How To Kill A Demon; for DUMMIES | tpn x reader

ARC II - ACT I

As if the day were but taunting you, almost warning you of what could and what would, the forest begun to fog over with a misty haze. Each step felt heavy and each breath felt freezing cold to the expanding and shrinking of your lungs. It was always like this, the few times you'd begrudgingly agree to leave the safe confinement of the house and masked your spent days with the act that you were simply playing tag with the others.

It was a miracle that mama hadn't asked if you had played with them yet and they had unknowingly blown your cover that you, in fact, had never played with them.

That's what you liked to believe at least. How does the saying go? Whatever helps you sleep at night? - yes, mama not being suspicious of you and your plan moving smoothly did help you sleep at night.

But it always went like this; Noah and Janesse would announce the start of the game and everyone would have ten to (sometimes) one hundred seconds to go and hide. You would laugh with Jake as you both rushed into a safe spot and you'd leave him with another kid his age, placing your finger up to your lips playfully before running off further into the forest areas.

One thousand, four hundred and seventy three footsteps (of your own leg and foot length) away from Jake laid the fence that sat way too short for it to truly keep any of you safe from anything.

Hurriedly sliding under the chains, you continued hurriedly to the clearer walls that surrounded what you had known to be home for far too long. What they had known to be safety up until the day their pitiful lives would be stolen from them and their bodies would be discarded as if nothing but a loose bone.

And it always continued like this; you'd slide up to your feet and run to the walls through thick tree trunks and heavy bushes of leaves and thorns. Mud would somehow find its way to your face and you'd wipe off the layer of nerve-wracking sweat that had accumulated over your forehead with the back of your hand.

Left and right, your snap your eyes to the unnecessarily large bush that laid over the walls - the spot directly opposite from the gates of this cursed abode. Perhaps if you needed to make an emergency rescue during one of the shipments you'd have to figure out how many steps it would take to travel from one end of the farm to the other - to your plan. But that and worrying about whether they would be fast enough to keep up with you? And their stamina?

Your head hurt.

With you violently shaking those thoughts away, you silently sprinted to the misplaced bush - something so obviously out of place had anyone taken the time to look for it - and with cold numb hands, you grabbed the branches and pulled it off the wall.

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"I can't believe it! I can't believe she caught me! Again!"

Hunched over on the green grounds of the fields sat Janesse - her arms hugging her torso as she laughed at the misery of Noah who had dropped to his knees and then face planted to the ground beside her in defeat at being found, chased and tagged by the small sunshine Emma.

"That's Emma for you!" The curly haired girl sighed, wiping an amused tear from her eye before leaning back on her hands - legs spread out in front of her. "Basically a mini me with how fast she's getting!"

The boy, in comparison to her, scoffed. "How high and mighty of you to say."

"It's the truth!"

"Uh-huh." He chuckled, turning away to instead look at the other kids besides him. Jake, sat beside some of the younger kids, waved happily to him, only getting a cheeky wave back from the older boy. Though, Noah couldn't help but knit his brows together one seeing you missing from the group.

"What's wrong?" Came Janesse's sweet voice, a sound he could only compare to a nap out in the sun on a warm spring day - call him crazy for that all you want.

He shook his head, turning back to her while sitting up from his stomach to instead rest on his bum. "They're not here yet."

"Who?"

"Y/n."

"Oh?" Leaning around him, she too grew surprised at the missing sight of the familiar younger one. Though it didn't last long before her lips grew into a wide smile. "Do you think they're able to keep up with Emma?! It would be super cool to see that!"

"Maybe." The boy shrugged, his gaze turned away from her to instead something over her shoulder.

The girl tilted her head at him, turning to look at Ray and mama standing together just a few feet away from everyone else. "What's up with them? Did you hear something?" She asked the boy before turning back to him.

With knitted brows he nodded, but his face loosened when he snapped his eyes to her. "Mama was asking about them and Ray said he hasn't seen them. Mama probably wants to talk to them." He laughed, grunting while standing up from the grass.

Janesse watched as the boy begun his walk back towards the forestry. "Where are you going?!"

"To tell y/n mama wants to see them!"

"Ah...!" The girl groaned, rolling her eyes at the back of her friend. How he would find you within the amount of land before them was beyond her understanding, plus, wouldn't it be better to just wait until the game finished? You were bound to be found by Emma anyway. "Stupid..." she chuckled beneath her breath, standing up and brushing off the dirt from her skirt to begin the walk behind the boy.

Some help on the hunt for you wouldn't hurt, right?

No.

Especially not when she could feel the dark eyes of Ray burning holes into the back of her head.