By the time she got back, he was still breathing hard and hugging a small pillow so tightly that it was nearly popping its seams. But then there were cookies, so he started stuffing them in his mouth with one hand, making quiet nom nom nom sounds like he always did when he was eating while annoyed or upset.

Since chewing made it harder to keep gasping for air, and slowed his breathing down, it helped.

Still, it took him a little while of chewing and breathing and staring down at the rug before the cold, clawing feeling in his chest stopped. Even when he could breathe again, and his heart stopped feeling like it was juddering so hard it was going to pop out of his chest, he was still shivering, despite their room not being that cold.

He only let his eyes meet his sister's when they stopped blurring with tears. And then he wasn't quite sure what to do, because they were in Blanket-town and he was covered in crumbs, and he knew that being in that state meant that any words to the effect of "I'm fine" would sound like the lie they were.

"Bill wasn't in my head," he said, knowing that he could at least reassure her of that. "My subconscious just thought the dream I was having wasn't scary enough. So it worked him in, I guess."

He wiped crumbs off his hand on his shirt and rolled over, looking up at the bottom of his bed.

"Which means now you know I was dreaming of other horrifying stuff, and that also means you'll want to know why my nightmares are so bad, and I don't even know where to start."

A pause.

"Like I said when we were fighting the dinosaurs, there was this thing, and it was bad, but it's over."

But not so far gone that he didn't revisit it in his dreams, apparently.