A Dangerous Illusion

Chapter 14

     Ink woke up with a long yawn and stretch. He sat up and glanced at his phone and noticed two things. The first thing was that it was Saturday, 11:30am, so he was going to meet Error in the park in 2 hours. He was glad that his sleep schedule was at least some-what back to normal, after the previous day. On Friday his sleep habits were still out of whack due to the bank incident, so he was practically a zombie all day long. Geno had fared a bit better, due to being used to the lack of sleep from his insomnia.

     The second thing he noticed was much more concerning. His friend Blue hadn't responded to any of his messages since the previous day. Ink had dropped by Blue's house to check on him but no one answered. It was like.. Blue had just... disappeared.

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     Error felt guilty. Even with the thought of meeting up with Ink later that day, he couldn't shake the memories out of his head. Out of all of the gang, he had been the closest to Blueberry, so the previous day had been hard for him. Which was probably an understatement.

     Blue had dropped by in the morning for his usual visit and to also update to Nightmare and Error. They had acted mostly normal. However, near the end of his visit Blue had gotten a text. He had checked his phone and jumped up, saying he had to go. Nightmare begun chuckling darkly.

     "Going to visit your police friends and rat on us again?" He sneered. Blueberry looked surprised, then nervous.

     "I-I don't k-know w-what you're t-talking about," He stuttered. Nightmare grinned evilly and rolled his eye. One of his tentacles shot forward and pinned Blue to the wall, choking him, as Nightmare leisurely approached the struggling skeleton.

     "Sure you don't," Nightmare said, his face inches from Blueberry's. His smile began looking strained. "There's obviously nothing that would give me the idea that you've been working with the police." Blue looked shocked then Nightmare dropped him, turning his back on the smaller, gasping skeleton.

     "Horror. Dust." Nightmare snapped. "Come escort our new guest to where he'll be staying." A cruel, insane grin grew on his face. "I have so much in store for you, traitor."

     Error was knocked out of his flashback by his phone alarm telling him he had an hour to get dressed to go meet Ink at the park. He paused, sighing, and proceeded to begin moving.

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     When Error arrived at the park, he saw Ink already there, sitting on a bench with what looked like a drawing pad. He snuck up behind the other intending to scare him, but before that peeked over the others shoulder. Ink was drawing a bird type thing. Ink suddenly jumped up, turned around, and yelled "BOO!". Error immediately jumped back, glitching a bit as Ink fell over laughing.

     "T-the l-look on y-your face w-was PRICELESS!" He managed to get out between fits of giggles before he burst out laughing again. If it had been anyone else, Error most likely would have killed them right then and there with his strings, but he didn't with Ink. He used the excuse that it would blow his cover. Of course, Ink wouldn't be able to tell, because he'd be dead, he thought, but quickly pushed the idea aside.

     "I'll give you five seconds to run," He said to the other once they stopped laughing as hard. Ink's eyes widened.

      "Wait what?!" He yelped. "It was just a joke!"

     "One," Error began counting. Ink scrambled up.

     "Two." He began to run off.

     "Three." He had gotten a few yards away.

     "Fourfive!" Error rushed the last two numbers and sprinted after the artist. Ink laughed and they began playing a game of cat and mouse. Ten minutes later, Ink suddenly stopped running. Error, who was about to grab his tan scarf, ran into the other and knocked him down, landing on top of him. He crashed for a few seconds but strangely, the 'ERROR' signs faded away quickly. Ink blushed, his face covered with a rainbow, and apologised, squirming out of underneath Error and helping the other up quickly. Error hesitated a bit before grabbing onto Ink's hand and hoisting himself up. This time, the physical contact didn't faze him at all.

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     Ink and Error ended up on a small hill, sitting in silence as one draw and left the other to his thoughts. Now that he was in silence, he could remember things he'd much rather forget.

      "Hey Error?" Ink suddenly spoke up. The begging.

"Hm?" The screams echoing throughout the room.

     "I have a question." The crying.

     "What is it?" The blood on the ground.

     "What's your last name?" His friend. The traitor.

     "C.Q." He answered truthfully, preoccupied with his thoughts. Ink gasped. Error was confused until he realized what information he had just given away. Ink immediately pounced on the black skeleton, causing him to crash. Ink waited for him to reboot before exploding.

     "What was that?" He exclaimed. "What happened? Are you ok? Did I cause that? I'm sorry!" Error groaned and held his hand up to stop the endless flow of questions.

     "Ok. First of all, what happened was I crashed. It was my haphephobia. It happens whenever I touch someone, even breifl-""Then how did you touch me" Ink cut in. "Because you're special," Error mumbled to himself, before saying out loud, "There's a difference between when I go to touch someone, and them touching me." Ink hadn't responded to the first comment, so Error reasoned that he hadn't heard the mutter. For that, he was grateful.

     Ink had heard the comment, just decided not to push it, knowing it probably wouldn't end well. He was bursting with excitement and curiosity, but decided to try and restrain himself, for Error's sake. Error sighed.

     "No, it wasn't really your fault. Now, you tackled me because...?" Error didn't really want to know, having a gut feeling he wouldn't like it. Ink immediately perked up.

     "Oh yeah!" He exclaimed. "You're Error C.Q. That means you're the 'long lost' brother of Geno!" Error stiffened at the mention of his brother. The first year or so after dropping off the radar he had some...issues with his independence and missing his brother. He had found that the best way to prevent the heartache was to push his brother away from his mind. He would have liked to say he had forgotten about his brother altogether, but that wasn't the case. The mention of his name brought back many bittersweet memories.

     "Who would have known Geno's brother was living right under his nose?" Ink mused. "How are you living here, yet completely unnoticed?" Error was nervous. He didn't want to see his brother any time soon. Hell, he was hoping to never cross paths with him again, besides work conflicts.

     "Please don't tell him I'm here," He begged Ink. The other looked confused.

     "Don't you want to see him again? I'm sure he'd love to see you!" He exclaimed. Error shaked his head.

     "Look there's a reason I disappeared. I really don't want to see him, Please." Ink was torn. He wanted to help his friends reunite, but Error didn't want to. Could he even keep this big of a secret? Finally Ink nodded. Error's body sagged in relief. For the rest of the time, they sat and chatted together for about another half hour or so before Ink left. As soon as he was gone Error teleported back to his room. Ink had turned around to tell Error one last thing, only to find him gone.

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     Error flopped down on his bed and finally let his thoughts consume him. He thought of Ink. He thought of his haphephobia. He thought of Geno and Fresh. But most of all, he thought of him. He could still see the blood, hear the snapping, the screams, crying, begging for mercy, and the feeling of helplessness. He couldn't save his friend. He couldn't stop who he considered family.

     Or he'd be a traitor, too.