From Murder to Dust

J - 5 - Changes

It had been one month since Ink was convicted, and nobody had seen him since the trial. There was occasionally a rumor that he had been wandering in some random universe, but he never stayed for long, if he was in those universes. Since Dream had previously lived with the monster, he was forced to move out; he now lived with the swap brothers, since he had nowhere else to go. Overall, Ink was being forgotten; I hoped it stayed that way, because I didn't want to hear about him anymore..just the thought of him made me shudder. As for us, we continued to spread negativity; I had recently started joining the others on runs again, and it felt nice to have things at least somewhat back to normal. Since Ink no longer fought us, we ended up winning many more battles than we had before, and our job was made much easier. We were actually able to go out less! As for me, I was feeling a little bit better, and my family hadn't left my side since the trial; they were the best family ever. I still had those bad dreams, but my family helped me greatly; I loved them so much. We were currently in the living room, where it was Cross's turn to cuddle me; they took turns, since I didn't want them to devote all their attention to me..I didn't deserve that..

"I'm bored.." Killer groaned, lying down on a couch. "Anyone wanna jump off the roof or somethin'?"

I shook a bit; a vision of Ink pushing me off his three-story house came to mind..

"N-not now.." Cross rubbed my skull softly to make the memory go away.

"Sorry, Dusty.." Killer never knew when something he said would bring bad memories to mind, and he felt horrible when it happened. 

"I-it's okay.." I hugged Cross a bit tighter. "I'm fine.."

"Wanna play backgammon?"

"..Okay." 

So it began. Killer got out his trusty backgammon board, and I met him in board game combat. I actually had a lot of fun playing against Killer, even if I did lose every game I played; I even managed to forget about the abuse I had been through a few months ago, and that was a miracle. Cross allowed me to sit in his lap as the games went on, occasionally suggesting moves to help me win, but Killer was always the victor; it was just accepted as fact now. I would have probably cried if I had won, since that meant that Killer had changed for some reason, and I didn't want him to change..I wanted everything to be normal, just as it always was! I was happy when Killer won game after game, since that meant that he hadn't changed, and if he hadn't changed, everything was absolutely fine! After a few hours of board games, Nightmare entered the living room, finding Killer winning another game of backgammon, as always. He gave us a smile as we finished up our game.

"I win!" Killer exclaimed happily.

"Good job, Killer!" I grinned; I liked losing more than winning when it came to playing with Killer. 

"D-do you need anything, D-Dad?" Cross wondered.

"Yes, I do." Nightmare confirmed. "We need to go out again."

"O-okay, Dad." Cross nodded.

"I'm ready!" Killer held up a knife.

"I-I.." I didn't know why, but I had a horrible feeling about this run.. "I'm ready, too."

"I sense unease, Dust; nobody's forcing you to go if you can't take it, you know." Nightmare reassured.

"No..I want to; it's just worry."

"If you're sure.."

"I am." I wasn't..

"All right, then..let's go."