Everything in the room was still, quiet, peaceful. Everything but one Louie Duck, who tossed and thrashed about under his covers, his body soon becoming covered in a thin sheet of cold sweat, and soft whimpers leaving his pink lips here and there. His eyes clamped shut tightly, and his fingers held on tightly to the sheets, as if he was consciously trying to pull himself back to the here and now. But to Louie, he wasn't asleep, no, to Louie, the night terror that had put his body in such a state, was real life...
His feet sunk into the sand, the ocean breeze cascading around him as the gentle tide came in and the water playfully tickled at his feet before running back to the ocean, only to repeat the process over again a few moments later. He was calm, nothing was wrong, it was fine.
"Louie?" He glanced up from the shimmering surface of the ocean to the face of a woman, not just any woman, to the face of his mother.
"Mamma?" The word sauntered off his lips before he'd even really processed what was happening, and his feet carried him forward; towards her.
"Hi baby." She cooed, wrapping him up in her arms for a moment, and then holding him out at arms length.
"W-what are you doing here?" He managed, though his head was spinning; spinning with the very idea that his mother was here, standing in front of him, holding him with her hands.
"Did you break that boys' heart, baby?" Instead of what he'd be hoping to hear, she replied with another question, one that brought back the dull aching in his heart, and he simply nodded his head, dropping his gaze away from her; ashamed.
"Louie look at me..." The change in tone in his mother's voice left him no options other than the one that had him looking back up to her face, but he was horrified at the image that met him, as he watched his mother's skin bubble and melt away from her face. First it was just the skin, but then the muscle and hair and other bits of her melted away with it, and after a longer, horrifying moment he was left staring at a free-standing skeleton.
Louie stared into the black circles that had once been his mother's eyes, his bottom lip quivering. His mother had actually, literally melted in front of him. What. The. Hell.
After a moment, he took a cautious step away from the still standing skeleton, only to spot something large moving towards him in the distance, just beyond his mother's remains. His eyes peeked around her skull, adjusting until he saw a group of people, somewhere in between seven to ten people, rushing at him. He could faintly hear them yelling, but he couldn't make out any words, so he turned on his heel and ran in the opposite direction.
He ran, and ran, and ran until his lungs felt like they had been set on fire, and his legs felt like jello, and he slumped against the nearest building. There were no other people in sight, no matter what way he glanced, until the small mob came rushing around a corner, filling his body with fear. They looked harmless enough, among them faces he knew; Sulley, Wally, Berlioz, Kovu, Max, and others that he'd seen around campus, but couldn't put a name to. They looked harmless enough, until he saw the fires burning behind their eyes.
"THERE HE IS." One of them shouted, pointing a digit in his direction. If his legs didn't quiver below him when he tried to take a step, he would have set off running again, but it was no use, he'd run too much, too fast. Before he could even utter one word they were in front of him, at his sides, all around him as he slumped against the tree.
"Hey, guys..." He breathed, offering a sort of nervous laugh when none of them took his greeting. His laugh was cut off though, when one of the faces he couldn't name grabbed at his shirt, reeling him away from the tree before slamming him back into the rough bark, causing him to groan out in dull pain.
"Shut up." The man who had a hold of him hissed, and Louie's heart beat raced, because if he'd learned anything from his encounters with Greg and Ryder, this was going to end up in him bleeding, and throbbing in pain.
"M-Max? What's h-happening?" He stuttered, his eyes finding the face of the boy who had been practically his brother since the first moment they'd met, but he didn't have that same look in his eye, no, he looked just like the rest of them; out for blood, and not just any blood, Louie's blood.
"We're here to teach you a lesson, Louie." Max breathed coldly, his eyes turning away from Louie then, to look to someone else in the crowd of people around him, and Louie felt his heart sink further into his chest.
"A-about what?" He asked, knowing once the words left his mouth, he shouldn't have asked, because the man who was holding him against the tree slammed a fist into his gut.
"That when you do what you did to Jafar, you get punished." He spat, jabbing another fist into Louie's stomach, forcing him to let out another pained noise.
His eyes dropped away from the crowd of people, tears stinging at his eyelids as he dropped them closed, and after a moment he looked back up, wet eyes looking right at the person he'd thought was his best friend, the person who had stated he wasn't taking sides, the person who he'd initially wanted to be on Jafar's side, but now he just wanted him on both sides again; Wally.
"W-why?" He mouthed, unable to speak. He knew why. He knew he deserved it, he'd hurt Jafar, and everyone was under the impression that he'd done all this on purpose. Maybe he had, he was starting to believe it himself. Even if he couldn't have predicted falling for the Danish boy with the cerulean eyes and the soft, coconut scented blonde hair. He couldn't have predicted the way his heart fluttered around Flounder, or the way he felt when the boy was around.
But that didn't matter, all that mattered here was that one person in particular had gotten hurt; Jafar.
Wally didn't respond, not at first, he just stared harshly at Louie, before stepping around the boys blocking him from his roommate, and coming up right next to him to finally reply to his silent question.
"Because you betrayed his trust, and you deserve to pay for that." He uttered, the only emotion in his voice venomous before he stepped back again. And it was then, that Louie let his tears soak his cheeks, and his sobs rack his body, because it was then that he realized that all these people truly hated him for this.
He let his muscles fall limp under the still tough grip of the still unidentifiable man. He'd told himself he'd fight back, that he didn't deserve this much for one decision. But if his best friends that were practically his family were here for this, then maybe he really did deserve it.
Everything after that was a blur of pain, each of the people surrounding him eliciting some sort of pained noise from him as they inflicted pain after pain to his body, until he was beaten and bloody and couldn't even hold himself up against the tree. That was when the man, still unidentified, dropped him to the ground at the base of the tree. That was when, through the legs of his tormentors, he saw another familiar face standing a few feet away, just watching; Jafar.
The Agraban boys' face was emotionless, but his eyes did not match the pairs that he'd been faced with through his entire beating, they were not hateful and harsh, or burning with the need to have his blood. They were just hurt, and for a second that was worse than all the pain everyone was inflicting on him. Especially when Jafar ducked his gaze enough to meet Louie's.
He didn't do anything though, he just stood there, before looking away from Louie's eyes, and another familiar voice broke his silent moment with the person all of this was for.
"Why don't you just kill yourself? You'd be doing us all a favor." It spat, and Louie was afraid to look up, afraid to meet the eyes of Greg. But he did, and cringed when he spat out the words again, and then everyone joined in, shouting viciously at Louie, telling him to kill himself.
It continued long enough for it to be the only thing Louie could hear, and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly, clasping his hands over his ears to try and drowned it out, but they were too loud, and it was still all he could hear. They continued to kick at his already broken body as they shouted these words at him, and then they were all gone, just disappeared into thin air, and it was quiet again.
He slowly released his grip on his ears, and then eased his eyes open, and instead of finding relief, he found more disappointment and fear pooling in the pit of his stomach because his eyes met none other than the ones of his father.
"D-dad?" He stuttered, and the man sneered.
"You're no son of mine."
"B-but..."
"No son of mine would be something so vile, no son of mine would crush the heart of someone so mercilessly, no son of mine would be as big of a disappointment." He man spat, and Louie prepared himself for more physical pain, but what came next was even more painful that the physical jabs he'd received.
"Your mother would be disgusted."
And then the older man was gone, and Louie was left on the ground, left beaten and broken, and covered in dirt and blood. He just laid there, staring up at the branches of the tree, ready to give up. But it wasn't over, of course it wasn't over.
Hope filled him momentarily when the faces of his brothers appeared above him, both of them staring down at him, and he was happy despite the pain that coursed through him when they lifted him off the ground. Maybe they were taking him to the infirmary?
Before he could say anything or do anything, Dewey and Huey were letting go of him, launching him away from them, and then he was free-falling. Free-falling to the rocky bottom of the shore that awaited him at the end of this cliff, and the rocks were getting closer and closer and closer until...
Louie jolted awake, falling off of his bed and landing on the floor with a soft thud. The faint taste of rust and salt filled his mouth, and he knew he'd either bit his tongue or his lip in his sleep. It took him a long moment, however, to lift himself off the ground, and carry his body into the bathroom. He shut the door behind him so not to wake Wally, and leaned against the sink as he stared at the spot on his lip that was bleeding in the mirror. "Great." He huffed, turning on the sink, and leaning forward to splash his face with cold water, because he was burning up, the sheet of sweat still stuck to him.
As he splashed his face with water, he felt thankful that at least this night terror had not resulted in a panic attack, he didn't want to wake Wally, and it was for sure that one of those would do so.
Once he'd finished with the water, he leaned against the sink, dropping his forehead to the cool surface of the counter, to try and calm his still rapidly beating heart. Then he was keeling over, and dumping the contents of his stomach into the toilet, gripping the edge of the seat tightly before letting out a low groan when he was finished, and flushing away the result of his very, very bad night terror. "I think I prefer the panic attack." He mumbled to himself as he splayed out across the cold tile floor for a while.
Once he'd laid there for what felt like hours, he picked himself back up, and dragged his tired body back to bed, in hopes of getting at least a few hours of dreamless sleep.
