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ASK 100

Just as Charles was about to answer the question, the asker's form flickered for a few seconds, before changing into what only Charles knew was The Admin. Sam could sense how scared Charles got immediately, and huddled himself closer to George in fear. If Charles was terrified, it must be pretty bad. He didn't usually get scared.

“Hello!” The Admin spoke, their voice surprisingly soft, which matched their appearance, though they still seemed intimidating for some reason. Sam waved slightly at them, relaxing a bit. Charles still kept his guard up, trying not to show any fear, though he was failing at it.

“As you may know, I-I’m The Admin. I put you through all this pain.” They said, laughing a bit. Charles glared at them.

“B-but why? Why did you hurt us? Why put Sam through so much pain, why did you do any of this!” He yelled, standing up and walking over to The Admin, noticing that he was at least a foot taller than them, even though he didn't bother floating at the moment. They didn't seem very intimidating now, though Charles knew that if they wanted, they could erase him easily.

“I dunno. Th-the readers s-seemed to enjoy it!” The Admin put their hands up, stepping backwards away from Charles, who stepped back as well. He didn't really know what to say anymore, but The Admin seemed to be afraid of him.

“W-why did you h-hurt us? The r-real reason. D-do you hate us?” Sam spoke up, tears forming in his eyes. The Admin looked away anxiously.

“Well, not really. I-I have fun writing you guys, you're good characters! But...I have to do this. I can f-fix everything right now, if you want!” They said, backing up against the wall. They seemed to be afraid of confrontation, and Charles made sure to keep that in mind for the next time he encountered The Admin. Sam wasn't very intimidating, but to The Admin, Charles certainly was. But they realized pretty quickly that they were practically immortal, so they didn't have to be afraid.

“But...If I fix things, y’know, maybe do somethin’ with ghost boy here, someone has to get hurt. That's fair in exchange for Charles’ h-happiness, right?” They reasoned, their voice faltering a bit as they talked. Both Sam and Charles turned to look at George, who sighed.

“You’re going to hurt me, aren't you? I’ve...I haven't gotten hurt much, in this whole Q&A thing. Just, please don't hurt Sammy. He’s already been through so much, please don't hurt him again.” George wrapped his arms around Sam protectively, hoping that The Admin would listen and not hurt him.

“Yeah, that's fair. Though keep in mind that I do consider hurting him every time something interesting happens.” The Admin actually agreed with George, and it was obvious they were bored of this conversation already.

“Oh, and I don't want any of you askers, or even you, Charles, Sam, and George, to think that I’m redeemable. The whole point of this is for me to be the villain. But I’ll be nice, because honestly? You guys deserve something good for once.” They said, and with that, they snapped their fingers. Everything faded to darkness, a loud ringing sounding through the room.

When the light finally returned,Sam opened his eyes slowly, blinking a few times to adjust to the light again. He sat up, finding himself lying on the floor. His ears were still ringing from whatever The Admin did, and he looked around. George was sitting on the floor a few feet away from him, playing with the puppy, which had obviously heard the loud ringing noise and come to investigate. Sam immediately noticed that George's arm was wrapped in bandages, which had a bit of blood soaking through them already.

“G-Georgie? Are you okay?” Sam asked, crawling over to his partner dizzily, trying not to fall over again. Whatever The Admin did made him feel dizzy and kind of nauseous.

“Um, well, mostly. My arm hurts, but it's not really that bad. I’ve felt worse. But, are you okay? You kind of have a cut on your face.” George said, and Sam quickly pulled out his phone, opening up the front camera and looking at himself.

“Oh! W-wow, I do, um...it’ll- it’ll be fine.” He stuttered, wiping a bit of blood off his face with his sleeve. George sighed, not pressing him any further about it. He would probably be fine anyways.

“W-wait, where’s...where’s Charles?” Sam realized, looking around the room again, though he couldn't see much from his spot on the floor. But he could hear the heater running, so that was probably a good sign.

“Sammy, I’m going to go see if the cat is okay from whatever The Admin did.” George said, getting up and walking out of the room, leaving Sam with ringing still echoing faintly in his ears. He slowly crawled over to the couch, managing to climb onto it before collapsing, sighing heavily and closing his eyes in an attempt to make himself less dizzy. It didn't work very well, but after a few seconds he opened his eyes again, looking over the arm of the couch at where Charles usually sat.

“H-hey, Charles, are y-you okay? Did The Admin h-hurt you?” He asked, and Charles looked up at him, grinning widely and patting Sam on the head, laughing slightly, still grinning. Sam was confused for a second, before realizing, when he practically fell off the couch in shock.

“Ch-Charlie, you’re- you're alive! H-how? I mean, I’m so happy for you, b-but...this is amazing!” He yelled, a grin spreading across his face as he finally fell off the couch and onto the floor, tackling Charles into a tight hug, grinning and laughing along with his newly un-ghosted friend. Finally, after a minute or two Charles pulled away, still grinning as he ran his hands over the pattern of the carpet, and hugging the soft fabric of one of the blankets close to him. It had been so long since he had been able to touch anything, he savoured every second of it.

And in that moment, though both Sam and George were hurt, and though not everything had gone right, far from it actually, they were all alive.

And for now, that would be enough.