The Hat Fic

Chapter 3

While Cola and Matt were heading upstairs, Hoopes and Sahara were heading down. After they reached the bottom of the stairs, they began walking down a long, narrow hallway.

"Hey, hold on a minute Sahara, I think there's a bug on your arm." said Hoopes.

Sahara screeched and flailed her arms around. "A BUG!? WHAT!? WHERE!?"

"IT'S OKAY!" shouted Hoopes. He calmed Sahara down and held the light to her shirt. "Look, it's just a moth."

She flicked the small creature away and took a deep breath, causing the oil lamp's flame to flicker. "Don't scare me like that," she hissed.

Hoopes laughed. "It was kinda funny."

"No! It wasn't!"

"It was, a little." He smiled.

"C'mon you dingus."

Hoopes chuckled and led the way to the end of the hallway. It was just an empty room with some old wooden boxes stacked around the corners. The pair went through the boxes, looking for something they could use to sit on, since everything else was all dusty.

As the night grew darker, the room grew colder. Hoopes had found an old blanket they could sit on, but they had nothing to keep themselves warm. Sahara awkwardly scooted closer to Hoopes until their arms bumped. He looked down at her just as she looked up at him, which caused her to blush slightly.

"I know this is weird... but, I'm really cold."

Hoopes smiled awkwardly and outstretched his arm. "It's fine."

Again, Sahara awkwardly scooted in next to Hoopes and he draped his arm around her shoulders. At first, the position was awkward and the silence was almost so unbearable that Sahara wanted to just leave, no matter what the hat would do, but then she remembered Matt's precious honey-hair. She knew she couldn't leave her friends, not at a time like this.

"What are we supposed to do about the hat?" asked Sahara. "Like, how do we make it stop chasing us?"

"I don't know... Maybe just ask it to stop?"

Sahara paused and glanced to Hoopes. "What... What if... if we have to like... kill it?"

Hoopes cringed. "Please, I don't want to think about that."

"Yeah... but it'll be okay. We'll find a way to get your hat back and un-possessed."

"I hope so..."

Sahara eventually got comfortable with having Hoopes' arm around her, but he stayed stiff as a board. And when he finally loosened up? Well, Sahara had fallen alseep on his shoulder. He drifted off too, but purely out of tiredness.

~~~~~~

Night passed, and morning came. Or at least what Hoopes and Sahara thought was morning. It was actually three thirty.

Hoopes yawned. "Good morning, did you sleep well?"

"Let's just say you're a pain in my neck."

"What?" he asked, looking hurt.

"Your shoulder. It's literally a pain in my neck." Sahara replied.

"Well, why don't you request extra pillows next time! I'm so sorry you didn't enjoy your stay at Hoopes' Shoulder."

"Next time? You think I'm sleeping on your shoulder again?"

Hoopes gasped. "You're not?!"

"Nope. As soon as I get home I'm giving it a zero out of ten on Trip Advisor."

Hoopes mocked her by mouthing 'zero out of ten on Trip Advisor' in a playful way, but she just poked her tongue out at him in reply.

"C'mon, get up," she said, standing up and stretching. "We need to find Cola and Matt. Especially before the hat does."

Hoopes nodded. "Sounds like a plan."