Chapter Text
Ranboo knew that he shouldn’t have asked Dream for 5 dollars, it was a stupid idea. He just thought that maybe Dream is finally starting to like him, but now, as Dream is yelling at him, he sees how stupid of a thought that was.
“-ou ungrateful BRAT! I can’t believe that I took in someone as stupid as you! Honestly, you are the most ungrateful child that I have had the displeasure of hous-” Dream ranted at Ranboo.
Ranboo knew, deep inside of his mind that this treatment wasn’t right, especially with how often he was hit and berated for simply being alive, but he couldn’t bear to leave. Dream has gone through a lot too, so it’s not fair to blame him for all of his outbursts. Ranboo did some research about Dream when he first got to his house, that’s how he found out about Dream’s parents' deaths. Although Ranboo honestly didn’t think that it was that big of a deal to ask for five dolla-
Dream grabbed Ranboo’s face with a bit more force than necessary. “What did you just say to me, brat?” Dream asked, his voice slipping out of his rage filled screaming and into a malice filled whisper. Had Ranboo said that out loud? Of all the times for his brain to betray him, it decided that right now was a perfect opportunity.
“I said, what did you just say to me?” Dream seethed again. Ranboo knew that he should answer, but his mouth refused to open. His jaw only clamped down harder, not letting out any noises.
SMACK
Ranboo’s head was forcefully turned the opposite direction before he even knew that Dream had smacked him. The tears were building behind his eyes from the hit and Ranboo did everything in his power to stop them from escaping, but in the end there was nothing that he could do. The tears started flowing freely down his cheeks.There was no sound in the room aside from Dream’s heavy breathing, and the soft pitter patter of Ranboo’s tears rolling off his face and hitting the hardwood floors.
“Ranboo,” Dream whispered, “You know that crying is not allowed in this house.”
SMACK
Ranboo was sent carrening to the floor from the force of the blow. He knew that crying wasn’t allowed, but in the moment there was nothing that he could do.
“Crying is a sign of weakness.”
SMACK
Dream was on top of him.
“Boy’s don’t cry.”
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
Dream moved off of Ranboo with a shove, forcing Ranboo to stay down.
Ranboo let out a whimper against his will as blood started dripping down his cheeks.
Dream was wearing rings.
The rings cut him.
He was bleeding.
“ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!?”
A kick landed on Ranboo's side, it hurt.
“YOU ARE A DISGRACE!”
Another kick.
“I SHOULD HAVE LET YOU DIE IN THE FOSTER SYSTEM”
Another kick.
“I wish you would have let me die.” Ranboo whispered, more to himself than Dream.
Dream grabbed Ranboo by his hair, pulling his head up off the floor. Ranboo cried out at the sharp pain of his hair being tugged.
“What did you just say?” Dream whispered menacingly.
“I WISH YOU WOULD HAVE LET ME DIE!” Ranboo screamed. In the moment it felt good to finally get back at Dream for what he has done to him, but he regretted it as soon as another kick was planted in his side.
“YOU MOTHERFUCKER, DON'T TALK BACK TO ME!”
Dream STOMPED on his chest.
Ranboo felt all of the air leave his lungs, he's sure that he heard something crack, he couldn’t even scream. A searing pain burst in his chest. Dream must have broken his rib, or ribs maybe. But Dream just kept kicking, until the sickening crunch was heard once again, and again, and again. Gasps were the only thing that ranboo could manage to get out through the pain. He wanted to scream, but each new kick that landed sent all of the air out of his lungs. After what felt like hours, Dream took a step back from Ranboo. He was sure that a few ribs were broken now.
“That’s what you get for talking back to me, bitch. Don’t ever pull that shit again.” Dream spat, “Go to bed.” And with that Dream stalked off, presumably to get on the phone with a few friends, like he did almost every night.
Ranboo couldn’t move, his chest was on fire. He tried to remember everything that he could from his first aid books, but he doesn’t remember anything about what to do for broken ribs. Granted, Ranboo doesn’t have the best memory, so as far as he knows the entire book could be how to take care of broken ribs and he just couldn’t remember.
Something Ranboo did know, though, is that Dream had never gone this far. Sure he slapped Ranboo around a bit, maybe a punch or two were thrown. But he never broke any bones, at least that’s what Ranboo thinks. Ranboo feared for his life tonight and he was pretty sure that normal kids don’t have to walk on eggshells around their guardian. Suddenly Ranboo can hear the echoing words of one of the kids in a previous home.
Hey Boo, if you ever feel unsafe, run. I don’t care what your foster parents tell you, run as fast as you can.
Ranboo has to run. He can’t remember who told him that, but they obviously cared for him so he should do what they said, right? But Dream cared for him too, he had said so himself. Dream said that everything that he did was for Ranboo’s own good. But if Dream really cared about Ranboo then he wouldn’t be bleeding right now, would he.
Oh. That’s right, Ranboo is bleeding.
He reaches up his right hand and runs it across his cheek, feeling the raised lines as some of the blood is smeared onto his hand. Ranboo can hear Dream shuffling around in his room. He can’t run right now, he has to grab his emergency bag. He forces himself up off of the floor, feeling each and every rib shifting around in his chest. It hurts. It feels like a lit match is being held to his chest, Ranboo only knows what that feels like because Dream has in fact done that before. He doesn’t give himself anymore time to think about running and just tries to get up. If he thinks about it too much then he might end up convincing himself not to go.
Once Ranboo is able to make it to his feet, he immediately starts to stumble to his room. He almost falls once, but he catches himself on the back of the couch before he can hit the floor. Every part of him hurts as he slowly makes his way to his room.
Ranboo makes it inside his room with more trouble than he originally thought that he would have. He quietly shuts the door, not wanting to anger Dream more than he already has. Ranboo goes for his emergency bag, but then stops and thinks about why he is trying to run, even though thinking about it is the exact opposite of what he wanted to do.
He has had much worse done to him in other homes, and even has the scars to prove it, so why is he trying to run after one little scare. On the other hand though, whenever worse was done he always ended up in the hospital, so he should just leave before that can happen. Although there was always someone else there, who would call his social worker once it got too bad and there wasn't anyone else here to protect him.
Without another thought, Ranboo grabs his bag and goes to open the door. But then he remembers something, Enderchest. Ranboo turns around quickly and scoops up Enderchest off of his bed, hugging her to his sore chest. Once again he goes to the door, he places his hand on the handle, and with one deep breath, opens it. Ranboo starts quietly stalking his way down the hall, wary of every noise that he makes.He makes it to the living room, each creaky floorboard making him cringe. Right before he is able to open the front door, he hears something behind him.
“Now where do you think that you're going?” Dream says, menacingly.
Ranboo tenses, everybit of confidence drains out of his body, leaving him paralized with one hand still on the door.
“You aren’t going to be able to get away from me that easily.” Dream states, malice dripping off of his tongue.
In an instant Ranboo is able to break free from whatever was holding him in place. He rips open the door and starts running for his life. He isn’t able to get far though, because a hand grasps his collar and drags him back. Dream flips him around and Ranboo looks down into his eyes, the only thing that he could see in them was pure fury. Ranboo tries to fight, he twists and wiggles, blindly smacking at dream, until he feels a burning pain in his stomach. He looked down and that's when he saw it.
‘
The glittering handle of a knife, with Dreams hand wrapped around it, sticking out of his stomach.
Ranboo let out a scream as Dream wrenched the knife out. A sickening laugh bursts from Dream's mouth and he steps back, letting go of Ranboo. Dream hunches over with laughter, why is Dream laughing at him? Ranboo places one hand on his stomach and felt the blood start to flow from the fresh wound. A burning pain radiates from the wound, traveling across his body. He doesn’t know what to do.
Is this how he dies?
No. He won’t let himself go out like this.
Ranboo turns on his heel and starts to sprint towards the woods, it's the only place where he might be even remotely safe from Dream. He can still hear Dream’s maniacal laughter from behind him as he runs. Every move that he makes sends a shooting paint throughout his whole body, but he can’t stop now.
Suddenly something smacks into Ranboo’s back, whatever it is has so much force that it knocks Ranboo off his feet and he is sent flying to the ground. He can hear the crunching footsteps of Dream coming up behind him. Ranboo tries to turn around but Dream is quicker. Dream grabs Ranboo by the hair and forces him to stay in place. Dream slices the straps of Ranboo’s emergency bag, promptly making it fall to the ground, everything inside spilling out. It feels like needles are being shoved into Ranboo’s back as Dream starts to carve into Ranboo with the knife.
Ranboo is screaming.
All he can think about is the pain, everything hurts. He can feel the warm blood from his stomach starting to leak onto the ground under him, forming a small puddle. Ranboo needs to fight back, but he can’t. Dream has an iron grip on his hair, not allowing Ranboo to try and get up. He needs to get Dream to let go of him, then he needs to book it. Dream's laughter continues as Ranboo feels around for the spilt out contents of his bag.. Dream is so caught up in inflicting pain onto Ranboo that he doesn’t even notice when Ranboo grabs his cat plush, Enderchest.
Suddenly Ranboo whips his arm around and nails Dream in the face with the plush. Dream is knocked off of Ranboo who is now free to move. He pulls Enderchest close to him and prepares for more pain than he has probably ever experienced in his life.
Ranboo gets up and runs like hell.
He runs faster than he ever has before even with the pain shooting through his entire body.
Ranboo can hear Dream shouting, but he doesn’t stop. A rock is flung at Ranboo, trying to knock him to the ground again, but it just barely misses, landing just a few inches from Ranboo. So Ranboo keeps running, once he hits the tree line Dream's knife is thrown at him. It was obviously aimed for his head, considering it slices him across the cheek, making him fumble a little. But nonetheless, Ranboo continues on.
Everything is starting to become slightly blurred around Ranboo as he’s running. He’s tripping on more roots and rocks than he normally would. Still, everytime he fumbles, Ranboo swears that Dream is going to come out of the brush and grab him. Then Dream would kill him, just like Ranboo deserves. Ranboo tries to take a deep break but is stopped by a cough.
When Ranboo pulls his arm away from his mouth, he sees blood coating it. He knows that this isn’t good. Ranboos lost a lot of blood, too much even. But he can’t stop now, he’s so close to freedom. Black starts to swim through his vision as he’s running, his breaths are more shallow.
Is he going to die alone, out in the woods?
Ranboo may not believe in a god, but he sure as hell is praying to something. Praying that even if he dies, at least don’t let him die in the woods, cold and alone. Only for his body to be found so decayed that there is no chance of even identifying it. Ranboo prays his social worker won’t blame herself for his death, although he supposed that it is partially her fault.
Ranboo can’t stop running, no matter how much it hurts, he has to live.