(I know, I said I was gonna wait until after the Blue Whale challenge and stuff to update, but now that I've learned more about it, it's not that bad. It's only in America, most of them are trolls, and they can only get your IP if you click a link, IPs don't give your exact location, they won't actually travel to you, it's just a threat. I hope you enjoy this, it's not as good as I hoped it would be, but I did cry a lot of times.)

The group of trolls all turned to see the source of the new voice that had joined them.

Standing before them was Branch, Biggie, and Rose, who weren't even aware who they were about to save.

The cats took a look at Rose and then ran away, scared of her from the last visit. "That's right, you better fear me!"

"And stop attacking people!" Biggie shouted after the cats.

"That was easier than I expected." Branch wiped the sweat off his forehead and turned to see who was there.

The first thing he saw was Poppy's sparkling eyes. Even in the darkness he could spot her from anywhere. "POPPY!?"

"BRANCH?!" Poppy gasped and tackled him to the ground, squeezing him in to a super tight hug. "I THOUGHT I'D NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!"

Branch was crying all over her dress, but neither of them cared. He hugged her back, just as tight. He didn't care it hurt him to do so, he was so happy he was finally reunited with her. "ME TOO!"

Mandy rushed up to Rose, "I-I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

"Almost." Rose chuckled and pulled Mandy into a hug.

Verdana and Acorn joined their hug, sobbing just as much.

Guy and Biggie hugged each other normally, since they saw each other earlier.

"I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" Poppy kept tightening her grip on Branch, "I don't want to lose you ever again!"

"And you won't." Branch held her hand with his good arm, "I'm never leaving your side."

Poppy squealed and kept hugging him, "I'm never gonna stop hugging you."

"I'm fine with that." Branch sighed and continued to embrace her.

"What now?" Biggie was ready to go home, assuming that Poppy and Guy knew the way.

"We have to wait for Ash, Creek, and Archer." Guy explained.

Branch and Biggie looked disappointed, but nodded, "Okay.."

"So we're staying here?" Rose fell against a tree trunk and stretched, "Finally, I can catch up on some sleep!"

Branch continued snuggling with Poppy. Within seconds, he fell asleep. He was exhausted. He hasn't technically slept in days. He's passed out due to blood loss, but he hasn't really slept.

Poppy smiled and cuddled with him, playing with his hair, "Good night."

Everyone seemed to fall asleep immediately. For the first time, nothing negative was going on. Everything was calm and peaceful. They were reunited, they were asleep, and there was no danger nearby—

"Psst."

—But of course, in this book no peace is allowed.

"Psst." Someone was calling for one of them. "Psst."

No one moved at all, everyone stayed asleep.

The hiding troll groaned, "Branch!" He whisper shouted.

Branch continued to sleep, snoring slightly louder than he was before.

"Ugh," He groaned and wrapped their hair around Branch's waist, pulling him away from Poppy and dragging him into the bushes.

"WAH-" Branch woke up quickly and looked around, "WHAT'S-"

"Shh!" He covered Branch's mouth with his finger.

The troll that was trying to gain Branch's attention was Creek.

Branch shrieked and backed into a tree, "Don't kill me, please!"

"I'm not going to!" Creek held his hands up, showing he wasn't holding anything to injure Branch, "I wanted to apologize!"

"W-What?" Branch looked up at Creek, confused. The troll had tried to kill him due to jealousy and he was just going to apologize?

"I'm really sorry- I don't know what was wrong with me that night. I never would do something like that." Creek genuinely looked sorry, but Branch didn't buy it.

"But, you still did it." Branch has never trusted Creek, and this situation made him lose any more trust in the jealous troll. "You expect me to just forgive you for trying to kill me, because me and Poppy have a closer relationship?" Branch scoffed and started to walk away.

Creek's sincere expression faded away and became a scowl. He grabbed Branch's right wrist and dragged him back.

Branch winced and pulled his arm away.

Creek noticed Branch's pain, "What's wrong with your arm?" He stared at it and noticed the weird angle Branch had it at, "Is it broken?"

"Yeah.. a tree flew into me.." Branch rubbed it and looked down.

Creek smirked and gripped Branch's forearm, sending him more agonizing pain. He covered Branch's mouth to prevent him from waking the others up. "Forgive me, mate, please. I don't want Poppy finding out about any of this."

Branch shook his head. As soon as he went back, he was going to tell Poppy.

Creek gave Branch a death stare, the stare that fills Branch with anxiety and makes him feel kind of hopeless.

"If I don't tell anyone, will you let go?"

"Yes."

Branch sighed and nodded, "Fine, I won't tell anyone." He was lying, of course. He needed to tell Poppy or Biggie.

"Pinky promise?" Creek let go and held out his pinky.

Branch stared at Creek for a few seconds, "No way!" He quickly ran back through the woods to the others. "GUYS! GUYS! GUYS!"

Everyone quickly sat up and looked at him, concerned.

"Branch, what's wrong? Where were you?" Poppy immediately hugged him. It was bright enough for them to see each other.

Branch stroked the scratch on Poppy's cheek, smiling a cute, small smile.

Poppy looked down at Branch's hands. The broken one was swollen, "What happened?"

"Tree, spiders, Creek," Branch shrugged and pulled up his shorts, showing the deep cut on his leg. "Creek again."

"WHAT?" Poppy got on the ground and brushed the wound, "Creek did this? B-But when- a-and-"

Creek ran through the bushes, out of breath, "BRA-" He noticed all the faces staring at him. "O-Oh, 'ello mates.."

"Creek.." Poppy looked disappointed in him. "I gave you a second chance after you made a huge mistake, and you make an even bigger one." She pointed at the cut, "Why?"

"I-I-" Creek glared at Branch for a second and made an over dramatic whimpering sound, "Branch had attacked me first, it was self defense. He didn't give me any scars, but I cut him. I apologized to him and he insulted me!"

They all stopped worrying about Branch and ran to comfort Creek, "Aww.."

"Branch, how could you?" Biggie hugged Creek. "Is that what you did when you snuck out that night? Tried to kill Creek?"

"HE'S LYING! HE SAW ME AND TRIED TO KILL ME BECAUSE OF POPPY AND I'S RELATIONSHIP!" Branch covered his mouth and looked at Poppy who's face turned red.

"Our relationship? But we- we're just- we're friends- right?" It hurt Poppy to call Branch just a friend, but it was the right term at that time, right?

She didn't know it hurt Branch even more though. His big heart felt like it was shot with a bullet.

"Y-Yeah.. just friends.." Branch hugged himself and turned away.

His shoulder angel and devil popped up on his shoulders.

"Tell her how you feel!" The devil shouted in Branch's ear.

"No, it's not a good time! Wait until tomorrow when things calm down!" The angel perched on Branch's other ear and patted his head.

Branch just looked up at the two. He was just getting more confused on what to do.

"This is a great moment! Make Creek super jealous and get a girlfriend in the mean time!" The devil argued.

Branch liked that idea and looked up at his devil side with a sinister grin.

The angel shook it's head, "No! Maybe you should've forgiven Creek and put this in the past, despite him being a dirty, lying, slimy, suspicious, son of a—"

Branch fanned the angel side away and gave a finger bump to the devil side then rejoined the debate. "Poppy, there's something I've wanted to tell you for a long time- like twenty years."

"Really?" Poppy's eyes widened.

"I've always loved you- a lot!" He quickly blurted it out, grinning wide.

Poppy's eyes widened even more. She didn't respond, she remained silent. She was just shocked. "Oh."

Creek's jaw dropped.

"Oh? Is that good or bad?" Branch nervously smiled.

"Branch.. I cared about you a lot too.. but right now isn't the time and I'm questioning the feelings now considering the fact you might've attempted to  kill Creek when he did nothing wrong." She awkwardly patted his back and excused herself to head back to sleep.

"Brutal." Creek and Branch's shoulder devil said at the same time.

Branch threw his shoulder devil at Creek, (obviously not hurting Creek at all, it was a figment of his imagination) "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"Good." Creek smirked and crossed his arms.

"I wish I just died there." Branch hugged his knees and cried into them. He loved Poppy more than anything else in the world and now she'd never have feelings for him again.

"Yeah.." Creek agreed, but if Branch did die, Poppy would still love him, so this was just a win situation for Creek. "Have fun." He followed Poppy to cuddle.

Biggie and Guy sat next to Branch and gave him a huge hug. They believed him.

"Don't worry, she'll believe you soon. She can't stay away from you for long." Guy assured, "You two loved each other more than anyone else."

"I don't want to lose her though.. she's the only person I had left. I don't want to end up in that depressed state again.." Branch cried in to Guy's shoulder and hugged the two tighter.

"You have us." Biggie pointed at himself and smiled.

"Yeah.." Branch lightly laughed and hugged them again.

On the outside, he was okay again, but deep down, he just wanted to cry his heart out and die. There were no words to describe how much he loved Poppy. She was the closest he had to a family, but she might leave him. He didn't want to repeat losing a family member and turning gray again. He couldn't go through it again, especially over Poppy.

It'll end happily, right?

(SORRY THAT WAS LONG AND BAD I MEANT TO PUBLISH YESTERDAY BECAUSE THE ONE YEAR DELETING THE ORIGINAL BOOK ANNIVERSARY WAS YESTERDAY BUT I DIDN'T FINISH IN TIME!)