Closer - TICCIMASK

Chapter Six

"Coooooltooooon!" Toby sing-songed as he slowly weaved his way through the trees. "You can't hide forever! These woods are only so big!" His voice caught on a slight growl at the end.

The boy couldn't have gone far; he didn't know the forest and certainly had no clue where he was going. But despite this, Toby's patience was running thin. He huffed and pushed his hair out of his face before picking up his pace, the leaves crunching under his Converse.

"Colton, don't be scared. It won't hurt that much if you just get out here!" he called, running a gloved finger up and down the blade of the older axe in the holster; it would need sharpened soon. "C'mon, buddy! Let's talk!"

The breeze, much stronger now, blew through Toby's hair, but he paid no mind to it. He needed to find Colton before one of the others, or before the boy made it out of the forest and alerted the authorities. Of course, they would be easy to deal with, but it would be an inconvenience and such an annoyance. So he pressed on through the wind and tramped through the mud; his shoes needed washed anyway. His hand twitched and twisted to the side, ticking, and an involuntary shiver ran up Toby's spine.

Somewhere deep inside him, another sense was going off. Something was coming. And it was coming fast. Before long, Toby was running as fast as he could, panting and gasping for air. He knew he was straining himself; he could tell by the way the twitches in his hand and shoulders intensified and how the ticks grew louder each time. Along with this, he could feel a pressure growing in his knee and was mentally begging it to not twitch. If the muscles were to twitch, his leg would either go flying out from under him or would just completely fail him. Either way, he'd be eating the forest floor.

"Colton get the fuck out here!" he screamed before being slammed into a tree.

The twitching in his knee had ceased, but every muscle in his body was now tense and straining. Toby instinctively reached down to grab his hatchet, only to have his wrist grabbed and pinned against the tree as well.

"Get off of me," he snarled, his dark eyes flashing behind his goggles.

"Calm down," a monotone voice replied and most of the fight went out of Toby.

Of course he would show up now, just as Toby messed up. Of course he'd show up when he wasn't wanted.

"Get off of me," Toby said again, sneering at the man.

"Why the hell are you out here screaming and creating a ruckus?"

"Literally no one says 'ruckus' anymore."

Masky's eyes narrowed and his grip tightened on the other young man's wrist. Toby didn't know if he momentarily forgot that he couldn't feel it, but he still tried to yank his wrist out of the bigger man's grip as what could be seen as a reflex.

"GET. OFF," he finally growled, pressing his other hand against Masky's chest and pushing him as hard as he could. It was enough to send him stumbling back, but not let go of Toby's wrist.

So, Toby did what any panicked person would do. In a flash, he had the skin of Masky's wrist between his teeth and was biting down as hard as he could. The man let out a loud howl of pain and curled his other hand into a fist, pulling his arm back before slamming it into Toby's stomach.

Toby felt every bit of air leave his lungs and he dropped to the ground, hands pressed against his stomach as he struggled to breathe. It didn't hurt, nothing ever did, but it was uncomfortable. Every breath he took was wheezing and strained. He looked up through narrowed eyes to see Masky glaring at the bite mark on his wrist and he slowly got back to his feet, using the tree for support.

"Honestly, Toby, what did you think that bite would do?" Masky sighed as he pulled his jacket sleeve down over his wrist and put his hand on his hip.

"It got you to let me go."

"Sure, but you got punched in the process."

Toby grunted as he got to his feet, his hand still pressed against his stomach. "Whatever. I'm busy right now, and I would really appreciate it if you'd leave."

"Just what the hell are you busy with?"

"Go away."

"Toby, we need to talk about what happened today. Not just in class, but-"

"LOOK. YOU'RE NOT MY FUCKING THERAPIST, AND YOU'RE DEFINITELY NOT MY MOM, SO FUCK OFF." Toby whirled around and stormed off further into the forest.

Masky quickly followed him, continuing his sentence. "Toby, we need to talk about this before it's too late. I'd rather at least try to understand the situation before reporting it-"

"Get the fuck away. You're just doing this so that you can have more shit to tell Slendy when you get back. So stop following me, and just go home. I'm busy and I don't have the time."

The calmness in Toby's voice was...surprising, to say the least, and it even caused Masky to slow his pace and let Toby get ahead of him. His eyes narrowed. Fine, if the kid wanted to be alone, he'd let him be. In a flurry of leaves, he was gone and Toby was left alone.