hey guys! i am so sorry. i've had this uploaded to ao3 for about a week now, and since i am basically making that my primary fanfic writing account, i completely forgot about you fine readers! gomen.
also, i really recommend reading this on ao3: /works/508737/chapters/895851
anyway, here are some trigger warnings: 6l99d, g9re, and vi9lence. i'm sorry.
thank you, and enjoy chapter 2!
You decide to stay out of Bro's way and do your own thing, though you doubt he had any real business to deal with. Running a puppet porn site was an easy job, wasn't it? If course it was.
Easy easy business.
You get your beautiful, new, and very blue laptop from its case and carefully opened it on Dave's bed. You are careful not to get any fingerprints on the surface. You open Pesterchum and click on Jade's handle since suprisingly, Rose isn't on.
- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG] at 17:04 -
EB: i'm here!
EB: and still in one piece, god bless.
GG: congratulations! but john, i have to talk to you about serious real life issues!
EB: okay, jade.
EB: let's talk about serious real life issues.
EB: if i could, i would have put that in italics.
GG: :((((
GG: listen to me, john.
GG: i think you need to tell bro about your problem.
EB: what?! no way!
GG: john, what you are going through is important, and i'm afraid of what will happen to you in the future.
GG: you are away from your dad, and the only person who could help you is bro. he will understand.
EB: he probably won't give a shit. he just seems like that type.
EB: the type that doesn't give a shit.
GG: john, i think you need to tell him, and i refuse to talk to you until you do.
EB: JADE!
- gardenGnostic [GG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 17:10 -
Great. Just great. Now you, 18 year-old John Egbert, have to tell your best friend's older brother about your weird issue. The guy probably doesn't have time to deal with your bullshit. But you're going to have to do it anyway.
After a nap. Airplanes were tiring, and you could really use some time to recover. You close your laptop and rest your head onto Dave's pillow. You are looking at one of Dave's creepy jarred fetuses when you fall asleep.
The nightmare begins.
-
You are sitting in complete darkness. You try to look at your own hands, but see nothing. You blink several times, but you are still surrounded by black. Just black. It it maddening.
You stand up and look around but still see nothing. You can not abscond. You can only advance. So you do. You take a step, and something creaks and moans in the distance. You freeze, holding your breath, squeezing your eyes shut and biting your lip. You heart rate accelerates and you are shaking a bit, but you take a few more steps forward. You have no idea where you are aiming to go, but you move on.
There comes another moan, like the sounds of a large animal in distress, only more metallic. The sound is like a blade, it pushes past your skin and lightly grazes your soul itself. You shudder.
You move like a blind man, arms out in front of you. There is nothing there to comfort you. Just darkness.
With each step you hear a faint sound now, the metallic whale call a thing of the past. Every time your foot meets the seemingly nonexistent floor, the sound grows louder. It's shrieking, and it sounds mechanical and robotic and horrible in every way.
The screaming is the worst thing you've ever heard, and it sounds like all the tortured souls being released from Hell all at once.
But you see nothing. It is still completely dark. You bolt now, breathing heavily and trying to escape the sounds, but it's not working. It is all around you and the horrible din fills your ear and brain. You fall to the ground, covering your ears with your hands but it's not working. You have a massive headache and your ears and eyes are hurting like mad. Your eyes are shut and you see stars.
The very noise itself seems to channel through your body like blood, and you're not sure how much more of it you can take. You are surely going to die.
Then, it just stops.
Just like that, it stops. You open your eyes.
You see a glowing figure in the distance, bright and welcoming against the darkness. Even from where you currently are, you know it's your dad. He beckons for you to come, and you jump to your feet and run towards him. He is reaching out to you, and you grab his hand.
Right now, you dad looks like personified hope, dressed in all white, as usual, and a bright blue glow surrounding him. He pulls you into his chest, and you press your face into him, feeling his warmth.
Surprisingly, he is taller than you, and you feel as if you are 13 once again. Then, you had no problems, just a weird and fun life with your weird and surprisingly boring father.
Your dad holds onto you and sits down in an invisible chair of nothingness, and you laugh as he hugs you. You try to say tjat you miss him, but you can't. So you just enjoy this moment with your dad, hugging you. You are so happy that you are not alone. You lean into your dad a bit more and he hugs you tighter.
And tighter.
And tighter.
You are a little uncomfortable, so you try to pull away from him, but he keeps squeezing tighter and tighter until you can't breathe. You feel his arms pulling around you like rubber bands and to your surprise, that's exactly what they're doing. His arms are wrapped around your body like elastic, and you are being constricted.
You look up at your dad's face, a choice you instantly regret, because that certainly isn't your dad.
The entire bottom half of his face appeared to have been torn off, though his top row of teeth gleamed white against his exposed black gums. Even with most of his face gone you can see that his face is pulled into a cruel smile, and his eyes were completely black, like those of a demon.
You would scream, but you are too busy having the life squeezed out of you.
Your "dad" continues to constrict you, and then you hear a crack, and pain shoots through your body. You can't scream but your eyes shut immediately, and you hear more cracking and grinding. He is going to shatter every bone in your body.
As the pressure increases you feel every rib snap, your collar bones crack, your arms break like old twigs.
You can't black out in a dream, and it will take a miracle to wake you up.
Dad dumps you onto the ground, and you are in so much pain that you can barely register it all. You know it's not over, and you brace yourself for impact. He is standing in front of you now, his arms very normal looking now. He is just staring down at you, and you are terrified. Now, of all times, tears run down your face as you look up at the demonic face of your "father". The darkness is filled with the sound of you weeping.
Your vision is blurred with tears, but you can see as he brings his foot down onto your head. Hard.
With nearly inhuman strength, your head is stomped on again and again and again until it is reduced to a messy pile of blood, brains, and powdered skull.
You awake with a jolt and sit up, nearly hyperventilating. This was not your home, and you did not know what to do or where to go. Damn.
You stretch, and relief washes over you as you realize that your body is fully functional.
Jade is right. You really need to let Bro about this. At this point you don't give a shit about what he says or thinks. You just want comfort.
You get up and leave the room, still trembling slightly. Bro is in the living room, sitting on the futon. The TV is on but his head is bent down as if he were reading something. You know he isn't, since everybody knows that grown men don't read. Ever. It's sort of a universal rule.
He hears you come in, and points to the coffee table in front of the futon. There is a McDonalds Kid's Meal there, and you almost snort, but you are still too shaken to do that. So you go over to the futon and sit down next to Bro. He is sketching something in a sketchpad, and you glance over at what he is drawing. It looks like a smuppet, but you can't really tell because it's sketched really lightly. Not that you care, anyway.
You kind of sit there awkwardly for a few moments, ignoring your complimentary meal, and Bro turns to you. He sounds a little irritated when he speaks.
"What?"
You look at your hands, which are folded on your legs, and search for the right words.
"Bro, I have to talk to you about my problem." You say with a surprising confidence in your voice, and you look into the eyes behind the pointy shades. Bro looks as if he were about to make a joke, but when he sees the seriousness in your face, it spreads onto his like a virus.
"What kind of problem are we talking?" Bro asks. "I hope to God you're not wetting the bed."
"No, it's nothing like that!" You blurt defensively. Then you think again. "Okay, so maybe it is sort of like that..."
His eyebrows shoot up. "You're wetting the bed?"
"No! Shit!" You rub your temples with your index and middle fingers. "It's just that I have these really bad nightmares. Really bad ones. I don't think you'd understand."
"Maybe I will if you tell me more about it."
"Well, it's... Everything in these dreams just feel so real." You chew on your lip. "It's terrifying." Bro mutes the television now, and it only makes you even more nervous than you already are.
"How the hell is that terrifying?" He asks, his mouth twisting a little. The way he says it knocks you in the emotions a bit, and you frown.
"In every dream, I always end up dying a horrible death, and it's always unbelievably painful. Like, things no person should be able to live through." You feel as if you are going to burst into tears, but being the manly Egbert you are, you don't shed a single tear. Boy are you tough.
Bro scratches his prickly chin for a moment, and you imagine his dynamic older-brotherly superpowers kicking in.
"What do you want me to do about it?" He asks. So much for superpowers.
"Can you just check up on me when I sleep? Maybe wake me up if I'm kicking or something. My dad would usually check up on me and wake me up, and then we'd drink decaf coffee together in the middle of the night." You recall, a small smile creeping onto your face. You also remember the dream, and your crack of a smile is replaced with a tiny grimace.
" John," Bro says, trying to grab your attention back. You look at him before he continues. "Did you have one of these nightmares when you took a nap in Dave's room?"
You nod.
"What happened when you were dreaming?" He asks. He takes off his hat and begins tapping it against his knee.
"I can't really remember... Uhh, I remember my Dad was in it though. He killed me."
"Maybe you're feeling a bit homesick." You know that's not the case, but...
"Maybe that's the case this time, but it's not always my dad. I don't remember most of my nightmares anyway, but I know this isn't the first time I've been killed in my dreams by someone I know." You were telling Bro almost anything, and it felt nice, considering the only people who had known about your problem were and dad and Jade.
Bro pondered this for a moment, and replied simply,
"Here's the deal. Just go to bed tonight and don't think about anything. I'll see what I can do." He then rustles your hair, stands, stretches, and goes into his bedroom. You slouch into the futon, pouting. Bro had just given you shit-tier advice, and you are not all happy or satisfied. You grab at your meal and the remote, flipping through the channels until you reach something worth your time. You watch a Monty Python movie while picking at your food.
You really wish Dave was with you. Despite his being an idiot all the time, he could always make you laugh.
And you could really use a laugh right now.
Partway through some movie you are watching on BET, Bro plops down next to you, wearing a black wifebeater and orange boxers. He also seems to have retired the hat for the night.
"Movie night, I see." He says. "What are you watching?" You shrug and toss him the remote.
"Put it on something good."
Bro flicks through a few channels before coming to a stop on some old kung fu movies with subtitles. You two enjoy it and a variety of snacks.
During commercials you talk. You talk about filming your own kung fu movie, or Dave, or the shitty commercials themselves, and you laugh until you're out of gas.
You notice L'il Cal on the other side of Bro, and decide to bring it up.
"Bro," you say. "Why is Cal with you all the time? Like, what is he to you?" You wait for Bro to snort, but surprisingly, he doesn't.
"Well, he's my partner in crime for one."
"The crime being?"
"Runnin' my company. He's also been with me since I was a tot. You could say he's my..." A pause for effect. "My national treasure." He smirks, and you groan.
"Bro, I am so over that!" You pout, kind of irritated by the fact that Bro thought you were the same as you were as a kid. Of course you were different now, it had been years and years! You didn't like the old movies that you had liked as a young teen, but you still loved movies. You just had better taste now! You like comedies and movies with hot women that kick ass.
Yes, you have amazing taste in movies. The best taste. The best.
When the movie ends, you and Bro are filled with an energy that can not be described with words. It flowed through their bodies, yes, but it could not exit by just any physical movement. No. It had to be released with kung fu. And boy, were you two up for it.
You both stand up, and Bro moves the coffee table next to the wall. The TV is turned off, and all is silent.
You're pretty sure your eyes meet, and you're also sure that they both narrow. The tension is intense.
In a flash, you make a total dick move and launch yourself at Bro, and before you know it, he is twisting your arm behind your back, and it hurts. But you are a warrior, and refuse to utter a sound. Not a single whimper. He eventually lets go of you and you strike an incredibly stupid looking pose before. He does the same.
Cal looks on from the futon, a look of great interest showing in his blue eyes.
You hesitate with your next move, and Bro takes the opportunity to grab you by the waist and flip you upside down before slamming you down onto the futon. Wow, this guy is strong.
Wow, this guy is strong.
You give up then, raising your hand in defeat.
You did it, man. You fell down this whole mountain.
You leave to get dressed.
Before you go to bed, you try to send a message to Jade, though she isn't online.
EB: jade! i told him. i don't know what he wants to do about it, but i still told him.
You close your laptop and drift off to sleep.