#lea meadows

You groggily slammed your hand on the table next to your bed until you were able to locate the phone emitting the annoying sound before sinking back into your bed, your face in your pillow.

But then you felt a spark of inspiration, and felt the need to get up and draw the guy while you still remembered him. So you climbed out of bed, sat right down at your desk, and pulled out a sketchbook.

You quickly scribbled down what he looked like, too lazy to put in any more effort that early in the morning. You remembered that his entire body and clothes were pitch black, except for his single left ‘eye’, which glowed blue.

In picture form, he honestly looked kinda cute for a melty puddle abomination. Now that you would recognize him, you wondered if he would ever bother messing with you again.

As it turned out, you kept seeing him… again and again. It didn’t matter if it was at night, or you ‘accidentally’ dozing off at any given moment; you saw him every time you fell asleep long enough for your mind to conjure anything up.

But because of this first experience, seeing him became like a trigger that instantly made you realize you were dreaming, and that you had nothing to fear.

You began to wonder whether he really was in your imagination or not. Although he had said he was real, why would you even believe that? Sure, he felt real, but you saw him a dream. Your brain tries to convince you of weird things sometimes.

At the same time, Nightmare was desperate to get you scared of him. Your lack of fear really seemed to be irritating him. But if that was the case, why why was he bugging you all the time? You of all people, anyway. What made you so special?
 One day, you asked him.

And his answer? “Oh, I’m just waiting until a really horrible time in your life, during which I plan to absorb you because you have a powerful soul or some crap like that.”

“Ah. Sure,” you replied, not taking him seriously.

Somehow, sooner or later, most of your interactions turned into totally normal conversations. You just started talking to him about your life. Ranting about people you didn’t like. And though he would insist that he couldn’t care less, he still listened. Sometimes he gave you terrible advice that was so bad that it seemed like he was joking, and that you definitely didn’t act on.

It started to become kind of fun. You started looking forward to seeing him, talking to him, and finding out how he would react to things. He was kind of mean sometimes, but you could tell he was doing it on purpose. You always felt like you could just talk to him about whatever you wanted.

But then… the horrible time came.

Things quickly became overwhelming. Your everyday life was beginning to scare you. You were losing the courage to continue to face your practically insolvable troubles. Your friends were turning on you, school was terrible, you had zero support from anyone anymore…

… except one person. The last person you felt you could rely on.

And so, one Sunday afternoon, in a fit of panic, you broke out the sleeping pills and forced yourself to sleep.

As the drugs began to work, you closed your eyes and you suddenly found yourself in some kind of infinite grey space under a gloomy sky.

“What’s the matter, kid?” you heard Nightmare ask behind you. You spun around to see him grinning widely. His question didn’t line up with his expression at all. Yet… it didn’t concern you. It was normal.

“Nightmare, I…” you started, your lips trembling as you took shaky breaths. You felt exactly as you had before falling asleep. Slowly, you took steps towards him. “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore… I don’t wanna go back to school tomorrow…”

As your anxious thoughts began to overflow, so did tears. You shook your head, cursing quietly, wiping the tears on your hoodie sleeve. You sighed as more panic welled up inside you and you allowed your legs to give out and collapsed to the floor.

“I hate this,” you mumbled. “I hate my school, I hate everyone at my school, and my parents don’t give a crap.”

Despite the apparent lack of visible floor, you heard footsteps coming towards you, and then a hand was on your head.

Nightmare got down on one knee, and pulled you into a hug. He surprisingly didn’t feel as melty as he looked.

“There there, stop cryin’ and all that,” he said. “I know just the thing you need.”

For a moment, you felt safe.

But then… he shoved you to the floor and pinned you.

“Time to become a part of me, (Y/N)~”

Tendrils wrapped around you.

“W-Wait–No–” you stammered, but to no avail.

Your subconscious heart viciously thumped in your chest.

Or… was this real? You were hardly sure anymore.

“What’s the matter, (Y/N)? I’ll take you some place far away,” Nightmare said, chuckling darkly as he ran his hand down your cheek to your chin.

“Nightmare, d-don’t–” you tried to say, but you weren’t sure what else was going to come out of your mouth.

Your breath quickened. The situation was incredibly real. You were basically on the verse of death. Or… whatever happened to people when Nightmare absorbed them.

Now he was starting to melt his weird black substance onto you. His relatively normal feel was totally gone. It was like his hand was spreading on your face–

“No,” you muttered under your breath. “NO!”

You kicked him in the stomach. Er, ribs? Whatever. That general area.

It sent him FLYING.

You got to your feet, wiping the black substance off your face.

“Sorry bout that, Nightmare,” you said. “But in lucid dreams… the DREAMER is the one in control.”

Nightmare stood as well. “Oh wow, look at you! Look how CONFIDENT YOU ARE,” he growled, his single blue eye glowing brightly. “If you didn’t want me to ABSORB you, then why would you purposefully put yourself to sleep like that?”

“I wanted to TALK,” you shot back. “You’re the only friend I have left.”

Nightmare burst into psychotic laughter.

“You IDIOT!” he exclaimed. “You actually think I was EVER your friend?! Kid. I am the representation of fear, and I’m here to take you for YOURS.”
 His tendrils shot across the space, wrapped around your torso and arms and lifted you into the air.

“YOU’RE BECOMING PART OF ME WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT,” Nightmare’s voice echoed loudly in the space.

“Geez, I ask for moral support and this is what I get?” you muttered. You gasped as Nightmare pulled you back towards him rather forcefully, until you were probably inches apart.

He took hold of your head with both hands, and again, the substance was rapidly spreading onto you. You tried to struggle, but it was useless. The control you felt you had a moment ago was completely gone.

There was no way out. Silently accepting your fate, you closed your eyes and let your body go limp.

But then, there was a nearby burst of light. Nightmare recoiled from it, covering his face with his arm as he dropped you to his feet.

“Ugh, what the hell…?” you grumbled, propping yourself up on one arm. You turned to see what the light had been.

Right where the light had come from, there was another skeleton. He actually looked rather majestic, being dressed in bright, warm colors and rocking a cape with a sun symbol on it.

“Is he wearing a fricking tiara?” you thought, raising an eyebrow.

“Nightmare, get away from the human!” the sunny skeleton shouted, pointing his golden scepter at your attacker. His voice was significantly higher pitched than Nightmare’s.

“Oh, Dream, lil bro, you’re MISTAKEN,” Nightmare answered. “You see, this human LIKES my company.”

“Yeah, until you tried to kill me,” you grumbled from the floor. You would have stood up by now, but a tendril was holding you down.

“I wasn’t trying to kill you, I was trying to ABSORB you, there’s a difference,” Nightmare told you like it was obvious. He turned his attention back to the other skeleton, who was apparently his brother. “Listen up, Dream, it’s been a long time since I found a human with a soul this powerful. I’m not about to let it go to WASTE.”

“H-Human!” Dream called to you. “Don’t worry! You… you don’t have to be scared of Nightmare–”


“I’m NOT scared of him!” you shouted. Nightmare whipped his head towards you, looking a bit offended. “He’s the only person left who still listens to me! As much as he may not want to believe it, he was NICE to me!”

“Wow, your life must REALLY suck if that's your definition of nice,” Nightmare commented.

“Let the FRICK go of me,” you ordered, smashing your fist on Nightmare’s foot. He let out a yelp of pain, and you had just enough time to stand up. “Anyway, I’m at an awful point. I don’t know if I’m willing to wake up and go back to my life. I don’t even know if what’s happening right now is real or not. But one thing I’m SURE of is that he is ALL I HAVE LEFT.” You pointed at Nightmare as you spoke.

Dream looked speechless.

“… Geez kid, you’re embarrassing me,” Nightmare said. “But sounds to me like you might wanna stay with me forever, huh?” You flinched as he put an arm over your shoulder. “What do you think I was doing–”

“… Nightmare,” Dream began.

“Ugh, what?”

Dream suddenly looked very teary-eyed. “I’m so proud of yoooouuuu,” he sniffled. “You made a friend…”

“WHAT?!” Nightmare instantly let go of you. “NO I DIDN’T!”

“Get a load of this,” you started, grinning. “He hugged me earlier.”

Dream squealed.

“WHY DO YOU THINK I DID THAT?!” Nightmare yelled, clearly frustrated.

“Cuz we’re friiiieeeends,” you continued to mock him, even though you very well knew exactly what that was about.

Nightmare lifted you from the ground with his tendrils again. “I WILL ABSORB YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW,” he threatened.

Dream held his scepter towards Nightmare. “Sorry Nightmare, I can’t let you do that! Especially not to your friend!” he declared.

“THEY’RE NOT. MY FRIEND,” Nightmare insisted.

“Hate to break it to you, but my opinion cancels out yours,” you said.

“I CAN CHOOSE TO IGNORE IT. And you know what else I can choose to ignore?” He pointed at Dream. “I can ignore YOUR attempts to stop me. Party’s over! The kid is coming with ME.”

Nightmare pulled you uncomfortably close to him, and stretched his hand out on your forehead. You had no idea what was happening, but you felt something strange in your head, and the dream space began to collapse in front of you.

You saw Dream reaching his hand out towards you before your eyes shot open and you found yourself back in reality.

You immediately sat up, your hand clutching your shirt. Your breath was heavy, and you could hear your heart thumping. What exactly… had just happened? Had you actually been in danger or was it just your imagination–

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” a familiar voice said next to you. You turned your head in alarm, and right beside your bed was none other than Nightmare.

“You–you’re real–” you stuttered. “Or am I still asleep? Agh, I’m so confused!”

“Shh,” Nightmare hushed you. “Wouldn’t it be bad if someone walked in and saw me?”

“Well–Yeah?”

“Then it would be smart to leave quickly,” Nightmare told you.

Your breath hitched as he reached down towards you… and picked you up bridal style with one arm and a tendril?

“The heck are you doing?” you asked.

“Remember that thing I said about taking you with me?” Nightmare asked you. “Yeah, I wasn’t joking.”

“What?! Why?! Where?!”

Nightmare put his hand on your forehead again. “Dream knows where your subconscious is now, kid. If I don’t bring you back to my castle, he’ll block my contacts with you, even if he does believe we’re friends or whatever.”

“You have a fricking castle?!”

“Huh. Wow. You really aren’t concerned about the fact that I’m literally going to force you away from your world right now?”

You looked down. “… No. No I’m not. But can I pack a bag or something?”

Nightmare didn’t look happy. Then again, he never really did.

“… Fine,” he grumbled. “But don’t take too long or I’m dragging you out with what you have.”


He let you down and you immediately ran over to your backpack and dumped everything out of it.

A normal person would’ve been horrified. Some strange, melty skeleton monster with tendrils coming out of his back giving you no choice but to go with him wouldn’t have the best effect on anyone but you.

Yes, you were nervous. But you were finally getting away from your awful life! No more bullies, bad teachers, careless parents, stupid tests, bad education systems… and if Trump became president, you wouldn’t be here!
 (a/n: yes this is that old–pff, you ended up being right though Lea)

“You seem oddly excited,” Nightmare pointed out.

“My life sucks,” you told him. “So yeah. This is pretty much a positive change.”

“Plus, I get to be with you all the while,” you thought. “It’s ironic how I still trust you.”


"You know, the only reason I’m doing this is because Dream will get to you first if I don’t,” Nightmare added. “In fact, I was planning on ditching you just to build up your fear. But then you showed up early, and so did my brother.”

“So you know that I trusted you and planned on using that against me, and were gonna try to make me go mad from your lack of presence?” you asked. “Huh. You’re smarter than you look.”

Nightmare frowned. “Excuse me?”

“I hate to break it to you, but that was on my list of ‘possible things Nightmare might do to piss me off’.”

“I’M smarter than I look?” Nightmare was very offended by that statement. “Isn’t this going in the wrong direction or something?”


“Dude, you’re the guy who dead-seriously told me that I should burn down someone’s house just because I don’t like them. Your smartness has kind of demonstrated itself through our conversations.”

Nightmare scoffed. “Please, kid. You know nothing about me. I, on the other hand, know everything about you. Because which one of us did nothing but talk about themself? Right. You.”


You smiled. “I’m referring to personality, Nightmare… All goes in a conversation.”

“… Hurry up and pack already,” Nightmare muttered. Victory to you.

Just under ten minutes later, you’d gotten all the things you wanted together and packed them. “Okay, I’m done,” you told Nightmare.

“About time,” he said. “Come here. If I’m not holding onto you, the world jump is less than a safe ride.”


“U-Uh. Okay?” you awkwardly answered as you took small steps towards Nightmare.

He groaned, impatient with your doubt. His tendrils flung out and pulled you right into him, after which he put his arm around you.

Your heart skipped.

… Wait. Why did it do that?


“I saw what you put in that bag,” Nightmare said. “There is no way I’m picking you up again.”

“There is no way I was leaving without my video games,” you told him, turning your head away so you weren’t right in each other’s faces.

For the third time, Nightmare’s hand came to your forehead. But this time, you felt something even stranger than before; in fact, it weakened you instantly and you fell limp in Nightmare’s arms, which were both wrapped around you by then.

The world began to spin, disorienting you even further than what just happened did. Your mind started going blank, and soon enough, you were completely passed out.

Of course, some of that may have had to do with the sleeping drugs in your system.

When you awoke, you weren’t entirely sure where you were. Wherever it was, it certainly felt different from where you were before.

You were on a bed. You sat up, only to be greeted with a splitting headache. You flinched as the pain surprised you–was this Nightmare’s fault? The heck did he do to your head, anyway?

Oh, right. Nightmare.

He took you to his castle, because apparently he had one. Judging by the dreary yet regal appearance of the room you had begun to glance around, it looked like he wasn’t kidding. It looked like something out of a fairy tale, almost.

As you considered it, you must have been unconscious for a decent amount of time, seeing as you were utterly alone in the room. You were sort of expecting him to be there when you woke up. Sort of.

“Nah, what are the chances,” you thought. Maybe he actually had a lot of things to attend to and you got way too used to his frequent company.

You pushed through your annoying migraine and got to your feet, seriously hoping you could get your hands on some painkillers as soon as you could.

The room was odd; there seemed to be no sources of light, and the room felt like a dark room, but you could see just fine.

You started to inspect the room, still feeling mildly light-headed, and a mirror on the opposite wall soon caught your notice.

You made your way towards it, and let out a dry laugh. “I look like a zombie,” you mumbled. There were dark circles under your eyes and your hair was a bit of a mess.

As you were distracted, you suddenly felt something brush against your side. You yelped and froze in place.

“Behind you,” that familiar voice hummed in your ear.

You groaned, turning on your heel. “For crying out loud,” you grumbled. “Don’t do that! You scared the crap out of me!”

“That’s the point,” Nightmare replied.

“Jerk,” you pouted. “So how long was I out for?”

“Around three hours. I was getting really impatient, you know. But at the same time, what different would it even make.”


You put your hands in your pockets. “So, uh… what exactly happens now? And what did you do with my stuff?”

“Oh right,” Nightmare said. “You probably have no idea why you’re here. Well, you may have some idea, but you want clarification, huh.”


“Yeah, pretty much,” you replied.

Nightmare gave you a gentle push into a nearby chair, seating you. “Listen up, kid. You’ve got most of the details. You have a powerful soul. You know that thanks to all the times you’ve heard it. I needed to bring you here because of Dream finding you. That’s all clear.”


You held your hand up. “Wait, actually, let me guess. You were sick of interruptions to the whole absorbing fiasco?”


Nightmare snapped his fingers in your direction. “Bingo! That makes this easier. Maybe that’s why I stick around, you think fast enough for me to keep my minuscule amount of patience.”


“But…” you continued. “if that’s the case… why wouldn’t you just do that now…?”


“What? Absorb you?” Nightmare asked. He chuckled and pushed you down onto the table next to you, pinning you. “Why, (Y/N), if you wanted me to, you should’ve just said so~”


“Ahahahaha no,” you laughed awkwardly and high-pitchedly.

Nightmare laughed out loud. “I’m joking,” he told you, backing away. “You know that whole forehead thing I’ve pulled a few times? I’ve been extracting your fear and converting it into power for immediate use. Now that I have plenty of time, I can just wait until you’re all freaked out again and then I’ll do it!”

You frowned. “Well now I know what not to do.”

“Good thing you have almost zero control over that.” Nightmare paused. “Oh yeah. Your stuff is over there, under that table.” He pointed off in a distance, and sure enough, there was your backpack.

“Speaking of that, do you have a TV?” you asked out of nowhere.

“… Somewhere, probably,” Nightmare answered. “It’s not like there’s cable here, though.”


“… But there’s internet, right?”

Nightmare shrugged.

Life may have changed in a way you were not prepared for.

additional shenanigans that were connected to this story but not actually in it

additional shenanigan 1: corny alternate version of the dream scene turning point where everyone is out of character

“… Do you give up?” Nightmare asked you softly.

You looked at the ground over his shoulder.

“… I don’t want to go back, that’s for sure,” you said.

He suddenly pushed you to the floor and pinned you.

“… (Y/N), I’m going to make you a part of me,” Nightmare told you.

His tendrils began to wrap around you, but you didn’t flinch.

“… Go ahead,” you mumbled, closing your eyes. You quickly began to feel like you were plunging into darkness, but it didn’t bother you. Nothing really bothered you anymore.

(I just want to be with you.)

You heard Nightmare sigh.

And then, you felt something pressed against your lips. You opened your eyes a crack to see, and it turned out to be Nightmare’s teeth.

Since he was a skeleton and didn’t have lips, that would mean…

… he was kissing you?
 You quickly realized that you had said your thoughts out loud, and your cheeks heated up.

Nightmare backed away. “… Look kid, there’s no point in absorbing you if you aren’t going to be scared about it,” he said.

You tilted your head a little. “What?”

“But I can’t just FORGET about this,” he continued. “I don’t think you realize how powerful your soul is. If you go back to your normal life, you’ll continue to rely on me for comfort. It’ll make a cycle. And that just really isn’t gonna work.”

“What are you getting at…?”

He held his fingers up in front of your face. “Wakey wakey.”

Nightmare snapped his fingers, and in an instant, you were awake. Except… he was still there, in reality, holding you up from your bed with one of his arms.

“N-Nightmare?” you stuttered.

“News flash, kid, I’m taking you with me,” he told you casually.

“What? Where? Dude, my parents are going to walk in and see you--”
 “No they’re not. And I’m taking you to my castle.”

“You have a fricking castle?!”

Nightmare held a finger up to your mouth. “Shh,” he hushed you. He picked you up bridal style, and the world began to spin. The next thing you knew, you were no longer at your house, but rather in a bedroom that looked like it was from an evil castle out of a Disney movie.

But you were still kind of drugged, so you were pretty much passed out again within seconds. Nightmare groaned.

“… Idiot,” he grumbled, laying you on the room’s giant bed, presumably his.

“See you in your nightmares, kid.”

additional shenanigan 2: a piece of the story that I wrote that the actual story never even got close to also it’s extremely cheesy

“I’m SICK OF THIS! I’m sick of YOU!”

Nightmare stormed towards you and forcefully slammed you down onto the nearby bed, his hands on the left and right of your head. (oh boi nightmare)

“I don’t CARE if you have hardly any fear in you. I’m tired of dealing with all this! I’M MAKING YOU A PART OF ME, AND MOVING ON WITH MY FRICKING LIFE.”


Despite the expression on his face, his tendrils remained hovering. His expression gradually turned to one of hurt as he stared at your shocked expression.

“Yet… I can’t,” he finally choked out. “Why can’t I do it…?” His head fell to your neck. “WHY CAN’T I DO IT, (Y/N)?!”

You felt a drop on your neck. Then another. But it wasn’t his ‘melt’. They felt like… tears.

“I don’t understand… why is this happening to me…?” Nightmare said. “Why do you make me feel things I haven’t felt since before…” He trailed off. “No. It’s not that. It’s MORE than just that.” He lifted himself back up, returning to that looming position. “There’s something about you. It makes me feel tense and weird. Like… like I just…”

His eye twitched and he chuckled darkly. While it kind of was typical Nightmare behavior, you were surprised anyway because it was out of place.

“Kid, I think I really want to do something else to you,” he said, grinning widely. “Can you even BELIEVE THAT? I think you know what I mean.” He took hold of your chin and forced your head up.

Your heart jumped. But somehow, you stayed calm anyway, and smiled crookedly.

“… I don’t know, mind demonstrating?” you asked in the most provoking voice you could manage.

Nightmare looked a bit surprised by your comment. “What–seriously? I was expecting something more along the lines of ‘omg no, dafrick is wrong with you’–”

“Dude, just kiss me already,” you said. ‘I have no idea how the frick skeletons kiss but I’m sure you do it somehow.”
 Nightmare gave a small laugh. “Now isn’t this ironic,” he said.

“Indeed it is.”

Nightmare leaned down.