Dreamtale: Origins

Chapter 15: We All Fall Down

This chapter combines pages 22-24, since they all flow together very smoothly.
Oh yeah, and it gets a bit graphic. I like to put in details, and turning into an unstable murder blobtopus is not fun.
Vote, Comment, and Enjoy!

:):

'Nightmare knew that using the black apples was wrong, that they were too powerful even for a guardian of pure negativity like him but the fear of dying because of all that people was coming closer to him was stronger.'
~Dreamtale Comic (Joku) Pg 22

:):

Nightmare flinched at the voice.

He had never heard such a cold, hard, and threatening sound like the one that just rang out clear and true.

It had come out of nowhere, but it seemed loudest when Nightmare looked at the dark fruits. It whispered again.

'Get stronger, or you will die.'

Nightmare was tempted to shake his head, no. The fruits were powerful, too powerful even for someone like him.

His mother had told him that the apples held too much power for any mortal to possess. If they did get their hands on a fruit and consumed it, letting the raw power into their body...

They could die. They would die. It would be a terrible, painful death, ripping the host apart from the inside out.

At least, that was what his mother had told him. And for the first time in years, he doubted her.

The deep voice chuckled. 'Do you really think that she would leave you to die like this? Without the fruits, without their power...'

Nightmare shivered. The voice didn't have to finish its sentence for him to know how it ended. How he ended.

It would be a bloody, painful death. The townspeople would kill him right in front of his own brother. Nightmare felt time slow to a halt as he realized that Dream would be scarred for life. He would be an empty shell, and the people would take advantage of that. They would be able to do anything they wanted.

Including hurting Dream. Probably many others as well.

The voice, deep and almost seducing, simply chuckled again. 'Come now, Nightmare. I know you want to do it. I know you've wanted to do it for a long, long, long time. 5 years, if I am correct?'

The broken guardian winced internally, knowing that they—whoever they were—were right. It had been 5 long years since the vicious circle had been drawn.

A cold breeze swept by his left would-be-ear. 'I can help you,' Whispered the voice, 'I can help all of you. I can keep you safe, and make you more than what you could ever dream you could be.'

Nightmare stared straight ahead at the crowd, slowly closing in. It was like everything was in slow motion. So slow, in fact, that they didn't move. It was just him and the voice, the voice and him and the dark fruits scattered around him.

His fears slammed into his skull, flashes of him dying in the most brutal ways playing out like shadows on an empty wall. Nightmare shook with the fear of dying. It was so strong that he suddenly forgot everything but his fear. In his panic, Nightmare didn't even realize that his fears of dying canceled our Dream's reaction.

He was afraid. He was so, so, so afraid...

'The fear will only cease once you take a piece...' The voice trickled off into soft laughter, tinted with danger.