Broken (Ticcimask, Masky's Side)

Chapter 10 - Aftermath

I cough slightly a few times, and I spit the bit of resulting blood into the sink. I rinse my mouth out with a handful of cold water, and I spit it back out laced with blood. I repeat that several times until the nauseating taste of warm metal is gone.

I, quickly, clean my blood of my mask, and turn the sink off after I set the ghostly-white mask back down.

I look into the mirror at my reflection; my hair is in disarray, dark bags border my eyes, and my face appears wiped of any emotion. My reflection starts to slowly distort. My skin turns a familiar white, the bags around my eyes darken to pitch black, my lips change to black, and my eyebrows shift to blackened arches. The shadows around the dimly lit room begin to spiral and creep closer, threatening to drag me down to an unseen void. The words 'who is left to hear the secret' slowly appear in the reflection of the wall behind me; the word 'the' occasionally glitches to 'your'.

Panic claws at my mind like a rabid animal, devouring all my rational thoughts to feed itself. I close my eyes tightly to block out the terrifying hallucinations. I take deep breaths, and my panic gradually subsides.

I slowly open my eyes. Everything is normal again, and I let out a small relieved sigh. I should get a shower; that always helps calm me down.

I slowly walk out into my room to grab clean clothes, and I see Toby standing in the middle of my room looking at me with concern and slight hesitation. I'm really not in the mood to deal with him right now, and the pitying look he's giving me is not helping. He opens his mouth to speak.

"I'm getting a shower," I say, cutting him off. I, hastily, grab some clothes and retreat back into my bathroom.

I make sure to lock the door on my way in, and I set my clean clothes down. I turn the shower on, and once the water is a good temp, I take my clothes off and toss them to the corner. I step into the shower, and I enjoy the relaxing feeling of the warm water flowing over my body for a minute before cleaning off and then getting out. I get dried off, put on a red flannel shirt, put on some jeans, brush my hair, and walk out after throwing my mask on.

I step out of the bathroom and see Hoodie sitting on my bed talking to Toby.

"T-that's a great idea, H-hoodie," Toby says before darting out of the room excitedly.

"Hey, Masky," Hoodie says, noticing I entered the room.

"I'm fine if that's what you're here to ask," I say.

"I take it you're still mad about me setting Jay up to die?" he asks.

"No, I'm not mad; I'm furious. You set my friend up to die," I say. I was pissed back when I merely suspected Hoodie of setting . . . him up to die, and now that I know that Hoodie did, I'm near livid. I know Hoodie did it for a good reason, but that doesn't stop me from hating him for it. I'm, also, pissed he brought back those old memories I've been trying hard to forget.

"If it makes you feel any better you did kill one of my friends too and me," he says. I open my mouth to argue, but I stop realizing he's right. Alex was a good friend of Hoodie's, and I never stopped to think of how hard what happened to him must have been on Hoodie. I've been so focused on my own feelings on the issue that I never stopped to consider Hoodie's. Now I feel guilty for not realizing that sooner. "You're not the only one who lost people, Tim. I also knew Alex, Seth, Jay, Sarah, and even Amy. I might not have been super close to all of them, but I still knew them."

"I . . . guess I let myself forget that," I say, and I sit down next to Hoodie. I sigh and put my face in my hands. "I'm a horrible friend."

"If I thought you were I would have left long ago. At this point your stuck with me," he said while giving me a friendly nudge to the shoulder.

"I killed you, Brian. That's about as bad of a friend as you can get," I say while moving my hands to look at him.

"I don't blame you for that. You didn't know it was me at the time, and It's not like I stayed dead. The star always comes back in the end," he says. I let out a slight laugh at the joke, and I shake my head at his craziness.

"Only you could turn your own death into a joke," I say.

"I'm a man of many talents," he says.

Toby, suddenly, bursts through the door with a plate of waffles in hand. "I-I HAVE FOUND THE BLUEBERRY WAFFLES AND S-SYRUP!" he yells excitedly while raising the plate of waffles over his head like a trophy. He runs over to his air mattress in the corner, and he happily eats his waffles.

I don't get how something so simple could make someone that happy. It's like he becomes a little kid when waffles are around. It's kind of cute.

Wait, what!? Did I just call Toby . . . cute? There is no way I actually find Toby cute. I must be more tired than I thought to think that. Yeah, it's just sleep deprivation messing with my head; let's leave it at that and forget it ever happened.

"Someone's happy," Hoodie says. Toby mouth is too full of waffles to speak, so he just makes a happy humming noise in response.

"Just don't make a mess," I say.

"I w-won't," Toby says after swallowing his mouthful of waffles. I give him a sceptical look, but he brushes it off. "I-i've been m-meaning to a-ask, w-who's J-Jay and w-why do you h-have a c-camera?" I tense up at the questions.

"Questions like that get you killed, Toby," I say.