Love in Despair ~a Skephalo fanfic~ ✔️

XV

I jolt awake by the loud sound of instrumental music. I frantically look around to see where it was coming from, but when I looked up I realized it's time for the memorial of the tributes who have died today, already. It was only a handful of tributes that I didn't see as much of a competition to remember. I was so relieved when I didn't see Minx on there, but then my mind travelled to the tall brunette that helped me the other day. I realized he wasn't on there either, he's still alive. Not really surprising though.

I let my mind wonder some more. That's when I remembered the blond. The blond kid who volunteered. I couldn't remember who was up on the screen anymore. That's when I started to panic. I couldn't remember if I saw him or not. I quickly stand up, looking around some more. It was a tad bit hard to see because of the darkness, but I decide to make my way towards the middle again to get some supplies, hoping no one will be there.

As I slowly trudged through the forest I started to heard rapid footsteps coming my way from behind. My heart started pounding, making me freeze up in panic. I quickly look behind me to see Bad running towards me. He was holding a couple throwing knives with a bag slung over his shoulder. I didn't know what came over me but I became to scared to move, which is a really bad habit of mine. As he got closer I realized he was running from someone or something. Right when he gets into arms reach of me he grabs me by the shoulders, diving into one of the bushes on the side of the path.

I furrow my eyes in confusion as we sit there in the bushes. I open my mouth to ask what was happening, but before I could even get a word out he quickly covers my mouth with his hand, firmly pressing it on my mouth to make sure I don't speak. We make eye contact, our faces inches apart. My breathing starts to pick up. Is he going to kill me?
He lifts his free hand to put his finger up to his mouth, non verbally telling me to be quiet. I nod quickly before stiffening up from the sound of footsteps coming closer to us. They were lots of little frantic footsteps that didn't human.

It was still pretty dark, so I could barely see who ran past. We waited a good ten minutes before Bad finally let my mouth free from his grasp. "What the fuck!" I scream whisper. "Language! And I couldn't just let you stand there to be killed! You have a really bad freezing problem." He scream whispers back, only whispering normally for the last part. "What are you doing without supplies, or anything in that matter anyways?" He asks, carefully picking his knives up off the ground and standing up, holding out his hand for me to grab for stability.

"I'm looking for the volunteer kid." I explain not very descriptively. He furrows his eyebrows. "You mean Tommy?" He asks, tilting his head a bit. "Yes! I feel so bad for him, I really want to help. If I just let him die I'll never forgive myself." I tell him in a down full whisper, bringing my gaze to the grassy forest floor beneath us.

"Last time I saw him he was just back there. I left him alone, he seemed a bit frustrated with the fire he was trying to start." Bad explains, but before he can even finish I bolted the direction he came from. "Zak!" I hear him yell after me, not to loud to not draw attention to us, but just loud enough for me to hear before I rounded the corner.

I kept running even though I couldn't see around three feet ahead of me. It was now pitch black, which made it easier for me to spot a dot of light in the near distance. I slowed my pace, creeping up to the light. I peeked over the bush to see the tall blonde. He sat on a log staring at his fire with pride.
I take a step closer, accidentally stepping on a twig, making a noise. His head jolts up, looking around. He slowly reaches for his slingshot.

I step closer again, emerging from the bushes and into view. He quickly aims it towards me, I put my hands up indicating I mean no harm. "Tommy. Hi, I'm Zak. I'm not here to hurt you, I just want to help." I explain to him, my hands still in the air. "And why should I trust you?" He asks furrowing his eyebrows. "I have absolutely nothing, so unless I plan to strangle you to death there's really nothing I can do."

He raises an eyebrow, before softening his face. "Ok, come on." He gestures for me to sit beside him on the log, picking up a knife just in case. I'm really not going to do anything to him, but I don't blame him for not trusting me right away.

We sat there for a good five minutes, both staring mindlessly into the fire. "You're extremely brave." I comment, not taking my gaze off of the fire. He slowly sets down his knife, looking my way the entire time. I could tell he still doesn't fully trust me. "Yeah, I know." He says cockily. "No, I'm serious. You really volunteered to risk your life for that boy." I continue bringing my gaze towards him.

He lets out a sigh, looking back down at the fire. "Yeah, Tubbo's my brother. I couldn't bare watch him go through all of this, so I stepped up." He explains, his voice full of pain. "I came from a pretty big family, my mom died a couple years ago, so it's just been my dad taking care of all of us." He continues.

"You have more siblings?" I ask tilting my head slightly in interest. I knew it would be selfish of me to just bring in my problems when it had nothing to do with me, so I just listened. "Yeah, I'm the second youngest out of four." He tells me. I could see a small tear roll down his cheek as he spoke. "The oldest is already an adult. We still all live together, so it's not that hard on my dad. My second oldest brother is just a couple years younger, already having a kid."

I felt so bad for him. The more he spoke the more I felt my heart hurt.
"I'm the closest with Tubbo. He's my best friend, so I couldn't let him go through all of this." He concludes, quickly wiping away the tears that have formed. "Did you get to say goodbye?" I ask. "Thankfully, yes." He says with a small smile.

"What about you? You got siblings?" He asks, wanting to change the subject. "Yeah, just a little sister. My mom- uh she's really sick." I explain, feeling my eyes well up with tears. "What about your dad?" He asks furrowing his eyebrows. I just shrug, not feeling in the mood to talk about him. He just nods, looking back at the fire.

"You can have this." He says moments later, handing me a bow and a bag of arrows. Right when I was about to protest he cut me off. "I have many more weapons, don't worry about me."
I nod slightly, looking down at the arrows. That's when I hear footsteps in the distance. It sounded like two people.

I quickly stand up, slowly reaching for an arrow. I look back at Tommy who looked alarmed. I put my finger up to my mouth to silence him. We hear a sound of the cannon in the distance, meaning someone has passed.
Our surroundings were still pitch black, so it was really hard to see. Way worse then before, but not by much. That's when the bushes started to move. I raise my bow, arrow ready and everything, ready to shoot at any second.

Seconds later a figure appeared out of the bush. I was gonna shoot when- "Zak! What the muffin!" The figure spoke. I drop my bow, walking towards him. The closer I got the more I realized he was limping. "Wait, what happened?" I spoke quickly and panicked. Frantically looking down to his legs to find the cause of his limping. "I'm fine, I just had a mishap with someone." He shrugs.

My eyes widen. "You what? What happened?" I ask looking back at Tommy. He looked suspicious of Bad at first, keeping his distance as he listened. "The female from district ten. I was trying to find you when she shot me in the leg with an arrow. When I fell she attacked me, giving me no choice but to-" I cut him off. "Ok, that's enough detail." I tell him, crouching down to inspect his wound.

"You killed my partner?!" Tommy yells at Bad from behind me. "It's everyone for themselves, only one person can win this. Either way one of you had to go." He explains casually. He was right, there can only be one winner. Why did he have to remind me. I saw he already pulled the arrow out from his leg, so it was just a hole the size of the pad of my thumb. I didn't have any medical supplies, so there wasn't anything I could really do.

I stand back up, facing him once again. "It's going to get infected if we don't do something now." I tell him with a small frown. I help him take a seat on the log. We put out the fire to not draw any attention to us, and stayed there for the rest of the night.