what if you can see the darkest side of me?

No one will ever change this animal I have become

Chapter Sixteen

||KIT||

†

"I made her kill and she loved it."

Those words caused an unknown emotion to come over me and I felt sick.

My throat closed up and I turned away swiftly, trying to get away from him.

Bathroom. I need to find a bathroom.

As I stumbled outside the darkened room and down the hallway I heard the front door open and close, then the light sounds of footsteps advancing.

Masky must've heard it too because he was out of the room in a flash, heading towards the sound and disappearing behind the far wall.

"Uff!" The sound of someone collapsing met my ears a few seconds later and I used a hand to brace against the wall, taking deep breaths and trying to will the nausea away.

I couldn't understand why I was reacting like this. All I knew is that I hated the fact that he had done this before.

He'd gotten another innocent person to kill. Was this all a game to him? Was I a game to him? He said she didn't break his heart, did he break hers?

What would happen if I decided to do what he asked? What if I did start to kill? Would he move on and find someone else to corrupt when he grew bored with me? Was it something he did often or was I just overthinking?

A sound caused me to raise my head. Masky was dragging something now; a body, much larger than his own size. He dragged it across the carpet by the person's leg and towards the kitchen, leaving a trail of blood that would surely stain the pristine grey carpeting.

Had the owner returned home?

With the nausea fading, I followed, making my way to the kitchen where I saw Masky using some cable ties to secure the older looking gentleman to one of the chairs. The man's head was bowed and blood dripped from a cut on his forehead, that must be where masky struck him.

I assumed he was still alive considering the effort Masky was putting into securing the ties.

"Go call the others," he ordered without looking at me as he continued his work.

I didn't argue, leaving the room without a word and going off to find the others.

I found Hoodie first and he joined me as we looked for the other two. Once we were all gathered in the kitchen we waited for the old man to wake up.

"What do you plan to do with him?" Amy asked Masky from where she sat on the kitchen counter swaying her legs back and forth. She seemed so unbothered by everything that I wished I could be like her.

A room full of killers and you show not one sign of fear or resentment, or even unease.

"There's something I need to see first before we get rid of him."

I swallowed.

Get rid of. So he definitely planned on killing this poor old man.

"Is that really necessary?" I asked furrowing my brows.

Toby pulled down his mouth guard, his lower lip was still bruised but he grinned anyway, "it's a b-bit of an unspoken rule of Slender's. Leave n-no witnesses y-y'know?"

"Is that why he's after Kit?" Amy questioned.

Toby nodded and Hoodie huffed softly.

"Why can't we just talk to him about it?"

"A-as if he would let us. Y-you'd both be d-dead before we could state our c-case."

I was about to respond when the old man coughed and groaned, coming to.

When he lifted his head with a pained grunt I could only imagine what was going through his mind as his eyes went wide. It must be shocking, seeing a group of youngsters around you, three brandishing their weapons as you're hopelessly tied to a chair.

"W-what's happening?" He croaked out, "what are you kids doing here?"

"H-hello old man!" Toby smiled as he approached the man, his hatchet glinting in the light of the moon as we hadn't bothered to turn on the lights, "s-say is this p-place yours?"

The old man coughed again and looked around frantically, "let me go! What is wrong with you?!"

Toby's expression changed then, his earlier cheery smile twisting into a grimace of disgust, "Hey... I asked you a question old man," he drawled slowly as he grabbed a handful of the old man's hair, pulling his head back to glare down at him hatefully, "don't make me hack it out of you."

His expression made my skin crawl.

I wasn't expecting this at all.

Toby was different.

Before he'd seemed so sweet and cheerful and now- I don't know. There was no word I could find to describe him, but in this moment he seemed like a different person entirely.

Scarier.

He wasn't even stuttering and spasming like he usually did.

The earlier up-beat and hyper Toby I thought I was getting to know had disappeared and in his wake was the terrifying expression of a cold blooded killer.

I realized I was hugging my arms, digging my nails into my skin nervously as I watched the scene unfold before me.

"Let me go!" the old man demanded, "I'm the caretaker of this house and what you're doing is trespassing!"

"Ah, so you just came to check on the place?" Toby let go of the man's thinning grey hair, patting his head like a dog and then placed his hands on his knees, bending to be on the same level as him, speaking to him as if he were a child "where are the owners hm?"

"T-they won't be back for another month," the old man stuttered out, still looking around frantically.

"Great~" Toby then righted himself, retrieving his hatchet as he smirked, "that gives us plenty of time."

He was about to raise the hatchet when Masky grabbed his hand, and I held my breath when his masked face turned in my direction.

"We should let her do it."

"No please-!" A swift backhand from Toby caused the old man's head to turn sharply, and blood now dripped from the corner of his mouth as he whimpered fearfully, his earlier plea dying on his lips.

"Come on," Masky said, grabbing a butcher's knife from the counter and, prying my fingers away from digging into my skin, he placed the knife in my grasp.

"Finish him."

Was this what he did to the girl before? My throat closed up and my hands shook as I wrapped my fingers around the knife and edged closer to the old man.

"Please!" He cried out, eyes wide, "I have a family!"

His eyes met mine, looking so afraid and dejected that- I couldn't do it.

The knife fell from my hands and clattered at my feet as a fat tear rolled down my cheek.

"I- I can't!" I backed away, hot tears blurring my vision.

"Try. You said you'd try-" Masky reminded me.

"I-"

"C'mon-"

"D-do it!" Toby grinned in excitement, seemingly back to his old self and I felt bile rising up once more.

"Ugh, stop forcing her already," Amy hopped off the counter and I watched in horror as she retrieved the knife from the floor and, in one swift motion she swiped the blade across the old man's throat.

Blood spewed from the gash, splattering us and I was so shocked it took me a few seconds before I realized what was happening.

I turned away, trying to leave the room immediately but stopped halfway, finally emptying whatever contents were left in my stomach.

My throat burned and I stumbled out of the kitchen and down the hallway in search of the bathroom I saw earlier. A strong hand gripped mine and pulled me in the opposite direction, pushing open a door and closing it after we were inside.

I blinked rapidly as the lights were flicked on. We were in a bathroom and Masky was turning on the faucet.

I immediately located the toilet and as I retched once more into the bowl he wetted a square piece of cloth and folded it, coming to press it against the back of my neck.

It was ice cold.

Once I was done dry-heaving until I felt like my insides would become my outsides, I went over to rinse my mouth at the sink.

I caught Masky's reflection in the mirror when I was through cleaning up and his stare bore holes into me. I didn't have to see his face behind that mask to know that he was upset.

I attempted to go by him but he continued to guard the exit, "you're not trying hard enough."

I gritted my teeth, clenching my fists by my sides as I avoided looking at him, my shoulders heaving.

Tonight Amy killed someone, without a second thought. I felt like I was in a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from.

"He had a family..." my voice shook as I uttered those words.

"Tch- really?" He spoke, sounding disappointed, "That's your concern? Everyone has a fucking family, doesn't mean he cared about them. For all we know he could be a deadbeat who didn't even deserve to live in the first place."

Could he be right? Thoughts swirled around in my mind.

"Amy gets it," he continued to speak, managing to make me feel even worse. This was all his fault. If it weren't for him my best friend wouldn't have become a murderer tonight.

My emotions bubbled up inside me and tears pricked the back of my eyes as I lifted my head, looking at his expressionless mask with its dark eyeholes that seemed to return my glare.

"I...I hate you."

There was a long pause as the words left my mouth, a silence so deafening I could only hear the frantic thumping of my own heartbeat.

"You don't mean that," he eventually responded but I was shaking with anger at this point.

"Yes I do. I hate y-!"

I drew in a breath when my throat was suddenly constricted by his large hand grabbing my neck. I grabbed at his hand with mine, my eyes feeling like they would pop as I struggled to suck oxygen into my lungs.

"Fucking bitch," he growled out in a voice that sent shivers down my spine as he pressed my back against the closest wall.

"Do you want to fucking die?"

"Let--go!" I grunted and my vision blurred as I clawed at him in desperation, grabbing hold of his mask, pulling it as hard as I could until-

Snap.

The band that had been keeping his mask in place broke and it fell away revealing his face for the first time since I'd met him.

My heart must've stopped in that moment.

☆

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