(No one:

Not a single soul:

Not even Ink:

Me: Time to write another short story that'll potentially become a new book.

Sister: Nope, we're going to the store to get bread and milk.

Mom: And you gotta get a shower.

Homework: Don't forget about me.

Mad Father AU. I might make this a book if this part does well, so please let me know what you guys think. Don't consider my feelings. Well, like, don't be rude obviously, but don't withhold feedback and criticism because you don't wanna hurt my feelings.)

Dream shivered a bit as he walked down the hallway.

The basement of the mansion was always a bit chilly, but it got colder during the night hours. The stone hall was very dimly lit, with the faint glow of the wall-mounted candles providing just enough light for him to see where he was going. He came to a stop in front of an old wooden door, the echoes of his footsteps fading away. It was so old that the wood had started to chip and peel, and while it looked easy to break down, that wasn't the case.

He could hear the noises going on in the room behind the door. That was his mother's lab, the place where she was working all day long. She was always cooped up in there and almost never came out, so he hardly ever saw her. He could hear the sounds of her work, which were loud and would frighten anyone else, but he'd grown used to them. He couldn't quite make them out, but they sounded like groans and moans... sounds of pain and fear.

"Mother...." He began, reaching up and knocking on the door. "Mommy, are you in there?"

His knocks echoed off of the walls and back into his ears. They didn't quite sound right against such a large and old door. The noises from inside the room soon hushed down. Then the door opened up, its old iron hinges creaking as the door was swung open, with an ungodly stench blowing out of it, and a tall figure loomed far above him. That tall figure was his mother, Nim. Her glowing white eyes immediately landed on her child, and even though she was wearing the white mask that doctors had, he could tell she was frowning.

"Mommy!" Dream beamed brightly.

"Dream, how many times have I told you not to come down here?" She asked him, her sternness clear in her voice. "You should have been asleep two hours ago."

"I'm sorry, mommy...." He apologized, gripping the bottom of his light blue pajama shirt. "But... um... I'm too scared to sleep on my own...."

"Dream... you mustn't worry about that. You're never alone," she sighed, kneeling down to lift her child's head up. "Your late brother is always watching over you... okay?"

"Yes, mama...." He nodded.

"Now please, listen to what I tell you from now on." She stood back up.

"Yes, mama...." He mumbled.

"Good boy." She smiled under her mask, patting his head gently.

Dream turned away from her, starting to walk back the way he'd come from. But before he could get very far, something clicked in his head. He whirled back to face his mother, who hadn't moved from her spot. Most likely to make sure he wouldn't just wait outside of the lab for her again, like he did that one night. It had been around one in the morning when she finally came out, and he'd gotten grounded for a week.

"Mommy, tomorrow's...." Dream trailed off, hoping she would remember.

"Yes, the anniversary of his death." She nodded, a saddened look coming onto her face. "We'll visit his grave together. We can also stop by Mrs. Green's bakery, if you'd like."

"Okay!" He beamed, smiling as he perked up a little. "Thank you, mommy."

"Now back to bed, please," she said. "I'll be resting soon as well."

Dream nodded and turned around, starting to walk away again. This time, Nim didn't wait until he was out of sight. She turned on her shoes and returned to her lab, shutting the heavy door. The young child paused in his steps when he heard the clicking and sliding sounds of the metal locks on the other side. He glanced over his shoulder, looking back, his smile being replaced by a frown. But it didn't take long for his to obey his mother's wishes and keep moving forward.

"S-Stop!" An unfamiliar voice cried out, a bit muffled by the thick stone walls, but still cutting the silence. It caused Dream to take pause again. "Noooo! Help me! SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!"

The sound of a roaring engine and saw blade came into his hearing as well. He hardly paid any attention to it before heading back the way he came. He blocked out the bloody screams that were undeniably filled with pain. Out of all the sounds he could hear, he focused on the echoes of his footsteps as much as he could. Chainsaws and screams were not what he needed to hear before going to bed.

Dream knew his mother's secret. To the people of the village, his mother was the Guardian of the Tree of Feelings. The Tree of Feelings allowed every living thing-- be it human, monster, plant, or animal-- to have positive and negative feelings. But she was also a scientist, something she'd always had a passion for. She loved reading books and research articles, as well as conducting her own trials. She always spent all of her time locked up in that lab of hers.

He's always heard things from that lab. The screams of animals, humans, and monsters. The roaring of chainsaws, the beeping of machines, the murmurs and muffled chatter of his mother and her work assistant. Even when he was much younger than he was now, he'd always knew what his mother was doing. Or at least had a pretty good idea of it. But he always pretended that he didn't notice or hear anything, that he didn't know anything about her secret career. He faked his ignorance and innocence the whole time. All because he loved his mother. 

That wasn't the only secret he knew. His mother's assistant was a young monster named Neil. He'd lost his arm in an accident that Dream didn't really know about, but his mother had been kind enough to build him a prosthetic replacement. Whenever he and Nightmare weren't around, or they thought they weren't around, the two of them would get... rather intimate with each other.

_____

"Neil, you seemed rather distraught during today's experiment. Is something troubling you?"

"Doctor... they're aware of our... relationship."

"Hm? What does it matter?"

"I don't think they're very fond of me. That's the problem. I don't want to upset them."

"The boys will be 11 soon. It's a troublesome age to be sure.... be kind to them, please. Make sure that they are never harmed. They are my most precious...."

_____

Dream was laying wide awake in his bed, staring up at his ceiling.

His room wasn't much of anything special. It had pale yellow walls and a checkered floor of pale and slightly darker blues, with a single eight-panel bay window that had pale yellow curtains. There was a tall bookshelf in the corner that had all of his favorite stories, as well as some textbooks to help with his educational progression. There was a wooden chest by his door that had his name painted onto it in orange, with his favorite yellow cape neatly folded on top of it. There was a wooden dresser on one of the walls and a nightstand next to his bed, which held his lamp and alarm clock. There were toys in the bay window and a soft pet bed for his fox, Phoenix.

"It's already midnight...." Dream whispered as he turned over, looking at the alarm clock. "So now... today's the day brother went to Heaven...."

Dream tossed the blanket off of him, moving his legs over the side of the bed. He deeply missed the way things used to be. All that he wanted was to be like other children. Like the ones who he saw playing tag and other fun games in the village, like the ones he read about in his stories. Normal children had healthy, happy families. Normal children went to school and had friends. Normal children made mud pies, played in leaf piles in the fall, and had snowball fights in the winter.

Normal children didn't have dead brothers.

"I can never sleep when I think about Nighty...." He muttered to himself.

He stood up from his bed and crossed the room, heading to the bay window. Set in the center of it was one of his most, if not his most, treasured belongings. He delicately picked up the golden picture frame, staring down at the photo in it. It was a portrait of him and his brother, back when they were younger, and he had been alive. His purple eyes were smart and full of youth back then.

"What should I do, Nighty?" He asked the picture, as though it would respond. "I do love mommy, but... he scares me."

"He's always looking at me with those eyes. I hate him, but I know how much mommy cares for him. If they got married, I guess he would be my dad. We never had one of those. But would they have children like every other married couple in the village? Would they have a son, who would be my new brother? I don't want to have a new brother. I don't need a new brother. There was only one brother for me in the world..."

Dream's voice dropped as he stared down at the picture. His grip had started to tighten on it, so he was glad he caught himself. He didn't want to damage it, god forbid break it. He'd never forgive himself. He hugged the picture to his chest, yellow-tinted tears rolling down his face.

"Nighty... why'd you have to go?"

He placed the golden frame back onto the bay window, reaching up and scrubbing away at his tears. He glanced at the toys he'd placed in the window too. There was his favorite teddy bear, the one he'd had since he was just a little baby and used to sleep with at night. There was also an excellently crafted doll that his mother had gifted him for one of his birthdays. The light green dress it was wearing was old and worn, but the doll was still beautiful and beloved. When he was younger, he'd thought it looked like a real person.

He walked over to his bookshelf, his eyes scanning over the tightly packed rows. Maybe a little reading would help him fall asleep. He stood on his tippy toes as he ran a finger along the spines of the books, murmuring their titles under his breath as he went.

"'The Dark Quartet', 'The Red-Eyed Stranger'...." He listed.

As his finger ran along the last one, something fell from the top of the bookshelf. It made a clink sound as it hit the floor, bouncing a few spaces away from him. He stepped towards it and crouched down, picking the thing up in his hands. It was a small object that was shaped like a curved teardrop, with a smaller pale blue crescent shape in the middle of the roundest part. In his hands it gave off a faint luminous blue glow. It looked like some kind of gem, but what such a pretty thing was doing at the top of his bookshelf was beyond him.

Dream stood back up, closing his fingers around the tiny gem. He looked over at his pet fox, Phoenix, and smiled. He loved his pet fox. But he tensed and brought the gem closer to him, as though the faint glow from it would warm him up. The room had gotten much colder in just a few seconds, which Dream found odd because his mother was very strict with the temperature of the mansion. He went back over to his bed, sitting the gem on the nightstand, and crawled back under the covers. Even under them, he shivered.

"Good night... Phoenix.... Nighty...."

(Screw it, I'm probably gonna make this a book regardless.)