Caught In The Forest

Rekindling Bonds

The blood rushing in my head woke me. I prayed everything was a dream, but as I opened my eyes I saw peeling paint on the ceiling above. My heart broke in disappointment, this was a living nightmare. But I wondered, was anyone sick enough to thoroughly enjoy this? I recalled my friend who showed me all the stories in the first place. I bet Lily would jump at the chance, I thought. Slowly, I crawled out of the sheets, and I stood in front of the door for a long time. I don't want to face what's out there. Why can't this be an insane asylum? Why can't I have just gone mad? Why isn't this a dream? I begged for answers of why my life took this toll, but the world beyond me would not answer. Like the first time I opened a door in that house, which seemed like decades ago, I did as cautiously this time around. It squeaked, I tip-toed down the stairs, and tried to gather my thoughts as I sauntered through the maze.

     "Hey, wait for me!" I turned around to see BEN, covered in a crimson not pixelated might I say. He noticed my stare and seemed embarrassed. "I'm sorry, please don't mind me. I had business." I shivered and without another word he ran up next to me. "Well, let's go!" We traveled in silence, a grin spread wide across BEN's face.

     My brain suddenly caught a flash of memory, BEN was aimlessly sitting in a tree twiddling a knife, laughing. Jeff stood down below, yelling at him to return it along with a good amount of threats. "You've got to climb up here if you want it!" BEN teased.

     "I will destroy every damn computer in the house if you don't come down here! You'll have to walk more often instead of teleporting!" Jeff shook his fists. Slenderman stood off to the side holding his head in one of his hands.

     "Idiots," he mumbled.

    "Hey!" The two shouted in unison.

     I was taken back to reality, I looked at BEN and smiled. "What?" He asked inquisitively.

    "I see you're a prankster. Did Jeff ever get back his knife?" I asked, grinning. 

     BEN took a moment in thought, trying to figure out what I meant. Then he smiled, "Oh that! Well, Jeff threw a rock at me so I fell out of the tree. The knife fell into my shoulder and the other two laughed. You were worried  but I said it was okay, that I could get better real quick. I think you were seven- I mean ten at the time." He corrected quickly. "Thinking of something else, probably Sally." BEN didn't sound sincere, however. Were they lying? It would be so easy for them considering I can hardly recall a thing.

    "It was funny, though. You'd see us three scary looking things but then there was you, Penny. A small little girl trailing right behind us monsters, killers, demons. We taught you a couple things,  stalking, attacking, just the basic survival skills, you know." He smiled. "Oh look how time flies, we're already in the lounge!" 

     I looked around, besides us, Smile Dog was curled up on the floor at the feet of a sitting Jeff. Hoodie sat without his counterpart Masky at a stool. Otherwise the room was empty. Smile Dog sleepily lifted his head, flashed me his deadly fangs, and slipped back into a slumber. I shivered, was that a hello or a warning? 

     "Sup," Jeff spoke without so much as a glance at us. He was focused on the front door. In his best voice, he mimicked Slenderman, "Oh Hoodie, be polite. Do greet the two, there is no need to be rude." I laughed, Jeff grinned wider than his permanent one in satisfaction. 

     Hoodie weakly waved, "Hello." Then he swiveled around and faced the wall for a minute, and then turned back around. Okay then. 

    "Let's go grab something to eat!" BEN tugged me out of the room and through a door into a small kitchen.

     "You eat?" I asked. It was a fully prepared kitchen, full of some of the nicest utensils and plates.

     "Eating is like a past time, we don't need to, but we like to. Some of the more living-like creepypastas get hungry, but won't die from it. An example is I won't get hungry because I don't exactly exist, but Jeff does get hungry, because he was born human." I suddenly giggled. "What?"

     "How does Slenderman eat?" 

     "When he does, we don't really get to see. The food kind of just disappears from his plate. And anytime someone waits to see him take a bite, he glares at them." I shivered, imagining one of his cold faceless glares. "So what do you want? Not body parts I'm guessing? Me neither, it's just so weird." He pawed through the kitchen. "Toast?"

    "Sure," I said slowly. He shrugged and put two pieces of bread into a toaster, not even two seconds later they popped out. "That was quick."

     "I'm good with electric devices.  It is after all, my specialty." BEN replied. I smiled, and so did he.

     "How do guys get all this stuff anyway," I motioned to the bread. 

     "Stealing, it's easy. Come on, let's go back." He said nonchalantly as he tossed the two pieces onto separate plates. He handed me a ceramic plate, and I followed him out of the kitchen.We sat next to Jeff, BEN in the middle, me on the opposite outer edge to Jeff. I watched BEN eat,  and I did slowly.

    "I don't think I'm going out today," Jeff proclaimed. "Just not feeling like my knife is sharp enough, you know. It takes absolutely forever before the thing is exactly how I want it."

     "Aren't dull blades more efficient?" I asked, I paused abruptly afterword. Did I just give a serial killer advice? Jeff smiled.

    "Sometimes they are, but the sharper they are, the more detail I can put into the kill." I shuddered. Detail?

    "What do you mean detail?"

    "It would be a shame if those victims of mine-," he traced one of his scars,"-didn't have a beautiful smile like me. It's like their unsaid dying wish, and isn't that what everyone wants in life? To be beautiful? Remembered? At least their deaths will never be forgotten." Once more I shivered, Jeff's smile widened. He stood up and knelt before me. "I think you would look gorgeous if you had one. Don't you think?"  He tilted his head.

    "Cut it out," BEN hissed. "Keep your beautifying away from Penny."

     "Hey, I wasn't going to attack her, I asked her anyway. Well would you, Penny?"

     "No-no thanks."

     "See? I don't think she would want you carving her face out, Jeff." Jeff rolled his eyes at BEN's words.

     "Her loss," Jeff stood up and paced the room. "I wonder what I'll do today if I'm not doing my usual schedule. Ahrg! I'm already bored!"

     "Does someone have ADHD?" I whispered to BEN. BEN laughed.

     "What is it? What are you two talking about?Are you making fun of me?" Jeff demanded.

     "No, no not at all." BEN stood up, glancing at Jeff's knife laying on the couch. Why does he always leave that thing around? "But I see you've lost something."

    Jeff whipped his head towards BEN. "What?"

     "Your precious knife!" BEN leaped up from his seat and snatched it, then he ran down a hall next to the kitchen door.

    "Come back here you idiot!" Jeff bolted after him, flailing his arms about. 

    As reality dug its cold long claws into my shoulder, I still giggled at  the two goofy serial killers, running amok like two normal brothers. But they weren't brothers, or normal, or casually running amok, or simply goofy. They had hundreds of lives end at their own hands. I am no exception, when is it my end?