Dream shook me awake.
"Niiiiiiiiiiight, get uuuuuuuuuup, you said you would read the big book to me."
"Ugh, just a few more minutes..."
"No! It's already pretty late! It's, like, six!"
"Hold up, since when are you up at six?"
"HAH! Got you! It's really ten, so GET UP ALREADY BRO!!"
"Fine."
I get up and get a moment to adjust to the light before a book is shoved at me. "There you go! Let's hear it!"
"Ok." I cleared my throat, just for show purposes. "The History of Star Village.
"Once upon a time-"
"That's the start? Isn't this history, not a fairytale?"
"Shush. Once upon a time, before Star Village came to be, there was a tree. This was no ordinary tree, it was magical. When the inhabitants of this land found this tree, they were met by a girl with the name of Nim. Nim told them she was the guardian of this tree, the Tree of Feelings-"
"HEY, that's our tree! Does that mean this 'Nim' is our mom?"
"Uh... yeah, probably. Can I continue?"
Dream nodded.
"Great. Nim explained the tree had two sides: The golden apples, which help positivity, and the purple apples, which held negativity. She warned them not to mess with the apples. The people liked Nim, though she considered herself mildly above them. The people had a home already but came to visit now and then. One day, however, something went horribly wrong. Some of the people had gotten more negativity and tried to get some of the golden apples from the Tree of Feelings. Nim fought them off and her disgust to the mortals grew as she was attacked more and more. Finally, she was caught off guard and fatally wounded. If she died, so would the tree, and all of the feelings. Nim killed the attacker and used the tree to create two beings: One of positivity, named-"
"Dream!"
"And the other, a being of negativity, named-"
"Night!"
"Nim tried to give the energy balls human bodies, but the bodies couldn't contain the energy and exploded."
"Eeeeeewww."
"She tried making skeleton forms, and that worked. With the final ounce of her strength, she fused herself with the tree. The two skeletons were lonely, but soon they were found by the people. They thought the skeletons were lonely and invited them to come to stay in their small town. The skeletons refused, and the people left. Sometime later, the people returned, their town destroyed by a sudden fire. They stayed by the Tree of Feelings for a bit and liked the location so much they decided to move there. The people built a town there, which came to be known as Star Village, named after the beautiful stars at night."
"Facts right there, the stars are almost as good as you."
"Awww, thanks. The town soon grew into a thriving village, full of kind people, and it looks like the rest is the boring stuff you already know."
"That's a great story! Anyways, Ari asked if I could play today, so I'm going to see if he's busy now."
"Okay. I think I'll return this, or maybe read some more..."
"But you said it was boring."
"I said it would be boring for you."
"Um... Well, I guess that's probably true."
"Bye Night! Love you so much!" He gave me a massive hug and ran off grinning. I looked back at the book.
"A thriving village, full of kind people... Yeah right. I bet most of them don't even know what kindness means." I look at the golden apples. Some of the people had tried to kill my mom to get these apples, just so they could have happiness. She's gone now, she couldn't stop me if I reached for an apple right now, I could stop all of this. I could be truly happy.
"Stop thinking that!" I snapped. "You know it won't work."
I turned away and walked to the village to return the book, pushing all thoughts of the apples out of my head. The villagers didn't notice me at first, but I still kept my head down and senses up. I was almost at the library when a rock hit me in the head, knocking me over.
"Hey, look who it is."
"The idiot finally showed back up."
I turned around to see two kids I recognized, Aiden and Lilith. Aiden had some big rocks, Lilith had a branch. "Hey Nightmare, good to see you again."
"H-Hello, Aiden... and you too, Lilith... I'm just on my way to return these books- I mean this book-"
"Really? Come on, don't you want to play?" Lilith said.
Aiden walked over to me and turned my head so I was facing him. "Come on Nightmare. Let's play a game."
"O-okay, what's it c-called?"
"Hit the negative-" He called me a name that I'd prefer to not repeat- "with a rock."
I froze.
"Five points for the legs and arms, ten for the chest, twenty for the head, thirty if it's fatal!" Lilith laughed before grabbing a rock from Aiden and throwing a rock. It hit me in the arm.
"Nice try, my turn!" Aiden grinned. I got up and ran, only to feel a sharp pain in my back.
"Nice shot!" Lilith cheered.
Something flicked through my head, and before I could stop myself, I grabbed one of the rocks and threw it at Aiden as hard as I could. It hit his leg and he buckled. I froze, realizing what I did. Lilith gasped and helped Aiden up.
"You're going to pay for that, you motherfu-"
I ignored him and took off running. I could hear footsteps behind me, followed with pain in my leg and arm. I tripped but kept going. If they caught me... I didn't want to know. So I ran.
I was just outside town when it hit me, hard, in the back of my head. Everything went fuzzy and I vaguely heard a crack.
"Hey, nice shot!" Someone says. It's muffled.
"Thanks."
Footsteps. I close my eyes.
Then something comes down on my skull. Feels like a branch was slammed on me.
Then it's all numb. It's all black.
-------
"His eyes are opening..."
"Good."
"Night? Can you hear us?"
Say yes. Say yes. Say yes. I try to form the words but it's hard. I get it out after a few seconds of trying.
"Thank god. We were so nervous."
"Where.... where am I?"
"You're at Nick's house. Both of us are here."
My vision comes into focus and I make out four figures. Linda, Nick, I think that's Emme, and yellow.
"Uh... Can I talk?"
"Go ahead, Dream. You don't need to ask."
Dream? Dream is here? Yay, he came, he cares... unlike some people I know.
"Ok...NIGHT, WHY'D YOU DO THAT YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH!"
"Sorry..."
"Don't be. It's whoever did this who should be."
I paused. Dream sounded a bit colder than normal, and it scared me.
"I'm going to get some food for Night if no one minds." Dream said and walked out of the room. I tried to sit up and my head spun.
"Uhg... I feel awful."
"Awe you okay?" A small voice said next to me. I turned and saw a small kid by my head.
"Oh, hi Emme. Yeah, I'll be ok."
"Gwood. Noot isn't awwowed to get hwut."
"Night. It's pronounced Night."
"Dat's what I'm saying. Noot."
"Night."
"Noot."
"Whatever. How long until I'm healed?"
"Not long. Maybe a few days."
"Great. Could I have some privacy please?"
"Sure thing."
Linda picked up Emme and the three left the room. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted into dreams.
In my dreams, I saw the vision, relived the pain. And at the end, after the pain left, I killed every single one of those wretched villagers. And I laughed at the fear and pain on Aiden and Lilith's faces, at their blood on the ground. They deserved this, for everything they put me through. Now they were dead, I killed them, I killed them all, and I laughed.
I woke up with tears in my eyes, terrified, Dream holding my hand.
"I don't know why you're so scared, but whatever it is, it was just a dream."
Just a dream.
Dear God, please just be a dream.