Crystalline Heart

Chapter Ten: Exhaustion

Hope yawned and staggered as Ink dragged her by the wrist to the window. The exhaustion weighed down on her bones, turned her marrow into lead, and made her heavy eyelids droop. Sadly, Ink had no intention of letting her sleep at all—he probably assumed she already had slept more than thirty seconds. The nightmarish flashbacks and Blue's food poisoning had stolen the night from her.

Maybe Dream would notice...? If he did, he might let her rest, like how Horror was too tired to sit up after failing to outrun the black-teared skeleton as he cornered her and held the knife to her body and-

"Hey, are you listening?"

Hope flinched. She hadn't paid any attention. Nervously, she glanced up at Ink's slightly irritated expression. The irritation, thankfully, was fleeting, and he grinned and pointed out the window. His eyelights were flickering into stars.

"Look, look! Way out there!"

Hope tried to figure out where he was pointing. Her exhausted gaze was blurry at best, and her heavy lids kept slipping, and...

"Do you see it?"

Hope squeezed her eyes shut, blinked a few times, and then refocused. Tried to. Everything beyond three feet of her was still fuzzy.

"...You don't see it, do you?"

With a fatigued exhale, she finally shook her head and lowered her eyes. She couldn't.

"What made you so blind?"

Well... her right eyesocket was smashed. Even so, she couldn't help the shame and fear that settled over her shoulders. How long would it be before Ink got sick of her shortcomings?

She just rubbed her eyes in response, cringing as her phalanges scraped over the cracks and grated vibrations in her skull.

Ink slumped defeatedly and gave a pouty huff. "Well, you missed it... That island looked really cool... Guess we should get breakfast, then. Maybe I can try making pancakes again! I shouldn't burn the kitchen down with a little griddle, right?"

Without giving the little skeleton time to respond, he snatched her arm again and dragged her stumbling over to the kitchen. "C'mon! We can get all the good stuff: chocolate chips, whipped cream–ooh, maybe we can do rainbow sprinkles! Dream never lets me get into those, but I don't know why..."

Suddenly, heaviness flowed over Hope's bones. Black mist slowly fogged up her vision, dimming the kitchen lights as someone shoved cotton in her acoustic meatuses. The weight inside her grew; her bones were chained to the cold floor again; her feet dragged; everything spun; her ears were ringing through the cotton; the tile got close-

She wasn't standing.

But she was just walking... Right?

Something stiff and cold and uncomfortable dug into every bone in her spine from her head all the way down to her sacrum and the back of her pelvis. Pain thrummed through her waterlogged skull full of thick, lukewarm fluid.

Where was she...?

Someone was touching her shoulder. She didn't move.

They were talking, but she couldn't understand. Was she underwater?

No, her clothes were dry...

Fighting the oppressive weight in her eyelids, she forced her eyes awake. Two faces hovered above hers; two gold orbs, two mismatched ones...

Dream? Ink?

"Thank goodness... There you are, Hope," Dream breathed, "Are you alright?"

Her ribcage deflated as the weight crept up on her sternum and sat comfortably on its haunches. Now inhaling felt almost laborious.