A loud, shrill scream echoed throughout the quiet of the night. Mama was immediately awake, as the sound was unlike anything he had ever heard from his daughter before. Unfortunately for him, the sound also awoke his brother.
"SANS, FOR FUCKS SAKE—" Papyrus started. Thankfully, Mama was already moving
"I'm movin', boss, I'm movin'!" Sans called out to his annoyed brother from across the hall. Entering her room, Mama immediately was met with Aster, shaking and crying while dashing straight for him. The sight was heartbreaking. This was probably her worst nightmare yet.
"Mama! Mama I had a bad dream again!" Cried the little girl into her parents arms. Sans could already hear the conversation in his head. Aster always had this reoccurring nightmare about falling endlessly until she would wake up screaming in fear.
"Aster, for the last time, you aren't falling. You're right here with me and Uncle Boss...ok?" Mama rubbed his eyes, trying to stay awake so he could make sure Aster was ok.
"No! No mama! You don't understand! This one was different! It was worse!! It was so much worse!!" Aster hugged Mama tight, sobbing into his white T-shirt and not letting go. Hearing those words from Aster made Mama worried. How could her dreams get worse?
"Ok..start from the beginning. What happened, bucko?.." Mama sat down on the small girls bed, holding the trembling girl in his lap so she could tell her story.
Aster sniffled and rubbed her tear stained face, recalling the nightmare that had her screaming until she couldn't anymore.
"Well, I was in Snowdin, just outside of Grillbys. I couldn't find you or Uncle Boss anywhere. So, I started looking around. After a while, I realized I couldn't find anyone at all. Snowdin was completely empty. I wanted to go find you, so I went through the snow to get to Waterfall, but instead I ended up somewhere else. A yellow hallway with lots of windows. It seemed to go on forever. I didn't see anyone at first, but then I saw you. You were bleeding everywhere and you were telling me to run...then you died and I was alone..well, kinda alone. There was someone else. A human. They were so scary. And they attacked me. I couldn't move my body. I couldn't move at all. When they attacked, that's when I woke up. I was so scared, mama..." As Aster finished her recollection of the nightmare, she gave Mamas hand a squeeze, as if to tell herself he was still there.
Mama's eye lights had gone out by the time Aster had finished speaking. Subconsciously, Mama pulled Aster close to his chest, making sure he could feel her right there. A part of him wondered if she knew about the Resets. The other part hoped she never learned.
"That musta been scary, huh? Good thing it ain't real, huh kid?" Mama chuckled softly, trying to lighten the mood. He could see that the usual tricks wouldn't work. Aster was shaking like a leaf and was still holding on to Mama like he would disappear into thin air. Mama sighed and rubbed the small girls back. "How 'bout you stay in my room tonight? I can chase all them bad dreams away whenever you have 'em."
"But Uncle Boss says—" Aster started, but Mama immediately cut out the thought.
"If Uncle Boss has a problem with you staying in my room, he can talk to me in the morning. Right now, I want you to have a good night's rest, ok?" After a moment, Aster wiped the last tears from her eyes and nodded. She held Mamas hand as they walked into his room and got comfortable under the covers.
"Mama?" Aster mumbled quietly.
"Yea baby girl?" Mama rubbed Aster's cheek with his thumb to help ease her to sleep.
"Will we ever see a human?" Aster asked quietly, her eyes closing as she fell into a deep sleep. She never got to hear her answer, but in the quiet of the night, Mama whispered into the dark.
