"Chapter 5"

"Chapter 5" was published on March 17th 2021.

### Description

Chapter 5 is the fifth chapter where Bunny learns about the existence of the Nightmare Realm.

CW/TW: Mention of murder, swearing, brief mention of sex, and weapons.

### Original

Here is the link to the original story, although it has been copy-and-pasted onto here for simplicity and nothing has been changed. Please note that in this chapter, there is the usage of various fonts which do not copy over to this website. For optimal story-telling (and for a major plot point to make sense) please read the story in it's original format, as it is linked here.

### The Story

*Date: February 2021*

*Time: Night, present*

*Place: The Mansion*

*...*

*Chapter 5*

*~~~*

“What do you want?” Cyrin said. Her eyes were hidden beneath her lop-sided bangs and her fists were balled, but I couldn’t see if she was holding anything or not. I raised my hands in defence and glanced towards S.P.’s bedroom door.

“Look, I’m just here to speak to S.P., okay?”

“Excuse me?” Cyrin said, raising her hands so that I could see the knife she was holding.

“Woah, okay. Look, I assume you’re here to kill off Caelan again?” I asked, and Cyrin gave a swift nod. “We can assume they’re both in the same room together, like always,” I said, grumbling the last part of that. “How about, you stay with me and S.P. and you can monitor our conversation. I won’t get too close to him and then I’ll leave you two alone, okay?” I said. Cyrin lowered her hands but didn’t say anything, but I took it as a yes anyways. I walked up to S.P.’s door and opened it up, but the room was empty. I sighed and walked over to Caelan’s, who just so happened to have the bedroom right beside S.P.’s, and I opened the door. The two of them lay cuddling on the bed together watching television, but they jumped when I opened the door. Caelan pulled the blanket up to his chin to hide himself, but S.P. just smiled and waved at us.

“Oh, hi guys. Don’tcha think you should knock before entering a room? Me and Caelan might’ve been having se-”

“I don’t care,” I said, quickly cutting off S.P. and moving out of the doorway so that Cyrin could enter the room too. S.P.’s smile faltered, but quickly returned.

“Ah, Cyrin . . . how good it is to see you again,” S.P. said. I couldn’t tell if it was sarcastic or not. Cyrin leaned up against the wall beside the door and closed said door.

“Anyways, S.P, I need you to answer some questions for me. They’ll be simple and you won’t have to use your brain much.” I said, looking over at Caelan. He quickly looked away.

“Great. I don’t like to use my brain much anyways,” S.P. flashed a smile at me and walked over to where Cyrin and I were standing, and I took a step back to keep the distance between us. I frowned at him and glanced over at Cyrin to see if she was still doing okay. She was emotionless, as always.

“Moving on. So, these are about Biocide. Can you tell me what she was like before the snap? I know the two of you were very close, but it doesn’t seem like you are anymore. Is there a reason behind that?”

“Oh, uh, okay. Yeah, we were really close friends before all of this happened. She was always really peppy and chipper about everything, and I can’t say that I ever saw her down or depressed. It’s like she was forcing herself to be happy all the time. Thinking back on it now, it was kind of suspicious or worrying and I should have said something, but I guess it’s too late for that now,” he said, laughing. “I mean, it’s not like we shared a bedroom or anything like that, so I don’t always know what she was like, I only know what she was like when she was hanging out with the rest of us. Maybe, if you can remember, ask the poor sucker who was sharing a room with Biocide for info on her,” S.P. laughed again.

“That poor sucker was me, thank you very much,” Cyrin said, bringing a silence to the room. S.P.’s face dropped and he stared down at his bare feet and rubbed his neck. I turned to look at Cyrin.

“Can you tell me anything about how Biocide acted?” I asked. Cyrin folded her arms in front of her and tucked the knife away somewhere. Where exactly? I didn’t want to know.

“Biocide . . . she was odd,” Cyrin started. “Once the bedroom door was closed, she acted a lot like she does now. Often she would get mad and scream into a pillow on the couch or her bunk, and sometimes she’d punch the walls or something. It was almost like that was a trigger or something for her because any time she did that, it was like she became a new person afterwards. We had a bunk bed and I was on the top, so I couldn’t see what she was doing on her bunk, but she did do a lot of writing in her diary or notebook or whatever.”

“Wait- writing? Did you ever read what she wrote in her notebooks?”

“Uh, no. She kept them very secretive and always hid them, and I could never find them whenever I tried to look for them. She probably had a hidden safe or something for them that she’d put it in when I wasn’t around,” Cyrin said. I nodded and stroked my chin, looking down at the floor. Everything checked out to what I’d found out in her journals.

“Oh, her journals? She told me about them,” S.P. said and I turned back to face him.

“What did she tell you about them?” I asked.

“I can’t remember exactly, but she said something about the fact that she gets amnesia sometimes and that she writes everything down so that she can remember stuff even if she forgot about it.”

“If she had amnesia, don’t you think she would have told, y’know, all of us about it?” Caelan said, chiming in from the back of the room. In the time that we’d ignored him, he’d gotten fully dressed in his e-boy attire and stood beside S.P., and you could tell the height difference between them.

“You pose a good argument,” S.P. said. “However, she said that she wasn’t comfortable sharing all of her secrets like that with everyone, so she really only confided in me.”

“Then why didn’t you tell everyone else?” Cyrin asked. “It’s not like she made you promise not to tell anyone, right?”

“Well, she didn’t, but still . . .” S.P. trailed off. “I’m not the kind of person to go spilling everyone’s secrets left right and center.”

“I somehow doubt that. You couldn’t keep a secret if your life depended on it,” Cyrin laughed. S.P. frowned and crossed his arms.

“Excuse me, but I can very well keep a secret. I haven’t exactly told everyone about your other little crush on C-” S.P., but Cyrin launched herself at him and he screeched. She knocked him down and covered his mouth.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” she growled. S.P. pushed her off of him and stood up, brushing off his pastel yellow skirt.

“I think I might just fucking dare, thanks,” he said with a wink and folded his arms. Cyrin growled again and stood up.

“Guys, enough,” I said. Everyone looked back over at me. “Anyways, can any of you tell me anything else about Biocide that you might know?” Everyone shrugged and I sighed. “Well, thanks anyways. You’ve surprisingly been a lot of help,” I said, turning and opening the door. With a quick glance behind me towards everyone, I left the room and shut the door. Moments after I closed the door, I heard a scream and some laughing, but I just continued on my way. I pulled out one of Biocide’s journals from one of my jacket pockets and flipped it open to a random page.

“*Today the Creator informed me about the Nightmare Realm. They say that it’s a place that only I can access and I can trap people in their eternal nightmares for however long I want. Not even they can access it, and whoever is trapped inside can’t get out: I function as the gatekeeper, the only way in and out of the Realm. I don’t know why the Creator told me this or made me the only one who could control it, but nonetheless I’m thankful. I’m going to ask Her if she knows anything about the Nightmare Realm, but seeing as this is the first time I’m writing about it, I highly doubt it. I’m going to see if I can find any more info about it from either of them later.*”

I sat down on one of the couches in the hallway and blinked a few times. I re-read the passage a few more times before I hurriedly scanned the next few pages until I found another entry about the Nightmare Realm.

“*After a few days of bugging the Creator for more information, they finally gave into me. I got to ask them a few questions about the realm, and so I did. Our conversation went something like this:*

*Me: So what exactly is the Nightmare Realm?*

 *Them: It’s just like I told you last time. It’s a place where you can pretty much just lock someone away in eternal hell until you decide that they can come out.*

 *Me: But why did you choose me? Why not someone else to control it?*

 *Them: Because everyone else is a complete and total utter moron and would fuck everything up, that’s why. You’re the only one who I trust enough.*

 *Me: Not even Cyrus is capable?*

 *Them: I have . . . plans for them in the future, so they’re unavailable, if you know what I mean.*

 *Me: Are you planning to kill Cyrus?*

 *Them: What? No, no no no no (laughs). I mean- some of yall will die but not Cyrus. They’ll just be busy . . . with other stuff, so I can’t trust them.*

*Me: Alright . . . so what’s the deal with the Nightmare Realm?*

 *Them: Whatcha’ mean?*

 *Me: Well, why does it exist? Surely you created it for a reason?*

 *Them: Oh, well . . . that’s complicated. Maybe why don’t you try messing around with it first and get a feel of it and come back to me with more questions.*

*Me: How should I mess around with it?*

 *Them: I dunno man . . . throw someone in there . . . one’a the triplets. We don’t really need them around.*

*Me: That’s really insensitive towards them.*

 *Them: And since when are you the boss of who I’m allowed to hate?*

 *Me: I’m not . . . so how do I lock someone away?*

 *Them: Oh, well, basically all you need to do is focus your energy and power on making someone go away, and you also have to have some sort of physical tie to them for it to work too. This tie could work as anything that belongs to them or a picture or something else that is directly linked to them. For beginners like yourself, it’s easiest to lock someone away in a room and just concentrate on the room itself because anything inside the room will disappear alongside it.*

 *Me: That sounds complicated . . . and what happens when I make someone disappear? Do they go unharmed into the Nightmare Realm?*

 *Them: Yeah, basically. You can use your separate magick to wipe everyone’s memories of the person you just sent away to make it seem like they never existed in the first place. This is called Repressing them, and you’re the only one who can do this. You can do this to anything and everything that you want: people, places, thoughts and feelings, and anything else. It's your job to repress things and keep everything safe, alright?*

 *Me: Are you sure I can do this? What if I screw up and ruin everything?*

 *Them: I have faith in you Samantha. I know you’ll be able to do this.*

*Me: Thanks.*

 *Them: No problem. Oh, I have to go now.*

*Me: Wait! I have one more question for you!*

 *Them: Yeah? Make it quick though.*

*Me: What happens . . . if I try to repress myself?*

 *Them: (after a long silence) I don’t know. Best to not find out though.*”

I set down the journal beside me and put my head in my hands. I let out a shaky breath as I tried to get a grip on this new information. The Nightmare Realm? Samantha? Repressing? My thoughts were swirling in my head and nothing made any sense. I wanted to talk to someone- anyone, but nobody would understand anything of this. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was afraid of Biocide, but also intrigued at the same time. What if it was her plan to get me feeling like this and obsessed over this mystery? What does she have planned for me? What has she already done to me that I was unaware of? I felt like crying, like giving up- but I knew I couldn’t, because that would just mean that Biocide was winning, and there was no way that it could ever happen, especially when I was the one who was playing.

I stood up straight and dried my eyes before I could start crying and grabbed the journal off of the table. I darted down the stairs to my bedroom and locked the door behind me. I began shifting through the papers stacked on the small desk in the corner of my room, looking for a notebook of my own. With an exasperated sigh, I tucked Biocide’s notebook back into my pocket and fled my room, and headed upstairs to Annie’s room. I banged on her door several times and with no response, I left. I went all the way downstairs and checked in the kitchen for Annie, but it was empty. I considered going to Cyrus for help decoding this puzzle, but then I shook off that thought and headed towards Corbin’s room. I kicked down the door and Corbin screeched, falling down into his pile of laundry that he was sorting.

“So graceful,” I said, closing the door behind me. Corbin grumbled a few things under his breath as he stood up and brushed off his clothes.

“M-Maybe I’d be more graceful if y-you didn’t come barging in h-here like a wild animal and sc-scaring me half to death every f-five minutes,” Corbin huffed, crossing his arms. “What do you need?”

“Geez, calm down sugar tits. I just need you to analyze this entry I was reading,” I said, pulling the journal out of my back pocket and waving it in front of Corbin’s face. His face immediately softened and he unfolded his arms as he reached for the notebook. I flipped open the book to the page that I was just reading and handed it to Corbin, and he snatched the book from my hands as his eyes speedily scanned the page. He walked over and sat down at his desk as he did it, turning on the light as he read.

“Huh,” Corbin said. He looked up as his hands wavered over several of the notebooks on the shelf beside him before he grabbed one and flipped it open to a certain page with scribbles and chicken scratch all over it. I leaned over his shoulder and breathed down his neck which made him jump and his face flushed up, but he returned to reading as he wrote something down in the book he just grabbed. I watched him work, but very quickly got bored.

“So?” I asked, laying down on Corbin’s bed with my arms tucked behind my head. Corbin avoided making eye contact with me while he spoke.

“Th-This isn’t the first time she’s mentioned the N-Nightmare Realm,” Corbin said, and I immediately sat up, staring at him.

“What do you mean this isn’t the first time?” I asked, hopping off the bed and scrambling beside him. I stared down at the books as my eyes trailed all the words, but I couldn’t make sense of any of it. Corbin reached up to his shelf and grabbed Biocide’s other journal and flipped it open. There were dozens of sticky notes and pieces of paper sticking out all over the place. Corbin opened it to a page near the end of the book and laid the two journals side by side. With a finger on both pages, he read out loud what was written.

“‘*Today the Creator informed me about the Nightmare Realm,*’ he said. On your copy, afterwards it reads ‘*They say that it’s a place that only I can access and I can trap people in their eternal nightmares for however long I want. Not even they can access it, and whoever is trapped inside can’t get out: I function as the gatekeeper, the only way in and out of the Realm.*’ However, on my copy it says this, ‘*They said that it’s a special place that only themself and I can access. It’s essentially a detention, they said. Like the detention in a school. You’re fed and well kept, but you can’t talk to or see anyone. Like a prison, but nice*.’”

“So on one hand, she’s being told that the Nightmare Realm is an eternal hellscape, and on the other she’s being told it’s like a school detention and is lovely? Why would the Creator lie to her like that- and who the hell is the Creator anyways?” I asked, sitting back down on the bed.

“I-I don’t know why the Creator would l-lie to her, but . . . I do have this,” Corbin said, picking up his own notebook and standing up. He sat down beside me on the bed as he handed me his book. The page was open to a shitty drawing of a human who looked kind of familiar, but also didn’t at the same time. Some information was written beside the picture and I tried my best to read it.

“The . . . Creator? This is the Creator?” I asked, looking over at Corbin, who nodded.

“Y-Yeah. I’m no a-artist, but this is what I-I’ve gotten as a description of them. Th-This includes what they’re like a-and how stuff l-like that.” Corbin said. “Th-They’re the mastermind behind all t-this, and they know us. We u-used to be very connected, b-but now we’re not. So-Some of us remember them, but some of us don’t.”

“So who is this Creator person? Is it one of us? I swear to god if I meet this Creator person I’m gonna punch them so hard that they die,” I said, smacking my fists together.

“It’s not one of u-us,” Corbin assured me. “I-I’m not exactly sure who it is, but I’m trying m-my best.”

“So what about Biocide? Does she really control who goes in and out of the Nightmare Realm?” I asked. Corbin flipped through his book and quickly read a page from it before looking back over at me.

“Y-Yeah, she can. Th-There’s no way to get in and out b-besides for her and there’s no way to co-contact anyone inside unless y-you’re inside the Ni-”

“What did you just say?” I said, interrupting him. He frowned.

“I said that t-the only way to contact anyone in the Nightmare Realm is i-if you’re inside there,” Corbin said. “It s-says so right here,” he said, picking up Biocide’s journal and flipping to a bookmarked page. I scanned the words on the page and ripped the book from Corbin’s hands.

“Can you contact anyone outside when you’re in there?” I asked.

“I-I’m not sure. She’s never said an-anything about that.” Corbin said. I stood up and threw the book at him which hit him on the head. He whined in pain as I darted out of the room and across the second floor towards Biocide’s bedroom. I frantically knocked and was about to give up until she opened the door. She was wearing a black oversized tee-shirt and a sleep mask that was half covering her face. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail and she looked like she might legitimately kill me.

“The fuck do you want Bunny. It’s 2 in the morning,” she growled. “You had better have a good reason for doing this.”

“I do,” I said. “I need you to send me to the Nightmare Realm.”