The Discarded Spectre [Snatcher x Reader]

Chapter 1: Quite possibly the worst morning ever.

You stretched, blinking. You spent a solid half-hour rolling around in bed, nearly falling back asleep, desperate to return to the quiet calm of sleep. Eventually, however, you had to get up. Yawning, you dragged your clothes together, remembering that today was that day. You had to trudge through the NOTORIOUSLY HAUNTED FOREST WHERE PEOPLE REGULARLY GO MISSING to pick up some specific herbal plants for Cooking Cat. Seeing as you were the only one skillful and brave enough to go into the forest and come out alive, the duty fell to you. Great.

Today would be a long day.

You pulled on your heavy winter wear, despite it being early autumn, and still rather pleasantly warm, the forest would be frigid, like the deepest winter night. You fussed with your hair until it sat right and out of the way, checked you had everything you'd need and finally grabbed your backpack and a few snacks. Apples, cheese, granola bar, flavoured water [of your favourite flavour, naturally]. You threw open the door and trudged out into the streets.

A few acquaintances from town spotted you in the heavy winterwear, and knowing what it meant, wished you luck and safety. Honestly, not helpful. It just made you think about the IMPENDING DOOM OF THE DEADLY HAUNTED FOREST more, which is really not what you wanted on your mind.

You found yourself stood at the border to the forest only a few minutes later. The chill wind bit at your face. Your eyes flicked back behind you, towards safety. But no, you had to do this. After all, you were the only one to prove they could do this. You shifted your backpack. Before stepping into the forest.

It only got colder and colder as you marched deeper into the woods. Trees grew dark and twisted, grass went dull, bushes became thorny. Everything screamed 'DANGER!! DANGER!! YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE!!' But of course, you were here. Snd you hsd to stay here until you had the shit you needed. You walked and walked... further than usual... with no sign of the plant you were after. It grew colder. You felt unnerved. It didn't feel like you were alone anymore.

You spotted what looked like... a path? Weird. Either way, it made travel easier, so you followed it. The trees seemed to be closing in a little. You started to notice the dark wood of the trees, entirely black with a faint purple hue... you tried to ignore it. Things only got weirder from here... especially when you saw a hooded figure standing on the path. It turned around, revealing a large, yellow-white void where its face should be. You screamed, turned and ran. Something sharp, thick snd woody wrapped around your ankle. You fell when the sharp thing yanked your foot backwards, faceplanting into the dirt. You craned your neck backwards as your ankle started to bleed, finding a thorny black vine with a purplish glow dragging you backwards. More vines started to wrap around you, you shut your eyes. This was it. You pushed your luck, and now you've confirmed the legends. The giant ghost king of the forest was going to eat your soul.

That was when something more gentle and soft wrapped around you, tugging you away from the vines... it felt like soft threads of silk wrapped around your body. You opened an eye, learning it was actually soft silk threads, bright red in colour. You searched for the source of the threads, head whipping around. A cool voice interrupted your mild panic. It was calm, proper and... almost caring.

"Oh poor dear... you're lucky I was nearby, or those soul-eating vines would've murdered you... though I cannot protect you from my master's wrath." The voice chuckled. You looked around, searching to the source of the voice, only to see nothing... you opened your mouth to speak, "Where-" the voice cut you off with a chuckle, before speaking again. "Ah... yes... I suppose I should take a more corporeal form."

There was a warp in the air, like the haze created by heat, and then infront of you was stood... well... something alright. His face was dusty blue with a single horn, almost like half a crescent moon. His two eyes were a deeper blue, one filled with little red diamonds, the other a red swirl. Under each of his eyes were two red stripes, there were two more of the stripes under his mouth, too. He worse a broken monocle on his right eye, and was dressed in orange-red and gold formal attire, as if he were a prince. Instead of legs, below his hips trailed off into glitchy pixels, jittering away without regard for any physics. Large steel shackles clamped his wrists, broken chains trailing off of them. His hands were thin and dextrous, with sharp claws in the place of fingernails.

"I am Prince Moonjumper." He smiled, a little too widely but still somehow comfortingly. He tilted his head, eyes closing a little as his smile widened a touch further. So he was a Prince... but not the evil soul stealing ghost one...? Maybe this place was more interesting than you thought... that's when it hit you and all the panic came bubbling back up.

"Wait- wait- SOUL-EATING VINES?!" You suddenly yelped, glaring back at the vines. They looked innocent enough... curled and a little spiky, glowing a soft purple, but you knew otherwise for the obvious reason of they just tried to kill you. Moonjumper chuckled once again.

"Subcon takes some getting used to... unfortunately for you it's likely to either become your grave or your permanent residence. Or both." You panicked. Stay here?! In Subcon Forest?! Or- die?! Moonjumper put a gentle, but clawed, finger to your mouth, silencing you before you could even try to protest. You felt the claw cut into your upper lip, the taste of copper starting to leak into your mouth already.

"It's alright, the king will decide for you." Some of the threads covered your eyes and mouth slowly, stripping you of voice and vision. All you could feel was the gentle tug of the red strings and you were pulled along to your rather untimely early grave.