Bullies

	Chara couldn’t take it anymore, the jeers, the taunts, the laughs, she wanted them gone. She scrambled to get away, but they reverberated in her ears, never going away.

	“Freak!” one snarled.

	“Weirdo,” another said as if they were disgusted.

	“Maybe you should get your head checked out,” the third one called, hooting and hollering at his own joke.

	Chara covered her ears, but the words never left. She shut her eyes, but the images were burned into her retinas. She could never escape her own personal hell.  Tears flowed down her cheeks, so hot that they made her cheeks blister and peel. Her tongue was hanging on my a thread from her biting and clenching her teeth.  The bullies were having their way, and that was hilarious.

	It was so funny, that they were crying.

	Tears rolled out of their eyes.

	Fingers pointed and sides in stitches.

	And they kept laughing, no sign of stopping.

	Chara burst from her dream, tears staining her cheeks, a silent scream in her throat. She looked over at Asriel, her half brother, still sleeping calmly in the bed opposite of the room. She didn’t want to wake him up with her problems. So she swallowed her cries and lied back down, closing her eyes and steeling herself for the dream that’s been cursing her for as long as she could remember.

	Her mind drifted off into dreamscape, the laughs barely audible but were still growing in volume. This was Chara’s favorite part of the dream, the calm before the storm. It was brief, but it was calm and soothing, for what it’s worth.

	The laughs grew into a cacophony that she heard every night. She knew it was coming, and had no way of protecting herself.  She just tried her best to hide it from everyone else.

	The dream died before it started, a rustling rousing Chara from her sleep. Her eyes flew open, only to lock with Asriel’s. “Az… wh-what are you doing?”

	“Don’t be silly, Chara. I know you aren’t feeling well, it’s the least I can do to help!” replied the child, snuggling in against his sister. “I love you, Chara.” With that, he fell asleep.

	Her eyes filled with tears, though not those of sadness, but of joy. “I… I love you too, Az.”