23 - Nightmares



Once, when I was lying on my bed, trying to fall asleep, a thought entered my mind. I recalled a specific night when all the members of the house had nightmares in a short period of time. It was a little sleepover we were having with all the group members, and we called a certain time period 'night,' to distinguish time in our everlasting darkness, the time period was only five hours, but it would work. We had a lot of fun; even Error managed to laugh his skull off - not literally, though. We played a lot of games and told tons of made up stories that were absolutely insane, when I thought about it, and got pretty tired in the process. When we went to our selected rooms in the house, we said goodnight and each fell asleep, hoping for a good dream. I knew I was going to have a nightmare, but other than Nightmare, the others didn't have them every time they slept; at least, I didn't think they did. I received less than a minute of sleep before the first visitor of the night came knocking at my door.


I heard a small knock and the opening of a door. I stretched a little before rising to meet whoever was there. When I looked, I saw Killer, looking scared.


"Dusty.." Killer whimpered.


"What is it, Killer? Have a nightmare?" I inquired, receiving a nod. "Come on, you can tell me about it."


I let Killer curl up in my lap, and watched him wipe his tears before beginning the tale.


"W-well, it started happy, then-then everythin' went dark, and it..there was a monster, but not a nice monster." Killer stuttered.


"I see; a scary monster that wanted to hurt you?" I assumed.


"Y-yeah."


"No need to be scared, Killer. The monster is just misunderstood, like us, right?"


"Right..can-can I stay here for a little bit?"


"Stay as long as you need. I'll stay up with you."


"Th-thanks, Dusty."


I let Killer stay curled up for about two hours until he decided it would be good to let me get some sleep, and went back to his room; I had stayed up for quite a while, helping the others with the sleepover preparations, and I probably should have taken a break. I figured I would next time. I only had a minute to lie down again before another knock came to my door. Rising to sit, I watched as Nightmare peeked through the crack, looking a little shaken. I motioned for him to come over, recognizing the look from other nightmares he had dealt with, and allowed him to pick me up, wrapping his arms around me. His body had an awkward texture, which was irritating yet soothing at the same time, and I didn't understand it. I guess magical goop did that. Nightmare held me for a while before beginning the story of his bad dream.


"They were all looking at me." He stated.


"The ones you..." I sighed.


"Yes. Why were they looking at me?"


"Well, when you kill somebody, they can haunt you in dreams. If it is many, it just gets that much worse."


"Do they ever look at you, in dreams?"


"No."


"You would tell me if you were haunted by the ones you killed...right?"


"I'm only haunted by Papyrus, and he's more of a brother than a haunter. You don't have to worry about me; worry about yourself before me. You're the one who had the nightmare."


Nightmare kept me in his arms for what felt like an hour, and I stayed awake for him, ignoring how tired I was. He eventually spoke.


"You're a good skeleton, Dust." He said.


"You're a good dad, Dad." I responded.


He chuckled a bit. "I guess I'll let you sleep, now. Good night, Dust."


"Good night, Dad."


Nightmare shut the door behind him softly, and I lay on my bed again, ready for a dusty nightmare. I didn't even have time to shut my eyesockets when the next knock arrived. I sat up once more to see Horror shivering; he must have had a terrible nightmare to put him in this state.


"Are you okay, Horror?" I doted.


"No." Horror sat beside me. "Had a bad dream."


"I understand. Want to talk about it?"


"Yeah."


"I'm listening." 


"Thanks, Dusty. I dreamed 'bout Undyne 'gain."


"Oh. She did...I see."


"Why'd I rem'ber i' so good?"


"I don't know. Traumatic experiences are just like that, I guess."


"Can't even speak reg'lar after that."


"At least you can speak."


"S'pose yer right."


Horror left after an hour and a half, figuring that I wanted sleep. There was less than an hour left before Killer was obliged to wake everybody up, which meant I probably should have been asleep. Before I could lie down, the fourth knock came. I didn't move, opting to just stay sitting up. When Error walked in, I allowed him to take his own pace, which he appreciated. He laid his skull on my lap and began to tell me about his unfortunate nightmare.


"They just keep screaming at me!" Error whimpered.


"Voices?" I questioned.


"Yes! Why won't they leave me alone?! I just want quiet!"


"I understand. Let it all out."


"Why can't we just be normal? Everybody hates us!"


"Sometimes, being normal just isn't possible. Besides, everybody has different ideas of normal; it all just depends on who you are."


"Why is it that you know exactly what to say in any situation?" 


"I don't know. I didn't realize I did that."


"You have a way of making others feel calm. That's a gift."


"Everybody has gifts, I guess. Do you want to go back to bed or stay a while?"


"Do you mind?"


"Not at all, take as much time as you need."


"Thanks, Dust."


Error stayed for a little while before heading back to bed, and ignoring the idea that somebody could have two nightmares in the same night, I laid my skull on my pillow and was finally ready to go to sleep. At this point, I had gone almost three days without sleep, and that was absolutely ridiculous. When I was a few seconds from falling asleep, Killer jumped on my bed, waking me up swiftly; I supposed I would not be getting sleep tonight.


"Heya, Dusty! Did ya sleep good?" Killer wondered.


"Does it matter?" I returned.


"Great to hear! Breakfast is already done, come on!"


"I'm coming."


Killer grabbed my wrist and started pulling; I barely had any time to grab my camera, but I did get it in time, thankfully. Killer was telling me about the wonderful dream he had after he went back to bed last night and thanked me again for calming him down; I replied accordingly, and tried to keep up with Killer's fast pace while I was still sleepy. When we reached the dining room, the others were already seated, and the food was on the table - pancakes: delicious. I took my usual seat between Error and Killer, and tried to stay awake. Their conversation was about various dreams they'd had, including nightmares.


"I had a really weird one once about dancin' rabbits!" Killer giggled.


"That ain't nothin.' I got dreams 'bout flyin' llamas." Horror rolled his eyelights at the sheer awkwardness of what he just said.


"I have dreams about noncorporeal beings telling me to wash my clothes; if that doesn't top all, I don't know what does." Error was contemplating whether to use syrup on his pancakes. 


"Depends on what category you're talking about. I don't think that would top anything in the nightmare section." Nightmare chuckled.


"My nightmares're pretty scary." Horror claimed. "Relivin' the wors' part o' my life all the time.."


"Mine are the scariest! There's death!" Killer exclaimed.


"Try having voices telling you to kill, see how long you last." Error suggested.


"I think the scariest nightmares would be everybody you've ever killed haunting you as you sleep." Nightmare shuddered. "Sometimes I wake up crying.."


"Hey, Dad?" Killer had a question.


"Yes?"


"Your name's Nightmare. Can ya see other people's nightmares?"


"Yes, but I don't do that often."


"Huh. Cool. Can ya look at good dreams too?"


"Ah, no. Only nightmares, which is why I'm not too keen on doing it."


"Can ya give people nightmares?"


"Yes, but I don't see why I would want to."


"Cool!"


"Maybe Dust can decide whose nightmares are the worst. We tell him about them frequently enough..or at least I do."


"Yeah! Dusty, whose nightmares are the scariest?"


"Everybody's nightmares are scary to them; it depends on who's having the nightmare, and it's attuned to what they're scared of. Technically, that would mean you all have the scariest dreams for you." I enlightened.


"Dusty?"


"Yeah?"


"What're your nightmares like?"


"I don't..I don't really get nightmares."


"You hesitated! You do!"


"Just because I hesitate doesn't mean I'm lying."


"Sure means somethin.'" Horror confirmed.


"Do you get nightmares, Dust?" Nightmare inquired.


"I think everybody gets nightmares every once in a while. Some are just...worse than others. Mine aren't bad at all: just silly." I admitted.


"How can a nightmare be silly?" Killer was confused.


"You know how dreams sometimes have awkward endings?"


"Yeah! Like a plane turning out to be a turnip!"


"My nightmares are like that: just dreams, nothing special."


"Don't they bother you at all?" Error questioned.


"No."


"How can it still be a nightmare without affecting you in any way?"


"Because I acknowledge the fact that they're just remnants of the past; I'm not able to change the past, so I shouldn't let a silly nightmare bother me. Besides, if I let my dreams affect me, who would comfort you guys?"


"We could comfort you, too, you know." Nightmare stated. "What exactly are your nightmares about?"


"Nothing important; they always end with something ridiculous."


"End? Aren't nightmares supposed to just go on until ya wake up, then stay in the back of your mind for the rest of the day?" Killer wondered. 


"Not mine. They just end, then I wake up. Like I said, nothing important."


"Dust, would you object to allowing me to observe one of your nightmares, since they're obviously not special in any way?" Nightmare strategically requested.


"W-well, I don't think you would be interested in my nightmares."


"You hesitated again! What're ya hidin'?" Killer could read me too well.


"Nothing important."


Even if my nightmares never affected me in any way, and I wasn't scared of them at all, I would have hated to think of what it would do to the others if they knew what I dreamed about. With the dust combined with the screaming and pleading for mercy, I didn't want anybody to experience one of my nightmares, even my worst enemy. They were handcrafted by my mind specifically to torment me, and though it didn't work on me, it could very well work on others.


"Obviously something that isn't important wouldn't hurt to take a look at, right?" Nightmare was persistent. 


"Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that my input won't make a difference in this scenario?" I groaned.


"We care 'bout ya, Dusty, jus' like ya care 'bout us." Horror said.


"Seeing my dreams won't help anything."


"It might." Error finally decided to use syrup.


"While we're on the topic of dreams, how was your rest?" Nightmare doted.


"It was...okay?" I tried.


"You didn't get any sleep, did you?"


"I had..other things to do."


"Like what?"


"Like helping you recover from your nightmares; that's more important than sleep."


"Surely I didn't keep you up all night."


"He helped me too." Killer confessed.


"An' me." Horror joined.


"I'm on that bandwagon." Error stated. 


"I can see why you didn't get any sleep last night." Nightmare sighed. "You should take better care of yourself; if you're tired, we'll understand."


"You guys are more important than me. I owe you my life." I commented.


"Dust, you don't owe us anything. Your life is your own, and you can do what you want with it."


"Does this mean you aren't going to look at my dreams?"


"If you really don't want me to, I won't, but you should probably get some sleep."


"Okay, Dad."


By this time, the memory faded, and I fell asleep, into another dusty nightmare. I didn't know what I would have done if they found out about my dreams, but thankfully, they didn't, and I was content with leaving it that way. As I was surrounded by the soothing dust, I smiled amidst my nightmare, and nobody thought twice about it. 


It was better off this way.


~~~chapter end woot~~~


Dust bean secretive.


Thanks for reading my evasive writing!


Bye!

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