You've Convinced Me

Chapter 8: Hurtful Words

Dust and Dream sat in comfortable silence as the need for conversation died off. All they had to do now was wait for the rest to return.

It felt weird to be sitting at the corridor, but moving would be even stranger. He didn't want to ruin the peaceful mood.

He'd even tried to hold in his sickness for the sake of it, but it didn't work anymore. He coughed up even more disgusting liquid, adding to the uncleaned pile from earlier. At least Dust didn't seem to mind, his gaze fixed unceasingly at the ground in front of him.

They continued sitting there until the silence was broken by loud voices coming from the outside. To this, Dust rose to his feet with the blanket still draped over him and walked away, presumably to his own room. This left Dream alone in the corridor, and not long after, the castle door opened to reveal Nightmare, Killer and Horror. They were carrying some things, namely a new television, a couch, a table and some bags of what Dream would assume to be food. There might have been other things, and it was actually impressive how much they could hold.

"Hey Dust! How was babysitting duty?" Killer called upon entering the castle and putting down the things he had in his hands. He sounded excited, but didn't get a response. "Dust?"

Killer walked around looking for Dust, and seeing he wasn't anywhere, chose to check the rooms, heading right to the corridor Dream was at. He spotted Dream and grinned.

"Hey Dream, you missed a spot." He pointed at one of the uncleaned pile of sludge that was still there. He really didn't have to say that, even if he were right. He really didn't have to. "By the way, where's Dust? Is he slacking on the job already?"

"I think he's in his room." Dream replied. "He… was a little distressed earlier. You might want to go check on him."

Killer looked at Dream questioningly, but seemed to comply as he started heading towards Dust's room.

"Oh, wait!" He shouted, which stopped Killer in his steps. "Sorry, I had to make sure, you… nobody killed anyone, right? When you were…" Dream didn't like to say it but, "stealing."

"Well," he pretended to ponder. "Maybe~" Killer's grin was back with full intensity. "What do you think?"

Dream opened his mouth to accuse them of massacring an entire population but then Killer was knocked aside by a tendril. Nightmare had arrived.

"Don't be stupid, Dream. Why would I murder anyone? They can't be devastated if they're dead."

And because all things that go up must come down, Dream's mood plunged.

"Oh, so now you're willing to talk to me?" Nightmare had barely been in his own universe, mostly leaving him with the other three. He didn't know what Nightmare had be doing, but it couldn't have been good. "And you liar, I always see you kill people!" Dream accused. In the corner of his eyes, Dream could see Killer leave hurriedly, as there was really no place for him in the conversation.

"Then, what made you think I'll stop now?" Nightmare quipped. "Why did you even bother asking?"

"Ahh! So you did murder innocent people to get what you want!"

"I didn't say that."

"You heavily implied it!"

Nightmare rolled his eyelight, looking incredibly unamused. "We must have gone over this hundreds and thousands of times already, Dream. Just stop it. Your empty words are not going to do anything. They haven't been doing anything for the last century."

At this, Dream went silent, mouth drawn into a hard line. Instead, he coughed weakly. Nightmare gave him a look that Dream would only describe as pity.

"Don't look at me like that…" his eyesockets must have been leaking for a while now, but he didn't want to care anymore. "Just let me leave, this place is only making me sicker."

Nightmare's expression didn't change. "I'm afraid that's not an option."

"Why?" He asked, defeated. "I'm sure you've had enough of me here. Seeing how you're always gone anyway."

"It's so that I can find out more about your condition, genius. Who do you think has to check up on Sci? Not you. And don't think I didn't notice how your condition became worse when I took you along with me. Right now you're just a weak, defenseless monster, if I take you anywhere again, you'll die."

Dream sulked. He did feel it get much worse when travelling in negativity. But he hated staying here. He had been here long enough. But wait, Nightmare had been visiting Sci in all the times he had been gone? Dream narrowed his eyes at Nightmare. "You didn't threaten him again, did you?"

Nightmare pointed a tendril at Dream. Dream backed away a little. "Worry about yourself first. How the hell are you not already dead?! Even if you have no sense of self-preservation, at least have some sense of personal responsibility! And you wonder why I can't leave you alone."

"You're the one that's been giving me problems all these years, I don't know why you're just telling me this now? Don't think you have any say in what I do, in fact, you're someone who would kill me if you could!"

"Stars, Dream do you only think the worst of others? What kind of 'guardian of positivity' are you?"

"You never give me a reason to believe otherwise!"

"Then are all your words of reconciliation LIES as well?" Nightmare was furious, his tentacles twitching in obvious irritation. Dream was feeling rather frustrated as well, but he didn't mean to- "What a fucking joke. Enough of this. I'm leaving." He shoved past Dream, making sure to hit him, and headed further down the corridor.

Dream glared at his retreating back, finally wiping at his drippy eye sockets with his gloves. Why was it so hard to simply talk? Why couldn't they just speak without fighting?

Now with much less enthusiasm he trudged over the the living room. Picking up the mop, he dragged it over to the unclean spot and started cleaning. In the distance, Horror had been watching everything unfold in silence. He seemed to have been enjoying some meat, placed neatly on a plate, along with nice cutlery, as if he wouldn't in the next second just use his hands to shove all that food in his mouth. Dream glared at him too as he waved at Dream with a mouth full.