Rosado

Left To Die

Strawberry woke up to instant pressure before he slid into open air. His sight quickly adjusted from dim glow to brighter candle light by the time his pelvis hit the floor, wincing at the contact with the stone.

He immediately becomes aware that he is no longer in the forest. Feeling the presence of two unfamiliar auras, Strawberry whips his head up to see the being that had consumed him, the previous terror overwhelming him as he whimpers and tries to scramble away only to find his back to a stone wall.

He realizes he's in a cell, the stone room carrying a melancholy atmosphere with a smell of dirt and metal. Low light allowed him to see, although at the moment he was quite frankly wishing that he could just curl in a ball and die.

The captive forces himself to look around further, flinching upon seeing Nightmare staring at him, piercing eyelight studying him with cold intensity. Moving his gaze to the side, Strawberry sees the second skeleton.

Their height managed to tower over himself while still getting trumped by Nightmare. The axe they held in their hand gleamed menacingly, the curved edge looking sharp enough to swing through any one of his bones no problem. A major injury was visible at the top left of the other skeleton's skull, the wound looking like it had been caused by impact.

"Doesn't he look rather... thin?" Speaks the skeleton, shifting feet and ruffling their jacket as they look at Strawberry, crimson eyelight taking in the overall integrity of his bones and sensing the magic flow that fueled him.

"Indeed. I speculate that it's due to lack of nutrition, although the brings up the question of why." Rumbles the dark being. Leaning on the frame of the cell door he allows the version of himself some space.

Horror speaks up, eyelight turning to his boss. "Are you planning to keep them? If he doesn't get set on a proper nutrition intake, his magic will start to eat itself until there's nothing but the bare minimum of structure left."

Strawberry watches fearfully, his aura surely radiating his thoughts and troubles that are flashing through his mind. He cowers further as Nightmare walks towards him, few tears escaping him as he bones tremble. The dark king squats down, an unreadable expression on his skull as he gazes at him.

"Why are they starving you."

Strawberry flinches at the voice and the statement, eyelight trying to look at anything but the one in front of him. A tendril grabs his chin and turns his skull back at the other, forcing him to look at Nightmare.

Strawberry attempts to flail but his strength is all out. He slumps in his stature, sad eyelight looking at the other as he answers.

"I f-failed. Ink created me as a gift for Dream, he wanted me to be his companion because he was sad all the time bout y-you." Strawberry looks to the ground after Nightmare removes his tendril, said skeleton listening curiously.

"At first I was able to, but soon after Dream didn't care for my company anymore. He cast me aside and Ink left me alone and forgotten in a small AU. I was so alone and there was nothing that I could use to provide for my needs." He cries softly, not caring that he was being watched.

"Then one day he shows up and tells me I can redeem myself. Dream had been ranting about how he could get you to come back, and Ink just happend to remember me and volunteered me for the job."

Strawberry's expression then turned to one of anger and despair, surprising the ones watching him. "They left me to die." He growls. "Shoved me in this AU without so much as a farewell, the only parting words being 'don't screw up'. I sat in that same spot hoping they were only joking, that they'd come back for me."

The pink skeleton looks up at Nightmare once more, awful sincerity in his eye as he spoke once more. "They were starving me because they didn't care about me. I am left at your mercy, should you chose to give me any."

Horror shifts in the background, hands clenched as he ground his teeth, fury bubbling inside him as he mentally cursed. Seems that the so called 'hero' just keeps on without a care for anyone he supposedly protects.

Nightmare looks at the broken Strawberry a moment longer before standing up and swiftly walking to the door him speaks to Horror in a hushed tone before leaving. Horror closes the gate after him and leaves.

Strawberry hangs his head as he remain at his spot on the floor. He clings to a small hope that he'll at least have a quick death, being as it seemed very unlikely that he was going to be let go. He looks up to see the edge of window far above him. He hears a soft wind flow past, a soft song played by songbirds drifting along as he closes his socket.

For once, in a very longtime, he lets himself relax, his mind drifts with the song, and small smile appears, perhaps for the last time.