Magma Tears

Chapter 10

Absolutely fucking AMAZING artwork by: @brrxmbll on Twitter (PLEASE go check out their art. It's amazing!!)

A/N: Holy fucking shit, I did it. I am so sorry this took me way too long to publish. I found some time to finish this chapter and will try to get the next chapter out in at least 1-2 weeks. It's kinda lazy, but I wanted to get it out before I forgot about it again. (I forget about so many things so often, lmao)

TW: Chapter 10: swearing, amnesia, panic attack

Tommy walked around aimlessly. He tended to do that a lot now. He didn't know where else to go, so he went towards the community house, near the nether portal. While he was passing through, something caught his attention. A rope started to pull him towards the structure, and before Tommy realized where he was walking, he was already at the barbican of a massive, elegant castle. He continued past the front entrance and went up the beautiful stairs. He looked over the edge as he saw the river beneath him. He watched as it flowed, constantly moving. A river could be calm or wild, smooth or rough, straight or curvy. A river might be fast and harsh, but 10 miles upstream, it could be slow and tranquil. A river might look warm and friendly, but if you put one finger in it, you'd find out that it would be cold and grim.

When he got to the top of the steps he was greeted by this giant archway with giant walls circling the entire castle. On top of the wall was a statue of a man with sunglasses and a crown, holding a flag striped with color. The face seemed familiar to Tommy, but he didn't know where he had seen the person from. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach just looking at the rainbow man. When he got to the top of the stairs and entered the castle, he saw a man walking around. He was wearing sunglasses and a crown, just like the statue behind him. The man turned around when he saw Tommy hovering at the entrance, just staring at the man.

"To-Tommy?" The unknown man asked, not believing what his eyes were seeing.

"Oh, uhhhh," Tommy was caught off guard. He didn't realize he had been staring at the man for so long. He didn't know what else to say, so he just awkwardly raised his hand to give a slight wave.

They stood in silence for a few moments. Eventually, the rainbow man concerningly asked, "Are you okay, Tommy?" They seemed genuinely worried. They didn't jump to the first question everyone wanted to ask, and he didn't bombard him with questions. He just asked like he was concerned for a friend, or maybe a comrade.

"Um... yeah. I'm fine," Tommy replied. "I just saw the castle and was interested. Thought I'd check it out."

"Really?" The man slightly chuckled. "Never in a million years would I have ever thought that you, of all people, would want to visit me."

"Why?" Tommy questioned.

The man looked confused. Although you could not see his eyes, they seemed puzzled. "Because you never really liked me. Not after-" The man stopped himself before he could continue.

"After what? What happened?" Tommy was now intrigued. The man seemed like a nice fellow, but he was hiding something; a memory that Tommy forgot, along with everything else.

"You don't remember?"

"No. I don't remember anything from before my exile."

"Oh," the man paused. "You don't remember me at all?"

"No, I'm sorry. To be honest, I don't remember your name..." Tommy looked up at the man with apologetic eyes. He feels as though everyone expects him to know all this, remember everyone and everything. At least, he believes that's what everyone is thinking.

"It's all good." The man smiled at Tommy, as though they had never met before. "Hello. My name's Eret." Eret stuck out his hand, awaiting a handshake from the ghost standing in front of him.

Tommy reached out his hand to shake but quickly pulled it back to think it through a bit more. Wait. I can't shake hands. I'm a ghost. Won't my hand just go right through his? And that name... Tommy frantically tried to scroll through the few memories he had. He was searching for the name Eret, but nothing was coming up. Nothing but this bad feeling; it was a feeling of hate, anger, and resentment towards the name Eret.

Tommy's thoughts and emotions became swirling in the confusion of it all. His feet slowly started to lift off the ground before he was violently thrown into a swirling storm. He quickly began spinning ferociously in a tornado filled with different thoughts and emotions hitting him from all different angles. One thought hit him from the left. Why do I feel so bad about Eret? What did he do? Another thought hit him from the right. She seems like a genuinely nice person... This thought came straight for him. But my emotions are telling me that she's the worst person on the entire fucking planet. That I should never trust him. That they're a... a bad guy.

Tommy heard his name being shouted by someone from far into the distance, but at the same time, right next to him. He felt a hand beside him reach out. Before he had time to truly process anything, the hand quickly grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back to the castle floor. Tommy found himself curled up on the floor, trying to catch his breath.

He looked up to see Eret standing in front of him, calling his name. Tommy looked at the very worried expression on his face. Then, he averted his gaze to the hand on his shoulder, and there, crouching next to Tommy, was Dream. He was the one that pulled him out of that awful place.

"You okay, Tommy?" Dream asked, coating his voice with false worry.

"What?" Tommy asked, confused and dazed.

"Are you okay?" Dream asked again. This time a little slower.

"Oh, yeah. I'm very sorry." Tommy hung his head low, feeling ashamed for going into another swirling panic attack in front of someone. Especially in front of Dream. He didn't want to show Dream that he was sad or weak. He didn't know why, but Tommy just wanted to make Dream except him, and he wanted Dream to be his friend.

"Hey, Tommy, why don't we go on a walk? Yeah? Maybe try to calm down?" Dream helped Tommy to his feet and together, they started walking away from the castle. Before going down the stairs though, Tommy turned around to face Eret. "It was nice meeting you. I'm so sorry."

As Eret smiled, she said "Don't worry about it, okay? Just get some rest. If you ever need something, I'm always here!"

Something about Eret threw Tommy off. But before he could stay any longer, Dream started walking, dragging Tommy along with him. They got to the bottom of the steps and walked into the Community house.

"So..." Dream let go of Tommy's hand that he had been holding since they left the castle (as support, again, NO SHIPPING!!) and looked at him. "What was that? You doing okay? Wanna talk about it?"

All Tommy could mutter under his breath was a quiet "I don't... I- I don't... know."

A/N: Just to let you all know, I am currently listening to Wilbur Soot: Your City Gave Me Asthma, while it's dark and raining outside during the day. It's been raining all day today and this morning, when I was on my way to school, it was still dark outside and slightly raining and it was just so peaceful and nostalgic. I absolutely LOVE rainy days!! (Thunder would be better, but I'll take what I can get). 
Btw, do you guys want me to put the TW before each chapter and in the overall description of the story?? Or just keep it in the story?? 

Word Count: 1353