Officetale

3

Max's POV

We both stood next to a tree. A big, black, ugly tree.

Ross' phones rings and I spot Jess across the room with her phone out.

"Mom!" I yell out of habit. Luckily, Ross is too preoccupied with Jess running to him to hear me.

"My child!" She exclaims. "What are you doing here? Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay," Ross says. "I met loads of nice monsters."

"That is good, you've already grown accustomed here. Come now, I have baked a surprise for you."

"Really?" Ross asks. "What is it?"

"I cannot tell you," she smiles. "It would no longer be a surprise, would it?"

"I guess that's fair," He says, taking her furry hand. She pulls him to the house and I follow behind them. Ross glances at me and quickly grabs my hand as well, pulling me along the path and into the house.

"Woah!" I exclaim. "This looks just like-" I stop, hoping Ross didn't hear me. He was paying more attention to Jess, who's now run off to the kitchen.

"Let's go find your room," I say, pulling him off down the hall.

We both stop at the first door and stare.

"Should we go in?" He asks.

"Yeah, why not," I shrug. He opens the door and steps in. It's a small room with a single bed. Ross goes over to the bed and presses on it before jumping in.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm taking a nap," he says. "Sparing monsters is hard."

I roll my eyes and sit on the ground next to the bed.

"You can sleep with me, if you want," he says. My face burns red.

"N-no, I'm fine," I huff. "But I'm taking this." I snatch up a small blanket laying at the end of his bed and wrap it around me.

"Okay," he says. I lay in peace on the ground, quietly humming.

-:-

I wake up feeling incredibly well rested, but also wanting to go back to sleep.

I look on the floor and spot a slice of pie. Mom is always so kind to strangers.

"Ross," I mutter, sitting up. "Ross."

I sit up and shake him. He groans and rolls over.

"Wake up, Ross," I shake him a little bit more. He rolls back over and sits up. His hair is messy and tangly. I sigh and get up off the floor.

I open the first drawer in the dresser and pull out a hairbrush.

While he's still half-asleep, I brush out his hair, trying to fix it up.

He frowns as he cleans his glasses, realizing how dirty they are.

"Max, why couldn't I have slept a bit longer?" He asks.

"We have to see Jess," he says. "Look, she brought you pie."

"She didn't bring you any?" He asks.

"I don't need any," I shrug, handing him the pie of the ground as I continue to brush his hair.

Brushing through the last tangle, I stand up off the bed and put the hairbrush up.

I get a sleepy Ross off the bed and pull him out of the room. We walk out to the main room. I catch him staring at the stairs going down to presumably the basement.

"What's down there?" He asks.

"Let's find out," I say, walking down. We arrive at the bottom and look around.

It appears to be a long dark purple hallway. I hesitate, but walk ahead.

"My child?" A voice asks. Ross turns around to Jess.

"J-Jess!" He exclaims. "I-I'm sorry. I was just-"

"No need to fret, my child," Jess says, calmly. She takes Ross' hand in her furry paw. "Let's play upstairs from now on."

She pulls Ross up the stairs and I follow after him. I would never go down there without him. He'd want to stay with me and I, of course, want to stay with him.

Still a bit curious, I make a note to come back down here and quickly hurry up the stairs to get ahold of Ross.

-:-

Part 3 of ?

-Cat