Chapter Text
It was the middle of the night.
At least, that's what Hollow guessed. It was dark out, and their internal clock got all messed up after the Radiance infecting for so long.
They tried sleeping but, tonight was another sleepless night. The nightmares kept them awake, and they figured after waking up multiple times in the night due to them, that they should just stay awake.
This happened pretty frequently, they haven’t worked through the whole possession thing yet, so it still affected them quite a lot.
And it made them angry.
Either way, they were up now, so they might as well make the best of it.
They pushed themself out of their bed, their body aching in protest as they got up.
They sort of just, stood there for a moment, before eventually making their way out of their room and into the main room of the house.
They shared this house with two of their siblings, Ghost and Hornet. They assumed the two were still sleeping, after all, it was dark out, along with everything outside being quite quiet. That really only happened at night.
They walked over to the small kitchen area of the house, staring at the counter as they tried to think of what to eat.
They didn’t have to eat as much as a normal bug, but they were hungry now. They tried not to eat to much, just out of habit, and plus they didn’t like the sensation of it. It didn’t help that they did not like eating in front of others.
Either way, they were hungry now, and no one was up, so pretty much the perfect time to eat.
Hollow grabbed one of the berries they had in a bowl in the counter. There was other fruit in there, but the only one they personally enjoyed was the larger berries.
With their food now in hand, they went over to the small dinning table and sat down at one of the chairs. They always hated how short it was but, oh well. It fit their other siblings well, so it didn’t really matter.
It took a little bit for them to actually convince themself to eat, just trying to mentally prepare for it at least.
Eventually, they did start to eat the single berry though. It was not a pleasant experience, but it was the only way to curb the hunger pains.
It didn’t take them long to finish eating, it was only one berry after all, even if it was a larger one.
Thank goodness for that.
They knew they should probably get more but to be honest, that's all they could manage at the moment.
So now, Hollow was just left sitting there.
They weren’t really sure what to do next, considering they probably wouldn’t be able to sleep. So now, they were technically just left with their thoughts.
They couldn’t even focus on other sounds for coping, considering how quiet it was.
Their mind went back to their time in the black egg.
That's often where their mind drifted to in quiet moments like this.
They just remembered how horrible it was. Being stuck with an angry god who hated you for everything you were. Where it was just daily torment as She took her anger out on them.
But they were just left there, imprisoned by their own father. They knew it was their purpose but, it didn’t make things any easier. They used to dread the day that they were going to be locked up in chains to imprison an angry god.
All this just made themself angry. They hated that it had to be them, that they had to go through all this torment. Just to save a kingdom that they didn’t even care about. They always had a feeling the plan wouldn’t work anyways, after all, they weren’t truly hollow.
They tried to ignore that fact for a long time. Hiding their true self from everyone around them. Well, the only one who ever got to see the mask slip was Hornet. After all, she was their younger sister.
Their mask felt wet, and they wiped their mask with their hand. They didn’t even realize they were crying.
Hollow let out a tired sigh, gripping their cloak as they tried to calm down.
They were not having the easiest time, they felt like their insides were stirring, and it didn’t help that they were starting to feel sick from eating.
It was probably a bad idea to eat this late, at least when there was nothing else to focus on.
Hollow looked at the door leading to Hornet’s room, thinking for a bit before moving to get up and walk over to it.
They stared at it for a moment, they knew their sister was usually always able to calm them down.
They opened the door quietly, quickly spotting Hornet, who was on her bed sleeping quietly.
They walked through the doorway, making sure not to hit the top of the frame as they walked into the room, and over to the bed.
After that, they got into the bed right next to Hornet, nuzzling their face into her cloak.
She stirred a bit, grumbling quietly and looking over to see what suddenly got into bed with her, and noticed it was Hollow.
“Hollow…?” She groggily asked, moving to sit up and rub her face a bit to try and wake up.
Of course, the vessel didn’t say anything. They couldn’t. They just looked at her.
It didn’t take her long to notice the black stains on their mask, and quickly put two and two together that Hollow was crying.
“Oh Hollow..” She hummed, laying back down with them and wrapping her arms around them, well, the best she could at least.
Hollow just tried their best to wrap their good arm around her, along with just focusing on her breathing to calm down. Really, just her presence was enough to be calming.
“Let me guess, nightmares?” She asked, rubbing their back in a soothing motion.
They just nodded.
She had a feeling it was that, but just wanted to make sure before assuming anything else.
Since Hollow just, kind of came into her room, she assumed that they just wanted comfort, so that is what she would give.
So, she just laid with them, hoping her presence was enough to be comforting.
It did seem to work, when she noticed that their grip softened and their breathing relaxed.
Once Hollow was fully asleep, Hornet finally relaxed herself, and fell back asleep soon after.