FNIA: The Forgotten Soul

48: A Fixed Yet Broken Mind

EVAN POV:

As I closed the mahogany doors behind me I felt a slight shiver run down my spine. As well as the feeling of the room temperature dropping suddenly. I knew who it was before I even turned around thanks to that.

"And you call Nightmare the show off." I said with a chuckle as I turned around and looked up. The tall slender figure that was Nightmarionne who was standing before me, her ever present grin looking oddly smaller than usual.

"I'm not as dramatic as him at least." She said as she kneeled down on the ground so that she was at eye level with me. "Anyway. How are you at the moment?"

"As good as I can with a hole in my stomach." I said with a shrug and hollow chuckle. "But honestly, I feel fine, if not a little bit tired."

"Go get some rest then." Nightmarionne replied as she used one of her tentacle-like fingers to poke me lightly between the eyes. "Jesus knows you need it."

"I can't believe the monster under my bed just told me to get some sleep." I said with a chuckle as I stepped around her and walked over to the bunker door. "I'll be fine. I can cope with a bit of insomnia."

"Seriously Evan." Nightmarionne spoke as she followed me over to the bunker. "Rest is important. You can't just not sleep because you don't feel like it."

"Why are you suddenly pushing for me to rest?" I asked as I looked over my shoulder towards her. "This has never been an issue with you guys."

Instead of replying, I noticed her eyes flicker slightly. Kinda like a lightbulb ready to blow. That wasn't normal. Her eyes have never stopped glowing.

"Nightmarionne?" I asked as I turned to face her properly. "Is there something wrong?"

"Look kid. There's something that-." She began before she started to stumble over her words. After a bit of her failing to speak she just let out a tired sigh before speaking. "Don't worry about it."

The next thing I know she's gone. No pop, no flash. Just gone.

"Hmm..." I hummed with a furrowed brow at what just happened. Something was up with her. But I hadn't the slightest idea what.

"Don't worry about her." I heard a voice suddenly speak above me. "She's just been feeling a bit under the weather as of recently."

"What?" I asked as I looked up at the White and Pink animatronic spider fox thing hanging from the roof just above me. "How does a Nightmare get sick?"

"By something happening that you don't need to worry about." Nightmare Mangle said as she dropped down from the roof in front of me. "Us nightmares can handle what we've got going on. You just worry about yourself."

"The way you say that makes me feel like I should worry about it." I grumbled as I stepped around her and walked over to the bunker door, and proceeded to toy around with the old combination lock built into the frame of said door.

"Maybe once you're all healed up and your mental state isn't a mess we'll be ready to tell ya." She said as she patted my shoulder in a somewhat gentle way. "But right now? No. You've got some stuff you should worry about sorting out first."

"My mental state is fine." I replied numbly as I continued to type in random number combinations into the lock.

"Evan. I'm a construct of your own mind." She said with a sigh. "Us nightmares know more about what goes on in your head than you realise. And your mind is still recovering from the damage."

"Charlotte put my mind back together." I huffed as I stopped typing for a moment. "I'm not broken anymore."

"Mental damage isn't just repaired that simply." Mangle said as she placed a hand on my shoulder with a firm enough grip to keep me from shrugging it off. "All wounds take time to heal. Especially the mental ones."