Freedom | Killer x Female!Reader

14.

Y/N POV

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Again, I'm sitting by the creek, carving weapons, melting glass, sharpening old, stone daggers, listening to the peaceful rippling of the water as Nightmare watches me intently. I've been trying to teach him how to make weapons, though... He's not very good at it. Don't get me wrong, he can carve sticks into spears with ease, but when it comes to chiseling stone or melting glass into spearheads, he just can't get it. He leaves the glass out for too long and it cools too quickly, and he presses too hard with the chisel and breaks it. So he's been sticking to wooden poles, a few bows, and more glass dagger handles. It's quite peaceful, really. Error hasn't returned and there's been no sign of Shattered, but whether that's good or bad is up for debate.

"I still don't understand how you time it just right." Nightmare grumbles, grabbing a lump of cooled glass that was supposed to be a spearhead, but he didn't put it back into the fire fast enough.

"You can tell." I say. "Or I can, anyway. It starts to get clearer when it cools."

He huffs and grabs a stick he's been chipping away at and goes back to carving it, though it doesn't look like he's turning it into any sort of weapon.

No, it looks... Almost human-like? Or maybe skeleton-like. It's hard to tell what- or who- it is, but it looks like a skeleton.

"What's that?" I ask, letting the glass cool as I finish shaping it.

He looks down at the figure. "It's nothing." He tucks it into his pocket, and I never see it again.

I frown, then stick the glass spearhead into the water for it to cool. After a few seconds, I pull it back out and examine it. There are a few cracks in it, so it'll probably only have one use before breaking or cracking even more. I sigh and set it down, then grab a stone I've been trying to chisel and start working on that. I definitely think carving stone is a lot harder and more time-consuming than glassblowing or carving sticks, but they're the sturdiest weapons, and the easiest to cut through bone. Animal bones, at least. We haven't tested it on skeletons, obviously, but we've tried cutting through deer bones and fish bones, and it can stab through the material pretty well.

"Hey Nightmare?" 

He looks up. "What?"

"When do you think I- We'll see Killer again?"

He sighs. "I don't know, Y/N. I don't know."

I abandon the chiseling and lie on my back, staring up at the fluffy clouds. "Do you think he misses me?"

"Do you want me to be honest?"

I nod.

He's silent for a moment. "I think he only cares about capturing you. Maybe he doesn't know what he's doing. Maybe, deep down, he misses you, and he wants to go back to you, but I think Shattered's manipulated him too far to have any remorse for hurting you. He's brainwashed, being told to find you and bring you back alive at all costs. There's no room for guilt or any other feelings that could get in the way of that. Shattered wouldn't allow it."

I feel my shoulders sink. "I know. I guess part of me hopes that... That maybe he'll see me and remember me, and then he won't be confused anymore."

"...I think he remembers you." Nightmare pulls the figure back out and starts chipping away at it again. "Maybe he doesn't remember what you said, maybe he doesn't remember his feelings for you or your feelings for him, but I think he remembers who you are. You heard him when you first saw him, didn't you? He knew who you were. He was just changed so much by evil that he didn't remember the bonds you two had."