April 3rd 20xx
Life has been odd since my encounter with Slenderman. I tried to convince myself, and convince Ness, that it was just a dream. That we were just tripping mad balls if we ever saw Slenderman...but we have. Ever since then, he's in every single picture we take. We've stopped taking pictures but he's still there. Every time we look into something that is reflective, we see him. He never gets any closer. He never makes a physical appearance. He's always watching. Always.
Ness and I needed a bit of a break, so he decided to take me to the Ultimall. I love this place. It's large and god does it have some awesome stores. He looks at me with that sweet sweet smile of his. Oh, and if it isn't already clear, he and I are a thing. Like a serious thing. I remember when we first revealed our crushes together. He walked in on me changing and lord did he have the stare of a lifetime.
"Ok babe, you ready?" Ness asks. I cross my arms, unsure of what he's talking about.
"We're just going into the mall, what's there to be ready for?" I ask him. Ness reaches into his pocket and brings out a wad of cash. "Holy fuck, where'd you get that?"
"Mom. She called me the other day and said this was for an early birthday gift." I grab the cash and smack my hand with it, hearing the relatively powerful collision sound.
"Jeez. I love your mom," I giggle before handing back the cash.
"She knows, trust me, she's quite fond of you too. Better not run off with her though."
"I dunno, man, if she keeps paying like this imma have myself a sugar momma." Ness rolls his eyes before interlocking his arm with my own.
"Let's just get going. Better enjoy the time we have before you run off into the sunset with my mom." We walk into the Ultimall and are instantly hit with that load of cool air from the best air conditioning system in the city. We walk around, seeing various stores and people we know. However, we stop at one place. A place we don't know. A store that doesn't seem new, but does so at the same time. I step forward, tilting my head.
"What the? Ness, you know this place?"
"No. Must be...new, then. But it seems…" Ness and I both look at the state of the store. It's not the best, not at all. It's raggedy. It looks worn.
"Sketchy," I say to myself. In the corner of my eye, I see Ness nod his head. There's a sign that says the place is open. Weird. It looks like this place will be closed. It looks like it should be closed. I look over at Ness and see the face he has on. I can't help but roll my eyes. I love him, with all my heart, but he has one hell of a curiosity. He's more curious than George is, and that's a high bar to go over.
"If I end up dead, I'm haunting you for the rest of my afterlife," I say as I walk over to the front door.
"And if I'm dead?"
"I'll convince the devil himself to bring you to hell." I hear him giggle. Mission accomplished. I grab the handle to the door. Most doors to the stores in the mall are see-through. But this door isn't. And now that I think about it, the windows are boarded up….from the inside. These prevent anyone from seeing inside the store from outside of it. I gulp before opening the door. I don't step in though. I feel Ness's hand on my shoulder.
"What could go wrong?"
"Everything." I finally step in. It's dark, there's a single lightbulb that's hanging from the roof. I hear ness do the same. We look around for someone and my skeleton nearly jumps out of my skin. A boy. He looks around my age, but he doesn't look normal. His face is white, his eyelids are gone, and his mouth is cut to have an eternal smile. Damn…..that's one hell of a Halloween costume. Halloween is like a little over a month away, but, I guess it's never too early. That's the ideology with Christmas, so why not Halloween too, right?
"Hi there, s-sorry to scare y-ya, bud," the boy says. His voice is kinda deep. Well, Ness's is too, my voice is probably the one that's a bit too high-pitched. Whatever. His stutter is also interesting. I wouldn't expect him to have one.
"It's ok. Ahem. I just didn't expect to see someone in a costume as creepy as that...no offense, of course."
"N-none taken." Ness steps forward and smiles.
"What is this place?"
"Th-thrift shop. H-have a l-look around." I look at Ness and he shrugs.
"Why not. We've got nowhere else to go," he says. I look back at the boy.
"What's your name?"
"Jeff."
"Well, Jeff, you think you could turn the lights on?"
"S-Sure!" Jeff walks into a door behind him and within a few seconds, every light in the store turns on blinding Ness and me. I didn't expect the light in this place to be so dang bright. I shake my head and my eyes quickly adjust. I look around and the inside of this thrift shop. It's not the best looking, at all. But, in order to be nice, I should buy something. Ness steps forward and brings his mouth to my ear.
"Should we buy something?"
"I dunno. I'll just get something," I whisper back. He nods. I step forward and look around at the labeled sections of the place. I saw one that sort of intrigued me. Hoodies. Usually, hoodies don't have their own section. It's interesting that hoodies have their own place right here. I enter the section and look around at the dusty hoodies. Most of them seem WAY too sketchy for me to buy, even if it's just being nice. However, I see one, one that isn't like the others.
A Yellow Hoodie.
I grab this yellow hoodie. Not a single speck of dust is on it. There's not even a single wrinkle. And holding it...makes me feel good. The fabric, probably. The fabric is very nice and very….good? I don't even have the words in my vocabulary to explain how good this feels. I walk back to Jeff and Ness. I place the hoodie on the counter. Jeff looks down at it before looking back at me.
"A-are you sure?" The hesitance is weird on his part. Wouldn't he want things to be sold? Especially if it's dark and dingy and….it honestly looks like an abandoned place.
"Yup."
"You sure?" Ness asks. I look at him and tilt my head.
"What? Do I need to say it a thousand times? Yes, I want it. It looks great. And it feels awesome." I look back at Jeff. Jeff's eternal smile-which now that I'm looking at it directly….man, whoever did his makeup did an AMAZING job-seems to widen. It almost looks real. He takes the small thing attached to the hoodie, which notifies security of stolen items. He hands me the hoodie.
"I-it's o-on the h-house."
"Really?
"Y-yup!"
"Hehe, thanks." I look over at Ness and see he's a bit skeptical. I move my mouth closer. "Just go with it." Ness shrugs.
"L-Lucas?" Jeff says. I look over at Jeff.
"Yeah?"
"Why don't you try it o-on. Might a-as well n-not leave then c-c-come back later because it doesn't f-feel good." He has a point. I put the hoodie on and….wow. It's more than comfortable. It's...it feels right. I feels like I was meant to wear this. It feels...like it was made for me. I feels….like it is me. I must be in a daze because Ness grabs my hand and shakes me a bit. I jump out of my daze and look at him.
"S-sorry." I look back at Jeff. "Thank you, Jeff. We should get going now."
"N-no, of course. H-have fun. S-stay o-out of trouble." Ness grabs my hand and takes me out of the place, it seems like he was rushing. We don't even stop as soon as we get out. He continues dragging me deeper and deeper into the mall. I finally decide to pull back.
"Ness. What's wrong?"
"That guy was creeping me out." He turns toward me and sighs. "Like really badly."
"Why? What did he do?" Ness shakes his head.
"You don't get it, Lucas. It's what he didn't do that creeped me out."
"And that is?"
"He didn't blink. I was there with him the entire time and not once did he blink. Not once did that smile disappear."
"Maybe he has a condition where he's unable to blink."
"I...I guess." I grab the hand that's still in my hand. We hold each other's hand for a bit before continuing to walk, more peacefully and calmly.
"Hey, Ness?"
"Hm?"
"Did you tell him my name?"
"No. Why?"
"Huh…..no reason."
April 10th 20xx
Alright, Ness and I finally arrived in the Kanto Region. A few days ago, Red approached us. He was going to go back to his family for the weekend, and he asked us to come with him, we agreed of course. So now we're here, in Saffron City. It's actually so beautiful. And all of the different Pokemon just running around, living their lives, is a sight to see. It reminds me of the Pokezoo we have in Ultimatum. But, well, in the wild and not in pens.
"You live here?" I ask Red. Red chuckles a bit as he makes sure his Pokeballs are all with him and accounted for. He pats my back.
"Nope. I live in a small town toward the south. So we've got a bit of walking to do. And if you want, we can take the long way to just walk a bit more….and this way we'll also need to get a boat, but that shouldn't be an issue." I look at Ness and he's instantly interested. I giggle before looking back at Red.
"Sounds fun."
"Alrighty. You may wanna take that hoodie off, though. The weather will probably get pretty hot. It's the middle of the summer." I look around at my arms and my lower belly, seeing my hoodie. I could take it off, but it feels good to have this on. So imma leave it. I feel around my hoodie and comfort instantly comes into my mind. I can't get rid of this thing. I've worn it nearly every second since I got it. There have been a few times where I've taken it off though. Showers, for one example. And….Ness and I's "special time". But during those times, I honestly felt lonely...it's weird.
Red leads us through Saffron City, acting as a sort of guide for the place. Soon enough, we make it to the eastern exit. There's a sign right at the exit that shows the area we're about to enter. Route 8 and something directly under that are the words, Lavender Town. "We'll be passing through this route and through Lavender Town to go south-west to make it to Fuchsia, then we'll take a Lapras boat all the way to Palet. You two get all that?"
"Not a single bit of it. But lead the way, Crimson," Ness says, using the nickname that was given to Red back in middle school. Red was constantly made fun of for the fact his homeland was named after colors. Pallet, being a pallet, then tons of other ones there were obvious, Lavender, Pewter, Celadon, even their Pokemon League is named after a color, Indigo. So, Toon Link, another of our friends, would call Red a new shade of red every day. From Rose, to Garnet, to even Salmon. But, for whatever reason, Crimson stuck. And it stayed stuck all the way through High School.
I hear Red groan before stepping into Route 8. Ness and I follow. The route is pretty cool. We see tons of Pokemon, some of which Red needs to battle. But overall, pretty chill. We soon get to Lavender Town. It's small. But there's this one big building. I walk over to it and tilt my head. "What's this?" Red walks over and looks up with a sad sigh.
"The Pokemon Tower. Essentially, the Pokemon Graveyard." Wow. A graveyard. I never really thought of Pokemon dying, but of course, they do…..I wanna go in. I dunno why I wanna go in. I just do. I put my hand on the doorknob of the door. "What're you doing?"
"What's it look like? I wanna go in." I don't really look back at the others and just enter the Pokemon Tower. I just admire the look. Is that the right word? I dunno. I look around at the base floor and see, well, nothing really. There are no graves. I look back at Red, who simply shrugs before stepping in.
"The graves start on the second floor." I nod before looking at Ness.
"You two don't mind if I do some looking around, do ya?"
"I don't mind, I guess," Ness shrugs. "Do you have to be home soon, Crimson?"
"Nope. We've got time," Red says. I smile before locating the staircase and walking toward it and thus up it.
On the second floor, I see the gravestones. There are also some people grieving. Names like Sparky and Shellshocker are on the graves. It's...kinda sad. But it's odd. How do they bury these Pokemon in these graves? Pokemon come in VERY different sizes, whereas humans are relatively the same. I shake off the nonsensitiies of the burring process and just continue forward.
We continue walking up the tower, each floor having a large array of gravestones and people grieving. We eventually make it to the top floor. "Sheesh, so many floors," Ness huffs as he falls to his knees.
"Yeah...the more Pokemon that die, the higher this tower is built," Red explains. I nod, showing him I heard him, but I walk toward something that catches my eye. A radio. It's not a regular radio, though. It's...different. It's a white ball. I tilt my head as I look at it.
Tell him to leave….
I hear a voice, causing me to jump.
Tell him to go away, then turn the radio on…
The voice….I've heard it before. I shoot around and look at Red and Ness.
The boy you let have intercourse with you. Tell him...to leave….now!
"Y-yes…" I say back. I...I don't want to go against him. I don't. I don't want him to punish me. I just hope the radio isn't bad. "Hey, Ness?" Ness looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "C-could you go down a few floors? I dropped my sunflower pin." Ness groans loudly.
"FIIINE! You're lucky I love you." Ness stretches his legs before going down the stairs. Red walks over and crosses his hands.
"Have you gotten your fill of this place now?" I begin to get nervous. Has he noticed the radio yet?
Do it! Turn it on!
I gulp before smiling. "You know we're friends, right?"
"Yes." I dunno what this radio will do. But this voice...it's not good. It's been filling my head with thoughts since I got the sweater. It's...telling me to do bad things. This radio….I doubt it'll be something good.
DO IT!
"I'm sorry, Red…"
"What?" I turn around and grab the radio, activating it. Red stays normal for a bit, before standing up straight. I look at his eyes and see his pupils dilating and shaking. A tune is playing. It's creepy. It's very...8-bity? Is that a real way to describe things? The noises, they're high pitched. Some of them are like nails on a chalkboard.
Good. The syndrome.
"What's the syndrome?" I ask the voice. The voice and I have had a few conversations in the past. He's scary. He wants death. Why haven't I told anyone, you may ask. Because they'll put me away. They'll claim me to be crazy. I can't go up to someone and say I have someone talking in my head telling me to kill. That'll get me sent into the loony bin faster than Sonic runs for some chili dogs.
The noise of the dead. The dead are reaching out, wanting whoever hears it. Except for you, my fine specimen.
"What's going to happen to Red?" I stare at Red as he stands still, his ears starting to bleed.
Simple. He'll see just who's calling for him. He'll see death.
Soon enough, Red reaches for a Pokeball and tosses it toward the window, breaking it. He then runs for it and jumps out. Dammit. But...strangely, that's all I can feel. I can only feel...dammit. It's the hoodie. It's taking any negative emotion of mine. It's preventing me from being...rational. It's keeping me calm. I walk over to the window and see Red's body, all the way at the bottom.
The Syndrome works like a charm. Now turn it off. Don't want the same thing to happen to Ness, now, do ya?
"I'm sorry Red." ….strange. Really….really strange. A feeling I never felt before. A feeling I feel now. A feeling that I am confused about. Red is my friend. Always has been. I never wanted anything bad to happen to him. But...a sense of joy fills my mind. A sense of accomplishment. A sense of pride. Maybe….maybe I am insane. But Red…."Say hi to my mom…"
April 14th 20xx
….so, Red's funeral sucked. Like big time. Mainly because...everyone things he committed suicide. But I know the truth. I killed him. I killed my own friend. Why….why would I do that? I'm looking at his gravestone. Staring at the name. "Red". I did it. Why would it? WHY!
Because you're easy, Lucas.
Ignore it. I shake my head before sighing. I fall to my knees. I-I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I soon feel a hand on my shoulder. "G-get away, Ness."
"I don't know who this, N-Ness person is," someone says with a bit of a twitch. I look up and see a boy, around my age, in a hoodie with some goggles and a mask. I stand up and wipe my eyes. The boy looks at the grave. "Is he a friend?"
"Yeah…."
"This is a nice hoodie," he says as he rubs my arm to feel the hoodie.
"Huh? Oh, thanks. Everyone thinks it's bad."
"N-nonsense!" he says this with another twitch. Weird.
"What's your name?"
"People call me Toby." I smile. He seems like a nice guy. I look back at the grave before touching it. I close my eyes. Sorry, Red. "You killed him, didn't you?" I stand up instantly. How does he…? No, it can't be. He doesn't know. HE DOESN'T KNOW!? It's just the voice in my head playing tricks on me.
You wish.
Damn. I gulp before turning toward Toby. "I-I dunno what you're talking about." Toby steps forward, very close to Lucas's face.
"You used the Syndrome, didn't you?"
"I-I…"
"No point in hiding it." Toby has a rather large twitch, making his head jolt, but afterward, he's back to normal.
"I...I-I didn't want to. H-he forced me!" Toby wraps his arm around my shoulders and brings me closer to his face.
"You'll get used to it."
"LUCAS!" Ness calls out for me from the distance. Toby lets go of me as I see Ness run toward me. He stops not too far ahead of me to see Toby. He seems to...freeze up a bit. Toby walks forward, stopping in front of Ness, before continuing forward.
"Ness? Do you know him?" Ness's eyes look very...dead. But he's still alive. He blinks before walking forward and grabbing my hand.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just needed to see him again." I turn my head and look at the gravestone with a heavy sigh. Ness's fingers massage my hands, calming me down. I let out a more relaxed sigh. I look at him with a somber smile. I really can rely on him for anything. I'm lucky to have him. I wrap my arms around his neck and smile more happily. "Thanks, Ness."
"Of course, Lukey." He leans in closer and touches our noses together. "Now, it's best not to fuck on a grave, shall I take you home?"
"Hehe, not sure if I can wait that long."
"There's a public bathroom."
"Sounds good enough." I giggle as he grips my hand and we run off. I really do feel relaxed with only two things. Ness, and my hoodie. But...Toby. He's someone I probably should be worried for.
I would suggest otherwise. Toby doesn't like it when you show some hatred toward him.
I guess not. Damn it. I hope he won't tell anyone. I can't go to jail...but maybe it's for the best.
NO.
...I hate my life. Ness closes the door as we enter the bathroom. At least I'll get to feel relaxed for some time.
April 22nd 20xx
People are worried about me. They want me to get help. I've worn this hoodie for far too long, according to them. But they just don't get it. The hoodie keeps me safe. The hoodie makes me feel alive. I can't imagine being without it. Ness is the only one who understands. Or, maybe he doesn't understand, but he accepts it. But I can tell by the way he looks at me, that he too is worried for me. I...I guess I can understand, but whatever. They just don't know what this hoodie does for me. They really don't understand anything.
I'm on my computer sitting back. Ness had left not too long ago to go get groceries, we're out of milk.
We're alone….
"Shut up." I travel through Twitter and other places as that stupid voice continues in my head.
I can hear you. I'm in your head. I hear every thought you have.
"Good." I continue traveling and soon wind up in my emails. "How'd...how did I get here?" I try to close the window but the x that I need to use doesn't work.
Open the email.
I continue to try and exit off the page again but...I can't. I stand up and grab the plug for the computer itself. I try to unplug it...but I can't. It's like stuck.
You have no choice. Open it.
"I...don't wanna."
Hmm, disobedience begets sadness. Disobey, and you'll lose the one thing that makes you happy.
Fuck. I sit back in my chair and see the email the voice is talking about. I gulp before clicking on it. Up comes...an image? It's a very creepy dog with very weird teeth. There's also a hand in the corner of the image...a hand that's surely covered in blood. I feel my spine shiver. "What the hell is this…"
Don't think. Just smile and pass it on.
"To who?"
It doesn't matter. If you don't pass it on soon, you can consider yourself dead.
I form a new email to the first person there, Young Link. "I'm sorry Young Link…" I email him the image and I hunch back. "What's going to happen to him?"
He'll die if he doesn't pass it on. Simple. If he keeps the train going, he'll be good.
"But eventually someone won't send it. Does that mean that I killed someone?"
Yes. But you should be used to that. You did kill poor Red.
…
My computer finally turns off. I stand up and sigh. I just can't think straight. Red...now potentially Young Link. My mind hasn't been right recently. I don't exactly know what it is. I've just been thinking a lot. Maybe I should talk to Ness about it.
Almost on cue, Ness walks in with the groceries. "Back, Luke, I made sure to get your sunflower seeds as well." I smile at him, but he knows me too well, so he sees something wrong almost instantly. He puts the bags down and runs over to me. "What's wrong?"
"I...I need to talk to you." Ness nods and escorts me to our bed. I sit there, feeling Ness's comforting hand on my back through the hoodie. I let out a sigh. "I...I killed Red."
"No you didn't, Luke, he committed suicide." I shake my head.
"He made him go through the Syndrome."
"The….the Syndrome?"
"The Lavender Town Syndrome. A-a person hears music s-so high pitched that it seems to h-haunt them. I-it uses the cries of the dead P-Pokemon to force the listener to drag themself down to hell...t-to die."
"Lucas…"
"I-I didn't want to turn it on! I-I was forced!" I can't lose. I can't. He's too important to me. I hug Ness tightly. "P-please forgive me." I can feel Ness's heart rate speed up. He's going to leave me. He's going to hate me. I hate this. But then I feel Ness's hand on my back. He's hugging me.
"It's ok. I've done my fair share of….bad things." I break the hug up and sniff.
"Y-you have?" Ness slowly nods his head.
"That Toby person you met the other day, yeah, he and I are acquainted. He was telling me to do stuff."
"Wh-what stuff?" Ness sighs.
"I needed to show some people some videos. Squidward's Suicide and Dead Bart. The watchers…"
"Didn't survive?" Ness slowly nods his head. He looks down at his hands. I decide to copy him. "What's going on with us?"
"Wanna know what's worse?"
"Hm?" Ness slowly looks at me. His face is confusing. It's sad but excited but also confused all at the same time.
"I don't know how I feel about it. I should be upset. I-I should be disappointed in myself...but I can't. I've….lost the feeling of regret. Of disappointment." I place my hand on Ness's leg and sigh.
"We're in the same boat." I lean in and kiss his cheek. I've been so focused on myself that I wasn't able to notice Ness and his struggles.
You two boys are important. I can't take the chance of losing you two. You two will truly begin your journey.
I break up the kiss and look into Ness's eyes. "What do you want to do about it, Ness?" I feel Ness's hand on my cheek.
"As long as we're together, I don't care what we do." I lean in and place my forehead on his.
"It's only going to hurt us to keep denying this. Maybe we're just sick. So Lucas?"
"Yeah?"
"Want to be sick with me?" I smile. I shouldn't be happy about this. I shouldn't be comfortable with this. But it's Ness. He's my forever. He's going through the same thing. Probably around the same time as me: the time we entered that store. I grab his hands and push him down onto the bed.
"I'd happily be sick with you."
Finally, accepting it? Finally accepting your true fate.
Yes. As long as Ness is ok. Yes. I will do whatever you want.
You and Ness are important. I won't put either of you in danger. I'm glad to have both of you. We're going to have some fun.
April 24th 20xx
I feel more at ease. Maybe it's because I finally accepted the voice's proposal...whatever it is. Since then, Ness and I have kind of waited for orders. I, of course, told him about the voice in my head. Nothing came, and we were able to live our life for a day, which felt nice. But now, we expect an order.
An order you shall get.
There it is. I get out of bed and head to the bathroom. Ness is there brushing his teeth, getting ready for the night. "Hey, guess what." Ness turns toward me with his toothbrush still in his mouth and the toothpaste bubbling around his mouth. "Finally got orders." Ness's eyes widen before spitting into the sink and washing his mouth out with water. He looks back and has a determined yet slightly worried look.
"And?"
"Not sure yet, he didn't tell me."
Ok. I'd like you two to research Polybius.
"Polybius?" I ask. Ness crosses his arms with a raised eyebrow.
"Sounds familiar." He walks out of the bathroom and to the computer. He turns it on and looks up Polybius in Moogle, which is the off-brand Google. Google sucks, they started charging people to use their service now, so Moogles created….Moogle. Surprised Google hasn't sued them.
Some things about Polybius instantly show up. Things about it being an old arcade game that can supposedly make people go insane and mind control them. Apparently, it's a government type of thing, which wouldn't surprise me if it's true. But assuming The Voice is telling us to look it up...it is true. However, the story gets a bit wonky. Some say the arcade game was confiscated and some say it's just missing.
It's just confiscated.
"And where is it?"
Tabuu's Office.
"Crap."
"What is it?" Ness asks as he looks at me.
"What do we need to do with Polybius?"
Take it. Put it back where it belongs. In the arcade. This is one of two things you need to do before seeing me….and before making your full transition. You want that, don't you?
"Yes."
Good. You'll have some help from someone you may already know.
There was then a knock at the door. I walk over to the door and open it. It's Toby. "Hey there, bud!" He wraps his arm around my neck and playfully punches my gut. "Got a call from the man himself to help you."
"Y-yeah, with getting Polybius and putting it back in the arcade."
"Oooh-ooh, a nice sneak-in and sneak-out mission, I rarely get on T-those!" he says with a slight tick.
"I wonder why." Ness walks over and feels a bit...jealous? I know that look on his face. Definitely jealousy. He grabs my hand and looks at Toby.
"Do you know how to get us in there?" he asks.
"Mhm. Tabuu's Office, I presume. Should be easy. As long as you guys don't mind a little….blood." I look at Ness and shrug.
"Hopefully it doesn't stain this hoodie you're so fond of," Ness says as he pinches my hoodie. I roll my eyes.
"Let's just go already."
The three of us walk and make it to City Hall. It's a big building near the center square of Ultimatum. Tabuu's office is the uppermost room in the place. It's usually guarded but the best guards in all of Ultimatum...Star Wolf. Toby knows a lot. He ticks a lot, but dammit is he a smart one.
That's why he's with you. Ticci Toby is a legend and a renowned killer. You'll learn a lot from him.
Ticci Toby? Kinda rude, but whatever.
Just don't call him Ticci Toby in front of him. May end up without a heart.
Point received. Toby steps forward and turns around, twitching. "Alright. So here's the plan…...we're going in and killing everyone in our way to get to the office."
"So much for the sneak-in and sneak-out," Ness sarcastically says.
"We're taking a big arcade game, not much sneaking can be done. We're not one of them Phantom Thieves." Toby turns back toward the building, pulling out a knife. "You two boys got your knives?" We nod, bringing out our knives. Here it goes. This is it. As soon as Ness and I enter this place, there's no going back. But...I'm not nervous. This hoodie is keeping me calm. Ness is keeping me calm. This feels right. I would've never thought I'd be doing this, but ever since Slenderman...things never felt right. Not until now. I look at Ness, and the look on his face told me he feels the same. I look forward and take in a sigh of the cool night air.
The three of us rush in and we instantly start slashing at people. The blood. I look down at the first person I killed. Toby walks over to me and pats my back. "First time."
"Physically? Yes."
"How does it f-feel?" I look down at my hand, now covered in blood, and the knife, really covered in blood. I shakily look back at Toby and bring on a shaky smile. Toby pats my back some more. "Enough said. He walks off, looking around for more people on the base floor. Ness walks over with a smile on his face.
"Lucas...I hope you liked that as good as I did." I grab Ness's hand and kiss his nose. I can't put into words how good that felt. It felt like every bad thing in my life was unleashed and put into the motion of swinging the knife into the man's body. It felt...so good.
"The only thing I like more than that is you." Ness giggles before licking my nose.
"I'll reward you later then."
"Hey, lovebirds, hurry. They notified the coppers," Toby yells from the elevator with a severed arm. The two of us run into the elevator as he activates the handprint scanner with the severed arm. He tosses it out as the doors close. The happy elevator music chimes.
"Will we need to kill Tabuu?"
"Nope. Tabuu is never here at this time."
You two are doing so well. I'm proud of you. Keep this up and you'll be working with us in no time.
Who is us…? You have a lot of secrets mysterious voice.
Secrets are what I do best. Just know, I've been watching you for a good while I saw potential in the two of you. A determination no previous person has had. So I spared you. I hope to see you again.
Spared? Giving me hints to who you are, huh?
I won't say.
Hmmm. Before I can think too far into it, the elevator stops and we make it to the top floor. The door doesn't open though. "Get close to the wall, you two, or else they'll see us," Toby says as he hides against the wall, out of view of anyone looking in from outside the elevator. Ness and I do the same. We wait there for a while, in complete silence. The silence is soon invaded by some footsteps, and the footsteps are close. Toby brings out his knife and soon two guards are in the doorway of the elevator. One is an orange dragon and the other is a bipedal pig. The pig is killed instantly, but the dragon, being bigger, makes him harder to kill. So I decide to help Toby out by slashing the knife against the tail, cutting it. And surprisingly, this kills the dragon instantly. I pant from the excitement. That felt….so good. Ness steps out of the elevator and smiles.
"Good job, Lucas." Toby simply gives me a thumbs-up before walking over to the door. He busts it down and motions for Ness and me to follow. We do so and make it into the room. The arcade game is right there. It's not even hidden. "This feels too good to be true." Toby nods his head in agreement.
"You two grab the machine. I'll be on the lookout." Ness and I nod as we walk over and lift the machine together. We begin walking out and into the elevator. So far so good. We take said elevator down. Again, pretty good so far. But then the doors open and there's…..no one. Wow. This is truly easy. We walk and we make it out of the building? Ok, this feels too easy.
Don't tell Ticci, but I had someone take care of any possible intruders.
I smile to myself as we walk as fast as we can to the nearest arcade. We walk through the surprisingly unlocked doors. We place the game into the corner and plug it in. Toby looks at us with a smile. "Well, first mission from the main man, and we did it with ease." He smiles before hugging me. I hear Ness clearing his throat loudly, making Toby break the hug up. He chuckles to himself. "Possessive much?" He chuckles some more before walking to the door. "Stay alert for your second job, boys. Never know what it might be." He chuckles before ticking and leaving. I look at Ness and grab his hands.
"I love you, Ness. Stop being so jealous." Ness rolls his eyes before lightly kissing my lips.
"I know, I just can't be without my boo." I chuckle before kissing him back.
"Let's get home before it's too late."
April 25th 20xx
I'm sitting on the couch, watching the news. They're going over my recent escapades. Ness and I, but mostly me, went out the past few days to see how killing feels when we do it under specific scenarios. My personal favorite is sneaking in and killing. I'm loving how the news is reporting on it. It seems my hoodie is more useful than I thought it was. If I have my hood up, it distorts the way I look. Making my face pitch black with red eyes and a red mouth. I see myself on the camera footage that's being used for the news and I can't help but laugh. And the name they made for me? Just perfect. It's like my secret identity, or my alter ego? It's one of the two. Either way, it's a nem I love. A name I'll go by from now on, when in my other mindset.
Hoodie.
Alright, Hoodie, how does that sound?
Perfect.
Ready for your next order?
Yes.
Spread the word….of Slenderman. Make sure people know that I exist.
Yes. I stand up and walk to the computer. So Slenderman? So all of that stuff with you was true?
Yes. That is when I saw the potential.
I smile before looking around on different forums. How should I spread the word? Just then, an image comes onto my screen. It's of Slenderman in the woods, with his tentacles out, and the fog in the forest is very heavy. At the bottom of the photo are the words "Believe. Believe. Believe." Are you sure this is the best image? Has the whole "I believe" things with aliens, those don't really work.
It doesn't work on you, because you've already succumbed to my influence. Haven't you ever thought about why Ness brought you to the forest in the first place? He saw this image.
So it works? Very….intriguing. I save the image and start sending them in the many forums I found. Most of them, of course, don't fit the image. There are some horror-based forums I send it in, but they still hold the same influence I suppose. Right after sending it, the screen blacks out and white messy letters appear on the screen, forming the sentence, "See me. The end of the month."
Ness instantly walks in and closes the door. "Hey, Luke, imma need you to run my clothes through the washer." He walks over to my side and sees the screen. "What is it?"
"Slenderman. I did the final thing. He wants to see us." I look at him and see blood on his clothes. I roll my eyes. "You're so messy. Be more clean, like me."
"I like being a little….dirty," he winks. There he goes. No matter how, some may say, maniacal we've gotten, he's still the same old Ness I met all those years ago. I stand up and kiss him on the lips.
"Go put your own clothes in the washer. Then come back. I may lose the hoodie," I say with my own wink. Ness's eyes beam with excitement as he runs off saying…
"I LOVE AFTER KILL SEX!" I giggle to myself before looking at the screen.
"See you soon….Master."
April 30th 20xx
Ness and I make it to the forest. The look is the same as I remember it. I look at Ness. He's anxious. I can tell by the look on his face. However, we're not alone for long. Two people join us. One is Toby, the other is someone else we recognize. It's Jeff, from the store. He looks at us and giggles. "W-welcome!" He sounds much more maniacal than he did back then.
"Jeff?" Ness questions.
"Y-Yup!"
"I should've known." The four of us look into the forest. Toby and Jeff step into it. Toby looks back at us.
"Hurry up. The Man doesn't like w-waiting." He continues into the mist. I look at Ness and gulp.
"You ready?"
"Yeah, let's go." Ness grabs my hand and we walk into the forest. The mist instantly surrounds us and the imposing feeling of being watched comes back from the last time we were here. I tense up a bit, but the effects of my hoodie help me calm down. We continue through the forest, following far behind Jeff and Toby. We do this for a while before finally making it to a very large tree. Jeff and Toby turn toward us before walking off.
"Welcome…." A dark and ominous voice came from the tree. I take a sudden step back as Ness and I look up at the tree. "It's been a while…" Soon enough, he appears. Slenderman. He's tall, his tentacles are waving behind him, and his white face is looking down at us. "I'm glad you two made it. Hoodie, and Ness, from now on. I…am your Master."
"Will he and I still be able to stay together?" Ness asks. He's so sweet.
"Yes. As long as you do as you're told, I don't care what you do in your free time." He hugs me and I hug back. We were worried we'd need to split, thank goodness we won't need to. "Now then. Ready for your first order?" The two of us look up at him. That weird feeling of being watched is no longer here. Master is no longer looking at us negatively. We are one of him. We are his subjects. We will do anything….for him. No matter what it is….we were made for this. Ness doesn't have a cool alter ego like I have. But, from now on, I will be known as Hoodie. And I'll make sure I'm known all over Ultimatum, and I'm sure Master will get me there.
"Yes, Master," the two of us say as we are filled with a new purpose. To serve…Slenderman.