At first I thought Toby was going to stab me with the sharp metal but he just walked right up to me keeping his hatchet at his side.
He knelt down and took out two of the thicker ties that were black in colour. He slid one tie end through the others buckle to extend it and once he was sure it was secure he fastened the other end around the other side of my neck. Essentially he had collared me.
Toby then grabbed a medium sized length of rope and knotted it around the makeshift collar.
"Well it's official." He started, "y... You broke Jeff's ankle. We're going to have to ask our Master to heal it, and since N...no..." He paused seeming to mentally kick himself.
"No one can carry you due to Jeff. You're walking with us."
I nodded reluctantly.
He picked up his hatchet and snapped the tie around my wrist with the sharp edge. He then grabbed my wrists quickly and hooked another tie around them before I could do anything.
He snapped the other ties around my legs and stood up giving the rope around my neck a small tug to tell me to stand up; which I did.
Toby slid his hatchet back into the loop on his belt and picked up his goggles, slipping them onto his head before exiting the room with me in tow.
Jeff growled at me as we entered what looked to be a kitchen.
"Let's go." Said Masky noticing that Toby had me secure.
Like before Masky and Hoodie slid under both of Jeff's shoulders and helped him stand.
We set off into the forest. I noticed that they had taken me to a sort of bungalow, shack thing. After a short while we came to a very large building that looked like a mansion.
Hoodie left Jeff's weight to Masky as he opened the door and stepped inside. Masky and Jeff hobbled inside and down a hallway.
"Take him somewhere else, we'll talk to Master." Hoodie said to Toby before he shot off to help Masky with Jeff.
Toby tugged on the rope a little and lead me up the stairs to what looked like a bedroom.
All over the walls were newspaper clippings of different events as well as photos of people with crossed out faces and photos of just Toby with people who I guessed were his friends.
"This used to be my room," he stated closing the door behind us, "kind of still is I guess."
Toby walked over to the bed in the corner slipped off his shoes and did a backwards jump onto it snuggling into the covers.
"So how'd Timothy and Brian get you?" Toby rolled over to face me. He wasn't twitching as much now; I guess that was because he was relaxed.
"Who? Timothy and Brian?"
"Masky and Hoodie." He explained, "That's who they were before this."
Oh. I slid down the wall into a crouch to get more comfortable, Toby didn't seem to mind. "Well, I got up because I couldn't sleep. Then I heard a noise, like a tapping I guess and went to see what it was. Masky tackled me and Hoodie helped restrain me. Then... Err... Chloroform." I finished awkwardly.
Toby nodded.
"Year they both make a really good team. They finish tasks really quickly and without any flaws. I kind of don't fit into that category." Toby said.
"How come?" I pushed.
He laughed a little, twitching slightly before replying.
"Me? I make a lot of mistakes. I make too much noise. I take too long doing tasks. Leave too much evidence..." He listed off these things on his fingers, "like everything I d...do isn't g...good enough f...o...for a proxy."
"What's a proxy?" I asked.
"In this case it's like an apprentice. I work for my m...aster to learn from him." He replied.
"Who's your...master?" I felt a little awkward asking all these questions but I really wanted to know more.
Toby looked at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Do you know any ghost stories from around here?" He asked and I nodded. "Then I'm sure you have heard of the slender man." My eyes widened.
"Y...your joking right?!" I spluttered. Toby mischievous glint changed I one of pride.
"Nope!" He said giggling.
A knock sounded on the door and Toby got up to answer it.
It was Hoodie.
"Master's asking for both of you." He said and trotted down the stairs again.
Toby grabbed the other end of the rope attached to me and led me down the stairs.
He led me right up to an old carved oak door and knocked twice before going in.
Sitting behind a desk was the no faced man of which I had heard stories about my whole life. He was surprisingly simple; Just a black suit and tie, nothing else.
He stood up to acknowledge Toby and me.
"Toby my Proxy, it is nice to see you again." His voice was slightly raspy. How was he talking without a mouth?
"Hello master." Toby greeted Slenderman like he was a parent.
"And you must be Malicai the boy my best Proxies kidnapped that managed to break Jeff the Killers ankle. I'm impressed, not just anyone can hurt Jeff so easily." Slender man addressed me
"He was tied up what did I think he was going to do? Bite me?" An annoyed looking Jeff said from the floor. His ankle was in a few bandages and a splint.
I felt something wrap around my legs and arms and I was pulled into the air by a few pitch black tentacles. I squeaked as I had not been expecting that to happen.
Slenderman brought me right up close to his none existing face before addressing Masky.
"Keep him alive longer than you intended to. He will prove to be interesting." Slender let me down back onto the floor.
"All of you leave I still have to heal more of Jeff's ankle." Slender man addressed Toby, Masky and Hoodie.
They all nodded and left with Toby pulling me along after them.
"What did Master mean by interesting?" Hoodie questioned as we walked along the small hallway leading to the front door.
"I don't know, all I know is that he's going to stay with us for a little while longer than I thought he would. Speaking of which who's gonna watch tonight? Not it!" Masky said throwing his hand in the air.
Hoodie did the same calling out "not it!" As he did so with Toby getting there last.
He groaned in annoyance but I could tell that he wasn't really all that discouraged about watching me.
Again they led me only a little bit of a way through the forest until we came upon the little shack that we had been earlier.
Toby led me to the bedroom place I had been earlier and held me down only slightly.
He took a smaller thinner piece of rope and threaded it through the tie on my wrist pulling it up hard so that my hands went where he wanted them to go. He did a strong double knot through the loop on the wall.
"We're gonna run out of zip ties soon if we keep replacing them." He said before leaving me alone.
It was night by the time he came by again. It was kind of comical to see him dressed in anything other than the striped jumper and the wrecked jeans, even if it was just a t-shirt and sweet pants.
"Hey." He walked over having closed the door over.
"Hey." I responded. Toby walked over and sat down crossing his legs in front of me.
"So er... The Toby you used to know. The kids at school used to call him... Ticci Toby?" He asked I nodded.
He sighed and tugged on his mouth guard a little.
"We'll I'm... That Toby and the people we used to know, we're you and me." I stared at him looking for one hint in his eyes that he was joking. Nothing.
"Toby?"
He twitched before placing his hands on his mouth guard and goggles and pulling them off.
He was right he was the same Toby I used to know. He looked exactly the same. The same pale skin, the little button nose that was slightly pinker than the rest of his face. Everything was the same as I remember.
I smiled at him, "looks like we've got a lot of catching up to do then." His head snapped up to me and he gave me a lop sided smile.
We talked for a little while longer but eventually we both fell asleep.