where our memories lie

Busted Pipes

"Who is this?" The spirit's bitter tone came from a corner of the very cluttered room, followed by the sound of a page being turned. Error blinked slowly, his vision blurry as his eye lights adjusted to the dim room. He turned his head slightly, stopping upon feeling a stinging pain in his neck. From where he was left on the floor the glitch could see several outdated boxes of robotic toys, mostly from the 90's, surrounded by multiple half-empty packs of batteries. The location the voice came from was just barely out of his sight, but the sleeve of a soft purple shirt was just visible. His kidnapper, that odd speaking ghost covered in that gross goo stuff, crouched down next to him with a grin, speaking to the other spirit in the room.

"S' just somethin' for lil' old me. If I'm helpin' ya, I gotta take somethin' fo' myself, yano?"

Error cringed at the way of speaking the ghost used, though more so at the volume at which he was speaking. He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment and opening them again.

"I didn't say you could take one of them. All I want is the little gold one.. you couldn't even do that?" The spirit spat at Fresh, clearly growing impatient. "They were in the same room you useless imbecile."

The colorful ghost clicked his tongue, getting up and stretching out his long limbs. He picked up one of the toys (holy shit , that's a long furby-) and swung it around his neck like a creepy ass feather boa.

"Yano, brah- I could totally all up'n not help ya! After all, you ain't exactly able to mess with my rad self, yeah?"

Error could almost feel the rage fuming off the other spirit as a loud growl rang through the room. He wiggled himself around a little more to try to get a better look at what was going on, squinting over to where he'd seen the purple clothing. There, nestled between a few larger boxes, was a small skeleton ghost with a large book in their lap and a flickering purple lantern at their side. A single cyan eye was shaking (presumably with rage) in the large hole in their skull, the pupil focused completely on Fresh.

"If you weren't already dead I would kill you where you stand!" The spirit roared, black goo gushing out from the head in the skeleton's skull and pouring out all over the book. A light purple eye light briefly flickered in the left socket, the ghost letting out a gasp as they watched their book get covered in the dark substance. Error almost felt bad for them- the look of disappointment that followed the event was nearly soul-crushing. The book was shut and the little ghost stood from their seated position on the floor, the goo continuing to flow from the skull and cover more of their body until they were completely covered. Fresh grinned at the spirit in front of him, now standing just above his height with a menacing expression.

"You will get the gold one for me within the week. The faster your task is done, the more merciful I will be when punishing you for this first failure." The cyan eye rolled around in the goo-covered head, its gaze landing on Error. "Get rid of it, or I will kill that thing myself."

After these words, the black goo quickly shrank down and vanished, leaving the glitch alone with the large, colorful ghost. Said ghost seemed quite annoyed with the situation, muttering something about being unable to 'have a lil' fun'.

The front of Error's shirt was grabbed as he was lifted up to look at the ghost, their smile now strained as they were clearly trying to appear as calm as possible.

"Now, I'm not gonna blame ya or anything- but I'm in some pretty big trouble with the big guy now. Sure, I could totally let ya go.. but that ain't no fun, is it?" Fresh hissed, purple tendrils waving from an eye socket.

"I should at least have a lil' fun before releasin' ya to your little friends.."

...

..

.

Killer had mentioned to him the basement had started to flood after they had returned from the seance room. He seemed to take notice of the missing member of the group, choosing to not make any snide comments as he guided the remaining four to the dining room table where Dust sat flipping through an astronomy textbook. Dream politely declined their host's offer for tea, instead opting to head for the basement.

Though if he was being honest, he didn't expect the flooding to be this bad . Dream had left his socks and shoes behind on one of the higher steps, rolling up his pants to just above his knees to prevent the items from getting wet. The water was strangely warm, but he could see the reflection of a deep red glow coming from around the corner to the stairs. He stepped down onto the main floor of the basement level, cautiously peeking around the corner. Dream exhaled a sigh of relief upon seeing the large ghost working on some of the pipes along the basement wall.

"Oh, thank goodness- I thought I'd find you here.." Dream said, approaching the skeleton who had raised his head to look at him. "It's been a while, Horror."

The ghost smiled with his single eye light, gesturing for Dream to come crouch beside him while he worked. Dream listened, though stayed standing to keep his pants dry. He watched him work quietly for a minute before handing Horror a tool from the nearby toolbox. The large spirit took the tool from him, looking up with a very happy expression. Dream smiled back, though it was more bittersweet.

"I truly would love to catch up.. but I'm afraid I came looking for your help. You see, one of our friends was taken by an odd ghost.. I was wondering if you knew how I could find them?" Dream spoke softly and slowly, watching as Horror's expression shifted. The ghost nodded, then paused, staring blankly at the pipe in front of him. He set the tool aside and started moving his hands slowly.

"Don't go looking," Horror signed carefully, a worried expression in his eye. "That ghost is very dangerous." He stopped and put a semi-transparent hand on Dream's shoulder, tilting his head with obvious worry. It made Dream's chest tighten to see how much the old handyman still cared for his safety, remembering how he would often help him and his brother down from their backyard tree..

"I understand, but one of my friends.. They're so torn up about it- if I could just know where they are-" Dream was cut off by Horror raising a hand gently. He paused and watched closely as the ghost's hands began moving again.

"I can look, if it will keep you out of trouble."

The skeleton immediately went to searching Horror's expression, only to find pure caring intent coming from the spirit. A long silence stretched out between them before Horror continued.

"I know you must be worried. I will be fine. Your friend may not be. But I can look. Okay?" The ghost tilted his head again with a questioning look. Dream slowly nodded, Horror patting his head with a little rub before returning to his work on the pipes.

Dream only lingered for just a bit longer before returning up the stairs to tell his friends the news, the group deciding to accept an offer from Killer to spend the night in the main living room. Ink had been crying, and it was so painfully obvious that Dream had to make a conscious effort to not overreact- and Blue, even though he hadn't known him very long, seemed shaken even through the thick unbothered expression he tried to keep up. Dust had followed the group into their currently borrowed room, carrying a stack of blankets along with him. Cross himself wasn't too happy about the situation, of course, but at least knowing Dream hadn't gone off looking on his own kept him comforted for the moment.

Setting up was easy, the room was cozy. Killer started a fire for them in the fireplace, which kept them warm and provided soft pops of white noise.

Dream doubted anyone slept that night.

...