Devouring The Cure [Ticci Toby] (1st Place Ticci Toby & Admin's Choice 2016)

Spectrophobia

Toby had a job to withhold, and more often than not, he had to abandon his hope of returning to his past life, his old home. Yes, his home. The home he once knew was far from normal, but at least he had a family and people he cared about. Or at least people he wanted to protect from a certain somebody.

Toby stood in the rain, panting heavily. His vision was obscured, clouded by the recent chain of events. There was so much blood. On the ground, splattered on the trees, and drowning in the puddles of rainwater. His eyes stared unfocused in front of him as the corpses' blood began to overthrow his sense of reason. There was just so much blood. So much he had just destroyed. How many lives had he taken that day? Two? Five? A dozen?

HIs breath gushed white puffs into the night sky as his brown hair dripped and his body quivered, the grip on his axe shaking. Fresh blood stuck to his clothes, staining the dull blue and grey that suited him so well.

Toby...

He flinched from the call of his name, the title unfamiliar to him in his state of despair. 'Toby' was the name he used to have. Now, he was stuck with one he grew up in school with.

Are you done?

Toby lifted his head a fraction from the familiar voice within his head, his lips parting to the taste of tangy copper. He knew this voice better than anybody and had grown accustomed to it as if it were his own thoughts. Really, the tone was what drove him into what he was now. It was the reason why he was there, covered in blood and revelling, yet cursing, the slaughter he just accomplished. And it was the reason why he could not go back.

Yeah, he answered.

Toby tightened the grip he had around his hatchet, the yellow of his goggles disrupted by the drops that cascaded down the lenses.

Yeah...

I'm done...

----

Toby sat on the floor next to a young girl, his dull eyes staring into the patterns of the carpet as she braided his hair into tiny knots. His hair was pulled back in many directions, but he didn't seem to mind how mediocre he looked. He just wanted a moment to forget. Or a moment to breath.

He was running out of the pills Masky dropped...

A few days ago. Toby and Masky had encountered each other and got into a fight. Masky left without a scratch, but Toby was beaten to pulp because of their strength difference. Toby would have never gotten into a brawl with him, but due to his bond with Slenderman, he had no other choice. You see, Slenderman had a huge 'no entering' policy when it came to these guys. They always attacked when Slenderman was off doing god knows what. And the reason as to why they bothered them made Toby a little uncertain if what their motives were. Masky had told him before that he, Slenderman, had killed someone close to him. And that he needed to pay.

But either way, on that day, Masky had dropped his pills. And it changed Toby's perspective about pills entirely.

There was no label on them, the sticky paper having been scratched off by what looked like a knife. Toby used to go on the pill in his youth for his tics. However, the medication made him feel funny and had no affect on him whatsoever. So he stopped using them.

Then, Toby finally took one from the pill bottle Masky dropped. At first, he felt nothing unusual about them, just like the meds he took for his tics. He went about his day checking the perimeter of the house, following after Sally when she went out to play in the woods. Everything was normal. But something was off. Something was different. He could not put his finger on it at first, but on further inspection, he began to realize how much clearer everything seemed. For once in his life, he was not bombarded by the constant attacks he often had, or the habit of a quick, flitting of a thought. His face was not twitching like it normally did, and his seizures were almost gone entirely.

The pills were like some sort of miracle concoction, a mystical cure that only lasted a day. The more he took, the more he felt like he could be himself.

If he had more of those pills -maybe, just maybe- he would be okay for the rest of his life...

No tics, no epileptic attacks, no ADD...

"Toby. Can you hand me another hair tie?" Sally asked from behind him.

Toby snapped out of his thoughts, his nerves getting the better of him before he shakily nodded. "Y-Yeah," He murmured.

Toby handed Sally a pink band and she took it without hesitation. The young male rocked in his place and was awestruck by how easily Sally could pull up hair like this. Even Jeff's hair could be tamed by this little girl.

"So I heard you're going to see a friend of Slendy's today. Is that true, is that true?" Sally asked excitedly.

Toby shakily nodded his head, not too happy by the turn of events. In truth, Toby never liked crowds. Or people in general. They always looked at him funny and made him feel belittled.

Normal people made him anxious.

"I heard she's nice. She's even friends with Offendy~!" Sally continue, her hair bouncing as she jumped.

Yeah. 'Friends', Toby thought bitterly.

To tell the truth, Toby knew who the woman was to Offenderman. He was told that she was a frequent pawn Offenderman used to satiate his hunger for fun, using her whenever he wasn't satisfied by the kill. Offenderman was a shameless being, so to Toby, it would seem that their relationship was only one sided. She was only being played with, but even so, Toby was told she had an air about her that seemed to fit her.

Unrequited love and patience.

She was the type of person Toby would have a hard time dealing with. She was too much like his mother. Loving a man who did not respect you...

They're both idiots, Toby thought.

Amidst all this, Sally gave the hair tie a final turn before she clapped her hands together and marvelled at her own work. "All done."

Bringing a hand to his head, Toby lifted up the mirror he had on his lap to get a good look at himself. He actually looked kind of nice, save for a few bows that were lopsided from the lack of hair he had. If he were four, and not to mention a girl, he would have definitely put up his hair like this. But he was not a girl, something he felt kind of happy for.

And not in a rude way.

Sally turned her body a fraction to stare at her toys, eyeing them all like candy on a golden dish. "Okay! What can we play with next?"

"Actually, Sally, I've got to go. She should be at the coffee shop soon," Toby said, lifting his wrist to see the time. It was almost lunch. She said in the letter that she wanted to meet around that time.

Crossing her arms in front of her chest in a fit, Sally pouted and bit the inside of her cheek. Toby sighed and got up from his place on the floor to ruffle her hair in reassurance.

"Don't worry, princess. I'm only going to be gone for an hour or two." Toby proceeded to take out the little braids and ponytails in his hair, his sneakers hitting against the floor as he sauntered over to the door.

Sally huffed in annoyance before she glanced away to distract herself. But upon doing so, her eyes caught on something that was hanging out of Toby's pockets as he closed the door behind him.

She didn't get to have a good look, but later that day, she began to notice that Toby was acting... odd. Not himself. Sally often wondered what it was, but not until it was too late did everyone realize that bottle contained something deadly. Something that would bring Toby's downfall.