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Sometimes you get tired.
Not tired of life or your clothes or what you ate. No, you were tired of a certain nightmare.
You didn't necessarily want Nightmarionne to leave, you loved him more than you would want to admit to, but your insomnia was getting worse and worse as he refused to leave you alone at night. You were ok with paying attention to him for a couple of hours, that was fine. But he was getting...more confident. Whenever you got up to get some water, boom, he would jump at you from behind your door. When you tried to turn your light on, he would misplace it somewhere and suddenly jump at you or have a stressful game of hide and seek.
It was starting to be a bit much and you were tired of constantly being the prey to its antics, and as far as you were concerned, he didn't care if you got a good night's sleep or not.
"Does it ever occur to you that I might need sleep?" you muttered out loud as you lay on your bed last night, staring up at your ceiling, knowing he was lurking around somewhere in your room like he always did.
"Why sleep when you could have fun with me?" replied a slithering voice, a deep chuckle following afterwards and you rolled your eyes.
"Look, I know you like scaring me whenever I try to go to sleep or even try to fetch something, but it's starting to get on my nerves," you retorted, sitting up and glaring into the darkness "It's not fun being the victim to your games all the time,"
"And what are you going to do about it?" followed by a sudden woosh of cold air as the disembodied creature appeared right in front of you, his eyes narrowing down at your own. A smug grin plastered on his face, making you glare at him "Oh, right! You're far too small to even try," he taunted, ticking at your chin with a clawed finger.
"Careful what you say, maybe I will do something about it," you warn, puffing your chest out as you swipe at his striped digit. There was a warning in your voice...but of course, there was always that underlying fear that told you that in the end, he could do anything to you to get his way. But as you stared up at him, you felt a surge of confidence.
Nightmarionne's eyes pricked with interest as he seemingly picked up on this, tilting his neck to the side he chuckled.
"I doubt it, but...I am tempted to see you try. It could be very entertaining,"
"Oh come on, is everything a joke to you? I'm serious," you retort.
"Life's a joke, even after death, you one-tracked human," gurgled Nightmarionne, turning his back to you as he seemingly was laughing your threats off.
Narrowing your eyes again, you muttered to yourself as you slid to the edge of your bed, glaring at the back of his head as if you hoped the daggers in your eyes would reach out and stab at him.
"Alright, I'll give into your begging for once," Nightmarionne added, glancing back at you deviously "Here's a game, I'll stand perfectly still, perfectly stoic, and you will get the chance to try and scare me," he motioned towards himself as he twirled around on his pointed feet, crossing his long claws over his chest as he grinned at you effortlessly.
You blinked at him in disbelief.
"This isn't a trick?" you asked suspiciously, feeling like Nightmarionne wouldn't be this eager to risk his dignity in front of you.
"Always the worried one," he rolled his eyes "I assure you, these claws are tied, besides, I'm looking forward to your attempts," he added, narrowing his eyes playfully.
You growled at his eased tone as if he was still taking your threats as a joke and taking in a short breath, you leaped off your bed. Keeping your eyes on his folded claws, you circled him carefully, noticing how he didn't react at all, and only tilted his head slightly as you paused behind him, where he couldn't see you.
Smirking slightly to yourself, you backed up, opening and shutting the door to your bedroom, hoping to make him think you had left for some reason, thankfully, he didn't turn around to look as you tip-toed up behind him stealthily, your feet carefully sliding along your floor.
When you were within touching distance, you suddenly leapt at his backside, letting out a yell as you did so, hoping to shock him as you quickly scrabbled up his backside, digging your nails into his shoulder as you stared down at him.
He then tilted his head and to your disappointment, his eyes were narrowed in boredom and you realized he hadn't reacted to your jump scare at all.
"You're going to have to try harder than that, my little human," he snorted, grinning as he reached up to hook you at the collar of your shirt, carefully if not a little roughly snagging you from his shoulders and lowering you back to the ground.
You stood with your arms crossed, glaring up at him as you averted your eyes in embarrassment at your failed attempt. But you once again started to circle him, looking, hoping for at least a blind spot that you could target. A flinch or at least a slightly more interested expression from him was all you needed, and you were determined to get it.
Then an idea suddenly popped into your mind and without thinking, you targeted one of his arms, still hanging loosely at his side and you dove for it.
Nightmarionne glanced down at your smaller form, looking up at him was you from where you had your teeth sunk in his cold flesh. For a moment you could have sworn that there was a spark of confusion in his eyes, but he soon started to shake you off.
"And here I was thinking I was the biter," he chuckled, and soon you were standing there defeated again, trying to spit the bitter taste out of your mouth, feeling humiliated and embarrassed. But you were sure that would've gotten him...now you had a bad taste in your mouth and a smug-looking nightmare looking not at all bothered by the small marks on his wrist.
"Perhaps you should just give up, you should have known this task was impossible from the start," Nightmarionne pointed out, smiling at you as he leaned a little closer, as if to rub it in your face that he was still acting much like himself, no shock or sign of being scared to be found.
Despite his words, you still tried, ignoring his remarks and smug looks as you tried idea after idea, scaring, taunting, even threatening to harm him a few times, but nothing worked and soon you were sitting defeated on the edge of your bed. Chin on knees as you glared at him, wishing you could rip that victorious look off his face.
"Well this has been an interesting experience, but I think both of us are at the end of our reel for the night, aren't we?" Nightmarionne inquired, examining his claws as he glanced at you knowingly.
You groaned and averted your eyes in a huff, you hated it when he was right...but as you glanced back at him, you felt so much apprehension and anger in your chest that you just had to try one more time, just for the hell of it. Sitting up a little straighter you looked at him again...realizing that perhaps you had been approaching this the wrong way...Nightmarionne had been around for far too long to be shaken physically...or verbally for that matter...you had to try something that hit close to home.
Crossing your fingers, you looked him straight in his confident eyes and muttered a single sentence, trying to refrain a smirk from forming on your face as you did so.
"I don't love you anymore," you said simply, keeping your stare blank.
You averted your eyes from him to make sure he wouldn't know it was a catch, but you knew you had seen his eyes widen slightly in disbelief as if you had just said something absurd.
"Pfft, we both know that you don't mean that," Nightmarionne responded, keeping his cool, but you could almost taste the growing tension in light of his statement, his claws twitching at his sides.
"Do we?" you replied quietly, turning your back to him, biting your lip to stop any sound from exiting your mouth that would let him know the jig was up.
You could hear his pointed feet taking a hesitant step towards you, but a few moments of silence followed before he started chuckling.
"Okay, the joke's over, I know you can't resist me," was the sentence that followed, the denial in his voice strong, but not very convincing.
"Mmm..." was all you said in reply, your voice laced with boredom as you pretended to examine your nails as if you could ignore the steadily increasing tension of Nightmarionne's confusion growing in the room.
A few more moments of silence followed...in which you could feel his questioning stare boring into your back, but you kept your baring, saying nothing as you ignored him.
"Didn't we talk about what would happen if you tried to cross me..." came the soft, dangerous voice that was now a few inches from your ear and you knew he had just manifested right next to you.
For the first time in this tense exchange, you glanced at his face, your eyes meeting. You knew those glowing eyes were glaring at you heedlessly, but what you were interested in was the strained smile on his face...and the flicker of fear that was brief, but defiantly there.
You suddenly stopped frowning and an over-whelming grin of satisfaction came over your face as you crossed your arms triumphantly, a chuckle escaping your lips.
"Well? Did I win?" you asked, feeling yourself growing more confident over your previous failings as Nightmarionne looked back at you with an appalled expression.
"Excuse me?" he replied, his eyes narrowing into tiny slits, and you noticed his claws stiffening as he slowly realized what you had just done "That was all a joke?"
"What? Did you think that I was telling the truth? Were you scared?" you taunted, leaning over the edge of your bed eagerly as you smirked up at him, knowing for once that you were right.
"That isn't how you scare someone! That's being manipulative," growled Nightmarionne, his long fingers finding their way on either side of your legs as he leaned over you, a fierce and confused glare on his face.
You didn't falter as you met his gaze, keeping your posture straight despite the shiver that went down your spine at his claws ticking against your legs.
"But it worked didn't it?" you pointed out "Just admit it, you were scared, all because you thought I meant it," you retorted.
For a moment, the two of you stared at one another face to face, but you knew you had won this side of the argument, and you weren't about to let Nightmarionne get away with being wrong.
He finally let out a low hiss in frustration, bringing his face close to yours as if he were to take a bite out of you, but he instead straightened his posture, averting his eyes from yours.
"Fine, I'll admit I'm impressed that you're the first thing to even slightly induce fear in me after all these years," he muttered "But don't think for even a second that this means that you are implied to have any dominance over me," he added, his eyes narrowed in warning.
"Pfft, I'll be satisfied with this," you replied, giggling "...for now," you added, but your words were playful and you soon saw his expression relax.
"I didn't mean it by the way," you reassured him teasingly as you leaned back on your bed "You know, in case you were still dwelling on the fact,"
"Don't rub it in," growled Nightmarionne, settling his slim frame down on the bed next to you as he looked away, his long digits fiddling with your bed sheets like he was still getting over the fact you had tricked him so easily "I'm still mad at you,"
"Well sorry," you rolled your eyes, shifting closer to the nightmare as you stretched your neck to place a quick peck on his cold cheek "Love you, Mari,"
He snorted, but you noticed that the nightmare leaned against you as you two sat in silence for a few moments.
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"So, since I won, can we get some sleep now?"
"I said don't rub it in,"