I sprint into the woods, hearing the growl of the glitch fade away behind me. Running is not my thing, and I suck at it, but I push my legs to go faster than I knew they could go as my feet get cut up by the rocks and twigs on the ground. It hurts. It hurts, but I fight through it.

I suddenly begin to hear footsteps in the forest following after me. Oh no, he's chasing me. I try to pick up the pace, but I can still hear him gaining on me. This is bad. Really bad. My feet can't take me any faster.

I begin to run out of breath and my legs grow weak beneath me, and soon I'm running on pure adrenaline, but that comes to a hurdling stop (literally) when I trip over a rock, sending me tumbling onto the ground, doing somersaults on the dirt. Finally, when I come to a stop, my head is spinning too much for me to see straight, but I still stand up and try to run again, only for me to fall back down. I still try to stand up again, but a weight holds me down. I open my eyes (which I don't recall closing) and see three glitches pinning me to the ground, all out of breath like I am. When did they get on top of me?

I blink a few times, my vision settling back to normal, allowing me to realize that there's only one glitch on top of me. Still, I panic. It's hopeless. There is no escape from here. My eyes start to water. I won't get to say goodbye to Snickers. "Please, please don't kill me. I'll do anything!" I plead. He growls at me, clearly irritated. Why is he irritated? He told me to run! He also told me to say goodbye, so I just did as he told me to!

After my words click in his head, he stops growling, as a devious grin is formed on his face. "Anything?" He repeats. I nod my head vigorously. He considers it for a few seconds, then his smirk grows even wider. "Alright. You'll become my own personal proxy." He says.

Proxy? What's that? "What in the world is a proxy?" I ask, afraid of the answer.

"It's sort of like a slave, but not as extreme." He says with a shrug.

A servant, huh? I can do that. As long as he doesn't make me his... let's call it a 'love buddy', I'll be fine. Being a slave would be better than dying. Wait, don't I want to die? Do I? Well, I guess I want to live long enough to see how this plays out. I guess I'll say yes then.

"Okay, deal. I'll be your proxy, or whatever it's called." I say.

His grin grows even bigger as a small chuckle escapes his lips. "Alright!" He stands to his feet, then extends his hand to me to help me stand. This guy thinks he can try to kill me one second, then be a gentleman the next? That's bull crap! Still, I accept his offer and he pulls me up to my feet. Goodness, I'm such a pushover. "Let's head off to the mansion then!" He exclaims, but stops in his tracks, turning around. "Wait, I left my sword at the house."

He starts to walk back in the direction of my house, but I don't move. I'm too shocked by everything that happened just now. I just became someone's slave because they tried to kill me. I just became someone's slave because they tried to kill me. This is absurd. My head starts to feel fuzzy and light, but not in a pleasant way, when suddenly a voice calls out to me. "Hey, what's the hold up? C'mon, let's go!" A hand grabs hold of mine, then starts pulling me forward. I don't fight it. What's going on?

"Hey, (y/n), snap out of it." The voice says. I shake my head awake and look up to see the glitch staring down into my eyes. He's taller than me, I now notice. His eyes have stopped bleeding, and his irises have gone back to a normal size. He has messy blond hair that falls over his face quite nicely and a cute round nose. He's actually pretty cute. It's such a shame that he's insane and tried to kill me. Otherwise I'd probably be attracted to him. Heck, who knows. Maybe I will be attracted to the glitch someday.

That reminds me; I don't know his name. "What's your name? I'm (y/n)." I say.

"(Y/n), I already know your name. I've addressed you with it like ten times already." He says, turning away and continuing to drag me along back to my house. "The name's BEN Drowned, but you can call me Ben." He says. BEN Drowned? That's such a strange name.

I look down and realise he's holding my hand. "Why are we holding hands?" I ask bluntly.

He stops in his tracks and turns around again. "We are not holding hands. I'm dragging you around because you weren't moving and I don't trust you enough yet to know you won't run away."

"Fair enough." I say, still slightly out of it.

He just stares at me confused. "What's wrong with you? Are you high or something?" He asks. I blink. He sighs and continues to pull me along back to my house.

Not long after, we arrive at my house. Ben walks in and drags me in after him, letting go of my hand as soon as we step inside. He picks his sword up off the ground, then swings it over his shoulders, turning back around to face me. "Want to pack a bag or something? You're not going to be coming back here any time soon, if ever." He says. My eyes widen with shock at this. Why wouldn't I be allowed to come back? Do I have to stay with him at that mansion he mentioned?

"Okay." I reply, making my way to the stairs and up to my room. I'll just pack a small bag of clothes or something, nothing too big. I hear Ben follow me up the stairs, which I can understand why. As he said earlier, he doesn't want me running away.

I hope Ben's nice to me.

"By the way, where's that dog of yours?" I remain silent. "Oh, I won't kill it. That was only gonna happen if I killed you, which I didn't end up doing, so you don't need to worry."

"Are you still planning on killing me?" I ask, fear lacing my voice as I change the subject. I don't want to die anymore.

"Nah, course not. You're my proxy, after all, right? As long as you're good, I won't kill ya. I'll even protect you from the others. Is that fair?" He asks with a small smile. Others? what does he mean by that? And why would I need to be protected from them? Despite my confusion, I nod, not being able to help the relieved smile that comes onto my face. At least he'll protect me.

I walk into my room and see Snickers waiting for me on my bed, wagging his tail as he jumps off and comes to greet me. I sit down on my knees and pet his head.

(Y/n) walks into her room and smiles staring at an empty space on her bed. I walk into her room after her, instantly being hit with a sweet, homy smell. It smells girly, but it kinda smells nice. I close my eyes and take a deep breath through my nose, taking in the scent. I come to the conclusion that I like it.

"Hi, Snickers! Who's a good boy?" I hear (y/n) say, so I turn down and look at her excitedly, happy to see her dog. Though I hate to admit it, I love dogs. My fellow proxies tease me about my love of dogs, saying that it's cute and adorable, things I don't want to be, but I think (y/n) would appreciate it if I was nice to her pup, so I'll let myself be outwardly happy this once. Now that she's my own proxy, I have to take care of her, after all. And I don't want to be a prick like Slenderman, so I'll be nice to her. But only a little bit.

I look down eagerly, but, there is no dog. (Y/n) just pets the empty air, calling it a good boy and snuggling up to it. My lord, that's creepy. Is she insane? There's no dog! "(Y/n), I don't see a dog anywhere." I mutter.

She looks up at me with a sad expression. "What do you mean? He's right here!" She says, then turns back and pets nothing again. This is frickin' creepy. I look around more and see a faint blood stain on the carpet in the middle of her room. What the...

"(Y/n), hurry and pack your things. I'm running late." I lie. I just want to get out of here.

"Okay. Then could you play with Snickers while I pack, please? I don't want him to get bored." She says, standing up and walking to her closet. Aw crap. I give a nervous chuckle as I sit down on the floor, pretending to pet some sort of dog. This is crazy. I mean, if I put up a fight, she'd probably get upset and I'd have to kill her. It would be a shame to kill such a pretty girl, but it's also a shame that she's freaking crazy! There is no dog here!

I look up at (y/n) and see her packing several different types of clothes into a small backpack, along with some small pouch and a hairbrush. She puts them away with such care that I would think they were precious items to her. Though she may be crazy, she seems to be a gentle person. Well, actually, she freaking crushed my hand when I crawled out of her laptop. But, hey, she was scared. Oh boy, I can't wait until she sees everyone at the mansion. If I scare her, she's going to freak out. That will be hilarious.

Seems like she's almost done packing. "Hey, Ben?" She says, turning around to face me. Her voice still has a quiver in it. She's still scared of me. How cute.

"Yeah?"

"Since I live with just Snickers, I haven't really found the need to change clothes too often, so I've been wearing these for a while and I want to change. Could you turn around?" She asks. I reluctantly nod my head and turn around, covering my eyes too for good measure. I kinda want to see...

"So, why do you live alone?" I ask, trying to get my mind off the topic.

"My parents left me a few months ago to start a new life somewhere else. They just left me here, and I didn't get a choice." She says bluntly.

My eyes widen. How terrible. "Do you know why they left?" I ask.

She hesitates before she answers. "I think they were scared of me." She says.

My head tilts in confusion. Why would they be scared of her? Other than pretending to have a dog, she seems normal to me. Well, maybe the reason they were scared is the same as the reason behind that bloodstain... "Why?" I question.

She hesitates once more. "They accused me of killing Snickers."

Accused, huh? I think I see what's going on here. (Y/n) killed her own dog, but regrets it and can't cope with it being gone, so she pretends it's still here. That's actually pretty sad.

Hm, she has potential to be an actual proxy.

"I'm sorry they said that, (y/n)." I mutter. I hear her shuffle and she stops moving, so I hesitantly turn around to see her. She wears a loose tank top and some short denim shorts. Holy fu—

"You're the first person to actually believe me. Thank you, Ben." She says with a sad smile. I smile nervously back at her, hoping she didn't notice me looking anywhere but her eyes.

I turn around and he slowly does the same. I would have hid myself, but I was decently clothed, somewhat. A tank top and shorts wasn't the most modest of clothes and I wasn't completely done changing, but I was decent enough for him to see me, but as soon as his eyes come across me, his face grows red as he looks me down. Well, geez. I hope he wasn't hoping to be discreet about it. Still, I pretend to not notice it. "You're the first person to actually believe me. Thank you Ben." I smile at him. He gives a nervous smile in return.

I turn around and pull a (f/c) sweater over my head, then swing my backpack over my shoulder. "Well, I just have to say goodbye to Snickers, then we can head out."

I sit on my knees and pat my legs, calling Snickers over my direction. He sprints over from Ben's side and jumps onto my lap happily, trying to lick my face. I giggle and push him off of me, then squish his tiny face between my hands, making his fur fluff up and go in crazy directions. "I'm sorry, buddy. I'm leaving you. You be a good boy, okay?" His tail stops wagging as my eyes flood with tears. I'm going to miss him. One of the tears falls off my face, and he goes to lick it off, but he must miss the tear because it still rolls down my cheek and hits the floor. "I love you, Snickers." I take off his collar, setting it aside on the ground and scratching his neck. He leans into my hand as his tail starts to wag again. I smile, cupping his face in my hands again as I kiss his furry head.

I stand up and walk over to my nightstand, grabbing the collar Snickers wore right before my parents left, and I hold onto it firmly in my hand before stuffing it into my backpack. I hear him bark behind me. I turn around and see him jumping up on Ben's legs excitedly, his tail wagging rapidly as Ben stares down at him. That's weird... Snickers doesn't usually like people. It's rare for him to like anyone.

"He likes you." I say with a smile.

Ben looks up at me with a confused expression. "Hm?" He asks.

"Snickers. He likes you. He usually doesn't like people, so it's weird to see him jumping all over your legs with his tail wagging so much." I say with a small giggle. No matter the situation, Snickers can always cheer me up. It's probably good that Snickers is with me right now, otherwise I would probably still be freaking out.

"Oh, I see." Ben says, then he squats down and pets Snickers. He licks Ben's hand as his tail wags uncontrollably. Ben smiles. "I'm glad he does."

(Word count: 2546)