Nightmare and his baby gang

Chapter 6

When there was a beautiful day at the castle Nightmare and his boys usually spent it outside. Horror especially liked sunny days since all of them could play in the garden all day if they wanted.

Today was one of those sunny days so they were in the garden behind the castle playing with a ball. Horror found it fun for a time but now playing with this ball with his brothers was boring. It was just sending the ball to each other and sometimes sending it as far as they could. Boring. Dust and Cross tried to make it more entertaining but even they began to find it dull. Killer ran away saying that he would be coming back with a better toy but it was too long for Horror and the others.

The little skeletons approached Nightmare who was gardening in the vegetable garden. Before it was Horror that used to take care of the vegetable garden but mister Nightmare told them that it wasn't a kid's job to be in charge of this or at least not alone. So now Horror only helped mister Nightmare when he wanted to and after they played since the guardian didn't want them to work like that.

The guardian was carefully planting some of the new seeds and looked really focused. When he sensed the kids were near him he raised his head toward them with a little smile.

"What's wrong? Didn't you were playing with the ball?" Asked the negativity guardian after putting his tools on the ground and away from the children.

"It's boring, we want to play something else but we have to wait for Killer to come back," Said Cross while Horror and Dust were drawing on the ground with a stick. "He said he would be coming back with a new toy"

"Killer's back!!" Exclaimed Horror running toward his brother soon followed by Dust and Cross who couldn't wait to play again.

Nightmare rolled his eyes when they left so quickly to play something else. A few days ago he took all his gang's old "Toys" if he could say, he hid all the knives, axes and poisons from them so all that was left was safe and childproof.

Killer looked at his brothers with a mischievous smile while he proudly showed his famous toy. Water guns! The stars in their eyes made him smile, now they could play for real! Each of them took a gun and teamed up, Cross was with Horror, and Dust with Killer.

Cross and Horror ran away from their brothers who were waiting to give them an advance. Chasing was funnier when they searched for their prey. The two little skeletons waited for five good minutes before they started running after their hiding siblings.

The little forest near the castle was quiet only the noise of Killer and Dust's footsteps in the dead and crusty leaves could be heard. No sign of Horror and Cross at a first sight but Dust knew better, horror was the best of them at finding people but he and Cross weren't really good at hiding themself in nature. Cross was always in white and too clumsy to hide for a long time and Horror well let's just say that it wasn't really his thing.
"There!" Screamed Dust pointing at the white fluff that was probably from Cross's hoody, it was sticking out of a bush.

They shot at him while he was running with Horror on his shoulder. Killer and Dust had to dodge shoots as well since Horror had the two guns and was shooting at them while Cross was running. The chase made them run from the wood to the garden where they were before. It was like water was coming from everywhere, the garden was completely soaked. The boys didn't even need to worry about recharging the guns since they were from a magical AU where everybody had magic and where it was in a lot of common objects.

Nightmare looked at them dumbfounded, where had they found those toys?! He didn't remember bringing them with him so that meant they got them before the accident. He groaned pinching his nose, the garden was a total mess all the work he did today to keep it in a good shape for Horror was ruined now.

"ENOUGH!!" Screamed the pissed guardian.

All the kids froze as soon as Nightmare screamed. Not even a second later they were all in Nightmare's tentacle, the guns were down and the boys were covered with mud. They were avoiding the guardian's eyes, looked like they were in trouble.

"The garden is soaked! All the work did today was for nothing thanks to that! Where did you get those water guns?! And did you see in what state you are? Water guns in the fall season do you want to get sick?!"

"We're sorry we just want-" Tried to say Cross while his brothers were just hanging in Nightmare's tentacle waiting for him to calm down. They knew that when mister Nightmare was pissed the best thing they could do was to wait that his anger came down.

Nightmare didn't listen to their answer and got them to the bathroom. The mud was leaking from them and even their bones were dirty, they were as soaked as the garden. He ran a hot bath for them, the last thing he wanted was for them to get sick.

"Alright, all of you get into that bathtub and don't soak the bathroom or the punishment will be more than just no more water guns."

"No water guns..?"Sadly said Horror looking at Nightmare hoping this was a lie to keep them calm.

"Yes. No more water guns, you four are grounded now wash, if you need help I'll be making dinner." Said the guardian before he left after cutting off the water from the bathtub.

The exhausted guardian sighed, he wasn't feeling great since this morning due to the lack of negativity. He couldn't go during the days since someone had to take care of the boys so he will go at night. He just hoped that his brother would stay away from him, he didn't have the energy to fight him for now.

When the boys came back from the bathroom they were finally clean and surprisingly calm looked like the punishment worked. Maybe he would give them the water guns back if they behave well but not before the flower season he didn't want them to be sick.

They all ate peacefully and Nightmare was savoring the calm in his castle, that didn't happen for days. Killer put his fork down and came to see Nightmare avoiding looking at him. To Nightmare's surprise, he apologized for the garden accident. It wasn't like Killer to apologize, he was too proud to do it, rather than apologize he usually helped people with things. One time he fought pretty badly with Horror and rather than saying out loud that he was sorry he cleaned the whole kitchen and brought all of horror's favorite food.

The others were looking at him with sorry faces, looked like Killer was their spokesperson. With a sigh, he patted Killer's head to reassure him.

"It's okay, I forgive you, but I don't want you to play with those toys before the flower season. It's too cold for now and you will get sick if you used them."

All of his boys smiled at him happy that he wasn't angry at them anymore. Nightmare let them eat thinking about how to get them busy next time so that they won't cause more trouble and mess. Maybe they could go to another AU, it's been a long time since they got out of this one.

After dinner, he read them a bedtime story, it was Dust's turn to choose the story and he gave him the fluffy bunny one. Nightmare found it weird that Dust asked that story in particular, this was the one he used to read to his dead brother. But Dust seemed to remember that book, he liked it a lot when it was his turn he always chose it.

Dust didn't remember what exactly happened with his brother, he didn't even remember his brother. All he told him about his old place when Nightmare asked was that he was alone in a town full of dust and snow. When the guardian tried to insist Dust looked at him dumbfounded, he didn't understand and continued to say that it was all he remembered. Nightmare didn't ask again.

He wished them good night and left the room more exhausted than before. He thought about which AU he should visit today to avoid Dream as much as he could. His choice went for a copy of Outertale. So he waited until his boys fell asleep and opened a portal to the positive AU hoping everything would go well.