If I could describe his appearance in one word, it would be black. A black skeleton wearing a jacket, shorts and sneakers, all of which are dripping in a tar-like black substance that dripped all over the white floors, pooling together into puddles of the white's opposing shade.
He seemed to stare down at my form, his cerulean blue pinprick of a left eye staring directly back at my own dull grey eyes for a few moments, the pearly white grin on his face seeming to be amused.
" Seems like you're not happy for some reason. " His voice was naturally low with a garbled echo to it as he spoke.
But I couldn't help but picture the scene in Underverse when he said that exact same line to Cross. " Wow, my imagination isn't even creative enough to make something different and so just repeats a piece of dialogue of yours instead of coming up with something actually unique. " I muttered under my breath.
This just seemed to confuse them as his face went from amusement to puzzled, I don't know if it was from him hearing me or not but I was just happy to see something familiar at least.
" Sorry, I'm just used to voicing out my thoughts. If you didn't hear what I said then feel free to ask; I'd rather talk to what is most likely a hallucination than just continue talking to myself like what I've been doing for the past... days?... weeks? Who knows, this place never changes so I haven't the foggiest. "
I shrugged my shoulders as I gestured to the endless white void around me, even if I was just talking to some hallucination that my mind has made in an attempt to keep me sane I'm honestly glad to have anything to talk to.
" I'm not a hallucination, kid. And I'm gonna guess that this place is what remains of your Universe? " His eyes narrowed at me slightly, the amusement from earlier now gone, replaced with slight irritation from what I could tell by the slight growl in his garbled voice.
Honestly, I couldn't contain myself as I let out a chuckle, " Kid? I'm a College student, or was... anyway, I'm definitely not the right age to be called a kid. My name's Lynden. ". I don't have the time to debate whether I am or was a College student thanks to dying.
" Though I honestly have no idea what this place is, from what I've gathered it's an endless white void with no wall in reach. I only ended up here after going face first over the edge of a cliff and died! " I recounted with a slight shiver as I remembered the sight of those rocks...
" If you died then how are you here? And in an entirely seperate Universe, I only managed to get here thanks to your strong negative emotions. " He looked even more confused while staring at me unblinkingly with his cerulean pinprick of an eye.
At that I just shrugged, " No idea, my first guess was that this place was my own purgatory, but I ended up throwing away that idea after a while. Though I commend my imagination for keeping you to your character, even if it wasn't good when you appeared and repeated the same first piece of dialogue you used in Underverse. ".
" You still think I'm a hallucination? ".
" Yup! I've been here for what I assume is a long time so I'm not surprised that I'd start hallucinating, and considering the fact that I'm all by myself it isn't too far of a stretch that I'd hallucinate something for me to talk to in order to try and protect my mind from the encroaching insanity thanks to my isolation here. " I explained to him with growing deflation in my enthusiasm as I just sort of hugged my knees to my chest.
He looked slightly amused by my explanation, " That's a good point, but you're not hallucinating. You can call me Nightmare, kid. " Nightmare approached me from where he'd been standing since the start of our interaction and sat less than a metre away from me with the kind of sound you'd hear when a soaked towel is dropped against the ground.
I sighed at Nightmare continuing to call me 'Kid'. " If you don't stop calling me Kid then I'll start calling you Noot until you stop. " I jokingly threatened with a light laugh.
" I could easily kill you, you know. So don't call me that, kid. " Nightmare shot back, looking a lot more frustrated at the idea of me calling them 'Noot' while still having that grin on his face.
And I took that as a challenge, " Says the hallucination, unless you're gonna try to kill me with your glare since you can't with your hands, Noot. ".
It was quick, I hardly even registered Nightmare's movement, the movement of one of the black tentacles as it whipped over at me. All I could do was flinch, and then the next moment I'm being held aloft by my throat.
The only thing that I could do for the first few moments was stare down wide-eyed at Nightmare; I can feel the constricting grasp that Nightmare's tentacle had around my throat. If I wasn't already speechless then I'd be struggle to breath, the hands that were at my sides quickly latched onto the black, gooey tentacle that was wrapped around my neck.
But all the while as my body reacted out of instinct, I had a single thought bouncing in my mind.
He's real, right in front of me...
And strangling me!
Blinking back to reality instead of staring off into space, my gaze snapped to the tentacle that was currently wrapped around my throat and that it was attached to Nightmare's back.
Nightmare didn't say anything either, just looked up at me with an amused smirk across his face. Was he expecting me to apologise?
I was panicking, was he seriously going to kill me because I called him some ridiculous sounding nickname?!
Runnings wasn't an option here, this place is just white as far as the eye can see, so I can't flee from him. But I can't fight either, he's more powerful than me by a metric shit load and I doubt I have a determination soul so resetting isn't something I can do either.
Trying to gasp for air I still had a tight grip, even digging my nails in as I tried to kick one of my legs high enough to try and get Nightmare to let go of me.
My vision was beginning to darken, spots on the border of my vision and closing in when I was suddenly dropped, choking while trying to get as much air into my lungs that could fit in there without making them burst like balloons.
On my hands and knees I blinked the darkness from the edge of my eyes while trying to regulate my breathing in some sort of way. I could practically hear my heart drumming in my ears, my mind was racing with thoughts as I tried to rationalise my current situation.
But paused upon realising that the only sound I could hear was my breathing, quickly looking up where Nightmare used to be I was met with nothing but white. I was completely alone once more, the only sound that I could hear was of my own breathing and rapidly beating heart in my ears.
" No... " I barely whispered through my sore voice, my eyes darted around in a desperate search for the monster who was here a moment ago. My hand lifted to my neck and I confirmed that Nightmare had been here; I wasn't just hallucinating or dreaming because I could feel how sore my throat was not to mention to puddle of black goop on the floor from where he had been.
I couldn't help but be glad seeing and feeling the physical proof that I wasn't just losing my mind here and had started to hallucinate.
Letting a laugh slip from my lips I felt so relieved, I wasn't going crazy after being here by myself for so long. I could care less about the fact that Nightmare just tried to strangle me to death because I was just glad that he was actually real to begin with.
Real... and no longer here anymore.
Swivelling my head around, I couldn't see Nightmare anywhere at all. He had left me here to be all by myself once more... All I could do was stare off into the white horizon that I had grown all too familiar with over my time here.
This couldn't be happening, not again, I can't go back to being on my own again. Alone with nothing but my thoughts and this endless white around me. " Please... " I sputtered under my breath, silently begging for the first piece of communication I've had for weeks to come back.
Rolling from sitting on my knees to my bum, bringing my knees up to me chest in a tight hug. But it wasn't as if I could travel around the Undertale AU's and timelines and so had no way to leave this place.
I lightly laughed to myself as I imagined myself being able to open those iconic glitchy portals, much like Error is depicted as doing in the different comics I watched online back when I was alive at home.
Like when he'd open a portal to Underfell in order to steal Fell Sans' chocolate.
However, when I opened my eyes after imagining the funny image in my mind and jokingly waving my hand to imitate waving open a portal.
I was stunned to see a glitchy looking portal right in front of me leading to an area with lots of snow and tall spruce trees.
My eyes were wide as I stared at the other side of the portal that I didn't know whether or not I had created. Though I felt a small smile grow across my cheeks when I felt the small, chilly breeze that hit my face and made me snuggle into my jacket and neck of my turtleneck.
Continuing to stare at the portal I pulled myself from the ground and to my feet, wobbling a bit due to the mixture of slight exhaustion from getting strangled and nearly passing out along with the fact that I have done nothing but lay down and think for the past couple of days.
But I didn't need to be told to when I approached the portal, I didn't care which AU I was going into as long as I could interact with other living beings and never go back to that endless white hell for a long time.
And so stepping through the portal, I relished in my joy as I felt and heard the crunching of the snow beneath my boot, ignoring the creeping cold climbing up my back due to that same snow as I didn't even notice that the portal had closed behind me.