Chapter Text
Avery did not have insomnia. She wasn’t an insomniac — at least not diagnosed and often chose to stay up late on her own accord.
However, about a day or two after the whole fiasco with her sheep, there was a slight change to her sleeping schedule in a way that no one else would ever notice.
The slime had always found it relatively easy to keep herself awake. Be it at 2a.m in the middle of the night, or at 5a.m near the brink of dawn, she could always find something to do and never fall asleep.
Recently though, she had been finding herself passed out at her desk with various items such as comic books, a spyglass and a candle to name a few, scattered across the wooden surface with no recollection of grabbing any of these things.
At first, Avery chalked it up as sleepwalking. The slime knew of some cases whereby one would knock into furniture, speak, and even move locations for seemingly no reason. Perhaps for her, she would pick a few items off her shelf and place them onto the desk?
It was weird, definitely.
Maybe she just didn’t have enough energy?
But things only got stranger.
After a couple of nights ending with her head slumped against her table and the lanterns in her room remaining ablaze through the night, she found herself feeling more tired than usual by the time she went back to her bedroom.
It wasn’t just tiredness from sleeping late, no.
The exhaustion felt like it came from the depths of the slime’s soul, almost as if it was from stress — but not quite as well. Her body felt hollow, the same numbness one would get from a body ache which was extremely abnormal for someone like Avery, who ran on emotions alone.
Hoping to solve all the problems that had risen from nowhere, the slime chose to sleep slightly earlier than usual by setting a timer so that she’d have a more stable schedule.
Except, that made everything worse.
Yellow.
Yellow.
Yellow.
######.
Not D3r’s type of yellow where the shade sat softly between oranges and lemons, giving her a sweet colour that brightened Avery’s day.
It was a stinging, piercing yellow that blinded her eyes with an uncontrollable fury, glaring at her despite having no facial features. Just pure yellow that bombarded everything she could ever think or see.
After torturing the poor slime with the yellow for what felt like hours, visions of weird villages, incantations, rituals, and black liquid beneath a robe consuming person after person would flash before her eyes, hitting her with a pounding headache all within her slumber.
The scenes would blur into each other, leaving no room for anything else other than the strange images and the same disgusting yellow.
God, Avery was starting to hate all types of yellow except for the ones on D3r.
Finally, the slime would wake up with a pounding headache, sweat dripping down her head and her throat hoarse with dryness.
All in all, Avery found these sightings and perhaps even messages, extremely bizarre. Who wouldn’t?
Yet, somehow, some way, they felt real, almost as if the images had happened before.
The slime constantly couldn’t shake off the aftermath of the mysterious nightmares, plaguing her mind like a curse.
Nightmares? Could she really call them nightmares? They weren’t scary, in a horror sense. Perhaps it was the anxiety and paranoia, or the disturbing atmosphere of the images — but it felt right to call them nightmares rather than dreams.
She just wanted her sleep quality to be back to normal again.
With all the strange occurrences and nightmares, Avery really wanted to get to the bottom of that, and quickly as well.
Therefore, she started thinking of everything that had happened thus far.
Firstly, it was the weird narcolepsy-like symptoms.
Then, it was the surreal nightmares.
Lastly, it had occurred multiple times over the past few days.
There wasn’t much correlation, just an odd series of events happening one after another.
Avery wasn’t smart. That was a given since she was horrible at puzzles.
But she wasn’t completely stupid either, at least not to the extent of being unable to pick up on a few clues.
Perhaps it was a bit far-fetched for her to think this way — but things really only started going south little by little after D3r appeared in the cave.
Now, she wasn’t going to blame the knight for it. For all the slime knew, it could’ve just been the slime’s deteriorating sanity from being unable to leave for skywars tournaments.
Yet, the slime wanted to clear her head, to know whether D3r had something to do with the nightmares. Call it a hunch of sorts, but she simply had a gut feeling that the dame was somehow correlated.
Avery was going to get to the bottom of these nightmares, no matter what.
彡 —~☆~— 彡
It was the next morning — when the sunlight bursted through the windows, reflecting off every surface the warm embrace could reach. The air danced smoothly throughout, crafting a beautiful wind that breezed under fabric and over paper. The duo were having breakfast in silence, an occasional, yet calming atmosphere that would always make the both of them relaxed.
With the suitable environment, the slime decided to bring up her question after a sip of her tea.
“D3r, this might seem kinda silly… but have you had any weird dreams recently?”
Her voice echoed past the quiet, travelling to the knight’s ears.
Maybe it was just Avery, but she could’ve sworn the dame froze for a second.
“Define weird dreams for me, please?”
“It’s almost like a nightmare, in a way, even if it’s not really scary in the traditional sense. I keep seeing these weird villages and rituals and all of the sorts. And there’s a bunch of yellow too, for some reason.”
The slime poked at her bacon with a fork, staring at the plate before looking directly into D3r’s eyes.
“Do you know what it means?”
Silence.
The knight appeared lost in thought, a cloudiness shrouding her vision in a way that made the sunlight get absorbed into her eyes like a void.
Avery hated that disassociated look.
“Have the… dreams, said anything? Words, sentences, any language?”
D3r finally uttered, her voice remaining stable, yet somehow shaky all at the same time.
“No, not that I remember. There’s a weird symbol though. Don’t really remember what it looks like, but I know I’ve seen one before.”
She shrugged, trying to gauge what reactions the knight would give off.
“I-… I know what the dreams mean. I would tell you the reason but I can’t bring myself to tell you yet.”
D3r glanced away, guiltiness lingering in her body language and energy.
Avery felt sort of frustrated. Why did she have to be left in the dark, especially if it concerned her sleep and the strange imagery? She didn’t understand.
“Why not though? You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you.”
“I’m sorry. It’s better if you don’t know.”
The knight visibly took a gulp of air before continuing.
“If the dreams whisper… no, beckon you to go to the crossroads, don’t turn left. That’s all I can say.”
It was the same sentence once again.
Avery recognised it almost immediately, the same few words.
“D3r, what is it you’re not telling me?”
“Avery, I already told you I can’t—”
“No, what are you not telling me!”
The slime raised her volume, the atmosphere once free and easy, now tense and suffocating.
“I’m sorry. I’ll tell you another time, I promise.”
The two both locked eyes, holding eye contact before looking away, continuing to eat their forgotten breakfast without saying anything more.
With a final bite and a chug of her tea, Avery went back to her room, closing the door behind her as it echoed down the hallway without waiting for D3r to finish as well like she usually did.
It was stupid, dumb really. Why would she get worked up over something that wasn’t exactly a big deal? After all, it was just nightmares — not like she hasn’t gotten them before. Furthermore, the knight’s replies and answers confirmed her suspicions. There was no doubting it, D3r was involved in some way.
Yet, as Avery sat at her desk, a mix of annoyance, frustration, confusion and understanding welled up within her. The slime knew that D3r technically wasn’t obligated to tell her why, considering it seemed like it was the dame’s own baggage.
Even then, she couldn’t help the negative emotions swell as well. So many ‘whys’, and ‘hows’ but no answers, at least not easily given.
The slime fidgeted with her hands, her thoughts flooding through her head like a virus. The whole thing itself was weird. Now that D3r was definitely related in some way, why was she related? How did it affect Avery, of all people?
Maybe it was because of the cave, or maybe because Avery grew attached far too easily, especially since she had grown to love the knight, but the slime couldn’t figure out a reason behind everything.
And it sucked.
She couldn’t just force D3r to say something.
It would be rude, and insensitive of her feelings.
So all she could do was wait for the dame to say something, anything.
And there was a high chance, it wasn’t going to be anytime soon.
彡 —~☆~— 彡
D3r felt utterly, most definitely guilty.
She hated how defeated Avery looked when she apologised once again, unwilling to answer her questions.
She hated how the slime’s energy visibly drained when she left the kitchen, leaving D3r by herself.
However, despite the fact that the guilt devoured the knight whole, there was one emotion that laid heavier than anything else.
Anger. Sheer, uncontrollable, anger.
Not for Avery, not for herself.
But for him.
The King in Yellow.
The moment Avery had told her of the dreams, the villages, rituals, weird sightings, and most importantly, the bright, cursed yellow, the dame immediately knew it was the doing of him.
And that filled the knight with unfiltered, raw, hatred for the one god that caused all the cruel dreams for her sweet Avery.
D3r felt a sense of rage envelop her whole being, ridding her brain of his disgusting whispers of finding a vessel to take form in.
The knight saw white, her fists clenching tightly as her breakfast laid forgotten on the table.
It pissed her off to no end, especially since her Avery might be at stake.
The dame wouldn’t let him steal the slime away from her.
She would make sure of it.
No matter what.
Avery was hers, and hers only — even if the knight wasn’t even sure she truly did love the slime.
Their fates would always be intertwined, and D3r would make sure in every single timeline, the knight would suffer at the hands of him.
Not Avery.
Never Avery.