"Darling, I'm home," Vincent said with sarcastic bravado as he walked through the door of the small cabin. He was met with silence. Possibly because Diederich had actually done good on his promise to make him tea, and a sandwich, but then had apparently gone back to sleep right after doing this. He slept like a kitten on the bed, though this time he had at least taken his shoes off. The tea and sandwich were sitting on the small table, the tea wasn't awful but really, how difficult was it really to heat up water and pour it over tea leaves. Vincent took the sandwich and the tea and sat on the bed next to his sleeping companion, with Diederich's back facing him. It would be nice to enjoy lunch with some company, even if that company slept like a rock and did so far too often for his own good. Clearly he had not drunk enough for his vile rabbit's blood energy drink the night before.

"You know honeycakes, I'd never kick you out of bed for getting crumbs on the pillow," Vincent told his sleeping body with a mouth full of sandwich. He liked this conversation. Vincent rested the tea cup on Diederich's shoulder as he ate the sandwich and drank the tea in bed like some kind of uncultured animal. Which despite his proper english upbringing, he totally was. When Vincent was finished with his lunch and quite ready for a nap, he wanted to continue being a creep, because thats just totally what he does. So he spooned Diederich as thought he was Vincent's lover and Vincent was gently cradling him off to sleepytime land.

"I've been awake and ignoring your idiotic advances," Diederich informed him. Vincent did not move from his position. He stead stroked his neck lovingly as though he was petting a baby kitten. Except he was actually petting a grown man and this was seriously, and probably intentionally, very, very creepy and total violation of anything Diederich considered to be his personal space.

"Vincent, I am really uncomfortable right now."

"Ssshh... accept it."

"I hate you," Diederich said, but he didn't move from his spot, if only because there wasn't any other place to go.

After their awful nap, the awful nap in which, as Diederich complained, he got no sleep due to the sheer trauma of having Vincent's sleeping body touching him, it was time to head back into the woods. Where hopefully, Vincent would be the least creepy of men wandering around. It was still in the decent day light hours, they could spend a lot of time searching for the culprit in the woods before they had to worry about it being dark outside. They armed themselves with revolvers and hunting knives in their jacket pockets before setting off. There was a small unmarked walking path which went back far in the woods. They followed down it. It was really wasn't that unusual for a walk in the woods, there were trees rustling, birds chirping, it was actually a very dull way to pass the time. Vincent really couldn't understand the type of people who would pay guides thousands of pounds just to look at nature. Oh wow, look at that tree, as though theres not already about ten thousand other trees around here that look exactly like it. So fascinating. Nature, in all of it's supposed 'glory' and actual lack of glory, was the reason why modern man invented things like plays, and writing, and music. So they'd have something to do, because just walking around out here, looking for some douchebag on stilts? Not at all attention grabbing. Vincent would rather play grab ass with his fine assistant (or should he say ass-isstant), but he figured that it was too soon to try something with him again.

They heard rustling sounds in the bushes and turned around to face the sound. Vincent and Diederich pulled out their guns immediately and pointed it at the human like figure. They did not move, not even in surprise that a gun was being locked on them as though they were a target. They shook with fright. Vincent and Diederich stepped closer to them, the person trembled and staggered forward, limbs moving awkwardly, arms twitching in odd ways as though they were broken. He did not lift his head but from the red hair he had, it was probably one of Aileen's boys, and it was probably the one they saw freaking out earlier this morning. He made these guttural, scratching growling sounds with his throat like he was trying to talk but had screamed his throat raw and could not make intelligible sounds. The redheaded boy, the insomniac one, was wandering around in nothing but his pants, no shoes or shirt. He was covered with scratches and bruises all over his body which had not been there before. Vincent and Diederich put their guns away and approached him.

"What are you doing?" Vincent asked.

The boy didn't look up at him, only tried making these pathetic noises. Vincent grabbed him by his bruised and naked shoulder and Diederich took him by the arm. He did not fight back, nor did he comply. He was not 'inside' enough in his own mind to probably even know where he was at that moment. They wrangled him on his stumbling, battered legs and headed back down the trail towards the farmhouse. He wasp robably getting banged up by the stray roots, because he could not keep up with the pace. He was moving but he was comatose, he was useless to walk on his own. Blood was caked to the soles of his abused feet, because he'd been walking around through something sharp without shoes on and wasn't observant enough of his body to stop. It took awhile to reach the house, but they had gotten him back without any bit of a fight. Vincent knocked on the back door of the small farm house while Diederich held the boy up. He did not try to get away. Aileen opened the door and took a look at her son, her face grim and shocked.

"Get in here quick," she said, quickly taking her son from Diederich. She picked up the boy with her bare hand and set him on the shabby couch. He made a growling begging sound.

"Where have you been?" his mother said. Her voice broke as she spoke; she was nearly in tears at the sight of her son so damaged and hurt. She cradled him gently in her arms as he made these sobbing noises.

"He's going to kill us," he whispered in her ears.

"Nobody is going to kill us," Aileen assured him. He shook his head and tried to get up, but she held him down.

"Rest," she said.

"He'll kill me in my sleep," he whispered and sobbed. Aileen shooshed him and when he was good and still she went to get a wet cloth. Vincent and Diederich observed quietly as she washed the blood and dirt and grime off his wounds. She went through many rags with a sober expression on her face, as she willed herself past the shock of seeing her child so damaged and got to work getting him better. The scratches on his body seemed to be self inflicted from running through the brambles. Whatever he was running from, it probably would have done more damage to him than this.

"Are you both alright?" Vincent asked.

"Yes," Aileen said, nodding, "I think he'll be fine." She said but the tone of her voice made it seem as though she didn't believe the words she was saying.

"I think we are going to head back into the woods and try to find more evidence," Vincent told her.

"Perhaps I should stay behind to make sure that they aren't harmed," Diederich suggested.

"No need for that," Aileen told him. She pointed to a row of hunting rifles she had set up just beside the door. She would definitely not need any saving from either of them, and Diederich's poorly attempted excuse to not go back into the spooky woods was obliterated.

Vincent and Diederich trekked back to the cabin from the house. They did not speak about what they just saw, or what this could possibly mean. Clearly, the boy had gotten spooked in the forest by some jackass in a costume. People start hallucinating after a few days without sleep. He was probably too scared to bother remembering to eat or drink. People tend to hallucinate with the combination overwork, stress, dehydration and lack of food. The nightmarish hallucinations combined with that fucker on the stilts made for a very, very convincing woods monster to run away from. He wasn't thinking clearly, at least not clearly enough to understand that pain meant stop, or to keep his clothes from being torn up by stray branches. If someone was trying to scare the boy shirtless, they had done a brilliant job of it. Diederich seemed lost in thought, staring at the afternoon scenery. Vincent pinched him on the back of the neck, making him jump with fright. Vincent laughed at his obvious fear.

"You're not funny," Diederich told him as they entered the cabin.

"I am hilarious," Vincent said. Diedrich sighed and rolled eyes in obvious contempt. He picked up two lanterns, and handed one to Vincent. Vincent reached into his supplies and grabbed a second gun, you know, just in case. The enemy could never have too many bullet wounds.

"Well, our last excursion was certainly disturbing, let's go back to the forest, shall we?" Vincent said, a cheerful smile on his face that was most certainly a lie. It was late afternoon and they had wasted most of their day light exploration hours finding the insane boy and dragging him back to the farmhouse. Even though it was not to their advantage to do the rest of the investigation at night, the sun would be setting soon and there was no other options to be had. Yes, they could hang about and wait until sun rise shed a little light in their investigation, but Vincent also was hoping that they would be gone by morning. There is a certain pushyness in just wanted to be away from this awful gray town, the house infested by madness, the flock of sheeps that were just innocent prey.

When are they going to get together? Idk anonymous fangirl, but I do feel proud of myself for tricking people into reading a story with a plot in it for change. I feel like a mother who sneaks carrots into her little bastards smoothie.