Chapter Text
A young, blonde boy of about twelve walked alone to his house at sundown.
“Hey, freak!” A boy of the same age with duller blonde hair called out. He was shorter than the blonde boy but had already developed a pronounced strength that the taller boy had yet to have developed. This was quadrupled with a hammer he tended to borrow liberally from his older brother.
Upon seeing him, the blonde boy began to pick up speed. The follower chortled in malice and did the same.
“What’s wrong?”
“Afraid I’ll break those chicken legs?”
“Hey, come back, freak.”
The boy chased his classmate down the suburban street until the air around them became dark all of a sudden and the buildings grew into more labyrinthe brick structures. The boy paid this no mind, only taking pride in the fact that he'd been able to chase his weaker classmate to a dead end.
“Oh, gross!” The boy crowed, “I found a big long-legged spider in an alley!” He waved the hammer around. “Good thing I had this on me!”
But instead of looking at him in terror and scrambling to try to get away as was the norm, the lanky boy stood with his head bowed.
“Awwww, what’s wrong? Scared ‘cause you’ve got nowhere to run crying to?”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
Concrete slammed into the bully’s back. Where just a moment before he had had his classmate cornered, now their roles were reversed. He cried out in pain and shock at the cold bricks that sent chills down his spine.
“Hey, what gives?”
The formerly cornered boy’s head snapped up to meet his gaze. Only it wasn’t his face anymore.
Because it never was.
A gaping mouth with snapping jaws lunged for the bully. It took up his entire face now, no blue eyes, no blonde hair, and it was growing. His whole head was growing as though it were consuming the rest of the body.
And Purpled had nowhere to go.
The jaws snapped closer like the sharks he’d pretended to like when his brother had scraped up enough money to take them to an aquarium.
The thought of his brother made him remember something and he swung the hammer against the giant’s teeth.
The head let out a bellowing scream, which devolved into a cackle.
And somehow, that was what woke Purpled up.
…
Meanwhile,, the creature known only to himself as Wilbur Soot made his way back “home.” It didn’t take long, especially not for someone as used to it as himself. Nor did he notice the peculiar twisting and dipping motions that came from bending deeper and deeper into a pocket of nonreality. The “home” itself was a crevice deep, deep, impossibly deeper into the dreamscape than any human could have fathomed.
Good thing it didn’t have to stay that way.
Wilbur snapped his fingers and the cavernous domain shifted into a luxurious bedroom, Covered wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling in mirrors.
“Ahhh!” Wilbur sighed in contentment, falling back onto a red, king-sized bed. “Another brat traumatized, another voice in my choir of screams.”
“Yes, yes!” Another voice agreed with him, his own to be exact, “Another mark in the history books singing the praises of the legendary Phantom of Darkness.” Just a little nickname he’d made for himself. One of many, not a big deal.
Other identical voices joined in. There was something so oddly relaxing about the sound of his own voice.
“What are you talking about?” A voice snipped. “That was utterly boring! We didn’t even get to kill this one!”
“I agree,” another clone chimed in, “What’s the fun if they just wake up before we can do any damage?”
Main Wilbur waved a hand, “What’s the harm? I’ve definitely probably scared all the kiddies in this old boring world. The bullies anyway.” It might have been true anyways, Wilbur had scared many many kids over the decades. Though the truth was he couldn't have told for sure since they all kind of ran together these days.
“It's getting boring for you, isn't it?” A dryer, more grim voice said.
“No, no, you've got it all wrong!” The other voices came together in a chorus.
No one wanted to think about it getting boring. Not seriously, really boring, anyhow.
But they really had focused on bullies for a while, though Wilbur couldn’t for the not-life of him remember why.
Main Wilbur sat up in thought, “What about that lanky kid we were disguised as?”
“What about him?”
Main Wilbur shrugged, “It’s been a while since we’ve tried that kind of kid before right? Been troubling bullies for a time now. From the looks of it, he’s probably a right scaredy cat.”
There were some murmurs of agreement, though some complained that it would be too easy.
The dry voice spoke up again, “I say give it a try.”
Every Wilbur turned to face that part of himself. It wasn’t like him to agree with Main Wilbur.
He shrugged, “If he knows the kid before, you could probably learn something about both of them and more. Might be a good change of pace to be able to scare more than one person.”
Main Wilbur nodded. This was why he always made the point to spend some alone time after a haunt. It was always good to listen to yourself.
“Alrighty then!” He jumped back up, “Night’s still young!" As the copies began to dissipate, one of the remaining Wilburs rolled his eyes, "The night's already passed." "Who cares?" Wilbur shrugged. It was true that the time tended to fluctuate slightly when he traveled between layers of the dream world, but it wasn't like it would matter to him any time soon. "I'll just hope the kid's not eighty by the time I get back," he joked. "Well, off I go then! Wouldn’t want me to think I’m losing my touch,” He flashed a glare at another of the more self-depracating voices. He then changed it to a sharp smile, “I’m only joking! Who cares what I think!”
With that, he exited through one of the other mirrors, though several parts of him wondered how exciting another brat could be, even when placed along another brat.