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You walk quietly through the forest. The wind is too strong for you to fly through the air safely, and even if it wasn't, the rain has soaked your feathers and now they're too heavy for you to fly at all.
"It's okay," you tell yourself, shutting your feelings out. "I've done this before, I can do it again."
The forest has always been pretty creepy at night. Creepy and dangerous. There were lots of animals lurking around at this time of night.
They usually stay away from your house if you have at least one light one somewhere in the house, but when you're walking around, you swear they all want to find out where you are and are literally hunting you down.
You've seen a pack of wolves and one bear already. You avoided the bear successfully by literally staying still and not moving for painfully long minutes. For the wolves, you were fortunate the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.
At this point, your cellphone is dead and you've lost track of time. You're starting to think maybe it'd be better to just find a nice spot to sleep in the woods.
You hear another howling sound. You freeze yet again as you try to figure out where they are.
"Oh boy. This is going to be a long night," you whisper to yourself.
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The rain is still pouring hard.
Nightmare dodges some more of Dream's arrows. His brother had been able to sense some positive feelings from somewhere and had healed himself and the other two Star Sanses, but Nightmare, Killer and Error had dealt some more damage to them.
"Give up! There's no point in fighting!" Nightmare said, picking up Blue with his tentacles.
"N-never..." he says.
Nightmare feels a stab of pain in his shoulder as Dream shoots him with one of his positivity arrows. He tosses Blueberry towards Dream and they crash into each other. Killer steps forward, but Ink teleports in front of him to protect his friends.
"Pathetic," Nightmare says under his breath, pulling the arrow out, before he adds louder, "Grab them." The rest of Nightmare's workers jump out, pinning the three down.
"When they stop resisting get them to their feet."
"Brother... please..." Nightmare ignores him and flicks one of his tentacles, impatiently.
What is taking Cross so long? Doesn't he know I don't have all day?!
Nightmare turns to Dream, cocking his head.
"Oh brother... We fight over and over again, but what for?" he says. "It doesn't matter, not anymore... I'm going t-"
"Nightmare!" Cross says, suddenly appearing next to him.
"Took you long enough. What were you doing?" Nightmare hisses.
"I have good news and bad news," he replies. "The good news is that I found the person you were looking for."
"You were just distracting us?" Ink says in horrified realization.
"Well, where is she?" Nightmare shouted, ignoring the small skeleton.
"That's the bad news..."
"Cross..."
"I didn't do anything! I swear!"
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"How... did I get myself... into this mess?" you question out loud.
You're crouched on the ground, clutching your leg, because, like the ever-so-talented person you are, you managed to walk into a freaking bear trap. Now you're stuck here, bleeding to death.
No wait. That skeleton... Cross, was his name? He had said that he had just to happened to have been in the area and was going to get some help.
"Yeah right," you say. "I believe you... were just so conveniently... in the area... just as much... as I believe... money grows on trees."
You're pretty sure he was the one following you. You might have lost him for a while when you took off, but he probably had the chance to catch up while you got yourself lost.
You ruffle your feathers in an attempt to get them to dry faster so that you can wrap yourself in the warm feathers. You're protected from the rain thanks to a tree, but your T-shirt is still soaked. You realize you can lean against the tree if you position yourself correctly, but you're worried that something unpleasant will find you if you fall asleep.
You've been waiting for what feels like hours for him to come back. You're starting to get dizzy, and you know that is not a good sign. You bang your head lightly against the tree to wake yourself up.
Apparently your attempt was ineffective and you must have fallen asleep at some point because you jolt awake when you hear rustling in the bushes. You cover yourself with your darker left wing until you can figure out whether it's a friend or a foe.
"Hey! Are you still there?" It's Cross's voice. You fold your wing back.
"Where else... would I be?" you say.
"You can turn yourself invisible?" Cross asks, looking at you in surprise.
"No... it just... looks like... that," you say, straining to get the words out, but also sounding self-conscious.
"Cross told me you got yourself stuck?" a new voice says, changing the subject. You can't see where they are. "I'll be honest. After this long, I'm surprised you're not dead." You laugh darkly.
"I agree," you say. "Who... are you... anyway?"
"Nightmare, and you?"
"(Y/N)." There's an awkward silence and you don't like it.
"Nightmare?" Cross says, breaking the silence.
"Hi... still here... bleeding to death... help?" That seemed to have snapped him back to his senses. You hear more rustling as he comes closer.
When he gets close enough, you can see that he was made of black goo, which was why you couldn't see him. Not only that, but he has four tentacles protruding from his back. His cyan eye is glowing, and it feels like it's burning straight to your soul.
He bends down and wraps two of them, one on each side, of the bear trap. Then he locks eye contact with you.
"On the count of three, I'll open it, and pull you out, alright?" You nod, shifting your wings as you feel a third tentacle wrap around your waist.
"3..." You can see Cross nervously twitching behind him.
"2!" He rips it open before you can react and you shriek in pain.
"Thanks... but you said... on the count... of three!" He shrugs, lifting you up.
"At least you're free," he says. "And you're welcome." You cross your arms and frown at him.
"That hurt!" you say.
"Would've hurt worse if you had the chance to tense your muscles." He's right, but you're not going to admit that.
You hiss, like a cat.
"Did you just-"
"Yes," you say, shocked at yourself and cutting Nightmare off. You'd thought you'd gotten past your animal instinct phase 4 years ago. Apparently not.
He laughs. For some reason, you'd like to hear it again.
"Now put... me down!" you say, pushing the thought out of your head and getting your priorities straight.
"You can't walk," Nightmare points out.
"Don't... need to," you say, spreading your white wing. They've dried off, leaving you wondering how long you were asleep for.
"Are you sure? You look like you're about to drop dead any second," he replies.
"No!"
What is this feeling? I'm not sure I like it... Put me down. Put me down right this instant! I don't need help!
"You're pale," Cross says.
"I'm... fine! My house... isn't even... that far!" you say.
Nightmare looks back at Cross, who shrugs in response.
"I'm not sure whether or not I believe you, but I, personally, am going to make sure you don't bleed to death," Nightmare says, turning his focus back to you. Oh god no.
"Don't worry," he continues. "I won't hurt you. I just... want to talk to you some more... What do you say?"
"You... have no idea... how many times... I've had to... deal with... this... before," you reply. "But... I guess... we can talk..." He smiles and it's kind of creepy, actually, but you shrug it off.
The sooner I get this over with, the better.
(Words: 1286)