Chapter 40

"No… No… No…"

After my hand drove the metal stake into Nepgear's neck, her blood seeps onto my hands. The sight is appalling to say the least, and that's a huge understatement.

I hate it when I get these dreams, they're just so… morbid. And I can't accept that I'm the one who's killing the people I hold near and dear to my heart. Whatever is causing these things to happen… I just want them to stop.

*Slish!*. An external force forces me to take the stake out of Nepgear.

Her lifeless body drops to the ground, lying at my feet. Tears start forming in my eyes. I'll never be able to live down that I was the one who killed the person I loved the most.

"Hmm… who's next?" The dark aura Andrew says behind me.

"How about… the smartass over there."

My leg forcefully kicks Nepgear off my feet before I begin to walk towards another victim. Martin is in the crosshairs this time.

"No… I won't do this… I can't kill any of my friends!"

"Come on Jackie boy, you already killed that friend of yours right there. Shouldn't it be easier the second time around?"

No it's not easier. In fact, it's going to be harder on me if I have to. The only people that I've ever considered friend are about to become victims of a metal stake. At my hand none the less.

Even if this is just a dream, the realistic feeling of it makes me scared and scarred all the same time. How could he say, 'shouldn't it be easier the second time around?"

Shaking my head back and forth furiously to say no, he just smiles with a deviant glee in his eyes.

"I'm sorry poor Jackie… but I'm afraid you don't get a choice on this. Now be a good little puppet and make a mess of them."

With a swipe of his hand, I start moving in Martin's direction. Armed with the same bloody stake, my eyes widen as I get closer due to the realization that I can't do anything to stop this.

As soon as I reach Martin, his eyes are filled with anger. Whether it's anger towards me or towards Andrew I'm unsure. What I do know is… he's about to die.

"I'm sorry…"

"Kuh…"

The stake pierces Martin's neck in the same manner that it did Nepgear's. The sound of flesh ripping is heard as soon as it is driven into the skin. His eyes role back from the pain he just had to endure.

The same thing that happened with Nepgear is happening with Martin. His blood runs down the stake and onto my hand. Now I have to hold the guilt that I've killed two of my best friends.

Martins body falls to the ground… lifeless like Nepgear's. Good lord… I can hardly look at this without getting the urge to throw up.

Andrew smiles in the background before letting off another one of his famous laughs. The maliciousness in his voice is starting to make my ears feel like they're bleeding.

"Who will be next I wonder?"

Andrew puts a hand on his chin as he ponders who he'll make me kill next. Does he really have to make me go in a certain order with their deaths? That's cruel even by my standards.

Whoever it is… I hope that I won't have to dream it too much longer. As I said before, these dreams feel real, to the point that I have tears when I wake up.

"How about the one who betrayed your trust?"

He points to Uni as he says that. I'm drawing a blank on how she betrayed my trust. If anything, she's been pretty alright to me.

"…"

Now I remember, she kissed me behind Nepgear's back. But I'm drawing a blank on how he knew that happened. The only people that know about it are Uni, Nepgear and I.

"W-why?"

"Why? Because it's fun to watch you squirm! How do you feel about it?"

I can't even muster up the energy to say something. The bitter revelation hits me… I have no choice in this matter. I'm completely powerless right now.

With a wave of his hand, my legs start moving again. This time with Uni as their destination. And a stake with her name on it is coming right at her.

I stop just short of her because the "puppet strings" controlling me tell me to do so. Uni's tears are all dried up, she has no more to give. It's painful to look at.

She looks me in the eyes with the most heart tugging puppy dog eyes I've ever seen. She's had to watch two people die at my hand, one of them was her best friend. Of course she'd have eyes like that.

"I'm sorry…"

My arm raises up again, and the metal stake begins to go down. As soon as it hits her, I wake up from this hellish nightmare.

"Ah!"

Finally being awake from such a dream, my heart rate is elevated tremendously, to the point that it feels like it's about to jump right out of my chest. It's kind of painful as well thanks to my new cut marks.

Cold sweat runs down my face as well as other parts of my body, eventually dropping to my sheets and pillowcase. Great… not only did I have a really bad dream, but I'm going to have to wash them later.

I'm just glad that it's over for now. Thinking that, my heart rate decreases back to its normal tempo, and the sweating stops.

Feeling relieved, I plop my head back down onto my pillow. I don't even care about the sweat stains, it feels relaxing almost to lie down on that spot.

Looking at the digital clock that I have on my nightstand, it's almost noon. Damn, I slept more than I had intended to. I usually never sleep this long. It's almost like some force was keeping me asleep.

Sigh, with the injuries that I gave Andrew last night, I shouldn't be seeing him for quite a while. So that might stop the dreams for a temporary time.

I only have these dreams after I fight him or when something really important happens in my life. That could explain why I had the dream on the day I first met them all. As well as mine and Nepgear's relationship progress moment days.

From now on, I might have to take things a little slower than I've been taking them. It might save me a lot of time with these horrible nights.

Thinking back to Andrew, I almost feel… bad for him. He went out of his way to try and prove a point to me. He even dishonored his opponent by attacking me with a weapon when I had none.

Even though he's a complete dick, I also feel bad for what I did. Maybe even to the point that I went too far with him last night. I could've killed him for all I know.

It was eating at the back of my mind last night and it's still eating at me today. Sure it felt good getting him off my back. But it went against everything I believe in.

I was blinded by rage, it clouded my vision. I became the beast that I never wanted to become, something feared by people.

Next time I see Andrew, I'll apologize that one time. But if he gets hostile with me ever again, and hurts anyone that I care about… I might not be able to control myself.

*Knock* *Knock*

The knocking at my bedroom door breaks me out of my intense thought. It can't be Maurice, he wouldn't have knocked.

It must be one of my friends coming to see me. More than likely Neptune or Nepgear. Or both for that matter since they're the only ones who know where I live.

"Come in."

My door opens revealing both Neptune and Nepgear. My lilac haired friends have come to see me.

It's not unusual for them to be here, just for them to be in my room. Most of the time we've just been in the living room for a little bit before going somewhere. Maurice must've let them in.

"Hi Jack buddy of mine!"

"H-hello and good afternoon."

Judging from their tones, Neptune is just being Neptune and coming here to see a friend on the weekend. Nepgear on the other hand has a hint of worrying in her voice. It warms my chest more than it is to see she cares about me.

"Hey… how's it going?"

I stretch a little out of my covers revealing the medical tape I have on my chest that's holding the gauze in place. I forgot to mention this earlier but my cheek wasn't as lucky.

Thanks to it not having a thick covering like the costume or the other half of the mask, I had to get stitches for it. Yeah, I had to go to the hospital for a little because Maurice got worried. So he does have a heart after all.

Nepgear starts to look more worried than she was. As for Neptune, she goes from cheery to one of her rare frowns.

"What's the matter? Never seen a guy without a shirt before?"

Neptune gives off a light chuckle at my attempt at a joke but goes back to her serious mode. Nepgear on the other hand blushes a little bit while retaining her concern in my health.

"It's just… that looks painful."

Looking at my chest one more time, I tap it a couple of times to assure her that I'm not in to much pain. This seems to calm both of them down to a certain degree.

"See? I'm completely fin-Ow!"

I tried to reach my arm out to show them that I could stretch just fine without pain. As soon as I started to move my sides and shoulder, a sharp pain engulfed my being.

My body falls back to my bed as the pain sets in. Neptune and Nepgear immediately put their worried faces back on as soon as I start playing "guess what face I am on the pain chart in the hospital room."

"Jack!" Nepgear calls out my name with severe concern in her voice. It hurts me even more to see her like this.

I try to get back up into a sitting position but Nepgear soon places a hand on me and sets me down again.

I raise a brow in curiosity, not expecting her to do that.

"You're in no condition to be doing anything today. You need some rest." Surprisingly Neptune is the one who said that. Suddenly she's become a figure that people could look up to.

"For today, you'll be taken care of by nurse Neptune and assistant nurse Nep Jr."

"Wait what?"

"No what's, just sit back and let us do our jobs."

Without saying any objections of mine, Nepgear goes along with her sister and tucks me in. I'm not a child Neptune, I can take care of myself.

I'm not going to get any say in this I can already tell. What started as a day where I would contemplate if I was a monster or not has turned into a day of getting taken care of by some friends of mine.

"Kill me…"

"Don't talk like that… I know!"

Nepgear gets a light over her head, figuratively of course. If she's willing to go along with her sister on this then I'm a little scared of what she's about to say.

"You're probably just a little hungry. Why don't I go and make us some breakfast?"

"It's the afternoon…"

Neptune comes over to me and stares me dead in the eyes. Now I'm really starting to get scared of what happens today.

"Anytime is a good time for breakfast. We'll go back to our place for now, and when we come back, we'll have breakfast and I'll be wearing a nurse outfit."

I honestly can't tell if she's joking about the nurse outfit or not. Knowing Neptune, I wouldn't want to take my chances.

"I'll make pancakes then." Nepgear's smile beams at me. Is she really going along with her sister on this? I knew she was a little airheaded and naïve but this is starting to get ridiculous.

"I'm… not hungry."

"Nonsense, once you get a bite of my dazzling little sisters pancakes you'll forget about all of your troubles."

I raise a hand in objection again but it's too late. Both of them have already left my room to head back to their apartment. I knew today was going to haunt me. And worst of all, I'm going to have another dream tonight!

A tear rolls down my cheek at the thought. The cooling tear feels good on the stitches on my face. All I do is smile actually.

"At least this is better than watching them die…"

A/N: So that just happened. I wasn't sure what direction this chapter was actually going to take. In the end I just wrote what my heart felt. As corny as that sounds it actually works.

I want to give a shout out to a person who gave me the idea for a part of this chapter. Nazo-XXX thank you. If you've given an idea before and I've forgotten to mention you, I am deeply sorry.

As always, continue to review, favorite and follow. And if you have any ideas as to what may unfold, by all means tell me. But don't spoil Noire's game for me; I still have to get it. The same goes for the rebirths, even though they're the console games for the go.

And as always, see you in the next update.

P.S., forty chapters strong now. Thanks for all the support I've been getting from everyone. I love you all, in a friendly way of course.