Escape (Stan x James)

Chapter 1

The flashing lights of the party room blinded Stan and Alice, the both of them chatting and dancing. It was an event that happened every week - a tea party in the party room. This meant Stan could quickly enter Maze 2 or 3 rather quickly. And Alice could say goodbye to him if it were Maze 3, or join him if it were Maze 2. These two were good friends as they were usually the only monsters in the Hedge Maze and swiftly bonded over how boring their place was.

"Hey Alice?" Stan's voice was surprisingly normal. He placed the teacup onto its small plate, and looked up at her.

"Yes, friend?" Her voice was cheery and innocent, her appearance a strong contrast to it. She stopped dancing and walked over to the table, towards her friend. Tilting her head and smiling, the little girl picked up her teacup.

"Do you hear that? It sounds like-"

"Players?" She finished the sentence. He nodded simply. "Go scare 'em then," she giggled. Stan again nodded, smiling slightly. Waving goodbye, he slipped into the third maze. She giggled a little before downing her tea and cleaning everything up. Alice's torn, white dress dangled loosely from her ink-black skin. It faded away along with her long locks of black hair, leaving only her yellow, left eye showing. Rapidly, the little firefly flew toward the exit of the party room, to the second maze.

His red eyes gleamed in the dimly lit corridors, the sound of footsteps and mumbling becoming louder and closer. He came out of a wall and snuck behind one of the players, growling audibly. They all turned around swiftly, eyes widened and on the shadow monster. They backed away, into another monster, who instantly killed one of them. The sound of the metal clink startled them all and the death of one of their companions paralyzed them. Stan smirked, the other monster he recognised as James. They had their backs turned to Stan while they gaped up at James. Sneaking closer, Stan screamed, the sound piercing their ears and killing them both.

The blind monster laughed with his warped voice, the lumps on his helmet lighting up red. Stan walked over to him and gently lifted the egg-like helmet off his head. James winced a little, the pain and light feeling strange on his face. A clink sounded in the corridor, the heavy helmet rolling a little. The monster was shoved into a wall behind him, the air being knocked out of him.

Blinking, he opened his eyes to see Stan looming over him, his red eyes glowing. His scarred face went a dark crimson at the hungry look in the other's eyes. The stare master licked his lips before leaning into James' ear. He whispered, "I'm a little bit bored and you see, I haven't spent time with you in ages~. Are you willing to play with me?"

But before the scarred boy could respond, a person pulled Stan backwards. She was tall and slender with short jean shorts and a crop top. Stan screamed to frighten her but nothing happened. "Ugh, Stan really?" She turned around and spoke to him in a high pitched, sweet voice. "Are you really that dumb?" Her voice became deeper and the disguise fell away leaving only a black male humanoid in her place.

"Oh. Sorry, it was too convincing," he told him, scratching his head.

"H-hello F-Fraud." The scare master's voice shook a little whilst he blushed a bright pink. He felt extremely hot and tiny. Fraud only scoffed (his face scrunching up) and made a motion to follow him.

Along the way, Fraud found Alice talking to a player. They took care of it with ease and dragged off a sad firefly. They had told her not to get attached.