Father Like Son

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tw: Descriptions of claustrophobia (fear of small or confined spaces)

What was up with him? Why the hell is he so quiet?! Nightmare questioned himself as he notices something on his hand. Just a faint purple that couldn't be gone unnoticed.

"Son," He spoke in a low voice. "What is that on your hand?"

Chris reluctantly showed him the other hand as if to be planning dumb. He did so by looking at the ground so his mismatched eyes wouldn't be noticed as well.

"The other hand."

"What do you mean? There's nothing on it-"

"Prove it then. If there is really nothing on it you wouldn't be hiding it in your pocket."

"It's nothing ok!?"

Before Nightmare could begin to come closer. Chris made a run for it. Ducking under his tentacles. Good thing the boys would be too tired to even go after him. Almost all of them.

"Don't let him get away!" He says seeing Dust down the hall.

Chris didn't hear Nightmare shout but got caught by Dust.

"D-Dust! Let me go!"

"Sorry kid. Just doing my job here- AGH! YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

Chris bit Dust's hand and it made him let go. He made it over to the next corner and realized that it was a dead end. There were only three doors that lead to two bedrooms and a closet. Being scared he decided to risk it. He ran into the second one and found out that it was a closet soon after he closed the door. He used both hands to cover his mouth so he wouldn't be able to breathe too hard. Space began to get smaller and smaller. The walls soon closed in on him. He couldn't breathe. He needed out. Fast. He didn't care if it costed anything, not even his own life. He grabbed the knob and twisted it open. It was stuck. It locked behind him. It was his only way out. It felt like he was going to die. It was his own fault. His life was going to be wasted. His head fell with a loud thump. He passed out, out of his own fears nailing him down at once. As for Nightmare and Dust, they were in that same hallway and we're about to leave it. Until they heard it as well.

"Did you hear that Murder?"

He nodded quickly in response.

"He must be in one of these doors. You check the first two and I'll check the last."

"Got it."

Dust went quickly to the first one and Nightmare went to the last one. Both found nothing but Killer and Horror's bedrooms. They gave up and found each other to go for the second one. Dust opened it up carefully and found Chris in the weapons closet. Where Horror kept his axes mostly. If Chris would have seen them he would have broken the door handle off and escaped.

"He's out cold."

Dust picked him up bridal style and looked over at his boss.

"What did you even want from the kid anyway?"

"The bruise on his hand. It looked bad and he refused to show it."

"Do you want me to bring him to the medical room to heal it for ya'?"

"No, you go see if Horror and Killer dusted Cross yet. I'll do it myself."

"If you say so."

Dust gave Chris over to Nightmare and teleported downstairs. He took Chris to his own room since it was closer than Chris's room was. He lied the boy onto the bed and went to grab the medkit. Minutes later he came back with the kit and a glass of water. He sat on the bed and placed the water on the nightstand and opened the medkit only to find gauze to wrap around his hand. He had healing ointment in there as well so he took the small bottle out as well. He took his hand and put four drops on it and rubbed it in on the child's hand gently. Trying not to wake him up. After he wrapped his hand up he got up and grab a book to read since there was nothing else to do.

~A few hours later~

Chris felt a mattress under him. It was soft and comfortable.  Then everything that happened before rushed into his memory. It caused him to jolt up in surprise that he got out of there. Almost like panic flew through him as his eyes looked around frantically.

"Oh, you're finally awake. I was starting to get concerned."

"Where am I Nightmare?"

"My room. I fixed your hand. You fucked it up somehow. And I want to know how you managed such a thing on your own."

"It's nothing. I just hit it against the wall earlier and bruised it."

"Strike one."

"I went too far in the forest and tripped over a rock."

"Strike two."

"Alright! I went to the meeting room and went into the cave! I injured it there!"

"Thank you. And don't think I haven't noticed your eyes yet. Because those crystals can do serious damage to you if you hold them long enough."

"It looked so pretty! I just wanted to explore down there! I was bored, and when you saw my hand I panicked."

"You panicked because I was concerned for you?"

"I-I just. I don't know ok."

The skeleton just sighed in response, closing his book. Nightmare stood up from his chair and went over to the side of his bed and sat on the edge of it.

"Look, kid, I get that you don't want me to worry about you but that's my job to worry about you. You can't hide anything from me cause I'll always find out eventually. So I just need you to trust me ok. I'm not going to get mad or hurt you in any way for asking for help. Understand?"

Chris in tears hugged him and started crying for some reason. Nightmare hugged him and started to rub light and soothing circles into his back hoping to calm him down. It took him a few minutes of this when he finally kept his composure. 

"I'm sorry..."

"It's alright my child. You're safe."

"Thank you, father."

Nightmare's eyes widened as he said that. All he could do at that moment was crack a smile in response and say.

"No, thank you, kid. For being in my life for all this time."

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(A//N: Don't be fooled, dear reader. It's only the beginning after all :))