Another Way

Chapter 9: Lies

Sue's consciousness felt like it was sinking into a lake of tar, too heavy to do much more than to watch the darkness around her grow thicker and stronger by moment. Stronger and more vicious, what was just an absence of light moments earlier tuning aggressive, threatening, filling her whole body with fear through its mere presence, leaping at her in a way her feeble mind could scarcely comprehend and do even less about. Her body trembled, expression turning into one of utmost terror, attempts at vocalizing it only succeeding at mumbling put pathetic whimpers for nobody to hear.

"GRRRAAAHH!"

Her descent into the pitch black nightmare might've been gradual, but its end most certainly wasn't. Sue's subconscious suddenly found itself over at the campfire scene once more, surrounded by a wave of twisting, writhing darkness from all sides, presently held at bay by the one being she never expected to see for herself in person, or even in dream. Its body was perfectly black just like in the drawing she saw in her dream, the white of the smoke-like plume that originated from its head contrasting greatly with the darkness around them, its blue eye staring straight at her as its outstretched arms held the nightmares around her from closing in on her.

"RRRARGH!"

With another loud grunt, the pitch black being pushed the Dark Void even further back, so far it was no longer in sight, banishing it from Sue's mind entirely- for now at least, letting the girl take a better look at the dreamscape around her. It wasn't identical to how it was before in subtle but appropriate ways- the fire itself was extinguished, the lunar body above them was a barely visible new moon, and even the sky as a whole was dimmer and had far fewer stars lighting it up.

And of course, the slight but important fact that the creature that could only be the Night Father had apparently decided to join her here, staring down at her unblinkingly, His smoke like body shifting in place as she came to and regained awareness of what was even happening to her. And once she did, her first reaction was a startled gasp, followed by an attempt to scoot that bit further away from the ghostly satan, followed by a whole lot of scared confusion.

"I-it's you, isn't it. Night Father, right?"

The figure nodded slowly, grumbling loudly a couple times but otherwise not attempting to speak, knowing Sue couldn't even understand Him.

"Wh-what are you gonna do to me- am I dead or-"

The louder grumble caught her attention, the dark one firmly shaking His head, dark tendrils that comprised His arms reaching up above Him and pulling the fabric of the dreamscape apart, opening a hole- a hole through which Sue could see herself, still sleeping on a bed in the clinic, safe and sound.

"Not dead. Alright. S-so you're not satan."

Night Father let the rift above Him close as His expression- or at least the little of it Sue could make out- grew that bit flatter, head slowly shaking.

"Not satan, okay. Wh-why are you here?"

Suddenly, Sue felt a sensation of paper in her hand, looking down to see the same drawing Duck presented her in her previous dream, the one that showed her turning from human to Forest Guardian, with a depiction of the being she was now mere feet away from next to the arrow connecting her two forms, and a question mark next to it. Despite how dark the dreamscape was, she could still read it perfectly, the absence of light suddenly not impairing her even slightly.

"I-it- she asked me whether you turned me into this, but... it wasn't you, right? I don't remember you."

The deity affirmed her hunch, nodding again, the piece of paper Sue was holding disintegrating in her hands, its purpose complete.