Covens and Proxies

48

For a moment, you really think you're dead because you feel so light. But when you open your eyes, Jeff isn't pinning you down and a strange man with scars stitched across his face is standing over to you. You look over, down the road, and see Jeff is skidding to a stop. This man kicked him off of you.

Without looking away from Jeff, he extends a hand to you. "Come on. Let's go."

You hesitate a moment, remembering how stupid it is to get caught in fights between pastas, but since he just saved your life... Will he really try to kill you? You take his hand, letting him pull you to your feet and just behind him.

Jeff stays where he is, panting, crouched on the pavement. His wide blue eyes are still trained on you, as if the new guy didn't exist, but he doesn't make a move to attack. Instead, he stands and walks back into the forest.

As soon as Jeff is off the road and across the border, the new guy grabs your wrist and takes off towards the opposite side. You don't really struggle, since his grip isn't as rough as it could be, and you're too confused and tired to think for words about anything.

After a while, he seems to notice your lag and slows to a stop. "This is good." He says, looking back towards the road--which is just barely visible. "Are you alright?" He asks.

Your legs give out, but you nod from the ground and give him a shaky thumbs up. He waits for your breath to slow again so you can talk. "Got any water?" You rasp around a soar throat. He tosses a plastic bottle to you, which you gulp down as if you just crossed the Sahara. Sighing, you push yourself to a sitting position and stare at the man. You know you've seen his face, maybe on the news? But you can't remember his name. "Who are you?"

He looks at you before looking back to the road. "Most of the time I'm Liu. Sometimes I'm Sully. You can ignore Sully if you meet him." He replies shortly, turning and continuing to walk away from the road.

You scramble to your feet and catch up to him. "Thanks for that, but why did you do it?"

"Jeff is my brother." He states simply, as of that explains everything. You just stare at him until he continues. "He tried to kill me and it didn't work. I forgave him because I understand why he did it. But I don't want him killing you. Don't take it personally."

You blink, trying to fit that together mostly by comparing Liu and Jeff. Jeff has long, shaggy black hair, marbly-white skin and shocking blue eyes. Liu has pale green eyes, dirty blond hair and normal-colored skin. Except for the scars and stitches dancing across his face and most likely the rest of his body.

"How should I take it, then?" You ask.

He glances at you. "I've been watching my brother for almost ten years. I saw him with you every time. I saw how he treated you. I knew before him you were a witch, so I kept an eye on you to see what you could do."

"So you stalked me?" you clarify.

He smirks. "Yeah. Anyways, I know that you can kill him easily and I know you don't want to. I don't want my kid brother dead as much as you don't want to kill him."

"I wouldn't say I don't want to kill him..." You mutter, kicking a twig.

He looks like he's about to laugh before rustling in the trees above draws your focus. Liu draws a knife, but you simply look up to see a girl on a branch with a simple white mask covering the top half of her face and blacked-out eye holes. Her hair is dirty and unruly, a vest jacket, plain jeans and a white long-sleeve shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbows consist of most of her clothes--the addition of gloved hands wrapped around a baseball bat with nails.

You blink at them, actually knowing this one's name on sight. "You're Chris." You state bluntly, taking a step toward Liu and pushing down his knife. "What are you doing here?"

She drops down, resting the bat on her shoulder. "What are you doing here?" She responds in her raspy, whisper of a voice.

"I'm taking her somewhere safe until her boyfriend gets back." Liu interjects, watching the new killer carefully.

"You're Jeff's brother?" She asks, to which he nods. She smiles, laughing silently a bit. "I thought I recognized you."

"What do you mean?" He growls, you stop him from taking a step towards her.

"Him and I do all kinds of shit together. Eyeless Jack too." She points to herself and juts a thumb towards the mansion.

"I've never seen you around, though." You mutter, watching the road, ready for Jeff to come barreling your way.

She sneers. "I don't really like most of the company there."

You can feel something akin to protectiveness spark in your gut, remembering her alleged issue with proxies and Slenderman. "What's wrong with the proxies?!" You snap, this time Liu holding you back.

She sneers at you. "Oh I know who you are. Jeff never shut up about a witch he was nailing. You're that ticker's girlfriend now."

You yank free of Liu. "I'm going home. Neither of you can do anything worth my while."

"He's not going to give up trying to kill you." Liu calls.

You stop and turn to look back at them. "Then I'll have to kill him first." You state as simply as if it were the weather.

Ignoring the two now bickering over Jeff and you and who's going to stop it, you head home again. The issue is you don't remember the direction the mansion is in from the border. Taking a deep breath, you force yourself to relax and walk straight towards the center of his territory.

As you walk, soft sounds filter into your ears that don't belong to the fauna or you. For a while, you only brush it off as Liu trying to follow you and pick up your pace.

It almost takes an hour before the mansion can be seen through the trees, flooding you with immence relief. You break into a run, a smile spreading over your face. Jumping over roots and dodging uneven rocks, you move as swiftly as you can manage. Something catches your foot, flinging you forward. You fly towards the ground, hitting it with a thud. For a moment, you stay there, rubbing your head before creaking and light snapping draws your attention.

Panic seizes you, your instincts taking over as you try to jump on disappearing earth. You fall, slamming into rocks on your back, the wind knocked from you. Stars dance with black spots as you struggle to draw breath, starring up the hole. One by one, four silhouettes fill the space.

You try to say something, to move, do anything, but you're quickly being sucked into nothingness again. You fight, trying to keep yourself afloat, only to be ripped from the surface to a deep unconsciousness.

You're trapped in a relentless abyss all over again.