Getting a phone call at 4 in the morning was probably strange enough for One, considering his small group of friends didn't often require him at wee hours of the night it always seemed to be him making their phones ring for the company he sometimes needed around this time, but even weirder was the way that Spook had talked over the phone. His voice shook with a strange chuckling some moments while other sentences were cut off abruptly and replaced with the silence of obvious distraction. Adding two and two together One realized that something was wrong almost immediately, his suspicions confirmed by the word salad that Spooky spewed out in hushed whispers during the more silent moments.
How off he sounded was probably a direct contributor to agreeing with the strange request of going out and meeting up with Spook The laughter that had riddled the unpleasant phone call sent shivers down One's spine made him feel the need to be reassured that his friend was alright.
Looking back on it, it was an awful idea.
Trudging through a sludge made of wet dirt and decaying plant matter that stuck to everything that touched it with a sickening squelch noise. A dark trail leading to a even darker edge of town with the trees casting foreboding shadows like long claws ready to grab those that came too close. The wind whistled through gnarled branches bringing a deathly chill across One's neck and face, whispering by in his ears.
Turning around was the only smart answer at this point, to just turn around walk away and forget Spook's wavering voice as he recited where they should meet up.
But he didn't, instead he just ascended further in the dark shadows, until they enveloped his whole body. It was probably a little too late to turn back now, only now that a shadowy figure stood a few feet in front of him did One finally comprehend that fully.
It was incredibly dark, the trees towering over everything with bare branches that's leaves had not yet grown back from a prolonged winter. The smell of wet dirt lingered in the air from a rain that most likely happened earlier that night.
Leaves and sticks crunched under his heavy boots as he continued forward, another chill down his spine for reasons that he didn't quite grasp, maybe it was the wind or the fear that crept its way into his mind like the whispers that echoed around him like dull static slowly gaining volume.
Spook heard the same thing, different voices and different things that whispered to him. They told him of how easy it would be to kill One, the reason they were both even out there to begin with. They laughed to themselves as he approached, what pale moonlight that slid from the tree tops illuminating his features. He looked unsure, almost an expression that could be considered that of fear.
Spook's fingertips twitched lightly over the handle of his knife. His movements were erratic and One stared in confusion as he finally reached the destination feet in front of Spook, just watching over his features for a fleeting moment before daring to speak. "Spook, hey man are you alright?"
The world was crashing back for One, pressure on his chest as he hit the ground with a dull thud that seemed to wrack his whole body. Everything around him shook while the air rushed quickly out of his lungs, a tight grip applied to his throat before he could even regain the breath that he had just lost. Spook had pounced on him, Spook had pounced on him and was now choking him.
One coughed and sputtered, trying his hardest to claw at the other and free himself, but something seemed different.. off. His vision swimmed as he pushed harder and just flailed in attempts to get up, noises of leaves crinkling and rustling from the effort filled the air over the manic laughter that maliciously tore through the air from Spook's mouth.
Spooks finger's dug deeply into the flesh of One's neck, exposed nails clawing their ways into the skin harshly. One choked as the other's laughter stopped, Spook leaning down next to his ear and adding to the whispers that were already flooding both of their minds.
"I could kill you right now and no one would even care."
The already dark forest seemed to dim more and more with every passing second, it felt as if it was distancing itself and that if he tried to reach out to anything it would just run away faster. His lungs ached for the air he so much needed, making everything feel too heavy like his body was made of lead while his vision swimmed in and out of dark focus like a readjusting camera lense.
Then, almost suddenly as it happened air flooded back into his lungs with a loud and ragged gasp. Oneler jerked up forward nearly smashing heads with Spooktre as he coughed with pins and needles ripping through his throat.
Spook slowly backed off of him, moving to his knees and standing up shakily like he was tired or just simply unfocused. Oneler continued to sputter and gasp, too preoccupied with trying to get used to air again to even notice Spook grabbing a long piece of rope that he had most likely brought with him.
He pulled One's arms back harshly, grabbing to rope and wrapping it around them. There was a hiss of slight pain and discomfort from Oneler as Spook tied the rope firmly in place, probably tighter than it needed to be.
"Spook, dude, what're you doing?" His voice was still scratchy as he spoke rough around the edges as if something had been caught in his throat, it was actually quite obvious he was hiding fear from his voice as best as he could do, which obviously wasn't very well.
"It would be too easy to kill you." Spook hissed into the older teens ear, his voice coming off his tongue with a strange bit of sweetness mixed into a vat of poison. One's eyes widened slightly as he heard the the noise of a knife opening with a clank of metal.
The air was filled with a sharp breath as the knife in Spook's control dug into the exposed skin of the other's arm, cutting One effectively into a curved shape. An oval? No, not an oval. The edges extended sharply into each other, the knife lifted and forming a new cut inside. An eye. Blood dripped slowly as One became conscious as to exactly what was happening. The knife lifted and was pressed down somewhere else, the same pattern ensuing once more then again and again up and down his arms, covering them with bleeding eyes.
One was barely surprised at how familiar it felt, the patterns of eyes carved into his flesh, of course it was something he knew well, and his palms were decorated with the scars to prove it. He exhaled slowly and began to breath normally once more, but his heart continued to pound and almost fill his ears with the noise. It was like his heartbeat was trying to cover up the silence, his breathing and the leaves beneath the two were about its only constant competition. The knife was lifted and everything seemed to just stand still for seconds before Spook leaned close to the others ear again with a muffled chuckle.
"I could cut you open and leave you out here. I bet no one would even fucking notice."
Spook harshly grabbed One's face and jerked it upward to face him, he brushed the hair off of Oneler's forehead and replaced it with the blade of the knife. A long pained moan floated into the air as the knife dug into One's skin. His breath caught in his throat as he realized what Spook was doing. Of course, another eye. But this time it felt so much different, it still hurt but yet it also felt right. He wasn't surprised, he wasn't getting a real eye there but he always felt as though there should have been one there.
And now there was.
Spook laughed as he pulled the knife away once more, releasing the tight grip he had had on One's bangs. The elder moved his head, looking back at Spook and then to his knife.
"What the fuck are you doing?" He wheezed out, blood dripping down into his real eyes, though there wasn't much he could really do to stop any of it with his hands being bound.
Spook brought forward a gloved arm, tenderly whiping the blood away from One's forehead with a quick swipe of his thumb, smearing some a bit across his face with a laugh. One squinted up at him and watched silently and Spook just licked the blood away from his hand with a smile, a almost predatory look in his eyes.
Ones harsh breaths were left being the only noise as the two just stood still, eyes locked in a strange challenging gaze. Spooks smile remained unphased as he flicked the knife open and shut with a click that seemed to almost through the dark empty woods. Neither said anything as they just continued to stare at the other.
Spooks tongue flicked out to the side, trailing across the jagged edge of the scars on the side of his mouth. His smile almost grew as he grabbed One's hair once again, jerking it upwards and back to the front so now Spook and his knife were behind him once more.
One stayed silent, curiousity held back with a stern face. He wanted to know what Spook was going to do this round, but he had a good enough idea as to what was happening.
Spook grabbed One's cheeks, squishing them together to make a fish face, and lifted his head upwards so they could look at eachothers face again. A shiver made its way through One's spine once again as he saw the smile on his friends face. It looked more like he was a evil child who had just killed a bunch of puppies and was going to go give the surprise to one of his parents. Needless to say it was a little more than unnerving.
"Spook...what are you doing? Let's just go home or something." One more or less wheezed out right after the other had released his cheeks. One wasn't the type of person to beg or anything remotely like it, but something about being tied up in the woods with a guy with a knife who didn't seem to be all there certainly did bring that side of him out, begging seemed like a last ditch kind of thing and that's all One had left really.
Spook laughed, a dry humorless evil laugh. The smile he had had before still stood completely unnerved on his face, in fact it looked like it had almost grown. "What's wrong? I thought we were having fun?" His words came out almost in a hiss, more like he was mocking the other. He grabbed One's hair tighter, jerking it up just a fraction of an inch and then just holding his head there. The clicking of the knife stopped, and One swore his heart almost did too even if only for a fraction of a second.
Spook leaned forward into One's ear. "Relax, I'm just going to make us match." He whispered huskily, earning a slight shiver from One, who didn't want to admit it but he was a little scared. And angry.
One was about to ask what the other meant when he felt Spook ram the knife into his mouth, pressing the sharp edge roughly against the inside corner of his mouth and cheek. It didn't take long to understand exactly what was about to happen. Spook had the scars on his face to provide enough as a hint that soon One would have them too.
One felt the blood begin to pour from his now open face, getting into his mouth and coating his tongue with the taste of salty copper, and he was only half surprised to find it so familiar.
Spook leaned in, pulling the knife out of One's torn face, and then pressed their lips together harshly. The sudden pressure to the newly made cuts stung horribly, and One was a bit upset with himself as his eyes squeezed tightly shut in pain. The hot air between the two as Spook pulled away was filled with the warm satisfying chuckle from the tanner of the two, the other not really able to do much but squeeze his eyes shut tighter as more and more of his body was covered with hot sticky red blood.
Spook reached forward with a gloved hand, grabbing One's cheeks and squeezing them lightly causing blood to rush out quicker and a gasp to escape the elders tattered mouth.
"I wissh there wass another way out for you." Spook smirked into the others ear, his grip tightening. He slowly drug his pierced tongue across the outside skin of One's ear and then pulled away once more, giving his cheeks one last good hard squish.
One's breath remained ragged as he attempted to simultanously gulp down both air and the blood that was quickly flooding his mouth. His head felt slightly foggy, while the rest of his skin felt sticky and gross with the coppery liquid that gave him life. He looked up, his eyes were beginning to get caked in drying blood which made it no easy feat, and stared at Spook's face. His demented smile didn't seem to waver yet and even if it did One felt as if it was already too late. But he was okay with that. There was something calming about the fact that even though he was most likely about to die, it was at the hands of his best friend. Though that thought would usually make most people uncomfortable or even betrayed One was well away of the mutual feeling they had on the subject. He was assured that if perhaps the roles were switched Spook would feel as calm as he was at this moment. Like the biggest favor one could do for their friend was to take their life, even if that was more or less just a twisted philosphy that would churn the stomachs of those declared normal by societies standards. Or maybe thats why they felt that way, becuase to be honest nothing was exactly 'normal' about them in almost any sense of the word.
Spook's tongue flicked out, running across his lips that were splattered with the slightest bits of blood. His finger twitched on the handle of the knife, the movement seeming so far away.
"Do it" A voice laughed in his ear. "get this over with." It purred in his head, quiet enough just for Spook to hear. Special instructions meant just for him and no one else. It was a whisper, followed by others repeating the same line more and more urgently until it became more like a hiss in the background, repeated whispered lines just being hissed from what seemed like every direction, and even as they got louder and louder for him no one else, not even One barely a foot away, could hear. As the whispers grew louder, almost to screams by many faceless voices no one heard. It was all for Spook, like a special note passed to only one person. A secret for him and him alone, even as they began to drown out One's wheezing with intensity and urgency it was still all his.
"End it here. We don't want your friend to suffer do we?" The first voice suddenly silenced the rest, the voice of a man in the form of a shadow. It was warm, inviting, and Spook knew there wasn't exactly a way to say no to his compelling words. "Hurry." It soothed out, followed by more whispers in the distance muttering the same word, "hurry" over and over again like it was the chant to some far off ritual. His hand twitched once more, gripping tightly on the blade.
One's wheezing continued as he watched the smile on Spook's face grow. Any second now he told himself.
"I'll miss you, buddy." Spook's voice sounded distant, like he wasn't exactly focusing on the thought in the words. As if he was talking to himself at the movies after a character he liked had died. Like there was no actual emotion in the sentence he had uttered. But it was okay One figured as he idly watched a bird land on a nearby branch, black and distant like a shadow it stared at him curiously with a small noise. Then more joined, the world around him seemed to turn into a swirl of dark wings and the caws of crows. And yet he was still calm.
"See you man." He replied, speech a bit jumbled up from the missing corners of his mouth. The birds cawing continued for him as the chants with the other boy went on, each listening to their own background noise while the reality of the woods was quiet and soundless.
Spook grasped the knife in his hand firmly, then with as much strength as he could muster he dug it into his one of his best friends chests with a grunt. One's eyes widened for a moment as he looked down at the cause of his destruction, then he glanced back up at the man who did it. Everything was already blurring and fading out as he watched a moment of what appeared like consciousness appear on Spook's face, something that could only really be described as moderate shock. And then he found himself falling back, wheezing quietly once more before the birds seemed to swoop down, covering him in black disappearing along with the last bit of life.
Spook stood there, shaking as he stared at the almost sleep-like corpse that had become One. His foot went back, a step that almost looked like it was his first in reverse with the way his legs shook and moved uncertainly. He hesitated, stared at the knife plunged in his friends chest, and then turned around and ran off like a startled deer.
"Good." The voice cooed at Spook happily. "Now why don't we visit Rocky...I'm sure we can have just as much fun with him."
