Faking A Smile [Errorink] (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 24 - Hospital Morning

TW- Mentions of self-harm

The following morning, Dream had let himself into Ink's home. He thought maybe he could surprise the artist and give him company for the day.

Dream lightly placed a bowl full of sweets on top of the kitchen counter and continued to walk throughout his house.
The first two or three steps could probably be described as a squeaky ones.

Sooner or later, he reached the door of the bedroom that Ink and Error had once shared. Dream lightly knocked the door and called for his friend on the other side.
"Ink, are you awake yet?"

He didn't get a response. At first he thought maybe he was still asleep, but he wasn't sure.

Dream knocked again before twisting the door knob and pushing the door.
He expected to see Ink asleep, wrapped inside of his blanket, but instead saw it thrown to the side.

He was confused. "Where could he be..?", Dream mumbled to himself.

Minutes passed by as he searched inside of his house until he reached the bathroom upstairs. He reached for the bathroom door knob but stopped in his tracks.

He had to knock first.
"Hey, Ink. Are you in there?"

Nothing new to expect no response. He put the side of his head to the door in attempt to hear some, but couldn't.

"Ink, I'm going to open the door, okay?"

He twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

Dream had stepped back, being taken off guard by what he saw.

He scanned the tiled floor to see Ink's blade on the floor. He quickly checked Ink's wrists and throat to see if there had been any deep cuts there. Lucky there wasn't, but that didn't make him feel any better about the fact that his friend was curled up in the bathroom corner with bloodied arms.

He dropped down to Ink's level and started shaking him, in hopes that he still had consciousness. It's still possible he could've bled out.

Dream repeatedly called Ink's name and shared shaking him.
Ink lightly whimpered from the sudden shaking.

The more Dream looked at the scene, the more he panicked.

"Ink, why did you do this?! I told you to call me!"

Dream stopped shaking Ink. At least he had gotten some sort of response from the other.

He looked around for something to clean him with.
The yellow skeleton took the blade to dispose of it later and looked for bandages.

He made a ruckus while pushing aside items. The clanking sound of items bounced off the bathroom walls until he finally found some bandages.

He opened the one of the bottom sink cupboards and pulled out a rag.

He twisted the warm water knob and put the rag underneath the sink head. Eventually, the rag had been soaked with warm water.

Dream turned back around to Ink and started to lightly rub Ink's arm. The blood wasn't completely dried up, but at the same time it wasn't fresh.

He looked around the bathroom and saw a towel on the rack. Dream quickly snatched it and patted Ink's arm with it to dry up the water.

Finally, he wrapped the bandages around Ink's arm.

Ink looked up at Dream with teared eye sockets. The positive skeleton wrapped his arms around his inky friend.

"Please, you can't keep doing this to yourself!" He yelled.