Fear Garden 2: Scarlet's Bloom (An IDFB Fanfic)

I'm Back

Pin, Fries, and Coiny stare at each other, none of them daring to speak.

Suddenly, Fries spun towards the other direction, and Pin staggered onto her feet, fear in her voice. There's a blind panic that clouds the atmosphere, and it stunned Coiny with a blinked confusion. He stared at Fries and Pin, and their desperate attempts to outrun one another. After all this time he didn't know why he was here.

He knew this was a possibility, since the day he recovered her. He missed Pin, but this- he wasn't ready. He thought he'd be able to handle it, as he spent countless nights convincing himself that the others would move on.

Yet, here they were; exposed, without a plan to fall back on. Coiny whispered a silent plea for forgiveness, then started running. It wasn't long until Pin heard his footsteps, and she glanced back at him.

"Grab whatever you can- we're taking him down!" Her voice may have been her own, but her words carried a daunting reminder of the past. He knew it shouldn't have been, but somehow that was more terrifying than the outcome that'd play if Fries made it back to the city.

Glancing around, Coiny forced his questions into the back of his throat. He grabs whatever he can, and his eyes dart around the ring of trees that stretch endlessly around the forest. The trees taunted him, threatening to expose his misdeeds to the world that he could soon be exiled from. Every single one of them carried his secrets. And now someone was threatening to spill them.

Clutching the assortment of sticks and stones in his left arm, he took off, rocketing through the disorienting maze of trees.

Coiny came to recognize the path home very well, but enough had taken place to throw his mind out of the window.

The only images that claimed a faint recognition in his mind was that of Pin.

Pin.

He eventually catches up to their pace. Fries barreled down the path, with Pin's hands outstretched to try and grasp at his flailing movements. He stumbled, forcibly regaining his balance as her fingers desperately clawed mere inches away from his back.

And that's when the memories break through the barren floodgates of Coiny's mind. Suddenly, he's back in the garden. Cemented into the soil with the same pair of hands bringing down a damned trowel, driving it into Fries's back. Terror struck Coiny's spine like a lightning bolt, and his feet flew down the forest ground as he scrambled after them.

"GUYS," he cried. "FRIES, PIN- STOP RUNNING!" His words fell on deafened ears, and he continued to plead despite the burning of his throat. "STOP!"

Coiny drew nearer to Pin, swiftly passing her and Fries when he swerved to the left. Pin's body slammed against Coiny's with a brute force that resulted in the breath being knocked out of the coin creature. Pin's shivering forced him to ignore the pains that amplified through his muscles, and before he could have a chance to say her name, a pair of arms ripped Pin away from him, dragging her back and forcibly pinning her (lol) against the back of a tree. Fries managed to grab one of Coiny's rocks, and without hesitation, he trained it over Pin's throat, pressing it harder with every slowing second.

Instinctively, Coiny stepped towards her with a hoarse gasp, but a direct glare from Fries forced him back into his place. He raised his quivering arms, letting the remaining stones fall from his grasp in order to show that he was harmless. It had been a brief moment since he had taken a good look at Fries; their last interaction left them off on a sour note, and whilst Coiny had been blessed with the opportunity of moving forward, the others had not. He could see this from the bags underneath Fries's eyes. The scars on his body screamed their permanence, and despite the exhaustion that rattled through his system, his eyes were haunted with terror and rage.