#ribboon

Antasma took a moment to look the situation over, biting his lip. This certainly didn’t look like your average nightmare, but Ribboon was a panicked, crying mess.

“My name is Antasma. King Boo sent me here.” He replied after a moment. “To vake you up.”

“I would if I could--I hate it here!” Ribboon whined, looking back to the large crack that kept leaking an concerning amount of water.

“Vy are you doing this?” He then asked, noting the short level of water that had already risen around the area. Even if he had been able to regain his normal form, he couldn’t float to avoid it. 

“I hate water... I don’t--I can’t let it out. There was something banging against the glass earlier, making the crack bigger, and I don’t wanna--” They started, but began to tremble, and shut their eyes.

Antasma remained silent, now doing his best to fully take in what this obstacle was. It stretched as far as he could see in either direction, but only this spot had a crack. How strange for dreams to work that way.

“Why should I even wake up?” They suddenly asked in a small voice. “I’m a terrible person.”

He blinked. Now that was certainly unexpected. What would cause the child to say something like that about themself?

“I don’t think it’s just water behind this wall... I think my memories are, too. I-I killed somebody. Who knows what other horrible things I did before I died? I DON’T WANT TO REMEMBER!”

They started to breathe rapidly, giving in to their panic. Had they an actual set of lungs, this might have been a problem, but it was still concerning.

“To the point you vould rather fight this losing battle?” Antasma asked in a low voice. 

This made Ribboon open their eyes again, looking at the man through their tears. 

“What do you mean by that?”

“You can’t hold up this vall forever. This nightmare is parallel to vatever is going on in your psyche. You can hold it up, but eventually it vill break. Having it break against your efforts to keep it stable vill only cause more damage.”

Ribboon stared at him as he explained. Antasma was quite familiar with situations like this. One’s nightmares often held more reality than one would think at face value. 

“Not even I know vat that damage vould be. Perhaps you vill sleep forever, as you hoped. But perhaps something much vorse could happen.”

“Then how do I prevent it from breaking?” They asked.

“You don’t.” He shook his head. “It vill break, vether because it becomes too strong for you, or you let it. For your own vell-being, I suggest you--”

“NO!” They shouted, making Antasma fold his ears back.

“I... I can’t... I can’t, or they’ll want to know what’s wrong... How can I tell them I’m so deplorable? I’m going to remember terrible things I did, and I don’t want to.” They managed through tears.

At this point, Antasma sighed. He had not expected such language from the child, even if he wasn’t familiar with them. King boo hadn’t alluded to it, so had they kept it secret all this time, or was he just that oblivious?

“Even if you think you’re deplorable...” He started, looking to the water-covered ground. “King Boo vent to a lot of trouble to find me. Just to help you. Are you just going to svat that avay?”

Ribboon remained near-silent, only letting a few sniffles out and then. 

"Wh-When Douboole sent his mom away in the Paranormal Portal... King Boo was furious... What’ll he do when he finds out I killed somebody?” They finally asked in a whisper.

At that point, Antasma’s face went blank. This child killed somebody? What in the world was King Boo dealing with--and how come he didn’t know? Did they just not trust him? He was their guardian, he should--

He grit his teeth, trying to come up with something to say, but finding his voice gone. 

“You need to make a decision.” He said at last. “There are people who care about you in the vaking vorld, after all. Vill you really be so selfish as to let your fear take you over in this moment?”

It was Ribboon’s turn to be unable to speak. They glanced at Antasma, then at the glass wall, and finally their own reflection.

“I’m scared.” They managed.

“It’s natural to be.” He said, walking closer to them. “But it’s for the best. Let the nightmare run its course. Then it can resolve properly, and perhaps you’ll be free of it.”

A few more moments passed in silence as Ribboon considered their options. Antasma sighed as he thought on the situation himself. How could King Boo be so careless as to let something like this happen? He would have to have a talk with him once he was out of this place.

“Okay.” Ribboon said.