Deep Like Water (Yandere!BEN Drowned X GN!Reader)

Well That Was A Bad Idea

For nearly two weeks, you didn't leave the house. For nearly two weeks, you stayed with BEN for the majority of the day and dealt with your new knowledge of something called a 'crush', which was actually rather annoying. There was now an explanation for why your blood suddenly sped through your veins and why you suddenly started thinking about the future in a positive light.

It was like your thoughts revolved around him and your eyes refused to forget his face, giving you no room to breathe, yet you couldn't force yourself to do anything about it. You wanted to selfishly indulge in this intense new sensation that was eating your organs from the inside out and milk it for all it was worth. It wasn't like you could escape it—BEN was by your side for nearly the entire time you were both awake.

You had read romance novels that featured protagonists your age, and you were well aware that romantic feelings made people do incredibly stupid things. Maybe that was why you went outside to look for BEN instead of staying inside the house or even texting him to ask where he was.

For some reason, he hadn't been waiting for you when you went downstairs in the morning after answering Frankie's texts from the night before. All of BEN's stuff was still there, but he was nowhere to be found, like he had been snapped from existence. It made the house feel like a labyrinth that had been abandoned for decades.

Your voice bounced off of the walls as you hunted through the house, scanning every room in your search for the familiar head of blond hair. But there was nothing. You were entirely and utterly alone once again.

Naturally, you began to panic, and it wasn't long before the negative self-talk was colliding with your steely determination to find him, trying to fight for control over your decisions. However, this battle gave you an opportunity to mindlessly hurry outside, barely managing to shut the front door behind you as you turned into the large garden that sat to the right.

The cold winter air tore at any exposed skin as you trudged through the frosty grass, still calling out BEN's name in the hope that he would appear out of nowhere. As you searched, occasionally taking detours to look in bushes and behind trees, you didn't notice the house get further and further away, and you certainly didn't notice how the trees closed in on you like a malicious, perennial fog.

When you did notice that you had accidentally walked into the forest, the first thing you did was swear. Then, you looked around, keeping your feet firmly in place so you didn't lose track of which direction you had been walking in. Surely all you had to do was walk in the opposite direction. Right?

Wrong!

You weren't sure how long you walked, but you didn't see any sign of humanity. Instead, you just saw trees. Then more trees. You were trapped in an infinite sea of trees, where the only sound was your ragged breath and the crunching of dirt under your shoes.

Just...how? How did I get here? When did I climb over the barbed wire? How did I not notice all the trees?

Taking in a lungful of freezing air, you stopped walking for a moment to calm yourself down so you didn't scream in frustration and fear. You repeated the phrase 'I'll be fine' in your head like it was a prayer, hoping that some god would take pity on you and let you go home. Maybe this time a god would finally decide that you had suffered enough, and you would wake up in your bed and realise that the whole experience had been a hyper-realistic dream.

Alas, the chances of a god changing your fate were impossible. More than impossible. Was there even a word for something like that?

It wasn't long before your chanting became verbal, and as you began the journey home, you kept saying it over and over again: 'I'll be fine. I'll be fine. I'll be fine! Yeah. I can do this.' It was the only thing keeping your feet moving. It wasn't like you had a choice—you had to make it home, otherwise you would freeze to death, and dying alone in the cold had never been something you fancied.