Tommy found himself waking up in the dark once again.
But it wasn't as quiet this time as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
'KID!!!
Hi kiddo!
Good morning!
Welcome back to the land of the living!
Hi.
You feeling better?
Hello!
Morning!'
Tommy's head was bombarded with noise the second he woke up.
"Guys! Guys! I'm fine, just give me a chance to wake up before hound me with questions!"
Tommy said while laughing, from the corner of his eye he could see that nightmare was laughing too.
'You feeling better this time round kiddo?'
"Yeah.
Yeah I feel better. What about you?"
'Eh, I'm fine.'
"That's good. Umm, do you know where the torches are? I can't see anything right now."
'Yeah yeah, they're like 6 steps in front of you, they're against the shelf.'
"Thanks!"
Tommy felt around for the torches and after a minute of crawling around and nightmare laughing at how stupid he looked he finally found them.
Thank whatever god exists that they hadn't been lit yet. He grabbed his knife and scraped it against the stone shelves, the sparks flew off and caught the smallest torch, lighting it.
He could finally see what was around him.
It was exactly the same as before, minus the dried blood on the floor from his little 'adventure'.
"Okay. Now that I'm actually partially awake again, what were you guys trying to say?"
'Hi kid!
Morning!
Hello
Hi
Feeling better?
You okay?
Hi kiddo!
Good morning
Hiiiiiiii
Are you okay?
Morning!'
"Hi, Morning guys, I'm feeling better. I guess I did kinda need to cry after everything that's happened.
Get my emotions out without, y'know, killing people..."
'At least you can admit that the majority of it WAS quite fun.'
"Yeah... accept killing the kid."
'Accept killing the kid.
That was not fun.'
"So!
What are we going to do today? Clean up? This place is messy as hell."
'I think what we need to do first is get you some basic resources and spare food.'
"But I already have food?"
'Hunting will be a good skill for you to learn.'
"Hunting what though?"
Nightmare chuckled.
'Heh, Didn't realise you were so eager to kill people again."
"I didn't mean people!"
'Hahahaha, I know kiddo. I'm just teasing.'
Tommy folded his arms and pouted. At least he now knew that nightmare was an annoying asshole when he isn't trying to kill people.
'You've actually got to go get food and resources though, this place is falling apart and needs some touching up.'
"Yeah yeah I'm going"
Tommy stood up and picked up the knives from the floor, he saw nightmare tense from the corner of his eye.
"Don't worry nightmare, I'm okay now."
Nightmare sighed,
'I know kiddo, doesn't mean I can't worry about you.'
With that they left the cave to find food and things to clean up the filthy place.
'This is gonna take a lot of work...'
'Yeah.
Hey it might be fun!
Let's gooooo
I'm bored
Where exactly are we going?'
Tommy stopped.
'Don't worry kid, I know my way back, just wonder round, get the stuff you need, I'll lead you back once you're done'
"Awwww you care for me!"
'Shut it kid, I'm not afraid to make myself invisible. I will leave you here.'
"Alright! Sorry. I won't say anything."
Tommy spent the next few hours wondering around the forest collecting wood, stone, iron, coal, food, buckets of water, lava, anything that he thought he might need later on down the line to fix up the place he was using as his temporary home.
He didn't know if he was going to stay for long.
All the while he was talking to nightmare and the other spirits.
Some of them were weird and just screamed E quietly, some of them commented on stuff around them, some told stories, some just liked to hold a conversation.
Overall it was very noisy but he wouldn't change that for the world.
They all acted different, accept for when he went killing.
And right now...
'Person
Person
Someone's there
Run
Get away
Someone's here
Person
There
Behind the tree
Run
Get away'
Tommy's heart began to race.
He was meant to be safe!
He wasn't meant to have been found!
God why did he have to leave the cave!
His breathing became rapid as he spun round to face the figure that had finally come out from behind the tree.
"⍙⊑⍜ ⏃⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍?"
("Who are you?")
.