Eyes In The Dark
Author's Note: This is for Day 1 of Haunted Clone Week. :)
"I think one of the lights just moved!" Wrecker whines, staring wide-eyed out the front view port of the Marauder. Pabu is dotted with lights from houses everywhere but it's too dark to see more than just the lights.
"That's not possible," Omega protests, but she doesn't sound like she believes her own words.
"Of course it is," Crosshair replies gleefully, "Those are eyes, and the monsters are going to come after us."
They are the ones who first mentioned that it looked so weird to see all the lights outside the window when they couldn't even see what the lights were connected to. It's not his fault they started taking him seriously.
"There aren't monsters on Pabu!" Wrecker protests, "We're safe here!"
"That's a lot of monsters," Omega points out, eyeing the lights dotting the otherwise dark window.
"Or it's one monster with eight eyes."
Omega stares at him. "You're lying," she argues, "That's not possible. We would've heard them."
"Don't worry, they won't attack us. Unless we touch the glass and get sucked outside."
"How do ya get sucked outside?" Wrecker repeats incredulously.
Crosshair shrugs. "I don't know how it works but if we try it, we can find out."
They both warily look at the window. No one makes the move to even try.
"That's not true, right?" his twin brother asks worriedly, "There aren't actually monsters outside?"
"What's this about monsters?" Hunter's voice says, and they all freeze, turning to look down at him.
"Crosshair insists those lights outside are monsters," Omega tattles, "I think he's just trying to freak us out, because there's no way that's true."
Wrecker yelps unexpectedly. "Uh, Crosshair? I think one of those lights just got brighter."
"It's coming closer," he replies smugly. "Told you it's true."
Hunter climbs up onto the gunner's mount. "There's nothing out there. We're clear." He eyes the window, frowning a little.
"We won't disappear if we touch the window, will we?" Omega asks.
He laughs. "Of course not. See?" His aqua gloved hand lifts, touching the glass, and then just... vanishes.
Crosshair has no idea who screamed loudest. Wrecker nearly plows Omega off the mount in an effort to catch Hunter, but he's gone.
"What's happening?" Omega asks panickily, grabbing her crossbow.
Either he can just admit that he honestly doesn't know and made the whole thing up, or try to just go with it, and Crosshair isn't quite sure which option is better right now.
"We hafta find him!" Wrecker whines, "We can't let him be eaten by monsters!"
"Well," Crosshair points out, "There's only one way to find him, and that will mean we're all eaten by monsters."
Omega glares at him like this is his fault somehow – okay, maybe it is. A little. "I'm not leaving Hunter out there! We hafta find him. I don't care what that means."
"Wait!" Crosshair snaps, jerking forwards to try grabbing her, but she's already touching the viewport.
And then Omega promptly disappears too.
"We hafta follow them!" Wrecker protests, panicked. "We can't let them go out there alone."
"How do we even get back?"
"Uh... I'm sure Hunter will figure it out."
"Then why hasn't he already?" Crosshair snaps back.
He has no idea what's happening. This was supposed to be a joke. Not real.
This doesn't make any sense. But it clearly is real or Hunter and Omega would still be here.
"We can't keep waiting," Wrecker insists stubbornly.
Which is true. If something's actually wrong somehow, then –
Seeing as his twin is fully intent on touching the viewport, Crosshair leans forward cautiously too, touching it.
There's a rush of air around him and he lands unceremoniously on the ground outside. It looks like Pabu, but it also just doesn't.
Or maybe it's just that there's a glowing light that's definitely an eyeball staring down right at him. The monster standing over him has a very long neck and its body has six long legs and –
"Why is there always a huge monster?!" Wrecker yowls and they both take off as the thing takes a step toward them.
The ground shudders.
Where were these things all this time? No one on Pabu's said a thing about them!
They don't make it far. A beam of light falls across them and Crosshair looks up to see another towering creature approaching them – and it has eight eyes.
No way. This isn't happening. This is completely insane – he was kidding when he said the thing had eight eyes. This was supposed to be a very nasty prank, not... something real.
And where in the stars did his rifle go?
...Right.
He'd set it down and he actually doesn't have any weapons on him right now, so he can't try to shoot out its eyes.
But the ground is shaking violently and there's monsters circling in from all directions now, all of the lights shining down at them.
Crosshair rolls out of the way of one of their legs, but when he gets back to his feet, it's to see that –
Where's Wrecker?!
"Wrecker!" Crosshair yells, panicked.
There's no response.
No – anything.
And seriously, how are their eyes so bright when the ground around him is still staying so dark, except whatever's in direct line of the light? He looks up for a moment, and the blinding flash of light against the night sky nearly blinds him.
It slows him down a moment too long and one of the monster's kicks him.
His armor thankfully absorbs most of the blow as he falls, rolling across the ground and nearly gets stepped on.
A beam of light shines right into his face and he rolls over, looking up sharply to see one of them bending down, reaching toward him.
Crosshair tries to jerk back to his feet, scrambling out of the way but he isn't able to move fast enough. An enormous, clawed hand closes over him, lifting him into the air.
It's the – eight eyed monster that's holding him and he kicks and punches its hand but nothing is enough to break its grip as he's lifted way off the ground.
All the lights across all of Pabu are slowly moving toward him, from every direction, like the monsters are converging right in the same spot.
"Wrecker?" he yells again, trying to squirm free as he looks around. "Hunter?"
Still no answer.
This is not happening.
He can't even move, not nearly enough to get himself free, and after everything he went through away from his brothers, he is not about to die only a few weeks after finally getting back home again and –
But there's nothing he can do when the monster lifts him up to its mouth. It has long, jagged teeth and he doesn't want to know what those feel like –
Doesn't have the chance to do anything else actually before the monster's enormous jaws are closing over him.
Crosshair jerks forward, trying one last time to free himself and only ends with going fast first onto the floor of –
The Marauder?
What?
He rolls over, hastily pushing himself up and blinking at his surroundings. He's sitting on the floor near the seats where he was before he touched the viewport in the first place.
"Crosshair?" asks Hunter's voice and he could almost cry in sheer relief at hearing him.
"Hunter," he gasps out, stumbling to his feet, "You're – safe."
Hunter frowns. "Nightmares again?" he asks.
Crosshair blinks.
Wait –
He turns around slowly, looking out the viewport. The lights still far too innocently dot Pabu's surface but they look like perfectly normal lights. He can genuinely not look at the same way anymore. Ever.
But –
"I – don't know," he says, heart still pounding, "Where're Wrecker and Omega?"
"They're sleeping, like you were."
They were all sleeping? But everyone was just running away from monsters. This doesn't make any sense.
He doesn't think he can truly believe it until he sees for himself so he moves past Hunter, heading to the back of the ship. His twin is fast asleep on his rack and the curtain to the gunner's mount is closed so Omega must be up there, though he hears some quiet shuffling.
Crosshair approaches it warily, climbing the ladder and looking behind the curtain.
Omega cracks an eye open when she sees him. "You're..." She's clearly fine but he's so lost. That felt so real. He doesn't even remember ever falling asleep. "...awake," he finishes lamely.
"Yeah," she agrees, "You okay?"
Clearly, she didn't see the same thing, even if that doesn't make any sense. He wants to ask someone about it, but now it just feels stupid. And if there's something half real about this, he almost doesn't want the answer.
Crosshair just nods, moving back down the ladder and going over to Wrecker's rack, climbing onto it next to him.
Wrecker stirs only a little, just enough to grab him and yank him closer like he's a second Lula before he dozes off again. At least it makes him feel slightly safe. But only slightly.
Well, whatever just happened, it's the last time he's touching the Marauder's viewport at night ever again.
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