div class="chapter preface group" style="border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-color: initial; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.5em 3em; padding: 0.643em 0.643em 0px; float: none; color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 19.4443px;"
div id="notes" class="notes module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.643em; position: relative; width: auto; float: none; clear: right; min-height: 5em;"
blockquote class="userstuff" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 1em; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0.643em; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"strongHere's chapter 10 finally! Sorry for the wait, I was busy with exams for a bit, but I finally got around to updating it! ^^ Hope you all are enjoying the holidays! (bit of a shorter chapter. Just thought at the end was a good stopping place.)/strongbr /strongWarnings for a bit of gore in the beginning and a few depictions of violence./strong/p
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div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1088.63px; float: none; word-wrap: break-word; color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 19.4443px;"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: #333333; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Ford found himself in a strange world that he couldn't seem to recognize or wrap his mind around. The sky above him was blood red and the air even smelled of the coppery scent along with what Ford could only pinpoint as entrails. Trees surrounded him in a vast forest; however, these trees moved about in a globular manner like they were made of some black liquid. He tried poking at one but nearly had his entire hand engulfed in it, being pulled in by the dark liquidy slime. A cold sweat was beginning to form around his temples, hearing echoing screams that seemed to be coming from everywhere. He covered his ears with his hands, desperately attempting to block them out, but it was as if they were seeping into his own mind. Ford thought he was going to go mad until the screams ceased and were replaced by a single voice all too familiar to him. Tentatively gazing up, the trees in front of him swirled together to form a gigantic shadowy figure with piercing blue eyes that gazed straight into his soul. A crooked smile crossed its face, a laugh forming from its /"Ohh, I haven't had that much fun in a while, Pines! I must thank you for the use of your body. Your partner sure can take a beating," it smiled with glee, nearly laughing /Ford took a few steps back, glaring at the thing. "Squalor. What more do you want from me?" Ford shouted, his voice hoarse as he strained his vocal /"Oh, nothing really. There's no need to shout. You're asleep right now, so what do you think of my dimension? Pretty shitty, right? All it is is blood skies and ground and globular forests all around. Your dimension is so colorful and doesn't reek of blood and gore. That's why I like it much better and possess humans to be able to taste and smell it. Beating the shit out of lil Fiddleford gave me sensations I haven't felt in ages. And oh, seems that you're waking up. Good luck sorting out the mess I put you in," Squalor's voice had a razor edge to it that cut deep into Ford's brain. While it continued to point and laugh, Ford rolled around in the blood and gore ridden ground, doubled over in pain with each word it spoke. The horror dimension warped and fell apart around him as his mind waked and snapped him back into /Ford sat bolt upright, sweat dripping down his chin. He immediately cried out in pain as his muscles protested in a multitude of stings and piercing pain from the lacerations. He sunk back down gasping. Opening his eyes, he found that both his wrists were handcuffed to the hospital /"What the.." he breathed, trying to struggle against the /Adrenaline from the all too real nightmare still coursed through him. All he was thinking was finding Fiddleford to make sure he was okay or at least still alive. He forcibly pushed those thoughts out of his mind. "No, he is alive. He has to be." The door opening caused him to cease struggling. He whispered a silent, "Shit," as the assistant director entered the /"Well, Agent Pines. Looks like we got ourselves a situation," he sounded almost too calm as he sat down beside Ford's /"A.D.! I didn't do that to McGucket. You have to believe me! It's because of what's going on in this town. It's all in the X File. I know this is going to make me sound crazy, but along with the slender man, there's this other entity, and it possessed me," Ford's speech was gradually becoming more and more incoherent as he blabbered on about all that had /"Pines," was all he had to say to silence /"I want to believe you, but you know that's not going to fly in a court of law."br /Ford clenched his fists in the cuffs, gazing down at his lap in /"But…I'm making this an FBI matter to keep the local law enforcement off your back. The only proof they have against you is your having McGucket's blood on you, but that could mean a lot of things. So, you're basically off the hook for now."br /Ford's eyes lit up as he looked up at the Assistant Director. "Sir, th-thank you!" Ford sniffled a /"Alright, no need to get sentimental on me, but the two of you still have to finish up this case. That'll be your end of the bargain."br /"Oh, McGucket! I-Is he alright? Last time I saw him, he was dying, bleeding out right next to me," Ford looked down in horror at his hands, which still had faint blood stains etched on /"He's out of ICU and stable now. From what I hear, they almost lost him but were able to stabilize him with an emergency blood transfusion," he looked over by the door and stood up, leaning in close to Ford. "You say something possessed you? And I wouldn't doubt it with the amount of damage McGucket took..inhuman in a way."br /Ford nodded. "And I had to watch the whole thing. That 'thing' had control over my limbs, and all I could do was watch. God, it was horrible," Ford couldn't even bury his face in his hand as he began to weep /The assistant director placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to keep the handcuffs on you for now as a formality. I'm going to check in on McGucket again."br /Ford nodded silently as tears dripped down onto his /Fiddleford cracked his eyes open, squinting at the bright sunlight. He groaned at the aches as he tried moving around. His face still felt a bit heavy and swollen, and he didn't even want to see what his torso and back looked like. He winced as he remembered the sting of the knife raking down his back, slicing right through his /"Ah, good, you're awake, McGucket."br /Fiddleford gasped as the assistant director entered the room, quietly closing the door behind him. "S-sir? What are you doin here" he tried to resist the urge to sit up, knowing he'd regret /"I just talked with Agent Pines. You were asleep when I went in here last, so I thought I'd check in on you later. And don't worry about Pines. I've got everything sorted out with the local law enforcement. You two will be finishing up the case when you feel up to it," he /"How' is Pines? Is he alright?" Fidds blurted /"Much better off than you. They might discharge him today. I'll make sure he gets to see you..I think he's pretty torn up about what happened. Probably blames himself for it."br /"No, no. It wasn't his fault at all. He was tricked and taken advantage of. Um, thank you, sir..for helping us with sorting out this mess," Fidds mumbled, his lips still feeling a bit numb. "So, how bad do I look?"br /"They have you all cleaned up, so not too bad. Your cheeks are a bit swollen, and you have a black eye along with a few stitches above your left eyebrow. I'm sure a lot of the damage is underneath your hospital gown," he grimaced saying that. "Well, I'll leave you to rest. There are still a few things I have to sort out. I had yours and Pines' stuff moved to this room," he gestured over by a few chairs where their duffles sat. "I'm guessing Pines will do his work here with you. Well, I wish you a speedy recovery, Agent McGucket," he waved at the agent before taking his /Once he left, Fidds couldn't help but think about Ford: was he having nightmares, does he really blame himself for this? They spun around in his head until he had to force himself to think about something else. "I need to focus on recovering," was the mantra he told /Just as the assistant director had said, Ford was discharged in the evening, glad to finally be free of the handcuffs. He rubbed at his wrists once they were removed. His stomach and thighs still felt stiff and at first, he had to walk at a slow pace or it felt like his skin was being roughly tugged at. The first thing he asked was where McGucket's room was and immediately made his way over there, refusing help when the nurses offered it. The one thought running through his mind was Fiddleford and nothing would deter him from reuniting with his /Ford nearly broke down by just seeing his partner alive and somewhat well. When he entered the room, Fiddleford was working on something on his laptop. A tiny gasp escaped his throat when he saw Ford standing /"Stanford! I-I'm so glad..you're okay," Fiddleford immediately began choking up, having to push his laptop away to keep the tears from dripping on it. Ford tentatively approached him and lightly took his hand, as if he was afraid he would accidentally hurt Fiddleford /"Why is your touch so timid, honey?" Fidds looked up at him, gently stroking Ford's hand with his /"I…I just don't want to hurt you. I'm..I'm so sorry, Fiddleford. I was weak and let that demon into my mind. Honest, I didn't mean to but.." Ford was sniffling, trying to hold back the tears, but it was no use. "I had to watch. I could only watch as he made my fists hit you over and over again. And the knife..oh god the knife…I.." Ford couldn't hold it back any longer. He knelt by Fidds' bed, sobbing violently as he still held onto his partner's hand. Fiddleford gave his hand a tiny squeeze, grinding his teeth as he forced himself to bend over a bit to run his fingers through Ford's hair. He pet Ford's head, letting him weep and sob until he couldn't anymore. Once his crying quieted, Ford looked back up at Fidds, eyes puffy and /"I must be the worst partner ever. You keep getting seriously hurt while I walk away with minor injuries. I'm sorry I always fuck everything up," Ford mumbled as he rested his head by Fidds' lap, letting Fidds continue to pet /"It's probably because of my rationalism and science. I'm always unaware of the supernatural, unlike you," Fiddleford replied in a soft /"You're wrong, you know," Ford said suddenly, their eyes meeting. "That's exactly what's saved us. Before I had you as a partner, I would jump straight into danger without a second thought. But..in a way, being with you has made me a better person. I owe you everything for that."br /"Stanford," Fiddleford tore his gaze away, not knowing what to /Ford stood up, cupping Fiddleford's cheek ever so gently. "And you owe me nothing." Ford tenderly kissed him on the forehead. "You don't owe me a single thing," he /Inside that hospital room, it was as if the whole world was still. No wind pushed around the shadowy trees outside. No one strolled beneath the streetlights. Everything was still in a frozen like state as the two of them held each other, just listening to their beating hearts and knowing that they were both alive…so very much alive./p
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div id="notes" class="notes module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.643em; position: relative; width: auto; float: none; clear: right; min-height: 5em;"
blockquote class="userstuff" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 1em; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0.643em; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"strongHere's chapter 10 finally! Sorry for the wait, I was busy with exams for a bit, but I finally got around to updating it! ^^ Hope you all are enjoying the holidays! (bit of a shorter chapter. Just thought at the end was a good stopping place.)/strongbr /strongWarnings for a bit of gore in the beginning and a few depictions of violence./strong/p
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div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1088.63px; float: none; word-wrap: break-word; color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 19.4443px;"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: #333333; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Ford found himself in a strange world that he couldn't seem to recognize or wrap his mind around. The sky above him was blood red and the air even smelled of the coppery scent along with what Ford could only pinpoint as entrails. Trees surrounded him in a vast forest; however, these trees moved about in a globular manner like they were made of some black liquid. He tried poking at one but nearly had his entire hand engulfed in it, being pulled in by the dark liquidy slime. A cold sweat was beginning to form around his temples, hearing echoing screams that seemed to be coming from everywhere. He covered his ears with his hands, desperately attempting to block them out, but it was as if they were seeping into his own mind. Ford thought he was going to go mad until the screams ceased and were replaced by a single voice all too familiar to him. Tentatively gazing up, the trees in front of him swirled together to form a gigantic shadowy figure with piercing blue eyes that gazed straight into his soul. A crooked smile crossed its face, a laugh forming from its /"Ohh, I haven't had that much fun in a while, Pines! I must thank you for the use of your body. Your partner sure can take a beating," it smiled with glee, nearly laughing /Ford took a few steps back, glaring at the thing. "Squalor. What more do you want from me?" Ford shouted, his voice hoarse as he strained his vocal /"Oh, nothing really. There's no need to shout. You're asleep right now, so what do you think of my dimension? Pretty shitty, right? All it is is blood skies and ground and globular forests all around. Your dimension is so colorful and doesn't reek of blood and gore. That's why I like it much better and possess humans to be able to taste and smell it. Beating the shit out of lil Fiddleford gave me sensations I haven't felt in ages. And oh, seems that you're waking up. Good luck sorting out the mess I put you in," Squalor's voice had a razor edge to it that cut deep into Ford's brain. While it continued to point and laugh, Ford rolled around in the blood and gore ridden ground, doubled over in pain with each word it spoke. The horror dimension warped and fell apart around him as his mind waked and snapped him back into /Ford sat bolt upright, sweat dripping down his chin. He immediately cried out in pain as his muscles protested in a multitude of stings and piercing pain from the lacerations. He sunk back down gasping. Opening his eyes, he found that both his wrists were handcuffed to the hospital /"What the.." he breathed, trying to struggle against the /Adrenaline from the all too real nightmare still coursed through him. All he was thinking was finding Fiddleford to make sure he was okay or at least still alive. He forcibly pushed those thoughts out of his mind. "No, he is alive. He has to be." The door opening caused him to cease struggling. He whispered a silent, "Shit," as the assistant director entered the /"Well, Agent Pines. Looks like we got ourselves a situation," he sounded almost too calm as he sat down beside Ford's /"A.D.! I didn't do that to McGucket. You have to believe me! It's because of what's going on in this town. It's all in the X File. I know this is going to make me sound crazy, but along with the slender man, there's this other entity, and it possessed me," Ford's speech was gradually becoming more and more incoherent as he blabbered on about all that had /"Pines," was all he had to say to silence /"I want to believe you, but you know that's not going to fly in a court of law."br /Ford clenched his fists in the cuffs, gazing down at his lap in /"But…I'm making this an FBI matter to keep the local law enforcement off your back. The only proof they have against you is your having McGucket's blood on you, but that could mean a lot of things. So, you're basically off the hook for now."br /Ford's eyes lit up as he looked up at the Assistant Director. "Sir, th-thank you!" Ford sniffled a /"Alright, no need to get sentimental on me, but the two of you still have to finish up this case. That'll be your end of the bargain."br /"Oh, McGucket! I-Is he alright? Last time I saw him, he was dying, bleeding out right next to me," Ford looked down in horror at his hands, which still had faint blood stains etched on /"He's out of ICU and stable now. From what I hear, they almost lost him but were able to stabilize him with an emergency blood transfusion," he looked over by the door and stood up, leaning in close to Ford. "You say something possessed you? And I wouldn't doubt it with the amount of damage McGucket took..inhuman in a way."br /Ford nodded. "And I had to watch the whole thing. That 'thing' had control over my limbs, and all I could do was watch. God, it was horrible," Ford couldn't even bury his face in his hand as he began to weep /The assistant director placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to keep the handcuffs on you for now as a formality. I'm going to check in on McGucket again."br /Ford nodded silently as tears dripped down onto his /Fiddleford cracked his eyes open, squinting at the bright sunlight. He groaned at the aches as he tried moving around. His face still felt a bit heavy and swollen, and he didn't even want to see what his torso and back looked like. He winced as he remembered the sting of the knife raking down his back, slicing right through his /"Ah, good, you're awake, McGucket."br /Fiddleford gasped as the assistant director entered the room, quietly closing the door behind him. "S-sir? What are you doin here" he tried to resist the urge to sit up, knowing he'd regret /"I just talked with Agent Pines. You were asleep when I went in here last, so I thought I'd check in on you later. And don't worry about Pines. I've got everything sorted out with the local law enforcement. You two will be finishing up the case when you feel up to it," he /"How' is Pines? Is he alright?" Fidds blurted /"Much better off than you. They might discharge him today. I'll make sure he gets to see you..I think he's pretty torn up about what happened. Probably blames himself for it."br /"No, no. It wasn't his fault at all. He was tricked and taken advantage of. Um, thank you, sir..for helping us with sorting out this mess," Fidds mumbled, his lips still feeling a bit numb. "So, how bad do I look?"br /"They have you all cleaned up, so not too bad. Your cheeks are a bit swollen, and you have a black eye along with a few stitches above your left eyebrow. I'm sure a lot of the damage is underneath your hospital gown," he grimaced saying that. "Well, I'll leave you to rest. There are still a few things I have to sort out. I had yours and Pines' stuff moved to this room," he gestured over by a few chairs where their duffles sat. "I'm guessing Pines will do his work here with you. Well, I wish you a speedy recovery, Agent McGucket," he waved at the agent before taking his /Once he left, Fidds couldn't help but think about Ford: was he having nightmares, does he really blame himself for this? They spun around in his head until he had to force himself to think about something else. "I need to focus on recovering," was the mantra he told /Just as the assistant director had said, Ford was discharged in the evening, glad to finally be free of the handcuffs. He rubbed at his wrists once they were removed. His stomach and thighs still felt stiff and at first, he had to walk at a slow pace or it felt like his skin was being roughly tugged at. The first thing he asked was where McGucket's room was and immediately made his way over there, refusing help when the nurses offered it. The one thought running through his mind was Fiddleford and nothing would deter him from reuniting with his /Ford nearly broke down by just seeing his partner alive and somewhat well. When he entered the room, Fiddleford was working on something on his laptop. A tiny gasp escaped his throat when he saw Ford standing /"Stanford! I-I'm so glad..you're okay," Fiddleford immediately began choking up, having to push his laptop away to keep the tears from dripping on it. Ford tentatively approached him and lightly took his hand, as if he was afraid he would accidentally hurt Fiddleford /"Why is your touch so timid, honey?" Fidds looked up at him, gently stroking Ford's hand with his /"I…I just don't want to hurt you. I'm..I'm so sorry, Fiddleford. I was weak and let that demon into my mind. Honest, I didn't mean to but.." Ford was sniffling, trying to hold back the tears, but it was no use. "I had to watch. I could only watch as he made my fists hit you over and over again. And the knife..oh god the knife…I.." Ford couldn't hold it back any longer. He knelt by Fidds' bed, sobbing violently as he still held onto his partner's hand. Fiddleford gave his hand a tiny squeeze, grinding his teeth as he forced himself to bend over a bit to run his fingers through Ford's hair. He pet Ford's head, letting him weep and sob until he couldn't anymore. Once his crying quieted, Ford looked back up at Fidds, eyes puffy and /"I must be the worst partner ever. You keep getting seriously hurt while I walk away with minor injuries. I'm sorry I always fuck everything up," Ford mumbled as he rested his head by Fidds' lap, letting Fidds continue to pet /"It's probably because of my rationalism and science. I'm always unaware of the supernatural, unlike you," Fiddleford replied in a soft /"You're wrong, you know," Ford said suddenly, their eyes meeting. "That's exactly what's saved us. Before I had you as a partner, I would jump straight into danger without a second thought. But..in a way, being with you has made me a better person. I owe you everything for that."br /"Stanford," Fiddleford tore his gaze away, not knowing what to /Ford stood up, cupping Fiddleford's cheek ever so gently. "And you owe me nothing." Ford tenderly kissed him on the forehead. "You don't owe me a single thing," he /Inside that hospital room, it was as if the whole world was still. No wind pushed around the shadowy trees outside. No one strolled beneath the streetlights. Everything was still in a frozen like state as the two of them held each other, just listening to their beating hearts and knowing that they were both alive…so very much alive./p
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