hobo heart x reader. Perhaps we value each other?

Chapter 5

The cold numbness in my torso shifts, and I wake up once again—but this time, the rusted table is gone. I'm lying on a mattress in a completely different room. Panicking, I quickly sit up and rip my shirt open to look down at my chest. The horrific, hollow void is still there. My heart is completely gone. Yet, incredibly, Hobo Heart seems to have neatly tucked the rest of my exposed organs back inside my torso and replaced some of my missing bones. It makes absolutely no sense as to how that is biologically possible, or how I am even drawing breath.

I cast a frantic look around the space. It looks like a normal-ish bedroom, but it's still deep underground; massive, gnarled tree roots break straight through the dirt ceiling above like grasping wooden fingers.

I slowly slide my legs over the edge of the mattress and force myself to get up, wrapping my hands tightly over my chest to physically hold the rest of my insides in. I carefully and quietly take a few steps across the floorboards.

"Damn, this hurts," I whisper, my throat raw.

The slight exertion forces a wet cough from my lungs, causing a fresh, agonizing spike of pain to rip through my torso. "Shit." I look down at my fingers, expecting a flood of crimson, but my blood is only sluggishly dripping from the wound. Without a heart beating in my chest to keep the fluid moving, my blood has slowly clotted and dried into a dark, thick paste inside the open cavity.

"Are you finally up?"

I flinch, whipping my head toward the dark doorway to see Hobo Heart standing there, leaning against the frame.

"It's about time," he grunts, his crystal-clear blue eyes tracking my movements. "Slender wants to see you." He walks across the room, closing the distance between us, and firmly moves my trembling hands away from my chest to examine his handiwork. He stares at the hollow space, a deep line fracturing his brow. "It makes no damn sense as to how you are still walking like this. I mean, I'm missing a heart too, but I was explicitly created this way. You're supposed to be a normal human." He shakes his head, letting out a frustrated sigh. "I'll patch you up properly after Slender sees this. Let's go."

Before I can even open my mouth to protest or ask a single question, he wraps his freezing fingers tightly around my wrist and begins forcefully pulling me out of the room. With my one free hand, I tightly clutch my torn chest, doing everything I can to hold myself together as we navigate the dark, root-choked tunnels.

After what feels like a grueling eternity of walking through the subterranean dampness, my foot catches on a loose rock. My weakened legs give out completely, and I trip, falling hard into the dirt.

"Ack... sorry, Hobo," I groan, bracing against the pain in my chest as I carefully push myself back up. I dust the soil off my clothes, immediately placing my arm back over the gaping hole.

"Whatever, we are almost there," he mutters, not looking back, though he slows his pace just enough for me to keep up. "Though, I do have a question." He waits a beat for me to match his stride, his raspy voice dropping into a quieter register as we continue walking.

"What is it?" I ask, keeping my eyes locked on the uneven ground as I shield my chest.

"When we first met in the woods... did your heart hurt?"

"A little," I admit, remembering the suffocating pressure that had slammed into my ribs that night. "But it quickly stopped. I'm not big on emotions anyway. My aunt taught me how to hide my feelings from a very young age, though I still slip up from time to time. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Hobo replies flatly. "Come on. We are here."

I look up past his broad shoulders, and my jaw drops. Towering over the treeline is a massive, spectacular mansion. The structure absolutely wasn't there a few moments ago, as if it had materialized out of the mountain fog the second we approached.

"Come on," Hobo commands, his boots clicking faster against the stone path. "He has been waiting long enough."

We push through the towering, heavy wooden doors, and Hobo immediately guides us toward a long, shadowed hallway. I can't help but look around in utter bewilderment. The interior is absolutely spectacular—nothing at all like the blood-splattered house of horrors I had imagined from a mansion full of notorious serial killers. Yet, it is exactly, perfectly as my aunt had described it to me during those long childhood nights. Massive marble pillars soar upward to support the impossibly high ceiling, the floor is made of smooth, light baby-blue tiles that reflect the dim light, the walls are a sparkling, pristine white, and a grand stone fountain bubbles peacefully right in the center of the foyer. It is truly breathtaking.

But the moment I turn my head back to follow my guide, my stomach drops into a freezing void. Hobo had completely vanished.

A sudden, sharp wave of panic floods my chest. "HOBO?" I call out into the vast space, but my voice just bounces off the marble pillars, echoing hollowly back to my ears. No one answers. "Shit."

Desperate and feeling entirely exposed, I begin to make my way down a random, nearby hallway, praying to whatever god is listening that it's the right path. I continue to call his name in a panicked whisper as I walk, but the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stand up. A suffocating, predatory weight settles over the air. I am being followed.

I stop dead in my tracks, spinning around on my heel to face the threat, and freeze. My nose comes inches away from a smooth, deep blue mask.

I let out a piercing scream, stumbling backward as the man in the blue mask lets out a low, raspy laugh. "Shhh. Don't scream so loud, little girl," he whispers.

My eyes widen to the size of saucers as thick, black fluid drips from his empty eye sockets, and my brain instantly matches the image to my aunt's old lore. Eyeless Jack.

"No... stay away!" I choke out, my legs trembling violently.

I violently twist away from him, ignoring the blinding agony in my ribs, and take off running down the corridor as fast as my aching, heartless body can possibly carry me. Behind me, the sound of his low, amused laughter instantly warps into a deep, animalistic growl that shakes the walls.

"Come back here, little girl!" Eyeless Jack roars, the frantic thud-thud-thud of his boots echoing right behind me as he quickly begins to chase me down the labyrinth.

I can't let him catch me. If he traps me in this hallway, he will rip out the rest of my organs before I ever find out what I am. I have to find Hobo. I have to survive this living nightmare, no matter what it takes, so I can finally get back to the waking world and tell my aunt the truth.