Chapter Text
You had barely any time to reorient yourself from the sudden teleportation Nightmare pulled you through before you were being tugged down a hallway of ashy black stone. Your head throbbed with discomfort, your stomach turning low in your gut, and your chest aches with a familiar chilly apathy you have come to associate with the holes within your soul. Nightmare’s pace was quick, but not overly so as he led you down the twisting labyrinth that made up his castle, a tentacle wrapped firmly around your wrist. Slowly, you regained enough of your sense to finally take in your surroundings.
The stones that made up the foundation are black, as you had noticed before, and a thick, plush ebony runner carpet trimmed with silver went along the length of the hall, soft beneath your bare feet. Elegant console tables were tastefully placed against the walls, their surfaces decorated with small, almost insignificant, knick-knacks and ornaments, and a few even held an assortment of poisonous flora and black roses.
But what caught your attention as you walked were the many heavy looking tapestries that hung from the high ceiling rafters, filled with runes of an ancient language probably older than the King himself. Many depicted a plethora of stories, filled with pictures of massive forests, towering mountains, and the ruins of villages. They all held a similar trait of blackened fruits and desolate surroundings, and you marveled at the careful placement of every weave, not a single mistake spotted as you passed.
In between most of the intervals of the tapestries sat narrow windows. Almost gothic in design, they reached highly towards the ceiling. They looked out to a sky of a deep, swirling mass of reds, maroons, purples; if you looked hard enough you could spot small shocks of teal that matched the color of Nightmare’s magic, drifting through the mass. Below the sky, seemingly surrounding the castle perimeter, was a dark forest of obsidian trees that scratched at any possible horizon. Their sharp branches were unfriendly and sinister against the ever changing backdrop they stood against, their trunks bare of any possible leaves and moss.
Nightmare led you through a few doorways and beneath many arching pathways that fed into even more halls, and soon you found yourself following him down a grand staircase to an equally grand hall of marble floor. Placing a hand on the dark ashwood railing, you enjoyed how smooth the wood felt against your skin, traising the waves of grain with your thumb as you descended. Raising your eyes once more to the ceiling, the sight of a massive chandelier greeted you, blue and orange fire bravely flickering on top of cold candles in this dark domain.
A calamity of noise snapped your attention to a massive door to the side of the grand hall, muffled, shouted threats and curses coming from the other side, and there was a loud crash as something broke. Nightmare growled, his grip around your wrist tightening, and he tugged you along after him as he stormed towards the obvious fight. You couldn’t see his face, but you could feel his anger as a near tangible cloud of negative aura surrounded him. You shivered, unease and paranoia creeping down your throat and scratching up your spine. A cold sweat broke out across your skin, and your hands itched to grab a hold of a weapon of some sort. You tried to ignore the fear as your aggression rose to battle against the twisting in your soul.
With a slam that started you, Nightmare entered the room and the fighting came to a standstill.
“Killer!” The King barked harshly, glaring at the skeleton with the black, tar like tears falling from empty wide sockets, a red, target-like soul hovering just in front of his sternum. In his hand he held a kitchen knife. It was flaked with fresh red marrow and dust and was currently pointed at the monster who grasped at Killer’s hands to stop the blade from driving down. It was hard to tell who was pinned beneath Killer, but there was an obvious growl coming from them.
Killer turned towards Nightmare, an unnerving smile across his face, and tilted his head.
“Yeah, Boss?” he rasped, and Nightmare’s aura darkened further with his scowl.
“Get off of Havoc before I throw you out the nearest window. We have no time to play like a bunch of babybones.”
Killer shrugged, pulling away from the now named Havoc while pocketing his knife. He teleported onto a lounging seat not that far from where he was originally straddling his opponent, and Havoc didn’t bother trying to stand up, apparently more than satisfied to stay sprawled across the ground.
There was a woosh of air behind you, that familiar feeling of matter being displaced after a shortcut, and something sharp prodded your side. You spun around, accidently crashing into Nightmare’s back as you did so, and fiercely stared back into the bloated red eyelight that roamed over your form with an unparalleled hunger. He was huge, almost as tall as Nightmare, with a massive crater on the left side of his skull. He was covered in old blood stains and dust, and an unhinged smile split his across his face. Everything about this skeleton screamed danger! ... but so did everyone else within the room.
*You refused to feel intimidated by the monsters around you.
“Didn’ know you were gonna bring back a snack for us, Boss,” he growled, and you bared your teeth in a crude mockery of a smile. Adrenaline was spiking highly in your blood, causing you to tremble and shake where you shand, but you were far from frightened or scared.
“If you touch me again,” you hissed, “I will tear your spine out and snap it over my knee.”
There was a sudden hush in the room, all of the attention upon you, and the monster you stared down chuckled; his tone was disbelieving as his bloated eye lidded.
“Oh really,” he drawled, leaning back and looking down at you. “And how’s a small little treat like you going to accomplish a feat like that?”
“Why don’t you come here and find out for yourself.” The challenge was clear in the air, your resolve strong and SOUL holding recklessly, bravely, against that bitter tang of magic seeping from the powerful and unstable monsters.
Your intent was clear, though, and the skeleton before you clearly could feel the promise within your threat. He knew that you would somehow make good on your word despite being weaker, smaller, and magicless.
A grumble rolled from his chest before breaking off into laughter.
“You got guts, Treat,” he said, “Can’t wait to see what yer here for.”
“That’s enough chatter, Skull.” Nightmare snapped, and you grunted as his dark tentacles wrapped around you to hoist you effortlessly into the air next to his side. “The human isn’t here as a toy, she is here because I plan on making good on the deal that I made with her.”
A disbelieving snort came from Havoc as he slowly sat up, mismatched eyelights of blue and red landing on your form momentarily.
“You made a deal with this runt?” he snickered. “She looks even weaker than that monochrome brat from before.”
Nightmare’s grin was sinistister as he looked over to the muttering skeleton and tilted his head in Havoc’s general direction.
“Weak, you say, Havoc…” the King mused, and a breath of air left you as his grip tightened. “Yes, I guess she can be considered weak LV and magic wise… but this Human has a lot of potential to be quite useful for me in the near future.”
“And what,” Killer spoke up, “What exactly do you have planned, boss?”
Nightmare didn’t even bother answering his underling. His tentacles flexed around you, all but one pulling away from around your body, and you bit out a curse and braced yourself, trying to avoid the inevitable by fruitlessly digging your nails into Nightmare’s goop. With a grunt, you were suddenly tossed at Killer, landing heavily on him as his sharp hands reflexively caught around your middle to stop you from an unpleasant crash with his skull. He made a confused sound, and you turned your head to glare heatedly at him, silently daring the tearstained skeleton to try something while mentily cursing out Nightmare. You heard the King snickered, undoubtedly amused by your spike of negative emotions, and you struggled to escape Killer’s tight hold with a vengeance.
Once again, Nightmare spoke up.
“Killer, you will watch over (Y/N) for the duration of her stay.”
“But—”
“If I find that any harm comes to her,” Nightmare cut him off with a scathing scowl, “Your punishment will be severe. I need her for the downfall of that insipid, soulless freak.” With that warning, Nightmare sank into the floor and a shadow almost as dark as the void streaked away, and you were left alone with three highly murderous skeletons.
You inhaled sharply, finally pushing away from Killer with a sharp move, and welcomed the biting chill of stone beneath your feet as you began to pad away. Shuffling sounded behind you, and you quickly dodged the hand that tried to grab a hold of your arm, dancing away almost playfully. You heard Killer say something in a language you recognize faintly as you slipped back into the grand hall and he scrambled after you.
Rough laughter from Skull and Havoc followed Killer, the other two shooting sharp comments and insults at their companion who snapped back with just as much venom. You didn’t bother to listen to their chatter, more curious about your new surroundings as you poked your head into every doorway and room that you came across.
There was one full of weapons, gaining your attention for a split moment before you lost interest, and another with many stone statues of both humans and monsters of varying ages and positions. Each statue’s face was pulled into a form of sadness, anger, or fear, and you felt very uncomfortable from how lifelike all the details showed. You quickly left that room.
You passed many rooms of different wonders and terrors, and the entire time you walked, Killer, Havoc, and Skull were always close behind. They were beginning to annoy you greatly, a feeling of claustrophobia sinking in despite the massiveness of Nightmare’s castle and so the first moment you had, you ducked into a dark room, escaping while their attention was on each other.
You listened from behind the open door as they passed, and it took only a few beats before Killer realized that you were gone.
“Shit,” he whispered, “Where the fuck did she go??”
You heard Havoc and Skull snickering at Killer’s misfortune, and the hate stained skeleton growled.
“Seriously, where is the human ? I don’t want to deal with whatever punishment Boss has planned just because I lost her.”
There was a beat of silence before Havoc spoke up.
“Paps says that he knows where she went,” you froze slightly at his words, “... but he doesn’t want me to tell you. He’s still mad about the whole glitter bomb you pulled last week.” You relax once more, leaning against the wall behind you and Killer cursed heavily.
“How many times do I have to tell you that I didn’t do that?!”
“Like fuck if you didn’t, you were the only one in the the room with us.”
You could feel a fight brewing between the two, and a sick feeling of accomplishment washed over your soul as they seemingly forgot about you. Skull sounded like he was dying of laughter, and slowly, ever so slowly, they began to walk away, their noises drifting out before it was nothing but an echo of background noise.
You were finally alone.
You sighed, stepping out from behind the door and brushing off the cobwebs that somehow managed to make their way onto you. A small hum of a familiar tune passed your lips but cut off quickly when you looked up, eyes widening to take in the sight in front of you.
Books. Shelves and shelves of books, all against the walls and reaching towards the high ceiling. A true introvert’s paradise, and as you walked around the room, trailing a hand against well kept spines and smelling that wonder smell of old pages and worn leather covers, you felt the first genuine smile in a while tug at your lips.
You haven’t seen a collection of this many books in a while, and from what you could see, many of them held runes that matched the ones one the tapestries hanging in the halls, but thankfully most of the others were in a language you could read.
Carefully, you pulled one of the books from the shelf, or maybe two, possibly three or four, and made your way around the room before you found a place to sit on a sinfully comfortable loveseat. You placed the books down next to you, picked up the one on the top, and opened to the first page.
You read there for a long while, engorging yourself in the words of another, and forgot about the world around you. You had a feeling that this was the closest to true happiness that you will ever get, and that tugging around your lips, that smile that was nearly begging to come out, stayed with you the entire time, though it was never able to come out fully.
You stayed there for a while, not looking forward to when someone eventually found you, but nonetheless enjoying your time by yourself.