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Once there were two brothers. Dream and Nightmare. They protected a tree, but this was no ordinary tree. There were two different types of fruit on this tree. Bright golden apples, they held everyone's hopes, dreams and positive emotions. The other fruit was dark it held everyone's deepest fears, worried and negative emotions. They loved in harmony. Until one day.
It was the nation day of the tree. Everyone gathered to thank the brothers for protecting the tree and fruits that growers on it. For one brother this was the best day of the year, but for the other this was the loneliest day of the year. Nightmare the younger brother used to hide in the trees branches and watch as his older brother dream received cakes, pastries, cards and other assortment of gifts and other awed at the beauty of his golden apples. On this day nightmare was either disposed or ignored. He was miserable and it was taking a toll on him.
“Dream I'm gonna go check up on the far side of town and make sure no one is missing out on this. Ok?”
Dream did not hear him over the others. Nightmare grabbed his bag and wandered off past the far reaches of town and into the mountains. No one lived here so he could scream as loud as he needed. He took his bag off and took out a knife. He had found it in the old dump. He rolled up his sleeves and there on both his arms were many, many long scars reaches up and past his shoulders. Nightmare had finally had enough. No one cared about him even his own brother. His brother was always to busy to spend time with him even talking to him took up too much of his time.
He was tired, he was sad and most of all he was tired of being lonely. He went to a nearby stream where his brother and him used to play when they were younger, when they didn't have to worry about everything.
He took out the knife and cut straight from his wrist to his shoulder. He screamed, it wasn't that loud though. He had been cutting for many years so the pain was not new to him. He quickly did it to the other arm before the first arm went numb. He screamed again but softer.
The world was becoming blurry and he lay back, staring up at the clouds he watched as his eyes slowly shut and he slipped into unconsciousness. Soon it was black, he couldn't feel anything as the blood poured out of his arm like the stream did. After a few more minutes his dust joined the blood as he finally said, “I hope that the people are happy now, no more bad feelings will exist and finally I won't be lonely.” His dust spread into the river and was carried away in the flow. His dust spread exactly where he wanted to be on his dying breath.
*dream's point of view*
“Where is he? He should have been back by now.”
Dream continued to receive gifts from the people. Soon someone pointed out that nightmares side of the tree was wilting. “W-what but the tree is mean to-…” it suddenly hit him like a bag of bricks. “NIGHTMARE!!” He quickly ran off in search of his brother hoping so desperately that he wasn't dust yet. The tree would only wilt when one of them had tainted it or when one of them was dying. He quickly made it to the outskirts of town. He only faintly heard a scream and ran towards the mountain.
As soon as he got there nightmare was lying on his back looking up at the sky his eyes half-lidded.
“I hope people are happy now.” Dream snapped his head up at his brother's voice, unaware of the tears pouring down his face as he watched his brother. “No more bad feelings will exist, and finally I won't be alone anymore.” He saw it, on his brother's dying face for the first time in his life, a smile. It wasn't forced or fake it was genuine happiness. He soon understood. He thought he had been spending time with his brother but.. all the humans, the gifts, the trips, he was growing more and more distant than he thought. He even woke up one night to a muffled scream that sounded like his brother but he shrugged it off, since he would never have nightmares, since neither of them can have dreams or nightmares. His brother’s dust and blood spread in the ground. He walked over but tripped on something. He picked it up, it was his brother’s bag. He looked inside for anything that would say that this is a joke, but instead found a note that made it all too real.
“Dream, if you are reading this I am sorry. I'm sorry for being angry at you, I'm sorry for crying when you were happy and I'm sorry that you hated me so much. I wish you could have been the one to kill me but, I knew that the humans would have hated you. I'm sorry for zapping any joy in it of your life. Don't be sad because of me, I don't deserve it. I was an awful brother to you and I just wish that somehow I could have been better to you. I hope that nothing bad ever comes your way. Rejoice with the humans because from now on my side will wilt and yours will blossom forth bringing joy to all the lands. I'm gong to miss you, I'm sorry brother. Nightmare-“
By the time he finished reading the note the entire thing was covered in tears. He cried, for the first time in his life he felt sadness, he felt hopelessness and he felt loneliness. He sat there crying his heart out.
The sun was shining. The people had gone home, and up in the tree was dream clutching onto the last apple that grew from the dark side. His part of the tree was already growing onto nightmares half but he held it back with whatever negative feelings he had. He wished he hadn't done this, he wished he had payed more attention, then…, then maybe this wouldn't have happened. He wished he had sprang more time with his brother, had given him more hugs, more kind words and more love than he could ever want. He missed his brother and from that day on he sat in the tree holding the apple to his heart hoping one day his brother would come back home.
But that day never came.