Partners In Crime (Ticciwork fanfic) [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 1: Freak of Nature

If you haven't read the "notes" chapter, read it. I'm serious. Thank you.

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She probably shouldn't have entered Slender's forest in the first place, but Clockwork was frustrated and annoyed and felt a little risky.

Besides, there's no possible way she could actually run into Slender himself, or one of those idiot proxies, the forest was way too huge for that. She wouldn't worry. Just wander around for a bit; stab a few trees; no big deal!

But maybe it was the eerie stillness of this forest that made her feel like she was being watched. It wasn't nighttime, not yet, but it was close. The sun was still barely above the horizon, throwing long shadows across the fallen trees and branches in front of Clockwork. That was another eerie thing about this forest; there was virtually no undergrowth, just tall, thin trees and ones that had fallen.

Clockwork stopped dead, tired of the being watched feeling.

"Where are you?" She asked the forest. No one answered, like she expected, but she narrowed her eyes anyway. The clock in her left eye clicked away, oblivious to everything. Clockwork flipped her knife around in her hand, waiting. Whoever it was would lose patience eventually, she knew.

A clink of metal on metal, Clockwork whipped around just as something huge and black exploded from the trees.

She wasn't fast enough to get it out of the way, and teeth hard as steel dug into her shoulder, lifting her up and throwing her into the trees. No underbrush to cushion her fall, she felt ribs snap as she cracked against the hard ground. The breath was knocked out of her, she couldn't move, and whatever it was darted over much to fast for something that huge. It snatched her up again and shook her this time - like a dog - before throwing her like a rag doll.

Clockwork managed to roll out of the way the third time and the massive beast stumbled past her, disarmed. She staggered away from it, ducking behind the trees as fast as she could. If she could get enough objects between her and it then it would slow it down.

She tripped over a root (seriously, this forest just wanted to kill her today, didn't it?) and fell, pain pulsing through her in nauseating waves. She needed to cough but she wouldn't. It would give away her position. She could hear whatever it was sniffing around for her, somehow unaware of where she had gone. She held very still, hoping it wouldn't find her.

Blood poured out of her shoulder, dripping onto the ground. It would smell it, she realized. She had to move.

Something crunched onto dead leaves, and the thing materialized out of the shadows, and Clockwork actually saw it for the first time.

It was huge.

The size of a clydesdale, it looked like a wolf, with sleek black fur flowing like water over the rippling muscles. Its back was slightly hunched, its massive head low to the ground, Clockwork's blood dripping from its jaws. Its left eye was gone, ripped out viciously by some unknown attacker, while the other eye was bright red and glowed. But the most disturbing thing about the creature were the chains, bright, silver chains wrapped around and around like it used to be bound to something. They had to have been there a long time, the black fur had knotted itself around them, securing them to the creature's body. They clinked against each other as it walked, each tiny sound sending chills down her back.