𝙃𝘼𝙉𝘿𝙋𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙏𝙎 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝘾𝙍𝙄𝘽𝘽𝙇𝙀𝘿 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝘿𝙎; 𝙃𝙊𝙊𝘿𝙔

Chapter 24

        My shoulder shaking brought me out of my sleep, making me flinch slightly as I attempted to open my eyes. Skully stood in front of me, clothes a little crinkled. There was an urgency in their eyes from behind their mask that made me concerned. I sat up, letting them pull back their hand as I furrowed my brows.

"What's going on?"

"Hoody was kidnapped."

I tensed up before scrambling out of bed after they had moved aside. I turned toward the side that he had used and saw the yellow hoodie that was thrown on a chair nearby, all of his equipment still in its chosen places. "We need to go find him. Like now."

Skully shook their heads. "You need to eat something first while I prepare everything else." Their voice was firm and warned me not to protest. I nodded, glancing back at the yellow hoodie.

"Are you ready?"

The amount of weight in the pocket of the hoodie was slightly uncomfortable, but at the same time, it was comforting. The color was so much brighter than anything else I had on at the moment, but the backpack on my back covered half of my back. The hoodie was large, sleeves falling down past my hands.

"Let's go." I was as ready as I could possibly ever be. My gut swirled as we began walking. With anticipation or with fear, I couldn't exactly tell.

They glanced back at me before returning their eyes forward as I let mine fall to stare at the ground in front of me. The forest was quiet. I merely assume that no animal wants to live with a strange being that was out to kill everyone.

"Masky took him." Skully spoke, messing with the holsters on his hips.

I gave a short, bitter laugh as I looked out into the trees. "Of course he did."

They let out an audible huff, presumably out of amusement. "I could sense his lingering presence in the kitchen when I finally got back, but both of them were long gone by that time."

"Why didn't you wake me up then?" My heart twisted as I looked at the entity.

"You needed your rest, especially since we will be walking a decent amount until we get to Masky's main hideout."

I played with the strings of the hoodie, noticing how comfortable it was. "So, um, how exactly do you know Hoody?" I asked, needing something lighter than the topic of his kidnapping at the moment.

They readjusted the mask on their face as they took their time to answer. "We were friends of Alex."

"Alex?"

"He's the one who got us into this mess in the first place." Skully paused, probably debating what he'd say. "There are plenty of tapes that show how everything went down, but everything started with Alex and the Operator." They spat the two names with disdain, and it gave me a question to ask them.

"At Hoody's house, there was a picture that I saw with a large group of friends. If I may ask, which one were you?"

They let out a small laugh, and I could feel the rage from him, although it wasn't directed toward me. "The real question is which ones we're not. Jay is the main host of the body and honestly is the one that fronts the most out of all of us. It's who you're talking to right now, actually."

I sighed as a frown placed itself on my face. "I'm sorry you all have to live even after your own technical deaths."

"Brian told you that, then?"

I hesitated at the usage of 'Brian' before nodding. "Yeah, it was one of the first things he told me about when I learned of you guys from him. How did Masky try to kill Hoody?"

Skully laughed, making me a little surprised at it. "To be honest, Masky didn't actually push Hoody and thought he was dead after falling off of two stories or whatever, but Hoody lived. He isn't the exact same person he used to be. He's become more apathetic and less caring than he used to be, which is probably better for him in this life anyway."

I hummed, processing that information. "So the two were more or less on opposite sides that somewhat agreed, but couldn't agree on the method?"

"You could say that, I suppose."