there is only us | wilbur soot x reader

Chapter 39 - Liar

(Y/n) POV

I was a kid again. The wind tousled my hair and the sun warmed my face. For one sacred, secret moment, I had taken my shoes off to feel the grass beneath my feet, the fresh soil at my fingertips. I gathered up my skirts in small fists that left my ankles bare and ran like hell with no real direction. I ran to feel: the burn in my lungs, the hard-packed dirt, the adrenaline rush. I felt it all, and everything was okay because I was a kid again, running and free, and there was no one around to stop me.

I ran and ran and ran, right into someone's back. They had come out of nowhere, but the minute I stumbled back, I recognized them. Even without a face, there was no one else with that same dark hair, the signature bandana. "Sap!" I exclaimed, a smile stretching across my face. My old friend, returning home. I had missed him deeply, and I couldn't quite remember why.

And then. Then he turned around to face me, and I screamed. The flesh had melted away from his face, and where it had miraculously held on, it had been charred and ruined. Bone poked through flaking skin, not just over his face but spreading down his arms, his knuckles bare, parts of his shins missing. He looked at me with deadened eyes that said everything, a million accusations, and when he smiled, I could see every tooth.

He said nothing, but I heard it all the same. His cries on the platform with Dream, choked sobs as he fought for his own strength, echoed in my head like thunder. Deafening booms sounded like his body hitting the floor as he clawed his way out of the water tunnel, choking for air, the moment just before the fall.

The skies clouded over. I no longer felt the wind or the sun. Beneath my bare feet, the dirt was soaked in blood. My skirts turned to rags, turned to dust, turned to writings that covered my whole body, cruel words in permanent ink. Liar. Traitor. Murderer. Liar. Liar.

The ground started to shake, the earth tearing apart at its very core. The mountains awoke and called for the trees to pick up their roots and march against me. They gathered in the courtyard, angry faces carved into their bark. Crows were falling from the sky. And before it all, Sapnap stood, a skeleton with the wings of a phoenix, lifted one frail, bony finger, and pointed at me. The world took up arms. I ran.

I ran and ran and ran, right into someone's back. It felt like a loop, but the skies were still crashing down on me. And this body, I recognized too, though it was different. This one, I saw in all of my dreams, good or bad, dead or alive, friend or foe. This one, I knew for certain, was supposed to be dead. He haunted me nonetheless.

Dream was supposed to be dead. It was always supposed to be that way. I had sworn to myself, what seemed like a million years ago, that I would kill him myself. I didn't get the chance.

I stumbled away from Dream, who turned to look at me with a hurt look on his face. He reached a hand out to me. "Why are you leaving? Where are you going, (Y/n)? Why are you leaving me?"

I wasn't a kid anymore. I was ageless and afraid, caught between the world and its ruin. Beneath me, a chasm opened up. I started to fall, but Dream grabbed my wrists before I could. I wanted to recoil at his touch, but there was nowhere to go. He took notice of this with a sort of sick satisfaction, smiling, his face warping. "You need me, (Y/n)!" he shouted with manic glee. "You'll always need me!" And then he let go, and I fell.

Twisting and turning in the pitch-black air, I closed my eyes and braced for impact. I could no longer tell which way was up. For all I knew, I could be flying. The wind was rushing in my ears, barely drowning out my heartbeat. When I opened my eyes again, I was in Pogtopia. I was trapped behind a wall of stone, but I could see through it just clearly. Wilbur was in front of me, unseeing, in a panic. "(Y/n)!" he cried out, growing more and more desperate. "(Y/n), please, where are you? I need you!"