I'm sorry-–

Lewis was dead.

The two skeletons watched in horror as the thick black tentacle ripped itself from the red haired male's chest, sending the body crashing to the floor.

It had all happened so suddenly. They'd tried the spell, done what the book had said. And then disaster struck. None of them had actually expected it to work. None of them thought that the God of Negativity himself would appear in a flash of dark light. No one expected Lewis to be stabbed right through the chest.

Dream was Frozen, watching his brother in Horror as he stepped out of the portal-like cloud of darkness he'd appeared in.

Nightmare's 'lips' curled back in a snarl, his cold cyan eye burning into Dream's soulless body. "You summoned me?" He he hissed, his voice icy cold and sharp. "You summoned me?!" His tentacles raised up behind him, one of them dripping with blood.

Killer stumbled back, his hands shaking as he grabbed onto a lamp that had been shoved into the corner. He held it in front of him protectively, acting like a sword.

The god sneered at him, a tentacle lashing out in a second and curling around the lamp's stand. A loud metallic snap rang out and the lamp fell into pieces, falling out of Killer's hands. "Pathetic."

"Shit." Killer backed up slightly, his silver pupils darting over to Dream. "What the hell do we do?!"

Dream clenched his hands into fists, glaring at his brother and trying to look as brave as possible. "Y-You don't need to do anything Killer. This is between m-my brother and I."

"Aww, how sweet~" Nightmare purred, his grin sickeningly wide. "Protecting your new friend? But look at you, you're hardly in any shape to protect anyone~" He cackled, the tips of his tentacles sharpening into vicious points. Dream could remember the feeling of those stabbing into him all too well.

"He has nothing to do with this Nightmare! Leave h-him alone!" Dream growled, shifting on his feet in a bracing position. He was positive that dodging wouldn't be an option if Nightmare chose to fight him. But then again, striking back would still result in him being 100% more beaten up than Nightmare.

"Alright." Nightmare shrugged, a tentacle flicking out to slam into Killer's chest side on and fling him into the bookshelves. "Now he's not in my way."

"Killer!" Dream watched in alarm as his friend's body slammed into the shelves, jolting largely before going limp and crumpling down to the floor in a heap.

"Leave him." Nightmare snapped, slapping him sharply across the face with a tentacle.

The smaller whimpered, clutching his face with his non-broken hand. His golden eyes met Nightmare's single blue one, shaking.

"If you're not going to do anything, I'll leave." He hissed, glaring at him. "I'm not taking you back, and I'm certainly not going to give your powers back, not after you've broken one of our golden rules."

Dream growled softly, his hands clenching into fists. "If you were so worried about me breaking the rules, maybe you should have dumped me into the ocean or into some desolate barren field."

The dark brother laughed dryly, cocking an eyebrow. "Maybe if that's what you prefer I can have that arranged."

"I'll pass." He hissed through gritted teeth, his eyes darting to the side to see how Killer was doing.

He was gone.

He immediately looked straight back at Nightmare, hoping that he hadn't noticed his friends disappearing act. Thankfully, the God was far too occupied looking down at the book of ancient Gods that Lewis owned. He looked amused, having probably noticed how someone had scribbled crudely over the illustrated second eye on his depiction.

Out of the corner of his vision, Dream could see Killer's figure slowly dragging himself across the floor, going around Nightmare and creeping up behind. He was tense, worry tugging at his currently non-existent soul as he tried to not give Killer away by looking at him. What if Nightmare killed him like he'd done to Lewis? It was a very possible outcome knowing his brother.

"S-So what now?" He stuttered, trying To distract Nightmare long enough to let Killer do whatever reckless idea he was planning.

"What now?" He scoffed, his tentacles dropping down limply to his sides. "I leave you here to rot by the body of your pathetic friends." He suddenly grinned, his blue eye widening. "Hey, how about I kill that other brat you were with? That way we don't have to worry about them spreading the words of a little sunshine God~"

Dream froze abruptly, watching as Nightmare looked over where Killer's crumpled body had been a minute ago.

"What?!" He hissed, immediately on alert. "Where did he go?!"

From behind, Killer lunged out, a sharp knife being held in his left hand. He plunged it deeply into one of Nightmare's tentacles, spearing it to the ground.

Nightmare immediately let out a roar of pain, trying to whip around and viciously murder his attacker. But the tentacle kept him back,tangling him.

"Dream! Now!" Killer yelled, rolling to the side and out of the way as a tentacle stabbed down to impale him.

The small God immediately jumped up, throwing his arms around his brothers side and shoving him down. He then snatched the book from his hands, looking down at the calligraphy scrawled across the faded brown pages. "We summoned you, but now it's time to go, we thank you for taking your time, now your knowledge is mine. Gates to the land of spirits, hear our call and send this demon back!"

"What the hell are you doing?!" Nightmare yelled, watching in surprise as a circle of light circled the two of them and the floor beneath them started shifting.

Dream continued reading from the paper, making sure he had a firm grip on his brother's skull and keeping him down as he struggled. "Hear me call! Let this demon fall!"

"I'm not a demon you ass!" Nightmare screeched, only to let out a surprised yelp as the floor beneath them suddenly caved in, opening into a dark swirling portal.

He tried to throw Dream off, but the smaller kept his grip on him as tight as he could, his broken arm stinging horribly. They both fell through, yelling and hitting.

Killer watched in shock as they fell through and disappeared, his eyes wide. "Holy shit." He looked down at the tentacle he'd pinned to the floor with his knife, watching as the knife sliced right through it with a disgusting squelch. Before he could even register what was happening, the split tentacle stabbed the knife into Killer's side, embedding it right to the hilt in his hip before disappearing down the portal.

The mortal choked, an agonised yell escaping him as he stumbled forwards, his feet failing to do the job they'd done for about twenty years. He tripped, panicking as he saw he was falling right to the portal. He pathetically tried to throw his arms out in front of him, as if that would help. But he was sent tumbling through the darkness of the portal, a chill washing over him as he fell.

And then the portal closed, leaving the house dark and silent. A flutter of pages rang out and the book of God's fell, landing with a thump and strewing its pages out across the floor. A few drifted over to Lewis' lifeless body, their dull pages matching the greyness of his skin.

——————

Dream fell with a thump, each of his battered bones sending bolts of agony through him. But he forced himself to his feet, lurching up just in time to have himself slammed back down against the floor by the hands of his brother.

The taller hissed loudly, his hands pressing down on the smaller's neck harshly, cutting off any air supply Dream was desperately trying to gasp down. "How dare you!"

Dream struggled weakly, looking at the damaged tentacle. It had been split down the middle at the top quarter, making it look like he had five tentacles. He didn't think Nightmare had noticed it, so he weakly pointed, hoping to distract him.

Nightmare glanced momentarily at what Dream had motioned to, not really expecting to see his ruined tentacle. He immediately froze, his eye completely fixated on the limp ends of that tentacle.

Luckily for Dream, the brother's grip on his neck lessened, allowing him to gasp down much needed air.

"How?" Nightmare spat, his tentacles twitching and curling in from pain. A choked growl escaped him and he blinked, suddenly jumping off of Dream as something came flying down towards them.

The smaller yelped before crying out in pain as something slammed into him. 'Twas Killer. The mortal was clearly unconscious, and when Dream tried to push him off, his hand made contact with something dark and sticky.

"Killer!" He jolted, looking at the dark blood staining his clothes and the knife embedded into his hip. "O-Oh God no!"

Nightmare stepped back slowly, his eyes fixated on his ruined tentacle that was slowly dripping dark slime onto the floor below him. "HORROR!"

The soulless God jolted in surprise as he yelled, only to freeze up in fear right after. By Nightmare's side, the figure of a hunched over skeleton formed, one blood red eye looking right at them.

"What is it, My Lord?" He asked, his voice dark and gravelly.

"Dispose of them in the dungeon. I think I've found a good use for them." Despite the pain he felt, the God grinned widely, his smile showing nothing but menace. "We can use them for next weeks tournament~"

Horror cackled, nodding happily as he slowly walked over to Dream and his unconscious friend.

The smaller tried to scramble away, but couldn't with Killer, he was too weak and the body too heavy. "Stop this Nightmare! This is all wrong!"

The dark God had already turned, a frown etched in his face now. "I know."

Dream watched helplessly as he disappeared, leaving the two alone with Horror.

"Now then~" The axed God purred. "Lets take you two to your cell, shall we~?"

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Longest chapter so far?

P o s s i b l y

Mmm soon we'll get to the actual part of the book that I'm excited to write, and then the part where I'm s u p e r excited to write

:33333333

Hope you've had a good day/sleep!

-Jess-