Chapter 5 of 5

Darkness

Webber's POV

There was nothing new or unique to waking up from nightmares. It was something we had all experienced a million times before, some worse than others. I, in particular, was no stranger to waking from a dead sleep drenched in cold sweat, body shivering violently despite the heat of a fire nearby. Some time ago, we had come to a silent agreement not to wake someone up when they were visibly having a nightmare. It happened to all of us, and while they were never fun to experience, it would be a waste of valuable sleep to be woken from them. Then there was the period of time that it took to relax and calm down, to reassociate oneself to the real world, to get your breathing and heart rate back to a pace suitable for rest... it was a whole ordeal.

So, honestly, waking from a nightmare was fully expected at this rate.

What wasn't expected was how normal my nightmares had seemed. For once, they did not revolve around Wilson or WX, or any Giants or painful situations or any of the sort. They were... just... the kind of thing you would expect a child to be dreaming about. Monsters hiding under the bed or in the closet. A pet dying. Being lost in a field and being unable to find your parents.

I woke up more confused than scared.

The air was heavy and impossibly thick, like trying to breathe through water. I had gotten pretty used to the acidic stench of nightmare fuel, but that didn't stop me from wincing as all of my senses were assaulted with the smell. It was omnipresent, and it didn't take long for me to realize that the grass below me was slick with it.

Huh. So it hadn't been cold sweat after all.

I painstakingly dragged myself up to a sitting position as I rubbed the sleep from my eye. Rivulets of the foul stuff rolled down my back, causing fur to prickle along its path.

I tried opening my eye, and then I tried again because it clearly didn't work the first time. It wasn't until I blinked several times that I realized that this was certainly the real world and not the back of my eyelid, and that was only because I noticed vague shapes in the darkness in front of me.

I turned my gaze back to see my companions still unconscious. Wilbur's tail and hands were twitching furiously as if in some vivid dream, but the others seemed to be in a more peaceful state of rest. The fire that they were in the range of burned gray-white, the crackling muffled as if under a foot of snow. My sword was stuck into the ground, glowing vividly amongst the faded colors. After another moment, I realized that I was not in the range of the light. I immediately scrambled over, entirely unwilling to let the creature in the dark claim me.

Even though the others were asleep, I felt the innate sensation of being watched. Worse than that, though, was the way I could see movement just feet away from me. Not the movement you would see from a creature, but it was as if the darkness itself was a living creature, moving and writhing in time with its breaths.

I heard a sharp intake of breath in the back of my head, and such powerful waves of excitement flooded over me that I didn't even immediately realize they weren't my own emotions. I could practically feel Webber vibrating with anticipation and glee. And yet, strangely enough, he didn't try to take the reigns from me. He was simply watching.

Movement again. Closer this time. Just out of reach of the light.

I immediately bared my fangs and hissed, whiskers curling tightly against my cheeks in fear. Someone was watching me, and I couldn't tell what kind of intentions they had for me.

The others were still asleep. Why were they still asleep?

"What a time to see you again, Young Heir." The voice came from somewhere else. I whipped around, a deep growl rumbling in my chest as I tried to find the source of it. I knew it was Nightmare. It had to be. A voice of paradoxes and contradictions. The movement was all around me, now, kept at bay only by the fire still burning with its sickly flames.

Every single muscle in my body was tight with terror. When the seconds ticked by without any other words, I couldn't help but hiss again. It was all I could do.

"I should be flattered, really, that you would come so far just to see me," Nightmare purred. Its voice was everywhere. I couldn't pinpoint it.

"Get away," the words came out quiet and low, a demand that shook so much it was a wonder the words could be heard. "Get away, get away, get away-"

"I promised I would be waiting for you here, and yet you're so determined to be rid of me so quickly? Come now, it has been such a long time since we truly saw each other. Perhaps come a bit closer, so we can truly get reacquainted~"

Claws dug into my temples, and I only dully realized they were my own.

We'll be waiting for you in darkness.

We'll be waiting for you in Darkness.

We'llbewaitingforyouinDarknesswe'llbewaitingforyouinDarknessWe'll-

Darkness.

It all made sense now. What fools we had been. We had walked right into their trap.

Had Maxwell been trying to save us by keeping us in the previous world?

Was he afraid of Nightmare?

Nightmare's claws were so close to me, how could I be sure they weren't my own?

Claws were digging into my temples, and I could feel a slight trickle of blood from a minute puncture on the right side, but was that blood? Maybe it wasn't warm. Maybe it was cold cold cold and maybe it was Nightmare's blood. Maybe it wasn't even my claws doing it.

There was a strong metallic taste in my mouth that was definitely blood. Was I dying? Had Nightmare killed me?
Maybe it had. Maybe that was why my heart was struggling so hard to beat. Maybe that was why every single breath seemed to catch on the blood in my throat and lodged into my lungs.

Maybe I was dying.

I had to be. My mouth was filled with blood and spitting it out only lead to more replacing it.

A hand touched my shoulder and I choked back a scream. My gaze shot up as low whine escaped my throat.

Instead of any demon, there was only a slightly tired set of warm brown eyes staring at me in confusion and concern. I sucked in a harsh breath at the sight of the prime ape, the terror easing just enough for the growl to taper off.

Wilbur didn't just look slightly concerned. In fact, his face was pale with fear of his own that he seemed to be fighting back. His mouth was set in a firm line, his eyes dark with apprehension.

Somehow, knowing that Wilbur shared my emotions in this case seemed to help my body to realize it wasn't in any immediate danger. The blood was still in my mouth and very real, but the sting that was slowly making itself known from my tongue did well in alerting me where it had come from.

I spit out another glob of blood and rasped out a quick "Bit my tongue," before Wilbur could panic any further.

He gave me a tight smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Are you okay?"

Instead of giving him a direct answer, I chewed on my lip (careful, this time, to keep my fangs from digging in too deep) as I turned my gaze back to the shifting shadows around us. Another shiver of discontent washed over me, but it wasn't the same heartstopping terror that had held me moments before. "Nightmare is here," I whispered.

Wilbur hesitated, then sighed. "Probably."

Probably!? I shook my head violently. "It's here," I urged. I couldn't keep my gaze on both Wilbur and the shadows, but I could certainly try. "Why did we come here? It's- it's going to kill us, Wilbur. It's going to kill me-"
The prime ape hushed me and bumped me with his shoulder. "Hey, Nightmare hasn't succeeded in killing us yet. What makes you think it'll succeed now?"

Because it was furious at me. Because I was here to usurp the Throne. Because it didn't kill me when it should have. Because I shattered it-

"Ty? Hey, come on, you can't just stop breathing on me. We can't have the both of us dissociating, can we? And if you freak out, then I'll probably freak out, and that does not spell good things for Wilson and Winona, right?"

I had to physically force myself to breathe. The air was so thick, I felt exhausted just for the attempt. My nose burned. I spit out more blood from my sliced tongue.

"Did you know we were coming here?" I hissed at Wilbur. "Did you know?"

He raised his hands to stop me in my tracks. "Okay, listen, you're not the only one that's gonna have a whole bunch of questions about this place. Let's wait for the others to wake up before I explain what I know."

So Wilbur did know about this place. He probably knew we would be coming here as well. Or, at least, he had an inkling... But if he was knowledgeable about this world and as scared as he was, I couldn't even imagine what kind of horrors would be here.

Still, though, I wasn't going to just force him to talk. Instead, I kept my silence as he gingerly led me back to the not-quite-a-fire. It was probably inaccurate to just call it a fire, what with its coloring and the fact it seemed to give off no heat at all.

I couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched though. I found my gaze snapping from side to side at every movement and sound, a feat made much harder by only having one working eye. By the time Winona, and finally Wilson, started to actually stir, I had been on edge for so long that the terror was beginning to dim into a dull background hum. There was only so long you could be in such a state of fear before your body tried to even itself out.

Winona's first reaction to our surroundings was to give a slight frown, a surprisingly mundane reaction. "Oh boy, aren't we lucky. Didn't he already try the super long nights before, though? Kind of retreading old ground again."

Wilson seemed to have a much more reasonable reaction, which was to freeze completely with dilated pupils and stare blankly into the night. "Darkness," he whispered.

"Ah, so you're familiar with it," Wilbur said calmly. Really, it was remarkable just how calm he was able to act when he was clearly shaken by where we were. Wilson's eyes darted to Wilbur, then back to the ground.

"Er... not really. There was something... you guys also experienced those visions, right? In the last world?"

Winona was the first to give an affirmative hum. When Wilbur nodded, I simply murmured a small "yes".

"What did you guys... er, see?"

A sudden wave of deja vu hit me. The last time we had this conversation, the visions had been very different, and our group had had very different faces.

But I couldn't recall anything prophetic about my own vision. When it had happened back then, the three of us had been sent on the wild goose chase to kill the giants. It had been Webber to appear to me, in one breath giving me the mission and showing me exactly how my friends were to die. Erika, however, had not shown me anything like that. Was I the odd one out here?

Wilbur waved his hand as if to brush off the question. "Typical stuff. Nothing unpleasant, but you know, it's always bittersweet." At the expectant look on the humans' faces, Wilbur sighed. "I saw Roselyn. But she didn't say anything about Darkness. She just..." He shuffled his feet. "Tried to... you know, get through some of my insecurities. That's how she always was. It was just her as she was."

"Oh," Winona said softly. "I... yeah. Same."

"Winona, are you telling me my mate talked to you about your guilt and insecurities? That's kinda weird~"

"No!" Clearly startled by Wilbur's words, she let out a little laugh. "No, it, um. Was Scarlet. My Roselyn, I guess. For me. But it was just... her. Telling me that she was still waiting for me. That she still loved me. Trying to comfort me about some things. Nothing about Darkness."

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend," I hummed under my breath. It was left largely ignored, but it wasn't the point and I knew it.

When they glanced at me, it was to get my own story from me. I folded my knees to my chest and rested my arms on them. "I dreamed about Erika. But as she would be now if she was... still..." 'Alive' wasn't the right word. Especially when Wilson and Winona had already met Erika before, just not as I had once known her. "Human," I finished lamely. "But it's like what you guys said. I mean, I guess she... acted differently? She wasn't quite herself. But she didn't say anything about Darkness."

I had heard about Darkness from Nightmare itself, back when it was wearing Wilson's face before we entered Maxwell's Door in the first place. But it hadn't given me any information.

Just that it was waiting for me.

"Okay." Wilson took a deep breath and folded his hands together. "Well. The person speaking to you wasn't any one of those people."

Winona didn't seem surprised, and frankly, neither was I. Wilbur seemed unhappy about this, though, looking away with his tail twitching.

"I don't know who- or what- it was," he continued. "I'm not surprised you guys saw... the ones you did, though."

"So it actually talked to you, then?" Wilbur asked. He seemed annoyed by this revelation, although that might've been because he had just been told that he had talked to someone wearing his mate's face. "Did it also speak in cryptic riddles? Was it Very Obviously Nightmare and you're just choosing to pretend like it wasn't?"

Wilson shook his head vigorously. "No! It wasn't Nightmare. I think it was... friendly...?"

"Every time a creepy demon creature gives visions and talks to you, it's Nightmare," Wilbur said confidently.

"It's talked to all of us before."

That finally seemed to catch the prime ape's attention. He narrowed his eyes at the scientist.

My interest was piqued as well, but I felt as if I knew exactly what he was talking about. Something that had spoken to us before that wasn't Maxwell and wasn't Nightmare. Something possibly benevolent.

More accurately, something that had spoken through us before. Something seemed to click in my mind.

"The lessons," I breathed, which only seemed to further Wilbur's confusion.

Winona, however, seemed to understand immediately. "In the previous worlds!" She exclaimed. "It couldn't have been Nightmare. It spoke through me as well, and as far as I know, Nightmare doesn't have any control over me."

Wilson nodded. "I think it was the same thing."

"And it told you about Darkness?" Wilbur asked. I could tell he was still suspicious, but interest seemed to have been slowly taking over. At least, his lashing tail had calmed to just waving slightly.

"It... helped me, I think. Or it was trying to help me." Wilson pressed a fist against his chest, but I couldn't tell why. He paused for a long moment as if looking for his heartbeat. Whatever he was doing, he seemed satisfied. "And it told me that it would 'last through Darkness'."

"What would?" Winona pressed.

For some reason, Wilson seemed to have to genuinely consider this question. In the end, he simply gave a confounded shrug. "Love?" He guessed.

"So there's something else out there," I said sharply. My voice must have been a bit louder than I intended, because everyone's eyes immediately snapped towards me. I took a deep breath before pressing on. "There's someone else who has been... what? Trying to help us?" The tension in my muscles seemed to finally snap as I drew myself up to my full size, anger momentarily replacing the fear I had felt before. "Well, Mystery Creature, if you really wanted to help us, you sure came late, didn't you? You could've said something years ago and stopped so much from happening. Do you seriously think helping us now would do anything!?"

"Ty-" Wilbur started, but I rounded on him with bared fangs.

"No! I'm supposed to just accept that there was a supernatural entity out there that was strong enough to give visions and speak through us, but it simply chose not to?" I shouldn't have been angry at something that... probably wasn't there. I really shouldn't have been angry at all. There was something out there that was trying to help us, and all I could think of was the things it hadn't done. "Sure, yeah, I guess you helped push us through Maxwell's Game. Thanks a lot! You were a huge help when we fought the Dragonfly. And I can't even express how grateful I am with your assistance against the Ancient Guardian. Oh wait-"

"Maybe," Wilson cut off. "We shouldn't antagonize the one thing that might want to help us in this world."

"Fat lot its help did!" I snapped.

"This is not the place to be cursing out the supernatural," Wilbur chastised. "In fact, I can't even think of any worse place to be challenging Them like this."

"What, Darkness?" I scoffed. "What difference is it going to make? They've already been waiting for me." I turned away from my companions and opened my arms to the shadows that surrounded us. "Well I'm here!" I shouted. "You've brought me all this way and I'm right where you want me."

The shadows remained in their place. Swirling and hovering around us, but not daring to move any closer. Not daring to breach our small circle of light. I sneered at them. I could feel my body shaking, though whether it was with fear, anger, or exhaustion, I couldn't tell. What I could tell was that everyone else was clearly uncomfortable with the way I seemed to be trying to bait Nightmare into the light. Maybe they thought the coward would actually get near me. Laughter, harsh and hysterical, rose in my chest. "Is that it, Nightmare? You're a coward? Preying on people in the dark because you can't stand to see yourself in the light? If you're so eager to get me, then get me!"

The relative lack of movement only served to fuel my rage. For such a supposedly powerful demon, Nightmare seemed to show no interest in collecting its prize. Which meant I had to do it myself.

The second I started to move, though, someone grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the edge. This time, I found myself hissing at Wilson, who looked both unafraid and unimpressed.

"Gonna be honest, didn't think I'd see you like this again," he said, refusing to release his firm grip even as I struggled against it. "You realize the last time you went insane, we had to force-feed you mushrooms, right?"

"I'm not going insane!" Again, I tried to rip my arm back, but he held fast. "This is Nightmare's domain and I know that because it has been waiting for me to get here! Let me go Wilson, I swear that I'm going to shatter that demon again. You hear that? I don't care how many times I have to stab you again, I will destroy you."

"Tyler," came Wilbur's patient voice.

Wilson still wasn't letting go. I snapped forward to bite him, but he caught my forehead with his palm before I could make contact. The stupid scientist was not letting go. Why would Nightmare let him act on his own? It wanted me, right? It wanted me so why wasn't it taking me? "I swear to God I will bite you." The threat was empty, but its meaning was entirely true. If Nightmare wanted me so desperately, then the only way to get rid of it was to let it have me and then destroy us. I couldn't care less what any stupid scientist or stubborn monkey had to say about it. I would kill it. It wanted to kill me so it was only fair that I killed it first.

"He's at least partially right," Wilbur hummed. "This is Nightmare's domain. This is where Nightmare is at its strongest. I'm sure it knows we're here." He blinked up at me, his gaze unwavering under my glare. "But that doesn't mean it's smart to try to purposely catch its attention." He breathed out a hiss of air from between his teeth. "The best thing for us to do would be to try our best to keep its attention away from us."

"So... I guess that means I'm the only one that heard that," Winona said uneasily. My eyes snapped back to her as she rubbed her hands together, looking deeply concerned. "Tyler, what did you mean by 'stab you again'?"

Wilson's eyes widened at the question, an unknown expression coming over his face as his eyes darted from me to Winona. Wilbur's twitching tail stilled; his eyes narrowed.

I rolled my eyes and bared my teeth in a grimace. "I've stabbed it before, and I'll gladly stab it again."

"When did you stab Nightmare?" Wilbur pressed.

I opened my mouth to answer, but the memory that had been so bright in my mind just a second before seemed to slip away before I had the opportunity to give any details. I closed my mouth again, eyes furrowing in irritated thought. My word should have been enough, even if I couldn't properly explain when it had the chance to happen. "Doesn't matter," I grumbled instead. "I shouldn't have to explain that." The audacity of someone so close to me to doubt my word. "It clearly didn't work last time, so that means we'll have to try again until it works."

I nearly jumped out of my fur as a hand touched my shoulder. I hadn't noticed Wilson coming up on my blind side, and as such, I felt it was quite appropriate to growl deeply at him. I didn't shake him off, though. The weight was strangely grounded, enough so that I didn't even realize that I needed such. I hadn't even realized that Wilson had let go of me in the first place.

"That would be a suicide mission," Wilson said in a grim tone. "If Nightmare wants you, that means we have to keep you away from it, not throw you into its clutches."

"So you just want to let Charlie suffer?" I snapped.

There were a lot of things I could've said, and really, I knew that was the exact wrong one. However, I felt that getting just one of the members of the group to agree with me would be enough. It was a low blow going for Winona in that way, but it dripped with truth. She winced back as if I had physically hit her and sucked in a harsh breath.

"You can't save Charlie without killing her." It was Wilbur who said that. His voice had lost most of its emotion, his eyes dulling as he spoke. "Or at least deeply injuring her. They've been together for so long that I don't even know if she would survive having Nightmare stripped away from her. It's poisoned every ounce of blood in her body."

"Not if I stab it."

Winona perked up as soon as I said that. She suddenly gasped loudly and slammed her hands over her mouth as the realization hit her. "Your sword!" She exclaimed. Her voice was tight with excitement, and I couldn't hold back the small smirk that made its way onto my face. Bingo.

"It absorbs poisons, right? It purified the Ancient Guardian." I tried to keep the tremor out of my voice, but it betrayed itself nonetheless. From an outside perspective, there was a good chance the others would take it as the ever-lingering grief from losing my brother.

I didn't exactly want to fight Nightmare, but the urge deep in my stomach was insanely strong. There was an innate knowledge, bubbling in my chest, that we were brought to Darkness for a reason. It had specifically mentioned that it was waiting for me here, and that meant it wanted to take me.

I had to kill it before it had the opportunity. I had already dealt with one intruder in my mind for years, I wasn't sure what would happen to me if another force tried to take it. Would it kill Webber? Would they both haunt me, exerting such force that the likelihood of me being myself again would be next to zero? Would my body split under the pressure?

Or would something else happen? Something that I couldn't even comprehend?

With the taste of nightmare fuel on my tongue and the crushing knowledge of something watching me at this very moment, Nightmare's death was the only end I could think of that ended in a somewhat positive way.

However excited Winona seemed to be at the prospect of saving her sister, though, Wilson seemed unconvinced, and Wilbur looked downright upset. "Nightmare is stronger than the Ancient Guardian, Ty. If we tried to fight it, we would all die for the attempt. Would you like a conclusive list of all the crap that Nightmare can do that the Ancient Guardian probably couldn't? And if Nightmare didn't kill us, They would without hesitation. Wilson's right. It would be a suicide mission."

"Then how do you propose we help Charlie?" I asked, sure to add just a little bit of oil to my voice. I didn't care how much I had to manipulate them. "You're okay with just letting her suffer?"

"However much you pull that card, I know you're not thinking about Charlie," Wilson accused. "How many steps back did you take to end up right back to where you started? You've gotten better about this. If you really want to fight the literal Big Bad Evil God of the world, then don't try to manipulate us into agreeing with you."

Winona seemed hurt by this, which sent a spear of guilt into my chest. I swallowed hard and struggled to find my words. "It wants me," I said in a small voice. "I have to kill it before it can kill me."

"Different card, same deck," Wilson growled. "I've known you for years now. I know what you look like when you're trying to get what you want. I can't believe you are doing this again."

"Wilson..." Wilbur said.

"Neither of you guys were around in the beginning," the scientist immediately interrupted. "This is exactly what he acted like when we first met."

"Because I was scared and angry!"

"So you're scared and angry now?"

My whiskers trembled as I bared my teeth at him. "Yes! I'm terrified, Wilson! We waltzed right into Nightmare's domain, and none of us have good experiences with Nightmare in case you didn't notice!" My head whipped to the side as the feeling of being watched increased tenfold. It had to be Nightmare. There was no one else it could be. Suddenly, I couldn't even speak if I wanted to around the growl once more rumbling in my chest.

I couldn't see any eyes, but that didn't mean I didn't know they were there. They had to be. I could taste the nightmare fuel that betrayed Nightmare's presence; it was all around us, soaking deep in my fur and trailing icy paths of frost through my veins. It was cold. My teeth were chattering. I couldn't tell if it was from cold or anger or terror.

The others were still looking at me. Could they not feel it?

Of course they wouldn't be able to. Nightmare didn't want them. It wanted me.

Soft shuffling from their position was enough to tell me that one of them was moving, but I kept my eyes straight on the invisible presence. I couldn't look away.

As it turned out, the brave soul who decided to confront me was Wilbur. He immediately stationed himself between me and our observer, and while I immediately moved to keep my eye fixed on it, he moved with me.

"Relax," he said softly, his voice trembling very slightly. "It's okay." He inched closer, and I met his advance with a hasty backpedal. His brow furrowed, but he simply moved faster until he was close enough for me to scratch.

Wilbur reached out with one hand to the back of my head, before promptly pulling my face down into his furry shoulder. I instinctively stiffened and tried to pull away, but he held firm.

"Don't look at Them," he said. "Don't look into the darkness at all. Keep your eyes on us, okay?"

The growl in my throat tapered off, but I didn't loosen into his grip at all.

"Listen, Ty, you've gotten us this far, but for this one, you can rest, okay? I know this world better than anyone else here. Let me handle it."

I didn't reply verbally, but I gave him a weak nod. Resting sounded nice. The last world had been a taste of relaxation, but the fear of the unknown had kept me from truly calming myself down.

Wilbur could handle this one.

He gave me a quick scratch behind the whiskers before finally letting me free. "Good."

Instead of letting my eye turn back to the darkness, I followed Wilbur's advice. I kept my gaze firmly on the monochrome fire, forcibly pulling it away from any semblance of shadow and darkness.

Wilbur spoke. "So... yes. This is Nightmare's domain, colloquially called Darkness. This might seem like the worst place to be, but that means we are tantalizingly close to Maxwell's domain. There is no place closer. A few things to note about this place, though." He opened up one hand to count on his fingers. "It's always dark. This world was made to forever be like this in order to protect Nightmare. Never go out into the darkness. No matter what's going on or what you see or hear. It doesn't matter how dire the situation is. Never let yourself leave the light. They can only live in the darkness, and Nightmare is actively harmed by light. As long as you are near a torch or a fire or whatever, then you're safe from Them."

I let out a disbelieving scoff under my breath, but I didn't protest. Wilbur had known Nightmare for much longer than the rest of us. He knew how it worked.

"While we're here, we can look for... I dunno. Clues, hints. See if there's any way to save Charlie from Nightmare." At Winona's surprised glance, Wilbur only gave a smirk. "As if I wouldn't be loyal to her, Winona. She got me through the worst times. It's only fair that I try to return the favor."

"So then how do you propose we continue at all?" Wilson protested. "If it's always night and stepping away from the light will leave us vulnerable?"

Wilbur's smirk only grew. "The same way we got past the previous worlds." His eyes darted to me for just a second.

"By waiting."