Sleepy Buddies [REWRITE] //Dreambur

Chapter 15- Eret's Downfall

A month passed from the episode. An entire month between the first kill and this exact moment. It felt like a blink of an eye, but it was so much longer. Time was irrelevant for a long time, nothing more than a small weight holding Nightmare back. But the more time that passed, the weirder things got for Dream and Nightmare.

Nightmare made an appearance every time the mask went on, and try as he might, Dream simply couldn't force Nightmare away once the plastic obscured his face. Nightmare did horrible things, killed people in vicious fashions, carved a smile into their faces, and left Dream to deal with the emotional consequences. Dream also started forgetting simple things, like his age and Wilbur's birthday and Techno's favorite color. He had lapses in memory, waking up in the park or a random building. Sometimes he was dirty, other times bloody and bruised. It was a little scary, but Dream convinced himself he was still in control. As long as the mask stayed off, he was fine. Hopefully.

On a lighter note, Ranboo somehow managed to fit right in with the rest of the Sleepy Boys. He was a missing puzzle piece that was necessary, but Dream didn't even realize was missing at first. He had a dry, sarcastic sense of humor, forgot almost everything about everything, and brought a new side out of the entire family.

He helped Tubbo with his trauma as much as Tommy did, somehow there for him when Tommy couldn't be. He pissed Tommy off, on the supposed account of stealing his best friend, but they still managed to get along for small increments of time. Wilbur liked to see how gullible he was, and often tried to get him to do things Wilbur didn't want to. Mainly, laundry. He also softened Techno, who was teaching him how to fight with great success.

He managed to bring out an even more fatherly side in Phil, who either rarely let him out of his sight or claimed he could take care of himself. And finally, he was a sort of anchor for Dream. He relied on Ranboo to steady himself and remind Dream of what he was working towards- a better society for everyone.

Nightmare disliked Ranboo, but Dream didn't care much for what Nightmare thought.

The Sleepy Boys as a whole had been extremely busy. They had ended up flying a flaming sign from a plane, which was more of a "let's indulge Tommy," idea than an actual idea. They also did more news announcements, with Tubbo talking about prison, Ranboo about orphan life, and Puffy about the illegal shipments that she's stopped.

Puffy had allowed Nightmare on her ship and taught him how to sail, even letting him help with boarding a boat and searching it for contraband. They had found an absurd amount of hallucinogens and ended up burning them, further proving Nightmare's point of Schlatt's dangerous indulgences.

Wilbur continued to burn old, decrepit buildings down, Phil saved random children, Techno did what Techno did, and the three minors came up with the most batshit ideas known to man, then executed them to a T. For example, they managed to print over two thousand flyers in support of getting rid of Schlatt, then scattered them about the city. The police station was baffled by Ranboo's fingerprints, seeing as they somehow didn't match any in their system, which wasn't supposed to be possible. That cemented Ranboo's place in the family, helping with stealing and breaking and entering.

Speaking of the police, Nightmare had developed a habit of leading Dream's former coworkers on long goose chases that ended with Nightmare always winning and disappearing into the night like smoke. In fact, he was in the middle of one right now.

Nightmare flipped over heads and onto a tin roof of a makeshift jewelry stand, ducking to avoid the tranquilizers that flew over his head. Each thunk in the wall behind him was a reminder of what would happen in the event of his capture. It made his heart race and his smile grow. He dipped and dodged, even doing a walking handstand and a few cartwheels to humiliate his pursuers. People pointed and laughed, pulling out phones to record the incident. Nightmare waved to them after he righted himself, then noticed two officers trying to cut his path off. He saluted the crowd in a mocking fashion and took off, using pipes and fire escapes to wiggle his way around the police. The one officer who managed to get close to Nightmare was dispatched of easily. Nightmare swung around a drainpipe and kicked the man in the chest. He fell to the ground with a loud thud and crack, making pedestrians scream and jump back. Honestly, they were too easy sometimes.