A Living Nightmare(discontinued)

Chapter 12: Arriving

Screams echoed through the long and dark hallways of Nightmare's palace. The screams were so loud and very glitchy. "Stop! Make it stop!" The glitchy skeleton screamed at the king. The king didn't respond but only a small grin.

He pushed the hot iron stamp harder against the glitchy skeleton's exposed ribs. He screached louder. This was the worst kind of pain he's experienced from the king. Well, maybe not the worst but it definitely was up there.

After a while, the king finally stopped. The glitchy skeleton laid on the hard, cold and dark wooden floor. He was shaking and kept his whimpering to a minimum. "You should know better than to try and escape," the king sneered at him. "You should have known that this was going to happen to you. You probably knew but you still took that chance and look where it got you. Your stupid little plan failed."

~~~

The black and white skeleton breathed heavily as he saw Dream's palace within reach. He was almost there. He couldn't help to feel a sense of relief and excitement but he couldn't help but to feel that there was something off. Almost as if Nightmare was waiting inside just to snatch him up and give him a punishment for what he did.

He took a couple more breaths before he conintued to rush toward the palace. He was so close and yet, it felt so far from how exausted he felt. It felt as if he was running in slow motion. It felt so slow and dreadful that it was taking so long, well, from what it felt like anyway.

He slowed to a walk then he stopped. His right hand was on his clothed chest as he couldn't seem to breath well. His hand gripped onto his stained dark grey sweater. Suddenly, everything was dark as he felt like a gust of wind rushed past him.

~~~

The black and white skeleton woke up to feel like he was laying on something soft. Wait, soft? He quickly sat up and looked. He was on a large sized bed, it must have been a double king sized bed. He got off of the bed and looked around. He didn't recognize the room. The walls were a very subtle yellow, almost like a pastel yellow.

He looked at the bed. It was a canopy bed frame, the curtains were pastel yellow with a little bit of white. The sheets of the bed were white with a pastel purple and yellow throw blanket. He looked at the rest of the room. He widened his eyes to see how large the room was.

He felt small in this room. Did he just step into some wonderland where everything seems large? At the moment, he didn't know. He looked by one of the windows. There was a small bookshelf with a loveseat and a rocking chair. Those were normal sized.

"What?" He asked himself. He was baffled by this. He thought he was outside just a few seconds ago, or was it a few seconds ago? He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his boney hands before he walked toward the window.

He pushed the curtains away from the window as he lightly hissed from how bright the sun was. He squinted and looked outside. It seemed like he was pretty high up from the room he was in. He decided to look down. He quickly moved away from the window and fell onto the floor on his butt. He was on the third floor of Dream's palace.

"Holy shit," he quietly muttered. "That's a..far drop." He slowly stood up before glancing toward the door of the room, thinking he heard something from over there. He did hear something, he wasn't expecting to see this person. It was Killer.

Cross looked at him as he quietly stuttered, "Hi." "Heya! It's been a while ain't it?!" Killer said with a slight tone of excitement. He walked toward the skeleton he knew oh so well, different now because of his long journey here.

"How's it going? Seems like you were on a long journey my friend," the black teared skeleton said with a small smile. "I uhh..." the black and white skeleton muttered. "It's going okay..? Just confused at the moment.."

Killer then snickered, "Scared too huh? Some shit must have really went down, didn't it?" Cross didn't say anything, he just looked away, at the floor as he gently rubbed his left hand with his right arm. "Not sayin' a peep. I see how it is," he slightly sneered. "Listen here, I'm done playin' the games." He tightly grabbed Cross by the shoulders, his phalanges slightly digging into his clothed colar bones. "You better listen to me and I won't mess with ya. If you do mess with me, ya little shit, I will get Nightmare and he knows the right punishment. Got it fucking weirdo?"

Cross lightly trembled as he quickly nodded his head. He looked at Killer, in his ever so blank and dark eye sockets. He was so scared. His shoulders hurt from how tight the grip was. He was expecting safety, not punishment when he showed up. To him, death was looking decent at the moment.

The black teared skeleton let go of his shoulders. "Don't fucking test me bitch. You know the shit I can cause with Ink, boss, and XGaster on my side," he sneered before smacking him on the back of the skull. The black and white skeleton flinched as he looked away. He was terrified.

"I can say one little bad thing about you, and boss can come here without little Dream knowing and do some shit to ya. Why fucking not, Ink probably can as well. You fucking deserve after all." Killer chuckled after he said that. "You know I'm teasing ya right?" Placing his hand on Cross's shoulder. He backed away. "Please don't touch.." he quietly muttered. "Fine fine," Killer said, raising his hands to the sides of his face. "I ain't doing that."

The skeleton with the hole in his skull poked his head into the room. He widened his eyes and quickly hurried to the black and white skeleton. He glanced at the black teared skeleton as the one he was looking at teleported away.

"Horror? I..I didn't know you would be here," Cross quietly said. "Of course.." Horror quietly said. "Myself and Dust came here and Dream's helped us out a lot.." Cross slowly nodded before he glanced at the wooden floor then back at Horror. "Do you know what Nightmare had done to me and Error?" Horror's expression softened with worry as he quietly said, "Dream told us from what he saw and knew, he also said what happened with Blue."

"Want me to tell you what happened?" The black and white skeleton said with a slight hint of fear. "If you don't mind," the skeleton with the hole in his skull said with a hint of worry in his voice.

~~~

The prince let out a small sigh as he looked at some papers on his desk. There was so much to do, it stressed him out badly. He felt like there was some anxiety with it as well. Dust and Horror tried to come up with some plans but to him, the prince, it didn't seem to run well through his head. His mind was busy of, his brother, his new team which they still need to name, and lastly, the cherry on top, Cross. It was a lot on his plate, he wasn't sure if he could handle much more.

There was a soft but sudden knock on the door frame of the prince's office. Dream flinched as he quickly looked up, he relaxed when he saw Sci. "Oh, hey," he said, his voice mostly flat from positivity.

The scientist walked in, holding a small bag in his hands. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he told him. "It's alright, just doing a lot of thinking and startled me," the prince replied with a soft sigh after. "I got your medications here for you," he told him, gently setting the paper bag on the cluttered desk. "Thank you, my anxiety and blood pressure meds?" "Yeah, I just want to do another check up to make sure nothing changed."

Dream nodded before he said, "Have you checked up on Cross?" "Yes, his health is terrible. I'm really surprised how he still seems kinda mobile for his condition," Sci replied with a small frown. "Why did my brother have to hurt him so badly? I'm sure Error is much worse because he's been there the longest, dealing with my brother's pain." "I don't know, Horror did say he found something and gave it to me."

"Oh?" Dream asked, a hint of curiosity in his voice. "What is it he found?" "It's not like anything I've seen," Sci said, digging through his lab coat pocket and grabbing what he was looking for. "I'm running tests on this and I'm baffled by it." It was a small vial with a red liquid that had a syrup-like consistency. Dream carefully looked at it in slight awe. "How strange," he gently muttered.

The prince seemed like it was slightly hypnotizing him as he brought it closer to him. He then shook his head and handed it back to the scientist. "Felt like it put me through a weird trance, '' he told him. "That's what happened to me," the scientist told him, slipping it back into the pocket. "Whatever this substance is, I have an odd feeling it's involved with what we are dealing with."