The child nextdoor

Chapter 23

Third pov

It really wasn't like cross to snitch about what dust or the others would do in their spare time, but when it comes to this type of secret he just HAD to let nightmare know, especially since they could use the child as a bargaining chip as well. With a smug smile he made his way towards where nightmares office, where the goop like monster usually spent his time in.
When arriving he placed his hands on the desk in front of him, smiling mischievously at his boss, who looked up from a book her was reading before cross came in.

With a raised eye brow he gently placed his book on his desk, leaning back a bit while staring cross down for a moment. " what is it cross? You seem like that cat who suspiciously caught the Canary"

" this caught did indeed catch quiet a few Canaries, specifically one that involves the original skeletons and their friends-"

This intrigued nightmare a little bit, he leaned forward closer towards cross, listening to all he had to explain before smirking himself. A child? A human child no less? Oh how hilarious is that? The main skeletons have adopted a sweet, charming little child as one of their own. Pathetic.

" that's not all boss, dusty seems to be attached this young girl"

That was a little surprising, usually dust didn't really like humans all that much, Especially their children. Nightmare couldn't really care less if dust was attached to her, if he did managed to get a hold of this kid, he knew exactly who he was making babysit till they came up with a ransom. After a few minutes of talking, nightmare gave a mission for cross, he and killer were to keep an eye on this child, along with dust as well to make sure he doesn't go soft like horror and crooks did when blue got through to them that one time those blasted star sans's raided his last hiding spot.

" if at anytime this kid is by herself, will it be at school or in general, nab that kid and I'll handle the rest, you understand me?" He spoke with a bit of a harsh tone to both cross and killer, who nightmare called in to his office shortly before he began to explain the mission. Killer smiled a little bit, placing his hands behind his head while cross nodded towards their boss.

" sure thing boss, sure cross and I can handle this mission, right cross?"

" yeah sure thing..."

" make sure you keep an eye on dust, don't need him going soft too"

With that killer and cross left nightmare alone, making their way back out in to the world again to keep track of the kids schedule, seeing if their would be a chance they could nab her with out any trouble.

Back at the lodge house, everyone was on their toes, making sure entirely that autumn stayed in their sights, same as when she's at school, they'll have G and Aster, who they explained quickly the situation to after calling them up, watch her from afar. G the oldest out of the two volunteered at the school as secondary help, specifically in autumns class. It pissed dust off entirely, he wanted to get closer again, feel that happy feeling he had when he previously hung out with the little squirt, but because G was there he had to stay on the tree lines, just a few inches away from cross and killer, who tried their best to keep hidden but failed when ghost spotted them out.

" what are you two doing here?" Dust barked out quietly so G couldn't hear him.

" nightmare found out about your little secret about gettin attached to a human."

This scared dust a little bit, praying these two aren't here to harm autumn, cross who was reading him the entire time lifts his hands up in surrender. " calm down dusty, nightmare isn't angry with you or anything, just a bit surprised and intrigued by this. Usually you don't like humans"

" I dont..."

" Then what's up with this one?" Killer chimed in keeping his eye on said child who was completely oblivious to the situation, rushing around the school yard with her made friends, a soccer ball being kicked between each of them while they laughed. Killer couldn't help but smile to himself a little bit. " shes pretty cute for a human child, usually they're little brats-"

" from what ive been gathering, her brother is the one that's a little brat..." Dust retorted to him, crossing his arms over his chest starring in the same direction killer was. " To answer your question from earlier, i...I don't understand why I feel attached to her, when I saw those bullies go after her I felt rage, I was gonna leave after scaring those little bastards off, but when she grabbed on to my hand those horrible memories of resets just... disappeared...she looked so much like papyrus when he was young.... reminds me of his younger years as well..."

" she calls you papa dust..."

" She calls anyone who looks like a sans or papyrus papa, they adopted her and now she thinks anyone who looks like us is apart of her family, it's dangerous and naive..."

" We could use that you know." Killer said with a sly smirk, standing up to his feet while dusting him self off. " if that's how she sees it then we can use that to our advantage.."

" wait...you want to... kidnap her?"

" kinda have to, nightmares orders, he wants to see this kid for himself and see what's up with her."

Dust scoffs, looking away from the two with a slight scowl. " if that's what he wants I guess..." He peaked over at them for a moment before shifting on his feet, a sweat drop going down his face while he thought for a moment.

" you arent going to harm her are you?"

"like we've said before, we're only using her to get closer to the machine, maybe get our powers back, ever since ink banished us here and taken our powers things have been a bit... difficult..." Cross spoke back, crossing his own arms over his chest while the three watched autumn closely, well cross and dust were, killer was keeping an eye on G, who was preoccupied with another group of kids who were having trouble with sharing some sort of game piece's.

The soccer ball autumn and her friends were playing with was kicked a little too hard, it came barreling over to just where the edge of the grass touched the tree lines. Autumn was the one who went after it, smiling sweetly while she came closer to the three of them. Killer stayed hidden behind one of the trees while cross stood in front of the ball, bending down in front of it as autumn approaches. She stopped a couple inches away, watching him. Studying his face a little before a bright smile appears on her lips. " Hello! Are you another one of my papas I haven't met yet?"

" yeah sure kiddo, names cross"

" Oo! Papa cross! May I have the ball back please"

" Actually kiddo, thought it might be a good idea for you to meet the rest of your papa's, don't you think so?"

The young child pounders this for a moment, making cross shift his eyes back and forth between G and the child in front of him. ' come on kid hurry up!' he thought to himself. After a bit one of the others kids came up, making cross freeze entirely, it was the kid with the blonde curls on her head, Avery was what he could remember her name being. She spoke to autumn for a moment about the ball, once autumn gave it back and explained she was leaving early, her little friend gave her a quick hug and goodbye before rushing off with the soccer ball, in that time G had finally noticed autumn was no where near the school yard, when he made eye contact with cross, he immediately set one of the kids he had picked up on the ground, trying desperately to rush over.

Of course he was too slow, autumn had already gripped on to crosses hand and in the moment she was there, she and the others were gone with out a trace.