"Train you?" Kate asks. Toby stands up curiously and joins her by the door to stare at me confused.

"Yes. Slenderman is turning me into his proxy as well," I answer, trying to ignore all the feelings still boiling inside me from my fight with Ben. I need to do better at hiding them if I don't want to worry Kate and Toby, or at least if I don't want them to ask me about it.

Kate and Toby both stare at me wide eyed, obviously shocked.

"Hon-honestly, I thought Slenderman was gonna kill you when-when he got home. I-I've thought that since the moment we met you," Toby reveals. I don't know how to feel about that.

I huff a laugh. "Were you only being my friend out of pity then?" I ask jokingly.

"Yeah, kin-kinda," he answers, embarrassed and scratching the back of his neck. That felt like a punch to the gut. Was this all fake too?

"But I'm really glad we did, and I'm really glad that you're alive now," Kate chimes in worriedly. "I'm sorry we weren't genuine at first, but we are now and we're really glad to have you make us a trio instead of a duo," she finishes with a sheepish grin.

Although I am shocked that they were faking it at first, I'm just glad that they're genuine now and that they're my friends. I guess I can't look a gift horse in the mouth, so I should just take what I can get.

"It's okay, that actually makes a lot of sense," I laugh, trying to brush the seriousness off of the conversation and myself. "But anyways, I need to train in combat, killing, everything. Slenderman said that once I can prove myself to be useful as a proxy that he'll let me see my family and that he'll let me stop being Ben's proxy."

Kate furrows her brows at me, seemingly trying to read me. I think she can tell something is up, but before she can ask, Toby cheers.

"Yay! This'll be fun!" He pulls an axe out of god knows where and begins running down the hallway to the stairs. "Let's go!" He calls to us. Kate chuckles before stepping into the hallway to call him back.

"We gotta give her a weapon first, doofus! Come back!"

.:*'*:._.:*'*:._.:*'*:.

They lead me to a room in the basement and flick on the lights, revealing a medium sized room with different sorts of weapons hung up on all four walls, along with tables with arrays of smaller weapons laid out on them.

What the—

"What are you used to-to using?" Toby asks, and Kate elbows him, making him laugh. "What?"

"She isn't used to using anything dingus, she hasn't killed anything before, right (y/n)?" She says, looking toward me.

I swallow. "No, I haven't killed anything."

"Then you're a blank slate. What kind of weapon would you like to use?" Kate asks me, gesturing to all the weapons in the room. All of the weapons look sharp, dangerous, and scary. I don't want to use any of them. I walk over to the table of small weaponry, telling myself that the smaller the weapon is, the less lethal it'll be.

My gaze traces each of the weapons laid out before me. Daggers, shurikens, throwing knives, scalpels, hammers, nails, and more. I pick up the throwing knives, thinking that they would be the easiest to use since they're a long distance weapon. I wouldn't have to get close to the target to kill them, which I don't think my psyche could handle. I pick up three throwing knives and show them to Kate and Toby, expecting them to comment something along the lines of 'nice choice'.

"Interesting, but you'll need a close combat weapon too," Kate comments casually, as if that was common knowledge. "It's good to have a close range and a long range way of attacking."

"But neither of you have long range weapons...?" I say, recalling only seeing Toby with hatchets and Kate with knives or a machete.

Suddenly, I feel something slide right by my face, barely missing my skin. I freeze in panic, then look to my right where the weapon landed. A hatchet sticks in the wall perfectly between two old fashion swords.

"I-I can throw my hatchets really accurately. I can use them f-for short and long range," Toby says. I look at him and find him with his arm extended in the direction of my face. He threw that at me?!

"God, are you trying to kill me?!" I cry. He and Kate laugh as he walks over and pulls the hatchet out of the wall.

"If I- if I wanted to kill you, I would have," he says. Ben said the same thing a while ago. I guess they both are murderers, so it's no wonder they'd both say that.

"Hey (y/n), what do you think of this?" Kate asks, handing me a machete like hers. I can't imagine using a blade to attack someone up close. It's too messy and gruesome.

I wouldn't want to stain the carpet again.

"Uh, no thanks, that's not really my type of... murder weapon..." I answer, gently pushing it away. She shrugs and puts it back on the wall.

I walk around and consider all the weapons, but the only non-bladed weapons are either covered in spikes or are long range, that is until I come across a steel baseball bat. I pick it up and find it to be heavier than I thought. It feels solid, not hollow like I expected. Despite that, it feels natural in my hands. And it's not a blade so hopefully it won't be as bloody.

"I like this one," I announce. They both run over to inspect the bat closer.

"Oooh, you're brutal! I like it," Kate says with a smirk and an approving head nod. Brutal? How? I thought this would be less brutal.

"Wait, I—"

"Okay! Now that that's settled, we go train!" Toby cheers, pumping his hatchets in the air. I flinch away from the weapon while Kate pulls out a freaking machete from her boot and copies him.

How did she fit a whole machete in there?!

.:*'*:._.:*'*:._.:*'*:.

We walk into the woods again to begin our training. I notice that the sun is about an hour or two away from setting , which hopefully means we won't be out here long since the visibility will go down.

We walk far enough away from the mansion that we can't see it anymore, then Kate spins around with her arm reached out toward me and I hear a thud behind me. It isn't until after I jump from the sound and the suddenness in her movements that I feel the stinging sensation on my cheek, then the blood that drips down my face. I turn around and see a throwing knife stuck in the trunk of a tree, then turn back to face Kate. My fingers find their way to the pain on my cheek and I find a thin but deep cut in my skin.

Did she throw that knife at me?

Are they trying to kill me now?

Was all that talk about them genuinely liking me a lie, and now they're going to kill me since Slenderman didn't?

Did they lead me out into the forest just to kill me?

"Okay, so your reflexes suck," Kate notes, walking towards me. I take a step back away from her, but she just walks right past me to the tree and pulls her blade out of the trunk.

"W... what...?" I ask, barely able to find my voice.

"Sorry," Kate says with an apologetic grin, walking up to me and handing me a Hello Kitty bandaid that she pulls out of...

Guess where.

Her boot.

"Thanks..." I say, looking down at the bandaid, trying not to think of the possibility of there being foot sweat on it. Also, I don't think a little bandaid will cover up a cut this big and this deep.

Kate studies my body. "Hmm, judging by the look of things, you don't seem too strong either—"

"Wait, wait a minute. What the heck was that for?!" I exclaim, motioning to the bleeding cut on my cheek.

She blinks. "Oh, don't worry, it's a clean cut so it'll heal fine."

"That's—that's not what I'm worried about! That hurt!

Toby walks up to me and pulls out a rag from his pocket, offering it to me to use to wipe up the blood on my face. I accept the offer but make sure to avoid touching the cloth to the cut itself. I don't know where this has been, and I don't want to infect the cut.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I kind of forgot that you're not used to this kind of stuff. My bad," Kate says, wiping her knife off on her pant leg.

"Just be thankful that-that it wasn't one of my hatchets," Toby jokes, accepting the cloth back from me and shoving it back into his pocket.

Kate walks up and sighs, placing her hand on my shoulder. Toby sighs too, putting his hands on his hips. "Pal, I'm sorry to say this..." she starts, looking down at her feet, then looks up to me.

"...but we have a lot of work to do."

(Word count: 1577)

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But yea that's all, toodles~