Roses Are Red [Aradia x Karkat](ON HOLD)

Chapter Three ==> Secrets Upon Lies

It was dark and the air felt like it could slice you in half if it got any colder. White coated all around you like a useless shield trying to slow you down, your breath staggering and puffs of moisture exiting into the cloudy night sky before disappearing behind you. Your feet was quickly covering as much ground as you could in a snowy terraria, trudging forward in a heap of adrenaline. Fear was all you knew at that moment. Fear of dying, ironically after you believed you were more bold about death, but you were hell wrong.

You can feel the hot tears coming down your face, staining your grey cheeks as you thought, 'This is it, this is how I'm going to die.' before your hand was squeezed lightly for reassurance. The figure in front of you was none other than your brother in a bright red sweater. He was leading you away from the danger right behind us and intertwining through the woods. Where's your father?

"Where's dad?!" You yelled out, but Kankri seemed to not hear.

"Come on Karkat!" A panicked expression was painted on his features, practically dragging you along the trees. "We're almo-"

BANG

...

"AHH!" Your scream filled the respiteblock as you sat up quickly, a sweaty and traumatized mess. Your eyes were wide as your shaky hands lightly patted your torso for a wound, nothing. You give a long sigh and cup your face with your hands, not caring about the enormous amounts of sweat that plague your whole body.

That was a first. The air, the sight, the sound, hell even the taste all seemed so surreal. You wiped away your terror tears and huddled into a fetus like state with your head between your knees, hoping Kanaya wasn't there to hear anything. That dream was the monster of dreams, always worsening, more terrifying than the last reoccurrence. Why do you have these? What are you even afraid of right now? You made a mental list of fears and it does connect a bit, but not very possible if it was a connection. You're hopeless, useless, pathetic. Afraid of nothing but vivid, fake nightmares. Thats why you're having them, is because you're weak and they feed off of your own mind.

"What the fuck is wrong with me..." You sighed and tried to shake the sickness out of your head, fingers scraping into your black messy hair.

"Karkat?"

You jumped at the sudden voice and peeped out of your protective ball, just to see a worried Kanaya with a nutrition plateau in her hands. She kneeled down and placed it next to you, her emerald eyes piercing into your maturing crimson ones. You were suddenly feeling intimidated by her stare and directed your gaze down to the weird brown human food she seems to not mind eating.

She shifted down to her knees and tilted her head slightly, her voice low and soft. "I thought you informed me that your terrors were gone... Did you lie to me, Karkat?" Yes.

You roll your eyes, though guilt plagued your mind. "It was just a stupid nightmare, everyone gets them."

"If you say so... It seems as if this nightmare has you shook up, might I ask you remember anything about it?"

As simple as it was to speak to her about your problems and tell her the most intimate personals, you couldn't let anything bare upon her this heavy again. You remember her staying by your side almost every night, getting punished for disobeying orders from her job, being marked as a low helper, not sleeping, and all you could think of was how one sided this moirailance was. You will not go back to being that pathetic, you'll handle it yourself, guilt and all the lies that you follow through with.

"Well... I was just running through some woods and it was freezing ass cold. Something was chasing after me, but I woke up soon before I could see anything." You give a shrug, "See? Nothing abnormal, just me not knowing how to react. I'll be fine." You lied again.