Shattered Mirror

Chapter 3: Boxten's nightmare

[Warning: contains gore, drowning, and Dandy being a jackass]

Boxten and Poppy never went on run's. They were always told that they were useless and had no abilities. He couldn't blame them, the best Poppy could do was run faster whenever she got hurt. But Boxten thought he was pretty useful. I mean, he can extract ichor faster, that's not useless right?

But rarely, Rodger lets him, Poppy, and Boxten go on a run, only for Poppy to be severely injured after two of the machines were done. Probably because she wastes half of her stamina sprinting out of the elevator. Anyways, when the news of Glisten being left behind got to everyone in Garden View, everyone was either sad, mildly disappointed, or hysterically sobbing like Toodles. Boxten now laid on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, hoping that somehow he could fall asleep with all that happened in the span of the whole day. Soon, his mind wandered to a time where he had this same situation.

[1999]

Boxten's eyes slowly fluttered open, his gaze looking up at a steel ceiling and his feet feeling the texture of cold cement, there was also something that smelled rotten. After his eyes adjusted to the light, Boxten found out he was in a staff only room, gagged and tied to a chair. Boxten let out a couple of muffled noises for help while he tried not to choke on the rag that was tied around his mouth (spoiler alert, he did end up gagging on it a couple of times).

The stench he smelled was strong and made his eyes water, he looked down to see.....Finn. Dead. Finn's legs were cut off and rigor mortise had already settled in, leaving him with a pained, frozen scream plastered on his face, Boxten could still see the agony in Finn's cold, dead eyes. Boxten let out a muffled scream as he realized that the stench wasn't coming from Finn's corpse, but from everyone.

All of the Garden view toons were laid out on the cold floor, each of them with wide, dead eyes and blood....so much blood. Boxten let out a couple of choked out tears a muffled noises. Suddenly, the door opened and Astro walked in, an emotionless expression on his face. Boxten let out hopeful noises and squirmed in the chair and restraints.

"...Experiment 14 is still alive boss...." Astro coldly said as he looked at a bit of shadow at the corner of the room. Dandy walked out of the shadows, a dangerous red glint in his eyes. "Hm, thought the poison would've done the trick. Oh well, you don't get everything you want after all. Prepare the tank." Astro gave a nod and immediately, Boxten was dragged on the floor towards a tank and shoved in. He took off his restraints and banged on the glass, "Astro?! What are you doing?! Why is everyone dead?! Why-"

Dandy slammed his hand on the glass, causing Boxten to jump back in fear. "You should've been dead. That's what matters, no worries. This will do the trick if you're under for long enough." Astro pressed a button and ichor started to flood the tank. Boxten let out a scream and started to bang his hands on the glass. Dandy gave his signature smile before leaning back on a chair, Astro turned away and started to work on the computer as the ichor reached Boxten's chest.

The ichor felt warm and sticky on his skin, he guessed this what the Twisted's felt like when they're covered in ichor. His head touched the top of the tank, he sobbed for Astro to help him as he took deep breaths of air from what small air pocket he had. He took a deep breath before he was entirely submerged in the ichor. A few minutes later, his chest started to convulse and he let out a cloud of bubbles. I guessed that's why him and Poppy were considered to be useless in runs with Rodger......

He couldn't hold his breath long enough even if his life depended on it.

"BOXTEN!"

Boxten shot up from his bed, taking in a gulp of air before looking up to see Glisten. Glisten had on fuzzy, pink slippers and white and magenta pajamas with a pink face mask over his head. (Just wanted to make Glisten a little more girly to feed my pookies) Boxten's body trembled, his music box head making an out of tune melody. (Again, probably not canon but I love the thought of Boxten's head making sounds depending on a strong emotion).

"Boxten, what happened that made you start to scream at the top of your lungs while you were asleep? You know these walls are paper thin and it takes an hour just for Toodles to fall asleep. None of us want someone to cause a ruckus during our beauty sleep." Glisten said as he sat down on Boxten's bed. "I-.....had a nightmare. I'm sorry..." Boxten replied as he looked down at his blanket. The corpses of his friends were still burned into his mind, even if it was a dream, it felt too real.

Glisten sighed and stood up, "Come on, let's have some tea and we'll talk about it." Boxten got up and followed him to the kitchen where Glisten set up some sleepy time tea. "So, tell me about this nightmare you had." Boxten started to explain, leaving out the parts of Dandy and Astro treating him like a number and causing him to drown. Glisten bit his lip and hummed, "So, everyone was dead and then you drowned in ichor?" Boxten nodded as he took a sip of the tea. Glisten sat down and took a sip of his cup as well. "Yeah...it felt too real. It felt like I was actually living in that moment." Glisten sighed and drank the rest of his tea, "Well, what I now know is that you'll need to talk to Astro about this nightmare. Clearly his slacking at his job with the nightmare you had and that will be unacceptable if it continues to happen and you say nothing about it."

Boxten drank the rest of his tea and sighed, his eyes staring at the small puddle of tea at the bottom on the cup. Glisten yawned and stretched, "Well, time to go back to my beauty sleep, and yours as well. The tea is starting to already kick in and I'm not sleeping in the kitchen tonight." Boxten got up and followed Glisten towards the rooms, waving to him goodbye before closing his bedroom door.

[Present]

Boxten's eyes fluttered open, he sat up and looked at the time. 3am, looks like he fell asleep during that flashback. He wished that Glisten would go into his room and have a cup of tea or water with him while they talked but.....he's gone now. Boxten sighed and laid back down to sleep, his eyes staring at the ceiling with a new motivation, a new hope. 'I'm going to find you Glisten...' he thought as the blanket of sleep covered his vision in a comforting darkness.

'Everyone will help me and Rodger find you, even if we all end up with the same fate. But first, I need a team. Just hold on Glisten.....hold on.'

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Chapter 4 is coming soon y'all! Just wanted to make chapter 3 a character growth for Boxten and for more angst. Trust me, you'll see Glisten more and more in chapter 4.