Word Count : 1236

Warnings : Horror

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The silence was suffocating yet comforting at the same time.

But it wasn't so comforting when everything suddenly became so painful. The slightest movement caused pain to strike through every nerve and through every limb. It felt like the silence was tearing at his soul, trying to burrow into his chest.

Everything felt so heavy. Then everything ignited at once.

He was lying on the dirty forest ground, laying on his back. Immediately the blond shot up and scanned his surroundings.

After mere seconds of searching, Grian saw him.

Standing a small ways from Grian's flatmate was the little boy. Standing with his arms swinging back and forth together in a nice pattern. His bright blue, and very dead looking eyes practically boaring into Grian's chest as he stood with a disturbing sense of calm. His pale lips formed into a confused frown. "Are you alright, mister?" The young one questioned.

Grian could already feel himself shaking, but he couldn't get himself to move away. He had to get Iskall. He couldn't just leave his flatmate here.

The blond little boy continued to stare down the young blond adult as he pathetically crawled towards the other brown haired male.

Once Grian had reached his friend, he shook Iskall's closest shoulder. "Iskall! Iskall!" Grian called. Quickly but carefully rolling Iskall over to inspect for damage or harm.

But there was nothing.

There was no blood. There were no wounds. There weren't any scratches or bruises or huge scars. Iskall looked normal.

Grian let out a few shaky breaths, trying to keep from hyperventilating. He then shakily turned his head back slightly to the little boy who had not taken his eyes off him. "Wha-t. . . Di-d. . . You. . . D-o. . ?"

The young boy cocked his head in an innocent way. "What do you mean?" He asked, as if he expected for Grian to already know.

Grian swallowed, licking his lips before replying more firmly. "What. Did. You. Do."

The boy frowned but replied with an eyeroll. "Uh, duh! You died! So I resurrected you and your friend."

Grian choked at the sentence. It was harsh and cold, yet to the point. He was about to retort but he stopped when Iskall open his eyes in his peripheral vision.

"Iskall!" Grian said aloud in major relief.

The brown haired man let out a string of coughs as the shorter man helped him sit up right. "Grian?" He croaked out.

Grian went and embraced his flatmate, hugging him tightly. He couldn't help his trembling, but he could breathe a minor sigh of relief.

Iskall strained, patting Grian's back. "Grian please- air! I need air-"

Grian flinched, quickly pulling back. "Sorry! Sorry!"

Iskall sucked in several deep breaths. He put a hand to his chest, not exactly feeling right. "Where are we? What happened?"

Grian visibly tensed up as he quickly turned around on his knees to face the little boy again.

But no one was there.

It was just the two flatmates sitting on the forest floor as if they were frightened by something imaginary.

"Gri? You alright?"

"That kid! The one that attacked us! He was right here a second ago. Where did he-" Grian cut off mid-sentence.

The two both rose to their feet, cautiously scanning their surroundings.

Iskall searched himself for his gun, but he came up empty handed. "My gun. It's gone."

Grian did the same range of actions with the same results. "So is mine. The kid must have taken them when we..."

"When we what?"

Grian frowned. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. What happened? What did that-that kid even do to us?"

Iskall scoffed. "Can it even be counted as a kid?"

Grian ignored the retort and pointed in the direction of Valley Hills. "Let's just get back to town so you can report this in your police files thing."

Iskall sighed walked at Grian's side back to town.

"You're going the wrong way."

Grian jumped, which caused Iskall to also jump. The shorter man turned to his friend. "I didn't just hear that? Did you?"

Iskall didn't respond as he turned around.

"Grian!" Iskall suddenly shouted, grabbing onto the shorter man's forearm.

Yelping in startlement, Grian spun around. "What?!" Grian saw nothing. "What?!" He demanded.

Iskall's eyes had gone wide as he stuttered. "I-I- He- the kid- thing! He was behind us just a second ago!"

Grian clung onto his flat mate's wrist, slowly doing a 180° turn.

Was the air this cold before?

Where did this fog come from?

That's when Grian saw them.

Two figures stood a ways down the path. They were obscured by the weird fog that had suddenly blown in which prevented Grian from identifying specific features. One figure was shorter than the other. The two appeared to be holding hands.

And they absolutely appeared to be getting closer.

"You can't go this way."

"Turn back."

"You're going the wrong way, dummy."

"No going back."

"You're stuck."

"You're one of us."

Grian could feel himself sway. His head started to pound and it felt like strong winds were blowing past his ears. All other noise was starting to be drowned out.

Iskall, who was facing the other way, was seemingly frozen where he was.

"You don't have much of a choice."

"I'm sorry."

"We need an army."

"Entity 135 is growing stronger."

"Help us."

"No going back."

"One of us."

"One of us."

"One of us."

One of them.

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Sun peeked through the wooden window blockers. The warmth of it caused Grian to open his eyes. His eyes met the same wooden ceiling.

Letting out a sigh, Grian sat up. The bed creaked from the shift of weight but Grian didn't notice it. Not anymore.

Rising to his feet from off the bed and onto the floor, Grian dressed himself before walking out of his room, walking into the familiar winding mansion hallways.

Mindlessly, and half awake, Grian walked towards the dining room.

The dining room was of course; as usual- filled with chatter by Iskall, Wels and Mumbo. Along with the occasional comments from Xisuma and Hypno.

Grian walked in and slid into a seat beside Mumbo as Iskall finished telling a story of his.

The empty eyed proxy, Wels, looked at Grian. "Bout time you got up."

Grian raised his hands up defensively. "I'm still getting use to the 'sleep whenever you need to' cycle. Ok?"

Hypno was simply staring at a piece of toast as he commented. "Maybe get use to it faster?" He suggested. (True bruh moment)

Iskall merely laughed as Mumbo giggled.

Mumbo looked at the other blond haired man with his dull blue eyes. "Well; I'm just glad that your up now. How'd you sleep?"

"Apparently well, since he was still out like a dead light when I first checked on him." Iskall stated, beating Grian to the punch.

Grian went and gave Iskall a friendly punch in the arm. "Dude!" He stressed playfully.

Iskall laughed; ignoring the Mini assault.

Xisuma snapped his fingers, looking up at the two. "No rough housing at the diner table." He said with a small smile. (Yes I meant to say 'diner')

Grian and Iskall both managed to calm down as small talk continued.

Grian spaced off mostly, but he did pipe up when talk got imteresting.

Yep. This was normal.

Completely normal.

Right?

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Fin