#avoiding problems

He was rather tired of it all, as well, but could hardly imagine what he could do to change a single aspect of his situation, except from doing nothing at all, sitting corpselike and still inside of a little miracle station and refusing to go anywhere. But boredom itched within himself and he always rose from his coffin to stumble about the murky halls whether he wanted to or not.

Henry knew that he was no hero; hell, he was probably barely the protagonist of whatever story he was in. Certainly not this one. As many times as he went through his personal purgatory he found himself wondering why he ended up here before remembering the answer to that question and promptly ignoring it. There was no need to dredge up the past. There was no need to think about his hands wrapping around a thin throat; or a knife plunging into warm skin; or a head slamming against a wall; or any of the many deaths of Joey Drew.

In fact, thinking about it, stumbling around these halls, relatively unharmed, was a mercy on his body and soul. He could simply turn off his mind and ignore all of the pain, despite his weary shattered bones. There was no need to worry about his actions, or their consequences, instead in a soothing complacency that he was already past the point of redemption.

Was that actually true? Absolutely not. Did it make it easier to remain firm in convictions that he did not want to go back? Absolute yes. Was it the correct choice? Well, if he allowed himself to believe that he deserved it, yes; but if he looked outside of the boundaries that he forced upon himself, he probably would have become a little unsatisfied.

Henry knew why Joey gave him the mercy of not having a reflection - he could feel his shattered fractured body, could make out the gray, gaunt tones of his decayed skin from beyond the mental block in place. Joey always was kinder than he. He allowed Henry to keep going through the same thing, trying to tell him the same message, and let Henry purposefully miss the meaning.

Looping around gave him a reason to not look back, as he could always keep moving forward. He never had to stop and realize that the only thing he was running from was his own shadow. He was able to keep going, consequence free.

As long as Henry pretended that this was his punishment, he could keep looping forward.

As soon as he would realize that it was actually a cry for help, he would have to stop, and reach the end.

That was a scary thought.

He walked up to the door and knocked, no answer. Another knock, still nothing.

“Ink…? Are you in there?” He called, shuffling was heard in the room, but didn’t open the door. It sounded like it moved closer to it, however, possibly sitting with its back against the door. Silently showing it was going to listen. “Will you open the door, Protector?”

“No.” A drained and emotionless voice answered. He had gone off his paints, you can’t feel sad about not knowing something if you can’t feel.

“Would you mind if I opened I window so I could talk to you properly?” No answer, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

He waved his hand and opened a small window, and saw all the evidence he needed to prove his suspicions were right. Ink eyes were blank and white, his cheeks puffy from previous crying, but otherwise, he was unchanged.

“Why.” Ink calmly spoke, Error coked his head to the side, confused. “Why did you come after me.” It was meant to be a question, but it was more a statement, confusion, thinking out loud.

“Because, you’re the only one that understands- and I’m the only one that understands you. You’re like a brother, I don’t want to lose the little family I have again.”

“Even without my memory.” Error nodded

“Even without your memory. Now, will you unlock the door?”

-----

“Come on everyone! Everything is set up at the top!” Ink cheered, leading the group to the picnic.

It’s been a year, not everything is ok yet, but they’re working on it. Nightmare’s gang is being treated as people with problems, not ruthless killers. Nightmare himself is working on letting people in and is learning to trust Dream again. Everyone is working on themselves as well, Error is growing steadily back to living normally and taking care of himself, and Ink is learning to deal with his problems instead of numbing himself to them.

In short, everyone’s getting better. It’s not perfect, but who is? No savior hasn’t made a mistake, No demon hasn’t been bad forever, no person can be perfect.

Ink and Error have become basically family, calling each other brother occasionally, But what matters is they’re happy- and the AntiVoid can’t bother them anymore.

Dream and Nightmare belong to @jokublog

Ink belongs to @comyet

Error belongs to @loverofpiggies