A New Era

Chapter 15: Researching Nightmares

    Nightmare frowned tiredly at the computer. This was getting to be annoying.

    Every time he thought he was following a lead that had the potential to explain things, it proved to be yet another dead end. He could feel the mounting headache as he stared into the flashing light of the screen.

    He sighed with defeat before pressing the button to turn the computer off. He'd much rather have some energy tomorrow without five cups of coffee then be a simple bag of bones the whole day.

He stretched as he stood up from the chair, leaving the abysmally black room to the moonlit hallways. He glared into the shadows, thankful at the very least that the pesky thing wasn't there to gloat. The thing would have far too much joy in the fact that had wasted another sleepless night.

He quietly entered his room, not wanting to disturb any of the other council members that may have been asleep (he doubted Ink was asleep; insomnia seemed to be a permanent trait of any Ink).

He entered his office, the smell of paper and wood polish lingering in the air. The smell of lavender floated sweetly underneath it all, leaving him with a calm mind.

Entering his bedroom, the smell of lavender was far stronger, but there was something else too. He couldn't place it; it was an odd smell. Like calcium and iron mixed with the smell of... apples.

He stared at the center of the room. He saw himself, fully corrupted, standing over the corpse of someone. He could see white bone with marrow leaking from a variety of cuts.

— It's a dream —

He stared with horror as his corrupted self slowly turned to him, a psychotic smile stretching painfully across his face. His eye was flashing excitedly, like a child showing off a drawing to their parent.

Nightmare felt like he was going to throw up, the rotten smell nearly suffocating him. He needed to get out. He needed to run and find somebody.

— You need to wake up —

He turned to run. Perhaps to find Dream or Killer, but his feet felt like lead. They moved, but far too slowly to escape the corruption that was currently approaching him at a leisurely pace.

His head felt like it was spinning, his vision doubled as he saw the corrupted form suddenly appear in front of him, still walking at a calm pace.

    His soul thrummed in his ears, terror choked his esophagus, his vision was tunneled. Escape was futile. Running was a waste of time. All he could do was stare into that delighted cyan eye as it steadily approached him.

Dust wafted in the air. It clung to his bones and his suit. It floated into his sockets and nasal cavity. He wanted to sneeze, to throw up, to shake himself, to claw into his sockets; but every one of his limbs felt like a rod of lead and hardly move save for an inch.

— Wake up —

    Time felt like it stopped, his panicked breathing and distressed soul beats oddly muffled by just the skull shattering silence. His bones dully rattled with terror as his marrow froze.

    He slowly raised his head, now eye to eye with the horrid thing. All it did was smile down at him; that wicked grin splitting his skull in half.

    It never stopped smiling. Even as it seemed to sink down to Nightmare's height. Even as as its corrupted good began to cling to his bones. Even as he felt the cold, bile substance penetrate into his marrow, making his bones freeze in their shaking.

    He could feel, with growing horror, his mouth turning to a grin, then a smile, then a painful, wide smile. Tears streamed from his sockets as he felt himself be consumed; he could feel his mind dulling as he accepted his fate. He was powerless to stop this thing from taking his mind. He never was, fighting had always been futile.

    — WAKE UP —

    !

    Nightmare gasped awake, flailing for a second before falling out of the office chair. His soul beat loudly, no other sound able to reach his ears.

    He was breathing fast, still feeling the cold touch on his bones. His bones were rattling, ribs clacking against ribs. He could've cared less that he was on the floor, all that mattered was that he was out of that nightmare.

    He focused on his breathing, making it slow so his soul would stop beating so fast. While his bones still rattled, it was more muffled than before.

    Once his vision was clear, he looked around cautiously. No one seemed to have come in at all given the noise. Upon seeing darkness still outside the hall windows, he shakily stood up to see the computer's clock.

    3:45 AM.

    He gently set his skull in his arms, letting out a long, relieved sigh. He paused when he noticed the faint, blue glow that came off his eye lights. Figures.

    He looked to the computer, seeing his last entry. It was Underverse Nightmare, his smirk sending shivers down his spine. It was useless to dwell on this file, it had been a dead end.

    He closed out of the file to the long list of other Nightmares. He should call it a night. It was late and he needed to sleep.

    As he reached to turn the computer off, something stopped him. What was it? There had been an effect in the nightmare that he found odd. The dulling of his mind.

    Becoming fully corrupted... he always knew that Nightmares went insane; that was common knowledge. But, now that he thought about it...

    His fingers flew across the keys as he looked for sane corrupted Nightmares. He quickly skimmed the first few files until he stopped. Here was a case similar to his. The passive self was a voice in the corrupted one's head. There was another one: a passive Nightmare with the voice of the corrupted self in his head.

While most cases had the two entities being the same, there were still some cases, far from a minority, that the two forms were separate beings. If this could be the case...

He stared into his shadow. That thing... that horrid shadow was the insanity he never went through. That collar he'd worn all those years had probably kept the thing sedated, asleep almost.

Now that it was free to do as it pleased... Nightmare stopped at the realization. He himself was a ticking bomb. If he ever let himself be fully corrupted... that thing would take over.

His eye lights shrunk at the thought of what it could and would do to his brother. What it could do to his friends...

He quickly sent a few files to his computer and shut the machine down. While he knew sleep wasn't coming tonight, he'd rather not be seen in the lab looking up such things.

——

Was his research worth it? I hope you all enjoyed!