I'll Make You Mine

A Darker Lie: Dream

(Sorry there was no chapter last week. Between the fact it's nearly 8,000 words and a lot has happened in real life, I had almost no time to work on the chapter. i had two projects for school, school ended, my sister has a baby. and I adopted a little rescue pup. Her name Honey, she's 3 years old, she was rescued from a puppy mill, and she's a King Charles cavalier/poodle mix. She's very shy right now, but she's a sweetie. I want to find who hurt her and have a nice little talk. To make up for last week, there's some Ribbon doodles at the end of the chapter.)

(Content warnings: Torture, child torture, brainwashing, starvation. victim blaming, religious themes. I like to call this one Dream's PTSD: The Chapter) 

They fell . . . and fell . . . and fell.

Wind and time slowed. They were stagnant, yet moving. The gray castle and dark green forest faded to blocks of color. Were they closer to the window or to the ground? Where were they even? Dream couldn't recall this.

Dream and Cross clung to each other. Cross's arms wrapped around his back and gripped his shoulders. The guardian was so tired and nauseous from the fight, he welcomed it. Dream shifted his weight so he was the one facing the ground. "Cross, if this is the last time I get to tell you, I love you. And I'm so sorry I dragged you into this. And I know how hard it was to return to a place that traumatized-"

"Shut up, you worry too much." Cross silenced him with a kiss. "Error is going to pick us up and if for some reason he doesn't, at least I got to throw it in Nightmare's face one more time. And you know what? I don't care if it's cliche, I love you too."

Dream laughed. The ground was only another hundred feet away. Dread and panic filled Dream's mind. Where was Core? They were supposed to be here. The area began to shift. The castle and trees faded into a glitching void. Cross's voice began to falter. His body faded away piece by piece. Dream suffocated. He kicked his legs and struggled to swim to the light right above him. He was so close, yet the darkness pulled him deeper, deeper until-

Dream snapped awake.

He panted and looked around, first to his aching wrists. Two heavy Anti-Magic chains rested on his wrists. Dream lifted the chains to his face and looked around. The amount of negativity pressing against him felt like a weighted blanket, only far less pleasant.

Blue woke up in the cell across from them. His head bled from a wound. Dream tried to remember what happened. The wedding, Nightmare transformed into his real self, he lied, Blue struggled to help him . . . then everything went dark. He failed his mission, he should have been outraged. Yet . . . Dream felt nothing.

"Dream?" The knight asked, snapping Dream from his worried thoughts. "Are you okay? Nightmare hit you hard."

Dream stared expressionless at the ground with a glazed look in his eye lights. Less than a year ago, those same eye lights were big, bright, and full of optimism. But now they were tiny pin-pricks and almost gray. His voice was just as monotone. "I'm fine. I have a few bruises, but it's fine. You . . . you stopped fighting, I saw you and Dust and Horror beat you. Are you okay?"

Blue sighed. "Yeah, they didn't beat me as much as catch me off guard. I've seen worse."

Dream looked around the other cells. Epic lay unconscious, so did Core Frisk. Their arm bled a grayish crimson. Error began to stir. He groaned as he sat up. He blinked his tired eye lights, which shot open as soon as he recognized the dungeon.

"No . . . no . . . NOT THIS HELL AGAIN!" Error screamed and his fingers dug into the bar. He crashed almost immediately. A reboot bar appeared over his head as he panted, his eye sockets blurred, and Epic woke up.