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“It’s your fault,”
“I know,” Dust muttered, grasping onto the top of his hood for dear life as if it were to save him. “You killed everyone - again,” Papyrus sweetly whispered into his nonexistent ear, the smile could be heard by the bittersweet tone of the phantom, which only made Dust shakier than before.
“How do you feel?” he asked, getting closer and closer to Dust’s nonexistent ear. The male in question relaxed a little and opened his eyes, his bones crackling with the new EXP he’d gathered. “Wrong,” he murmured, looking around the room to see four clear piles of dust on the floor.
“You stayed with them for far too long, got too attached,” Papyrus hastily spoke, ignoring Dust’s shaking as it got worse and worse. “I did it again,” Dust whispered to himself, the lack of despair in his bones feeling wrong. “You did, and it’s your fault,” Papyrus snapped, watching the other and moving back a little.
“I know,” Dust muttered, repeating himself as he closed his eyes once more and grasped onto his hood again. “ You killed everyone - again,” Papyrus said again, whispering into his nonexistent ear. Dust realised for a moment that things were repeating, and he opened his eyes, seeing the piles of dust again.
“Why are you repeating yourself?” Dust asked, turning to look at the phantom of his brother. Instead of looking annoyed, or unwavering, he looked quite shocked and unsure of what to say. “ What do you mean? This isn’t repeated,” Papyrus sputtered, watching Dust with an accusatory
“Shut up,” Dust snapped, bringing his hand away from his hood and looking around the room. It was the living room in Nightmare’s castle, but as he turned around to its entirety, he couldn’t find the small piles of dust anymore. Feeling a little confused, Dust moved to look at the couch. There he found Killer’s knife, but no sign of Killer.
Hesitantly, Dust picked up the knife and turned to walk towards the kitchen, wondering if Horror would be there. He wasn’t always there, especially when someone was down in the dumps, but with no grasp of the time, and supposedly not being killed, Dust wanted to check anyway.
When he made his way into the kitchen though, he found Nightmare drinking a cup of coffee whilst reading a newspaper. Furrowing his bone brows he sat next to his boss who completely ignored him, for all of about three minutes. By then, the other realised that he wasn’t grabbing something from the kitchen and leaving. Or at least, that’s what Dust presumed.
Nightmare’s newspaper slowly lowered as his eye was trained on the male in front of him, and it made Dust squirm under his gaze the more he saw it. “Do you want anything from me Dust?” He asked, watching the other carefully. He moodily watched his boss, unsure of what to say. Nightmare brought his newspaper down with a sigh.
“I heard you talking to yourself Dust, is he bothering you again?” Nightmare asked, his eye gradually getting sharper the more he peered down at the other. “ Don’t listen to him! Get up, leave! ” Papyrus hissed into his nonexistent ear, trying to be as persistent as possible. “Yes, he is boss,” Dust instead replied, ignoring the other.
Nightmare quietly got up and watched the other carefully. Dust’s gut instinct was that the other was going to use some of his magic to either quieten to stop his brother, but what happened next was a lot different to what he expected. As Nightmare stood next to Dust, staring at the other with a focus that could only be seen on the likes of Cross or Nightmare, he moved to swing at Dust.
Dust tried to move away, but by the time Nightmare’s hand was supposed to connect with his skull, everything was dark. Yet, he hadn’t passed out. Dust turned to look around, but nothing, not even Papyrus could be seen. It was only him and the darkness. Feeling a little freaked out, Dust tried to run blindly in front of him, only to hit something a few seconds later.
It was warm, soft. It took the other a second to realise that it was part of a hoodie, more specifically, Horror’s fluffy hoodie. Dust blinked rapidly and turned to look up to see if the other was there, only to see the male’s blood-red eye watching at him in a way that made Dust shiver. He felt afraid. A chill went down his back as he took a step back.
“Horror?” He asked, a little unsure of what was happening. The other growled menacingly and closed the gap Dust had made between them. “Give,” he snarled, trying to grab the other’s arm. “What— Horror I don’t—-! Have… Anything,” Dust quietened down as he realised he was somehow holding a human arm. Things suddenly set into place, and he understood what was going on, vaguely.
“Give. It.” Horror snapped, lunging to grab it. Dust tried to throw it towards his friend, not wanting the arm in the first place, but instead, his grip got tighter and he moved away, acting as if he were fighting Horror for the arm. Dust didn’t understand, why was he doing this. None of this made sense, nothing was making sense.
Horror continued to make animal-like sounds as he tried to grab and eat the human arm, but Dust’s body was on autopilot as if he were fighting Undyne all over again. Suddenly, he was holding a bone instead of a human arm, and he truly was fighting Undyne in a battle to the death. You’ve angered her now Dust heard from the back of his mind. Finish her off with a Blaster, you can do it it continued, and only surged Dust and his insanity on further.
Using his excess magic, the male summoned a blaster, pointing it straight at Undyne as he began to smile with glee. He was going to do it again, kill her all over again, so he could stop the human. He sent it, throwing a bone or two in there to finish her off. Yet, he felt as though he should keep the one in his hand close. Just in case.
As the smoke cleared from the blast, he de-summoned the blaster and moved to see her dust, only to see who he’d really been fighting on the floor dusting. Horror. Dust gasped and took a few steps back, feeling genuinely bewildered. He hadn’t done that before, he didn’t know that could happen . The male felt everything begin to numb as he saw the last bits of Horror finally dust as if he’d been just a weakling.
Dust closed his sockets, willing himself to not cry. He hadn’t wanted to kill Horror per se, he thought the two were good friends. Self-defence, he was trying to hurt you first the voice whispered, causing the other frustration. Dust put his hands on his head, holding it to the point it hurt.
There was a small tutting noise from someone else next to him, and the other blearily opened his eyes to see who it was. To his surprise, he wasn’t in darkness anymore. He was in Killer’s room, next to the window, smoking with him. Only, Killer didn’t look quite… Right. He was almost transparent as if he were a ghost.
“Take a smoke… It’ll help ya,” Killer said, motioning to the other’s hand. Dust slowly took his right hand away from his head, and saw instead of a human arm, he saw a cigarette, already lit and half-used. I must’ve been… Hallucinating? Dust awkwardly thought to himself, but he didn’t really know what to make of the situation. Of Killer, or Horror for that matter.
Dust took a helping of his own cigarette and Killer hummed appreciatively. That was what he wanted to see. The other relaxing. “Killer?” Dust asked, turning to look at the other, despite his… Weirdness. Killer turned and watched the other, despite the lack of any eyelights. “Is this… Real?” He asked, trying to keep his cool.
Killer’s standard grin turned a bit lopsided and tight as he watched Dust quietly. The male gulped as he watched Killer slowly approach him until he was right at his ear. “It’s all real, and it’s all your fault,” he whispered, keeping the other close. Dust stood frozen for a couple of seconds, before Killer began to weirdly screech in the other’s nonexistent ear, causing Dust to throw himself backwards and towards Killer’s door.
The male fumbled for the door handle and quickly pulled it open as the ghost-like Killer began to scream louder and louder, getting unbearable for the other. Dust had to find a way out and fast. He headed towards the exit of the castle, teleporting minorly throughout in an attempt to get out quickly.
He quickly got to the main entrance of the building and shut the door behind him, effectively shutting any noise Killer was making inside of the Castle. Dust took a moment to catch his breath, feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that had happened so fast. The male slowly sat down, his back against the door as he felt unsure of what to do next.
He spent a while there. Dust had no idea how long, but he knew that it wasn’t just a few minutes of relaxation. There were light noises of panting or whimpers around him, and it took a minute for the other to realise that it wasn’t him that was making those noises. He got up and had a quick look around from where he was, but he couldn’t see anyone nearby.
A small cry could be heard from the distance and Dust felt on edge. Should he go see who it was? Maybe it was Horror… Maybe he wasn’t actually dead. With new ‘determination’ Dust went forward and kept hearing the small noises, sometimes turning into cries of help.
It was a dark and twisted path through the small woods next to Nightmare’s castle, but Dust didn’t care at all about his surroundings. He was growing desperate. He didn’t want to be in this position anymore. As he got closer, he began to realise whom the voice belonged to, and what they were saying.
“D-dust? Where are you?” Cross weakly asked, whimpering at a supposed injury. “I’m coming,” the other murmured, although he doubted the other would hear his voice. It didn’t take long for Dust to eventually stumble upon Cross and see exactly what was happening. He was crumpled on the floor.
The monochrome had lost both an arm and a leg, both in small dust lines next to his shaky figure. A part of his skull was also damaged as well and greatly reminded Dust of Horror’s injury, apart from the fact it was on the other side of the male’s skull. The male gulped and didn’t know what to do, everything felt a bit much, and he wanted to at least save someone .
“Dust… Dust,” Cross tried to say, putting his arm out to the other. Dust shakily took it and tried to use healing magic, but the other only shook his head. “None of this is real Dust, I need you to wake up,” he said, giving the other a sombre look. Dust’s nonexistent brows furrowed and he almost let go of the other’s hand.
“I need you to wake up, this isn’t real,” he pressed, trying to get closer with all his might. “But I…”
“This isn’t me Dust, wake up, please… I need you to wake up ,” he said, watching the other closely. “This… Isn’t real,” he mumbled to himself, glancing at the monochrome and around them frantically. What was going on? Cross relaxed a bit and smiled. “I’ll see you on the other side,” he whispered, and before Dust could even comprehend what was going on, he had passed out, crumpling his body on a dusting Cross.