I Had Strings, But Now I'm Free (Dream SMP)

Mr. President

tw: description of blood + violence, emotional trauma, swearing

Rain opened her eyes slowly. Her hearing was almost gone, the muffled drip of lava just barely getting through. She lay against the wall motionless, lifeless, like a corpse that had the faintest trace of humanity left. Her once vibrant eyes now barren of emotion and her eyelids heavy from a lack of sleep. Her head kept dipping, threatening to fall back into unconsciousness. Kept awake by night terrors and insomnia, prone to paranoia and hallucinations. The dark circles lined under her eyes looked like they were drawn with ink.

She hadn't slept properly in days.

Her face and body were lined with bandages and half-healed wounds. Dream was more impossible to read with every time he visited. Once he retired for the day after their 'session', he would return with wads of bandages, food, and words of comfort. He would tend her wounds and offer words of encouragement as he applied the rubbing alcohol and Rain ate the food in silence.

"It'll be over soon. I promise."

"All you have to do is tell me. Then I don't have to keep doing this to you."

"Cheer up. A smile always makes me feel better."

"Don't give up hope yet. Who knows, your Pogtopia friends might be planning to bust you out."

He was like a completely different person when he did this. No dark atmosphere, no sense of deception. And as Rain began numbing, the rubbing alcohol stopped stinging and his kind words fell on deaf ears. Some wounds were left deliberately to scar, like the smile he had carved into her neck in their first session. It was still there, but it was scar tissue now, pale against the rest of her skin. Rain could only stay conscious for half an hour before she had to fall back into the sort of sleep-trance that held her mind prisoner.

The most haunting thing about him was Dream had started wearing a different mask. You could no longer glimpse his mouth as the rounded face of it covered all his facial features.
It still sported the same taunting smiley face however. That hadn't changed at all.
However, what had changed was that he started wearing his hood down, revealing his hair.
Rain had taken note of it, dirty blonde, relatively short. Sitting upon his head like soft, overgrown wheatgrass.

He does have nice hair...

Rain had mentally slapped herself when she'd thought that. Denying that she might be developing Stockholm Syndrome in response to Dream being the only human contact she'd have.
He was all she had, so why wouldn't she develop some kind of bond with him?
Even with all the torture, the mixed signals, the words he'd say. Nobody else would come to see her.
Nobody from Manburg besides Dream.

Apart from today.

Rain didn't even react when the iron hinges of the cell's door creaked. The door swung open, crashing against the obsidian walls as a set of footsteps entered. Rain paused when she heard a second, heavier set of footsteps enter the room before the door swung shut. As it clanged with the metal frame, Rain only had the energy to pull herself up to gaze tiredly across the room. She recognised Dream by just his shoes and his stance, always confident, always wearing armoured boots.
But she didn't recognise the second man at all.

He was only slightly shorter than Dream, his skin tone maybe two shades darker and full of dull wrinkles. He had shaggy dark brown hair, a toothy grin and a face full of bristly stubble. Perhaps the most eye-catching of his features were the ram or goat-like features he displayed. His ears were that of a goat, angled down slightly with two gold oblong earrings dangling from each. From the top of his head protruded two thick maroon ram horns which curled down and around his ears. His eyes were amber-coloured, with sideways pupils and a slight yellow-ish hue to the sclera. Rain even noticed a short fluffy brown tail from among the folds of his clothing.
He wore a clean, tailored black suit with a smart dark red tie. He also wore thin black trousers with simple flat boots.