Father Like Son

Chapter Three

Chris woke up in a room the next day. He thought what happened the night before was only a dream. He was sorely mistaken on his part. He looked around to see his room. The bed was dark blue and black-themed. He noticed that he didn't have his bear with him. The last thing that he had of his past family is now back at the orphanage. He had so many questions mostly questioning why he said 'prince'. He knew one thing he wasn't a prince or any royalty on that matter. He was still scared but not by the king.  He was more scared of the other skeletons than he was of Nightmare. He has gotten up to see that he has a bathroom inside of his room. So he went in there and took a shower. He felt relaxed as he felt the hot water touch his skin. Once he was done he found himself some clothes. It was nothing much it was just a long sleeve and jeans. He put the clothing on and went back to the same room and threw the dirty things in the hamper. He then wanted to know what was beyond the room. He went to the oak door and opened it revealing a dark hallway that split in two ways both lit by a candle. He decided to go right. He resisted the urge to escape knowing that they'll find him again somehow. He made it to the end of the hall to find a room that ended up being the throne room. He heard people in the other room so he hid behind a pillar to listen in on it.

"I don't understand what he sees in him do you?" Dust said to Cross.

"Not really you know how he is about these things. He's very...particular."

"Maybe. But why now?"

"I don't know Dust I don't have all the answers you know," Cross said taking a bite out of his chocolate bar.

Dust palmed himself in Cross's response.

"You're his right-hand man Cross. How do you not know?"

Cross just shrugged his shoulders in response and walked out of the throne room. Once Chris noticed that they left he went to the throne to get a closer look at it. There was also an abundance of bookshelves in the place. He went to one of the bookshelves and slid out a book with a sun and moon on the velvet cover. Out of curiosity, he started reading it.

'Once there was a tree known as the Tree of Feelings that was guarded by two skeleton monsters named Nightmare and Dream. Together they were known as the guardians of the tree. The tree has two sections filled with golden and black apples. Dream was known to guard the golden apples while Nightmare guarded the dark apples. The apples represent positive (Golden) and negative (Black) feelings. Nightmare was often teased and ridiculed for being the guardian of the 'bad side' of the tree. One day he wanted to prove that he could protect both sides of the enchanted tree. So he picked one of his brother's apples and being a person with negative feelings corrupted his side of his tree as well. When he ate the fruit his body reacted differently to it. He soon became the 'monster' that everyone knew of. He went on and killed everyone but Dream and leaving the destroyed Au. Now the two brothers fight. From...'

Chris's eyes were now wide as he finished the short book. Was this the person who saved him? Was this true? He decided to put the book away and wait for another day to talk about it. Maybe he was different than he was before? He didn't know. He stood up and looked back at the throne one last time before leaving it for good. The book was torn on the edges something must've happened to it. He couldn't help but hear his own heart beating constantly out of his chest. He walked around nervously looking behind him to make sure no one was behind him. Once he thought the coast was clear he eased...for a few seconds.

"What are you doing here? A voice said causing him to jump.

The voice itself made his heart stop. He turned around and saw Nightmare giving him a confused glare.

"I-I'm sorry! I was e-exploring the place! I swear!"

Chris could feel the fear crawl up his spine. Thankfully Nightmare took pity on him.

"Oh, would you like a tour of the place?"

"Sure," Chris said nervously.

"Alright just follow me then."

Nightmare started showing him around the place and didn't see the others anywhere. Chris's eyes darted behind him and he saw Dust walking towards Nightmare.

"Hey, boss,"

"What is it Dust?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to see what you were doing."

"I was just giving him a tour, why are you asking?"

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that a certain someone wants to speak to you alone."

"Can you tell him that I'll meet him later?"

"I apologize but he won't leave until you come and I don't think that the others can stand his tomfoolery."

"Alright fine. Just take him while I go deal with him. Alright?"

"Gotcha boss."

Nightmare told him to call him whenever he feels like he's in danger. Chris nodded as Nightmare teleported out of there to his former brother Dream to see what he wanted. Chris could feel his heart speeding up a bit as he saw Dust. Dust put his boney hand on his shoulder causing him to flinch.

"Geez are you that scared of me kid?" He said with a laugh.

Chris shrugged his hand off and looked in the other direction. Dust wasn't surprised at his behavior. He just rolled his eyes (sockets? No- whatever they're called.) and just took the boy's hand and practically dragged him to the living area. There he saw more skeletons just doing their own thing until they heard Dust come into the room with Chris by him. Chris wanted to fight back but something in his mind told him not to.

"Hey, guys." Dust says grabbing their attention.

"W̵h̴o̶'̷s̶ ̷t̶h̸a̶t̴?̶"

"Well, the boss told me to watch him while he deals with other matters."

Chris was confused about the 'other matters'. What could Nightmare be dealing with? He didn't bother to ask.

"Hm, what's your name kid?" Cross asked him.

"Chris." He said in a whisper.

Cross raised an 'eyebrow' at the kid.

"Dust is he scared of ya?"

"Probably, but hey so are the other people I killed." Dust said flexing on how many corpses he made over the year.

Chris was wondering why there was dust on him and now he knew. He took his hand back and went to Cross's arm for comfort. Not like he was any better.

"Dust! You can't just say that to a kid!"

"What! Why not?"

"Error you have kids what do you have to say to this?" Cross said getting slightly annoyed by Dust's behavior.

"T̶-̸t̴h̷e̸n̶ ̸I̷ ̶s̴a̸y̸ ̶t̴-̵t̸h̷a̶t̸s̴ ̵g̷o̶o̷d̵ ̶p̶-̶p̷a̷r̴e̴n̵t̶i̵n̴g̴.̵" Error said bluntly.

Cross groaned as he picked Chris up and into his arms and shushed him.

"To be fair I'm not the only one he's scared of."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was Horror and Killer." He said in a monotoned voice.

"How'd you know?"

"You tend to hang out with them the most so it wasn't hard to figure out."

"Eh, your not the first person to say that."

Cross wasn't really surprised by his response. He also had a feeling that the kid might get used to his ways as the others did.