Metallic noises coming from the kitchen in the apartment woke up a lavender-haired man. He'd been asleep for a while and was feeling pretty groggy, turning over while trying to figure out who could be up this late.

Violaceous eyes met the red numbers on a digital clock. 3:15. Who would be awake at 3:15 in the morning?

Garry sat up, rubbing his eyes. He had been keeping Ib this week since her parents were busy with work, but she had been asleep when he went to bed, and she slept like a brick. He got up and peeked out the door.

This turned out to be a bad idea.

He expected to see a small, brunette girl, maybe a cat that somehow got into the apartment (it wouldn't be the first time). Instead, he saw a tall, dark-haired man in a hoodie standing in his kitchen, whispering (from what he could tell) to a smaller blonde haired girl. As if that wasn't startling enough, the fact the taller of the two was carrying a massive scythe covered in something burgundy.

Oh god, he was going to die.

Garry quickly grabbed his coat, slipping it on in case he had to make a run for it, it was freezing outside this time of year. He considered jumping out the window, but quickly realized that wasn't a good idea, given that he lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment building. Instead, he dove under the bed and hid there.

He had nothing to defend himself with. He never really thought of keeping anything like a baseball bat or a knife in his room, figuring he wouldn't need it.

Note to self, buy a switchblade.

The only thing he had was a lighter, which he always kept in his coat pocket. He really needed to take it out, he didn't need it often anymore, but it was better than nothing.

Garry decided to brace himself for the worst…

The taller, dark-haired man was looking through some items on a bookshelf in the living room, not sure what he was looking for. So far he only had found a few figurines, nothing really valuable, and no actual money.

"Find anything?" chirped his blonde-haired partner. She was looking through cabinets in the kitchen, stuffing food that would keep for a while into an old, worn bag.

"Nothing. Whoever lives here's got a lot of useless shit." What wasn't a knick-knack on the shelf were books, which were useless to him since he couldn't actually read.

"They have to have something. check one of the bedrooms, I'll keep packing food." the younger of the two half-whispered as she shoved another can of soup into the bag.

The heavily bandaged man simply wove his hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, I'll check..." he started to enter one of the rooms.

"Oh, and Zack?"

he stopped and looked at his partner again. "What?"

"Don't kill anyone this time. If you did, the police might find out we're in the area."

"You're no fun."

Ray gave him the side-eye, her azure eyes cold as usual. Sometimes, it really creeped him out. this was one of those times. "Okay, okay, I won't kill anyone!" usually he'd yell, but that wasn't a good idea right now, and he was at least smart enough to know that.

Zack stepped into what he assumed was the bedroom. The room itself was mostly blue and purple, vases of flowers and other plants around the room. Silk curtains hung around the window, and there was yet another bookshelf against a wall.

Whoever lived here was probably the most... er, flowery person he'd ever seen.

He started going through the room, checking the closet first. I mean, people keep important shit in the closet, right? There was nothing there though, other than clothes that probably wouldn't fit him. Useless.

Next, he checked the nightstand drawer, at least finding a wallet. looking inside, he found an ID. Though all that told him was the guy who lived here had weird, purple hair. he just shoved it and a gold-looking watch into his pocket, then continued.

The only place left to check was under the bed, he wasn't gonna check YET ANOTHER bookshelf. he lifted up the skirting on the bed and...

There was the guy in the picture. He looked mortified, wearing a dumb-looking ripped up trenchcoat, at first completely still but now shaking violently.

Oh boy.

Garry wasn't sure what to do. He was now staring down the guy who just broke into his house and also had a scythe and oh my god he was going to die.

He couldn't stop shaking, trying to get his body to move backwards and try to make a run for it. eventually, his body listened to him, and he scrambled backwards to the other side of the bed. The intruder saw that coming though, practically jumping over the bed without hesitation, almost right behind Garry. After letting out a slightly embarrassing high-pitched squeak, he swung the door open and ran out into his living room, somehow managing to run legs first into a chair and fall across it to the other side.

Now, he couldn't see what was happening, but he definitely heard the sound of a plywood door being violently sliced through. oh no. Garry quickly scrambled up, or at least attempted to, but suddenly found himself staring down a sharp, dark red-stained blade.

Somehow, his heart both stopped and ran way too fast at the same time.

This could have definitely gone better.

Zack held the blade steady toward the strange man, unnaturally purple hair reflecting the same moonlight that now made the scythe he was holding against his neck look like it was glowing.

Ray had TOLD him not to kill anyone, but right now he didn't have a choice, if this guy got away he'd tell the police. That couldn't happen.

Getting a better look at him, he looked like he had just gotten out of bed, other than the tattered old coat that was now resting on his forearms from his running. he looked terrified.

Zack wasn't gonna complain about someone being scared of him. if anything that made it better.

He swung the oversized blade back, preparing to strike-

"Zack, what are you doing?"

Looking behind him, he found his partner in crime, Ray, looking at him disappointingly.

"Well-"

"I just told you, don't kill anyone, we'd be more likely to get caught if we did."

"But he saw me!" zack didn't understand why she was so upset with him. he couldn't just... leave a witness, right?

"I don't care. Put the scythe down."

reluctantly, he did. He was pretty sure, looking back at the weird, purple-haired guy, that he hadn't taken a breath since he held the blade over him. he was shaking like a leaf.

Way to ruin the fun.

"Look, we won't be back as long as you don't tell the cops, got it?" at least, he wasn't planning on coming back. this guy had absolutely jack shit to steal.

He just nodded, probably scared what would happen if he said no.

"Okay, good. come on Ray, let's just go." he started heading toward the window where they had entered from.

"But we haven't checked that last room-"

With that, Zack just picked her up and jumped out.

...What the hell just happened?

First off, that was a literal child, right? She didn't look much older than 12, 13 maybe 14. Why was she with... Whoever that was? He remembered her calling him "zack", was that his name?

And lastly, HOW DID THEY GET IN?

He assumed the window, but that wasn't really possible, since he lived on the 3rd floor, yet he just jumped out like it was nothing!

Garry held his head. This and the lack of sleep was making his head hurt. He decided to look into it a bit more tomorrow.

With that, he closed (and locked) the window, headed back to his bedroom, tossed his coat to the floor and fell into bed, trying his best to fall asleep.