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TW: dream sequence, foreboding, i had a comma after that so here's like twelve more words

Ranboo POV

I stared blankly up at the ceiling. My eyes focused on the plain white paint as if expecting it to peel and crumble down at any moment. Tubbo was asleep beside me and I probably should have tried sleeping, but I didn't want to. I knew that if I even closed my eyes for a second the nightmare would come back. I could handle not sleeping, Tubbo would be concerned, but I would be fine. I hated this aspect of myself. I knew I needed to sleep but if I slept, it would only cause more fear and pain. The simple solution was don't sleep, but my reasonable side would always go to the fact that I needed to sleep. Sure the sleep would be good, but it would mean more pain. Pain was bad. So that meant no sleep for me.

As I laid contemplating sleep, Tubbo stirred, sitting up.

"You still awake? It's like one or something, you should sleep," he said, yawning as he wrapped his short arms around me. I jumped at the sudden feeling before relaxing into him and letting out a content sigh.

"I know, it's just..." I trailed off, not wanting to talk about the nightmare again.

"It's just what Big Man? You gotta learn to start finishing your sentences." Tubbo replied sleepily

"It's just that if I go to sleep the nightmare will come back, and it keeps getting...worse," I said solemnly. Tubbo looked at me with concern in his eyes.

"Don't worry, if you seem like you're in pain at all then I won't hesitate to wake you up."

"Okay," I said, a little bit relieved. He leaned in for a small peck before letting me drift off into the darkness of sleep...

I stood in the center of a room, much larger than the one from the other nightmares. It was still hot, but a lot less humid and a small breeze ruffled my hair. I could hear footsteps coming from across the room and turned to see Tubbo step from the darkness. I began to run to him, but before I could get there another figure stepped from the darkness and pulled him back. As I got closer I realized the second figure was...Dream?! Why was he here? This place was already bad enough without him! I ran faster, but the path in front of me seemed to stretch on forever. I could see Tubbo trying to break free of his grasp, but he was much smaller and not nearly as strong. I lost sight of Tubbo but kept running. I knew he was there, in the darkness, somewhere. I tripped on something and fell to the floor, my arms and face hitting the strange surface. I could hear a faint sound in the distance and looked up to see the edge of a forest. I got up and walked towards it. Two small figures darted in and out of the trees. They didn't seem to notice me at all. As I got closer I could see their faces. One was tan with blonde hair and a dark green t-shirt, while the other had pale skin with dark brown hair and a blue hoodie. They ran through the trees, ducking behind them and jumping out to tag the other before running back off and into the trees. They still seemed oblivious to my being there. I walked up to one of them, the blonde, who was hiding behind a tree, and put one hand on his shoulder. He turned and looked up at me with confusion in his eyes. I lifted my hand from his shoulder and the scene quickly changed. I was now in the mountains with the same two little kids, only now they were bigger and a third was with them. His skin was tan, his hair was black and he wore a black hoodie underneath a white t-shirt with a white headband. They seemed familiar and I knew who they were, but I couldn't remember. I walked closer to them. I tapped on the shoulder of the blonde and he turned around, looking at me with recognition. Did he remember me from the forest? The scene shifted again and this time it was only him. He stood alone in the center of a field. Large sunflowers towered above the grass and small birds chirped in the canopy of petals. I walked towards him, but he noticed me and looked up before running away in the opposite direction. I tried to run after him, but the illusion quickly vanished and I was back in the small room. I sat on the floor. Waited for the pain. I knew it would come. But it didn't. I sat for what seemed like hours, but nothing happened. I got up and walked around the room, pacing from one corner to the other. The hours seemed to stretch out into days and the days into weeks. I tried to find a way out, maybe by climbing the walls? No, too steep and smooth. Digging out wasn't an option either and there was no door to go through. I was stuck. No way of escaping. No way of waking up to get out of this nightmare. This terrible, annoying, dream. I sat back against a wall and closed my eyes. I thought I could hear a faint voice as I sat there. I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't. The hot stone behind me turned soft and was now laying down.

I opened my eyes but quickly closed them due to the sunlight shining brightly on my face. I slung one arm over my face and let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. Tubbo wrapped his small arms around me and cuddled into my side. I smiled and sat up, completely forgetting the dream ever happened even though it could have prevented everything that was about to go wrong.

995 words<3

a/n: hello :)

long chapter. also i started work on book three. i don't know what to call it yet, but i would like to stick with the six letter theme. i was going to call it Echoes, but i used that for something else. if you guys have any suggestions you can put them here-->