'Just a little more...!'

Thought Nightmare as he tied the top of the rope to a sturdy hook on the ceiling.

A deranged smile set across his face— he was finally going to be free from this pitiful multiverse!

He hopped off the two chairs that were stacked on top of each other, taking one of the chairs and pushing it to the side. He stood up on one of the chairs he used to reach the ceiling, and grabbed the loop that the rope had made and put it around his neck.

He couldn't stop the close to almost quiet giggle that left him. 'It's..almost time~!'

Nightmare took a deep breath, nervousness taking over. However, he swallowed it down. He'd wanted to die. This was probably his only chance! He couldn't back out now.

The tar-covered skeleton jumped off the chair, and kicked it away. He'd wished to break his neck, but failed. At least he was being strangled, although it was astonishingly slow.

His mind began to fog up as his throat grew more and more raw, his tentacles falling limp for the first time.

'Goodbye, cruel world.'

Horror groaned as his non-existent stomach growled once more. The hunger was becoming unbearable.

He kicked off the bedsheets covering him, and got out of bed. The broken-skulled skeleton yawned, walking out of his room and shut the door behind him.

When he'd reached the last two steps, he halted.

It didn't take long for him to gasp at seeing Nightmare hanging from the living room ceiling.

"BOSS!"

Horror quickly grabbed the axe— he so gratefully left downstairs in case of midnight snack emergencies— and sliced the rope clean in half.

Nightmare's unconscious body dropped, but Horror caught him before he could fall to the ground. The cannibalistic male then slowly laid the black one into the floor as gently as possible. He slid the cut rope off of Nightmare's neck then brought out his makeshift, apple-like soul. Black and laced with negativity.

Horror then CHECKED Nightmare,

Nightmare! sans

ATK 500 DEF 5

HP
250/550

*just wants to end it all.

Horror closed the CHECKBOX and sighed.

He'd suspected something was going on with Nightmare.. but he didn't think it was this bad. He carefully lifted the goopy one onto the couch and set him down. Though, it wasn't long before the yell Horror had made woke up another in the mansion.

"What's going o-..."

Cross stopped, taking in the scene before him,

A cut-off rope hanging from the ceiling, a toppled chair, the end of the so-called noose on the ground, and an unconscious Nightmare on the couch. Cross really couldn't even find the words to speak! So someone did it for him,

"..Yes, Nightmare tried to hang himself." Horror stated. His voice was rough and hoarse, almost a whisper from him not speaking that much. Cross had the expression of someone who was close to him just died before his very eyes! Oh wait.. that's because that almost happened. Oops.

The monochrome skeleton walked over to Nightmare, looking down at him. Horror put his hand on Cross' shoulder, serious expression that replaced his hungered one. "..I'm going to go and wake the others. Stay here."

And with that, Horror left the room and went upstairs, leaving Cross with the unconscious one.

'why..?'

Was the only word embedded in Cross' mind.

Cross' eyelights held a pained expression. Even his demon: Chara, was silent. Cross sat on his knees in front of Nightmare and sighed, resting his head in his folded arms he'd laid on the couch.

'Thank stars Horror came when he did... if he hadn't.. then—'

Cross didn't want to think about what would've happened. Only grateful that it didn't.

Loud thumping came from the stairwell, and the monochrome skeleton turned his skull to see Dust, Killer, and Horror bolting down the stairs.

The three rushed to Nightmare's side, sweat running down their skulls.

They all stared in silence till Dust was the first one to break it, "I knew something was up with him."

All four skeletons in the room looked to him. "How he was stealing knives from the kitchen, hardly eating at dinner... even when he would fight the Star Sans', he wasn't even beating the shit outta anyone! Hell, he wouldn't even try to dodge Dream's arrows!"

Cross let that information sink in. Dust was right.. Nightmare had been doing all of those things, but.. he didn't think this would happen! None of them did!

"I wonder.." Dust muttered as he went to pull up one of Nightmare's sweater sleeves.

THWACK!

Nightmare slapped Dust's hand away, sitting up. The black skeleton was now awake, and didn't seem to happy.

"N-Nightmare!"

Cross gasped. Dust looked shocked, and Horror and Killer looked equally concerned.

"..."

He began to sit up, but was pushed back down by Horror.

"..Staying here." Horror stated, making sure he sat still.

Nightmare looked confused, but still had that dull, emotionless look in his eyelight.

It'd hurt everyone mentally and physically that their boss had tried to kill himself. They all had their own reasons for wh they wanted him to stick around; why they devoted their lives to him. But they all had one of the same reasons:

He saved them.

"Let. Go."

Nightmare growled lowly at Horror.

The eggshell skeleton looked nervous, but stayed firm. He hopped onto the couch beside Nightmare and pull him into a hug. Said black one looked annoyed and made small struggles but stayed put. Dust hopped onto the couch as well, hugging the tar-skeleton's other side. Killer went ahead and sat on Nightmare lap along with Cross as they both hugged him. The Oreo then used his telekinesis, letting a blanket embrace them all as they all tried to tell Nightmare, not through words but through actions, that they were here for him. That he could talk to them.

They were complete simps for this guy.

Weebyhumanbean
This is gonna be awesome! OwO
This is a collab book between me and weebyhumanbean!
They actually wrote the prologue and I just changed super tiny things about it!
Go follow them >:O Weebyhumanbean