Nightmare Hotel: A Nightmare x Male Reader Story

Chapter Five: The Sentience Within

The large, black bear looked down at you.

"Now, darling. You and I are going to play a little game," he said. You gave him a perplexed look.

"You are going to run and hide from me. If you manage to survive five minutes without me or a creature of this forest finding you, then you'll be guaranteed my protection. You must remain on these grounds. Otherwise, anything chasing you will kill you because you'd be too far away from me. I'll give you a head start. If you lose, however..." he said, pausing for a moment. You winced a bit as he pulled out a knife, grazing it against your throat as he pulled your body close to his.

"Then you die, and your soul will be devoured, whether it be by me, or by the grounds itself, should you die from some other creature reaching you. Got it?" he asked. You gulped nervously, but nodded.

"Good," he said, pulling away.

"Now," he said, leaning closer to your ear.

"Run," he said said calmly and lowly. He pulled away from you. You looked up at him, slowly backing away from him at first. He watched you as you took off running. He hummed, a smirk appearing on his face.

As you ran into the woods, you quickly began to try to look for somewhere to hide. It couldn't be somewhere close by, no. You had to travel off further than that. Before you knew it, you had run into the heart of the woods. Though, while you were looking around, you heard incredibly heavy footsteps nearby. You ducked behind a tree, slightly peering out from behind it as the footsteps grew louder. These did not sound like Nightmare's footsteps, but heavier, as if something much larger than Nightmare was walking around. Soon, you saw the source: a more-than-massive, maimed-looking, brown bear. You couldn't see it's features head on, but just from the side view it looked terrifying.

"Holy shit..." you whispered. The bear stopped suddenly, it's ears flicking. It turned, looking around, as if it might have heard you, despite it being a ways away from you. You quickly hid yourself further behind the tree. The bear lowly grumbled. You kept yourself hidden as the bear was walking around again. You tensed as you could hear the bear's steps drawing near. You had only just started this little game of Nightmare's, yet you were already about to be found if you weren't careful. The footsteps were drawing closer to you. You could hear the thing's breathing. Then, you heard something you didn't want to hear. The bear started sniffing. Your eyes widened. That thing was going to find you for sure if you didn't move. You quickly scanned your surroundings. You picked up a small stick and tossed it to your right. You heard the bear huff and walk towards the direction you had thrown the stick once it had made contact with the ground. You peered out from the other side of the tree, seeing the bear was still too close. The bear grumbled quietly. You cautiously knelt down and picked up a rock. You threw it as far as you could. You could hear when it had finally landed, hitting against the dried leaves on the ground. The bear walked in the direction of the noise. You watched it walk far enough away for you to carefully and quietly sneak away.

Once you were far enough away, you sighed a breath of relief.

'Five minutes...that's all you have to last out here,' you thought to yourself.

**Meanwhile, Nightmare walked around, trying to find any kind of clue that would point him in your direction. After a bit of walking, he ran across the very same, giant, twisted-looking, brown bear you had just encountered.

"Nightmare. It's been a minute since I've seen you," the bear said.

"Hello, Tw. Freddy," Nightmare replied.

"While we are here, might I point out there has been a human sneaking around the woods. The human is a male. I could smell his scent, but I have not found the source yet," the bear said.