Tenta angrily slammed the Wii U gamepad on the couch in a fit of rage, snarling as the loss screen for Splatoon online matches displayed on the tv screen. He slapped his hands against his cheeks multiple times to get himself under control, dragging them down exaggeratedly in an overwhelmed manner and then glaring up at me with a harsh scowl. I wouldn't blame him, I was busy laughing at his misfortune despite his capabilities to body slam me at any moment.

"Judd is a lying, dirty bastard in this. Our team clearly won, he must've gotten a bribe from one of them. Even in an alternate world this game is still fucking rigged." He complained, picking up the gamepad again and flopping back against the couch, pouting like a child and kicking his feet as if having a mini tantrum.

It took him a while to get used to the controls, but he grew sour over how 'basic' the game was. Apparently, in his world, inklings would do all sorts of shit and use different tactics to get their opponents that were impossible to achieve in the game. Inklings could flip over one another, they could roll, they could even hang from poles that dangled out of bounds and do all sorts of trick shots. While in the game, all you really could do is just...run and shoot. Very pale in comparison.

The next match started up with the familiar beat of some drums, Walleye Warehouse making an appearance instead of Moray Towers, which was the other stage in rotation. The camera panned over the stage as the introductory music played, highlighting different areas and creating this urge in the both of us to go and destroy the look of cleanliness it had.

Tenta cocked his head at the sight of the stage and made a befuddled noise.

"Walleye Warehouse is bigger than that. Way bigger."

I gave him a look as I tried to fabricate what a 'bigger' Walleye Warehouse would appear like in my imagination, "...Really? How big is it?"

He gave a one shoulder shrug as he gripped the controller in his hands, preparing himself for the next match, "It's not that big compared to other stages, but it's bigger than whatever this downscaled copy is."

The match began, music blaring through the speakers to pump our bloods up. Inklings in the game darted off their spawn point and began inking like there was no tomorrow, the entire base being covered in seconds. Tenta was using the Splattershot Jr in the default, newbie clothes, but had already gotten to level 21. He wanted to keep going in the same lobby until he got sick of playing for the day for some reason, which resulted in us both being able to name everyone in the lobby based on their gear since they've been playing for a while too. Well, he was able to discern between each inkling, I had to squint to read their names since I was still as blind as a bat. It was quite a miracle that he hadn't been disconnected yet too. What if it was a part of that 'magic' that turned me into an inkling? I wouldn't be surprised.

I hummed as I idly tapped my feet against the ground to the beat of the song, "What if I actually got to play in a turf war? What weapon do you think I'd use?"

Tenta shrugged and tilted his head to the side in thought as he quickly moved his fingers on the controller, practically a pro already, "I dunno. Judging by the way you are right now, you'd probably be a charger. Chargers usually don't like to move that much and play defensive. You're a defensive kind of person. You're also a bit on the lazy side, which is perfect for a sniper."

"I'm not lazy."

"Just the other day you tried to get me to do your chores for you."

I sat upright and let out an offended scoff, "That's not true! I was trying to get you to bond with our pets more since you've been living here for so long!"

Tenta glanced at me, unimpressed. His gaze was cold and serious, very out of character for him.

After a few seconds of him staring at me with that unamused look, I sheepishly turned my head off to the side to avoid his gaze.

"Okay, yeah...trying to bribe you to clean Salt's litterbox was a bad idea."

He made a mock, disgusted gag as he recalled the incident, "How does a tiny, sweet and little kitten like her produce shit that's so rancid?"

"We took her to shitloads of vets because of that. One walked out and didn't come back, another almost quit her job."

"Did you try switching her diet?"

I slouched and let out a hard sigh, "Yeah. We changed it seven times. Bought all kinds of different kitten foods to fix the smell but nothing worked. Now we just try to get the best kind of litter to mask it altogether."

"Your litter is shit. Which is supposed to mask shit. Which it is absolutely shit at doing."

I threw my hands up in exasperation, "I know! I tried to tell Terrell but he won't hear me out! It sucks ass being on litterbox duty. I'm so scared of her litter becoming sentient and me having to beat it with bat like in those cartoons. That's how bad it is."

"Have you tried burning it?"

"I...What?" I asked, befuddled with the odd question that came out of nowhere.

"Burning. Have you tried it?"

"A statement like that coming from you makes me incredibly terrified."

He barked out a short, but genuine laugh. I continued, peering up at the screen as Tenta carefully navigated himself across the map, "Why would I burn a litterbox of all things?"

"Seems like a good idea."

"It's not."

"How would you know?" He asked in a fake snooty voice, "Have you ever burned a litterbox?"

"Have you?"

He paused, the inkling on screen halting in her footsteps as well, "...Yeah."

I did a double-take, staring at him incredulously with the vision of him lighting a match and dumping it into a box of cat shit crossing my mind. Then I came to the conclusion that he definitely seems like the kind of person that would do that and it was strange of me to have doubts.

"When? Last time I checked, there was only one cat in your world."

Tenta pursed his lips as he seemed to recall a story in his mind, "The sea slugs that we have as pets also use litterboxes. One time, I found some dumped litter in a trash can outside our apartment and-"

"I don't like where this is headed." I interrupted, struggling to keep the obviously mature frown on my face.

"Nonono trust me- it's good." He snickered before continuing, "I got the litter, right? And I put it into a little bag and set it on this one bitchy neighbor's front por-"

"Her front porch."

"Yes! Her front porch!"

"Why?"

"'Cuz!" He whined, his inkling dying via a random splattershot pro jumping in from behind him, "She wouldn't give me some of the bread I asked her for."

"Bread." I muttered in a voice of disbelief, "You burned her porch with a pile of shit. Over bread."

"Y...Y'know!" He stuttered, sounding uncertain, "The sweet kind! It's the expensive one that's higher on the shelves! I couldn't reach it as a kid!"

"Wouldn't the more expensive bread be at eye level so that you'd be more likely to b-"

"This is my story and I'm making myself the victim like I am."

"Bread. Tenta. You're making yourself the victim of a story. Over bread."

"...Yeah, bread."

"You burned shit on her porch-"

"For bread, yes. It was completely justified. I'm the one in the right here, I'm the one with the inkling brain. I'm the only witness available to come to this court so you have to use my allegations against that bitch. You absolutely cannot change my mind."

"..."

"What? Got something to say?"

"...Did you ever even get the b-"

"No."

"Oh my god."

"I got grounded by my mom and was forced to clean it off." Tenta bitterly sighed, slouching in his seat as the loss screen for Splatoon popped up on the tv.

We sat in silence as the inkling on screen had a quiet tantrum, slamming her weapon into the ground in a fit of rage as the results appeared next to her.

"...Was a load of shit if you asked me." He spoke up again, glancing at me with a shit-eating grin.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Geddit?"

"Go- Shut the fuck up." I rested my face into my hands, groaning softly, "Don't ever do standup or-or any sort of comedy career. That was awful."

"Hey! My humor is great! Not my fault you don't have a funnybone in you!"

"Inklings don't have bones, Tenta."

"Tha-That was...That was another j-"

"Alright!" I immediately decided to change the subject, jumping up from the couch and marching toward the stairs at a quick pace, Tenta's dumbassery starting to aggravate me. "Let's go upstairs and do something less-" I fumbled with my words, struggling to think of something to describe the tastelessness that had just transpired, "-you."

Tenta snickered and tilted his head back against the couch, gently tossing the gamepad onto the cushion beside him and staring at me with half lidded eyes full of mirth, "Okaaaay, teach me to read English. Learning another language is always kinda fun."

I raised my brow, "You like learning new languages? What can you speak?"

He shrugged his shoulders, absentmindedly rubbing his nose with a finger, "I don't really know any other languages besides Inktonian, I just found the foreign language classes to be neat."

"Did you actually learn anything in them, though? Remember anything?"

Tenta paused, looking up in thought and furrowing his brow as he searched through his mind. He tapped his finger to his chin, glancing off to the side and sticking his tongue out in a silly manner, narrowing his eyes as he thought even harder.

Finally, after almost a minute of thinking, he had one beautiful, amazing answer that would wow the scholars across the earth.

"Absolutely not."

"I-You-You really remember nothing?"

He shook his head with a bright smile, albeit with a bit of sheepishness, "Nothing. I slept for most of it and it went through one ear and out the other. It was the only class that the teacher wouldn't nag me into doing my work, though."

I snorted in amusement as he took my hand and slowly led me up the stairs for the upteenth time since I still could only handle them as well as a toddler with an ear infection, "You're a fucking disaster."

"Absolutely."

Children's books Alyssa and I used to read when we were young brats were scattered along the bed along with some broken pencils and scrap paper. We had been at it for a while, likely a couple of hours. I had managed to go over the alphabet numerous times with Tenta and was helping him memorize it. Laying on my stomach next to him, I pointed to the laminated sheet of paper with the entire alphabet printed onto it.

"What letter is that?" I quizzed him, pointing my finger to the letter 'E'.

Tenta hesitated, though I could tell the gears in his head were doing their best to turn. He stuck out his tongue in thought and idly tapped his pencil against the side of his head as if it would help him recall.

"...'F'?" He answered shyly, then sighed and shoved his face into the blankets in disappointment when he saw me shake my head.

"Nah, that's 'E'." I corrected him, then pointed to 'F' on the paper, "That one's 'F'."

Tenta let out a muffled groan, "Why did you guys make them look so similar to each other and right next to each other on the alphabet? It's fucking dumb!"

"Well, honestly there's no real reason why the alphabet is organized like it is. The song that goes with it is in that order, though. It should be helping you."

He raised his head and shot me a glare, "It doesn't and I hate it."

"I thought inklings had a whole rhythm thing going on?"

Tenta threw his pencil down and shrieked in heated anger, "That song is the biggest sack of bullshit! It stays in your mind for ages and it's not even good! I can remember the tune just fine, but the letters are scrambled messes that I want nothing to do with!"

I stared at him blankly.

He glared back at me, incredibly heated over something so small.

"...You have a really weird hatred for the alphabet song, huh?"

"'S bullshit is what it is." He muttered under his breath as he stared down at the devilish letters before him, "The alphabet can suck my dick."

"Aren't inklings smart? You don't have a big head for nothing."

He huffed and ignored the question, grabbing his pencil and placing it on the top of his lip, pursing his lips so that it'd stay balanced and imitate the appearance of a mustache.

"Look, I'm Cap'n Cuttlefish."

"You look absolutely nothing like him with that pencil on you."

Tenta pouted, crossing his arms sourly, "Liar. All I need are some glasses, a bamboozler, and the ability to make terrible raps."

"...Raps?"

He shrugged, taking the pencil off his lip and opting to chew on it idly instead, "He doesn't really do much other than stress over octarians, so he decided to take up rapping. He's not too good but he's getting kinda better at it."

Figuring Tenta was just messing with me, I shook my head and changed the subject, "Yeeeeah, okay." I pointed to the 'V' on the laminated paper, "What letter's that?"

Tenta furrowed his brow in intense thought as he looked down at the paper, chewing so hard on the pencil that I could hear crunching noises come from his mouth. He stayed like that for a few seconds, eyes narrowing with each passing moment.

"...'Y'?" He answered hesitantly, looking at me with an uncertain glance with half of the pencil sticking out of his mouth in a goofy fashion.

I shook my head, "Nah, that's 'V'," I pointed to 'Y' on the sheet, "This one is 'Y'."

"Fuck you."

"Why do you even wanna learn English in the first place?" I asked him promptly, feeling snappy from his not so polite response.

Tenta stopped chewing on the pencil and sighed, resting his head on a hand and fiddling with the bedsheet's fabric, "...I dunno how long I'm gonna be here, so I might as well start adjusting to this place as soon as I can in case I'm here for years."

An overwhelming silence quickly set in, bitterly reminding us both the fact that Tenta was stuck in a place that wasn't familiar to him in any way. He didn't know any of the languages on the planet, he hadn't seen his friends in weeks, and he had to stay hidden from public view to avoid any sort of harassment or even being kidnapped.

My ears twitched ever so slightly as I struggled to clear up the tense awkwardness, "Well-I'm sure you'll get home eventually. You got here, you should be able to get back."

Tenta grunted, going back to chewing on the pencil, "I hope you're right. Maybe if I get a way back, I could bring you along and show you around Inkopolis 'n stuff."

I nodded enthusiastically, trying to stay on the positive side of things, "That'd be rad as hell! It'd be cool to learn how to play turf wars and fight in actual battle! You should show me your place too, I could give you some redecorating tips so your room doesn't look so bland all the time."

Tenta glared up at me, still chewing on the pencil, "My room isn't that bland. I told you, I can't paint it."

"You can try and make excuses all you want but your room will always look like a dry piece of cracker."

I quickly stretched my arms and yawned, picking up my laptop that was on the floor charging next to my bed, "Anyway, wanna listen to some jams? I've got a wide selection of stuff. We can listen to regular human music, video game music, Splatoon music…"

Tenta clicked his tongue in contemplation, tapping the pencil to his chin, "Do you have any remixes of some Splatoon songs? Since my world is a video game in here, there's bound to be some remixes of some bands back at home."

A grin spread on my face as I browsed youtube, "Yes! Which one do you wanna hear, Squid Sister remixes, battle music remixes, Octarian remixes…?"

Tenta frowned and looked up at me with an unsure gaze, "Don't do Octarian, please."

I cocked my head to the side and stuck out my tongue as I struggled to find a good remix, "Alright, then. Hmm…'Show Me Dat Ink' by some dude named James Landino. How do you feel about that one?"

"You say those words as if I can understand them. What's that a remix of?"

"Maritime Memory, I think."

"Oh!" Tenta chirped, ears perking up just like his attitude, "Play it! I love that one."

"You love all of the Squid Sisters' songs." I muttered dryly, receiving a sheepish smile in return. Clicking the mousepad and adjusting the volume so that it was on maximum, the song began to fill my bedroom with sick beats. I've played this song many times in the past, the beats never failing to make me move to the rhythm.

Glancing at Tenta, I couldn't help voicing something that'd been brewing in my nerd brain for a while. "...If you can- once you're done learning how to read, can you teach me how to read Inktonian or whatever it's called? I wanna feel like I'm special by knowing how to read a 'fictional' language."

Tenta scoffed and shook his head, "It's not gonna be easy at all but I can try. Since you're an inkling now, you might be able to get it down in no time. I'll have to warn you, though, we have a shitload of characters in our written language and they're all separated into groups. Your alphabet is practically a spec on a dish plate while ours is a full course meal served with seconds and dessert."

"That's encouraging." I stated sarcastically, hopping down from the bed and picking up a random discarded children's book from the floor.

"I mean, I guess you were right when you said inklings have big heads. We learn fast, so you should be able to read sometime soon. Depends on you, really, it could take from a week to a month or so. Though, from hanging out with you so far and truly using my judgement, I'm going with from three months to five years."

"Glad to know you've got faith in me like a good friend." I murmured under my breath, "Did you memorize the alphabet yet? I can start helping you with pronunciation and all that."

Tenta bit the inside of his cheek, "Um, twenty-six letters in total, right?"

"Fifty-two if you count both uppercase and lowercase."

Tenta tilted his head back and let out a loud whine, squinting his eyes shut in irritation, "Ugghthhuhguhgh. Okay, let's keep going."

"Tenta-Tenta listen. I want you to sit right there, look me in the eye, and tell me what the absolute fuck was that noise that you just made with your mouth. What was that?"

It took Tenta the rest of the afternoon and into the evening to get the sounds of the letters right. We went over all of the letters and had a thirty minute argument over the pronunciation of the letter 'A', with both of our points admittedly uneducated and flawed. On the good side, he'd managed to memorize the whole alphabet and had most of the sounds of the letters down. He wanted to learn how to write his name in English, but it was getting late and I was tired. Plus, his handwriting was equivalent to a stereotypical doctor's.

I came into the room after recently showering, a disgruntled expression on my face since showering still was a dreadful chore. I was wearing a light blue shirt that used to belong to Terrell, and as you may have guessed it was way too big for me. Therefore, it was the perfect pajama wear. Well, almost perfect, it was a little awkward on my shoulders but it didn't matter much. Most of Tenta's pajamas didn't fit me anyway, so this was gonna have to do.

"Y'know, I've been wondering, Tenta."

The other inkling turned his head to me, a strawberry flavored lollipop he was gifted to from Terrell a little earlier shoved in his mouth as he was laying on my bed, watching childish alphabet learning videos on my laptop ironically to entertain himself, "Hmmm?"

I hopped onto the bed with minimal difficulty this time, laying next to Tenta and watching the odd videos with him, "We've called you 'Tenta' this whole time, since there was a language barrier and saying your real goddamn name was basically impossible, so I've been wondering...What's your name? Your actual name? Since I can understand the language 'n all now."

Tenta grunted and turned back to my laptop, popping the lollipop out of his mouth, "Before I answer that- did you really name me after 'Tentacle' in your language?"

"...Possibly."

He shook his head in a disappointed manner, but couldn't hide his mirthful grin, "You're an asshole."

"I mean, the equivalent for 'Spot' was one of my options as well. Knowing you now, I personally think that it's not too late for a name change."

"W-Spot?"

"Yeah!" I flashed him a bright smile, "Spot! The freshest name of all!"

"It's not fresh."

"Who's a good boy?" I teased him with a mockingly joyful voice that one would use on a dog, "Are you a good boy, Spot?"

He broke into a giggling fit, shoving me roughly with his hand, "Shut up."

"You wanna treat? Huh, Spottie? You want a treat?"

"Will!"

"Okay okay!" I cackled, grabbing a pillow and wrapping my arms around it, resting my head upon its top, "You already got a lollipop anyway."

We sat like that for a while, continuously watching different videos. They ended up quickly drifting from alphabet videos to gameplay videos, and then to cats. Again. Tenta couldn't get enough of the little furballs, he especially loved kittens. We had to wrestle over the laptop when a notification from one of my friends had popped up in the middle of a video and I had wanted to check it, and the asshole ended up winning thanks to my incredibly weak noodle arms. It sucked being a weak little inkling at times.

Knocking gently, Terrell suddenly opened my bedroom door and poked his head in, "Hey Will, Tenta. I'm leaving early in the morning tomorrow so I'm saying goodbye for now."

I narrowed my eyes, pausing the adorable cat video and sitting up from the bed, "...Already? You just got here, though. I thought you had two weeks off?"

My brother shrugged reluctantly, "Work's work, Will. Time goes by too fast when you're having a good time, I guess. I asked for an extension already and my time's up so I gotta head back tomorrow to keep everything in order."

I sighed, ears twitching gently as I hopped down from the bed and stepped up to him, "We didn't really get to do a whole lot together, though. I was kinda looking forward to it."

Terrell chucked, briefly glancing up at Tenta before resuming to look down at me, "Well, I had plans for us all to do things together almost every day once I got back but…" He gestured to Tenta and me. Right.

I nodded in understanding and folded my arms, sighing in disappointment, "Yeah, us turning into inklings threw a spear right through your plans, didn't it?"

He shrugged again, a regretful expression on his face, "We can't exactly bring you two to amusement parks or anything like what was planned. Things could happen. We'd very likely lose you both and would never get you back."

I clicked my tongue, the two of us falling into an awkward silence. We stayed like that for a couple seconds, unsure what to say next to each other. Was that it? We were just gonna say goodbye like that? I hadn't seen Terrell in so long and this is all I have to say?

Suddenly, a harsh thump sounded along with a sharp hiss of pain. Whirling around to see what happened, I got to take in the beautiful sight of Tenta laying face first on the carpet floor, his body awkwardly leaning against the side of the bed and his arms sprawled out in awkward positions.

Before I got to make a comment, he quickly got himself onto his knees and then onto his feet, perking up as if nothing happened. The funny part about it was that both of his tentacles had decided to come undone from the ponytail mid-fall and attach their suction cups to his cheeks, resulting in a pretty ridiculous sight.

Terrell shook his head in amusement, chuckling at the inkling's appearance, "Glad to see you're still chipper and odd as usual, Tenta."

Tenta's ears flickered, the inkling unable to understand Terrell but registering his name and the amused tone in his voice just fine. He flashed my brother a quick grin and a thumbs up, clearly still trying to pass off the last fifteen seconds.

Terrell snorted at the sight and then turned to me, "Well, give me a hug goodbye and you two can go back to watching those cat videos."

I looked back at my laptop, seeing that it hadn't, in fact, gone into auto sleep mode yet and was still on the paused youtube screen with a bunch of playful kittens mid-tackle. One had her little paw shoved inside her brother's mouth as they both seemed to be wrestling for a mouse toy. Tenta and I had yet to see how the brutal fight turned out.

I turned back to Terrell, "We've been watching them all day. Really, they're kinda thrilling. Kittens are pretty brutal and heartless."

"I bet they are. Just before coming in I could hear their battle cries as they slaughtered each other."

Chuckling at our shit humor, we both went in for a hug, my arms wrapping around my older brother tightly. It was slightly awkward, given I had a bigger head and bigger hands than what I was used to, but we made it work. It was the best hug I'd received in a while, in all honesty. It was warm, snug, and it actually kinda felt nice among all the dread brewing in my stomach over worrying about Terrell. He was the one who usually took charge in the house and kept us all cool, without him 'Lyss and I have a high risk of burning the place down at any moment.

"'M gonna miss you." I murmured quietly to him, tightening my hold around him as much as I could.

He patted my back reassuringly, then gently broke the hug, "I'll be back before you know it. It'll be a little long this time, but I'll try to bring back a souvenir or two to make up for it."

Terrell then turned to Tenta, an unsure expression on his face. They hadn't really interacted all that much all this time, Tenta would always stay somewhat close to me since I was the only one he could talk to. And I usually liked to linger in my room, having constant interactions with my family was a bit of a hassle at times and too much of a strain for me to keep up with.

Shrugging his shoulders, my brother swiftly bent down and hugged Tenta in the exact same way as he did me. Tenta had actually flinched at first, not expecting the hug, but quickly afterwards an expression of extreme bewilderment crossed his face. Then, he slowly relaxed, returning the embrace and nuzzling his face into the crook of my brother's neck with a soft hum. It was easy to tell that he was thoroughly enjoying it, which made me absent-mindedly wonder when the last time he'd gotten hugged like that.

Eventually, they both came apart as well. Tenta looked crestfallen when they split, reaching out his arms in a meek, begging manner when Terrell backed out, silently asking for another hug. That's all it took for Terrell to give him another one, playfully picking him up with gentle arms this time and swinging him around in circles like he had done to 'Lyss and I when we were younger (and lighter). The other inkling let out a yelp in surprise at first, but quickly dissolved into giggles of excitement once he realized what was going on. They kept at it for a couple more seconds, until Terrell eventually let him back onto the ground and ended the fun, much to Tenta's disappointment.

"I'm surprised you guys don't weigh that much," Terrell commented with amusement in his voice on his way out the door, "Tenta seems almost as light as an 11 year old."

Exchanging our goodbyes once more, Terrell eventually left the room and shut the door behind himself, on his way to his room to start packing for his trip.

We both sat there in silence, staring at the door in an odd way, as if expecting it to open back up. I could hear the jingling of Salt and Pepper's collars as they briefly passed by on the other side, likely up to some shenanigans that I'd have to clean up later.

"...Your dad's a really good hugger." Tenta spoke up after a couple moments, causing me to whip around and squawk at the statement.

"He's my brother!"

"What?! How?" He looked startled, eyes darting between me and the door, "He looks so much older than you. And...more emotionally and physically fit. With less carbs in his blood."

"First of all- fuck you. Second of all- he's around ten years older than us. That's why he's practically our dad."

Tenta narrowed his eyes with suspicious curiosity, blurting out the very question I had hoped he wouldn't dare tread upon.

"If he's 'practically' your dad, then what happened to your real one?"

I awkwardly glanced off to the side as soon as the first word left his mouth, unsure how to respond to such a question. I never really knew what happened to my parents, they had up and left at some point when we were all pretty young. Terrell refused to say what happened to them no matter how much we'd pry, so we eventually just gave up and came up with random theories.

I gave an uncertain shrug as my answer, avoiding eye contact with Tenta as I stepped back to my bed and climbed back upon it, quietly resuming the cat video.

"Wait-Shit. Fuck-Uh...Will-" I heard Tenta stutter before feeling him climbing onto the bed right behind me, crawling along the sheets until I could see him in my peripheral vision.

"Will, I'm so sorry." He apologized with a desperate tone, nudging me in the side, "I didn't mean to say tha-"

"It's fine." I accepted his apology in a flat, knowing that he really didn't mean to intrude. "I just...didn't really know much about him, y'know? Neither of my parents."

I didn't get a response at first, but eventually I could feel the bed shifting yet again. After a moment, I felt two arms wrap around me, Tenta burrowing his face into my back and refusing to budge.

"I'm sorry." He apologized again, voice muffled in my shirt, "It was an inconsiderate question and I didn't mean to hurt you like that."

He kept apologizing after that further and further, practically pouring his heart into every apology, sounding just like those dumb shakespeare characters. I had actually expected it to get a little redundant after a while but turns out, Tenta can be pretty crafty with his words. After a while, though, I just promptly turned around, grabbed his face with my hand, and comically shoved him onto his back and off of me. The startled squawk he let out made me struggle to hide my amusement, since it sounded between the mix of a drowning cat and a barking dog.

"Chill about it. It's fine, really." I eventually said to him, the inkling himself staring back up at me with a stunned stare, "You said sorry. I said it was fine. No need to go on like you're a poet singing to their long lost love or something."

Tenta evaded eye contact with me for a second, pulling himself back into a sitting position and looking down at the blankets he was sitting upon.

Eventually he sighed, slouching ever so slightly, "Yeah, okay. Got it. I jus-My dad never was around either. I feel like an asshole hypocrite because of that. I don't like it when people ask me about him and-" He made an odd and exaggerated hand motion, struggling to put his thoughts into words, "-here I go doing the same to you."

I snorted, "Well, at least we got one more thing in common. Hurray for us both having no proper father figure in our lives…?"

Tenta stared up at me with unimpressed eyes for a couple of seconds, until his soft frown turned into a dumb smile, "That's so sad, man."

I rolled my eyes and tried to change the topic, "Let's just keep watching dumb cat videos and eventually pass out at three a.m. with leftover pizza and empty soda cans surrounding us like in those movies."

"Do we even have money for pizza? Or any sort of orderable junk food?"

"Absolutely not."

"...Is there at least soda in the fridge?"

"The best we got is apple juice and cranberry juice."

"..."

"..."

Tenta and I were later half drunk on cranberry juice and sleep deprivation, making loud and exaggerated comments on the various 'Cat Fight Cat' videos on youtube while laying in my bed. We didn't know what time it was at that point and it didn't even matter. You know what mattered? Mittens the cat. She was the biggest badass in a five minute video we watched, flipping over her opponent Maxie and using the cupboards in the kitchen to her advantage. It had Tenta and I shrieking for her and practically shaking the laptop screen thanks to our incredible love for her.

"Dude. Listen. When I-" A hiccup interrupted his sentence, "-get...get home, I'm starting a petition to rename Judd to Mittens." He muttered, eyes firmly fixated on the screen where two random cats were duking it out. A dog was in the background and standing partially behind a couch while comically switching its gaze from one cat to the other, unsure which one to watch.

I yawned, too tired to properly cover my mouth, "I'd back that petition, even though Mittens is more of a girl cat's name."

"Doesn't matter, he'd have the name of a true warrior that went through the deadliest of battles."

"Hell yeah. True shit."

Tenta continued, lazily browsing the youtube results for another entertaining video to watch. (Newsflash, neither of the cats won that fight and the dog left eventually), "Judd's so...fluffy. And soft. The name Mittens wouldn't suit him, in all honesty. He's a judge, not a piece of clothing."

I nodded in agreement, "That's true, too. The name Judd suits him, whoever named him has great naming skills."

"Hmmmm." Tenta swirled his finger on the mousepad, making the mouse on screen spin around in circles, "If I got my own kitty, I'd name her Mittens. She'd be a warrior."

"I'm surprised you'd get your own cat, since Judd is sentient and all."

He shrugged, looking upwards towards the ceiling and clearly fantasizing about his 'dream' cat, "Your cat and Judd are completely different. Judd can talk and has opinions. Your cat is an idiot that gets herself trapped behind a fridge. She's adooorable. Plus, she can't talk and willingly lets herself be pet and hugged."

"Would you still love her if she had a litterbox like Salt's?"

Tenta glanced off to the side, face completely neutral. That's body language for 'I would toss her into a garbage truck immediately if I smelled one wiff of a dump like that'.

"Really man, really?"

He shook his head in a defensive manner, "Okay no! I was kidding! Swear on it!"

"Suuuure. Dump an innocent cat on the street because her shit smells bad. For shame, Tenta, for shame."

"No! I was kidding! I wouldn't care about her litterbox at all! Her personality's the selling point. If she likes me and likes my apartment, we're good."

"And if not?"

"That's not an option."

I started snickering, the sleep deprivation getting me into a bit of a giggly mood. Tenta started laughing too, shoving his face into the bedsheets to muffle it since it was getting a little loud. We were both tired, giggly teenagers at what may have been three in the morning. I personally was having the time of my life, it wasn't very often that I would be up late at night cackling over something so small, much less with someone to do it with. I was genuinely having fun, despite the only activities we've done in the past hour being drinking cranberry juice and watching cat videos.

Much to Tenta's chargin, I had to end the fun and shut the laptop since I was so tired that I lost track of time and was struggling to remember the difference between A.M. and P.M.

"Okay, let's pass out now." I murmured under my breath, burrowing myself into my sheets and pillows, "Tenta, turn out the light."

"Say please."

I sighed, shooting him a pleading gaze, "Please?"

"No."

"Okay. Thank you."

Tenta made a confused noise, "Will, I said n-"

"Thanks for volunteering, Tenta."

There was a pause, a gallon of dread filling my stomach as I knew that Tenta was plotting something. And before I knew it, I felt two hands roughly shove me right off the bed, mocking laughter coming from Tenta as I plunged to my doom. I cried out a startled shriek, using my giant hands to cushion my fall and landing a harsh impact. Unexpectedly, my wrist suddenly spiked up in pain, causing me to hiss in pain and clutch it with my other hand in hopes of soothing it.

"Fuck you too!" I barked out, huffing through my nose as the pain slowly ebbed away.

The laughter sharply cut off, Tenta peering over the side of the bed with a worried look. He was clutching a pillow in his arms, hugging it to his chest as if it were his childhood stuffed animal. I'd have smiled if I wasn't pissed at him.

"...Are you okay?" He asked, meekly hiding part of his face behind the pillow in an ashamed manner.

"No I am not, fuck you and thanks for asking." I snapped, suddenly angry for no reason. I mean sure, I had a right to be pissed, but it wasn't like me to continue to antagonize someone like this.

He shrunk back, averting his eyes and looking even guiltier than before, "I'm sorry. I'll-uh...I'll go and turn off the light."

"No…" I sighed, rolling onto my back and rubbing my eyes, "I'll do it, you stay there and keep being dumb. Wrap the blankets around yourself and all that."

Sighing again, I slowly stood up from the floor and stepped over to the light, lifting up a finger to turn it off. Giving a quick glance back at Tenta, I saw him in the process of wrapping all of the blankets around himself just like I told him, the other inkling shooting me a pitiful look when he caught me staring.

Rolling my eyes and wanting to lift the mood, I flicked out the lights and stepped back over to the bed with a plan in mind. I forcefully (and playfully) shoved Tenta out of my spot, the other inkling catching on immediately and letting out an exaggerated whine, kicking at my hands in an effort to resist. However, I had immediately planted my body right back where it was, snatching the blankets from around him and wrapping them around myself instead. Tenta put up a fight, however, tugging on the covers with a playful grin spreading on his face. I was the same way, a dash of competitiveness taking over my mind as we fought over the blankets with strong tugs.

Finally, after a minute or so of us playing a game of strengths, my fingers let the blankets slip from their grasp due to aching from exhaustion, plus I wanted to seem convincing when I let him win. Tenta laughed as he surrounded himself yet again with the blankets, boasting about his victory and rubbing a bunch of salty lemons in the wound. As he let himself melt in the blankets, I sighed and laid down, deciding not to be a sore loser and taking my defeat with sportsmanship. I would win the blankets next time.

...It was really cold, though.

In fact, it only got colder as the night went on. I was having a hard time getting to sleep thanks to the constant chills I was getting down my spine, goosebumps rising on my skin. It might've been four in the morning at that point, I easily lost track of time and I was so tired that I might've dozed once or twice, but I couldn't get myself to actually sleep. I was shivering and constantly shifting positions, desperately trying to find one that'd let me stay warm somehow.

"...Hey, Will?" I heard Tenta murmur, breaking the silence of the night.

"Hm?" I hummed, letting him know I was awake but trying to make it seem that I was woken up by him. He didn't need to know that I was cold.

"...Are you cold?" Shit.

I huffed through my nose, burrowing my face into my pillow to try and muffle the prideful tone in my voice, "No."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

He was quiet after that, clearly rolling with my answer and going back to sleep. I was going to do that too. Except, y'know, I was cold and in fact Couldn't sleep at all. Were inklings sensitive to cold or something? Geez, it felt like I was in the arctic.

After a minute or so, I heard Tenta shift beside me and suddenly some of the blankets were on top of me, Tenta reaching over and making sure I had enough to cover my body.

"The hell are you doing?" I asked with an accusatory tone, secretly thankful he'd given me the blankets after all this time.

He snickered, scooching himself slightly closer to me and checking one more time to see if I was properly covered, "You were awake this entire time, prideful bastard."

"I was not."

"Inklings don't do well when cold, covers are a must when the A/C is on full blast."

I rolled my eyes, "I was doing fine."

"Liar, you were freezing your butt off."

"I was mildly chilly."

"Just say thank you so we both can go to sleep and I can rub it in your face in the morning."

"...Thanks. Thank you." I muttered, tightening the blankets around myself and finally feeling myself beginning to fall asleep.

"Yeah. You're welcome." I heard Tenta yawn, "...It's-It's easy for us to get frostbite. You seem really sensitive to cold, so you could've gotten in deep shit if you were like that too much longer."

"Then why'd you wait so long to give me some of my blankets?"

"I…" I heard him laugh sheepishly, "I fell asleep before I could give you some."

"Wow."

"I'm sorry!"

"Wow."

"'S your fault anyway, you didn't ask for them in the first place." Tenta huffed, "Maybe you've been an inkling too long, deadly stubborness is a common trait of us."

"Oh."

We sat in an awkward silence, his words starting to bounce around inside our heads.

"...Maybe I have been an inkling too long." I mused, pulling the blanket up to my chin, "I'm not really the stubborn type. That goes to my sister."

"All inklings are stubborn in one way or another. Maybe that's starting to be brought up in you?"

I pondered the thought, pulling the blankets up to my chin, "...Possibly?"

I heard Tenta yawn yet again, "Let's sleep on it. And by sleep on it I mean let's just ditch the topic and pass out because...because...because I'm…"

...

A snore.

Struggling to hold in my laughter, I turned on my side and closed my eyes as I attempted to get myself to sleep. I couldn't help but worry about my predicament, though. What if I really was turning more into an inkling- personality wise? It may not have been much but I kinda liked myself being chill with stuff most of the time, stubbornness was my sister's specialty. I couldn't be a second Alyssa. That'd end the world. It'd be the worst natural disaster as of yet.

Choosing not to dwell on it too long, I let myself slowly succumb to sleep, nuzzling myself into one of my pillows and falling under into a peaceful rest.

She's coming.

I was running down a never-ending hallway that just kept stretching and stretching, going further every time I thought I'd reach the end. It was covered with a thick haze that was barely transparent, adding to the unsettling feeling in my gut about being in this...weird and dark hallway.

Spiders and ants and all sorts of bugs were crawling along the floor, scittering and scattering and following my footsteps . Then, they were crawling on my arms, digging themselves into my skin and trying to crawl closer to my head, my face. I didn't know how they got there and I didn't dare try to comprehend it, but I was desperately shaking them off as I kept sprinting down the never-ending hallway. There was suddenly a light at the end of the tunnel. I was almost there, I could feel it.

Loud, twisted laughter that sounded incredibly unnatural pounded against my ears as I ran, reminding me every passing second that she was coming.

She was coming.

She was closer.

I could hear screaming from behind me. It sounded like Alyssa. I was all too familiar with that voice.

I wanted so badly to keep running to evade her so I could at least save myself, but to leave my sister to fend for herself against that thing would be a bastardly move even for me.

I whipped around and stopped in my tracks, panting heavily as I struggled to spot my little sister against the darkness of the narrowing tunnel.

She was being held up by her neck with a single tentacle made of a dirty haze, clawing at it desperately, her nails cracking and bleeding from the effort. Her mouth was open and gasping for air as she struggled to breathe and her choco-brown eyes were staring right at me with a glimmer of hope in them, begging me to help her in some way.

I reached out to her, stretching myself to my limit and jumping as high as I could, trying my damned best to get her down and out of wherever in hell we were. Yet, with every time I tried to jump to at least reach her legs, she always seemed just baaarely an inch out of reach.

Suddenly, the tentacle quickly morphed into an arm. It had happened in the blink of an eye, even though time was slowing down as things grew more serious.

As quickly as that one tentacle morphed into an arm, four more of them suddenly appeared, all of them individually wrapping around my sister's different limbs.

Alyssa started screaming once more with a rasp to her voice, struggling even harder against the one wrapped around her neck, her knees bending ever so slightly as she fought to kick at the ones holding her ankles.

The grips of the four arms grew tighter, forcing her still and gradually reducing the will to fight in my sister. I could only watch in horror as her struggling eventually faded into her sitting in dead silence, staring down at me with fearfulness, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes..

The arm wrapped around her right arm suddenly flashed and left me blinded. And with a snap, the arm was in its grasp, unattached to Alyssa and limp. I couldn't hear it, but I could clearly hear the dripping of her blood echoing as it puddled onto the cold ground, the sound also echoing throughout my mind.

I backed away as soon as I realized what was going to happen to the rest of her body, nausea piling up in my stomach and threatening to flow out my mouth.

I tried to close my eyes to not witness the event occurring, but I was forced to watch by some mysterious force as every single arm flashed one by one and separated Alyssa's limbs from her body, each snap much louder and more prominent than the one before.

Then, with one more snap as if it was no big deal, came off Alyssa's head.

I wanted to spew right then and there as I turned around to run, the image was so grotesque and its constant reappearance in my thoughts made me sick to my stomach. My hearts were pounding and my limbs were aching after running so much, but I kept going. She got my sister, and she would get me next if I didn't bail now.

I constantly tripped over myself as my sprint down the hallway continued. The light at the end was nowhere to be found, just showing more darkness.

There was a roar, and a dark and faceless figure materialized from the air around me. Her stringy, black hair blew everywhere in an imaginary wind as she came closer to me with a haze of dust whirling around her. We were only feet apart, staring at each other. One gaze filled with fear, the other with maliciousness.

A wide grin spread on her head, the mouth too big to be considered normal. It spread from ear to ear, teeth alike to a great white shark's. Within a millisecond, she held up Alyssa's head, holding it out to me and forcing me to watch the blood drip from her severed neck and onto the ground.

The head opened its mouth, a voice that would never fit Alyssa echoing throughout the hallway.

WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME...?

Screaming soon filled the room, and it took me a second to realize it was me.

I clambered out of the bed, feeling something wrapped around me and trying to force me still just like that same bitch as before. I fought against it wildly in a panic, my limbs flying everywhere as I fell off the bed and onto the floor with a harsh THUD. The image of her pounded through my thoughts as I fought off the arms grabbing at me and made the effort to charge out of the room with quick and desperate footsteps.

A loud BANG rang throughout the area as I slammed face-first into the door, the impact forcing me to a halt and the rebound making me fall right onto my back, giving me an over-the-top wakeup call.

As soon as I felt the impact against the ground, I could hear Tenta cry out a startled squawk as he quickly fell out of the bed as well, clearly having woken up thanks to whatever the hell just happened. Then there was a small pause in what I assumed to be him standing up from the floor and then looking back at the bed, wondering where I went.

AAAND cue.

"...Will?"

There it was.

After some shuffling here and there, I eventually could spot Tenta standing above me in the darkness, gazing down at me with a concerned glint in his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Try as I might, I couldn't respond. The words weren't properly forming and my brain was just going through a million things at once. It was chaotic in there despite the silence on the outside.

Turning his attention to something else, Tenta stepped out of my field of vision for a moment and leaving me wondering why until the lights were flickered on. As quickly as that happened he came back into my sight again, looking down at me and the concern only growing.

"Your nose is bleeding, Will." He murmured as he reached down and took my hand, pulling me into an upright sitting position. "What'd you do? It looks banged up pretty bad."

Still unable to respond, I hesitantly touched two fingers to my upper lip and pulled them away, looking down to see little splotches of purple blood running down both of them and into my palm.

Oh.

"Your sister can patch up stuff, right? I can go and get her, if you want." Tenta offered, sitting down in front of me, eyes clearly focused on my nose.

I stared blankly back, my brain a tornado at that point and struggling to comprehend anything that was going on at the moment. It was chaos up in there I tell you, like that one scene in spongebob with the fine dining and breathing stuff.

And then all those spongebobs in my mind hit a door face-first too. Everything went from zero to a hundred fast. I just broke my nose after having what was probably the worst nightmare in my life.

I could feel my breath hitch as images from my dream appeared back in my mind, all of them seeming so real and genuine. I could still hear her laughter echoing in my mind, taunting me and almost assuring me that she'd be back when I least expected it. That terrified me.

A sudden heat bloomed in my face, a familiar and dreadful feeling starting to prick at the corners of my eyes.

Shit.

Shitshitshit.

Nonononononononononononono.

No.

C'mon, Will. You're better than this. You're stronger than this. You really can't be doing this right now, it's not the time and place and frankly it'll be really embarrassing. Really? In front of Tenta? In the middle of the night? You're not two, you're fifteen and mature enough to handle this in a more proper manner. There's no time for this.

No matter how much I tried to reason with myself and get the feeling to go away, I couldn't. I couldn't stop the tears brimming at the corners of my eyes, I couldn't stop the soft sobbing that forced its way out of my throat, I couldn't stop the fact that Terrell was gone, I couldn't stop the fact that the throbbing in my nose was really starting to sting, and I especially couldn't stop the realization that oh my god I'm an inkling and I could possibly be stuck like this for the rest of my life and I'd be forced to live indoors with no outside human contact forever.

This was really happening. I was stuck like this. Things were going to shit right now and they were only getting worse. Everything sucks. Everything SUCKS!

Time was moving by so fast that everything was a blur at this point. I could barely see and I could barely breathe through my crying, I couldn't register anything at all. The brick wall of Reality hit me full force. Where was my future headed? Where was Tenta's future headed? What the FUCK was up with that godawful nightmare? I know reading it wasn't all that special but when you actually know what it looked and sounded like...it's jarring. It really is.

I know that Tenta and I've discussed that since he found his way here, he must be able to find his way back but...What if he can't? What if he's stuck here? What if I'm stuck like this? Everything seemed fine and dandy at first but time and time has only went on and nothing has happened and things are getting so frustrating and…

I could feel somebody rubbing my back as someone else gently patted a tissue against my nose, my senses finally starting to work again and letting me register what the hell was going on around me.

Oh, hey. Alyssa was here now.

Specifically, she was the one patting the tissue against my nose, a deep frown on her face as she concentrated on getting my blood somewhere other than the ground. Her glasses weren't even on her face, and they were usually the first things that she put on when waking up so obviously she headed here in a hurry. Somehow, that made me feel both better and worse.

On my right and in my peripheral vision I could see Tenta sitting next to me, shuffled as close to me as he possibly could be while rubbing my back affectionately. It honestly didn't do much for me but I greatly appreciated the sentiment.

"...Mmkay." My sister spoke up, holding the tissue to my nose while adjusting her position to be more relaxed and comfortable, "You okay now, Will?"

I held my hand up to the tissue, quietly offering to hold it myself so that she wouldn't have to hold up her arm for too long, "'M fine."

"You didn't sound fine." Alyssa muttered with confusion hidden in her tone, letting me hold the tissue myself, "Tenta almost banged the door down when he was trying to get me. I got scared as hell when I saw the look on his face, Will."

I snorted, recalling the nightmare and my sister's horrified face that I myself was frightened over, "Ironic."

"I...What?"

"Nothing." I shook my head, reaching up a hand to wipe away any remaining tears and the streaks that many had left behind on my cheeks. My face felt cold now. I was cold all over now. Hell yeah, hurray for cold nights while being up at five am crying your eyes out.

Alyssa sighed, reaching up to push the glasses that weren't there up to her face, "Listen. I don't know why you were suddenly crying with a bloody nose at five in the morning, but I've lived with you enough to get that it's probably something to be talked about later, isn't it?"

I paused as I hesitated to agree. On one end, I could talk about it and just get the tension off my shoulders just a tad. On the other end, it all was probably just something stupid and nothing to worry about and I'd probably get strange looks if I talked about it anyway.

Slowly nodding, I quietly dabbed at my nose and checked to make sure if anymore blood was coming out.

"Am I still bleeding…?" I asked quietly, tilting my head up so my sister could see my nostrils a little better.

She peered into them a little closer and then shook her head, shrugging one shoulder, "Doesn't look like it, but you should still at least ice the bridge. It'll help the swelling and the pain."

"...Mmkay."

We all sat in silence, Tenta still rubbing my back but at a slower and more calming rhythm. It was nice now, I kinda was starting to dig it. It invoked a warm feeling in me that made me want to wrap blankets around myself and fall asleep to it. Except...I wasn't tired. Not after all of that, anyway.

"...Wanna watch Big Hero 6 in Terrell's room? His TV's the biggest and has the best speakers." My sister asked out of nowhere, slouching in a casual manner as she tried to ease the tension just a tad, "We can all like, have a top-tier sleepover in there. Chill and watch movies and order pizza or something. And forget everything that happened for later. Plus-his bed is really fucking comfy. Best mattress in the house."

"Do pizza places even deliver this early in the morning?"

"We'll keep calling until we get what we want. Loo-Don't look at me like that." She sighed, clearly imagining her personal wallet and how much money was in it at the moment, "Will it make you feel better if we tipped the dude 50% of the price to make up for it?"

I gave a passing glance at Tenta, who was looking off into space and clearly not paying attention to our conversation whatsoever. Not that he could, he didn't understand a lick of what we were saying at all.

"You wanna eat pizza while watching a movie you won't understand at all on an extremely comfortable bed?" I asked him, pulling him back into the world of the living.

It took him a second to comprehend my question, "Will the pizza have anchovies?"

"No. Why would you even suggest that as a topping? Why is that the first and only question you ask?"

"Listen, Will." He whispered in a completely serious tone, grasping my shoulders with his hands, "You aren't a true inkling until you can enjoy anchovies on pizza. Every inkling likes it. Every. Inkling."

"The hell are you two talking about?" My sister cut into the conversation, butting in like she usually did.

"Nothing. Order a large pizza with half cheese and half pepperoni."

"Anchoviiiiies."

I sighed, gently pinching the bridge of my nose and squinting my eyes shut, "And ask them to put anchovies on one of the slices."

Alyssa snorted in amusement, glancing between Tenta and I as she made the connections without having to ask any questions, "Want me to ask them to put some jellyfish too?"

I shook my head, "The smell of the anchovies will be overwhelming enough as it is, no need to add anything else that'll make me vomit."

Half an hour later in Terrell's room, we all were laying on his bed while sharing a multitude of blankets and pillows, scarfing down the pizza that 'Lyss had ordered like there was no tomorrow. The lights were out and the only thing illuminating us was the big TV that sat from across the bed, playing Big Hero 6 on Netflix with added subtitles since...I'm not sure. Why did we have subtitles on? They were in English too and Tenta can't even use them since he doesn't know any of this world's languages.

Instead of choosing to speak up about it, I just instead sat quietly and iced my nose with a bag of frozen vegetables as I enjoyed the pizza while sitting in between my sister and Tenta. Speaking of him, he couldn't understand a word of what any of the characters were saying but he clearly was very invested in the movie, only asking very relevant questions here and there like "What are they doing now?" and "Where are they?" It was kind of adorable, in all honesty, the way his eyes were fixated firmly on the screen and rarely moving elsewhere, even when he went to grab another slice of pizza.

Also.

Anchovies on pizza actually was really good.

Tenta let me have a bite of his slice and I fell in love instantly. I almost ate it all until he had to wrestle the slice out of my mouth to get me to let go of it. I regretted telling 'Lyss to buy only one slice of this stuff, it was the shit. I genuinely craved more. Why wasn't anchovy pizza more popular? What the fuck?

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you guys?

As time went on and on and the movie progressed, I could feel myself starting to get pretty tired. The dull lights of dawn were starting to peak in through the windows, letting us all know that it was getting reaaaally late. We all needed to sleep pretty bad. Like, seriously bad. Tenta was constantly nodding off at this poi-nevermind. He just plopped face-first into a pillow and started snoring immediately. He must've been really exhausted, then again we both had only gotten around an hour of sleep so far anyway.

Looking to my left, I could see Alyssa slowly succumbing to the same face, the remote in her hand slowly slipping out of her grasp as her eyes drooped and eventually fell shut, face partially buried in a mixture of blankets and a pillow. She didn't snore as loud as Tenta did but it definitely was noticeable and aggrivating to hear against the quiet of the night. She'd seen Big Hero 6 a billion times at this point anyway, so naturally she must've gotten tired of it and passed out bored out of her mind.

Thus, there was one.

Gently taking the remote out of Alyssa's hand, I quietly shut off the TV and let the darkness of the room take over, the only light now being the ever-rising dawn outside the window. Pulling the blankets up to my chin, I quickly shifted positions to let myself get more comfortable and did my best to tune out the snores of my sister and Tenta as I struggled to fall back asleep.

Admittedly, I had some worries about the nightmare recurring but as I sat there inbetween my sibling and friend, I realized that the nightmare definitely wasn't going to return anytime soon.

Plus, I had the blessing of anchovy pizza in my stomach. You can't have nightmares with that delicious slice of goodness inside of you. You just can't.

Please.

Try it.

I beg of you.

Listen, I know it's not the best thing in the world but I had to shit out something. SO here it is, a giant fuckfeset of a it, hate it, go nuts. I personally am not a fan of it but it's to move the story forward and I don't really know what much else I can do with it. I'm my own proofreader so this is as good as it's gonna get. Sorry for all the horizontal breaks, I have a weird thing for timeskips and I really gotta work on toning it down. Also, sorry for not sounding so prideful right now, I'm just a little anxious LMAO

I'm personally worried that I've fallen kind of out of touch with humor over these years. I'm a senior in high school now and I'm much more different than I was when I first began this story. I feel as though where I've risen with great grammar and spelling, I've fallen intensely in the humor department that really is supposed to make this story. Be honest with me, did the jokes in this chapter make you laugh, or were you surprised to see me call them 'jokes' in the first place?

I want to satisfy my readers and tell this story in the most captivating way possible, but I worry that I may have lost that significant 'touch' or whatever I had when I was like 14 when I first began this story. I worry that it's dry humor and pretty tasteless now. I mean, I sorta got a chuckle out of writing this chapter during the not-so-serious parts, but is it really funny?

I can't really stress over it too much. Even if this story becomes tasteless and boring as it goes on, I'll keep going because I crave for this tale to be finished.

But either way...

Have you guys noticed Will's slow transformation?

P.S.

I'm trying to throw in some foreshadowing like a good author. Am I doing it right?