And here we are back with Hunter's POV. This chapter will pick right back up where everything left off with Mattholomule about to face Grom… as well as Hunter still trying to gather the courage to approach Willow. How will the former Golden Guard fare? Read on to find out! Also, just a fair warning that this chapter will have A LOT going on so just try to prepare yourself for why I made this fic 'T-Rated'. Hope you enjoy it regardless! :)

(Hunter's POV)

I kept looking at the corner of the bleachers closest to the stage where Amity, Luz, Gus, and Willow were sitting and watching the fight below in the pit.

Well, at least until I just settled on Willow and I could physically feel my heart rate slow down but pound so intensely against my chest that I thought it was going to break through my rib cage.

Agh… why do I have to be like this?

I know, Amity's right. Willow's my friend and I know she wouldn't do anything harsh.

Honestly, I'd even go as far to say she's one of my best friends next to Gus. I can talk to her about almost anything and I know she feels the same way with me when it comes to that too.

So then… why am I still scared to just tell her about 'how I'm feeling'? It doesn't make sense, but… ugh.

C'mon Hunter, Amity's right. You gotta stop psyching yourself out and just tell her.

I looked at her for a moment again, except this time I didn't give myself time to back out anymore. Instead I just grit my teeth, knit my brows, and clenched my fists and started making my way over before I could change my mind.

Well, no turning back now, I guess?

I eventually got to the bleachers and sat next to Willow as Mattholomule kept fighting off the first spawnings of Grom emerging. Honestly, I would have probably been more interested in watching since I had only ever read about Grometheus the Fear Bringer and I've always been very interested to see this all 'in action'.

But, compared to Willow right now for me… Grom's going to have to wait.

Once I got to the bleachers and sat down, I just started (mostly trying to figure out how to even start this without making a total idiot of myself), "Hey."

Okay, that actually sounded surprisingly 'normal'.

Willow straightened up and whipped her head over her shoulder, well until she realized it was me immediately and smiled at me as she said, "Oh, hey Hunter. What's going on?"

Then her expression immediately shifted as she tilted her head at me and looked almost concerned, making my throat swell up for a moment and my heart start to pound in my chest again at realizing I was probably being more obvious than I meant to.

Then I really thought I was going to cough up my heart when she asked, confirming my suspicions, "Hunter… are you sure you're 'okay'? Really?"

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap….

I eventually got myself together enough as I managed to reply somewhat normally, "Y-yeah! Oh, yeah! I'm good! A-okay! But, um…"

C'mon Hunter, TELL HER ALREADY! You messed up every other chance to tell her how you feel so stop stalling!

I sighed before finally saying, trying to gulp to clear my throat as much as possible, "Uh, actually… Can we talk?"

But, then I felt like all my bravery just drained from my entire being as she just gave me this confused and slightly skeptical look.

Ahhh…

Even though I felt myself sinking deeper and deeper into myself, the only thing making me feel better as Willow kept looking at me was the fact that Gus, Luz, and Amity were all distracted by Mattholomule fighting Grom to look at us.

Actually at this moment I was almost thankful for Gus shouting as he waved his flags he usually brings to Grudgby matches as he called out, "Yeah! Go Matt! You got this, buddy!"

Even though everyone else around us were looking either shocked or angry since I remembered Amity's brother starting a bet on whether Mattholomule was going to defeat Grom by himself or not and… it looked like a lot of people were going to be 'losing snails' judging by what I was seeing from everyone's expressions around me as Mattholomule seemed to be holding his own so far.

But despite getting temporarily sidetracked by this, Willow was still just looking at me and I had no idea what she was thinking right now.

I slid away from her slightly and looked away as I rubbed the back of my neck before back tracking, "I-I mean, it's not an emergency or anything. Ya know, i-it can wait if it's not a good time! I…"

I slowly felt like I was digging my own grave and wanted to just blast myself out of existence at this point since all I kept doing was talking out of my butt for no reason at all other than retreating into my cowardice when it comes to her.

And only 'her' it seems that makes me feel like this.

Ugh, what am I even?!...

But, then I was taken by surprise as my eyes went wide when Willow just grabbed me by my arm. Not in the same way Amity did when she was pretty much forcibly dragging me out onto the dance floor with her several minutes ago, but… Willow definitely had what I could only describe as a firm 'purpose' behind her hold on my arm.

Honestly, I probably would've paid more attention to the fact that she was 'holding onto my arm' if I didn't see her nod her head to the side first.

I glanced in that direction and saw she was motioning to the end of the bleachers.

Despite me not knowing what she was trying to tell me, I gave her a nod back as I let her lead me where she wanted to go. We moved slowly off to the side and kept looking around to make sure none of the teachers were watching as we eventually made our way under the bleachers.

And despite the feet stamping above us and hearing people react loudly to what was going on in the pit, we definitely seemed out of sight right now. Just me… and her, here… alone.

Well, mostly alone, anyway. There was some couple under here too on the opposite end of the bleachers that looked like they were too focused on each other to notice me and Willow were also here.

Ya know, just 'us' here.

Oh Titan, help me.

Then I really felt like I was returning to my previous state of internal panic as I felt Willow's hand on my shoulder (making my body tense up on reflex) as she started, sounding even and serious but also concerned again, "Hunter, if this wasn't an 'emergency', then you wouldn't have even said anything. So… what's going on? And, please, don't lie to me again, okay?"

My eyes went wide as I turned around and saw her looking exactly how she sounded.

But, there was one word she said that made my eyes feel like they were going to fall out now as I questioned, partly in confused yet also mostly obvious denial, "Lie? Who said I was lying?"

Her look shifted as she gave me a frustrated and almost stern look now that made every muscle in my back become taut and tense, almost like she was 'seeing through me', before saying straight out, "Hunter… you're doing it now! I just, seriously… What's going on with you? You've been acting off recently and every time I ask you what's going on, you always say you're 'fine' even though I can clearly see you aren't 'fine' and… I don't know? You're my friend. And if something's going on with you, then you know you can tell me right? I trust you, but… do you even… trust me, at all?"

My stomach felt like it was immediately impaled by a rusty sword that kept twisting around my insides in intense guilted panic as soon as I heard that from her.

My eyes went wide again as she looked away from me and crossed her arms, still looking frustrated and even hurt.

Oh… crap…

Immediately I jumped back in and started, trying to almost 'recover' anything I could from this lost cause of a 'talk' I was trying to have with her right now.

"Captain!… I mean, Willow, I… I do! I do trust you! It's just…" That I'm nothing but an insecure, pathetic coward that's afraid of what you'll think of me when I tell you how I really feel about you?

Because for me, that is the totally honest answer if she really wanted it.

But, that still doesn't mean that I want to tell her that and look like a loser in front of her. I know Willow and she is my friend like she just said, but… that doesn't mean I'm still not scared of what she'll think right now when I tell her.

Especially what she'll think of me.

Because whether I hate admitting it or hate how totally pathetic it makes me sound, I do care about what she thinks. Not even just about me, but… I do really care about what she thinks and feels about almost everything.

Talking and hanging out with each other as much as we did in the Human Realm proved that to me especially into us continuing to hang out now that we got back home.

I almost started panicking even more when she just remained silent and kept looking anywhere but at me and crossed her arms, feeling like I was still just digging my own verbal grave at this point.

I especially felt my stomach almost knot when she said, letting her arms go back down by her sides, "Okay, if that's what you…" I couldn't stop myself when she started to walk away as I grabbed her hand and cut her off, "Wait! Captain, just!..." She stopped immediately as she sprung her head back up and looked me in the eye.

Well, until we both slowly looked down and then my face felt like it was on fire as I could feel my heart crawling up my throat again at what I realized I just did, or what we were doing now, technically.

We were holding hands.

It was the first time we ever held hands like this as I kept looking at it in almost fascination. At least until I looked up and made eye contact with her again, her face was red like mine and her eyes were wide in either surprise or shock (I couldn't tell), but… she wasn't letting go.

Neither of us moved with the only things that could be heard were feet stomping and people yelling above us at what was happening in the fight.

Eventually, and I have no idea where this came from, but I slowly reached out and grabbed her other hand too.

But, shocking me even more than what I just did… she wasn't showing me she didn't want me to do this and still wasn't doing anything to back away from me.

We kept holding our hands between us and I was trying not to get distracted by how nice, warm, and soft her hands felt. Despite the fact that I've pathetically thought about doing this with her in my head so many times that it's almost pathetically embarrassing from my perspective. And that's not even counting the times I've thought about doing 'other stuff' with her if I'm actually being honest with myself here.

Rather than continue to think about how pathetic I am though, I eventually scrunched my eyes as I shook it all out of my head and let out a sigh, trying in some way to 'get it together' before I looked back at her and said, "Willow, you're right. I haven't been telling you the truth; at least not completely anyway, but…" I paused to take a breath again before continuing, "The truth is, for the past few weeks… I've been… I've… I've been trying to ask you if you maybe wanted to go to Grom… with me."

Almost immediately Willow started, "Hunter, that's all that's going on? But, why didn't you just ask? You're one of my best friends, so you know I would've…" "Willow, just… hear me out, okay? Because I didn't want to ask you just to 'go to a dance'. Well, at least not just that, but… I wanted to ask you to Grom to try to make 'something else' easier." I paused and saw her just tilting her head at me and despite her green eyes being a bit narrowed in confusion at me.

But, she at least looked understanding and almost curious which made my insides unclench at least slightly.

I decided to just take advantage of the silence as I continued, practically swallowing the nervousness down so hard in a gulp that it almost hurt my throat, "So, if you want 'the truth', then the truth is that… I-I really like you, Willow… a lot. I just think you're really… cool. I know you told me you still have a hard time admitting that about yourself sometimes, but… I mean it. You're smart, strong, pretty, sweet, and on top of all that you're one of the strongest witches I've ever met. And even more than that, I admire you, Willow. I really do. Honestly, there's a lot of times when I wish I could be more 'like you'."

I was cut off when I felt her squeeze my hand a little to get my attention as I heard her start, "Hunter…" But, I was determined as I tried to cut her short as politely and smoothly as possible to continue being honest with her about everything while I had the bravery to do it, "Willow, please. Again, I know you told me that you don't think this sometimes, but you're always so calm and just confident in a way that I wish I could be. When we're playing Flyer Derby and get into a 'tough spot', you always step back and find a strategy to work through it to get us to win. Even in the Human Realm with everything going on, you always managed to stay 'grounded'. And, whether you knew it or not, but… you helped me stay 'grounded' too every time we talked and hung out in the morning before everyone else woke up. Actually, you made me more 'grounded' in myself than I ever have been. So… look, I understand if you don't feel the same about me and if it makes you think differently about me and being friends with me. But, either way, you know the truth now and you can feel however you want about it. I'll understand."

I feel like I just word vomited at this girl that I've had a 'crush of epic proportions' on for almost 8 months and been friends with her a month or two longer than that.

But at the same time and as uneasy as I still felt by the silence, I also felt weirdly relieved. Like I just had a boulder lifted off me after finally letting all that out. But, the silence slowly started eating away at me from the inside out since neither of us were saying anything still.

It was almost going on a full minute of silence as I tried to look anywhere but at her.

Ugh, that came out sounding so pathetically sappy to her, didn't it? She isn't even responding to me right now!

Right then, I felt myself almost 'sink' internally as I felt her slide her right hand out of my left.

Yeah… that sounds right. Ugh, I'm such an IDIOT! I should've expected that she wouldn't feel?!...

"Hunter?" She said, her tone sounding surprisingly calm to me after what I just told her, as I felt her put her right hand on the side of my face before I could even blink.

I slowly looked up only to be looking right into those green eyes again. But, rather than reflecting something 'negative' like I was expecting, there was almost what I can only describe as a 'focused softness' to her eyes and just her whole expression as she kept looking almost directly into me right now.

Sure I had no idea exactly what she was feeling or going through her head, but… it didn't seem like she resented me or anything after 'everything' I just told her. We kept looking at each other and there was no holding back the blush I'd been fighting off this entire time since Willow's hand resting on the side of my face seemed to just 'draw it out' and make my whole head feel like it was actually burning out of nerves.

Okay, breathe Hunter. Just… breathe.

We just kept looking at each other until I saw her mouth open to say something before we heard everyone above us gasping and screaming, causing us to separate as we tried to figure out what was going on, until we heard what was definitely Luz call out in what I could decipher as 'confused-concern', "GUS?!"

Willow and I looked at each other wide eyed before we both immediately ran out from underneath the bleachers, seeing Gus no longer sitting there with Amity and Luz as both of them seemed to be locked up in shock with everyone else, even most of the teachers too surprisingly.

Eventually I looked down in the pit and my eyes went wide and my body went rigid when I saw what was going on.

Mattholomule had a gash on his forehead and looked like he was knocked out cold, a nearby support column with some blood smeared on it made it clear that Mattholomule must have gotten knocked into it by Grom at some point in the fight.

But… that wasn't what was really shocking me.

Right now Gus was standing in front of Mattholomule in the pit and he was now fighting Grom. Eventually Gus seemed to cloud Grom [who at this point looked MUCH bigger than they were several minutes ago] in an illusion before then proceeding to make multiple illusions of himself as he grabbed Mattholomule's right arm and threw it over his shoulder as I heard him say, "C'mon Matt, I got you!"

He then started struggling to walk Mattholomule back up the ramp to higher ground to get him out of the fight.

But… There was a WAY bigger problem that I was starting to see as Grom broke free of Gus's illusion cloud and despite Gus making almost 30 illusions of himself to try to confuse Grom, Grom was not fooled.

It started charging through and 'poofing' Gus's self-illusions out of the way and was heading right for Gus, who had no idea what was going on behind him. Immediately, and without even thinking, I took Flapjack out of my jacket and threw him up into the air as I called out in a hurry, "Flapjack! Come to me!"

He immediately came out of dormancy and transformed into a staff.

Quickly, I grabbed him out of the air and hopped on before flying right into the pit, taking a pre-drawn fire glyph out of my pocket and activating it against Grom, making them cry out in a screech as I yelled out, "GUS! LOOK OUT!" Right then, I immediately was able to pick him and Mattholomule up enough with the help of momentum from how fast I flew in and dropped them both off well outside the pit.

Mattholomule was still completely knocked unconscious on the ground, Gus was looking back at me with wide eyes.

I ignored him for a second after seeing he was okay and looked back into the pit just to make sure Grom wasn't following us out, but it looked like Amity, Luz, and Willow had already jumped in to keep Grom at bay, who looked like it had grown even more in size than when I threw that glyph at them seconds ago.

Willow and Luz looked like they were trying to hold it down with vines as Amity summoned Abominations to go after it. As much as I wanted to jump in right away to help them, I looked back at Gus at yelled, maybe a bit too harsh in the moment, "WHAT WAS THAT?! YOU SHOULDN'T'VE HAD YOUR BACK TURNED LIKE THAT!"

Gus gave me a look back as he retorted, "HUNTER, WHAT?! Did you expect me to just leave Matt there unconscious! He's my friend and he was out cold and hurt! WHAT ELSE DID YOU EXPECT ME TO DO?! WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE IF IT WERE ME?!" I was about to say something to that until I heard Willow call out, "Uh, guys! I don't know how much longer we can hold… ON!"

Her and Luz looked like they were struggling to keep Grom down as Amity looked like she was trying to command more power over her Abominations.

I need to get down there.

I looked back and Gus and gave him a serious but still worried look as I directed, "Get him out of here and fall back!"

I immediately got back on my staff and took off hearing Gus trying to get my attention behind me, but I had to get down there. I needed to go in to help the rest of my friends.

Right as Grom flung Willow and Luz off it with their own vines and threw them at Amity to knock all three of them back, I set foot down into the pit.

They looked like they tried to regain their footing as Grom charged ahead at them, making my heart sink before I furrowed my brows and grit my teeth.

"NO!" I called out on reflex as I used my staff to phase right between them and Grom as I yelled out in almost an absolute command, "STOP!"

I had no idea what I was expecting or even what I was doing right now?

All I knew was that I didn't want any more of my friends to get hurt… not if I could do something about it. Unexpectedly, Grom stopped short but towered over me and almost… studying me.

I knew I should've been scared or nervous or something (at least more than I actually felt right now), but… I weirdly wasn't as deep into any of those right now as I probably should've been.

I don't know?

It's like after everything I went through in the Emperor's Coven, defying Belos, banishing The Collector, staring death in the face way more times than most people ever do in their lives, and then being honest with Willow just now… it's almost like I had nothing more to lose as I stared down this monster meant to draw out all my deepest darkest fears faced me down.

Well, until I immediately felt myself get snatched up and ensnared by Grom and then… nothing.

My body went frozen and stiff as I heard my friends calling out my name before my vision just 'blacked out'. At the same time, it felt like I had things crawling through my veins until finally I felt 'something' connect to my brain and I saw a multitude of what I could only describe as 'memories' flashing in front of me in almost rapid succession, almost like Grom was 'picking apart my brain and leafing through it like a book.

Things kept flashing in front of my eyes until all of a sudden I just felt myself fall to the ground.

I just laid there as I regained feeling in my limbs until I heard a familiar voice call out, "Hunter!"

Willow.

At that moment she was right next to me looking at me completely concerned and pretty freaked out as she helped me sit up. Once I sat up though, expecting to see something horrifying Grom took from my mind appear in front of me like I read about… I didn't know what I was seeing, or even hearing?

It looked like Grom was trying to take some kind of 'form', seeing many shapes of different people (one of which I definitely recognized as Belos) materialize part way only to recede back into it as Grom let out this loud 'roar' that echoed all throughout the gym as it kept wriggling and growing as a dark, shambling, yet horrifying mass.

Well, at least it did until I saw an almost 'sea of purple' in front of me until Darius rose from it in his Abomination form and took a 'slash' right through Grom before he turned back to us and commanded, "Get out now! Meet the staff and rest of the students outside! We'll take care of this!"

Right then I realized that Lilith and Principal Bump were now fighting off Grom blow after blow.

What?!

Darius looked like he was about to go back into the fight, but I immediately protested as I called out, "Darius! Wait, we can!..."

But before I could even finish my sentence, all four of us got swept up in a ring of Abomination magic before practically getting tossed out of the gym and the doors being slammed closed right behind us.

Okay, just give me a moment. *Proceeds to hid under my desk in preparation for 'boo's' and virtual tomatoes to be thrown for the cruel cliffhanger… or two cliffhangers* XD But, in all seriousness, I hope you all see what I meant by there was A LOT going on in this chapter. Though let's break it down from the beginning with the big takeaway from this chapter… and that is Hunter finally ripping off the band aid and just honestly admitting his feelings to Willow! *Throws out some confetti* Lol. But, I hope you enjoyed seeing Hunter's internal struggle as he came clean to Willow despite having no idea what she was going to think, and we still have no idea what she's thinking since these two just couldn't seem to catch a break. Considering right as Willow was about to respond, something happened in the fighting pit between Mattholomule and Grom. Now, I could go into a VERY lengthy discussion about how fascinated I am with Grom as a monster/demon in this universe (plus the iconic fight/dance scene with Luz and Amity from that same episode), but I'll give you all the short version. Now, I am aware that this is a show meant for younger audiences and they obviously can't make fight scenes entirely THAT graphic for obvious reasons, but that didn't mean I wasn't intrigued either way as to how dangerous Grom really is and why the HELL this school selects a student/minor to fight this thing every year? Like, why can't the adults just get together and take care of this thing and not put preteens/teens in harm's way to fight it?! That literally doesn't make sense to me. But, in my mind, what if the reason behind selecting a single champion in their teens is logically crazier than we think? As I watched "Enchanting Grom Fright" and watched Grom's progression from beginning to end and after careful observation (and my own opinion from my personal perspective), Grom to me almost looked like they were getting bigger and stronger as the battle went on. This leads me to believe that Grom can not only shapeshift into one's worst fears after reading their minds, but can also 'feed off' fears of its victims. After all, Amity did say that if she didn't defeat Grom as Grom Queen that everyone in Bonesborough would have to live out their greatest fears, which is what led me to creating the headcanon that Grom feeds off fears in an effort to become bigger and stronger (almost like the Greater Basilisks in this show in a way). And maybe the reason why they avoid adults fighting this thing is because adults (based on life experience) know more and have much more real and intense fears than let's say teenagers tend to do, which is why they select a student to fight it every year to avoid Grom getting too out of hand if they don't have much to feed off of. Thus leading us to Mattholomule's fight with Grom. Honestly, though Mattholomule was terrified, he actually gained a lot more motivation to face Grom after he saw a good portion of the school betting that he wouldn't be able to do it. Actually he was shocking his classmates and even his teachers by putting up a good fight against Grom, but unfortunately Mattholomule got into a 'rough spot' during his fight and got hurt and knocked out. This then leads to Gus and everyone to try to jump in to help. Though this was practically like a meal for Grom, especially since Hunter (despite his bravery) is literally 'PTSD incarnate' with his traumas. Everything from the Emperor's Coven, avoiding death via Belos, hiding he's a Grimwalker from most of his friends, and then adding on his fear of rejection from Willow… yeah, Hunter would probably be a FEAST for Grom with his amount of deep seeded traumas. D: But, as you saw, it looked like Grom got overwhelmed by all the fears Hunter had which allowed Bump, Lilith, and Darius to come and stomp Grom down as a last resort. What will happen next though with all this? Stay tuned until next time to find out! As always thank you so much for taking the time to read and constructive feedback is always VERY much appreciated.

Stay classy, healthy, and safe everyone!

Dexter1995