Horizon's my target

Chapter Four: Part Two

:)

Ghostbur felt himself melt back, like he was going back underwater just as someone walked into the house. ItsFundy he thought, based on the achievement notification timing.

He felt his breath as that same fox person he'd seen before walked in, slipping his shoes off and closing the door quietly behind him with an air of familiarity. Was he the one who lived here?

The fox sniffed the air, flicking his ear as he stared directly at Ghostbur, (ITS TRYING TO AUTOCORRECT TO GHOSTBRUH NOOOOO-) sending a shiver down his spine.

After a moment of direct eye contact, the fox looked away, whispering something to himself under his breath. Ghostbur caught the words 'i thought' and 'can't be', but other than that he couldn't quite hear what he was saying.

The fox walked over to the kitchen, laughing a bark of laughter quietly to himself as he picked up the water boiler/tea pot, turning it around in his hand-paw-things as he examined it from all angles.

 After setting the teapot thing down, he ran his paw-finger-things (idk; I'm confused, Ghostbur's confused, heck, we're all probably confused) along the countertop, staring down at it as though he was reminiscing on long-gone memories stored in there.

Suddenly, he jerked his hands/paws (im so tired someone tell me what this is please i cant-) away from the countertop as if he was burned by it.

He stood there, breathing and staring at the counter for a couple seconds more before tearing his eyes away and heading into the living room, Ghostbur following silently behind him.

There, the fox, Fundy Ghostbur assumed was his name; nobody keeps the 'Its' in their name right?, stared at the entire room for a moment, dark grey eyes flicking back and forth as if searching for something.

After a moment, his eyes settled on something on the mantle above the fireplace. Slowly, he started walking over to it, Ghostbur following closely behind him.

The fox picked up a single photo in a frame wordlessly. His hand-paws were shaking slightly, and his ear twitched subconsciously.

He breathed in a quick, shaky breath, running a thumb gently over someone in the picture. When Ghostbur got closer to investigate, he felt his breath catch in his throat.

It was a picture of Fundy, though he seemed to be significantly younger. He was outside of this house, beaming wide as he held up a trout (a trout, not a salmon, we don't condone cannibalism in this fanfic not today nope-) he had caught. Behind him was... who was it? They seemed familiar to Ghostbur somehow; pale skin, defined face and jawbones, brown hair flopping over one of their dark eyes, which just so happened to be twinkling with pride for the fox.

 It was so... wholesome. Definitely not the vibe this house or this fox gave off at all.

Judging by Fundy's reaction to the photo: hugging it closer to him, sniffling softly as he clutched this old memory close to him and cried, almost like he was hoping to bring it back; Ghostbur assumed this must be the 'Dad' Fundy had assumed Ghostbur was earlier.

Now, Ghostbur doesn't have a dad; heck, he isn't really sure what a 'Dad' is. He had a quick flash of a memory: that blond kid, 'Tommy' he thought was his name, laughing and saying something about milk and these 'dad' things going to get it; but he brushed it off. Why would this 'dad' be involved with milk? What even IS milk? Ghostbur's head hurt; too much thinking for so many things.

Either way, regardless of not understanding this pure sorrow the fox was feeling, Ghostbur still felt... pain. He put a hand to his heart. Right there, it felt like something cracked. He wasn't exactly sure why though; should he be concerned? Can you be 'alive', whatever that was, if your heart was cracked?

That's empathy.

Ghostbur swiveled his head around, trying to find the sound.

Mixed with a tinge of guilt too maybe? I haven't felt those myself per se, I'm just guessing.

Ghostbur stared at his surroundings; where was this voice coming from?!

Down here.

Ghostbur looked; under his feet was the rug he was investigating earlier. Was the whispering coming from underneath the floorboards?

Wowww, you aren't completely stupid. Yea, look under the rug; there's something there I'd like you to see.

Now, Ghostbur never had parents, right? So they never taught him not to trust strangers; or, rather, weird voices in the back of his mind. So, naturally, he saw no problem with crouching down and lifting the rug up as per this voice's request. I know we all love Ghostbur, but he isn't exactly the smartest at times, so now here we are.

Anyway, Ghostbur felt his eyes widen as he saw a trapdoor under the rug. It was a pretty basic one; tan-white birch wood to match the floors, and a dark grey metal hinge attached in order to open it.

Go down there.

Almost as if in a trance, he carefully, quietly lifted the trapdoor. Underneath, there was a set of stairs, leading into a basement Ghostbur assumed.

Ghostbur crawled into the hole, carefully shutting the door after him, not even noticing Fundy's ears perk up as he swiveled around to see what was going on behind him.

Sitting on the stairs, Ghostbur was in complete darkness. However, with a snap of his fingers, he was able to pull up his hotbar (though, since he was a ghost there were less spaces, nothing really in it aside for random things he'd grabbed from the explosion's debris automatically, and chips all over the surface) and grab a torch before retracting his hotbar again.

With that, clutching his torch between his slightly trembling fingers, Ghostbur gulped hard and continued down the stairs, following the voice in the back of his head's instructions into the the unknown. (if anyone spams the Frozen song lyrics i swear to god-)

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