Talk to me (AUL fanfic)

Chapter 1: Player's nightmare

I opened my eyes, everything around me was pitch black and I couldn't see a thing. Suddenly, what seemed like a spotlight came on and revealed that Captain was standing a small distance away from me.

"Captain!"

He spoke in a low and annoyed tone. "Oh, it's you."

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Can't you tell? We're in Mira. Man, you're acting even weirder than usual."

I was confused for a moment until I looked around and realized we were in Mira. I sat in silence for a moment out of pure confusion. But then I thought about what Captain had just said, weirder than usual. I really didn't know what he meant by that because I don't act that weird, do I?

When I stopped thinking about it I looked back up at Captain. He stared me dead in the eyes for what felt like forever, but it was probably only about a minute.

Captain finally broke our silence. "Well?" 

I blinked a few times and shook my head. "Sorry, I've just been feeling a little weird lately."

"Eh, not like I'd care." Captain said.

"Wait what? Captain are you ok? You're acting really different."

"I'm fine, Player. All of us have just accepted your rank here."

"My rank? Since when did we have ranks in this place?"

He gritted his teeth. "Since always, Player. You've just been too blind to notice. We've only been being nice to you because you're the lowest of low here."

I tried to say something in response to the madness Captain just spouted at me, but nothing came out. 'This can't be real, can it?' I thought.

I moved away from Captain over to Veteran who was by the launchpad. 

"Hey Veteran. Captain's acting kinda strange, don't you think?"

"Oh, hey. You said Captain's acting weird? I didn't notice anything. But I can see why you'd think otherwise."

I blinked a couple times and finally managed to get words out of my mouth. "You too?"

Veteran looked at me with a mixture of annoyed and confused. But after a few minutes, he finally said something.

"Do you even realize what's happening here?"

I forced a response out of me. "What do you mean?"

Veteran turned to face me with force in his movement. "Can't you tell? No one actually likes you Player! We've all been faking just so you wouldn't feel like an idiot, but we're stopping now because it's not worth the energy to fake a smile anymore."

I wanted to collapse onto the floor and cry, but I knew that would only make the situation worse. So instead, I turned to process what just happened, but Mr. Cheese and The Gentleman were behind me. I jumped a little from being startled, but that seemed to make them upset.

"Are you really so weak that you get scared by us?" Mr. Cheese said.

"No, it's not that, you just-"

The Gentleman interrupted me. "There is no need for your input, Mr. Player."

I was so confused at this point that I clutched my head and collapsed to the floor. My breath was heavy and fast, like I had just run a marathon. It felt like my head was spinning, while the world and my so-called friends closed in on me. Suddenly, an endless pit opened under me. I grasped the edge of the ground, crying out for help.

Captain finally came to my aid.

"Oh thank goodness, Captain, please help me!"

He stared at me with cold, dead eyes. "Goodbye, Player."

"Wait wha-"

Captain then stomped on my fingers until I couldn't hold on anymore. I screamed and cried as I fell into the bottomless pit.

I woke up with a start, gasping for breath while covered in sweat and with tears streaming down my face like rivers.

Then, I heard a familiar voice. "Player! Are you ok?!"

It was Veteran, and I realized I had fallen asleep while we were playing Fall Guys. I looked over at Veteran and sobbed as I buried my face into his chest.

"Hey, dude it's ok. What happened?"

I was crying so much that I could hardly form a sentence to respond with. I felt like a huge baby, but the floodgates needed to be opened. After a few minutes, I was finally able to say something in between sobs.

"I-I had a nightmare..." 

Veteran looked at me with a worried look. "What was it about?"

I almost wanted to scream at him for asking, but I couldn't bring myself to. All that came out were tears.

We spent the rest of the night sitting there, while I cried myself back to sleep on Veteran's lap. If only I could've said more...