Two doors led to you (A Crossmare fanfiction)

Nightmare

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" Hello...? " Cross whispered to the surrounding, trying to sound as harmless as possible. " Is there someone there? "

The door behind him faded away silently, leaving the dazed skeleton in the middle of an unknown realm, where a tremendous shadowy tree stood alone on a small island in the middle. A shade of light cyan seemed to fade in the sky as the realm's horizon became more vivid, second by second. The dim orange glow that hurled from above became weaker and weaker.

Night came by.

He was standing in calm shallow water that reflected his image with a violet haze. Dark coloured petals drifted from the top of the tree, and hovered around in the atmosphere, shimmering playfully as they surround Cross.

" Woah..." he stuck out a finger to poke at a petal that flew closer to his hand. As if in response, the little petal suddenly flung above his head then landed on his face, fluttering and tugging at his 'nose'.

" oOf...Heh...that tickles--! "

" Who's there? "

A smooth male's voice rang from the tree's direction. A visibly small figure sat up from behind it and slowly looked around for anything unusual. He thought he heard a noise somewhere...

Cross quickly dusted off the remaining petals on his skull and lifted his vision to where the voice came from. Curious to find a small blur that resembled a person in the distance.

It was a skeleton, just like Cross.

The figure peered around the tree, clutching his book, before turning his back, and directly meeting Cross' gaze.

His 'eyes' widened as he frantically took a step back.

" Wha... What are you? " his voice trembled in surprise, clearly not expecting somewhat of a visitor to be invading his territory.

" Umm, a skeleton? Like you? "

" That's not what I meant! "

The smaller gulped, stepping closer.

" You...Come closer... so I can take a look at you."

Step by step, Cross carefully tread through the peaceful water, eyes locked on the strange skeleton in the distance. He wore a purple tunic that had slightly darker colours to his surroundings, along with a gilded belt that wrapped tight around his waist. On the top of his skull was a pale golden circlet with a symbol of a crescent moon hollowed out in the middle.

Ah, just like a prince from the fairy tales, how charming. Cross thought to himself.

He smiled awkwardly as the smaller's lilac coloured pupils scanned across him.

" Strange...how did he...? No, that's not possible..." The skeleton mumbled to himself, expressions looking more confused than frightened.

" Hmm? " Cross tilted his head.

" How...How did you manage to get here without me or anyone noticing?"

" I- "

" Are you here to steal my apples?! " he cut off Cross' speech before he could say anything, and suddenly sprung back to hold out a guarding position.

" No no no, it's nothing like that! " Cross fumbled and tried to explain, " I don't even know who you are - or anything about apples you were talking about! "

" Then why are you here? How did you get here?"

" I... I fell asleep, woke up in a room, saw a door, opened it, came in, and BAM! I'm here."