Duchenne (DSMP Superhero AU)

Chapter 25

Warning: This chapter contains gore and emotions, read at your ow risk.

Clay came back out of the tall building holding a worn leather-bound book. Ghostbur perked up from where he had been drawing little heart shapes on the dusty dashboard.

"Clay! Is that the book?"

Clay nodded, smiling and leaning over to kiss the ghost's forehead. He felt unstoppable with this book in his hands. He could conquer the world with this book. Ghostbur grinned, hugging him.

"Are we reviving Seirin here or at home?"

Dream tossed the book over to Ghostbur, his translucent blue hands fumbling to catch it. He started the car again, driving away from the building and away from home.

"The warehouse, I want to be able to contain him if he's aggressive."

Ghostbur nodded slowly, curiously flipping through the book. It was filled with runes and the odd bit of letters, with a strange phrase in the centre of the book. Férte ta píso, apó ton táfo, páre tin psychí mou kai dóse mou píso tin agápi mou. What did it even mean?

"Uh Clay? Do you know what this means?"

Clay shrugged, flipping off another driver.

"Does it matter? It does what we need it to, that's all I need to know."

Ghostbur nodded slowly, closing the book and watching the streets passing by. They drove out to one of the middle districts, where they stopped outside a seemingly abandoned warehouse. Clay got out, flicking his hand. Ghostbur instinctively stood up, floating out of the car through the windshield. The pair made their way inside the warehouse, the lights flickering on shortly after.

It was one large room, high ceilings with an overseeing balcony around the edge of the room. One corner was covered in technology, another diagonal from the tech corner had a big, seemingly glass box. The corner to the Left of the Tech and the right of the glass box had bookcases filled with files on everything in the city and a little round table. They had entered from the only empty corner, Dream leading the way to the glass box as he pulled his mask on.

"Clay, one of these words-"

Dream turned and snatched the book from Ghostbur, the smiling mask not giving away any emotion. Ghostbur flinched back, stopping halfway across the room. Dream kept walking towards the box before realising Ghostbur wasn't following. He turned to face Ghostbur, tilting his head to the side.

"Ghostie?"

Ghostbur stared down at the ground, fiddling with the sleeve of his sweater. Clay pushed his mask to the side of his face, his concerned expression revealed. He approached Ghostbur, stroking the side of his pale face.

"Ghostie what's wrong?"

Ghostbur motioned for the book. Clay hesitated, but handed it over. Ghostbur flipped through to the phrase again, pointing to the word "psychi."

"This word is greek for soul, what if using the revive book hurts you?"

Clay sighed, pulling Ghostbur into a gentle embrace.

"It's worth it to get my Thomas back. He can come back, you can stay and we can be a little happy family."

Ghostbur smiled, hugging Clay firmly. That sounded nice. Thomas seemed like a good kid from what Clay had said. He felt a warm hand gently stroking the back of his neck, drifting over some blue scars left behind by Clay's strings. They stood in the middle of the warehouse, simply breathing in the presence of each other before Ghostbur pulled back and passed the book back to Clay.

"Okay, I'm ready."

Clay took Ghstbur's hand, leading him into the glass room and tying him to the chair. Ghustbur let him, his gaze following wherever Clay went.

Clay tugged at one of the ropes on Ghostbur's legs, making sure it was tight enough to hold down Seirin. As he looked up, Ghostbur's face a few milimeters away from Clay's. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Clay hurriedly stood up and stepped back so that he was right next to the door if he needed to escape. He flicked open the book, ignoring the crestfallen look he received from the ghost.

"Clay?"

"Mhm?"

"May I get a kiss before we do this?"

Clay took a deep breath. This was too far. Ghostbur was his prisoner, he couldn't feel for the ghost. He slid on his smiling mask, taking on the unempathetic voice of Dream.

"Sorry Ghostbur, I can't do that."

Ghostbur looked down at the ground, closing his eyes. Clay heaved out one last breath before his strings swarmed the room, surrounding the chair with the sad little ghost.

"Férte ta píso, apó ton táfo, páre tin psychí mou kai dóse mou píso tin agápi mou. Férte ta píso, apó ton táfo, páre tin psychí mou kai dóse mou píso tin agápi mou. Férte ta píso, apó ton táfo, páre tin psychí mou kai dóse mou píso tin agápi mou."

As Dream reached the fourth repetition, Ghostbur screamed and thrashed in his restraints.

"Clay please! Clay it hurts!"

Dream kept chanting, closing his eyes and his ears to the pitiful state of the ghost.

"CLAY!"

"Férte ta píso, apó ton táfo, páre tin psychí mou kai dóse mou píso tin agápi mou. Férte ta píso, apó ton táfo, páre tin psychí mou kai dóse mou píso tin agápi mou. Férte ta píso, apó ton táfo, páre tin psychí mou kai dóse mou píso tin agápi mou."

There was a bright flash of green light as the ghost screamed again, His body becoming physical with a bright white streak in his hair. His eyes rolled around, blood red pupils forming with blue blood dripping out of his tear ducts. Blue blood stained his face, some from fresh tear streaks that still steamed with pain. His joints repositioned themselves, growing into the body of a malnourished muscular thirty four year old. His clothes remained the same, soaked with blue blood that dripped off his body and onto the floor

Wilbur thrashed in his chair as Dream stopped chanting, laughing maniacally.

"FINALLY! AFTER NINE YEARS OF WAITING I'M FINALLY BACK!"

He laughed like a hyena, leaning back in his chair and falling to the ground. He giggled as he stared up at the warehouse ceiling. Dream watched, gripping the revive book tightly in his hands. Wilbur rolled his head to the side, looking Dream up and down with a wide grin on his face.

"Hello my saviour!"

Dream walked closer to Wilbur who watched him with a gleeful expression on his face. He looked down at the grinning man and kicked him in the face, knocking Wilbur out. He watched the unconscious man for a while longer, whispering quietly.

"Ghostie? Are you there?"

Silence met his question. Unlike the first time Dream had met Ghostbur, the ghost was not separating from Wilbur's physical form. Dream gripped Wilbur's shoulders, his arms shaking.

"Ghostie? GHOSTBUR!"

He yelled for Ghostbur to return, for the man to rise back out of Wilbur's motionless form, for the man he had grown so attached to to come back to him. He sobbed and screamed until his voice was hoarse, still weakly gripping onto Wilbur.

Ghostbur couldn't come back. Dream had played with fire, and Ghostbur was the one who got burned. Ghostbur hadn't even gone to whatever afterlife that may exist.

Ghostbur was gone.

Dream was left behind.

Clay was alone yet again.