Little Shadows

Fear and Shadows

A/n: I do not claim the art. Now, story :)

○(Y/n)'s P.O.V.○

"Don't you just love the taste of fear?"

I gazed at him in astonishment and relief. It was just Nightmare. He was okay!

Mabel shouted and threw a pillow at him. "WHO IS THIS OCTOPUS MAN?"

Dipper put a hand over her mouth to hush her and held her hands with his other so she couldn't throw another pillow.

Ink didn't say anything, and Blueberry was making weird breathing sounds. I got up and went to Nightmare, who was still standing there and staring and Dipper and Mabel.

Then he saw me, but he didn't smile. His eye flickered violet for one second but I didn't know why? Nevermind that, I hugged him tightly, almost crying.

"What happened? I got really worried," I told him. He didn't say anything, and he didn't hug me back.

I half expected him to but I also expected him not to because HE'S NOT a hugger. But still...

Something was very off about him.

I pulled away, slightly frowning. "Nightmare...? What's wrong?"

He shrugged. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just myself again, that's all."

Just himself...?

Yeah, hate to break it to you but he seems completely different, said Chara.

Yeah, it has something to do with why he went missing, I bet...Batfang squeaked quietly.

Batfang, I haven't heard from you for a bit. Is everything okay?

Batfang didn't reply.

I felt a bit alarmed and confused. What was wrong with Batfang? Does he have trauma of Gravity Falls or something similar?

And Nightmare... I back away a little bit. Maybe something spooked Nightmare? No, he never gets spooked, unless he has a secret fear of trees or villages or...

A memory suddenly stabbed into my brain.

People were throwing rocks at a purple-clad skeleton, who stood in front of a tree on the outskirts of a dark village.

He was crying.

It seemed heartbreaking...

It also seemed familiar. It was like the picture Dipper showed me from the violet book.

Then I blinked back into reality, with everyone staring at me.

There was a long silence, and then Blueberry was suddenly shouting. At first I thought it was just him being him, but there was something off about it.

Then he said, "Guys, Nightmare changed again, and I saw a weird guy in the forest!!"

Dipper and Mabel exchanged worried glances. "What did this 'weird guy' look like?" Dipper asked.

Mabel nodded. "Yeah. Did he happen to be freakishly stylish and yellow and triangular?"

Blueberry stood up from behind the chair. For the first time, I saw that he was trembling from fear and his blue eye-lights were tiny and shaking.

"Y-yes!" he cried, clutching his head. Then he swiveled around and pointed at Nightmare, who was still standing menacingly at the door. "And he's evil! He made A DEAL! HE'S GOING TO--"