The Parasitic (Inanimate Insanity)

Chapter Two

Knife(He/They) woke up, rubbing his eye and stretching. He looked around the room, and strangely enough, Pickle(He/Xe/They) was awake, and not in the room. Pickle normally slept in unless it was a wednesday —pancake day in the hotel— which it wasn't. It was a Saturday.

Knife went downstairs, confused. He saw Paper and OJ on the couch, chatting, drinking coffee and eating breakfast which was just cereal. "Have either of you two seen Pickle?" Knife asked immediately.

"No, I thought he'd be in your room?" Paper turned to look at Knife curiously. "And hello to you too-" he muttered out. Knife frowned. "Well, xe isn't. I assume that means you haven't seen him walking out of the hotel either?" OJ shook his head in response to Knife.

"Sorry. We can help you out soon if you need."
Knife nodded. In reality, he was scared for his partner, but he just stayed confident he would find Pickle fast enough that he wouldn't need to ask for help. With that, Knife walked out of the hotel.

While he mumbled to himself, Taco(She/it) ran away in the direction of the forest to prevent being seen. "Strange. Why isn't Pickle in the hotel?" She muttered to herself. With a shrug, she continued her trek. Every now and then, it would hum little tunes to fill the silence on her way.

Another thing she was thinking about was places Pickle could be. Thats when something clicked in her head. "Don't tell me.." She whispered. "Shit, shit, shit!-." Taco shut up as her tone grew louder. She had reached the forest and was now pacing. If this is what I think it is, it's not good. At all. She thought to herself for several moments, wandering mindlessly.

She heard footsteps, which caused her to snap out of her thoughts and run off to a bush. It was Knife. Great. The one that was most likely to try to beat the life out of it. He scoffed, and it seemed he was going slightly deeper into the forest. "Whos in here? I know I heard object footsteps." She was aware that Knife probably acknowledged it was her, but tried to deny that.

Taco stayed in her bush, quiet as a mouse. It very much hoped Knife would leave the area so she could get out of the awkward position she was in, but he would probably take a while unless something else distracted him.

Taco mentally sighed with relief after that thought had appeared. She looked around the bush and spotted a stick. It quickly slid a hand out of the bush and threw said stick behind Knife before running away herself.

Knife, of course, took a quick glance at the stick and began to look at the bush and, miraculously they saw Taco. But he was quickly distracted by a high-pitched scream coming from outside the forest. Taco didn't acknowledge it until she had gotten away from him.

Knife ran in the direction of the scream. He saw the body of Pickle on the ground, bloodied. Balloon(He/Ze) was standing near it. Knife stayed silent, looking at the scene splayed out in front of him. 

Balloon looked around with an expression that was a mix of anxiety, devastation and fear, as if he had just walked upon the scene.

He backed away, but not before Knife emerged from the bush. "Did you kill Pickle, Balloon." Knife stared at him, keeping in tears in an attempt to gain a more.. threatening aura perhaps?. He also didn't want anyone to see him cry at the moment, if he did he'd probably cry a river because of how emotionally vulnerable they were at the sight of this.

"What? No! Of course not!" Balloon held his hands up like he often did in season two. Mephone had also started doing whatever you'd call it recently, but thats besides the point.

"Well, I'm inclined to believe you did due to your manipulation tactics in season one." Knife narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. Feelings of sadness crowded him, but they felt overwhelmed by anger at the same time.

"I- I'm sorry about that! I-I've apologized hundreds of times!" Balloon backed up nervously. Knife squeezed his eyes shut, feelings of guilt and grief beginning to give him a headache.

Knife clenched his fists and finally walked past. He was going to go back to Hotel OJ and tell someone. Perhaps not that he'd found Balloon there just yet, but he probably would. Just when he had gotten more evidence stacked in his favor.

A thought crossed Knife. 'For fucks sake, I literally saw Taco! It could've done it, for all I know.'

Thinking about the death again made Knife finally break down in tears. He just,, sobbed. And sobbed. They fell to the ground, laying there as tears fell down his blade and onto either his handle or the grass below him.

Knife slowly got up, tears still falling, except they were less rapid. He rubbed his eyes and began the trek to Hotel OJ.

When he got to the hotel and opened the door, there was absolute chaos. It seemed Balloon had gotten back before Knife. I guess thats what he gets for taking awhile.

He walked around the lobby, trying to get to his room, but he was noticed by Soap, which then grabbed the attention of Paper. It would've gotten OJ's attention too, if he hadn't been dealing with everyones chaos.

"Knife! Are you alright!?" Soap waved at Knife, shouting over to him over the yelling in the lobby. Knife sighed, walking over to Soap. He nodded slightly, but almost cried once again. From the noises to the thoughts about Pickle, his headache was getting worse and worse. Starting to feel like a migraine even.

"I.. need some ibuprofen or something-.. headache." He finally said. When Soap walked away, Knife sat on the ground against the wall and cried again.

"Knife- I- I'm so s-sorry." Paper finally spoke to Knife. He was still nervous around him after season one.

"'S fine... just. don't really want to talk right now." Knife said in his rough voice, trying to wipe his tears away. Paper nodded, walking away and once again trying to help OJ with everyone swarming for his attention. Though, he still kept an eye on Knife.

"Hey Knife, got the ibuprofen." Soap walked over to him with a small smile. Though, Knife finally realized she had red, puffy eyes. Similar to how his probably looked.

He simply swallowed them without water, beginning to stand up. "I'm gonna go to my room." That would probably make Knife feel even worse, since he and Pickle had switched around rooms to stay in the same one. "Actually-... well, yeah." The only contestant that got a room alone was Box,, and now him, but that was stupid and didnt matter. Box wasn't even alive, he just went with it because he thought it was a joke at first.

Safe to say it wasn't, but he still went with it.  Anyways, when Knife got to the room, he collapsed onto the ground, not even attempting to get in the bed.

"Hey Knif..?" A voice faded out while the world became silent and empty around him.

1200 words exactly! Not counting this,,

Okay! This took forever to write since I kept delaying and forgot about it, but oh well,,
Also I'm so sorry Knife is super ooc in this fhdjsi