BEN Drowned | Hopes And Dreams

N O W - The Continuation of Beginnings

"How are we sure he's going to be alright?" Mika asked the man in the lab coat.

"He's Ben, he will be."

Jeff paced through the hall of the house, back and forth. His mind clouded with thoughts.

"Jeff, sit down, please." Mika pleaded the raven for the nth time. "The poor floor's tattered."

"Why doesn't he have a face?" Jeff cried out suddenly, his eyes more frantic and wider than normal, "Is he the new Slenderman now, is that it? Is that what's happening? Is this an advance on Halloween? Is he—Is he trying to one-up me now? I don't.. I don't get it, Mika."

"Neither do I." Mika answered solemnly, ignoring the rest of his rants as she hung her head low, "Neither do I."

This defeated the raven as he plopped himself on a chair, "This is.. just.. it isn't right. Right?" He perked up, somehow wanting assurance. To know it really was real for his friend to suddenly not have a face.

Gaster hadn't brought up an explanation to anything, and no one seemed to care. Slenderman never left the room where they had lied Ben, and the entire place seemed sucked out of its life forms.

"Has this place always been this.. quiet?" Mika asked the inevitable question.

"No." Gaster finally spoke after moments of silence, his short response brought tension into the room—and quite possibly the entire place they were in.

"You're not suggesting—"

An explosion sounded from the room Ben and Slenderman were in, the ground shook beneath their feets as dust fell from the ceiling to the floor.

"WHAT THE F—"

A blur of green and yellow flashed before their eyes and the door was immediately broken down.

"Slenderman!" Gaster's voice rang above the rest of the noise as he charged towards the room that held the man, Mika and Jeff followed shortly after and they found the man grunting at a corner.

"What happened?" Gaster asked, he was quick to Slenderman's aid.

Mika was by their side, light emitting from her hand.

"Benjamin.. where? Where is he?"

"Worry about yourself for once." Gaster scolded, the skin where his eyebrow should be creased in frustration.

"What happened?" Jeff posed the question Gaster had before; Slenderman, in a slow motion, turned his head to where Jeff stood.

And in one slow motion, he understood.

"I'm going after him."

"WHAT? No. Jeff, don't be stupid. You can't—"

"I'm going after him, Mika!"

"What do you propose to do after?" Gaster's voice interjected when Mika opened her mouth to rebuttal.

"Wh—What?"

Gaster composed himself as Mika worked on her magic, "Say you did went after him. Caught up with him, even had the miracle to talk to him." His tone reeks sarcasm, "What would you say?"

"I.."

"You don't expect him to see you and realize: 'Oh, how stupid of me. You're right, I should go and make things right.'" his gaze pierced right through Jeff, eyebrows raised in such a "Where's your manager, huh?" manner. "Because I doubt that'll happen, Jeffrey."

"Jeez, don't pull a Karen on me now." Jeff scoffed, arms crossed as he sulked the other way.

"Because you deserve a 'Karen.' Whatever made you believe that he'll give up what he intends to do?" Anger was visible with each word Gaster produced.

"Gaster.." Slenderman called softly.

"Did you really believe he went this far as to slaughter everyone in the Underground just to have you stop him?"

A shiver ran everyone's spine.

"Because it shows." Gaster whispered, "It shows how stupidly all of you believe that. We all know what the dusts are, I know what they are. And I know what it meant if everyone was slaughtered."

Jeff didn't want to believe it, neither of them wanted to believe.

"It's just.. it's not—"

"It's not him." Gaster finished for Jeff.

Jeff finally look at the eyes of the man scolding him, and it showed he believed. "I get what you're saying, I do. But I.. Ben is my friend. He's my friend."

Gaster's heart—if there even is one, ached right then.

"And I don't expect you to understand, but I.. I know him. I know my friend, Gaster. And that's not the kid who hurt Slenderman, he's not the kid who manslaughter everyone in this place."

"Then who is he?" Gaster asked in a form of a whisper, all energy drained out of him as he finally accepted what was happening.

"He's.. in love."

It wasn't a name, that's for sure. It didn't even answer the question posed, but why, should you ask, did Gaster let Jeffrey leave moments after that?

Because somehow, it sufficed.

"People always do crazy things when they're in love."

Gaster snapped his attention to the girl beside him, her entire appearance changed right then. Her locks of hair was blonde now, her eyes shone the brightest of blues.  

"Is that what you're thinking?" She asked with the smallest genuine smile on her pink lips.

All Gaster could do was look at the one important thing alive in his domain for now, and he was sleeping soundly under the magic casted from a blonde.