ɪɢɴɪᴛᴇ | ɢʜᴏꜱᴛɪɴɴɪᴛ ᴀᴜ

Chapter 8 - Grief and cupcakes

-Words- 1310

As the sun peeked through the gaps in the trees, lighting up the destruction of something once beautiful, Tommy was very unaware of what was going on. It was just another morning for him in the mental torture that was Dream's house. Tommy sighed and got up, "Did Dream really just leave me here", he thought bitterly as a tear slid down his face. His pet spider seemed to care deeply about Tommy, almost like how Ghostbur cared deeply about Friend, it awkwardly walked over to it's only friend, looking up at him, with a deep look of sympathy in its many red eyes. The spider was very intelligent, seeming to understand human emotion very well, maybe a bit too well, it kinda creeped Tommy out.

"Hey big man?..", he said looking down at the spider, as if it would respond, it stared back at him. Tommy sighed, "sorry forgot you can't speak, sometimes I wish you could so I wouldn't be so alone but oh well", he whispered quietly and sat down next to the spider, but something was off. The spider seemed deeply upset by something, it looked up at Tommy then back down at the floor, "I-I can speak..", the spider stuttered looking away. Tommy stared down at the spider in shock, blinking twice and pinching himself to see if he was awake, which he was, "wait- what?! What are you then?", he asked, obviously bewildered. Shroud looked down before responding, "I'm a shape shifter, Dream kidnapped me because I was one and he kept me in his house, I haven't been able to leave in I don't know how long", Tommy stared for a good five seconds, "can you.. shape shift to a human?", he asked, a hopeful tone in his voice. Shroud nodded, "I can, but you'll have to turn around if that's ok", he explained. Tommy nodded and turned around, shutting his eyes tightly, a couple seconds later he felt something tap him on the shoulder, thinking it was Dream his head shot back, expecting Dream but to his surprise a little boy was all he could see.

The boy looked to be around 6-9, he had fluffy short black hair, a pair of beautiful red eyes, pointy ears, small pointy teeth a white shirt that was a bit ripped with a pair of jeans and no shoes. Shroud smiled at Tommy before sitting back down next to him, "ta-da! What's wrong?", he asked, his voice higher than before almost as if he was afraid Tommy thought he was ugly. Tommy shook his head and took a deep breath in, "I'm sorry Shroud, I was just thinking. I'm happy I have someone to talk to now though!", Tommy smiled and tightly hugged the small child, making him cry from relief, it had been over a year since Shroud had seen his family. He hadn't felt any comfort or kindness towards him in what felt like an eternity to the young shape shifter. Shroud hugged back tightly, not wanting to let go, "shh it's ok I'll protect you from Dream if we ever manage to escape", he reassured him, patting him on the head in an attempt to soothe the small child, who fell asleep after a couple of minutes. Tommy sighed and smiled, drifting off to sleep aswell.

The sun lit up the mostly empty server, it was dawn and Tommy had decided to move to a new server called "the Dream SMP". He had talked with most of the people who were there already,  for example the owner, Dream who had a few rules but that was expected. Tommy struggled his way up a steep stair case which led to a beautiful area next to a cliff, smiling he set his bag down and stretched, going over to the cliff on his left and sitting down. He dug in his inventory before finding the enderchest Phil gave  to him with all his important stuff in it, he set it down next to him and took out a jukebox and a green disc named "cat" dusting the disc off and sliding it into the jukebox a familiar and very comforting tune started to play. Tommy smiled, relaxing as he put his head against the tree that was next to him and closing his eyes.

Everyone always wondered why the discs were so important to Tommy and why he would go to war for them. Well the discs were a gift to Tommy by his mother Kristen before she had to leave, Phil would play the discs every night to make Tommy stop crying about his mother, and it always worked. The discs were the only things that could calm him down hence the reason he went to many wars for them.

-At Tubbo's house-

Ranboo paced back and forth in Tubbo's room, trying to think of what to do after all the deaths and mass destruction. They had to set up a big speech for everyone but Tubbo needed time, which they didn't have much of at all. Tubbo stared at the clock, half asleep, it was 3 am. Someone knocked on the door which made Ranboo stop his pacing, sighing he went to answer the door, to be greeted by a very sad ghost, "Hey Ranboo.. How's Tubbo doing?", Ghostbur whispered with an empty leash in hand. Ranboo took a deep breath in and looked at the ghost, he was worried about him as it had been almost a day and no one was there to comfort him, "You good Ghostbur?.. if you ever need to speak to anyone I'm always here", he offered Ghostbur who shook his head, "no it's alright I'm the one who's supposed to cheer everyone up, plus I'm doing ok", he whispered as his voice broke. Ranboo sighed before weakly smiling and walking to the side so Ghostbur can enter.

Everyone sat in silence, not uttering a single word as the clock ticked every second. Ghostbur eventually got up and walked to the kitchen, he made some tea and cupcakes to try to take his mind off everything that happened. The scent of the chocolate cupcakes made its way to the living room, followed by a bit more cheerful Ghostbur as Ranboo turned to look at him, "I made tea and cupcakes to take your minds off everything that happened", he smiled setting the plate of cupcakes and 3 steaming cups of tea down as Tubbo looked up and smiled", thank you Ghostbur", he muttered before stretching in his chair and yawning. "Since we have something to eat, mind helping us set up a big speech for tomorrow Ghostbur?", Ranboo asked stuffing his mouth with a cupcake to which Ghostbur replied, "yeah of course, I have nothing else to do anyway really, and I still haven't found Friend", he explained holding up the empty leash to which Ranboo nodded and looked over to Tubbo, "Tubbo you should really head to bed you've seen too much today", Ranboo whispered with a worried tone as Ghostbur nodded, "no I'll finish the food first, then I'll sleep. You guys can go sleep aswell", Tubbo insisted as he grabbed his cup of tea. "I don't have a house anymore though, it got blown up remember?..", Ghostbur sniffled starring at the ground as blue leaked out of his eyes. "That is true Tubbo, a lot of people have been left homeless, it's just another thing we will have to solve I guess", Ranboo muttered rubbing his neck, "but for now you can stay at my house Ghostbur, I have a spare room", he suggested walking to the door. Ghostbur nodded and waved goodbye to Tubbo.

(Hey guys! Sorry for the short chapter I've been busy lately but I still wanted to publish a chapter today)