To live again

Chapter 2 - Familiar stranger

Nothing could really prepare Nightmare for this.

He looks up at the stranger in the doorway. The longer he stares at them the more his fear starts to turn into confusion. They are a skeleton, just like him, but taller. Nightmare hasn't seen any skeletons other than his brother yet…

He locked eyes with the stranger. Their eyes are dim yellow, like a withered sunflowers. They look shocked. The dark eye bags under his eye sockets makes Nightmare think that they haven't slept in days.

Yet something about their eyelights makes them feel… familiar, but also wrong. He can't point out what, but the feeling won't leave him alone.

He finally breaks eye contact and sees what is on top of their head. His mind freezes. They are wearing a crown, but it's… It can't be… what? How? Nightmare feels more confused than ever. That's Dream’s crown! How do they have it?! Why? What's -

“N-Nightmare?”

His thoughts stop for a moment. The voice is shaky and it feels so.. so… desperate.
Then it hits him. No… it can't be. The eyes, The crown, the voice. But this cannot be his brother! Dream isn't this big. He is tiny, just like him. They are twins. And his eyes are yellow just like the sun. They always look so full of life. The eyelights from this skeleton don't seem much like his brother's.

Then their eyes meet again. He could see tears forming in the corners of their eye sockets. Suddenly Nightmare feels like he cannot deny it no more.

“Dr-”

Nightmare wanted to ask if they are really his brother, yet only a dry wheeze came out of his mouth. He wanted to clear his throat, but he started coughing uncontrollably. He couldn’t breath, he was choking. He put a hand in front of his mouth, ignoring the pain in his bones. Then he felt like something was actually coming out of his mouth, finally freeing his throat. He looks down at his hand. It's some kind of black liquid… Did that come from his throat?

“H-here, I'll clean it off.”

Nightmare jumps a bit startled. He hasn't even noticed D̶r̶e̶a̶m̶  the skeleton coming close to him. They are holding him. They shakily reach out their hand to him with a tissue, holding his hand gently and wiping the black stuff off. Then they throw the dirty tissue out.

Nightmare look at the skeleton with mixed emotions. Finally he pops the question.

“D-Dream? Is t-that you?”

His throat is still very sore, but it's better than before. The familiar skeleton looks at him with teary eyes.

“Y-yeah, it's me, brother.”

Even though he got the confirmation, he still finds it so hard to believe. It didn't make sense.

“You're a lot bigger.”

That was the only thing he could muster up with his thoughts being all over the place. Dream seems to be surprised by his statement. Not really sure how to respond.

“Oh, I guess…”

“Do you not… What is the last thing you remember, Night?”

Dream looked at Nightmare concerned. Nightmare tried to think about it for a minute, but he couldn't remember anything new.

“I was reading a book under our tree. I also saw a group of villagers walking up the hill. I don't know what went on after.”

Nightmare looked away. Is he having some memory problems? Has he perhaps just casually forgotten a huge chunk of his life? There is no way for Dream to have such growth spurt just over night or whatever.