Chapter Text
Everything was good. Good as it could get. Horror was grateful.
On second thought, everything was not good. Not even close. Every other week, Horror visited his home, Horrortale. Every other week. Everyone in the castle knew an unspoken tradition. Sometimes he even brought others along. This wasn't one of those times. This time someone else came to his AU without him even knowing.
He stood in the doorway of his brother and his house. He vaguely registered the sound of the bag of food he brought for Paps as it hit the floor. His eyes were screwed to Nightmare as he felt the world start to deteriorate around him. Nightmare stood with his chest puffed out, challenging Horror to step closer. Everything was so wrong. "How kind of you to stop by" Nightmare purred with an evil, wretched, smile. He had his tentacle pieced through Papyrus' limp body. It looked so wrong. His usually lively brother, still. The black eyesockets that had once been so bright were dull and empty.
"Did you think you could get away without consequences?" Nightmare dropped Papyrus with a sickening thud. Horror felt the heat again. It wasn't burning, it was scalding. "You were ruining my plans. I don't know why you thought had this delusion that you could come under my protection, live in my castle, and take what is mine and get away with it." Every step Nightmare took was deafening. "You think you can 'heal' any of them? You're doing nothing but distract them from battle. You all are worthless without my help, my guidance. You all are just a bunch of sick freaks. Broken toys without purpose. So if you ever think about going against me again, you better think again, or it will be much, much worse."
Nightmare teleported away, Papyrus' slowly dusting body the only reminder of his prior presence. Silence filled the house. Time kept moving. The air buzzed and the clock kept ticking. The world hadn't stopped, even though Horror swore he felt his nonexistent heart halt. He took a heavy gulp, falling to the floor as tears began to fall freely after being held onto for what felt like an eternity. He couldn't bear to even glance at what was once his brother and now nothing more than a pile of dust. His brother was gone. Papyrus was gone. Yet everything kept moving.
Horror wouldn't tell a soul how long he stayed like that, nor how he fled from what was once his very own home, another place of warmth. Now it was just a house in an AU. What used to be home.
Horror used to visit Horrortale every other week. Everyone in the castle knew it was an unspoken tradition. No one mentioned it when that tradition came to an end.
Yet, he couldn't help but recall the sinister grin that bled into his nightmares, invading every warmth he had, as he stood before Nightmare in his office. Nightmare's mouth was in an angry snarl.
For some star-forsaken reason, Horror was typically chosen by Nightmare to get rid of Papyrus during AU attacks. It had been a few months since he had been to Horrortale since Nightmare had been to Horrortale. Yet, this Papyrus was too Familiar for Horror's taste, especially with the event so fresh in his mind after the blur of time had passed. He may have fumbled.
"You have been sloppy and careless, even more for you and the pack of imbeciles. You've been risking missions and you finally comprised one. Honestly, I'm surprised you managed to get this far with how you keep acting."
Nightmare's words were one of his greatest strengths. However, Horror wasn't easily affected when he was certain about something. He felt his mouth move in retaliation before thinking about the consequences. "What did you expect? You killed my brother." These, coincidentally, were not the words to say. Nightmare's face contorted into a twisted frown. One might even mistake it for pity, sympathy, sadness. "I didn't want to kill him, but you force my hand, Horror. You just never listen. You never learn. If you had just stayed to yourself none of this would've happened. Don't you understand? If I didn't kill him, you would've eventually done it yourself with your foolish acts."
Horror blinked. It was true. Horror never did learn, nor did he have to love his team, all he had to do was kill and he managed to even screw that up. It was his fault his brother died. If only he had been stronger, braver, smarter, none of this would have happened. He felt some kind of warm liquid fall from his eyes, yet his fingers felt so so cold.
"Horror, I know you might think you have to be the hero.. but you don't need to. It's only going to make life harder for you. I'm doing this because I care about you." Nightmare hugged Horror. It was something so strange. An act that was usually so warm that felt so cold.
It had become normal for Horror to visit Nightmare's office after missions as a team. Nightmare would yell and hit but then send him off with kindness and sympathy. It was confusing. Maybe Nightmare had a strange way of showing he cared, but Horror tried to understand. Dust had shown him not to judge, Killer had taught him how to embrace oddities, and Cross allowed him to be himself. He loved his fantastic partner and his other wonderful teammates. He gave Nightmare room to be himself, to speak, yet, he never understood.
Yet, it had never gotten this bad. Horror had messed up again as Nightmare told him. The Star Sans had arrived too soon and had launched a counterattack. Horror hadn't been paying enough attention, hadn't been strong enough and Nightmare was hit by a barrage of positivity arrows. He escaped mostly unscathed besides a few that hit their mark.
It had been Horror's fault. He knew by the way Nightmare scolding him and him alone in the office. "Seriously? You're the biggest person here and yet you can't even keep an eye on the enemy during battle? How could you be so useless?" The words didn't mean much but the hits that came after always left Horror a bit sore. This time, it wasn't a punch or slap or kick, no, it was much worse. Nightmare launched an attack, throwing Horror against the wall. He shot his tendril sharp and true. It wasn't a killing blow but it wasn't going to heal easily. "If you keep being this USELESS" Nightmare spoke in a distorted gurgle as he tightened his grip around Horror. "I might kill your mate, just to teach you a lesson." Just like I did to your brother was left unsaid but Horror knew. "You wouldn't" It came out more like a question than Horror would've preferred but he saw his answer as Nightmare's grin grew even wider, more unnatural and wrong.
That was the night that Horror had fled.