We were still kept in kiddie prison after five months for one reason: Ink, of course; even if there was no reason to keep us locked up except his villainous whims, we still were. Dream and the swap - and Outertale - brothers still kept us company even on 'Ink days,' which made us happier. We were only in danger when we were alone with him; we had those moments, unfortunately. He really wasn't a good skeleton; we had known that since we first came together, but Dream and the others didn't see, even with all the hints we dropped. Ink really had them wrapped around his phalanges, didn't he? Nightmare and Dream had somewhat of an agreement about how to keep the balance in order to prevent death, and it had been working out so far; we didn't know what to do about the corruption, though. Without being able to leave, Error wasn't able to do his job, which was arguably more important than ours. We needed a way to leave, but with Ink in our way, that wasn't happening anytime soon. At the moment, it was an Ink day, and we weren't in a mere little amount of pain; we were in absolute agony, but we were also alone with Ink - that was unfortunate. He laughed at our pain.

I didn't believe that there was anybody in the multiverse as cruel as Ink was; he enjoyed torture - who enjoyed torture?! We didn't get much sleep at all when Ink was present, since he woke us up early and didn't allow us to take naps; it felt like a military camp. In many ways, it was more like a prisoner of war camp, because we had a search in the morning and at night, we had to do whatever Ink wanted us to do, and we were in constant pain the entire time he was in the room; yeah, he was tyrannical in just about every sense of the word. He even managed to time everything perfectly: when somebody was about to enter the room, he always knew, and he always made it seem like we were just playing a simple board game or something as he 'watched us' carefully; we wished he would get caught. Just once, we would have liked to see him have to explain why he was abusing children and laughing about it. We wanted to see him as he tripped over his words in a frenzy to make an excuse for the inexcusable. We wanted him gone. We never wanted to have to lay our eyelights on him ever again. Perhaps that was harsh; we didn't think so. When we heard the door being unlocked, we knew we were safe for a while; Dream walked in, completely oblivious to what had just happened.

"Hello!" Dream greeted. "Is everything okay? I thought I heard something.."

"Oh, Nightmare just fell off a bed." Ink answered honestly; he would know. "He's all right now, though."

"Oh no! Maybe I should take a look at him!"

"Of course."

Dream quickly made his way over his brother, who was most certainly not all right, but was crying - in fact, most of us were; Ink was mean. Dream wasted no time in wrapping his arms around Nightmare and offering the required comfort, which Nightmare gladly accepted; Dream was nice. Ink had no choice but to allow us to have some time to heal as Dream decided to stay for a while, and we were almost certifiably safe when the swap brothers joined the party; we could relax for a bit. Ink watched with a bored expression as we played various games and defied his authority with relative ease; he couldn't hurt us in front of his 'friends,' and we didn't have to listen to a word he said, which made everything better. We played for about an hour before Ink made an excuse for the others to leave; he was clever, but we knew better. When Dream and the swap brothers left to 'check on Underfell's inhabitants,' which obviously would have taken a while, Ink turned to us with an angry expression; we were frightened. It wasn't that Ink scared us, but rather, that we couldn't do anything to stop him. As children, we were severely weakened and couldn't fight back with much strength. 

"Now that they're gone.." Ink approached us and grabbed Killer and me - the two that ignored him the most; I was starting to regret that decision. "Let's play our own game."

"Let them go!" Nightmare grabbed Ink's arm with one of his appendages, only to be flung across the room.

"I'm afraid not." Ink chuckled; Killer and I struggled as the rest of our family tried to make Ink let us go, failing.

"Put us down!" Killer struggled.

"If you want!" Ink slammed us on the floor; that was a poor choice of words. "Here we go."

"Don't!" I yelled; it was to no avail. "Please!"

"Do you really think your pleads will do anything?" Ink smirked.

Before any more attempts could be made, Ink took his chance to pull one of each of our arms behind us and break them with relative ease, receiving screams of pain. My left arm was snapped, while Killer's right was broken. The rest of our family rushed up to us when Ink finally let go.

"That should be a sufficient lesson." Ink smiled happily; he was sick.

"You'll pay for that!" Error growled.

"I highly doubt it!"

"You're going to be all right..please, please be all right.." Nightmare cried, holding us close, being careful of our arms; we were whimpering.

"Right, what should we play next?" Ink questioned, grabbing Horror and Cross by their hoods; that wasn't good.

"N-nothing!" Cross pleaded. "We-we don't w-want to play!"

"Did I ever say you had a choice?"

"Please, let them go!" Error begged.

"Hm..all right." Ink dropped Cross and Horror, but he quickly scooped up Error, who wasn't thrilled, but he was happy that the others were safe. "I'll just play with you for a while."

After three hours of cracks, bruises, and cries, Ink finally let us go; he always made excuses for why we were so beat up after being alone with him, such as: "Killer and Dust thought it would be a good idea to balance themselves on my head," or "Error decided to see what happens when I'm used as a jungle gym." Those were the ones he used this time, and they somehow worked, just like all his other excuses; I wondered if the friends were suspicious of him at all, because we were only injured badly when we were left alone with him. They seemed to believe him, despite our hopes. When Ink finally stopped, Killer had a broken arm and a lot of bruises, Error had been badly beaten, and I had a broken arm paired with some cracks in my skull from trying to stop Ink from hurting Error; we were the worst injured, but we would live. When the friends returned, they were worried about us, but they never suspected that Ink was behind our injuries; we received medical care, though, which was good. When the day eventually ended, we were relieved, since we didn't have to lay our eyelights on Ink for two days; that was pleasant. We spent the two days playing with the friends, and we savored every second of it; we had to - Ink would be coming back soon.

After our two-day reprieve, Ink returned at 4:00 A.M. the next day, ready to give us more pain; we didn't like pain. Pain was commonly used as a warning not to do something again when dealing with children; with us, it was just normal. Every third day, we suffered through pain, and there was no way to stop it. We had tried being obedient, accepting it without a word, and even begging, but he would never stop! He never..stopped. Some of us were starting to accept it as normal; there was nothing else to do. He wouldn't stop unless he was caught, and he would never be caught; we were starting to lose hope. When the morning search was over, we cried without even having to be put through pain; we knew it would come anyway. Ink seemed to enjoy our crying; he was a true monster. With magic and proper medical care, our broken bones had healed already, but they would just be broken again; we knew they would. Ink started out the day by sitting us on the floor and making us watch as he tortured us one by one; we cried harder, even pleading for him to stop, but he wouldn't respond. He would never respond! When Dream walked in at two o'clock, he didn't even notice our underlying pain; Ink made sure of that.

"Hello!" Dream waved. "How are you all doing today?"

"Fine." We answered, knowing the consequences of revealing Ink's torture.

"That's great! I've been thinking, and I've decided to ask you if you wanted to go visit Outertale! The brothers there would love to see you again!"

"Really?" Error was overjoyed; this was a ticket out of torture.

"Of course!"

"We'd love to!" We harmonized; Outertale was a great place to go when you wanted to escape physical harm.

"All right, then! Ink, do you mind?"

"Of course not." Ink acted friendly. "I think it's a wonderful idea!"

"Yay!" We cheered, not because of Outertale - although, that was nice - but because we weren't going to be tortured for a while, which was a huge relief.

"Let's go, then!" Dream opened a portal to Outertale, which we all quickly entered.

Outertale had been a place of comfort and peace for my family ever since Error joined, and it always made us feel peaceful; there were many places to avoid being seen, and even if we were seen, the inhabitants wouldn't usually attack us unless we attacked them. Outertale was known for being a more peaceful universe, and that was what made it so attractive; even we were partly welcomed when we just wanted to stargaze, and when we weren't, we just did it at home. We probably had a better view of the stars at home, but there was just something special about Outertale - we didn't know what it was, but it was special. When we reached Outertale, Ink claimed that he had some business to attend to and couldn't join us, which was great! Dream led us to the home of the Outertale brothers, and we knocked on the door. After ten seconds, the door was unlocked and opened, and we were met with the brothers, who smiled upon seeing us; we had become quite close friends. We were let inside the house and seated on the couch before a friendly conversation was started.

"How have you kids been doing?" Outer smiled; he liked the kid versions of us better.

"Pretty good." Nightmare replied. "It's been nice."

"Yeah! We made a secret base and pretended to be spies!" Killer exclaimed; we did that yesterday.

"That sounds fun!" Starstruck commented. 

"It was!"

"Dust, are you all right?" Outer seemed concerned.

"I'm fine..." I was clutching my arm; I was the last one to be tortured by Ink, and my wounds were still bleeding.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah.."

"Brother, would you help me in the kitchen?" Starstruck needed some assistance.

"Sure, bro." Outer stood to follow his brother to the kitchen. "We'll be back."

"Oh, maybe I can help!" Dream quickly trailed the brothers.

When we were alone, I clutched my arm tighter.

"Dust, are you okay?" Nightmare rushed to my side, taking a look at my arm.

"It hurts.." I rolled up my sleeve. "I think it's cracked.."

"Oh, jus' lemme ge' my han's on 'im.." Horror growled.

"A-as if that w-would do anything.." Cross sighed.

"I think you're right, Dust." Nightmare rolled my sleeve back down. "It's fractured."

"Is it bad?" Error inquired.

"Not as bad as last time, but it won't be comfortable."

"I wish we could just leave.." Killer was sad. "Then he wouldn't be able to touch us.."

"We'll just have to live with it for now..hopefully soon he'll be gone.." Nightmare went back to his seat, and the trio soon returned.

"We have baked cookies!" Starstruck announced.

"Cookies!" We were happily surprised, each being handed a cookie. "Thank you!"

"You're very welcome, small friends!"

"These are really good!" Killer complimented.

"Thank you! We knew you would like them!" 

We sat in silence for a while eating our cookies; they were really good cookies, although they weren't as good as Papyrus's spaghetti; he's the best at cooking and baking. When I finished my cookies, I went back to holding my broken arm, which worried the trio; before long, I was obliged to let them look at the fracture, and Dream insisted on healing it. 

"How did your arm get broken?" Outer asked.

"I don't know.." If I told them that it was Ink, he would have hurt my family before he was finally caught, and I didn't want that to happen. "I must have hit it.."

"Ink says they play some pretty hardcore games sometimes.." Dream sighed. "It seems like they only play those games when they're alone with him, though.."

"Weird." Outer pondered.

"Well, your arm should heal all right from here, but you have to be more careful when you play..please." 

"I'll try." I grinned.

We ate more cookies and talked for a while longer before an inky portal opened, and Ink himself walked through; he smiled when he saw the fear in our eyelights and proceeded to address the inhabitants of the room. 

"Hello!" Ink grinned happily. "How's the visit going?"

"Great." Nightmare responded, before silently muttering. "Until you got here.."

"Good to hear! It's getting a little late, and I was wondering when you were planning on returning."

"Actually, we were discussing having a sleepover!" Starstruck was excited.

"Oh, that sounds awesome!"

"It is!" 

"Well, in that case, mind if I join you?"

"We don't mind, right?" Dream looked to us.

"Um..s-sure.." Error stuttered; we really didn't want him to join us.

"Great!" Ink grinned, noting our unease.

"I think we have some pillows and blankets somewhere.." Starstruck looked to his brother.

"You're the one who rearranged everything." Outer shrugged.

"I'll get it." Ink quickly created some pillows and blankets.

"Thanks!" The Outertale brothers were thankful.

"No problem!"

"Well, that should do it for the sleepover!" Starstruck smiled. "Shall we begin?"

"What are we even going to do?" Outer wondered. "We don't exactly have many games.."

"Stargazing is always fun." Dream reminded.

"Hmm, what do you guys think about that idea?"

"Yes!" We cheered.

"I think that's a yes!" Dream giggled.

"Let's go, then!" Starstruck was already halfway out the door.

We followed the Outertale brothers and Dream outside, while Ink decided to stay behind - we hoped he was just going to take a nap, but we doubted it - and we made it to their favorite spot. It wasn't as comfortable as Error's spot, but it was pretty good. We enjoyed watching the stars twinkle in their everlasting orbit throughout the multiverse; it truly was a sight to behold. As the hours went by, our group got smaller; Dream left to join Ink with whatever he was doing, and Starstruck had to prepare dinner, which meant it was just us and Outer. We didn't mind that, and he was actually pretty cool - not as cool as Papyrus (he's the best), but cool nonetheless. Eventually, we had to return to the Outertale brothers' house, at which point we followed the Sans happily. We had forgotten that Ink would be waiting; when we walked through the door and saw him, our souls sank. We were quickly seated in the living room and served some of Starstruck's cooking, which I seemed to be the only one who could stand the taste of; the others managed to get away with some smuggled treats. When we went to bed, we were happy; it was actually really fun! We liked that day.

We were away from Ink's torture, and that was what mattered.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean family content.

Thanks for reading my dismal writing!

Bye!