Chapter Text
A soft, warm breeze brushed alongside the park, leaving the trees to make a slight rustling sound.
Noob watched the leaves shake while eating a few of the candies they had taken with themselves to the park. It wasn't that warm outside, but running around for a while and wearing a jacket like the one Noob always wore, they had started sweating.
The headphones they wore blocked out almost all of the sound around them. The muffled shouting and yelling of other kids was the only thing still reaching the young Robloxians ears.
The silence... It felt almost unreal.
Finally, something caught Noobs attention.
Near the slide of the playground, a child they hadn't seen before rounded the corner. Their body language and facial expression read as nervousness or worry. The small boy held onto the metal part of the playground and tugged at his own hair as if something was amiss on top of it.
Noob watched his behaviour for a while, probably staring for way too long without realising it.
Without thinking about it, Noob got up, put their candy in one pocket of their jacket and the wrappers in the other, and started walking over to the white robloxian dressed in all black.
The playground was filled with pebbles. Noob never liked the feeling of walking on them, neither the sound it made when stepping down on them. Today, however, there was no feeling of discomfort upon stepping into the playground area.
Pushing down their confusion, Noob marched towards the other kid.
All the noise around Noob died down and a quiet ringing started appearing in their left ear, creeping over to their other ear over time.
The short distance between the two started stretching out as Noob tried to get closer, and their vision started changing.
Noob inhaled sharply, as if about to call out, only to stop themselves before a sound left their throat.
This wasn't real.
They remembered now.
This was a dream.
A nightmare.
Ever since ending up in that cabin, Noob started having the same dream over and over again. Actually, all of them did. None of them ever wanted to talk about these dreams, but all of them had them.
It was always a memory, something from their past. But somewhere in the dream the memory changed.
This was happening right now. The memory was changing. Noob grew conscious of their surroundings and the noise came back.
Their headphones slipped off their head and crashed into the pebbles behind them, and in front of them their hand reached towards the boy in the hoodie that read "ROBLOX" across it.
They two Robloxians were way closer than Noob remembered, so the other kid by now noticed the yellow robloxian and gave them a puzzled look.
Noob quickly retreated their hand and started going red. In their mind, multiple thoughts repeated over and over.
This is a dream.
My dream.
I am my younger self right now.
This is a memory.
In a dream.
My dream.
And I have become lucid.
And here in front of me is Guest666.
My closest friend.
The person who's dearest to me.
The person I have lost six months ago.
The person that disappeared without a trace.
My dearest friend.
But he doesn't know any of this yet.
He doesn't know we'll become friends.
He doesn't know that from today on, we'll spend each and every day together.
He doesn't know he will leave me all by myself, six years and 6 months from now.
Noob has been at this exact point every night again and again, debating what to do now.
They have tried everything to keep the dream from going downhill, but nothing worked.
They tried speaking to Guest666, but that led nowhere.
They tried ignoring Guest666, but it also ended up not changing a thing.
They tried protecting Guest666, but how could they protect Guest666 from...
The boy in front of Noob suddenly stood completely still, blankly staring at them with his arms on his sides.
Shit.
It was happening again.
Noob hesitated too long.
In front of them, the originally slightly shorter robloxian started growing, back beginning to hunch over forwardas while his eyes still glared right at Noob. Beneath his clothes, Guest666's skin started turning black as if ink was spilling over it, staining him.
His face began to distort and a smile grew while its eyes were still blank and wide open.
There was nothing Noob could do but watch. This was the inevitable. Every night, this is what plagued their dreams. The horrific sight of their missing friend turning into a monster.
Reuniting for no other purpose than losing that person once again.
There was no reason to it, no purpose and no hope that this would even do a thing, but Noob just sprinted up to the thing that once was his friend and threw their arms around it, hugging Guest666 with tears in their eyes, which they shut tight as they put their forehead on Guests skin.
They knew it wouldn't do a thing. After all, it was a dream. Still, Noob wasn't one to give up.
Six months passed since Guest666 went missing. Six long months that could've made them give up the hope that Guest was still alive and out there. But Noob, deep in their heart, was sure Guest was alive and well, maybe just somewhere else.
The atmosphere had changed completely. Around the two of them, everything else was cast in shadows. This was also normal. Noob had tried running away from Guest666 in past dreams, but the darkness made it hard to move.
Defeated, they opened their eyes again, knowing what would follow.
In all the other dreams, no matter if Noob helped Guest, ignored it, or did nothing, they would always end up being killed by Guest666.
Even though it hurt, the betrayal of being murdered by a friend, Noob blamed all these dreams on the spectre. They would never be mad at Guest666, not at him.
Defeated, they turned their head up at their friend, who stared back down into their face, tear-filled eyes meeting his wide expressionless ones. They took a step back.
It was taking longer than usual. By now, Noob would have been mauled to the point they were questioning if that was still a dream, only to wake up sweat-drenched seconds later. But that wasn't happening. The grotesque transformation from a small child to a horrifying monster was over, but Guest666 didn't move.
The large creature lowered it's own head down to meet Noobs height. In front of him was the face of someone who has been through things, but also the face of someone who has set their heart on keeping on going. A brave face. Not afraid to die by his hands.
It knew it had no control over this.
That this wasn't a decision for him to make.
That he had to do it.
So he moved his hand towards Noob, his friend, and warped it's claws around their small body.
Noob was already preparing for the pain. It always felt more real than it was. Hurt more than they wished. They were caught off guard by hearing a voice speak to them, low and rumbling:
"Noob... I am sorry."
And then, the pain set in. From every side, Noob felt their bones being crushed and their strength leaving their body. Helpless, and shocked by Guest666 speaking, Noob just closed their eyes and hoped for it to be over soon.