Work Text:
It was a quiet evening.
You were lying on your bed, reading a book to pass the time, but your eyes were getting heavy and you found yourself reading the same page three times over as you slowly lost track of the words.
Sighing, you finally gave up reading and put your book aside, collapsing backwards and looking up at your ceiling, watching as the shadows slowly started to creep around your room as night took over until the only light, was of that coming from the soft glow of your bedside lamp.
You felt your eyes getting heavier and you closed them for a mere few seconds, before blinking them open again and nearly jumping out of your skin when two glowing eyes met yours, that familiar grinning face smiling at you as you recovered yourself.
"You got to stop showing up like that, I'm going to have a heart attack one of these days," you quickly grumble, staring up at the nightmarish creature who had been haunting you for a while, his slim frame bending over yours as he continued to smile at you, and despite somewhat being used to it by now, he was still quite unnerving.
"It's not my fault your human hearts are so frail, having one at all seems pointless to me," was the haughty reply, and Nightmarionne leaned back slightly, allowing you to sit up.
"Not my fault you look like that," you grumbled in reply, crossing your arms as you rolled your eyes at him.
Nightmarionne feigned hurt and held his neck hand at an unnatural angle as his long claws played in your sheets as if resisting the urge to jump at you in light of your remark.
"You're one to talk, but I didn't come here to banter on about looks," he growled, his white teeth glinting in the soft light of your lamp as his face came closer to yours.
"If you came here to play another one of your games, then I'm not buying," you retorted, narrowing your eyes as you sank lower into your bed as to prove your point.
"It's not like you can just get rid of me, what's the hurt in playing a game or two? I know you're bored," taunted the nightmare, his claws snaking through your sheets to tick at your knees, and you felt a tiny jolt go down your spine at his icy touch.
You glared at him, folding your arms tighter around your chest and you glanced at your bedside lamp.
Nightmarionne followed your gaze and with a low hiss, he summoned a tentacle, knocking over your lamp and distinguishing the soft light, leaving you both in darkness...and you knew he had the upper hand now.
"Don't think the trick of light will keep you from me, now you're playing whether you like it or not," he whispered, his voice low, and you shivered as you felt his cold breath ghost past your ear.
You let out a shaky breath as your eyes met his for a mere moment, boy, you were in for it now....
In a sudden blink, he was gone, you were alone on your bed, and you glanced around in panic as you tried to locate him, but the only thing you saw was darkness.
Then his voice echoed from the shadows:
"Let's play...a game of cat and mouse, I'm the hunter, you're the prey. Let's see how long you can hide from me...but if I catch you..." his words trailed off in a soft chuckle, leaving a cold feeling in your mind as you swallowed a nervous lump in your throat, the thought of what he promised hung over your thoughts like a dark cloud as you slid off your bed in the dark.
"Can't we talk about this for a minute..." you started to stutter, but then panic took over as you heard him slowly counting down, his voice echoing in so many different directions it was like he was everywhere.
"10...9...8...7..."
You stared around in panic as you heard him counting down, as if this was just a friendly match of hide and seek. The only place that came to your mind to hide in was either underneath your bed or in your closet. With a quick decision, you dashed for your bed and dove beneath it, sliding yourself along on your stomach and holding your breath as you curled up in the darkest corner, trying to stop the horrible thudding of your heart as you listened to him finish counting.
The hunt had begun.
You held your hands to your mouth as you heard it quietly at first, a slithering gait that you knew was him softly roaming about your room, and in the darkness, you could barely make out his pointed feet from your vantage point, and you felt a shiver go down your spine as he first went to your closet.
You heard his claws graze the doors, but to your horror, he never opened them. Instead, you heard him exploring every corner of the room, his long fingers making barely audible noises as he went about and you knew he knew exactly where you were...he was just dragging out this game as long as he could.
The thought of that nearly made you want to scream from the tension, knowing he would eventually reach your bed...and pull you out.
There was nothing you could do though and you lay there, holding your breath as you felt him getting closer and closer to you.
Finally, you heard him chuckle lightly as his pointed tips stopped right before your bed, and he slowly bent down to peak beneath the frame you nearly had a stroke when you saw his glowing eyes staring at you from the darkness, this was it...then to your immense surprise, he looked right over you and straightened himself back out, and you watched his feet walk away from the edge of your limited vision. What the heck...did he just miss you?
You slowly inched forward in disbelief, nearly banging your head on the frame of the bed as you peeked out into the darkness...but you saw and heard nothing.
"Huh..." you started to murmur to yourself.
That's when you suddenly felt a horrible feeling shoot down your spine, and in a blinding matter of seconds, you heard him on top of your bed, bending over to come face to face with you again. This time though, you knew he saw you and was grinning at you with that same old smile.
You couldn't hold it in anymore.
You screamed, banging your head on the bottom of your bed as you tried to scramble away from him, your voice panicked as you felt him reach down with a clawed hand to wrap around your ankle, tugging you back towards him.
"Found you," he chuckled, and as leisurely as someone reeling in a catch, he pulled you from underneath your bed by your ankle, his cold fingers firmly wrapped around your leg, making you shiver as you screamed and tried to hold onto anything, afraid of what he would do to you know that he had caught you.
But in no time at all you were out from your only salvation and you sharply gasped as he grasped your legs with both of his hands and flipped you onto your bed as if you weighed nothing at all, and you shakily grasped at your bed as you felt him leaning over you again, his hands slithering from your legs to your waist, holding you down firmly as you whimpered like a scared child.
When you felt his teeth brush past your ear you closed your eyes tight and bit your lip to stop yourself from screaming, fearing the worst.
But to your immense relief, he didn't bite you and instead, you felt his long fingers wrapping themselves tighter around your waist.
"You're not very good at hiding," he laughed, his deep glitched voice echoing around your ears.
You breathed a shaky sigh of relief and loosened your panicked grip on your sheets.
"You-you're not going to eat me?" you asked jokingly, but there was an edge of fear to your tone.
You saw his glowing eyes blink in the dark, and a soft chuckle soon followed.
"Tempting, but I suppose not tonight....but..." you felt his body come a little closer to yours as he spoke "...I do think I deserve a little reward for finding you,"
You couldn't help but snort at his words.
"I doubt you even put in any effort to try and find me," you thought to yourself, but you decided not to say that out loud and instead you asked quietly:
"What did you have in mind?"
You heard a satisfied purr rumble from his throat at your question like he was eager to answer it and you felt him roughly push his face against your cheek, making you avert your eyes despite you two being in the dark.
"What I always do," was the simple reply, and you felt him curl himself around you, his long fingers roaming up to your neck where they curled around your flesh, making you shiver at their cold touch.
"...you're just going to do what you do every night," you rolled your eyes as you felt his slim form resting atop yours, his head resting in the curve of your neck.
"Tsk, perhaps you would rather have me eat you," he grumbled in response to your words, his rib cage ticking at your chest as he curled up closer to you.
"No, nope, this is fine," you promised, letting your hands reach up to rest on his shoulders, despite not liking to admit it...there was something oddly comforting about having the cold nightmare close to you, despite the heart-racing experience you had tonight.
As the adrenaline in your system slowly started to settle again, you felt your eyes growing heavy as you lay back down on your pillows, your head rolling as you slowly fell asleep with Nightmarionne curled around you, his deep rumbling the only sound as the darkness crept into your mind.
Hopefully tomorrow night you won't be playing as the prey again.