CHAPTER 4 -BURNING FLAMES

Gumball's had nightmares. However, as you might think, this wasn't because of Monde.

Gumball had seen his parents, far away on top of a hill. He didn't know what they were doing all the way there. He almost didn't see them. He ran up to meet them. When he eventually got there, his parents looked at him, almost incredulously.

"Who are you?" Nicole asked. Gumball raised an eyebrow.

"I'm Gumball."

"Okay Gumball. Let's take you to where your parents are." Nicole said with a smile.

"But you are my parents." Gumball said, cocking an eyebrow at them. "You've always been."

"I'm afraid you must be mistaken." Gumball noticed that his siblings where nowhere to be found.

"Where's Darwin and Anais?"

"Who are they?"

"You should know who they are," Gumball said. "They're your children."

"We don't have any children." She said, while looking at Richard. Then, they both started. walking down the hill.

"Wait!" Gumball said as he tried to chase after them.

"Why are you following us?" Richard asked.

"Because I'm your son."

"I think you have us mistaken. We're Nicole Watterson and Richard Watterson."

"And I'm Gumball Watterson!"

"Look kid, can you leave us alone? We're not your parents." RIchard said, before walking away, and vanishing. Gumball fell into the foetal position, pools of tears at the corner of his eyes. The world started falling away, until he felt himself in a vast nothingness. His tears went upwards, as if he was falling, or was upside down.

Gumball looked down, and saw the ground approaching him fast. Gumball braced for impact and then...

Bzzt Bzzt Bzzt

Gumball's alarm woke him up. Out of habit, he set the alarm on Saturday night anyway. Then, he remembered what had transpired on Saturday. Darwin was still mad at him probably. He was the kind of person that was hard to upset, but when you do... you'll regret it. Gumball heard Darwin approaching, and pretended to be asleep.

Darwin walked into the room, stealing a glance at Gumball, before getting something and walking out.

He heard him muttering something under his breath. Something about a secret. He couldn't make most of it out. He thought nothing of it. What a big mistake.

The next night he had another dream. He could see his family on the edge of a cliff.

Then suddenly, a huge black shadow rose from behind them. Gumball tried o get up and run, but he was being pulled back by an invisible bungee. No matter how hard he pulled he couldn't get even a centimetre closer.

The shadow grabbed his family and started to pull them down the cliff. The bungee snapped. Gumball ran as fast as his legs could take him and was just able to grab Nicole's hand.

"NO!" Gumball screamed, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes. He gripped her hand tightly.

"Don't let go! Please! Don't let go!" Nicole pleaded. Gumball was being dragged off the cliff, the shadow pulling harder and harder. Gumball dug his feet into the soft ground and pulled with all his might. Every time he brought Nicole away from the edge by 1 centimetre, she was pulled by the shadow by 2 centimetres.

Nicole's hand slipped from his grip and she fell, screaming "GUMBALL!" The whole way down. There was a light breeze, and he heard a small voice say to him

"You could've held on for longer. You let them go. You wanted them to go."

"No I didn't! That's crazy!"

"You wanted them to go." The wind spoke to him again, whispering in his ears.

"Shut up! No I didn't!"

"Then why did you let go?"

"I DIDN'T!" Gumball screamed at the top of his voice.

"Don't deny what happened Gumball." The voice spoke.

"But that's not what happened."

You're not only lying to me, but yourself."

"SHUT UP! STOP LYING TO ME!"

"I can only speak the truth, Gumball. And the truth is you let them go. You could've held on for longer, you might've even saved their life. You gave up. You're a quitter. You're a loser, Gumball."

"NO I'M NOT!" Gumball screamed before realizing he wasn't there any more. He was in bed. It was a dream.

"Gumball you need to get ready for school." Darwin said, before turning away. he still looked mad. not that Gumball was surprised.

"What time is it?" Gumball asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Look out the window." Darwin said matter-of-factly.

Gumball looked outside only to see the school bus one house away. He jumped out of bed, more awake than he had ever been in the morning.

School had been over hours ago. Monde walked down an empty alley way, before darting into the shadows. He checked around him before activating an ancient rune that let him communicate with the beings in his own dimension. It was a channelling rune.

"Լավ է արել , դուք նախշավոր , թե ինչ է այս միջոցներ" He said, as his eyes started glowing. He blinked, and he knew the rune had worked.

"Have you got the rune yet?" It said, its voice cold.

"Calm down Cipher, I'm getting there. It's just so much fun watching these humans. They're like putty."

"There's no time!"

"I know, but just watching them destroy themselves just because of one small possession is so much fun!"

"Get the rune by tomorrow." 'Cipher' said, his voice icy calm.

"Tomorrow?" Monde immediately regretted as soon as it had left his mouth.

"You will regret that." 'Cipher' said. Monde could hear the smirk in his voice. He could also see it, but that is not the point.

Monde started to get lifted in the air by his neck.

"Tomorrow is the deadline. No questions." 'Cipher' said.

"Okay," Monde managed to choke out, as he was released from his grip.

The rune was wearing off now.

"Good," something said. It was lost in the wind.

His eyes faded to their normal colour as Monde slumped to the ground.

'Stupid meat sack.' he thought to himself as he pushed himself off the ground.

'If only I had my original form. In this stupidly weak body my magic is so limited. I can't even cast a soul-stealing incantation. The last time a human saw my true form though, they killed themself from terror. That was a fun day.' Then, he had an idea. He just needed to find a way to possess cat though.

"I can't even possess someone without making a deal in this stupid oxygen wasting lump!" Monde said, this time out loud. He sighed. He was starting to regret agreeing to be put on this body. 'It'll be worth it!' They said. 'All the humans will be cowering before you!' They said.

Liars.

Gumball was deep asleep. The nightmares had ceased after a while. But he saw a figure. It was tall and dressed in aMost of his face was to brght to make out, but he saw that he was wearing goggles. Behind him were huge wings. He didn't know who or what it was, but then it spoke. It held up a picture of Monde in his form that he met while he was asleep.

"Do you recognise this symbol?"

"Yes. He's a demon."

"So you must have seen him in his true form. With demons, when you reveal yur true form to a human or any species that are inferior, it means that that person must be killed. I'm, well, we don't really need to know what I am but I know that I want to offer something. The ability to use some magic every once in a while. Human bodies weren't made for magic so it'll be very limited, But I sense magic in you. Do we have a deal?" It said, stretching its hand out, which was lit with blue fire."

"I don't know...," Gumball said skeptically. "Something feels fishy."

"Trust me." It said.

There was a slight pause, as Gumball thought it over. 'What's the worst that can happen?' Gumball thought to himself as he shook its hand. Suddenly, it looked like he was ... glitching. There was static and fizzing appearing all over his body. Now Gumball could make out his face. The thing pulled off his goggles so that Gumball could see its eyes. Blood red. The static started spreading across his body like wildfire. Starting at his feet, it worked its way up, and up, and up, until finally it reached the top, engulfing Monde in static. Then Monde stretched out his arms and the static was sent away, and Gumball could see the form he always used in his dreams.

Gumball looked up at the being in front of him and stepped back. He was bigger than he remembered.

"That was so much easier than I expected!" Monde cackled, before getting rid of his disguise and popping out in his true form.

"What did you just do to me?"

"Nothing. Yet."

"What do you mean?"

Monde was still smiling like a maniac. "You just gave me access to possess you whenever I want!"

"What?"

Monde suddenly started bursting out into laughter. A wall of fire surrounded them and grew taller and taller.

"Don't even bother trying to break the deal. It's no use! It's impossible!"

"I'll kill you!" Gumball screamed a he tried to run up to Monde and kick him in the face. He was stopped mere centimetres away from his face. His 'smile' had completely disappeared. He squinted and sent Gumball flying backwards, before he was met with an invisible wall separating him from the fire that was burning and hot and still rising.

"Well isn't this interesting?" Monde said, growing ten times bigger. He said the last word several octaves down. The fire surrounding them flared up as he spoke.

Gumball flinched.

"Don't bother being a hero cat, because this is what happens to heroes in my world." Monde said, as he started fading away. The invisible wall suddenly disappered and the wall of fire exploded everywhere, engulfing him. He could almost feel the ... cold?

Gumball slowly started to wake up, realising that the reason he was so cold was because the blanket had been ripped off of him.

Gumball groaned.

"It's about time you woke up." A stern voice said. He recognised as only his mother's.

Gumball sighed before getting out of bed and stomping don the stairs begrudgingly, trying to catch up .to his mother's fast footsteps.

Gumball sat at the kitchen table and got out his cereal and poured his milk (half on the table). Nicole left the room to go and get ready for more work at the Rainbow Factory.

Gumbal started to feel something funny. It was as if something was pushing against him, but it was falling into him at the same time. Gumball blinked, and when he re-opened his eyes, they were red.

Gumbal sat in a huge black void, stretching infinitely. Gumball shivered. He looked up to the massive screen in front of him. It looked like a gigantic TV screen. He had no idea why it was there. Suddenly, the TV screen switched itself on. He saw blue feet and hands that he recognised as his own. Gumball was even more confused than before. Then, a thought struck him. He remembered when Monde had said to him that he had permission to enter in and out of his body or something.

He frowned. Then, on the big screen, he saw one of his (or maybe not his, he didn't know) hands reach out to a cupboard. He remembered that Nicole had told him that there were a lot of precious thing to her inside that cupboard and that he shouldn't touch any of them. Not Gumball opened the cupboard and grabbed an album of picture. He saw a picture of Nicole and her mother playing in the park, a picture of her and Richard on their wedding day and a picture of when Nicole and her parents went to Daisy Land.

Nicole was still looking around for her suit.

Not Gumball threw the album onto the floor. It was clear he couldn't care less. Then, he started looking through all the cupboards and before finding what he was looking for. A lighter. It dawned on Gumball what Not Gumball was going to do.

"No! Don't!" Gumball said, running up to the screen and punching it. Gumball knew how precious that book of memories and that cupboard was to his mother. He knew that Nicole would be heartbroken to find all those pictures turned into ash on the floor. That album was a part of her life.

Not Gumball finally got the lighter to turn on, and slowly lowered it to the album. He could hear under Not Gumball's breath, he was counting.

"3, 2, 1..."

Gumball felt himself being pulled forwards with incredible force and Gumball closed his eyes. The whole world felt as if it had rushed past him, and he ended up in front of the burning album, with a lighter. Before he could do anything, Nicole walked round the corner, wearing the suit she had bought the day before.

Gumball could see the look of horror twist her face.

Gumball felt a horrible feeling coarse through his veins. A horrible feeling of dread. His breathing was slowly getting rapid.

For more than a moment, it felt like the whole world was at a standstill, time had no more dominion. He was in the now, and now, Nicole was in front of her watching her life turn to ash.

Nicole stood there, mouth agape. She thought Gumball knew better than this. She was heartbroken. She finally recovered from the initial shock. Her voice was not angry as Gumball thought it would be. It was hurt. Empty. Gumball could feel the lump in her throat as she tried to keep salty, bitter tears from trailing down her face like a waterfall.

"How would you feel if the most important thing to you burned in front of you eyes?"

The feeling of dread increased. Darwin and Anais walked around the corner. Anais had the sense to put the flames out.

"Gumball, I was starting to forgive you but this is just horrible.

Nicole kneeled in front of her most prized possession. Ashes. All ashes. Finally, she could keep out the tears no more. Strangled sobs echoed around the silence.

Gumball almost cried himself.

"I'm so sorry!" Gumball cried, trying to make a wrong a right. He didn't succeed.

"Please, don't" Nicole whispered. She silently stood up and left the room, along with Darwin and Anais, leaving Gumball standing in front of a pile of ashes.

Monde laughed.

LONGER CHAPTER! :D are you proud of meh?

Thanks for reading, don't have much to say...

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~TheCheeseNub