~𝕹𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖊'𝖘 𝕾𝖊𝖈𝖗𝖊𝖙 𝕻𝖆𝖘𝖙~

Chapter 7: A secret

"Wait, so you mean to tell us that you've been getting Nightmares memories from when he was a little skeleton. And for the time that you've been at Error's, you got a look into his past from Ink? All while we were stuck here cleaning the house." Horror rambled back. Killer nodded.

They were all sitting on his bed in their pj's. They had listened to Killer and snuck into his room at midnight. They looked overly tired but he still told them the story anyway.

"We got in trouble for trying to find something little. You got a whole story from his 'punishment'. Something doesn't add up here-" "Was it the staff." Dust asked in a monotone, half tired. Had he considered the staff yet? "I mean, it hit both you and Night so maybe that's what happened." Killer sat to contemplate it for a minute. It made sense. How else would he be getting Nightmare's memories? "Alright, this is stupid. I accidently hit those two and all of a sudden, they've swapped memories." Horror said. That seemed to be the case-wait. Swapped? "Um, swapped. We just established I had his memories. When did we say he has mine?"

"It only seems reasonable you have his. Why? Got something you're hiding? You've got the same as us, just slightly different." Dust elbowed him. "If you don't quit. Don't worry, he probably doesn't have your memories. And if he did, I'm sure he's not seeing them." Dust said in a hushed voice. "What's the big deal? He's-" "All of us are hiding something, whether you want to admit it or not. Stop being a douchebag." Dust grumbled, stopping him mid-sentence. Horror raised his hand like he was gonna say something, paused, and pulled back.

"Alright, how are we gonna deal with this?" Horror growled, crossing his arms and looking at them. Dust exhumed and put a finger to his chin. "My best guess, we need to go visit Dream." They both jumped in shock. "What?!" They both yelled. He quickly hushed both of them. "I know, I don't want to either, but it seems like the only solution right now. Let's face it, Nightmares told no one about the staff and we clearly can't ask him about it. The only other sans that could possibly know about it would be Dream. Those two were brothers, remember?" Killed nodded. He got where he was coming from... but Dream? He would kill them in an instant if they were to just show up.

"Why us? He's the one with the problem?" Horror grumbled. "Because you hit him and I'm a witness. If he needs information, we've got it. Plus, he's gonna need backup if he's going to visit the star sans'. They'd light him up in a heartbeat." Horror grumbled and leaned back. Killer needed to contemplate this, though it didn't look like their was much debate. "If we need to do this, we need to do this soon. Killer, thoughts?" Killer heard Dust say. "I don't know, I know it needs to be soon but... how are we getting their? And when?" He asked. "Me." A voice came from the doorway.

"Error, how uh... how long have you been their?" "The whole time. Listen, I can get you guys to Dream right now. Just say the word and you're there." He said, holding out some strings and beginning to wrap them around their wrists. "I'm game. You two?" Horror said, beginning to grin that sadistic grin of his. "I mean, I suppose. We've gotta get this done soon. Dust?" Dust nodded and looked at Error. "One rule though, do not cause chaos. If I get in trouble for you three, y'all will never see the light of day again." He said, tugging at the strings to make sure they were tight. "See ya." And before they knew it, they were being plopped back down into Nightmares au.

"Ow! Fricken Error! I'm gonna kill him, I swear." Horror raged, getting up and rubbing the unbroken side of his skull. "Can't do that H, Night would literally kill us. Though I don't think it was necessary for him to fricken drop us from the sky." Killer grumbled, sitting up. "Hands up." They heard a stern voice beside them. "Up- here we go." Horror grumbled, throwing his hand up with the rest of them.

"What are you three doing here?" Dream asked, approaching them with an arrow drawn. He looked like he was a mixture of scared, angry, confused and sad. In a way, Killer felt bad now that he knew a good bit of Nightmares' background. This is where they lived after all. He wondered how often he came out here. "Well uh.... You see...um..." Killer stuttered, trying to find the right words to explain his situation. "Dream, please drop your *yawn* your bow. We mean no harm today. We just need to talk." Dust explained, looking at him with the most tired expression.

"Not until I know I can trust all of you. Now stop avoiding my question, why are you here?" Horror grinned, "Well Goldy, Killer here needs your help because he screwed up and did something he wasn't supposed to." He chuckled. "Horror, stop lying. Do you perhaps know of a staff Nightmare might have?" Dust asked, eying Dream. He stared at them for a minute before lowering his bow. "The staff? Of course I do. Mine's just transformed into my bow. I didn't know he still had his. Why?" He explained.

"Horror was screwing with it and uh, *yawn*, it somehow hit him and Nightmare. Ever since then, K's been sayin' he's getting some of,*yawn* what he thinks is, Nightmare's memories." Dust said, obviously getting more tired by the moment. It was after midnight. "Hey, NIght was trying me so I tried him back" "And got us both punished severely." "Alright you two, y'all can argue again later." Killer interrupted, breaking them up. "Wow, that's not good, but it is an easy fix. Well... mostly easy." Dream said, bending down and lending a hand, offering to help Killer stand up. Killer complied and took his hand.

"Mostly?" He asked, being pulled to his feet. "Well, you see, remember how I said I turned my staff into my bow? Well, I'd have to like, hit you with an arrow and hit him with an arrow. And I'm assuming he doesn't know, does he?" Killer grit his teeth and shook his head. "Of course not. Is their... another way? Like, at all? I really dont wanna risk anything with him."

"Why are you being so nice to this dork? He's our enemy! Demand for another solution or some crap. Gosh, you're so soft!" Horror yelled, jumping up and walking behind him. Killer took a deep breath to calm himself before he smacked him and sighed. "For now, we're tolerating each other. We can go back to hating and fighting them after we get this fixed." "I have a suggestion, but you'll have to hear me out. I can hit you with the arrow and give y'all the arrow. Then someone just needs to sneak a hit in. Like, pretend you fell or something. Get what I'm getting at?" Dream asked.

"We're not hitten' Boss!" Horror yelled. "Chillax, he would only feel a pinch, it wouldn't even hurt him. It's the only way you're gonna resolve this issue." Dream shot back, clearly getting irritated with Horror. Killed hummed and nodded. "It's the only way and it can't be that bad, I guess. I'm trusting you won't kill me though. Horror, if this hurts me, have at em'." Killer explained, backing away from the group some. "With pleasure." Dream took a deep breath and aimed his arrow. It started to glow a bright yellow. "Alright, ready?"

Nightmare was sitting against the tree. But not in a peaceful way. Their was lots of yelling and kicking. He was being bullied.... And just sitting there, taking it. "Loser!" "Freak." "You're so much worse than your brother! Who do you think you are?" "You stink, brat!" And the insults just kept coming. He couldn't do anything about it anyway. He was way outnumbered. Plus, this happened all the time. And the hard thing was, Dream definitely wouldn't find him. He never did. He was always out hanging with his friends all day.

Friends. That was a nice thought to have. He never had friends. His only friend was his brother, but even then, they'd been growing distant. He just wished one day all the bullying would stop and he could be like his brother. With friends and a nice life. Not living constantly in fear. But for now, all he could do was take it.

Killer nodded. "Do it." He growled at the memory. It was so sad and aggravating. The Nightmare they knew now wouldn't take one bit of it. He went through so much. He couldn't help feeling bad for him. He felt a slight pinch on his soul for a moment, and then it went away. "Ok, do you feel any different?" Dream asked. Killer looked at where the arrow presumably hit and saw nothing. "No, I think I'm fine. Thanks, I guess." "You got lucky this time," Horror said, taking his knife away from Dream's throat. Killer hadn't even noticed that.

"Yup, though you should probably get going. Your friend's passed out on the grass over their. If I were him, I wouldn't wanna stay their all night." Dream explained, nudging over to Dust who had indeed fallen asleep on the grass. "Yea, I don't wanna spend another minute around you... Star Sans skeletons anyway, unless we're fighting that is. See ya." Horror said, going to pick up Dust. "Alright, ill teleport you guys back now. Here's the arrow, good luck."