hobo heart x reader. Perhaps we value each other?

Chapter 6

I ran as fast as my failing body could manage, sprinting blindly away from Eyeless Jack. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move, but if I wanted to live, I had to keep going. I tripped over my own feet and stumbled down the long corridor, the rapid thud-thud-thud of his boots growing louder as he slowly gained on me.

"Leave me alone!" I yelled, my voice completely filled with fear.

"But I'm hungry!" Eyeless Jack growled somewhere close behind me, his raspy voice laced with a predatory excitement.

He lunged forward, his gloved fingers reaching out until they brushed against the loose strands of my short hair. Pure adrenaline was the only thing keeping my legs moving at this point. I held my side with one hand, violently gasping for air as I tried to keep breathing. Looking desperately ahead, I saw a heavy wooden door swinging open, and I screamed out with the last bit of strength in my lungs:

"HELP ME!"

The very second I passed the threshold of the open door, something hooked my ankle. I tripped, flying forward onto the tiled floor, and a loud, resounding clang of metal colliding with something solid echoed through the hallway. A second later, a heavy thud vibrated through the floorboards, followed by a low, pained groan.

I scrambled around on my elbows, panting heavily, to see Eyeless Jack laying flat on the floor, his blue mask slightly askew. I slowly looked up to see who had just saved my life, and my jaw dropped.

Standing right above the unconscious figure was my aunt, holding a heavy cast-iron frying pan with a victorious grin stretched across her face.

"A-Aunt Marcy?" I whispered, staring up at her in a daze of absolute shock and confusion. My vision was swimming so badly I couldn't tell if I was hallucinating from the pain, or if she was actually standing inside a mansion full of urban legends.

She looked down at me, and the transformation was instant. Her face went completely pale, her grin of victory vanished into thin air, and her fingers went limp, dropping the frying pan onto the tiles with another loud, echoing clang.

"Molly?" Her voice trembled—a sound I hadn't heard from her in a long time. Not since the day she caught me reading her hidden journals. "W-what are you—"

Her eyes dropped, finally noticing my torn clothing and the severity of my injuries. She ran over to me, dropping to her knees as she frantically looked me over. "No, no, no, no, no! I'm going to make him pay. I'm going to find Hobo Heart!" At this point, she started to panic, her hands shaking as she assessed the damage. "I need to get you to Slenderman. He will know what to do. He has to."

Without another word, she reached down and carefully picked me up, cradling me against her chest. I simply stared at her face, my breathing slowly returning to a ragged rhythm as she carried me down the labyrinth of hallways. I had a million questions screaming behind my eyes, but my brain was too exhausted to figure out what to ask first.

After a few minutes of silent walking, a quiet, horrified voice cut through the corridor ahead of us.

"Oh, no."

I peeked over my aunt's shoulder to see Hobo Heart standing near a set of double doors. His face was filled with absolute, paralyzing fear as his eyes locked onto my aunt. "M-Marcy... when did you get back? You weren't supposed to return for another week." He looked down at me, a brief, relieved smile touching his lips. "Oh, hey, you found the girl. Thanks. That saves me the trouble of—"

"Be quiet before I lose my temper entirely," Marcy interrupted him, her voice dropping into a register of pure hate. "This girl just so happens to be my niece!"

Hobo Heart's smile vanished instantly, his jaw slacking as he stared at us in both complete shock and sheer terror. "Y-your n-niece? I... I didn't know she was—"

"Hobo Heart."

The booming, telepathic voice cut Hobo off entirely as the grand double doors behind him slowly swung open. Slenderman stepped out into the hallway, his towering, faceless silhouette casting a massive shadow over the three of us. His blank white canvas turned toward my aunt, then down to me. "So, this is the girl you were telling me about, Hobo Heart?"

Hobo Heart nodded frantically, slowly backing away from Marcy's lethal glare with his hands raised. "Y-yes, sir. May I... may I please be excused?"

Slenderman gave a slow, single nod of his head. "Yes. Marcy has some things she and I need to talk about with Molly."

Hobo Heart didn't need to be told twice. He turned on his heel and ran off in the opposite direction, his boots tearing down the hall. My aunt didn't even watch him go; she just carried me past the threshold into Slenderman's private office. The room was grand, lined with towering bookshelves and dark mahogany furniture. She set me down gently in a large leather chair, then straightened up to look at the entity, who stood almost three times her height near the window.

"Should I explain it to her?" Marcy asked, her voice tight as she crossed her arms.

Slenderman let out a soft, echoing sigh that resonated directly inside my mind. "That would probably be best."

My aunt turned back around, kneeling down in front of my chair so we were eye-to-eye. She took a deep, heavy breath, her expression turning incredibly solemn as she looked at me.

"Molly," she said softly, her voice steadying. "What I'm about to tell you... isn't going to be easy."