Why why why why why why

So, I'm kind of unofficially doing NaNoWriMo, except I have no ideas for new stories of my own so I'm mostly just doing things to other people's characters a la fanfiction. I've always kind of thought of it as cheating, and I've never liked the tendency of fanfiction to lean toward the sappy, so I've never written it before. But just for catharsis, I did write a scene with my perfect solution to a problem that has yet to be solved in the actual books, which I probably won't be sharing. And then I wrote this scene to make up for it.

This is my idea of what Will might have been dreaming about the night Aloysius Starkweather showed them his Room O' Warlock Parts and Tessa had the dream about Henry cutting her up. So Will's having this dream right before he wakes up to Tessa's screaming and goes to comfort her and tell her he'd never let anything happen to her.

I am cruel.

            As far as Will could see, there was grass. He was alone, on a hill—he did not know where—and the sky was blue. A perfect day.

            Why was he alone? On a perfect day, he would not be alone.

            Suddenly, Tessa was in front of him. He did not want to question her appearance, wanted to believe it was true, so he simply went to her. She did not say anything, but looked at him as if she could see inside him and liked what she saw. No, she loved what she saw. And it was no danger to her. The smile on her face melted him, turned him into someone he could never outwardly be. He could be that person on this hill. With this girl who loved books and hated chocolate, who was strong and smart and looked at him as if she had been waiting for him her whole life.

            “Tess,” he said.

            “Shh,” Tessa said, and put a finger to his lips, smiling. She held it there and looked over his shoulder, past him. Her smile faded.

            She screamed.

            Will whirled around and saw a dozen automatons marching over the hill, neither slowly nor quickly. It was as if they were taking a casual stroll toward his and Tessa’s impending doom. As if it were inevitable. But there was something else off about these automatons, too. They were completely silent. They came with no warning and they did not stop.

            Will turned around, grabbed Tessa’s hand and pulled her away from the automatons. It was her they wanted, wasn’t it? She was the one they always wanted. They ran down the hill, through the valley, and up the next hill. This hill was no better.

            They reached the top, her hand still in his, and faced it together. Tessa screamed again. There, in front of them, was Jem. He was lying on the ground, wheezing and coughing and barely moving.

        Will stood stock-still and Tessa ran to collapse beside Jem, her head resting on his chest. “James,” she said, “I love you.”

            As soon as the words left her mouth, Jem’s labored breathing stopped. He smiled. He was perfectly fine. Happy as Will was to see his parabatai well, his heart was inexplicably sunken. He felt as if he was witnessing something private, something he was not meant to see. Tessa seemed to have forgotten him there, standing behind her, and Jem did not notice him at all. They were staring at each other in the same way Tessa had been staring at Will what seemed like moments ago.

            This was something he did not expect. It came with no warning, and he could not make it stop. If they were happy, he was happy. Right?

            Will turned around and walked back down the hill, toward the oncoming automatons.