The Raven's Nightmare

CHAPTER THREE

"You mwean we?"

Widening his eyes, Nightmare looked down at the small child who's cheeks were dusted pink while playing with her fingers as her minty blue eyes glowed with HOPE, "Y-you mwean we have a wonderful fwamily?" Her eyes slowly looked down, as she whispered "If you want to?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!"

Nightmare looked at the couple who were smiling warmly at him as Batair cheered out, "I second tha'!"

Wiping away his tears with his sleeves before they could fall any further, Nightmare looked at the loving family with uncertainty, "A-Are you sure you want me to be apart of your family?"

Salem gave him a kind smile, "I don't see why not!" Raven gave her friend a knowing look with a faltered smile but shook it off; replacing it with her usual wide, bubbly one "Of cwourse we do!" Smiling at his family, Nightmare for once felt wanted and loved as a warm feeling blossomed in his chest.

For once he felt happy.

☽☽☽☽☽☽☽☽☽☽☽☽☽☽☽

"Hey freak!"

THUD

Raven fell on her side; scraping her hands and knee as she looked up fearfully at the leader of the group of bullies. It has always been like this but it seemed to have gotten worse since they found out that she's friends with Nightmare. Yet that doesn't stop Raven from seeing her friend of three weeks. She meekly avoided eye contact as she look sadly at the box of cookies, which was squashed with broken crumbs all over the cobblestone road, she had slaved over for Nightmare and her to eat at the Tree of Feelings. What a waste...

She let out a yelp as Terrence, a rabbit monster, pulled her by her braid to eye level as he hissed out "Hey! We're talking to you bright eyes!" With tears threatening to fall, the helpless girl let out a whine, "Pwease let me go! That huwts!"

"Awww... is wittle baby gonna cry?" Charles a tall, lanky human boy with red hair mocked cried at her before letting out a dark chuckle.

"Why don't we cut one of those braids off?"

Unsheathing her claws, Diana the cat monster, stalked closer to the vulnerable child with a sadistic smile causing Raven's eyes to widen while shaking in fear; she was still hanging in the air by Terrence. Holding out a paw to stop Diana, the said rabbit gave a mischievous smirk, "Why don't we drag her to her new friend and cut it in front of him?" With panic settling in, Raven started kicking her legs frantically while wailing, "Noooo! You can't!" She can't let Nightmare see her bullies tormenting her! He has his own problems with protecting the tree and dealing with his own tormentors. She can't bother him with her troubles and add on to his load!

"Hey! Stop squirming you little-!"

SMACK

"Oooow!"

"Oof!"

Looking up from the ground with terror stricken eyes as she weakly chanted apologies to Terrence as he glared at her with seething anger; holding onto his bleeding nose.

"You bi-!"

"𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲?"

Everyone turned their attention to the Guardian of Positivity in shock. The rabbit monster quickly looked between Dream and the trembling child as he smoothly lied, "This little girl fell down and I was trying to help her up." He faked a hurt face as he then complained, "And then she kicked me in the face and gave me a nosebleed!" Dream looked back and forth worriedly, "𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗲... 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝘁! 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁?" Slowly getting back on her two feet and covering her eyes with her bangs, Raven shook her head no. She doesn't trust herself to speak in fear of bursting into tears. Giving a bright smile, the bubbly Guardian exclaimed "𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗲! 𝗦𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘁! 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘀-!" Not letting him finish his sentence, Raven pushed the skeleton aside and fled in the direction of the Tree of Feelings.