The Void (Just A Bad Dream) (Patreon)

(Nicole's POV)

I just got out of the shower before bed after Gumball, Darwin, and Anais told us about an evil principal today or something, but we had worse days. When I stepped out of the bathroom to go get dressed I saw Richard under the blankets because the evil principal turning the kids and school staff into something that was the same as him, he freaked him out.

Nicole-You can come out from the covers Richard. They said it was some kid in a costume.

Richard-But what he did matters!

Nicole-*Sigh* Ok, if I get you some cookies from the kitchen, would you calm down?

Richard-Maybe... Can I have it in a vanilla milkshake?

Nicole-Only if you promise not to eat it in bed and get it all over your chest.

Richard-Deal!

He still hid under the blanket, but I just went down to the kitchen and I'll make some for the kids too. Just as I got all the ingredients out for the milkshakes, I felt the ground shake for a moment.

Nicole-Huh?

I felt it happen again, so I went to the windows to see what was happening, but I saw nothing... It's probably just a tremor, but I should get everyone ready to incase it turns into an earthquake. Just as I got on the first step, it was like the world suddenly jolted and even made me fall on my back. I had a slight headache and then saw something else really weird happening... the walls and floor were being cut into tiny squares before falling.

Nicole's mind-WHAT's HAPPENING?!?!?!...

Nicole-RICHARD!!! KIDS!!!

I ran up the stairs to see more of my house being turned into blocked until I saw a hole in the floor that showed something deep and maybe even endless. It looked like old T.V. static and things were even floating in there. I jumped over the hole and got to my children's room to see them screaming and panicking as everything was falling apart or changing.

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Nicole-Kids, come on!

They were about to get out of bed to run to me, but the floor caved in block by block so very Gumball almost fell in. Darwin was not so lucky when the nightstand fell in the hole with him and he was screaming while reaching for us.

Gumball-DARWIN!!!

Anais jumped off the top bunk and into my arms then I put her down in the hallway. I tried to call out to Gumball, but before he could get in the bed toppled over and took Gumball into the growing hole.

Nicole-GUMBALL!!!

Gumball-MOM!!! *echo*

I suddenly heard my daughter screaming for me, but when I turned back I saw most of the hallway was gone along with my little girl.

Nicole-RICHARD!!!

I jumped across the hallway with what little was left of it to open my bedroom door to see nothing was left of it already.

Nicole-No.

Tears fell out of my eyes thinking about what just happened to my husband and children that were taken so suddenly... I WAS ABOUT TO MAKE MILKSHAKES AND THIS HAPPENED?!?!?! I had to focus on surviving for now to save them later and thanks to my skills I make it out of the house to see the whole neighborhood and even the night sky had holes in it with T.V. static and other things in them. It was catching up to me and enclosing all around me as people were trying to run or already falling. Suddenly the ground under me collapsed and I too was falling. My hand and body looked like it was becoming blocky and static and everything was becoming blurry and dark.

Nicole's mind-No, this has to be a nightmare... What's going on?... This is a nightmare... I'll wake up and my family will be there, and-.

*CANCELED*

(Timeskip 3 Years)

((Y/N)'s POV)

School just ended for me and last night my dad did lots of grocery shopping before he goes back out to sea today. In fact, he might already be back out there, but last night was good to be with him. As soon as the bell rang and we started to pack up I quickly left before (B/N) and his 5 other friends could catch up to me. We only have last period together which is math and they sit near the front of the class, so the teacher can watch them closely since they mess with everyone. Teacher even holds them after class a lot for detention. They still try get a few things before you leave and they already tripped a kid and poured their water bottle on them and they were a girl.

Teacher-Boys! You all earned another hour of detention!

They only laughed it off and this was not even the first thing they did. Not even in the top 10 some of my friends saw or even I saw.

(Flashback Start): The first week of 1st grade

At lunch my friends (F/N) and (F/N) were talking about going to the skatepark since (B/N) and all his friends were grounded for a month and maybe sent to boot camp in the summer. Suddenly we heard something popping like firecrackers and looked to see firecrackers on a table just 2 down from us. Everyone was screaming while they laughed and the smoke made the fire alarms go off.

(Flashback): 2 weeks ago

After what (B/N) and his friends did, there's a policeman here to search them and 2 of his friends were taken to the office, so everyone thinks they had something bad. While the policeman was busy with them, (B/N) and his friends went into the bathroom and then came out giggling. Just as the bell rang, many of us saw water coming out of the bathroom and nobody had to guess what they did. A kid came out and it looked like he slipped in there because his back was all wet.

(Flashback): 4 days ago

The school day was over and I was about to head home, but I got tripped at the gate then looked up to see (B/N) and his friends smiling at me. They already bullied me 7 times out of the 1st grade and even more in kindergarten. Before I could even think about the other times they all got bottles of syrup out to pour them on and kicked me while I was down until teachers pulled them away and even policemen that we have at our school mostly for them.

(B/N)-Go cry to you daddy about it!... Oh wait!

They all laughed at me while the teachers yelled at them and police took them in the office.

(Flashback End)

I just wish they would get locked up for life where they can never bother us again or at least something worse would happen to them. They do so many stuff to everyone in school and everyone knows their parents are in jail or just don't do anything. The only reason I still go to school is because my dad said he can get in trouble if I don't and I have friends there. I wanted to do online school, but he thinks that won't work.

(Y/N)'s mind-I think it'll work better than being bullied.

I made it home and I put my stuff down to go into the living room where I found a small box with a ribbon on it and a tag on the coffee table. I went over to pick it up and it had my name and a small note.

(Y/N)-Heard school was rough. Try these out to help take the edge off. Saw you made A's and B's. Proud of you... Dad.

I took the ribbon off to open the box and saw it was a USB drive almost like the ones in computer class, but this one was better.

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Another note in the box said "Plug it into the T.V.", so I did and then went to the menu to get on the USB and I saw lots of cartoons, but one was labeled "My List" and it had 6 shows. The Amazing World of Gumball, The Fairly Oddparents, The Misadventures of Flapjack, The Secret Saturdays, Dexter's Laboratory, and Danny Phantom.

(No POV)

(Y/N) had no homework since it was a Friday and he had a 3 day weekend this week, so he just made some pizza bagels in the air fryer before he started to watch the shows his dad suggested to him. He watched a few episodes from each show starting from the first episode to watch the shows in order, but stopped for a moment when he saw lots of clouds coming in when it was almost dark out then looked to see it was going to rain with a small chance of lightning. This made him close the windows and curtains as he worried about his dad being out in sea. He had a few hours left before bedtime, so he spent most of it watching the cartoons his dad suggested before he started getting ready for bed. When he had his shower, brushed his teeth, and got dressed the storm started to come down over the town with wind, rain, thunder, and lighting.

((Y/N)'s POV)

I decided to sleep out in the living room and watch cartoons during the storm. I'm afraid of thunder and lighting, so I use lights and T.V. to help me. I was watching The Amazing world of Gumball since I thought it is the most funny out of all the shows. When I made it to the second season I felt so tired during the show that I fell asleep during the storm outside. Thankfully if should be over in the morning and I can go out and play with my friends tomorrow.

(Y/N)'s mind-The storm will be over in the morning... Dad made it through storms before, so everything is fine. He said lightning can get me in the house with the curtains closed.

I just closed my eyes and let myself fall asleep after turning up the volume a bit to block out the thunder a bit more.

(No POV)

The storm outside is going to be short, but hard on the town. The wind is knocking or or blowing things around with help from the rain making things slippery, and that was only the beginning. The thunder and lightning were raging and a lightning bolt struck the power grid to parts of the city including (Y/N)'s house which knocked out the power during the episode of The Amazing World of Gumball. (Y/N) was unaware since he was sleeping during this and the back-up generators in the basement's storage room tripped and brought power back to the house. Soon after something extremely rare happened... Lightning struck in the same place which temporarily caused a surge in his house and with the T.V. being the only thing that was on the power went to it and all the things connected to the T.V. like the game console and the USB which was just able to handle that power, but at a cost... It spark and provided small lightning bolts like it belonged in a plasma ball. The sparked something else.

???-'s mind--they will be fine.

Some of the cables in the city snapped and the live wires got blown by the wind and 3 tangled on to one wire that connected to a part of the grid that (Y/N)'s house was on. This in turn caused the T.V. to overload, but not explode. The stranglers feeling grow strong to save her loved ones after having them taken and her home fell apart around her caused something to opening in the T.V. and she was drifting right to the opening until it pulled her in. When pull and raw power tried to reconstruct the glitchy and pixel mess of the body, but it did not look the exact same when then finally came through the T.V. and it went back to the menu.

*Thud*

(Nicole's POV)

My head hurt and I felt so dizzy while everything was blurry to me, but trying to get back into focus. The ground felt solid, but hardwood or maybe my senses were off... I need to splash some water in my face. I felt around to avoid bumping too hard into things as I crawled to wait until my balance and vision came back. One thing came to mind though.

Nicole's mind-Is this even my house? Everything feels so different.

My vision came back a little around the time I found a sink somewhere down a hall and it felt really refreshing which is odd because I just got out of the shower. I felt for a light switch which was in a different spot than usual, but when I found it and turned on the lights I saw this was not my bathroom... That wasn't even the scary part I was focused on... It was what happened to my body when I looked at myself in a mirror.

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Nicole-*Gasp*... Wh-What happened to me?!

((Y/N)'s POV)

I woke up from something loud and thought it came from the T.V., but the screen only showed the menu since the episode was over. I checked the time to see it was 2:16 AM on my phone then looked around and noticed a light in the hallway.

(Y/N)'s mind-I turned off all the lights... Right?

I know I turned them all off before I went to sleep and I heard something. I'm getting really scared and tried to calm down and remember what my dad said if I even think someone breaks into the house. The alarm will go off and police will come, but just to be sure, check all the doors and windows to make sure they are closed and locked. The front door was locked and so were the windows, there were no wet footprints from the rain...

(Y/N)'s mind-Ok, I'm fine so far and the alarm will go off if you even touch a lock the wrong way. Maybe I thought I turned off the light.

I went down the hallway to go turn off the light, but I heard someone in there and when I walked in front of the door and looked in, someone looked back at me.

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(Y/N)-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

???-(AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!)

I ran down the hall to try and gall the police on my phone, but there was no service in this storm right now when I looked on my phone. I kept on screaming until I tried to find a place to hide quickly which was behind the couch then I heard footsteps coming out here. They looked like a living cartoon!

(Nicole's POV)

I have no idea what is going on, but maybe this little boy has answers. As I walked down the hall and turned on the likes, everything looked a little weird and for some reason reminded me of that weird doll family with googly eyes. I made it to the living room where he ran and aside from the storm outside, it was quiet. I need answer, so I have to find him and let him know I won't do anything... I'm clearly a stranger that broke into his house in his eyes, but shouldn't the parents be coming out?

Nicole-Hello... Little boy... I'm not here to do anything bad, i'm just lost. I'm sure your scared because I am too. Let's just help each other... Please.

Soon he poked his head out from behind the couch and I put my hands up to show I wasn't going to do anything. When I saw on one of the chairs in the living room he came out some more still scared of me and I'm still getting used too how this world looks slightly different.

???-... Nicole?... Nicole Waterson?

Nicole-How do you know my name? Who are you and where am I?

This night just keeps on getting weirder and weirder.

((Y/N)'s POV)

This had to be a dream since a cartoon person was in my house, so maybe I'm just having a dream inside of a dream. She did look different than she did in the show, but dreams are normally weird like that. I just got on the couch and calmed down knowing that this was not real.

(Y/N)-I'm (Y/N) and... you're in my house at next to the beach in North Carolina.

She looked confused when I said that then looked horrified with her mouth opened.

Nicole-B-B-But I was just at home! How did I get from there to any beach?!

(Y/N)-I don't know? This is just a dream.

Nicole-... What are you talking about?! *Grunt* Where's your parents?!

(Y/N)-My dad is out in sea catching fish to make lots of money.

Nicole-Where's your mom?

(Y/N)-Dad doesn't talk about her.

Nicole-Is there any adult here I can speak to?

(Y/N)-My neighbor is just off the beach, but he gets mad real easily. Also, I don't really want him in this dream.

Nicole-... Are you here by yourself?

I just nodded my head and she opened her eyes wider at me before she put her hands on her head. Soon she started to cry and even if this was a dream, I felt bad for her then she looked at me with tears in her eyes.

(Y/N)-Um hey... It's ok.

Nicole-I don't know where my family is. How is anything ok?

(Y/N)-I mean... you're ok and if the same thing happened to them... they should be fine too, right?

(Nicole's POV)

I guess he does have a point, but I don't know if what he said made him think he was dreaming or telling that I'm the one dreaming. This is just such a much, but I should wait for a little before I do anything. Maybe if I sleep in this dream it'll wake me up... I would really love to wake up. Suddenly were heard thunder like it was close and it lit up the room a little which made (Y/N) jump a little... I've been through a lot in what I hope was a nightmare that just feels too real which was a good chance since no responsible parent would let their kid live at home by himself.

Nicole-Hey (Y/N)... How about we get some sleep?

(Y/N)-But this is a dream. I am-.

*THUNDER BANG*

(Y/N)-Eep!

He jumped again and it reminded me of Gumball when he was scared of thunder until he was 8. He came over to me all by himself probably thinking I'm still a dream. I spent around an hour trying to convince him that I was real and that I really need to find my family after I told him 'exactly' what happened to me. He wouldn't listen and I might be wasting my time right now because I could wake up next to Richard soon. I just went to what he pointed out to be his room to put him in bed, but he didn't want to be alone in this storm.

(Y/N)-C-Can you stay here until I sleep?

Nicole-I thought you said I was a dream?

(Y/N)-... Please?

I guess there was no harm in it, so I got in his bed to lie down and he nuzzled against me and he did feel soft and warm. It felt nice when I closed my eyes and I calmed down for the most part.

Nicole's mind-I sure hope this is a dream.