Delusion

Lucid dreams

Ranboo looked away from the dead man, shutting his eyes tight. He barely knew him, only for two days, yet he felt so bad. He wanted to cry. He suddenly threw open the door, some nurses and doctors were already at the door, rushing to open it. He pushed past them and ran down the stairs, ran out the door, blocking everything out again.

He ran all the way to the road that led to the cafe, slowing his pace once he'd gotten there. He stopped across from the crosswalk to the door of the cafe. Should he tell Sam? What would he say? Would he get angry? Or would he start crying? If he did, what would Ranboo do?

Ranboo shook his head, and quickly walked passed the cafe. He wasn't going there anymore. He didn't want to cause anymore trouble.

The tall man put his hands in his pockets, staring at the ground as he walked. He went slowly down the sidewalk, towards his house. He decided he'd go home to rest, to take care of himself. Ponk would want me to do that.

Ranboo sighed, then looked up. His eyes widened; it was that man from the cafe again. Why does he keep showing up? Ranboo stopped walking, kind of freezing up. This man was.. he looked similar, as if he'd seen him before, but much recently.

He finally realized it, that man, he looked like Dream. He had the same hair, the same colored hoodie, the same—
The tall man paused again, then looked around him. He blinked, calming down a bit, but was still a bit startled. He wasn't in town anymore, he was back in that white space again. He didn't feel as shook by it anymore, as he'd gotten used to it.

"Dream?" His voice came out calmer than he'd expected it to.

The green man slowly appeared in front of Ranboo, except, he looked way different from before. He had his mask on, which was cracked and seemingly taped back together. He had long, dirty blonde hair, reaching to his shoulders. That was only obvious because he no longer had his poncho, he wore an orange prison suit.

"Dream..?" Now he sounded somewhat concerned. Why? This man was treating him terribly, why did he care?

Dream was facing up at Ranboo, his expression unreadable, as always. His hands were balled up into fists, he was obviously frustrated with something.
He suddenly gritted his teeth and yelled at the taller man,

"TRAITOR"

Ranboo backed up, startled. He hadn't called him that in a while, how was he a traitor now? What did he do..?

"Dream, I-"

Before he could respond, he was brought back to reality. That all happened so fast, what was even the point? Was it just to let his anger out on Ranboo, or was he really angry with him?

Ranboo felt himself getting shaken, shaken by unfamiliar hands. He heard someone talking to him, but he payed no attention to them. He blinked slowly, and put his hand to his head. It felt like he'd gotten a bruise there.

His eyes widened when he realized he was on the ground, and the person trying to get his attention was that man. He jerked, attempting to get away from them. Though they hadn't done anything wrong, he was frightened. And they were even trying to help him out, what a shame.

"Wh-what??"

"Dude, are you alright? You just passed out, are you okay?" The man looked even more alarmed than him. He had his hands on Ranboos shoulders, kneeling on one knee.

"Ugh.. Not again..." Ranboo rubbed his head and groaned.

The man has obviously heard him, he brought Ranboo up to sit on the ground.
"Again? Man, are you okay??"

Ranboo stared at him, his expression slowly got neutral again. "No, no.. I'm fine."

He grumbled something to himself before speaking again, "Dude. You're obviously not okay, I don't even know why I asked.. hey, hey, what's your name?"

"..Ranboo"

"I'm Clay. Now, Ranboo, can you lead me to your house? I'd like to take you there, you're in no condition to go by yourself anyways."

"I already told you, I'm fine.." he sounded a bit annoyed, which he didn't mean to sound. "...and uh.. I guess so."

"Great," He brought Ranboo up to his feet, looked at him for a moment, then dragged him by the hand towards where he thought his house was.

.  .  .

"You live in the apartment home, right?"

"Yeah, you're going the right way.. it's just up those stairs now."

"Which floor?"

"Second"

"You got your keys?"

"Yeah"

Ranboo frowned a bit. Clay asked too many questions, but, he was a good person. Nothing like Dream. He went out of his wonderful day to help a wimp like him out, and didn't just pass by him like any other person would.

They quickly got to his room door, and Ranboo tried to shoo him off once he opened his door. But he didn't leave yet.

"Ranboo, I want to give you something"

"Huh?" He turned around to look at the dirty blonde.

Clay reached for something in his pocket, taking out a small key. He held it up to Ranboo. "I've had this for a while, couldn't really find the lock it opens. But uh.. I've got this weird feeling, and, you kind of reminded me I had this."

He took Ranboo's hand and put the key in it, closing Ranboo's hands after. "I want you to have it. Who knows, you'd probably find the thing this key unlocks, unlike me." He smiled, which made Ranboo smile.

"Oh.. thanks, Clay." He brought the key close to him to get a good look of it: it was small, a rusty gold color. It had a hole in it for hanging it on to something, like any other key. From a first glance, or even hard look, it doesn't look all that special. But it obviously was if no one knew what it unlocked.

"No problem," Clay started to walk off, then held a hand in the air and waved to Ranboo, "Stay safe, man."

Ranboo made a small wave back, and whispered, "You too."
Clay probably didn't hear him, but it didn't matter. He was already gone anyways.

~