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Chapter Twenty

||KIT||

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"Let me get this straight. The person we're going to meet, this- Zalgo, lives in a palace of tortured glass, served by legions of monsters forged from the tears of the undead, each one clad in armor carved from the concentrated suffering of grieving mothers? And he's a better choice than The Slenderman? Am I missing something here?"

My mind was blown to bits at the idea of approaching someone who literally was the definition of evil and the fact that Masky and the others had no problem with that.

"M-maybe he was like that at some p-point in time," Toby spoke," As far as I know he's dialed it d-down quite a bit,"

We were trudging through the dense forestry on the seemingly neverending search for the Nightmare King.

I resisted the urge to shudder. Even his name made me feel chills.

It was still daytime but you wouldn't know that with how dark the woods we were exploring was. We'd ditched the car when the path became too narrow and decided to continue on foot.

It felt like each step we took was only leading us to our ultimate doom.

"That asshole just can't help but toot his own horn," Masky spoke up, "really he's no more than an overpowered child, demanding endless entertainment."

I saw Toby look around frantically before shushing him, "don't say s-stuff like that! What if he hears us and d-decides to just use their spines as a j-jump-rope 'nstead of helping?"

The thought made me inch closer to Masky for protection.

Here I was wondering what the heck tortured glass even meant, and now I have to worry about my spine becoming some interdimentional creatures plaything too?

"Stop scaring her," Masky replied flatly, using his crowbar to move a branch with leaves out of the way so I could get by, "you know he won't, knowing our connection to Slenderman."

"Y-yeah but the girls don't share t-that connection do they?"

Masky paused for an instant, looking at me from behind his mask before he looked back at Toby and moved his crowbar out of the way, letting the branch go flying, slamming into Toby's face.

Luckily his goggles and mouth-guard were protecting his face but I still winced at the loud 'thwack!'

"Shut up," Masky spoke at him before he grabbed my elbow and continued trudging through the undergrowth, pulling me along.

Amy and Hoodie were already a significant distance ahead of us and Masky walked faster so we could catch up, causing me to almost trip over my own legs multiple times.

"Hey, can you at least let me catch up?" I grumbled as I tried tugging my arm from his grip.

"You're too slow."

I rolled my eyes and decided to be even more of a pain in the ass since he didn't want to listen.

I stopped walking.

Masky paused in his tracks, turning to look at me silently.

I flashed him a grin, placing my free hand on my hip as if to say, 'watcha gonna do now?'

I didn't have to ask though because he wordlessly grabbed me by the waist and hoisted me up onto his shoulder before I could even utter a sound.

"Wh-" a sound of surprise finally left my lips when my brain caught up to what was happening.

What is it with these men and treating me like I don't weigh more than a feather?

I huffed in annoyance, even though I was secretly happy I didn't have to keep walking since the bushes were scratching my legs something awful.

I don't know why I had the dumb idea of wearing shorts on this excursion.

I looked down and a grin came over my cheeks. Do I tell Masky he has a nice ass, because-

Suddenly a buzzing sound interrupted my chain of thought and I looked up to see some sort of black goo dripping from above, darkness blotting out the area sorrounding us.

"M-Masky..." I trailed off, shaking.

"Hm?" He continued walking as if there was no problem, even though his hand was gripping my thigh, dangerously close to my-

"W-what's that?"

In the distance the darkness was gaining speed, swallowing up Amy and Hoodie and all the sorrounding trees, heading for us but for some reason Masky didn't seem bothered at all.

"What's what?"

"Let me down, it's coming!" I squirmed frantically in his grasp and eventually he set me free, grabbing my shoulders to keep me from running away.

"Hey! Hey, relax," He shook me a bit, peering into my eyes from behind his mask.

But how could I relax when-?

I looked around again and there was nothing.

No darkness, no black goo, Amy and Hoodie were still marching on ahead of us.

"What's happening?" I whimpered softly, my eyes filling with tears.

"It's fine, we just crossed over into his territory that's all. He's playing mind games with you, don't freak out okay?"

Easy for you to say.

Before I met any of you I thought the world was simpler. Who knew demons and nightmare creatures that could alter your very perception of reality even existed? It made me feel even smaller than ever before.

Still, Masky didn't seem at all bothered and without second guessing myself I hugged him, wrapping my arms around his body tightly.

I felt his own arms envelope me into a tight hug as well.

"I'll protect you, alright?"

I nodded and after a while we pulled away from each other but he quickly slipped his hand into my own, holding it tightly and urging me to continue the walk.

Grasping his hand as well, I kept walking in line with him and I saw that Toby had already caught up to the other two.

"Hey um..."

"Hm?"

I bit my lip a bit, tightening my grip on his hand, "I just wanna say I'm sorry about all the stuff I've said to you. I know you're just trying to help me and– well sometimes it's easier to just blame everyone else, you know?"

I looked up at him to see him nodding and he squeezed my hand a bit, "it's fine. I'll make sure you have nothing to worry about soon enough."

I furrowed my brows, "you know, for a killer you sure are optimistic."

"Is that what you call it?" He chuckled and I bumped his shoulder with mine playfully.

"I'm glad you were there that night though. I don't know how I'd explain what I did to the police."

"You're smart. You'd have found a way."

Smart?

I snorted at that, "clearly you don't know me. I'm as dumb as they come."

"Well let me."

"Hm?" I turned my head to look up at him.

"Let me get to know you then."

"There's not much to know really-"

"I bet there is."

I blew out a breath and continued to walk next to him, our fingers interlocking.

"If we survive this then I'll tell you everything you want to know. How about that?"

I could hear the smile in his voice when he spoke, "I look forward to it."

We eventually caught up to the others as we reached a clearing and up ahead stood two stone pillars. Between them was a large black door that was easily 15 feet tall. Was this really the entrance to the underworld?

"Woah," I heard Amy breathe in awe.

The door had the most intricate designs I'd ever seen and the closer we got the more details were revealed. They were like hieroglyphics, but unlike any I'd ever seen in world history class.

Finally close enough to where I could feel the heat that was emanating from the door I reached out a hand, trailing the pads of my fingers over the gold symbols.

"How do we open it?" Amy questioned.

"M-maybe there's a d-doorbell?"

I turned to see Amy giving Toby a you-cant-be-serious look as he shrugged, when there came a loud bang from behind me and as I turned slowly to face the door once more it began to creak open.

Gulp.

Masky was by my side in an instant, his hand finding mine as he pulled me back from the door while using his body to shield my own, "wait."

When the door was completely open I peeked around his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

Darkness. Complete and utter darkness.

I pressed my lips together in a firm line "Well, it was nice knowing y'all."

Amy laughed and Toby was grinning behind his mouth-guard.

Hoodie, who was standing a little bit too close to her for comfort, left her side and ventured into the darkness without a second thought.

Toby followed and Masky finally decided to go in. I looked down at our hands and my face grew hot.

Always trying to protect me.

I found it kinda sweet that he cared so much about someone like me.

Someone he hardly knew.

And, he wanted to get to know me right?

Now that I think about it, that talk earlier must have been one of the most normal conversations we've ever had.

Somehow he didn't seem like such a bad person anymore.

I bit my lower lip without realizing it and as we passed the threshold the darkness swallowed us up like a hungry black hole.

On the other side it was dark, but I could see the floor just ahead. What seemed to be stairs that led downwards were barely visible up ahead.

"I guess they followed those stairs," Masky commented, as Hoodie and Toby were nowhere to be seen. Amy appeared behind us after a few seconds and we descended the steps together.

I slipped my hand out of Masky's grip and lagged behind a bit so I could be walking in step with Amy.

"Are you about to pee your pants too?" I asked.

Her laugh echoed in the dark, "oh definitely."

I looked around, barely able to even make out Masky's outline before us.

"So, holding hands huh?"

I was so glad she couldn't see my face because of how embarrassed I was.

"I-it's not like that," I stuttered.

"You sure he knows that?"

I let out a breath, waiting a few seconds before I finally admitted it, "I think I might actually like him, Ames."

"You do?" she asked in mock surprise and I tried to bat at her in the darkness to shut her up.

"Shush!"

She let out a sinister chuckle, "you two should definitely hook up."

"Amy," If my face got any hotter I'd die.

"Keep up!" I was surprised when Masky grabbed my hand in the darkness, pulling me with him as we kept going down the seemingly endless staircase. I almost tripped with how hard he'd tugged me, but thankfully he managed to steady me before continuing along once more.

On second thought, this guy is so not dating material with how controlling he is.

Red flags, anyone?

If we're being honest, his first red flag was the fact he'd gotten a boner at a crime scene-

-that I created.

Oh crap, I'm a walking red flag too!

With extra flashing lights and barbed wire to boot.

After trailing behind Masky for a while it became difficult to not to think about how his hand engulfed mine, and the kind of damage those long fingers could do.

What? Who said that?

I tried to divert my attention to something else. Anything else!

I remembered that Amy was supposed to be following behind us and I stopped in my tracks.

It had been a while since I heard any sounds from her.

"Amy?"

No response. I started to panic, whirling around trying to make out her shape in the darkness.

"Ames? A-!"

Just then someone flicked my forehead, "I'm right here dumbass."

I pouted, rubbing the spot on my forehead, "ow, mean."

I was pulled forward out of the darkness and this time I stepped out into a dimly lit hallway that was flooded with red light. The same symbols from earlier trailed over the walls like thin golden snakes.

The others were checking out the walls themselves as we kept walking, Hoodie and Toby leading the way.

Suddenly, there was a crackling sound and a ringing that ended just as abruptly as it had started.

I looked around, trying to figure out where the speakers were, when there came the sound of thudding over the speakers like the person was checking their mic.

"Is this thing on~?"

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