Another day, another piece of worthless information to put in his brain. That's what Neal always thought of school. The supposed education wasn't going to help him find a job, or learn how to pay the bills. However, it was necessary. His eyes were focused on the board as miss Simian explained a complex math problem. He was feeling numb in the brain, not because he emptied the entire vial in one go today -what was left of it-, but because math caused his brain to do so. Although, he needed to study whether he liked it or not, he couldn't afford to be held back yet another year, or worse, kicked out of this school too. Perfect behaviour and study, that's what Neal had to do right now. However, the effects of the potion always dimmed his thoughts and kept him from being able to focus. Even his notebook was full of unsolved math problems and scribbles.

Neal sat at his desk while leaning to the side so he could see past the massive T-rex that sat in front of him. He still kept his distance away from Tina at all times, fearing to even start a conversation in case she finds him as a delicious snack.

The minutes dragged on, and Neal's brain reached the melting point with the darn math class. Thankfully, next was chemistry. The bell had ringed and Neal exhaled tiredly. Finally, it was over. The hellish class was over. Packing his books and notes, Neal was just about to go to the next class when someone had called his name.

"Neal! Wait up!"

He stopped and looked around. This was rather unusual. Not once did anyone approach him to have a talk. Only one who did was Alan, but that was only out of necessity. He had managed to blend in and become boring, against his own, affected minds wishes. Then again, nobody talking to him was better in this situation, as he could focus more on his studies, but that's what his clear mind would say. He still wanted friends.

Neal walked past two eggs on legs and glasses, who just scoffed and whispered to each other, "Another one falls victim to the enchantress."

The one who called him over was Masami. Or at least, he thought that was the cloud girls name. "Yes, can I help you?" He asked politely.

Neal could've picked his words better, because Masami grinned for a split second and then immediately frowned with a sad look. "Yeah. I need some help. I can't move all these books by myself and my friend that usually helps me ran off." Masami explained with an obviously fake sadness in her voice. She did a good job at masking it however.

Neal glanced at her desk. There were quite a few books and notebooks, Masami didn't look like she had any hands either. Of course, Neal, being the self brainwashed pumpkin that he was, completely missed the fact that she had hands. She just didn't show them very often. Besides, he sat in the far back, so he couldn't see how she wrote either.

"Surely such a strapping gentleman like you could lend me a helping hand~" Masami spoke in a honeyed voice. Compliment, rope them in, and enjoy. If he takes the bait, her life will get so much more easier than it already is.

It was no problem for Neal to help her. If he did, perhaps he would have a new friend to chat with during school. However, Masami had no intention of befriending him in the first place. "Sure! No problem at all." Neal responded with a smile and took all her notes and books under one hand. "Shall we go?"

Masami nodded. Neal was first to go, followed by Masami who was grinning in satisfaction. It was much easier than she expected.

-After chemistry class-

"And put them in order." Masami said with half interest as she lazily floated besides her locker. She had employed Neal to tidy up her locker while ordering how and what from the side.

"Aha." He replied and did as told. Placing each book in an alphabetical order.

"Class order." She corrected herself. Neal had stopped moving all together, staring at something in the hallway. After a second he came out of his trance.

"I'm sorry, what are we doing?" He asked with a dumb smile.

"Ugh, can't you focus for two seconds? Masami replied hotly, her patience slipping a little in the process. Not only was he a tool, but an idiot too. Just great.

Neal gave her a questioning look. She quickly grinned and changed her attitude. "I mean, please focus and put them in a class order." She repeated sweetly. Neal nodded and resumed his work. And just as he was almost done too. Neal spent the next few minutes re-organising them in order that their classes are going to take.

In the time it took him to put them all correctly, Carmen and Molly had came up to Masami. "Hey, are you coming with us to the playground?" Asked Molly.

"Yeah. In a moment." Replied Masami and addressed Neal with the same honeyed tone. "Neal, after you're done here, can you bring me a soda?"

"A? Oh! Yeah, sure." He replied absentmindedly, thinking about everything and nothing at the same time. Man, was it difficult for him to focus at times. Although, this request he made sure to remember.

"Okay, great." Masami replied with little interest and floated off with her friends.

After Neal was done with organising her locker, he went to the soda machine, but stopped short when he remembered something. Masami didn't tell him where they went off to. Neal sighed pathetically, he should've asked her before she ran off.

-Much later-

Soda can in hand, Neal scouted pretty much the entire school for Masami. To no result. He of course couldn't just ditch her request, that wouldn't be nice at all. He was walking through the empty hall, aiming to get to the playground, however, he heard many different footsteps from behind, quickly closing in on him. He paid them no mind, unfortunately, when they were just behind him, he was grabbed by the collar of his school jacket. The hand that grabbed him was in a pretty big, very familiar glove.

It was the same, classically dressed stick figure with a bomb for his head. His friends, the mouse, a teddy bear and a disembodied hand were right besides him too.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" The bomb guy asked with the same smirk that he constantly wore.

Julius and his pal's were quite bored today and as luck would have it, they ran into the most pathetic guy in school. They were going to seek him out regardless, so this run in just saved them time. But, the glasses wearing student didn't respond to his question, he just stared blankly at him. "Didn't you hear what I asked?"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise I had to-" Without a saying anything, Julius pushed Neal. He ended up bumping in the plush bear, who showed him back in the middle. "Okay….that was unnecessary." Neal mumbled. Honestly, he had no idea why they were picking on him. It's not like he did something bad to them.

Asserting the dominance and showing who's the boss was one of the many things that Julius and his friends liked to do, asides from few other actives. And Neal was the perfect target for that. No claws or fangs, thin and short, probably can't even see far without his glasses. Just the kind of person they usually go for when bored.

Scythe, the rat kid, suddenly swiped the can of soda from Neal, who was too slow to respond quickly enough. "I was actually bringing it to-"

"Yeah? Well it's mine now." Julius said with a big smirk.

"But I-" Scythe began, but was silenced by Julius glaring at him and taking the soda from his hands.

"Oh, well okay then. I'll just go get another." Neal simply responded and was just about to leave when the bear, Mowdown, got in his way and growled, "Don't even think about it."

"Alright." Neal replied simply. Completely surrounded by rowdy, rude guys who want nothing more than to mess around. He needed a way out. "Uhm…but I have to go. I have to meet my classmate-"

"Have to what, huh?" Julius asked with a step forward, making Neal back up a little.

"You know, g-go outside and…"

Julius didn't want to hear anything. Neal was so stupid that he didn't understand that it was a mock question. Thinking of how to mess with Neal more, he all of a sudden took Neal's glasses off. "How do you even see in these?" Julius asked with a laugh and tried them on. Everything was blurred for him. The other guys laughed at how ridiculous they looked on Julius, and by extension, Neal.

"H-hey, give it back, man!" Neal said worriedly. Without those glasses, he wouldn't be able to see far at all. He could see for a good distance still, but not so well. He tried taking them back, but Julius just took them off and extended his hand upwards, where Neal couldn't reach.

"You want em back?" Julius asked as the cackling at Neal's pathetic attempts to reclaim them continued.

"Yes! Dude, come on!" Neal reached out to grab them, however, he was a good half a foot short.

"Here, go fetch!" Julius turned around and chucked then across the hallway.

Neal immediately ran after them, leaving behind a group of jerks who were laughing out loud. With their boisterous laughter disappearing behind him, Neal slid to a stop. Thankfully, his glasses landed near the wall. The hallway was empty at this time during recess, so there was no danger of someone stepping on them. He picked them off the ground and carefully dusted them off. Neal inspected the lenses, no scratches or cracks. Lucky.

Neal put the glasses back on and exhaled tiredly. What a nasty day this was turning out to be. Ignoring the laughter of Julius's group, Neal went downstairs to grab another can of soda and find Masami.

-Much later-

"Didn't you know? This is the time we shine! We will finally shut everyone up about our constant losing streak. Plus, we will finally have something to rub it into Franklin guy's faces!" Tobias said excitedly to his friends, Clayton and Juke. The discussion was about the upcoming football game on Friday, which seemed to slowly overtake the school.

"But what if we lose again?" Asked Clayton with a worried look. "Then those Franklin freaks will never let us live it down."

Juke nodded in agreement, since once again, he was incapable of human speech.

"Don't worry, this time, we made it to the finals!"

Their conversation was cut short when Neal squeezed past them. "Excuse me!" He hurried down the playground, soon the bell was going to ring and he only now found Masami.

She was hovering near the teal table at far corner of the playground, chatting with her friends, Molly, Carmen and Penny.

The girls fell silent when Neal timidly approached them and cleared his throat. "Ahem, here's the soda you asked for." He set it on the table besides Masami.

"Ugh, what took you so long? Doesn't matter, after school, come to the library, I have some homework assignments to do and I'll need your help."

"But I-"

"Please~?" Masami asked while batting her eyelashes. Who could resist when asked so nicely? Certainly not this little tool of convenience.

It wouldn't be nice of Neal to refuse her request, so he just nodded in response. Besides, he could go for a little interaction, he was beginning to get a little lonely. The trip to Doom forest could wait an hour or two. "Well…okay then…" Neal finally responded, feeling a little bit unsure at first.

"Okay, you can go now." Masami said as if losing all interest in him, returning her attention back to her friends.

"Well then. Ladies." Neal excused himself and went to find a quiet spot where he could do his own homework first.

The shining fairy glanced at Masami with a disapproving look. "You know, it's not nice of you to use him like that." She said in a berating tone. Penny didn't know much about her classmate, but he seemed like a very nice person. Complying and helping like that, not many would do that out of free will.

"Yeah." Carmen agreed. "When you take advantage of nice people, that's just a nasty way of living." Carmen said with frown at Masami.

"Oh please, he can stop whenever he likes." Masami replied, playing the innocent one. It wasn't her fault that Neal was naive to the bone. That or plain stupid.

"I don't think he knows that you're using him like that." Penny added. She didn't want to get involved, or argue with her teammate, especially at such a crucial time when the big game is coming and practice was all that mattered.

"Like I said. He can stop whenever he likes." Masami responded with a dissatisfied huff. It's not her fault that her friends didn't see how much easier it was if someone just does things for you. Penny could stand to benefit from such a thing too since Gumball was like her lovestruck pet. Masami inwardly frowned at the opportunities that her friend missed out on.

-After school-

Neal felt sore in the brain. Not only did he had to do his own homework during all the recess, but also do Masami's homework after school. She didn't even tell him what to write, she just floated at the desk and read some book. And Neal had to turn each page for her, all the while doing all her work on the other side. He was beginning to get suspicious that some manner of fraud was involved here. However, his 'friend' needed the help and it didn't look like anyone was going to in his place. Unfortunately, he didn't even get to know her that well, due to the fact that most of the time, she paid more attention to the book that she was reading rather than Neal's attempt to start a conversation.

As of right now, he was standing at the bus stop, waiting for a ride home. After that, change of clothes, grab a backpack, and journey to the Doom forest. Hopefully, his head will clear out before that, because from the research that he did yesterday, Doom forest didn't have the word "Doom" in it for nothing.

There were two more students waiting at the bus stop, Darwin and Carrie. And they seemed to be in a lively conversation.

"Whatcha wanna do once we get there?" Darwin asked his ghostly girlfriend with a cutesy smile.

Carrie shrugged in response. "I don't know. Just hang out I guess. Oh, I have this really cool thing to show you that appeared in my backyard yesterday!"

"Really? What is it?" Darwin asked with childish wonder. A unicorn? A fluffy marshmallow? Two puppies hugging each other?

"I'm not going to spoil the surprise!" Carrie responded with a smile at his excited look. "By the way. Doesn't Gumball know that school is out? Why isn't he here with you?" Normally the two siblings were always together. She expected that Gumball would be here to at least tag along until their stop.

"Well, he's at the stadium, cheering Penny on." Darwin responded. Yesterday Gumball had told him that he will stay in the stadium till Penny is done with her practice, right up until Friday. That put a small damper on his mood, but alas, he couldn't hog Gumball all to himself anymore.

"Right. The practice. Will you go to the game this Friday?" Carrie asked. Maybe they could go together, a date of sorts. Then again, there were many other, better places to go on a date than a sports game.

"Yeah." Darwin confirmed. He told his mom and dad about it yesterday and they said they will drive them to the stadium. Or at the very least, try to. Besides, this will be a perfect time to introduce Carrie to his parents. "Wanna go together?"

"Sure." Carrie brightened up with a beaming smile. "I'll bring some rotten tomatoes that we could chuck at the players that suck." She added with a little evil laugh.

Even though Darwin found her most charming, Carrie did tend to get a little carried away with her fun. Destructive and menacing fun. "Ughm…I don't think my mom would like that." He explained in hopes that she'll understand. Darwin didn't want his mother to see how Carrie sometimes entertained herself and thus draw her impressions from that.

"Oh, right." Carrie said while keeping herself from sighing. And here she thought it will be just the two of them.

Neal wasn't eavesdropping on their conversation, but they were talking quite loud. What game? Did he miss something in the past few days?

Soon enough, the bus had arrived. After quite a bit of time, the two lovebirds found themselves by Carrie's house. Which looked like a building straight out of a horror movie, not that Darwin cared that much. The two were in the backyard, next to some withering, naked trees.

Carrie was busy with taking something out from underneath the roots of one such tree. And while Darwin was silently trying to put some distance between himself at the dead forest that looked like it will grab him any moment, Carrie had taken out a small, cardboard box from underneath the tree.

Darwin cautiously approached Carrie. "Check it out!" She said while setting the box on the ground and removing the cardboard lid.

"BOOOO!" Came a loud yell from the box.

Darwin screeched like a girl and jumped into Carrie's arms. "What is THAT!?"

Carrie giggled at his dramatic reaction and patted his head in comfort. "Relax you scaredy cat."

In the box, there was a medallion of sorts. It looked like it was made of metal. A round, gray coin with no writing or numbers on it. With a simple leather string acting as a necklace. Completely boring looking, but what made it stand out, was the voice coming from it. "Release me, you wrench! I must return to my-"

"That thing is hilarious. It thought me curse words I didn't knew before." She explained joyfully. "Ughm…you can get off now." Carrie said quietly, her cheeks turning light shade of pink.

"Are you sure it won't bite me?" Darwin asked. The medallion was screaming like crazy, demanding to be released.

"It's a piece of metal, silly. It won't." Carrie responded with a chuckle. "Although, it is most definitely possessed, so don't touch it." She added a little bit more seriously. She didn't really know if it was possessed, although it did look like it. More research was in order.

"Right." Darwin hopped on the ground and cautiously approached the box out of curiosity. The pendant was very silent during their conversation, too silent. Carrie had the cardboard lid ready, just in case.

"What's his name?" Darwin asked, unsure if it could even be considered as a pet.

"I named it after Grakath, the supreme overlord of the underworld." She relied simply.

Now that Darwin got a better look at it, it didn't seem to be so threatening like he initially thought. Heck, the medallion looked like something would wear. Dull, boring and ecologically friendly. Probably.

The medallion certainly didn't ignore the studying look that Darwin was giving him. It was going to give him a piece of its mind. "What are you looking at, you deep fried motherfu-" The cardboard lid was slammed shut by Carrie instantaneously. Only a muffled voice was heard from the inside.

Her precious little fish must be protected. Especially from one such foul mouth. "Ahahaa...I think that's enough of that." She said awkwardly.

"What was he going to say?" Darwin asked with an innocent look, making Carrie embarrassed to even thinking about revealing it.

"You know what, let's go play video games and forget about the talking talisman!" She announced and threw the cardboard box underneath the tree again. Which earned another loud shout from the pedant.

The backyard was beginning to slowly creep him out, so Darwin quickly took her up on her offer. "Oh! Okay!" On their way to Carrie's house, Darwin asked her, "By the way, why aren't you keeping it in your room? Why out here, with all the scary looking trees around?"

"I couldn't keep it inside the house because it makes too much noise." She explained. Grakath did make a lot of noise. Mostly just nonsense about his guardian coming to get him back. Which Carrie thought was bunch of baloney. He didn't even have a GPS attached to it, or a return address.

Some minutes later, the two were on her bed and playing the newest installment of Zelmore. Darwin was quite happy that him and Carrie had at least few things in common, like love for games. And cute things! At least, he hoped that she did. Perhaps she preferred more muscular guys. Perfect! He got defeated by a monster in the game. With all the unnecessary contemplating, he just wasted their time.

"Sorry about that." Darwin mumbled out quickly and began making up for his mistake by taking out more monsters.

"It's cool." Carrie blurted and helped Darwin by demolishing anything that tried to impair his progress.

Darwin had to admit, she was good. Outstanding even. The way Carrie took care of all the enemies was super quick and effective. So much so that he struggled to keep up. "Wow. You're good!"

"Thank you. You're so slow despite having perfectly functioning legs." She jokingly said with a challenging grin.

"Oh is that so? Watch this!" Darwin said and returned his focus on the game, this time, trying to out-perform his girlfriend.

The two kids entered into a friendly competition to see who would rake up more slain monsters. Carrie was winning by a large margin. So much so that it made her laugh out loud and lose focus at times. She left Darwin in the dust, who was breaking a sweat just by trying to keep up. How Carrie could click the buttons so fast, it was beyond him.

Darwin tried his hardest, but to no avail. He was getting out matched. When the victory screen flashed, Carrie was in the number one spot. She dropped her controller, fell on the bed backwards and cackled madly. This was by far the easiest victory yet.

Darwin exhaled tiredly and leaned back to fall besides her. He stared at the ceiling of the room while resting his tired and sore hands. "Wow. How did you do it?"

Carrie rolled on her stomach and propped herself up on her elbow. "Mmh, I don't know. I guess I have the talent."

"Two out of three?" Darwin suggested with renewed fighting spirit.

"You're on!" Carrie replied with a confident smirk. Only now she noticed that her controller was dropped. "Hold on c'mere you."

Carrie went down on the floor to take the game controller from underneath the bed. It was right under Darwin's seat. He even had to lift his legs and let her pass.

Something about this particular situation made his heart roll like a heavy drum. His face turned beet red and he subconsciously scooted further away. This was the first time he had a reaction like this and it spooked him quite a bit. He of course kept his mouth shut about it.

After Carrie had retrieved her controller, the two kids continued gaming. But the longer they played, the harder it became for Darwin to stay focused. He chucked it up to the loads of homework that Miss Simian kept throwing at them. That and him and Gumball not being able to do things together for the next few days until after Friday. But that didn't matter. He glanced at the cute, giggling ghost besides him and his worries vanished. Everything will be alright. He and Gumball could hang out during school, plus, he had Carrie with him.

With the childish worry gone, all of a sudden, Darwin placed a chaste kiss at the corner of Carrie's lips. The ghost girl nearly dropped her controller out of sheer surprise. She looked at Darwin with cheeks ablaze and a beating heart. "W-what was t-that for!?" She asked out of embarrassment for getting caught by surprise.

"Oh, nothing~" Darwin replied with a whimsical tune in his voice. The TV screen flashed and showed the word 'Victory' on the screen. Darwin took his first point and now they were tied. And while Carrie pouted and quietly mumbled how unfair the distraction was, Darwin giggled happily upon finally being victorious. Yep, everything was turning out to be way better than he thought.

Neal exhaled through his nose. He was getting restless in his bus seat. It's been about half an hour since he went back to Alan's, switched out his clothes, grabbed a backpack, and boarded a bus that will pass the Doom forest. Thankfully, Ms's and Mr's Kenae were out and working during his return and Alan wasn't home either. Which was good, he avoided unnecessary questions as to where he was going. Instead of his usual blue school jacket and grey jeans, he now wore a green, long sleeved shirt, loose sports pants and old, grey sneakers. A get up which was perfect for running, which he was sure he will do a lot of.

The calming potion effects have long since cleared out and all that was left was a restless mind that screamed at him to use common sense and logic to stay the hell away from the forest. But alas, he needed those herbs for his potion. Throwing all common sense out the window for this task, Neal decided to be extra cautious. The things he read about the Doom forest, they weren't for the faint of heart. Monsters, demonic chanting in the depths of forest, lost people, savage animals, man eating plants. It housed all the horrors that he assumed were fictional before. But perhaps they were fictional?

The bus had stopped quite some distance away from Elmore and upon exit, Neal found himself in an open, grassy field. Further across the road, there was his destination. Doom forest. It looked like every other forest that he had seen in his life. Normal.

Neal crossed the road and entered the forest. At first glance, everything seemed normal. Although he didn't drop his guard for a moment. Getting caught by surprise wasn't something he was willing to do. The deeper he went in search for the herbs, the darker the forest became. Neal suddenly stopped short when he heard some strange sound. He whirled around, fists clenched and legs bent, ready to sprint at any moment. But the source of the sound came from two owls sitting on top of a tree branch.

"Oh… Wow." Owls with one, big eye in the middle of their body. Absolutely morbid. Neal was getting freaked already as he backed up a few steps and continued on his way. They were definitely strange. This town was strange.

Further and further into the forest he traversed. He kept a close eye and ear on his surroundings, not only in search of the herb, Moad, but incase he encounters something bigger than two, malformed birds. The scenery in front of him kept changing drastically. The sunlight became dimmed between the thick branches of the tall trees. Everything began taking on a darker tone. Neal, with each taken step, became increasingly more worried. Perhaps this was a bad idea. No! He needed Moads for the potion. His need to be calm, happy and non-aggressive came first. Besides, those owl's were the only thing out of the ordinary. Perhaps the name was an exaggeration. He smiled to himself. The Internet and the locals really were making those stories up to scare-

*Crack!*

A snap of a twig. That's all it took for Neal to drop into a defensive stance.

From the bushes, few feet away from him, stepped out a creature. A tall humanoid, bigger than him, yet thin and quite horrific looking with purple skin. It had long fingers and long, deer like legs. Four long slits lined on its face, with what looked like tears flowing from them. No visible eyes, ears or nose. Not even a mouth.

"Okay then..." Neal said quietly to himself. His heart picked up a faster beat. What an idiot he was for thinking that the monsters weren't real. He attended the school with dinosaurs and walking jukeboxes! Of course there had to be monsters. The monster that stood in front of him, although crying, didn't look too friendly like his classmates.

But without eyes and ears, perhaps the monster didn't see him? Without doing any sudden movements, Neal slowly stepped to the right, and the monster mirrored his action. Now he was getting spooked. So it could somehow see or sense him. Neal took a step back as a test more than anything and the monster responded with a step forward.

Now he understood what was happening. The tears coming from the long slits on its face, weren't tears. It was saliva. The monstrosity was hungry and Neal was on its menu.

He considered making a run for it, but with those long, deer like legs, it would probably catch him really quickly. And even if he did run for it and escape, Neal would get out empty handed, which he didn't want to at all. He wanted, no, he needed those herbs.

This would be his first time ever facing something inhuman. Usually, his opponents were aggressive, overgrown school bullies.

With a thundering heart, Neal hunched his back and held his arms loose on both sides. A snarl crept on his face as he prepared to meet the monster head on with all of his gathered courage. "Fine. Come get some." He sneered threateningly.

The purple abomination dashed at him. Neal stood his ground and didn't move. Once it got close enough, Neal quickly impaired it's movement with a swift shin strike to the side of its knee. The monster screeched in pain, all slits on its face opening like mouths with rows of needle like teeth. With its center of gravity altered, the monster stumbled to the right a little, but still lunged forward. It attempted to grab him with intent of strangling the air out of Neal, who ducked underneath its arms. With a spring movement, Neal straightened out his back while bringing his fist from below. The uppercut snapped the monsters head back with the sound of a cracking whip. It toppled over and fell on its back, losing consciousness from the impact.

Neal held his breath for a second, ready to move incase of a surprise attack. He kept an intense look on it, searching for any signs of movement. Only the monsters chest was rising up and down. Thankfully it got knocked out. Neal didn't want to know what would've happened had it caught him slipping on that dodge.

Not a moment later, he heard heavy footsteps coming closer from behind a row of trees. Just great. This entire trip was turning out to be a non-stop nightmare that refused to give him a break.

Neal took cover behind a fallen tree and stayed perfectly still while peeking from the side to see just what will enter the area.

And enter it did. A massive, eight foot in height and length pig. It lumbered on all four of its muscular legs. It had dark, sapphire scales, which were decorated by scratches and healed scars of battles won against other monsters. Two, tiny, black beady eyes were focused on the downed monster. A row of fangs at the bottom of its jaw pointed forward like blades. Upper jaw had jagged, straight teeth, same length as it's bottom jaw fangs.

Neal didn't move a muscle, or even breathed normally, least the hulking monster would hear or smell him. This forest was infested with nightmare fuel and his dumb butt ended up in the middle of it. But from the looks of it, the monster didn't have any nose, or ears, much like the previous one. Only eyes. So how did it found its prey?

Neal wasn't stupid, he knew that trying to face off against this monster would lead him to certain doom. Those scars indicated that it survived some horrifying battles. So while the green pig was nudging the body of the purple, unconscious humanoid, Neal adjusted his position silently to start sneaking away.

Almost immediately, he heard twigs snapping and the ground shaking as the lumbering creature suddenly charged at him. How in the world did it learn of his position? More so than that, what did he do to deserve this roller-coaster of hell?

Neal kicked off the ground, rolling over the fallen tree and throwing himself to the right, thus confusing the charging pig monster, who slammed its body into the wood.

Neal rolled to a stop and sprinted through the thickening forestry. Shielding his face with one hand, he barrelled through the low hanging branches and bushes without stopping to look back. Common sense told him that the pig demon was most likely giving chase after him at this very moment.

Neal stopped his mad dash with a stomp to the ground, making him slide on the foliage for two feet. He pushed off of the tree in front of himself and suddenly switched directions to throw off his pursuer. A green blur bulldozed the tree that he was close not a second later.

Neal was right. It was chasing him. He hated being right. And from the looks of it, it was five, if not ten times faster than him. But at the same time, the monster couldn't stop or switch directions quickly enough. Which could be taken advantage of.

Neal began running in zig zags. Ducking and weaving between trees like he was dribbling a soccer ball. And the demonic pig of hell was right on his heels, being slowed down only by the trees that it crashed through like brittle ice.

All of a sudden, the solid ground beneath Neal's feet was gone. Panic, fear, sense of impending doom. All had washed over him as in the single second, he thought that this was it. Neal feel. Straight on his chest. The fall turned out to be only one tenth of what he expected. The fall, although surprising, didn't stop his brain from functioning. Neal rolled to the left, just as the green blur flew from the back and came sliding across a pretty wide clearing in the forest.

He glanced back, he had fallen of a small ledge and entered into a clearing. He hastily looked around, considering his options. Running back into the forest would yield the same results, and his stamina was very limited. He couldn't keep running forever.

At the end of the clearing, to the right, he noticed a pretty deep ravine. Small in diameter, barely visible over the wall of growing trees, but perhaps it would be his salvation if he plays his cards right.

While the monstrosity was getting its bearings on the sudden change of scenery, Neal got in position. He stood in front of a row of trees that blocked off the sight of the ravine and called out to the monster. "Pork chops! Over here!"

The pig monster suddenly stopped moving and slowly turned around to look at Neal with absolute scorn in its tiny eyes.

Good. It was staring at him like a bull that was about to attack. A pissed grimace morphed Neal's face, his confidence rising tenfold. Now, he was in control of the situation. "Yeah, I'm gonna call you Francis. What's wrong, Francis? Little too fat to catch your prey, Francis?" He put heavy emphasis on the name, throwing it like an insult at the creature.

The monster understood his mockery. It most certainly did as evidenced by a massive roar that it gave out of pure rage. It looked like it was intelligent enough to understand him, but not enough to see that Neal was leading it into a trap. His taunting did its purpose.

"Let's see if those scars are just decorations." Neal grinned with absolutely aggressive confidence and directed a challenging stare right at its eyes. "Come, fatty."

The pig demon took off. The ground shook with from the weight of its charge.

Neal waited, never blinking, not breathing. Waiting for the opportunity to move. Once the monster came close enough, Neal took a nose dive to the left and the demonic spawn crashed through the tree line. He heard a heavy slam coming from the ravine. However, he wasn't going to stick around and wait until the monster found its way out of the hole. He guessed that it was still alive and very well. Such a small fall couldn't end a creature like that.

With the monster stuck in the hole, Neal ran out of the clearing. He set to putting as much distance between himself and the clearing as possible. By the time he stopped running, he was absolutely out of breath. His back slid down the tree that he used as support and plopped on the ground.

"What sort of hell is this…" He panted out to himself with nothing but tired anger. Monsters all around him. At every corner. In school, in street's and even across the room, occupying a neighbouring bed. He hated this forest, he hated this town. He felt alone, with not a single human in sight. Which was probably for the best. He disliked people with their general stupidity and behaviour. And from what he saw in the past few days, the people here were just as bad.

Having had enough rest, Neal pushed himself up and dragged himself in search of the Moads again.

He managed to find and entire area filled with the flowery plant. Filling his backpack to the brim, he managed to crack out a small, forced smile, at least he managed to accomplish this without failure. The smile immediately turned into a frown. He will need to journey here again, because those gathered herbs will only last him two days. Neal exhaled through his nose and made a mental note to always avoid physical confrontations with the monstrosities of this forest.

One false move today and he might not have seen the light of tomorrow. The scary thought alone made him feel weak in the knees. With his mission accomplished, Neal turned around and quietly made his way out of the forest.

Unbeknownst to Neal, a pair of sickly, glowing jade eyes had observed his exit. The eyes, they peered into his most recent memories. The human boy, he had seen the thief.

Even after the school is out, downtown of Elmore was quiet. Neal was lazily walking on the sidewalk. His legs felt sore, not only from the brutal workout that he got from his journey, but from the walk that he had to do after leaving the bus stop. It had dropped him off halfway across the downtown area. Bottom line, he hated walking while already being so tired.

Up ahead, he noticed a bunch of people on the other side of the road. The closer he got, the more details he could see. Nearly all of the tall people wore rose red shirts. One of them had the letters 'Franklin #1!'.

Rumor has it that the Franklin students weren't the friendliest bunch of kids. And now he saw why. Across the street, they had surrounded two of his classmates, Anton and Juke. He didn't hear what was being said, but he could see that it was physical. They were showing and making fun of them.

Neal scoffed at the sight. Absolutely disgusting. Five versus two. All were tall, humanoid in nature, and well built. There was no way that the two little kids could break out of the ridicule on their own. Both of them were already cowering and shaking like leaves, being easily intimidated by the bigger, stronger students.

This wasn't related to him at all. Sure, Neal was their classmate, but he was by no means a hero. Stepping in and starting a fight, potentially getting harmed too and causing bigger trouble to befall the two kids, it wasn't something he was willing to do. It was for the best to just keep walking and avoid being seen. Besides, he was already tired and not in the mood for any sort of contact. Also, not the one being pushed around.

So he turned on his heel and went to find a different route that will lead him back to Alan's house.

After a little bit of searching, he had located his home. With the herbs in his possession, all that was left was to nail a perfect opportunity when no one is looking to brew his potion. Once he entered the house, the green ball of constant happiness was all up in his face.

"Hello, roommate!" Alan greeted him with a big smile. "Where have you been?" He asked him out of curiosity. Usually after school, Neal would be the first one back, more so than that, he avoided going outside as much as possible. But now it seemed there was a change in his routine.

"Yo." Neal responded with barely any energy and untied his shoes. "I was out, walking around." He explained half heartedly.

Alan floated a little closer to him with a concerned expression. "You look exhausted. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I went to check out Elmore a little bit more to get familiar with my surroundings." He lied effortlessly while taking off his shoes. There it was, unnecessary questions. He already wanted to shut himself away from his 'roommate'.

"Oh, perhaps you went to the park?" Alan asked. The Elmore park was a wonderful, bright place ful of people who would go there to relax and have a nice day.

"Yeah. It's delightful." Neal said with heavy emphasis on the last word. He finally took off his shoes, arranged them perfectly and made his way towards the stairs.

Alan smiled. If Neal enjoyed going there alone, then maybe he would like some company tomorrow. After all, being together with friends was the most fun you could ever have. "Oh, well, perhaps you, me and C-"

"No." Neal cut in with a dry and terse reply. He didn't want to see or hear from anyone else today. He had enough interaction, he was turned into a slave due to his affected mind, being pushed around by a group of idiots and not being able to fight back, doing twice the amount of homework and the trip. Plan of action for the rest of the day, stay in the room, wait till everyone's asleep, brew the potion.

With his offer shot down so mercilessly, Alan quietly watched how Neal ascended the stairs. He grew increasingly more concerned. Ever since coming here, Neal was smiling and cheerful. Always nice and chatty. And although he stayed in the room most of the time, he already felt like part of the family. But now, just by taking a quick glance, one could tell that he acted like a completely different person.

"Give him time." Alan said to himself. "He's still adjusting."

-End of chapter 4-