From Murder to Dust

18 - Accident

I had been with Nightmare's gang for ten months now, and it was exciting; I was still regarded as the stealth agent, even though just about everybody in the multiverse knew exactly what I looked like. Nightmare says he thought he was getting closer to having Error join us, but I didn't know about it. Other than Nightmare, we hadn't even actually met him: only seen pictures and videos. Nightmare said he was in bad shape, though; if we could have helped him, it would have been great. At the moment, I was relaxing in some obscure copy of a universe and reading a book in a tree. It was a well-written story, but some of the decisions the main character made were ridiculous: he went back on a life debt! In my point of view, that was one of the most low down things you could do. Either way, Nightmare had recommended it to me, and that was his way of saying: "Read this book or else." In any case, I was reading it.

It was a beautiful universe, with a thick forest suitable for hiding in plain sight, and nobody was going to see me there. Since we were trained in what to do in certain situations and received our  communicators, we were allowed to roam the multiverse, if we were careful; we were known criminals, after all. When I finished the book, I decided that it would be nice to take a nap; I hadn't slept since before I started reading, and it was a long book. I always had Papyrus to wake me up if trouble was around, so it was safe. I lay back on the large trunk and drifted off into a pleasant dusty nightmare, which I knew wouldn't bother me. It was quiet in this universe and absolutely perfect for sleeping in a tree; my spine would probably pay for it later, but that was later.

When I woke up, I was still in the tree, and Paps hadn't woken me up; that was a good sign, which meant I didn't have to rush getting up. I saw Papyrus a couple seconds after I woke, and faced him.

"Heya Paps. Anything happen while I was asleep?" I sat up on my branch.

"Good to see you awake, brother!" Paps smiled. "Nothing too important, but you were asleep for about five hours."

"We should probably head back home, then; Killer will get restless."

"Good idea, brother! Let us go, then!"

"You're the best, Paps."

I opened a portal home and arrived in my dusty bedroom, where I was immediately tackled with one of Killer's hugs. I probably should have checked where he was before coming home, but it was too late at this point to argue.

"Dusty! You're a whole ten minutes late!" Killer complained.

"I fell asleep." I shrugged.

"Okay! Wanna play a game?"

"Sure, what game?"

"How about AU chase?"

"Doesn't Dad have to watch us when we play that so we don't die?"

"Oh yeah! I'll go ask him! Stay here!"

Killer ran off to ask Nightmare if we could play the game; it was a simple concept, but it was made more exciting by the fact that we were wanted. It was kind of like tag, except with different universes, if that made sense. Killer returned quickly, taking less than two minutes to gain Nightmare's permission, and Nightmare came in a minute later, obviously not taking the energy to run inside like Killer often did. 

"He said yes!" Killer jumped like a lantern fly when you're ready to kill it.

"All right, here are the rules. Keep the portals you make open for at least ten seconds, make no more than one every thirty seconds, and keep your trackers on. If you lose the other, return home." Nightmare recited the rules by memory, since he said them every time we played this game.