#dsink

He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Nightmare, watching as the other lay sprawled across the floor, a puddle of blood staining Nightmare’s clothes crimson. His eyes were still open, though he was not staring at Dream, instead, staring out somewhere behind where Dream stood. Nightmare made what sounded like a confused noise shortly before his eyes fluttered shut, his breathing slowing until it came to an abrupt stop and his body went limp.

Dream’s legs suddenly gave way and he dropped to his knees, now sobbing loudly as he was struck with regret at the realisation that he would never be able to hear Nightmare’s voice again. He mumbled apologies as he trembled uncontrollably, at first not even noticing the sudden hungry fire that had ignited just behind him, or the rumbling that echoed and shook the ground. It all faded into the background as Dream sobbed.

He only lifted his head when the sound of muffled screaming through the walls caught his attention. He forced himself to stand up and turned, flinching when he saw the blazing fire that seemed to grow larger despite the lack of flammable objects to fuel it. “What? How did-” He was sharply cut off by another scream echoing from outside the room. Turning his head in the direction that the screaming was coming from.

In a panic he left the room and rushed over to see that somehow, not just the room he was in but the entire hallway had also been engulfed by flames. A young cat monster who had been working as a guard was desperately trying to extinguish the fire that was quickly cooking his fur. A Toriel came rushing in shortly after tightly holding onto a bucket of water. She glanced over to Dream briefly before approaching the burning cat monster, tossing the bucket’s contents over him. The flames swiftly died down and the cat monster sighed with relief, whispering thank yous to Toriel as more monsters and humans entered with water buckets in hand.

Dream was about to question them on what on earth had happened when another rumble shook the ground. Everyone in the room fell silent. Toriel broke the suffocating silence with a sharp gasp and pointed to the wall. Dream’s gaze followed where Toriel was pointing and his eyes widened as he watched a crack as it snaked its way down the structure, followed by more cracks that ran up and down the wall.

Another rumble.

The floor beneath their feet began buckle causing a few of the guards to lose their balance and stumble to the cold, hard floor. Dream couldn’t believe what he was seeing, he couldn’t understand why JR was suddenly breaking apart right before his eyes.

“Lord Dream we need to evacuate, it’s not safe here.” One of the guards spoke up, gesturing for Dream to head for the elevator. Deep down he didn’t want to leave, the death of Nightmare along with JR suddenly breaking apart was too much for him. He’d worked so hard for so long to build up his organisation, to create a better multiverse. Seeing all of his hard work suddenly collapsing around him was heartbreaking, and it happened right after he had brought his once childhood friend’s life to an end. His chest felt heavy with negative emotions, he couldn’t understand why he was still feeling them. Nightmare was dead, so why did he feel so awful? And why was everything suddenly collapsing around him? It didn’t make sense.

“Lord Dream please, you must leave this place!” The guard yelled as the floor continued to buckle until it split apart leaving gaping holes. Having no other choice, Dream begrudgingly followed everyone else into the elevator, using his wings to propel himself over the gaping abyss-like holes. As he entered the elevator he folded his wings tightly behind his back and made them intangible so as to not take up too much of the cramped space.

It was then that the question abruptly entered Dream’s mind. Did Nightmare’s death somehow cause this?

—–

“Uuuuurgh, can you just keep quiet for a second?” Ink grumbled as Cross continued to sob uncontrollably. Error glared at Ink “Shut up Ink, can’t you see he’s distressed?” Error growled, wishing that he was in the same cell as Cross to comfort him.

“Why should I care? I can’t feel shit.” Ink crossed his arms as he spoke, wearing a bitter expression on his face. Error just huffed and let himself fall onto the cot in his cell, he was so sick of hearing Ink bitching about Cross.

Cross’ sobbing slowly became incoherent mumbling, he curled into a ball and sat at the very edge of the cell. He looked like he was slowly going insane. He started to claw at his hair, ripping out clumps and letting it all fall to the floor around him. Seconds later his eyes twitched. “NIGHTMARE!” He yelled. His voice strained and went hoarse midway through his yelling, causing him to fall silent as his voice died in his throat.

“Finally, he’s shut the fuck up.” Ink said in an agitated tone, glaring at Cross as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. Cross merely whimpered and fell back against the walls of the cell, letting his body slide down so he could sit. He sniffled as he sat there and huddled against the wall, squinting his eyes shut as tears continued to stream down his face.

The room was silent, save for the occasional sniffle from Cross. Ink sighed and stared impassively at the floor. Finally some peace and quiet. He didn’t like the fact that Dream had specifically asked him to guard the two for them, especially when Cross was a loud, sobbing mess.

At least they were both silent now, it made things a little easier to put up with.

Ink blinked and focused his eyes when he heard the sound of something rumbling, followed by the sensation of the ground vibrating beneath his feet. “What the fuck?” he whispered to himself.

Error sat up and stood from the cot in his cell, looking just as perplexed as Ink at the rumbling. Cross stared down at the floor as he felt the room shake. He stood up and walked closer to the cell bars. “The fuck was that?” He asked in a raspy voice, still straining a little from all the sobbing and yelling. “I don’t know, it’s probably nothing.” Ink responded, though his expression seemed to look vaguely concerned. “Probably nothing? The ground just shook, that’s a pretty big nothing if you ask me.” Error said as he gestured to the floor.

The room shook once again causing Error to fall to the floor. He groaned in pain and growled a little when Ink snickered. “You’re such an asshole, Ink.” Error muttered as he stood back up, only to pause when he heard a loud noise from behind. He turned to see crevices slowly forming in the walls, getting larger and larger with every second. “Oh shit that looks dangerous, I’m outta here. I’m sure boss will understand.” Error’s eyes widened in shock and he rushed up to the cell bars “W-wait Ink! Can’t you at least give us the key so we can escape before this place collapses?” Error asked in a panicked tone, but Ink had already left the dungeon.

Error started trembling and glitching, tears sliding down his face as he turned to face the walls. He watched as each chip became a new crack that stretched across the wall, further weakening it. “I can’t believe he just left us here,” Cross mumbled, even through his raspy voice, Error could still hear the sorrow and hopelessness in his tone. Error sighed sadly, wandering up to the wall next to Cross’ cell. He tentatively lifted a hand up to the wall and touched in, pressing his forehead against it as he did so. “I wish we were in the same cell, at least we could comfort each other a little more before…” he shakily exhaled as the words died in his throat at the grim thought that they would probably die soon.

Both of them fell silent for a while, not even knowing what was worth talking about. Ten minutes went past without a sound from either of them, the silence occasionally being broken by the sounds of the walls crumbling and the ground shaking. Both of them lifted up their heads as they heard the shuffling of feet coming from outside the dungeon, clearly they were evacuating everyone. Everyone except the people locked in cells, after all, why would they bother to save criminals?

Error sighed as the shuffling of feet grew more and more distant, he sat himself down on the floor with his back leaning against the wall that separated him from Cross. The silence continued for a few more minutes. “Look on the bright side, at least we’ll get to be reunited with Nightmare. Then we can terrorise all of the other ghosts in the afterlife.” Cross chuckled hollowly as he spoke, sounding miserable yet still trying his best to lighten the mood. Error also chuckled a little, though he soon started to break down and sob.

Chunks of the wall broke free and fell to the ground below shortly after Cross and Error had fallen silent again. Both of them braced themselves as the rubble began to pile up. They listened as the roof above finally caved in, the sounds of wood splitting and glass shattering echoing as each floor above them collapsed. Error and Cross drew in one final breath before they saw the burnt and twisted floor boards bend and snap as the weight of bricks fell on top of them, pushing through the ceiling and crushing the dungeon below.

—–

“I-I did this… This is my fault.” Dream whispered through tears. In the distance, screams could be heard along with the sound of crackling flames as it cooked flesh and burnt entire forests to the ground.