Loyalty's Lullaby (A Crossmare Fanfiction)

Game

Nightmare choked on his own breath, his body being knocked back by the force of the little bullet. It went right through his chest, yes, where his soul was bound to be, and less than a millisecond after the dart had hit its mark, there was a sickening squelch similar to the sound of a wet shoe slapping into watery mud. A searing burning sensation along with unbearable pain shot through his entire being, starting from his very consciousness—his soul—faster than time itself. 

Actually, if you were faster than time, you would then travel using a negative amount of time, resulting in you bending back and going back in time, but we're not here to talk about that.

The octopus' breathing momentarily stopped, his throat tearing open and more ready than ever to scream out all the pain and negativity pent up inside. If he did that, then everyone else in that town would probably die from like, suffocation or something like that. That would've been a good idea, if it weren't for pesky little I'll-throw-a-tantrum-if-you-touch-this-bird-I-just-met.

When his insides began to seem to be ripping itself apart, though, he nearly did shriek his long awaited and well deserved scream of bloody murder. Nearly. He'd need to act like the bullet didn't bother him at all for his little 'idea' to work. And that's what he did. Acting all smiley and undisturbed had always been his specialty, had it not? Nightmare kept his expression neutral, though he couldn't deny everything went without the hint of a wince.

He quickly stopped his stumbling back from the momentum of the metal projectile with the tentacle that had previously been sliced off at the top, now healed as good as new, before he met his unfortunate fate of Cross' purple hued puke. He shuddered as he envisioned ending up in that horrible mess.

They had obviously used the most high tech and most powerful mini nuke thing, or something in that general direction, on him, and he grit his teeth behind his sealed 'lips' to prevent any noise of distress, forcing a pretty convincing smirk of victory onto his features. Nightmare stood straight, but with a casual, unfazed air, his head tilting up, as if looking down on the group of shooketh guards. They were pretty shocked, to say the least when they saw the pile of goop's reaction to their best weapon yet. 

There it is, just the emotion Nightmare needed. Milk shock with a variety of different other 'spices', and they'll be running off like tiny little cowards. A joyful game of feelings. His personal favorite.

The octopus stalked forward, towards the unorganized crowd calmly, almost bored. He just needed to take one more shot without breaking his facade. One more. He continued his lazy grin, his eye seemingly piercing into everyone's souls at once, with such a gaze that made it feel like he could read all of your darkest secrets. This, my friend, is what you call professional stage experience, and drama! A few of the monsters and humans took a few steps back, their eyes darting around uncertainly.

"Hey hey, don't look so scared. I just want to make a fun little bet. Nothing big on the line, I promise. Here's how it'll go, 'kay? Shoot me with another of those so called 'bullets' of yours, and we'll see how it goes! Simple. If I die, then you win, and well, you succeeded in your mission, and can go back to your beloved family. If I don't die, I win, and I stop holding back. Nothing too confusing. Just a nice little game to play with friends, like us, alright?" Nightmare explained with a light, careless voice, a bit soothingly, as if coaxing his own children into eating their food. 

The big brained octopus made sure to include the part about 'family', y'know, just to remind them of something they cry due to the lack of close proximity with. Something so fragile and valuable to them. Every soldier's weakness, really. Though his tone was light-hearted and innocent,  the tentacles poised sharp and threateningly behind him, pointed at the tiny army, suggested contrasting intent.

The corners of his mouth curled up, but the terse flashes of menace in his icy stare was frozen to the core with menace. All this purposely done, of course. It messed with people's minds.

Upon first glance, a seemingly non-binary...grape...monster with a...sausage hat—? Yeah, that's probably it. A grape sausage thing shakily raised an extremely large, black machine, dark grey wires and tubes made out of a variety of resources connected to it trailing back out the shop, away from their view, outlined in the pale glow provided by the full moon starting to rise into the starry sky. They gulped, not daring to look Nightmare directly in the eye. 

"Please don't kill me....when you feel like it's a good time to stab things, kill Nandini instead..." they muttered under their breath as they sluggishly reached up to pull the trigger, their muscles obviously tensing in fearful anticipation. 

Nightmare will give credit, he snorted at that. 

Then came the second dart, a soft click sounding when the trigger was pulled back enough. It shot right at the octopus, into his soul again. He inwardly braced himself for impact, before he blinked when he only felt a light breeze past his soul.

Oh yeah.

If the two bullets were shot at the same spot, the second one would just go through the hole the first one had made. Duh. Right, on with the act.

His smile only widened as he didn't even trip back this time, tilting his head forty five degrees to the left, a brow raised. He chuckled softly, peering down at the even more shooketh group before his face went a small shade darker, like in typical dark animes. Why is anime brought up so much? I guess it's just good for comparisons.

"Since I'm in a good mood today, I'll be generous and give you a ten second head start. One," Nightmare whispered just loud enough for his voice to be audible to the people in the back, his tone smooth but dangerous.

A bit of the slowly forming queue shuffled out, sauntering at first, before picking up pace and rushing out of the danger zone, presumedly to go skipping merrily back to their loved ones. Murmurs sounded from within the petrified crowd, arguing against each other as to what to do.

"Two..."

This propelled easily a fifth of the group to scurry off, as Cross just stared from his corner in awe, confusion, and he'll admit, a bit a fear.

"Three..."

A sixth of what was left decided now was probably a good time to start running for their precious lives. Thank goodness they didn't know Nightmare most-likely wouldn't be able to take them all down. At this point, the octopus got a bit impatient. Look at that slow progress.

"Five."

He smiled as different people gave alarmed yells and yelps of puzzlement, a half pushing past each other to get out the door. There were only about fifteen humans and monsters left now.

"Eight."

Seven hurried away, making a last minute escape.

"Ten."

As soon as Nightmare had reached the designated number, Cross decided he could at least be of some use, and pitched in, willing his stored up stack of knives to stab the remaining guards, slicing through their clothing and some just merely skimming them, while others pushed in fatal wounds.

A couple of screams rang out through the sleep-deprived, traumatized town, before the new born night fell silent.

Until Nightmare retched.

~~~~~~~~~

REEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEticulohistiocytosis—

—Grace