To live again

Chapter 4 - Just a little lie

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He can hear screaming. A lot of screaming. He sees red and he feels panic… but it's not his.
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The screaming stops. But someone is talking. He can tell they are begging, though he cannot make out the words.

N̶i̶g̶h̶t̶m̶a̶r̶e̶,̶ p̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶-̶

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Then there is silence.

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Nightmare wakes up. He blinks a few times and finds himself confused. Where is he? He stared at the white wall for a minute. Then the memories of yesterday come rushing in.

Oh…right. He remembers now. Though it still kind of feels like some kind of weird dream. Speaking of dream, he actually finds his brother sleeping in a chair next to him. Well, that seems like a really uncomfortable position to sleep in. Though Dream had some big eyebags yesterday, so Nightmare is glad that he is getting at least some sleep.

Nightmare doesn’t know what to really do. He cannot move much and he’ll definitely not wake up his sleepy brother just because he’s bored. So he just looks around, examining the room in more detail and waiting for something to happen.

Half hour goes bye and Dream actually starts to wake up. He slowly opens his eyes and yawns. He then notices Nightmare staring at him.

“Well, good morning sleepy head.” Nightmare says with a small smile.

“Oh, you are already awake. For how long?” Dream asks, a little surprised. He usually doesn't get much sleep and ends up waking up super early. Old habit. For how long had he slept?

“Maybe like 20 or 30 minutes ago, though I am unsure. There is no way for me in here to check the time.” Nightmare answers.

“Oh, let me check the time.” Dream pulls out his phone from his pocket and Nightmare looks at him with curiosity. What is that?

“It's 8 o'clock.” A lot later than he usually wakes up. Dream told himself. Then he notices how Nightmare’s eyes are fixated on his phone. “Oh right. This is a phone, Nighty. You could say it's a small box that can do a lot of stuff. It shows the time. You can take photos with it and-” Dream then goes on with his explanation and it only ends up with Nightmare asking more questions about it.

“Well, yeah it can take pictures like that camera we once got to see in the village, but it’s a lot better. Here, let me show you.” Dream takes his phone and stretches his arm to take a selfie. “Smile!” Dream says and takes a picture. Then he opens his galerie and shows the photo with both of them smiling to Nightmare. He is amazed.

“And it does that together with all of the other stuff? All of it just in one little box?! How?!”

“Yeah, I know it's crazy. I was also shocked when I was introduced to phones for the first time.” Dream says, remembering when Ink tried to explain to him the new technology. Let's say Ink might not have been the best person to do so, because the small jokes he kept making only confused him more. Yeah…it took a while for him to get used to everything. “Unfortunately I don't think I can explain exactly how it works. That's way too complicated for me.” Nightmare just nods in understanding.

They chat a bit more and Dream shows him more stuff with his phone. Then Nightmare remembers their conversation from yesterday. He frowns a bit. He wants to know-no, he needs to know what happened.

“Dream?” Nightmare interrupts his brother.

“Yeah? Do you want to ask about something?” Dream can feel Nightmare’s anxiety.

“Yes, I have a question. I just want to know what happened. Why is my memory missing? How many years can’t I remember? Also Where is mom? You said we would talk about this today, remember?”