The Broken Egg (Discontinued)

Chapter 3

"Lord Nightmare?" A voice called. Nightmare shifted sleepily.

"Hey! Your Majesty!"

"Nina! You can't talk to him like that!"

"I can talk to him however I like I'm the one looking after his ass."

"I don't know about that Nina. We didn't do much of a good job." Nightmare opened his eyes. His two guardians, Nina and Luma, knelt before him. Luma had her knife out and Nina was tapping her arm impatiently.

"What happened?" Nightmare asked groggily. Luma shook her head.

"The tree it's..." she trailed off. "It's gone." Nightmare pushed himself up and staggered onto his feet.

"Show me." Luma and Nina looked hesitantly at each other.

"Umm... I don't know if you should-"

"Show me."

The tree sat in ashes. Black, sticky ashes. It lay in a heap almost as large as the tree itself had been.

"There's nothing left," Nightmare whispered, gazing at the sight. The wind blew some of it down the side of the pile, revealing something gold. Surprised, Nightmare walked around the pile to the glowing object and brushed away the ashes. They stuck to him like a parasite and burnt at his skin as he swept them away. The ashes fell away to reveal a golden apple.

"Dream's apple!" Nina cried in realisation. "Something survived!" Nightmare took a step back. The black feeling was back and speeding towards his fingertips.

"Luma you take it," he ordered. Luma frowned.

"Why me?" She asked.

"I can't take it," He answered. "And I don't trust Nina."

"Hey!" Luma stepped forward and stood beside Nightmare.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked.

"Yes, take it." Luma leant forward and took the apple. The golden glow filtered through her hands as she stepped down from the ash pile. She held it out to Nightmare but he took a few steps back, shaking his head.

"No, you keep it. I can't touch it." Luma retracted her hand and walked back over to her sister.

"What do we do now?" Nina asked.

"Where's Dream?" The two sisters shared the same look as before. Nightmare sighed. "What happened?"

"Dream's gone," Luma replied. "Savior couldn't find her this morning or last night during the commotion. We think she may have been kidnapped in all the fuss so Savior and Rayla are looking for her right now." Nightmare nodded numbly.

"Let's inspect the damages."

Lust awoke to blinding sunlight. Blue was already up and talking to the slender man from last night, Dust, making stew in their makeshift fireplace. She pushed herself up and swung her legs onto the dirt floor.

"I think I've figured you out," A voice whispered in her ear from behind. She jumped and threw out her hand in a slapping motion, trying to hit whoever was behind her. Someone grabbed her wrist and she opened her eyes. A frown immediate took over her face.

"Let me go," She ordered coldly. Horror laughed.

"You fight like a girl," He teased. Lust pulled her wrist out of his grip.

"I'm a woman. Get your facts right pig." Horror grinned.

"A woman but not a lady I see."

"Lust!" Blue cried. "You're up!" She ran over and gave her a hug. "Morning hug!" Lust hugged her back tiredly.

"Morning Blue," She sighed.

"I made breakfast."

"I can see that Blue."

"I'll go check out what's going on outside," Horror said. "Dust, don't get yourself killed." His friend grinned and nodded before returning to scooping out the finished stew. Lust took her bowl and sat back down to eat it, watching Dust and Blue chat.

Nightmare arrived at a broken tower leaning against the western wall. Luma and Nina stood behind him watching him carefully as he approached the bloody ruins. The street was empty. The surrounding residents were either dead, too afraid to leave the house or hiding. Nightmare looked down at the carnage as he stopped at the edge of the ruins and almost gagged. Dead, horribly mutilated bodies lay around the stone. Their stomach and chests were crudely cut open and blood stained the stone around them, even worse, all the inner organs were gone, nowhere to be seen. Each of their foreheads sported a cruelly scratched word.

"Thief."

Luma and Nina finally followed him to the ruins and both grimaced at the sight.

"Who would do this?" Nina asked. "This is just unnecessary carnage." Nightmare shrugged as Luma began climbing her way through the crumbling stone.

"Nightmare!" She called. "There's someone alive over here!" Nightmare followed Nina to her sister and looked at where she was pointing. A girl lay buried under a pile of rock, her white hair stained red with blood and countless wounds littering her body. Soft breath pushed gently at a stray strand of her hair as proof of life.

"What are we gonna do?" Nina asked. "Kill her?" Nightmare shook his head.

"She might know who attacked them. Take her back to the castle."

I don't know how Nina ended up that way but here we are. Yay, more OCs are appearing!