Warning for the Dust portion.

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Nightmare. 

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Dust had been missing for five months. We had since solved the past few riddles and puzzles, moving from Dancetale to Outertale to Ink's home to Underswap to Underfell to so many others! These clues never seemed to end..were we overlooking something, or was Ink just cruel? Ink was cruel, wasn't he? Our current puzzle was the embodiment of a puzzle..also known as a jigsaw puzzle. Killer and Error had volunteered to solve it, but it was taking a long time..and a parking lot - it was that big. After we realized the sheer size of the puzzle, we began to take turns, but it still took two weeks. Today was hopefully the last day of the ridiculous puzzle, and we were very glad about it! As soon as we placed the final piece in the puzzle, I teleported up to a place to view the ridiculous message. 

"Can you see it?" Dream wondered from below.

"It's another message!" I shouted down, writing the message down before teleporting to the ground. 

"What does it say?" Error questioned.

"It says.." I sighed, preparing to read the note out loud. "Dear Nighty, I'm impressed you got this far, not gonna lie. Anyways, here's your next clue: 'Uh nobody dares enter really festive events, lest laying Halloween ornaments tickles lots and none. Don't see everything, Nighty? Try reading your stories. Tell a tale in other notes.' What the heck is that supposed to mean?!"

"That's a clue?!" Error looked at the paper. "This is ridiculous!"

"Um..I have no idea what that could be!" Dream looked over the words, finding no way to decipher the ridiculous words. "What even is that first sentence?!"

"It's utter absurdity!" I looked incredulously at the page of paper.

"I'll say!" Horror scoffed. 

"We can't give up!" Killer stated the obvious. "If he says it's a clue, it is a clue; we just need to find the key!"

"How are we supposed to decipher this?" I asked.

"We'll find a way!" Killer was sure of it. 

I hoped he was right.

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I wonder if anyone will figure it out before reading the next chapter..

Dust.

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Five months..it had been five months. Ink was the only person I had seen..for five months. He sometimes left the room; I was sometimes left alone! I didn't like being alone..even Ink was better than no one. Speaking of Ink, he had just finished another game with me; we had played with my left femur this week. Ink was currently drying off the bone; it had double the marks it used to have now. Ink said he was going to make my scars permanent next month; I was scared of that, since it would likely hurt a lot. I didn't like pain; Ink said pain was natural, but I didn't like it. Ink said that I should have liked pain, but I couldn't; pain made me sad. Ink said he was going to make me like the pain by giving me more and more until I liked it. I didn't know how that was supposed to help. I wanted my family; I couldn't remember their names, but I knew what they looked like: two of them were ghosts, one was goopy, another had a hole in his skull, one had black stuff dripping from his eyesockets, another wore black and white clothing, and one was all glitchy..I wished I could remember their names. I waited as Ink dried my leg off, wondering if I could sleep now..I hadn't slept in over a week.

"There we go!" Ink placed the red-stained towel to the side as I yawned. "Oh, you must be tired; is that right?"

I nodded.

"Okay!" Ink smiled, allowing me to lie down in bed. "Sweet dreams, my little pet!"

"..." I wanted to ask something.

"Need something?" He pulled the slightly red-stained blanket over me.

"Wh-why do you...c-call me that?" I coughed slightly; I rarely used my voice to do anything aside from scream.

"Ah." Ink laid a hand on my skull, making a few of my scars hurt, but I didn't flinch; flinching was bad, and only pain came from it. "I call you my pet because I own you; you're my equivalent of a loyal pet, and I will call you what I please. Does that answer your question?"

"Mhm.." 

I closed my eyesockets, satisfied with my answer; it made sense. If Ink didn't own me, he wouldn't have been hurting me like that. I must have belonged to him; it was the only reasonable explanation. My memory wasn't very good..Ink kept hitting my soul with things, causing me to forget a lot of stuff; he said that if I stayed still it wouldn't happen as much, but it was hard to stay still. I tried to stop flinching, but I sometimes still did it; Ink's punishments kept getting more and more severe with each flinch..last time I flinched, he hit me fifty times with his blade..it hurt so bad..I didn't like flinching. I had another bad dream, but I didn't pay attention to it; Ink said dreams were silly. My dreams seemed familiar, but I couldn't place them. When Ink woke me up, I sat up immediately, ignoring every ounce of my body begging for me to go back to sleep. Ink didn't respond to begging; I wouldn't, either. Ink pulled on my leash, which was his way of telling me to come closer; I did so. Ink liked it when I obeyed him, and he sometimes made it hurt less; I was very obedient when I figured that out, but I still flinched sometimes..that was hard to stop doing.

"Did you sleep well, Dust?" He inquired, shortening the distance between us with the leash.

I nodded, coming closer.

"That's good to hear!" He stopped pulling; I stopped coming closer. "Today, we're going to play a very fun game! It's called Autoplay!"

Ink yanked on my leash; I wasn't prepared for that, and I was pulled straight into his lap. Ink held my collar instead now. I felt tears forming when I realized that this week was going to be more painful than most others; Ink always smiled like that when it was. 

"Hold out your left hand, Dust." Ink ordered; I did so, expecting to be cut. 

To my expectations, he drove a blade into my hand, causing me to scream in pain; when he finished his small chuckle, he placed the paintbrush in my hand and made me hold it. He then set me aside on the bed before standing up.

"Dust, I was going to play with your right radius this week.." Ink grabbed my left hand tightly. "But I'm going to be busy." He made the blade in my left hand touch my right radius. "So..you do it. I'll be back in a week."

Ink left the room, and I looked down. This game confused me. I wasn't supposed to hurt myself..was I? Ink always hurt me..why would he change it now? Was I supposed to hurt myself? What was the point of that? I sighed, shaking my skull; no, that was wrong. I put the blade down on the bedstand with all of Ink's other bladed paintbrushes. Cut and Paint was a two-player game, not a solo game. I couldn't be both players! I was a little bored, though..Ink had left me alone again. I curled up on my bed, waiting for something to happen; nothing happened. I sighed after an hour..Ink was going to be gone for a whole week. I looked around my room; I had tried to run away once before, but Ink had caught me and punished me severely; that was the worst punishment I had ever suffered, with Ink deciding to hit me a hundred times..I received a lot of scars that day. I wasn't going to try to escape again; that was stupid. I looked at the scars on my body..why did I want to pick at them? That would have hurt, right? It was tempting, though..I picked at one; it didn't really hurt that badly..but it still hurt. I didn't want to hurt. I decided not to pick at them again. That was bad. I just sat there for the week..and slept. Ink was mad when he returned.

"You didn't play." He grabbed my leash and pulled me closer; I was scared. "You're either incredibly stupid..or you're pure. Dust, what were you thinking when you decided not to play?"

"I-I.." I stuttered. "W-well..C-Cut and P-Paint is a t-two-player g-game..I-I'm only o-one.."

"Oh, I see. You just didn't know how to play, since I didn't teach you."

"Mhm.." I nodded.

"I see!" Ink smiled. "Well, I'm not busy this week, so I can honestly devote all of my time to you; I'll teach you how to play Autoplay! Now, take this."

Ink handed me a blade, and I took it.

"Now.." Ink lifted up my right arm. "Cut it."

I moved the blade closer, almost touching the radius, but I couldn't..it didn't feel right!

"What are you waiting for?" Ink questioned. 

"I-it's n-not r-right.." I dropped the blade, crying; it wasn't right, and I wasn't going to do it, no matter what Ink said!

"I see." Ink picked up the blade. "And nothing will change your mind on this?"

I shook my skull; my mind was made up. 

"Very well." Ink chuckled. "I suppose instead of playing a fun game this week, we can play Monster."

"Wh-what's that?" I felt like it was scary..all the games were scary, but this was no doubt the scariest with a name like that!

"This game is for bad pets who don't do what their masters tell them to." Ink switched out his current blade for a sharper one. "I'm the monster, and you're the victim. You have to run from me, but if I catch you, I give you a punishment."

"P-punishment?" I whimpered.

"Yes, the worst. If I catch you..well, you'll find out. You shouldn't let me catch you. You have ten seconds to run."

I whimpered more as I climbed off the bed and crawled into the closet; it was the only good hiding spot. I curled up in the corner of the closet, backing up as close to the wall as I could; I didn't want a punishment! I wept as Ink looked for me, hoping he wouldn't find me. It took him five minutes, but he did find me. I screamed as a hand grabbed my ankle; I tried to get away, but he was too strong! He dragged me out of the closet, laughing malevolently. Without warning, he grabbed my leash and put it in the spot where we would play Hangskelly; that game was scary. He lowered me a bit to make my skull slightly below his before grabbing a wire and tying my hands behind my back; it hurt when I moved them. He did the same to my feet, which were floating mere inches above the ground. Then, he smirked at me.

"Well, it looks like I've caught you." Ink showed me the sharpness of his blade. "Now..your punishment will last for five hours, and there is no way to get me to stop. What was your worst punishment, again? Was it the escape attempt?"

I nodded to the best of my ability; it was hard to move when I was being held up in the air by my leash. 

"Yes, well.." Ink hit me with the blade. "This is going to be much worse." He hit me again; I sobbed. "And every time I catch you.." He hit me three more times. "I will double the time." He hit me again. "So..you had better find a better hiding spot."

And he began to hurt me. My screams did not convince him to stop, nor did my begging. I suffered for five hours before being allowed to hide again, but he found me quickly and tortured me for ten hours this time. Another hiding spot made me suffer for twenty hours. Another fail gave me forty hours. It just doubled over and over until the week was up. After the forty hour session, I didn't bother hiding..I just let him string me up again.

I was weak.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean sad.

Thanks for reading my puzzling writing!

Bye!