Dreaming of Demons (Dream x oc)

[62] A Dangerous Game

Sapnap slumped on the grass beside me, collapsing on his back and sighing loudly. "We should do something else. I'm getting bored of fighting Dream. He's too easy."

I lifted a brow, raising my gaze from studying a book of supernatural entities—specifically demons—to look over at him. "You only beat him like twice out of the ten times you dueled."

"But I still beat him." He put his hands behind his head, resting back on them. "That's probably more than you have."

I let out a breath of a laugh. "I've already won a duel against him once so I'm not far behind you."

"Nah, you've gotta be lying."

I shook my head, trying to hide my smile as I turned my attention back to the arena. Dream was helping George with shield combat, giving him tips on how to use it effectively as they tried fighting. Karl was walking toward us where we sat just outside the entrance of the arena, holding a sword he had been sharpening earlier.

"I'm finally done!" Karl raised his sword up to show the gleaming blade. He sat beside me. "These things take forever to sharpen."

"We should play manhunt." Sapnap suddenly said, still relaxing on the grass.

"Manhunt?" I questioned skeptically. "I don't think we should play something like that with Nightmare around."

"Oh come on, you haven't even seen him in a while. I'm sure he's long gone. We probably scared him off."

"It's only been a day—"

"I think this'll be good for you." He patted my arm. "You need something to take your mind off this crazy stuff. We should have a little fun while it lasts, right?"

It was tempting for sure. I had been thinking a lot about Nightmare. I had been studying books and training when I could, always thinking about how we could defeat the Demon. And now that I thought of it, I was tired. Not necessarily tired in the sleeping sense, but tired in the sense that my brain had been running on high for far too long.

Playing manhunt sounded fun, but the danger in it was pulling me back.

"We can just stick together." Sapnap continued. "We'll have a buddy system."

"What about the runner?" I asked. I couldn't tell if I was trying to make an excuse not to play or actually figuring out how to make this work. "Would there be two runners?"

"Yeah, we'll do two runners and three hunters. Easy. It's like the game was meant for this."

I bit the inside of my cheek. "Are you sure about this? I don't know..."

He sat up, pushing himself to his feet. "Yes you do. Come on, we're doing it."

I looked to Karl for help but he just shrugged. "I'm kinda bored so it sounds like fun. And we'll stick together like Sapnap said." He stood up from the grass and held out a hand to me.

I sighed, putting my hand in his so he could pull me up. We trailed after Sapnap as he walked into the arena to Dream and George.

"Guys, we're playing manhunt," he announced.

George's head turned as Dream was trying to tell him something about technique. "Yes! Finally something fun!"

Dream's brow furrowed when he faced us, dropping his wooden weapon hesitantly, "Manhunt? Right now?"

"Yes, yes, gather your stuff. I'm gonna get the flag." Sapnap started jogging out of the arena.

"Wait but don't we only have one flag?" Karl called after him.