drip off his chin. His face was still pointed toward the dark shadows and he refused to look in the direction of Noodle's voice.

My head… hurts so much…Wake up… Wake up dammit. Wake up. Wake up. Wake, ow… She's not real… Nothing is real anymore…

"Murdoc… he's not responding. What the hell has happened since I've been gone?!"

The grouchy voice of his mate, Murdoc, replied in a nonchalant tone, "don't know. He's confessed to having weird dreams, but hasn't told me what about. He's just been wandering the beaches aimlessly like an abused litt'ol puppy. Don't know what the hell his problem is…"

The grown man coughed and their voices quipped back and forth, but 2D didn't seem to notice, for he kept crying to himself and that was all that was needed to drown out their jabbering.

Soon some sort of catastrophic event is going to take place. My television will catch fire. The whale will slam into my room drowning us all. The damn cyborg will malfunction and attack me and everyone else. Radioactive sharks will grow legs and eat us alive. Just ignore it and it won't happen. Ignore the voices. Ignore the dream. Ignore it. Ignore her… Ignore her hand on your back. It's not real and won't ever be…

It was then that 2D began to softly toss his head against the wall. His hopes of being knocked awake were rejected and he threw his head back, laughing at his pathetic attempts to get out of his comatose. Tired of resisting, he dropped his arms onto the floor with his palms facing up and his head resting on the wall. "I'm done. I've tried. I've done everyfing. Biting myself won't help. Painkillahs won't help. Crying won't help. Screaming won't help. I'm stuck in a dream and once these drugs wear off and I wake, you'll be gone, Murdoc will be in 'is room and I'll be left 'ere wif nobody. Nobody is all I got! You're not REAL! I'M NOT REAL! MURDOC ISN'T REAL! NONE OF THIS IS REAL," he sobbed out, taking his puffy, black eyes to his visitor.

Unsurprised, he looked her up and down with a broken face and silently took her in.

The newly defined Noodle he stared at was crouched at his height and looked slightly different than when he last dreamt of her. Of course, in the real world, it had been around five years since she died, so within that time, his mind must've adapted to the time frame and added realistic changes. Her body had filled in with a woman's hourglass figure and she was fitted in a small, white dress that was dirty and torn in some places. It was lined with red ribbon at the neck, bottom and sleeveless shoulders, and her legs were contained in thigh-high black and white stockings. She lacked shoes, and her forearms were hidden inside simple white gloves. With her other hand that wasn't occupied on 2D's back, she held up a mask and was looking at the disbelieving man with sparkling green eyes.

Her skin looked yellow, green and purple in some places from the numerous bruises that dotted her skin and on the left side of her face was the biggest bruise he'd seen on her body yet, with black and purple surrounding a thin scab that crawled down the side of her jaw. But other than that, her face was thin, defined and clear of damage.

The woman looked the shaking man up and down tugged off a glove, grunting as she did it, revealing more bruises that lined her thin arms. She reached out, but 2D simply flinched and raised his hands defensively. "Don-… don't touch me…"

2D tore his eyes from the woman and glared at the railings on his bed, sucking in painful breaths and shuddering, coughing away the urge to sob even harder.

I'm surprised Murdoc hasn't declared me a "pathetic little pansy" and hasn't run off somewhere else yet… it's just the kind of thing he'd do anyway… Yep. This is definitely a dream.

Casting his eyes downward, he let his peripherals keep watch on the woman who swiftly got back on her feet, slipped her glove back on and strode over to where Murdoc's voice had sounded earlier. Seconds later, he heard something shift on the other side of his room and a few things were knocked off his dresser. Murdoc growled and as soon as his voice was muted, he could hear Noodle's angry whispering.

"What in the bloody hell has happened here? This place is a wreck and the remaining of your band has gone mental! Stuart has obviously been abused in some way, and I'm not talking about PHYSICAL! He's rejecting all forms of contact and refuses to even speak in my direction! I've been gone and this is what I come back to find? A broken man who's probably had mental trauma from drug overdoses, a rotten mass of shit as a home to live in, and nobody else but you to talk to? I haven't seen either of you for years and I come to find you trapped behind a bookself and 2D driven mad! Iesu...(translated: Jesus)"

2D peeked around the side of the bed to find Murdoc pressed against a wall with Noodle's hand covering his mouth and a dangerous look plastered on her face. Her other hand was gestured in 2D's direction and when her speech was over, she let go of the green-skinned man and let her back hunch in posture. She rubbed her neck, looked over to the elevator and grumbled out a few curses that 2D couldn't quite catch.

He swiveled his body back around and he was glad to see that he'd stopped crying, but was trying hard to catch his breath in tiny, uneven breaths.

No sounds were made from Murdoc that he could hear, and several agonizingly slow minutes ticked by until Noodle's clear voice rang out in finality, "I'm going to fill Russ in on this… I think he's still in the band… I am too… but I can't speak for 2D here… I'll- uhm… I'll come back to check up on him in a few minutes..."

Two pairs of footsteps sounded, metallic scraping, and the room was left in silence once more.

Finally, now that he was left to himself, 2D took the bucket that smelled of vomit only four feet away from him, and heaved for the third time that afternoon.

Author's Note:

Is this real? Is this it? Why was Murdoc so silent? Why did Stuart refuse contact with Noodle this time? What will happen?

You'll find out.

Gorillaz does not belong to me.

Review please. I need those things. They help and the encouragement and criticism helps like you couldn't imagine… Thanks guys.