INTO THE WOODS (Masky x reader x Hoodie)

CHAPTER 32

Jordan had his arms wrapped around the girl as she fell to the ground in tears.
"I-I'm sorry kid! I get you miss him and all, and that he totally ruined the tea party BUT REAL TALK CAN YOU NOT SCREAM-" he pushed his own hand against his mouth, realizing he'd become too loud. She nodded, yet the tears still fell. She was so angry. She just saw him again! Why did he leave so soon!?
"Wh-why? Why did he have to go so quickly?" She asked, wiping the tears away as she mumbled in a low tone.
"Because. When he saw you, he regained consciousness, and when you're Tim.. It's weird. He's always been able to come here freely and leave the same. When he blacks out, he comes here. And when he's in a black out-"

"-I'm unconscious. I'm "Masky"." He told Ahady, holding up the mask. "I had just blacked out when I heard screams. Who was that?" He asked. Rasheed raised a hand in embarrassment, and Daya quickly pushed it down.
"So, how did you wake up?" She asked, still confused. She had no eyeliner on, which was really strange, for even CJ. CJ had his arms around her waist as she talked.
"That's the thing. I never remembered what happened in my blackouts." They all let out a huff of annoyance, but he soon interrupted. "Until now."
"Wow, way to sound like a shitty movie commercial," Will muttered as Moman slapped the back of his head. Will had dark bags under his blue eyes, he was the most agitated of them all at the moment. Moman's hair got nappier, his sweet personality faded as he felt himself falling. The only thing he let onto was hope.
"I saw her." Brian's eyes went wide as Tim muttered out those words, as the whole room was filled with hope.
"Are you serious?!" CJ practically screamed.
"I'm more than sure of it." Tim assured them, nodding. "But after I saw her, and hugged her, I gained consciousness. And then I woke up here."
Ahady nodded in understanding. "You have the ability to go through different dimensions with your blackouts."
"That's fuckin badass," Will said, nodding.
"Yeah, you're like a super hero or something," Daya added. Tim scratched the back of his head.
"I just don't remember when it happens, or how it happens. I remember this time, though."
"So, how are we gonna get her back?" Rasheed asked.
Ahady sat over on the couch and crossed her leg. "You need to understand who you're dealing with first." She pulled a cigarette from the pocket of her pastel yellow sweater and then a lighter, and dragged in smoke.
"Stories in the rez went around like wild fire, as they usually do. But the legend of what we call the Faceless Man was inescapably, undeniably more real than you'd have guessed."

///TO SLENDY'S PLACE///

Jordan placed his tough hand over the girl's mouth, looking around in a paranoid state. She looked up at him confused, raising an eyebrow. She was used to him being creepy and often times jumpy, so this was normal to her. But in his eyes, there was genuine fear.
"Someone's here," he muttered. "A lot of them." He pulled out the gun from his waistband and nodded towards her, signalling for her to pull out her pistol.
She anxiously pulled it out, letting out a deep, silent breath as she aimed her gun to the ground, checking all of her senses.
"Those won't work," A voice rang out. The voice was that of a very soft one, echoing through the woods as they heard small footstep, like the footsteps of small, innocent dear. Pins and needles went down her spine as the voice sounded to be the one of purity and innocence. Jordan, on the other hand, kept his pistol up as he hit the girl in her side.
"Don't listen to it. Don't let your guard down." His voice was dark with aggression and assertiveness, aiming to kill.
"Your weapons will not work." The soft voice rang out.

"He's about as old as time. The suit being traditional English man wear, yet you can find him in Ancient Egyptian markings. You can see him in the children's books that date back to the 1600's. His body, slender as pine trees that scrape the sky; completely pale, paler than paper children scribble on. His fingers are more like slick, skinny kitchen knives, sharp to the touch, boney in a way, yet still so smooth. Black, long tendrils, nothing being able to fit the description of it; if you've ever felt them.." Ahady shook her head, chills going down her own spine as the room became silent. "Inexplicably cold. Smooth and wet, yet so strong, able to easily choke out the strongest of men, yet soothe the cries of the pain inflicted children.. Simply unexplained, those tendrils. They are the darkest thing you will ever lay your eyes upon.."
Tim shuddered, understanding exactly what she was talking about, agreeing. Brian stood, feeling the same as his companion.
"But the most chilling feature of him? His face. Or.. where there should be one, at least. From a distance, it's just white.. but, if you've ever seen it up close.. It's much more disturbing. If you ever stared into his facelessness, you'll see.. life behind static. All of your life, in mere seconds, what it is, what is to come... your birth. Your first steps. First bruise, first heartbreak, your marriage.. who you've killed... and then, in the bitter end, your death. It could be anything.." she shuddered audibly. "And then where you will go after your death. Either burning in the depths of hell, the fires consuming your flesh as you wither in despair, crying in eternity for a God that never showed up for you."

"SHOW YOURSELVES!" Jordan yelled, bass deep in his voice, as if it was somewhat of an army cry.

A sea of children became visible. But.. armies on top of armies of children of all races. All of them looking beaten up, starved, abused... the Native American children. The African children. All of the children from the pictures.

"In our modern day... it's hard to say what his purpose is. But from the beginning it was clear what his mission was. In our tribes, when I was just a girl, there were stories of when the Native Americans were being pillaged, a massive group of children just went missing. But more specifically, the children who were.. abused. Sexually, physically.. all by their parents and the Englishmen.. the ones who were sold into sex slavery by the white man, all during auctions, randomly vanished like thin air.
"It was almost as if they were being saved," she said, giving out an anxious laugh. "That's what we all believed. They all thought it was just an abnormally tall, paler than usual French man with a genetic mutation, but he was no mere man.. he was the Child Keeper. If your parents were to beat you.. rape you.. he'd save you. He was the guider of the lost children. A torch in the dark to the youth.

"And so he was good.. he saved many African slaves... many orphans. Who knew where he took them, really? Tim, boy, they're where you go when you suffer those blackouts. All of them. Do you recall?" She asked, grabbing his shoulder.

He nodded profusely, becoming shaken with her words as he felt his face lose any colour it possessed beforehand.

"But.. something in the being snapped. I'm not even sure what happened.. But around when Rasheed was born, children who'd been abused went missing, right? But.. soon after, after they were taken, they'd show up dead in the woods. Hung up by strings, innards ripped from their rightful place in the body."
Moman's eyes went wide as he remembered what had happened to his younger brother, Matteo. Will pulled him into a tight hug, understanding his pain.
"They found my brother like that," Moman said, practically in a whisper. Tears slipped from his black eyes as he shut them closed, falling into his lover's embrace.

"What the fuck," the girl mumbled. Her hand began to shake as she felt weak.
Two children stepped up before all of them, the grass moving from the strong winds now flowing through the forest. The sky was now a complete yellow colour. A chubby, Native American boy stepped up, dressed in rags, next to him a frail black girl who was dressed similarly. Two more kids, a small, familiar white boy and a chubbier mixed one. She dropped the gun, her eyes went as wide as the moon as she realized..
...It was Sam Duncan, Will's younger brother, next to him Matteo- Moman's little brother.