Chapter Text
It was quiet… The type of silence some would call deafening… But for Shrimpo this was far from the truth. Lying sprawled across the bed the red numbers from the alarm clock seemed blinding in the pitch black.
“3:58am”
Great… he had shit to do tomorrow… or today… whatever, the thought made him annoyed. He stared into the open space, noting that he hasn’t had a headache for a while. But what really was “a while”? He can’t even remember if he slept. If he did it wasn’t long. He could swear he feels his eye bags getting heavier. He could also swear that he has saw a total of three different figures in the dark. Or did he..? Were they silhouettes? Shadows? I mean he has a solid 84% sure he was just hallucinating but who really knows? He knows… he knows he hasn’t slept a proper 8 hours for months… or has it been years..? he knows just in this past week alone he has slept less than 10 hours total. He knows-… what does he know..? He thinks his eyelids are getting heavier. But what does he know? He thinks his thoughts are meshing together, forming sloppy gibberish that evolve into internal screaming… Internal? Are you sure you weren’t just screaming out loud? Are you sure you didn’t just wake up half of the people up and down the hall?
I think so…
but are you sure?
I’m pretty sure…
How can you tell?
I can’t…
So get up and check. Get up and prove that you aren’t lying to yourself again.
So he got up… rising from the bed, slowly, weakly making his way to the door. But he tripped. And fell. And kept falling.
And falling.
And falling…
And falling…
and falling…
Infinity. In a void. Shrimpo felt wind against his face. Against his whole body. He didn’t realize he was closing his eyes till he opened them. To see a city. The same one he’s seen plenty of times in videos. The same one that felt suffocating to even think about. It was weird to see it from a bird’s eye view. It made him forget for a moment that he was falling. Fast. Faster than he should be able to. Faster than anything should be able to. It barely registered to him before hitting the ground.
He woke up screaming, his voice shrill as he clung to a blanket for dear life. His alarm clock barely getting a chance to sound before being flung into a wall. He could barely breathe. Pushing himself against the wall as he gasped for air. It didn’t take long before someone barged in. It was Sprout, with Cosmo running in shortly after. It only made the shrimp scream more, picking up a pillow and throwing it full force towards the strawberry who quickly dodged and ducked back behind the door as to shield himself from any other objects that Shrimpo could possibly throw his way.
“GET OUT! DONT COME IN HERE! GO AWAY!” The shrimps yelling was a common occurrence. Common enough to where the toons have gotten quite used to it, but this is different. “Shrimpo… are you okay..? You’re not hurt are you..?” Sprout calls through the crack in the door. His tone wavers slightly. It’s obvious he’s disturbed by how horrified the shrimp sounded. After all it’s the first time they’ve ever heard a tone that wasn’t annoyance or anger coming from shrimps mouth.
Shrimpo pants as he starts to catch his breath. His hands still clinging to the bunched up blanket as if he were to implode if he even thought of letting go. “I- I’m fine… Just leave me alone! p-please…”
Sprout and Cosmo take a moment to stare at each other making sure they just heard the same thing. Both toons faces an even mix of pure surprise and bewilderment. Shrimpo just said please?! They both look at the door and back at each other, trying desperately to find out what the hell just happened. Several toons have gathered now behind them, consisting of Astro, Finn, Brightney, Scraps, and Goob. All of which who heard the original scream. Sprout steps back, turning to face the small crowd. “Everything’s okay, nobody’s hurt, please go back to your own business.”
As sprout steps away to deal with the crowd, Cosmo leans in to speak through the crack of the door. “Um… if you’re okay then we’ll leave… just don’t hesitate to give us a holler if your hurt okay..?” Cosmo waits for a moment, hearing what he thinks was barely audible mumbles of agreement before closing the door fully and turning around to help sprout with the small audience.
Shrimpo sinks back into bed, his heart beat finally starting to slow, his breath forming from ragged to rhythmical.
“What time is it” he thinks to himself before remembering his alarm clock is now in pieces on the floor. He couldn’t care less honestly, All he wants right now is to fall back asleep. But he can’t. the dream. The nightmare… He knew it’ll just come back, like always, never the same but always similar. Similar enough to make the exact same chill run down his spine like needles.
He hates that feeling.
So he doesn’t sleep, instead opting to get up out of bed, kick his door open, and go get food. He doesn’t bother leaving his blanket, still holding it loosely around him as he walks to the elevator, catching a few glances from passerbys. One of which seemingly overjoyed to see him out and about. It was Goob. “Shrimpyyy, you’re okay!” Shrimpo had next to no time to react to the words as he feels arms wrap around him twice and yank him off his feet and back into the taller toon’s embrace.
“Gah! Goob! Let go of me! And I told you not to call me that!” Goob rests his chin on the top of Shrimpos head, being careful to avoid the shrimp tail that is now drooping in annoyance. Goob chuckles to himself as he lets the smaller toon go, his mechanical arms retracting and going back to there original size. “I was worried about youu~ What happened?” Shrimpo pauses for a moment not sure on what to respond with, instead choosing to go with ole reliable. “I’m fine. It doesn’t matter. I’m alive arnt I?” Goobs face drops at the response, clearly not convinced he’s fine but lets it slide. “Sure, sure. Anyway, what are we doing?” Shrimpo looks up confused just to be met with Goobs shit eating grin. “WE aren’t doing anything. I’m going to the dining hall… don’t you have a sister to follow around instead of me..? Wait where’s scraps?” Goob perks up at the mention of his missing twin. “Oh don’t worry. Shes with her friends. So we got a whole day together.” Goob places a hand on the head of a now very obviously angry toon, petting slightly as he starts to walk off. “You said we were heading to the dining hall right? Let’s go.” Shrimpo pulls away from the hand, reluctantly following as they make their way to the elevator.