Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue

October 18th, 2023, the 11 month anniversary of the death of Mr. and Mrs. Windslor.

“Robs, could you go get some of the boxes from the attic? We need to throw them out!” Radford hollered, looking up at the stairs, he was carrying about as many boxes as he could even fit in his scrawny arms. He was planning to drag them all the way to his little car in the driveway. His chin held down the beat up looking boxes in his arms firmly so they wouldn’t collapse for the 5th time in a row, he had an exhausted look on his face along with sweat dripping down on his now rosy cheeks. He hadn’t expected moving to be so difficult, then again the last time he moved anywhere was when he was six years old moving to this very house with his parents in a car seat. “Do we really need to throw them all out?” Robert replied reluctantly, slipping his dad’s old, fuzzy collage sweater over his head, hugging it close to him then popping his head out of his bedroom door. “All of it.” Radford replied, giving Robert his signature “older brother look" which always gave Robert the not so subtle hint that he wasn’t taking “no” for an answer.

Robert let out a hefty sigh, going back into his room. His gaze strung across each wall of his now gutted out bedroom, remembering all the photos and posters that once happily graced the hand painted olive walls, that were all boxed up in the trunk of his older brother’s hand-me-down car. He looked around his room a bit more, wanting to make the most of it for seeing it one last time. He looked up, surprised to see a few small glow in the dark sticker stars still clinging onto the ceiling after all these years. He had never noticed that before. He remembered how ecstatic he was when his dad turned off the lights to reveal those stupid stars–he snickered, also remembering how one of those stars fell on his head and he thought it was a bug and screamed like a little girl. God he was so little. Oh how he missed being so little, no responsibility, no real drama, no trauma, nothing. Just pure innocence. He smiled, playing those memories in his head all over again like a roll of film in his mind. After a few minutes, he was done. Done with reminiscing on the past, he had to be in the present now. The awful present. The present in which he didn’t have his parents, he didn’t have his house, he didn't have anything he once had. All he was left with now was a handful of his stuff, a beat up car and his siblings. The awful reality he was now stuck in made his bright mood dim to a murmur of light. He picked up his small, olive colored bag from the door handle and slumped it over his shoulder, leaving his childhood bedroom for good.

He quickly sprinted to the door where the attic was, swallowing down the fear he always had of the place and grabbing the fateful key that led to the place, slowly and carefully putting the small scrap of metal into the lock and with a “Click!” The door was unlocked. He reluctantly opened the door, being quickly hit with the wave of smell of both rotting rug and a thick layer of dust. He tried his best not to cough, covering his nose and mouth with his hand as he went up the long set of stairs, each step he took making a creaking noise due to the old wood it was built from. After what to his inpatient mind felt like an eternity he was finally upstairs and in the dreaded attic. Though he expected it to be completely dark, it was actually well illuminated by the sunset outside provided by the large circular window that was outside of it. He blinked, looking around the place–it was surprisingly empty for an old attic. He would’ve thought it contained heaps of his mom’s old theater clothes and his dads old paintings but–no. He guessed that those things were long gone by now, even if that guess contradicted to what his parents' words were. He grabbed a few boxes, but when he took a closer look at them he realized that they weren’t even his family’s! No, in fact they were the original owners boxes of stuff. He was shocked that they hadn’t taken the boxes while they could–sense it was cheaper in the 50’s. With a shrug he shoved the boxes up high into the shadows, keeping them locked in time until the new prissy perfect family owners found it and thought it would be great to sell priceless pieces of memories for 15 bucks on facebook marketplace. He hated the new owners with a burning passion, he thought they were about as interesting as watching white paint dry. Not even olive paint, just white. He scowled even thinking about them, shoving the boxes even further into the shadows with that fuel of thought. While he was shoving the boxes into the depths of nothingness he heard a “Thunk!” He froze, looking down at the source of the noise. He saw a photo. He swiftly picked it up, his eyes glued to all of it. It was a 17 year old photo of his mom, his dad, and his brother. They all looked young in it, his mother was smiling as she stood in front of their house, her long puffy brown hair was tied back into a braid while his father looked like a dork as he always did, his round glasses, his freckles and blonde fluffy hair, all illuminated by the morning sun. He noticeably had the same grin Robert has always had; he never really thought about it but he rarely ever saw his dad smile with his teeth. And in the middle of both of his parents stood his brother–his brother was very small and looked to be no older than 6, he had no glasses yet and his hair was much longer than it ever has truly been–he looked kind of like a child hippie. Robert snickered at that. Right in the middle of a thought he got interrupted by–

“ROBERT WINDSLOR! We don’t have all day to get the boxes down here!” “I’m coming, I'm coming, give me a moment!” “I’ve given you plenty of moments NOW COME ON!”

Robert groaned, looking at the photo lovingly one last time then shoving it into his bag and grabbing the only two boxes that belonged to his family off of the floor, marching down the two flights of stairs and meeting a glaring Radford–who had clearly been waiting for a while. “A million years later!” He huffed, snatching the boxes out of Robert's hands and storming off to the back of the house to throw them away. Robert mumbled a few profanities under his breath before putting the attic key on the kitchen counter and walking to the car, sitting in the front seat. He glanced into the rear view mirror to see Roxie, his four year old sister playing with a random dead bug she found. “woAH WOAH WOAH NoOoO– No no no, no. We don’t play with that!” Robert exclaimed, quickly snatching the dead worm out of Roxies mits. “BuT-” “No buts! That is a worm, not a toy!” He scolded, rolling down the window and quickly tossing the worm out into the yard. “Mr. Bond..” She said sadly. Robert blinked, leaning into the backseat “...Roxie how do you know about tha-” “Ok, who put a DANG cockroach in my bag!?” Radford exclaimed, holding up a dead cockroach in his hand. “Well, ask your favorite sibling over there that was just playing with a dead worm that she named Mr. Bond.” “...wHAt?” Radford looked behind his seat at the backseat to a moping Roxie. “...” Robert was snickering while Radford let out an exasperated sigh. “You're lucky you're cute.” He teased, handing her an old barbie he found in one of the boxes. She cheered, hugging the doll, “Scully!” “...Uh Radford? Have you been letting her watch late night tv?” Robert asked, tilting his head. “Uh…Maybe.” “So that's a yes–” “ANYWHO! I got a call from the new owners of the house that we’re selling too and they are going to pay us the more expensive option for our “troubles” I guess-? But hey, it's extra money!” Robert groaned “God those rich people are so snotty!” He whined. “Oh whatever, it's not like we’ll ever see them again–besides they paid us extra so we have no complaints here!” Radford said cheerfully, closing the car door and starting the car. Robert sighed, slumping in his car seat as he felt the car start to move. He took off his bag and buckled himself up. Radford turned on the radio and started to drive out of their neighborhood, smiling brightly as he drove. Robert took out his phone and checked his group chat of his three other best friends, they were all talking about a potluck that they were having.

Maya_Sweetheart278: “I’m so excited to bring my family's famous chicken tenders! Honestly it has to be the best food i’ve ever had in my entire fourteen years on this earth 😭”

Gold (Daniel):“Sounds great but…I honestly think my grandma’s Menudo might change your mind–I dunno man it’s pretty good tbh!”

CityofNoah: “I doubt any of you have anything on Rob’s food honestly, he makes some great stuff! Hey Robs, do you wanna come to the potluck tonight?”

Robert let out a sigh, they had forgotten he had told them he was moving.

1#Starsfan: “Ack..I’m sorry but I can’t come didn’t I tell you guys I’m moving today? (ㅠ﹏ㅠ)”

Gold (Daniel): “Wait WHAT?!”

1#Starsfan: “Maya didn’t you tell them?”

Maya_Sweetheart278: “Whoops..”

CityofNoah: “Are you kidding me? I was already planning for Robert and his siblings seats too..”

He honestly felt even worse now, slumping even more down into his seat.

Maya_Sweetheart278: “Sorry guys…”

Gold (Daniel): “We’re gonna miss you dude :(“

CityofNoah: “More than anything!”

Maya_Sweetheart278: “Where are you even going to anyways?”

1#Starsfan: “I’m honestly not even sure–from my memory it's a town with like..2000 people in it? Really tiny town that my uncle lives in.”

CityofNoah: “At least you’ll see a family member I guess..”

Gold (Daniel): “Yeah..”

Maya_Sweetheart278: “I hope you stay safe on the road Robs!”

Gold (Daniel): “Drink responsibly!”

CityofNoah: “Hey that was my line! XD”

Robert smiled, at least feeling a little bit better knowing that he still had his friends to talk too, he turned off his phone and let out a sigh, This was going to be one hell of a ride.

Chapter Text

Chapter One: Rocky Road

October 19th, 5:26 pm

The three siblings were a day into the drive now, Roxie was happily contorting her barbie’s plastic arms and legs to stiffly dance to the radio in the backseat, as Radford sang to it. His voice was horribly off key and it was done on purpose, to make Roxie laugh. Each time he sang Roxie giggled, which motivated Radford to be even more ridiculous. Though Roxie found it hilarious, Robert found it horribly annoying, pressing his thick headphones as close as he could to his ears to block out the dreaded shrill noise. Though he tried to be positive at the beginning of the trip–that positivity was slowly fading away as his realization really started to truly sink in. Was his life really going to be this? No, no it wasn’t–he knew he wouldn’t be stuck on the road his entire life instead he was going to be stuck inside a tiny house in the middle of nowhere with weird people and his two siblings. No city, no friends, just some stuff and his little to nothing family, just great. His mood had honestly soured a great deal ever since they started driving, the mixture of a sinking realization of moving and being hangry? Yeah, not a good mix. He tried to turn up the volume on his music, “The Main Character” was playing on his headphones, but not even Will Wood made him feel all that much better, but at least it was something familiar that he liked.

He pressed his head against the glass, it was warm due to the scorching weather outside, but for once the usually awful weather felt comforting, something familiar to cling onto, his fluffy blonde hair pressed into the glass like a compressed leaf. His gaze switched from his squished hair to the dry outdoors, he saw a handful of cactuses standing proudly at their varied heights in the desert sand, along with mountains towering above in the distance–he always thought they looked just like the paintings. For a while he just spaced out looking at the road and the outside surrounding it, up until he saw a bird flying right outside of their car–it had very ruffled feathers and a black and white color to it, it was rather small but very fast, gliding along the warm arizona wind as if a kite. Robert’s eyes were glued to the thing, most things in arizona stuck to a beige color palate but this was completely different, it shined among the dusty background, Robert soon realized though that it was making a worried “Chickadee dee dee dee dee” Chirp as it glided through the air. He wondered those worried chirps meant, lowering the volume of his music to hear it a bit better, but right as he did–

                                                                                                       “HOLY SH*T-!”

A biker swerved right in front of their car unexpectedly, nearly getting hit by it. In a panic, Radford sharply swung the steering wheel to the left slamming his foot into the gas pedal and launching the car across the road and right into a large rock. Radford backed up his spine into the car seat looking in complete and utter shock while he heard the sounds of miscellaneous honking behind him, Roxie was starting to cry and Robert was holding onto the seat belt for dear life, his hair frazzled out due to sudden stress. After a brief moment of silence Radford quickly unbuckled himself, opening the car door and going to the right of the car, looking at the damage that had been done. Thankfully the hood of the car was completely unharmed, but the right tire had been popped by the sharp rock. Radford had one hand in his hair and the other on his waist, looking completely mortified by the damage that had been done to his car. Robert swiftly unbuckled himself, leaning half of his body into the back seat and unbuckling Roxie from her car seat, picking her up and holding her close in his arms. “Shh shh.. hey, it’s alright! Robby’s here there’s no need to cry..” He softly said, gently wiping the tears off her cheeks with one of his hands, sure she got on his nerves once in a while but all siblings do, no matter how annoyed Robert might’ve been with her or in general he could never bring himself to be purposely mean or cruel to her. That just wasn’t him.

After he managed to calm Roxie down he crawled out of the front seat and into the drivers–he wasn’t taking any chances on opening the right door, no way in hell. He popped out of the driver's seat and placed Roxie down on the sand, holding her hand and leading her to where Radford was promptly questioning all the decisions he had made up until that point. “Oh god Oh god..”Radford mumbled, pacing back and forth trying to think of what to do. Robert looked in horror at what the damage had done–but then again it could’ve been worse. “What happened Robby?” Roxie asked, looking up at Robert. “Uh…Rad’s just had an accident–that's all, nothing to cry about.” Robert said slowly, giving Roxie a smile that tried to be reassuring but ended up just looking unsure. In the midst of all this chaos, a truck pulled over to the scene. The three siblings quickly looked at the truck to see a burly man who looked to be in his late 30’s with blonde hair, a cowboy hat, and a rolled up plaid jacket, exiting the truck. He looked like the personification of a country dad. He towered a tall 6 '2 over Radford, he gulped seeing the man, thinking he was going to whip out a sheriff's badge or something and question him, but was surprised to see the man smile kindly at the three. “Look’s like you’ve got yourselves in quite the doozy, huh?” He asked, eyeing the popped tire. “uH- Yeah sort oF–” Radford awkwardly squawked, scooting to the other side letting the man examine the tire. “Looks like you’ll need some extra work done on this bad boy, and maybe a better car.. I’d usually be happy to help but I don’t have any tools on me, but I could tow this girl to the auto shop three miles away if you’d like!” He said with a toothy grin, his friendly Texan accent making his already kind gesture just seem that much more welcoming. “YES–I meaN, If you don’t mindD-” Radford tried his best to keep down his immense gratitude so as not to scare the man off.

The man nodded, going back to his truck and pulling it to the trailer side. “Just slowly put your car in reverse into the trailer, I’ll handle the rest!” The man hollered from the car, Radford doing as instructed. The man hooked the car up to the trailer and let the siblings sit inside his truck, not wanting them to pass out from the lack of air conditioning in their car not running. “So? What are yalls name’s? I’ve never seen you folks around here before.” The man said, starting his car. Robert shifted in the back seat, it was weird for him to be in the back next to his sister again. He noticed the “Little trees” air freshener hung in the man’s rearview mirror, the scent in the car was a strong blackberry smell. “Oh! Well I’m Radford, that's Robert on the right and Roxie on the left.” “Do you really think he’d think my name was Roxie?” Robert joked, the man busting out into laughter. They all ended up making small talk with the man, finding him to actually be very pleasant compared to what he first seemed like. After about 11 minutes of talking, the man pulled over into the parking lot of the auto shop. After the man pulled their car into the auto shop just as Radford was about to leave, the man put his hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “If you reallyyy can’t pay Marco off in there right now then just tell him “Mr. Millard” sent you, trust me he’ll get too clammy to even tell you how much you owe him! Trust me it's worth it for the free repair and the look on his face!” The man chuckled and patted Radfords shoulder, slipping his hand off of him. “oH–uh Thank you for that?” “It’s my pleasure, have a great day y'all!” The man exclaimed, waving to both Radford and his siblings before driving off. “Huh…That's one hell of a dude.” Radford mumbled, looking at his siblings, “But with that said I could buy us some food..Are you guys hungry?” Radford asked, the two nodding excessively. “Then it's settled! We’re having In -N- Out!” Radford said cheerfully. After about an hour the siblings finally had their food, a fixed car, and traumatized an auto shop employee named “Marco”, Radford and Robert sighed collectively as soon as they sat in the car, Radford popping a few fries in his mouth as he started the car, Robert already munching on his burger. Robert felt a lot better from that experience strangely enough, it gave him some new hope for the new town. He hoped at least some of the residents were as nice as that Texan man was. He also felt better being able to properly eat nearly a day later–guess he really couldn’t handle a day without food like he had thought.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two: Twilight Pitstop

October 20th, 12:34am.

The siblings were now two days into the drive, and already exhausted. Radford was slumped in the driver's seat, trying to keep his eyes on the road the best he could as he felt himself slowly drift off, while Roxie was completely passed out in the backseat, Robert was honestly the only one who was managing to keep his eyes open and onto the road–reading out each speed limit they passed at Radfords earlier request. Radford himself had heavy eyebags and messy hair, looking like a complete and utter mess, his Metallica t-shirt now stained with the soda he dropped on it and wrinkled from his attempts to try and save said shirt. He had honestly been going through the whole trip with a smile and a positive outlook on it, wanting to make the best of his decision to move so suddenly. But behind that smiley facade he was quite stressed, quitting his job and selling the only thing left of what their family once was on top of having to be the one to take care of his two siblings was a lot on the poor 23 year old. He tried to manage all of that with the weight of his grief, the grief of losing his parents, the grief of losing everything he once knew. Sure he had left the house to have a seemingly fresh start and not mourn for so long but that really was only a part of the reason. The other part was that his job working at the movie theater wasn’t paying him jack shit. Their house was extremely nice, with two stories and everything so of course the rent wasn’t going to be cheap. With Radfords pay he couldn’t even dream of living there for another year longer without having to pickpocket a few people or something, so he left. Selling the house to prissy assholes of people. Though he tried to be nice to them he felt the exact same way Robert did about them, he was just better at hiding it. Radford felt the car slow down, reality quickly coming back to him.

His eyes darted to the gas tank sign, it was nearly completely empty. He felt panic set in, his posture becoming correct again as he was thinking of what to do, in the middle of his thought Robert cut in saying “There’s a gas station over there–” Robert pointed at a shady looking gas station, it had an eerie abandoned car wash attached to the side of it–it had clearly shut down due to some accident..because their was crime scene tape outside of it. Radford felt a slow fear creeping up to him, “Is this going to be like in horror movies? ARE WE GOING TO DIE?” He felt the hairs on his neck stand up as he stared in horror at the place, Robert staring as well. The two gave each other a sheepish look, not knowing exactly what was inside and or if it was worth it. “..Should we..?” “I mean we have no other choice…” Radford sighed, slowly pulling into one of the gas pump areas, only a handful of lights dimly illuminating the outdoors. “Do you want something inside?” Radford slowly asked, trying to push down his stupid fear and be more adult. “M&M’s please.” Robert said with a yawn. Radford nodded, getting out of the car leaving his phone inside just in case Robert needed to call 911 if he died (Though he doubted they’d come anytime soon in the middle of nowhere it was the thought that counted.) Radford slowly entered the gas station, a single employee resided behind the counter. They were dead silent. “..Uh evening sir..?” Radford awkwardly said, giving the cashier an odd, terrified smile. The cashier didn’t respond, just looking down at Radford with his beady seemingly red eyes, his dark hair was long and uncared for covering the sides of his face, his overgrown bangs shadowing the rest of his features. Radford gulped at the lack of a reply, slowly talking forward. “I’m paying for station 3, 26.27 please–” He said quickly, putting the amount of money on the counter awkwardly waiting for the cashier to do or say something. The cashier slowly put the money in the cash register and gave the tank the amount of gas needed. Radford quickly put the M&M’s on the counter as well. “And this too..?” He awkwardly laughed as he paid. “aLRIGHTYy–Well have a good da-nigHT–Sir bYE–!” He quickly said, rushing out of the gas station as fast as he could, shoving the gas nozzle into his car and praying it would full up as fast as possible. The cashier glared at him from inside, giving Radford the hint that he and his family didn’t belong here. Not at all. The car finally filled up with gas and Radford clamored back into the car, looking wide awake after that wakeup call. “Your M&M’s nearly got me killed!” Radford half jokingly exclaimed, throwing the candy on Robert's lap and quickly getting the car back on the road. “It was your fault you asked!” Robert snickered, completely oblivious to what had happened moments before. Radford let out a sigh as he got farther away from the dreaded place, he genuinely felt in danger in the presence of that man, his eyes were like a gateway to hell. As he got deeper into the drive he felt that sleepy sensation come back to him like a magnet, yawning every few minutes. Robert was on the verge of falling asleep, leaning his head into the window, his eyes drooping slightly as he looked at the dark landscape.

A question popped into his head though. One that he hadn’t really thought about.

“Hey Rad’s?” “Hm?” “..Why did we even move here? I get the fresh start thing and all that but..I know there's more to it.” Robert said slowly. The two were completely silent for a moment, Radford thinking of how to reply. He hadn’t really thought of how to answer that–Robert rarely ever questioned him so this was new to him. “...Well, I didn’t want us just–..wallowing in sadness, in the past, I know how much of a toll that took on all of us, it was a lot. But..we can’t keep being sad forever, and the old house was just a reminder of that, the past.” Robert was silent for a moment. “..Can I be honest here?” “I don’t like you lying so go right ahead.” Radford joked, he always said that when Robert spoke his mind. “...I didn’t like the idea of us moving, I never liked it..I honestly hated it. I hated being pulled away from everything I ever knew, my friends, my school, my house. Everything. It felt like…it felt like you took away my everything from me, Rad’s.” Robert spoke slowly and carefully, choosing which words to use so as not to come off as hateful or plain mean. He just wanted to be honest, he hated keeping things to himself. Radford was dead silent. Robert continued, “..Though I have gotten a bit more hope now that we’ve gone deeper into this I still can’t get over it.” “...Get over losing everything?” “...That and..” “...” “...Mom and Dad?” Radford replied, his voice cracking as he spoke, that was the one thing he couldn’t cover up. His grief. Robert took a deep breath and nodded. “It felt like you just…brushed all of that off. Brushed their death off. Brushed it all off like it didn’t matter at all…Does it matter to you?” Radford pulled over. He felt something snap in himself when Robert said that. He put his hand under his glasses trying to wipe away any tears that tried to escape his eyes and turned to Robert. His face had a mixture of anger and devastation, that question triggered all of Radfords repressed emotions to bubble up. “Do you really think I don’t care? Are you kidding me Robs!? OF COURSE I CARED!” Radford snapped at Robert, he couldn’t take it anymore.

He looked even more pissed as tears trickled down his face. “You're acting like we mean nothing to you! Honestly I’ve been trying and trying to make you happy through all of this and your acting like you don’t care at all! Do I just annoy you, An is that all I am? an anoyance?” Radford snapped, gritting his teeth as he spoke. Robert had pressed himself into the car door, he looked scared. For the first time he was really scared of him. Radford stopped yelling and just looked at him. He was mad at him, sure, but he also now felt guilty seeing him scared. “...Do you seriously think that?” Robert said slowly, his voice shaking slightly. “You sure as hell come off like that.” Radford said bitterly, wiping off his face and turning away from Robert. “...You two mean the world to me! I wouldn’t be here at all without you two– I care a lot.” “Well then maybe you should show it.” Radford said, his words laced with a bitter tone. “...I try. I really do. It's just been hard dude. I’m sorry for thinking you didn’t care about it just..Happened so fast and I thought you got over it when we left..” A few sniffles came from Robert, he felt his mascara dripping on his face as he spoke clearly trying to cover up his crying to no avail. Radford let out a sigh, opened the car door and got out. “Just come outside.” He said, Robert nodded. He got out of his car door and leaned on the car next to Radford. Radford was looking up at the stars, his eyes wandering at each constellation. “...I’m sorry for yelling at you Robs–I’ve just been very stressed, I didn’t mean to snap I just–..” “I understand..” Radford turned to Robert, opening his arms out for a hug. Robert tackled him in a hug, Radford letting out a small grunt at the force. “Love you too lil bro–” He said, patting Roberts back as he sobbed into his t-shirt. After a few minutes Robert let go, his mascara smeared all the way down his cheeks. “You look like an emo kid with all that mascara dude–” Radford teased, looking down at his shirt. “WelL–That's a second stain to the shirt.” Robert joked, pointing at the new mascara stain on his shirt. “I had a feeling it would get ruined! Now come on, we need to get back into the car before Roxie wakes up and notices we’re gone.” Robert nodded, going back to his side of the car and Radford going back to the driver's seat. Robert felt a lot more relieved now that he got that off of his chest, though he was still a bit hesitant; he had a much better feeling about the town now that he was looking at it from a normal viewpoint and not his moody one. He smiled as he fell asleep, hearing the soft hum of the radio as his eyelids drooped. "Maybe you don’t always get everything you want, but you can appreciate what you have right now." He thought as he drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter Three: Crimson Sand

October 20th, 10:09 am

It was late in the morning, Radford  was now awake and in a better mood having had a good amount of sleep. He had only driven a little farther before pulling over and passing out in the back seat with Roxie, he couldn’t handle being awake for two days straight anymore–and no amount of cheap coffee could fix that. He was listening to the radio now, humming it under his breath softly as Roxie made her two plushies battle in the backseat, making random “wHoOsh!” And “POW!” Noises as she played, giggling at her own voice. Meanwhile Robert was passed out, looking like a sack of potatoes sitting in the front seat. Radford snickered seeing his little brother so tuckered out–It was quite surprising knowing how Robert has pulled multiple all-nighters before and yet was passed out right now.  As Radford drove on the freeway he couldn’t help but notice the normally sunny skies turning cloudy the closer and closer he got to the town. He found it odd since Arizona was always sunny. It was rare when they got any weather that wasn’t sunny,sometimes they got rain every few months and of course  the chance of snow was slim to none, hell, the last time they had snow was in 1998! Radford shrugged, figuring it could just be weather passing from another state, switching the radio to the local news. As he listened into the latest crimes and such he stopped, he was stuck in a traffic jam. Just great. Only a few minutes after he stopped the radio chimed in saying, “Traffic jams on the 101 freeway for the next hour…” “Gee thanks you could've told me sooner.” Radford said with a huff, he always talked to things he knew would never reply, it was a strange habit he picked up from his mother. He switched back the radio to music in spite, tapping his hand on the steering wheel as he waited for the car in front of him to scoot forward.

As he waited he looked outside his window, noticing the fact that..the sand was different?  Right under the large free way artwork on the side of the road, the sand underneath it was a bright crimson color looking as if blood was soaked in its grains. Radford blinked, wondering if he was seeing correctly or if it was a miniature mirage or something but no, the sand was still there even after he blinked a few times. He knew there was plenty of red sand all around Arizona but all of the sand he’d seen wasn’t a bright crimson, it was like a dull faded red. He felt a bit weirded out by the sand, a strange gut feeling kicking in. “The sand is coming from the road we’re meant to go on, isn’t it.” He thought, squinting at it in confusion. In the middle of him investigating the sand he heard a “ HONK!” right behind him. Whoops. He looked up seeing that the car had already long gone quickly catching up on the road. Robert woke up startled due to the noise. “hUH–WhAt-” “It was just someone honking Robs–” “Oh.” Robert rubbed his eyes, looking outside his window. “We’re on the freeway already?!” Robert said in shock, looking up at the freeway sign seeing the number ``101`` on it. “Oh yeah! We got pretty far, my handy MapQuest helped get us a shortcut!” Radford said proudly as if he made the thing. Robert snickered, finding it stupid and hilarious at the same time.“Rads I hate to break it to you but no one uses MapQuest anymore–” “ShHh Shush just shush I remember when it was popular ok?! Everyone used it in 2012... ” Radford said, clearly embarrassed, but still joking around. “Yeah over 10 years ago!” Robert sneered as Radford rolled his eyes playfully. “Oh you’ll never know! Anywho yeah, we went a long way while you were passed out sleeping beauty.”  Radford snickered, jabbing back at him. Robert scoffed, smiling slightly. Radford turned the car to the left, oddly enough not a single car following him or on any of the lines next to him, just empty. For a moment he didn’t notice anything particularly interesting about the road until Roxie exclaimed, “ CHERRY SAND!” In an excited tone, “ WhAT –” Robert exclaimed, his eyes widening as he looked to his window. Outside on the right of them, was an entire dessert of bright red sand, Robert looked in shock, “It looks like we’re on Mars!” Robert exclaimed excitedly, for the first time in months grinning with his teeth, his fists moving closer to his chest and moving quickly up and down, he loved anything space related and just seeing the sand spiked that love for it. Radford was the only one looking in horror, he had stopped the car completely in the middle of the empty road and stared at the sand. He believed in the paranormal so to him this was a major red flag (quite literally.) “Oh god…” Radford mumbled, lowering his glasses onto the tip of his nose and looking at the sand in its full, bright glory. Robert snapped out of his excitement and turned to Radford.

“You ok dude? You look kind of pale..” Robert said, his voice laced with concern. “I mean–the most ok I can be looking at that blood sand over there–” “You're getting creeped out because you watched that paranormal show aren’t you–” “nO–I’m jusT…Concerned for global warming..Yeah.” “How would global warming make sand red exactly?” I don’t know, ok! It's just creepy!” Robert shrugged. “Your loss on the Mars sand.” Radford scoffed, turning his MapQuest back on and slowly starting to drive again. As Robert admired the red sand he noticed the road across it was completely empty. Not a single soul was there. Weird.  The closer they got to the town the weirder things started to get, like the odd feeling you were always being watched or an unusual amount  of chubby vultures lurking around, it was definitely weird for sure and Robert's excitement slowly faded away as he started to notice these  strange things. Radford was already freaked out and seeing all these little details made him even more paranoid, he made the drive at least a mile slower than he usually would, taking advantage of the lack of people to stall them actually going to the town. It was absolutely nothing like how he remembered it, he remembered the sand being a light shade of brown, a lot of racoons, way more people coming in and out of the town and many more little details that weren’t  present anymore. Sure it had been 15 years since he last saw the place but he didn’t expect it to change that much. Hell even Roxie was unusually quiet in the back seat, looking rather freaked out herself. Specifically when she saw a vulture pass by she’d whimper. The whole car was dead silent, an hour passed of just freaked out silence since they had seen the bloody sand. Robert finally couldn’t take the silence anymore and turned on the radio, Radford letting out a relieved sigh. “You feel the same way too?” He asked, he had clearly caught onto the silence as being of terror. “Yup–” Robert quickly said, his voice laced with an anxious tone. “See? I’m not crazy for being freaked out! I remember this place being very different when I was little.. and uncle john being a lot younger too–” Radford mumbled, his eyes slowly drifting up to the sunlight and or the lack of it. “ Woahh… ” Robert whispered, nearly the whole sky was gray due to the clouds. Roxie mimicked Robert's words, the car was only filled with the faint sound of the radio until– 

                                                                         “ BOOM!”

 Lightning struck a nearby utility pole, smoke quickly filling the air surrounding it as it dropped due to the sudden strike. 

                                                    “HoLY–” “oH mY-–” “eeEK!” 

 Only a few moments later a sheet of rain poured upon the whole desert, the whole car collectively gasping, it felt like all the horrified emotions had washed away seeing the rain for the first time in nearly a year. Radford stopped the car, just looking in pure shock at the pounding rain. After a moment of silence, he got out of the car, laughing in awe at the heavy rainfall that was pounding on the desert, turning the sand that was once bright into a far darker shade. Roxie squirmed in her seat exclaiming “I wanna see!! I wanna see!!” Robert took a moment to process what had just happened, Radford opening the backseat and grabbing Roxie showing her the rain for the first time. Robert watched as his two siblings were smiling and laughing in the rain as he sat inside the car. He couldn’t help but smile as well, seeing how happy the two of them were. He truly felt like he was a part of a family again, sure it had always been a family, but he felt even closer and connected to them now, He loved that feeling again it gave him hope. As he looked at the rain he noticed his phone in the cup holder, picking it up to check the time, 2:34pm. He blinked, the last time he'd checked the time it was on Radford's phone, and it had said 4:48. He checked Radford's phone again, 2:34pm. “What? That's not right–not at all. That's over two hours behind!” Robert thought, his smile fading away into an utterly baffled expression. He felt his phone buzz, a text from his friend Noah.  

CityofNoah: “Hey Robs, how are you handling it out there? I heard it was 98 out on the road today! You doing alright bro?”

Robert blinked, looking up at the pouring rain outside.

1#StarsFan: “Yeah I’m doing just fine right now, we’re only 20 minutes away from the town! But you said it was 98 out here??”

CityofNoah: “Yeah? Isn’t it 98? Or am I just tripping on acid or something XD”

1#StarsFan: “It might’ve been earlier but, out here it's pounding rain!” 

CityofNoah: “ITS RAINING???”

1#StarsFan: “Yeah take a look!”

Robert recorded the rain outside his window and sent it to Noah.

CityofNoah: ". . ."

CityofNoah: “It didn’t load :(“

1#StarsFan: “Really? Weird.”

CityofNoah: “Yeah, might be some crappy wifi out there or sum. But I hope the new house is good when you get there! Send me and the gang some photos of the house ok? Wanna see your new shack make sure you're not liven in the streets or something lol!”

1#StarsFan: “Alrighty! I'll try sending you the photos when I can!”

He saw Noah about to type something when– “ ROBS!”

He looked up to Radford who was beconing him to come join him outside, “Come on dude! It's not like we’ll ever see rain like this anytime soon!” He exclaimed, Robert nodded, turning his phone off and opening the car door. As he got out he noticed a pack of vultures just..staring at him with their beady, glaring eyes as if they wanted to tear him apart. He gulped, quickly joining his siblings in the rain. Though he had a great time with his family he just..had a bad feeling about all of this. He felt unsafe, scared even. What would happen when they got home? Who would they meet? He was unsure and scared to find out but, he could onluy hope for the best.

Chapter Text

Chapter Four: Sleepy Town

October 20th, 6:33 pm (5:22 In the outside world)

Robert had fallen asleep again, the last two hours of the drive were so peaceful. The atmosphere was honestly amazing, the sound of the radio’s hum as it spoke its low words,  the soft purr and puff of the engine below, the ripped up car seat with the fluffy inside completely revealed,  all of that combined with the pouring rain just made it a perfect place to sleep. Though the atmosphere was peaceful, Robert's mind was not at peace, not even close. Shaking. Everything was shaking. The smell of smoke was prominent in the air as well as the sounds of frantic screaming and crying. A man over an intercom was desperately trying to tell the passengers instructions on how to survive, sounding like he’d crack at any moment. “ MAYDAY MAYDAY! ATTENTION ALL PASSENGERS, THE PLANE IS GOING INTO AN EMERGENCY LANDING I REPEAT, THE PLANE IS GOING INTO AN EMERGENCY LANDING. PLEASE PUT ON YOUR OXYGEN RESPIRATORS IN ORDER TO BREATH.”  Robert quickly realized he was in a plane, he tried looking around but soon realized he had zero control over his body, he felt like he was watching this through the eyes of someone else, not himself. Though it felt real, everything around him would change at any moment. Like the color of the seats or the sound of the pilots voice, but one thing still stayed the same, the fear. The utter fear he felt was like nothing he’d ever experienced before, he genuinely thought he was going to die. 

The screams were always there, one of if not the only things that didn’t turn into a hazy, ever changing mess. Robert’s eyes looked down, seeing his tight grip on the seat, his body was trying to keep him held down throughout the thrashing movements so as not to hit anything. His head went back up, and slowly turned around, looking at the seat behind him. He felt his heart sink as he saw the people behind him. Everything around him turned a hazy white, the screams still faintly in the background as he stared at the passengers behind him. There, hugging each other tightly, were his parents. Though their appearance would shift to different outfits or areas of their lives, he knew it was them. They were completely silent, Robert's mother hugging her husband tightly, her head on his chest and tears slowly streaming down her cheeks as Robert's father held her close, his head on top of hers. Neither of them even tried to put on a mask or pretend this was going to be ok. He knew both of them had accepted their fate. Everything was in slow motion, as if a time capsule that had been sealed away now unlocked showing all its horror on display. Robert's hand slowly reached out to them, right as it got just close enough to grab one of their shoulders--

                  ”BEEP!”

Roberts' eyes shot open as he felt his waist get forcefully launched forward from his seat, his seatbelt tightening at the impact, the warm feeling of tears rolling down his cheeks hit him as his outreached hand hovered over the frizzy car carpet, all he could hear was the sound of his ears ringing. His eyes were glued to the carpet, he tried to control his breathing, his whole body was shaking, he had never felt so terrified by a nightmare in his entire life. He had never had one so realistic too. His eyes were wide open, his body not moving from his now drooped position, he was completely frozen in fear not even knowing how to process what he had seen. “ GOD! For being the only driver in this damn road they sure drive likE A BI-...*sigh*...Bird.” Radford mumbled, remembering that he was driving with two kids. He mumbled angrily as he checked the rear view mirror to get a better look of the awful driver behind him, thinking of maybe giving them the good old friendly third digit (middle finger). He saw that their windows were tinted black, he could see almost nothing. But one thing that he could see clearly was the driver's eyes.  He felt his heart leap as he saw their bright gleaming white eyes glaring at him, looking as if sparks were flying from them. He glanced at the driver's hands to see the shadow of..talons? The driver's hands looked like they were a cross between a human and a raven. Radford’s eyes quickly darted to the traffic lights and hauled ass when he saw the green light, his foot slamming so hard into the gas that he felt the sole of his shoe shake due to how close he was to the engine. He finally managed to lose the car, stopping at a red light with a relieved sigh. His eyes quickly darted to Robert, he had managed to get himself up and was wiping the tears off his face, his eyes still wide with fear. Radford’s relieved mood quickly turned into confusion and worry. “Robs? You ok dude?” He said, putting his hand on Robert's shoulder. Robert was silent. “ Robby?” Roxie mumbled, poking her little head out of the back seat. Robert’s eyes darted to Radford and Roxie–the fear he once had in his eyes slowly fading. “Yeah I’m fine..No need to worry.” He said with a sigh, Radford reluctantly taking his hand off of Robert's shoulder. “Did you have a nightmare?” Radford asked as he continued to drive. “Yeah–A pretty bad one.” Roxie handed Robert her teddy bear from the back seat, it was the one that she hugged when she was scared. Robert cracked a smile at Roxy, “Thanks Rox.”  “DawW-” “Sucker for your favorite sibling~!” Robert joked in a sing-songy voice, trying to get his mind off of that awful nightmare. “For the 500th time I love you both equally!” Robert laughed, putting himself back into his seat as Radford playfully rolled his eyes. “How long do we have until we get there Mr. Mapquest?” Robert teased, Radford checked his phone. “11 minutes!” Roberts' eyes widened, he honestly didn’t think the trip would happen so fast–honestly time had never gone so fast for him but here he was in shock. “My handy dandy mapquest got us pretty good shortcuts! Honestly it runs better on cricket’s search engine than googles–"" God your old–""EXCUSE YOU? ” Roxie busted out laughing in the back seat, not having a single clue what Robert ment. “Not you too!” Radford jokingly exclaimed, shooting his younger brother a sharp glare before pulling into the neighborhood, Robert slumping in his seat sheepishly, still grinning.  After about 3 minutes of snickering later, the car finally pulled in front of the house. The house was a common Arizona bungalow, with no second story to it like their old house had. It was a faded orange color with a sharp dark brown roof, only two windows plastered on the front of it. It was small, sure, but it oddly stood out more compared to the other houses. Robert found it strange though that the lights inside were turned on, though no one was inside.  Radford had expected the landlord to be outside since he had texted him that they’d be here soon but–he was nowhere to be found.  “So this is it huh..” Robert mumbled in awe, he was so used to living in the city so this was a complete shocker to him–he had expected a small town but not one this small. “It really is.” Radford said, a small nervous smile appearing on his face as he noticed a small white paper attached to the door, blowing in the rainy wind. “Welp, better start getting the boxes!” Radford said cheerfully as Robert groaned, dreading having to unload the boxes all over again, Roxie giggling slightly. Robert got out of the car and unlocked the trunk, “A fresh start” felt more like a watered down restart to him. Oh well.

Chapter Text

Chapter Five: Final Destination

October 20th, 9:23pm (8:12 in the outside world)

It had nearly been three hours since the siblings had arrived, Radford was cleaning the cobweb ridden house with the radio playing as Robert was playing with his little sister on the living room floor. The two brothers had finished unloading the boxes two hours ago and started unpacking an hour ago, only taking a break now due to Radford nearly passing out in one of the boxes. Radford had only let himself take a short 10 minute water break while he let Robert take a 20 minute one, only because Roxie begged him to so they could play together, knowing how attached she was to Robert, he allowed. As Radford sweeped he hummed to the tune of the radio, liking the old classic rock music–he had honestly been passed down the same music taste his dad had. Robert personally wasn’t the biggest fan of the genre, but tolerated it for Radfords sake. (Even if the music was cheesy.) Right as Radford was about to sing a lyric to the song– it cut off. Before he could even make a remark about it– “cAEEKKKkShhHh.. ” “What the hell?” He exclaimed, quickly running over to the kitchen counter, pressing multiple different stations trying to stop the ear bleeding metallic noise to no avail, Robert holding Roxie close and covering her ears, trying to comfort her. “Where did you even get that radio from!?” Robert angrily exclaimed, clearly irritated about the noise and thinking that Radford had bought a cheap radio that was causing the noise. He had gotten more irritable due to unpacking so much and was still worn out from it. Roxie hugged Robert tight, clearly frightened from the loud noise, due to that day Roxie had become way more sensitive to loud noises than she ever had been before, hence another part of Robert's anger. “It was a radio I got at a garage sale ok?! Not my fault it's goin’ nuts!” Radford snapped, forcefully grabbing the radio trying to pry off the bottom of it–not having any luck. “Well maybe you should get better stuff instead of being cheap!” Robert snapped, clearly not having any of this.

 Radford gritted his teeth, snatching the packaging knife and stabbing it into the plastic and popping the batteries out. The batteries popped out in a heap of smoke, their once medium size now degraded into tiny pebbles of metal, plopping out onto the kitchen counter with a “Clink!”  Radford quickly stepped away from the batteries–coughing as he did so, the smoke detectors going off with their awful noise throughout the whole house. Roberts' once snappy mood quickly devolved into fear, the smoke causing him to really panic, his flight or fight mode kicking in. He briskly ran towards the door, picking up Roxie with one of his arms and holding her close, busting out of the door and into the pounding rain outside nearly slipping on the slick concrete as he did so. Radford swiftly ran after him, knowing exactly why he ran. He ran up to his two panicking siblings quickly reassuring them that everything was ok. “It's alright–Nothing caught on fire!– it's just smoke.”   Robert let out a sigh of relief, Roxie running to Radford and hugging his legs, her little puffy pigtails getting soaked in the rain as she did so. Radford scooped her up into his arms and let her hug him tight. “You really need to buy some better radios, dude.” Robert huffed, still mad at Radford for buying that stupid thing. “Sorry–Just tryna get my money's worth, Ya know?” “You say that about everything.” 

Radford shrugged, walking back into the house, putting Roxie down on the ground and shoving the radio and its batteries into the trash can, never to be used to play Guns N’ Roses ever again. Robert handed Roxie her teddy bear to help calm her down, grabbing a towel and drying off her hair as he did so. Radford realized how strange it was that as soon as the radio went off all of their moods had swung a complete 1-80–honestly this town couldn’t get any weirder. Radford tried to aggressively scrub off the kitchen counter with a spare In-N-Out  napkin that he had found in his pocket to no luck. “God those batteries stained this counter good!” “Maybe you should try and dampen the napkin instead of using a dry one?” “I would but the tap water here is uh.. questionable.” “Questionable as in how exactly?” Radford turned on the tap, the water having a strange green glow to it as it flowed into the counter, Roberts eyes widened seeing the strange liquid. “How in god's name..” “That's what I'm thinking! Honestly the landlord could’ve put that on the note but NoOo..Didn’t even bother to come out here TSK!” Radford angrily mumbled, still bitter that his extra 6 dollars had been wasted on a non-existent house tour. “Maybe the landlord didn’t come because it's raining..?” “Rob’s, when has rain ever stopped a money hungry landlord?” “It’s six dollars Rad.” “Exactly! So weird..”  Robert scoffed, putting the towel onto the kitchen counter,  hesitantly grabbing the packaging knife beside it. “Be careful dude, it might still be hot from the radio.” Robert nodded, grabbing a package from the corner of the kitchen and slicing it open, surprisingly it was easier with the hot knife.  Robert slashed and slashed through packages, Radford watching in awe as he cleaned the house, Roxie giggling at the satisfying noise the tape made when it was opened, she giggled at things she liked. 

10:15pm

About an hour had passed now, Robert was taping pictures of him and his friends on the wall, each photo with a little date on the bottom of it. “2/5/19” or “7/10/21” He had been friends with these guys for a long time now. Though he had done a lot with them, there was one thing he always wanted to do. Stargazing. It might seem stupid or overly cliche, but he really wanted to do that. Ever since he was little he absolutely loved the galaxy and space, hell he even wanted to be an astronaut. He loved it dearly, but never really got to see the stars. Though he loved his old city, there was only one thing he didn’t like about it. The pollution. The sheer amount of pollution fogged up the sky so much–you could barely see the stars at all, only a few poking out here and there but it was rare if that even happened. His big dream was wanting to stargaze and truly see the stars like how he saw them in his posters, wanting to experience them himself. And he wanted to do it with his friends. Though he had close to no plans when he came here, that was his only one. He had an idea that if he face timed with his friends and showed them the stars, it would be just like being with them and stargazing together! ..He also realized how sad that really was. That he couldn’t do it with his friends. He couldn’t sit next to them and point out each constellation, he couldn’t even be with them at all. That feeling of loneliness from the start of the trip hit him again. And it hit even harder now that he was here. He was now here, over a hundred miles away from the only friends he had. When he taped up the final photo, he felt his eyes water a bit, “I should’ve taken more photos huh..” He mumbled, wiping the tears out of his eyes, letting out a sigh and plopping on his air mattress, feeling his phone vibrate next to him. At the very least he could talk to them. His soft smile came back as he opened the group chat, sending them a video of the new house. 

Gold (Daniel): “Yoo! Cool house! 

CityofNoah:  “I like the colors they look sick B)”

Maya_Sweetheart278: “Am I the only one who noticed the weird black thing in the corner of Roxies room? Or is that just me–”

1#Starsfan: “What?”

Gold (Daniel): “Huh”

CityofNoah: “Don’t mess with Robs right now he just moved here give him a break from the pranks, Maya.”

Maya_Sweetheart278: “I'm being serious, look closer at Roxies room.”

Gold (Daniel): “. . .”

CityofNoah: “Okk..I will have to admit it looks kind of weird..”

Gold (Daniel): “That's some kind of bug cocoon–”

1#Starsfan: “WHAT.”

Maya_Sweetheart278: “I knew that's what it looked like!” 

CityofNoah: “Wdym “Some kind of bug cocoon” What bug is it???”

Gold (Daniel): “Well my dad works in killing bugs so maybe he’d know–”

1#Starsfan:  “You don’t have to bother your dad about this I think it's just my shitty camera–”

Maya_Sweetheart278:  “Watch your language Robs I don’t want to ban you again..”

CityofNoah: “Oh let him be i’ve heard you say worse!”

Maya_Sweetheart278: “Yeah right!” 

Gold (Daniel): “Both of you calm down I think Robs is right–”

CityofNoah: “I heard you say ||Censored|| Before to your sister!” 

Maya_Sweetheart278: “Noah I’m going to ban you I swear to GOD!”

The two argued, completely forgetting about Robert's supposed bug issue and more about their argument, Robert letting out a sigh and turning off his phone, looking at the happy photos of his friends plastered on his wall and feeling the angry vibrations in his hand. Ever since he’d been on the road he slowly started to notice that without him being around to keep the peace, the more and more his friend group started to fall apart due to the arguments. He really was starting to question whether he should still be friends with them or not at this point–it was getting really messy. As he thought about this he heard a knock on the door, he remembered that Radford had ordered dominos and got up, leaving his room. 

Radford answered the door, expecting a pizza guy to be there or at least their car  but–no. Instead the pizza box was just–left there, only a note and a recite left any evidence that someone left it there. “What is up with people and notes around here! Tsk! ” Radford scoffed, picking up the pizza box and carrying it inside the empty house, the two siblings seating themselves on the living room floor. Radford set the pizza box down and grabbed some paper plates from the counter, setting them down. Robert let out a gloomy sigh as he ate his mushroom pizza–at least it was one thing that stayed the same. Roxie scarfed down her cheese pizza as Radford ate his normal peperoni, noticing how gloomy Robert seemed. “You good Robs? Did I get the wrong kind of pizza again–""Nope, you got the right pizza– I just didn’t get the right friend group.”  He mumbled, Radford letting out a huff. “Again?! This has to be the 5th time in the past three days!” “6th..” “God..I’m sorry dude..” Radford said, scratching the back of his head–he wished he could help but he also wasn’t the wisest older brother on earth–he could only do so much. “You're fine, it's not your fault they're being idiots..” Robert mumbled, his eyes trailing towards the pizza box on the ground–..it had deep scratch marks in it. Right where the pizza guy's hand should’ve been. Robert's chewing became slower and slower as he started to really piece together all the strange things that had happened to them on this trip– The radio, the sand, the vultures, the cashier guy..all of it was so..bizarre. As Robert threw away his plate he wondered, why was no one ever outside? ..Outside. ..HE FORGOT HIS BAG OUTSIDE. Robert sprinted to the backyard and slammed open the sliding doors, when he was exploring a few hours prior he had left his bag just sitting out in the open for anybody to steal if they wanted to! He snatched his bag off of the dead grass and sprinted inside, catching his breath in the middle of the hallway. “Robert what are you..” Radfords words trailed off as he saw a small polaroid picture fall onto the ground from Roberts bag. He crouched down and picked it up, his eyes widening. “ Robert, where did you find this?” He said softly, a very faint smile on his face as he looked up to Robert. “Uh..I found it in the attic– Sorry if I wasn’t meant to take anything..” He mumbled, awkwardly adjusting the bag on his shoulder. “No no, Robs I’ve been looking for this photo for years! .. Can I keep it? ” Radford asked, his voice laced with the sound of nostalgia and fondness. “oH–Uh Yeah! It was yours to begin with!” Robert replied, a little sad to let it go but happy to not be scolded. Radford put the photo in his pocket and just as he was about to say something–

                                                            “ROBBYYYY!!”

Both of their heads snapped to Roxies bedroom door, Robert quickly sprinted to her room Radford right behind him. “What happenED- OH MY GOD -” Robert covered his mouth in horror as he saw hundreds upon hundreds of baby spiders crawling out from the corner of Roxies room, Roxie screaming at the top of her lungs. Radford swiftly grabbed Roxie and pulled her away and out of her bedroom, his head snapping to Robert. “ GO GRAB THE RUBBING ALCOHOL THE MATCHES” “bUT-” “NOW.”  Robert quickly ran off, opening the cabinet door and grabbing the alcohol, snatching the package of matches from the counter and shoving it to Radford. Radford doused the crawling baby spiders in the fluid, lighting the match and burning them all. Robert watched in horror, covering his sisters eyes and Radford ran to go get the fire extinguisher. After a few seconds of the burning Radford put it out, looking in shock at the little burnt corpses of the insects. “..I was going to say we had bug spray..” “..It wouldn’t have killed them that well.” “...Let me guess, it was on sale?” “.... Shut up. ” 

October 21st, 12:14 am ( 11:03 in the outside world)

Robert tossed and turned in his bed, not finding any way to sleep at all, even if he felt somewhat tired he just couldn’t get himself to sleep. Of course, he had forgotten his insomnia medication in the car, but he knew that wouldn’t have helped either though. His doctor always called him “A little vampire” because of his body’s unwillingness to sleep. He also didn’t like that doctor very much. That doctor gave him too many subscriptions at once–he hated taking them. They made him feel awful and they didn’t even help! His doctor would just prescribe and prescribe over and over again, of course none of it helping. It was the second thing Robert realized he was glad that he didn’t have anymore from his old city. At least he had that to distract his mind. After tossing and turning for another minute or so Robert finally had enough, getting up from his bed grumbling nonsense under his breath as he stretched, he was planning on sneaking out and grabbing Radfords keys to get his meds from the car, even if he knew they wouldn’t help–it wouldn’t be bad to try. Robert snuck past his brother's room, being extra quiet knowing Roxies good hearing and the fact she was inside of his room and going into the kitchen to grab Radfords keys. As he snuck inside the kitchen he couldn’t help but glance at the small window that was above the sink. Oh what a mistake that was. Outside, a young boy that seemed to be about his age was lighting his neighbors trash can on fire. Except, he  wasn't a boy at all. 

He wasn't human. The boy had sharp canine like teeth with beady red eyes with sharp dropped fuzzy ears with long quills running along his back. His sharp claws held the lighter and the firecrackers tightly, a devilish grin plastered on his face as he made little noises that seemed of laughter–similar to a hyena. The boy looked like a cross between a human and a horribly disfigured dog, the only real human traits about him was his brown hair and his striped sweater, along with his skin but otherwise that was it. Robert felt his heart leap as the boy's eyes made eye contact with him. But instead of acting hostile the boy looked..frightened? Quickly scampering off into the night leaving his items behind. Robert blinked. Then blinked again. He blinked several more times until he finally got it. This wasn’t a dream. This was real. And he was living here. He ran to the window right next to his door, his hands slowly unearthing the horror’s behind it. Robert nearly screamed, his eyes getting wider and wider every second he looked at it.  He covered his mouth tightly and sprinted to his brother's room, banging on the door. “RADS! RADS! OPEN UP YOU’VE GOT TO SEE THIS–” He whisper- yelled, his hair getting frizzier by the second. After what felt like a million years Radford opened the door, looking annoyed and groggy with his crooked glasses. “What.” He said bluntly. Robert snatched his brother's wrist and dragged him to the window “wH-WHA-” Radford got the words knocked out of him as soon as Robert pulled back the curtains. Outside, all the townsfolk roamed about–but they weren’t folk at all. All of them were monsters, tall and small, frightening and fluffy, hairy and scaly, any horror you could concoct in your little human mind was out on display, walking and talking as if they were human. “THAT'S MY OLD ROOMMATE!” Radford exclaimed, pointing at a tall, Yeti man, with a depressed look on his face as he sat on a bench and ate a sandwich. “THESE ARE PEOPLE YOU KNOW??” “THESE PEOPLE WERE HUMAN ROBERT.” Robert covered his mouth, glancing at Radford and then the window and then back again. “So that means..” “Uncle John could be one of them too.” Robert squeaked in horror. “This can’t be real PLEASE tell me this isn't real Rads!” “I’ve watched enough X Files to know that this is 100% real.” Robert covered his face. “We’re doomed!” “Well maybe if we get enough protection we can kill them all o-” “..Knock knock knock.” The two went dead silent. “Hello? Is anyone awake in there?” A friendly male voice said from outside. “Jack I doubt anyone is in that old house let's just go back–”A gruff voice replied, Both of them knew it was John. Radford put his hands over Robert's mouth. “I’ll go answer the door, you go into my room and lock the door, keep Roxie safe,  if anything happens just keep. The door. Shut. Got it?” Robert quickly nodded, Radford let go. “Now run.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Six: New Frenemies

October 21st, 12:21 am (11:10 pm in the outside world)

Radford's hands shook as they made their way to the doorknob, he was absolutely terrified of who or what was out there and really he didn't want to find out--But he wanted to be brave since he took over as the only adult in the house and had to protect his family from the horror's outside, he slowly turned the knob, he only opened the door at an angle, making it only where you could see his eyes. "U-uh evening..." He said in a hushed voice, he made his voice contort into something unlike his, Solely to put on a new identity as not to be recognized--he didn't know what happened to his uncle or the other person with him, but he did not want to find out what it did to their minds. Since he was into the paranormal and such,he believed that when changed, the minds of humans can be aggressive. He wasn’t going to doubt that thought anytime soon.  His eyes widened as he opened the door and looked at the two,swiftly recognizing the one who had knocked on the door. The eyes were pure white.  His eyes narrowed looking at the man, knowing full well he was the driver that had pissed him off (And scared him). The man was tall (About 6'1), had short dark hair with an odd slant at the top, and bird-like features.  But not like some sparrow or something no, his wings were bright and vibrant, a warm bright golden color to them with a long feathery tail behind his waist. His eyes sparked and crackled with small bolts of light, slightly narrowing back at Radford–his posture slumped slightly when he did so. He recognized the man as Jack, John's work partner. He was surprised to see him in casual clothing, not a police officer uniform–guess the two knew each other outside of work. Still didn’t waver his spite at the man though.  Radfords eyes darted to his supposed uncle. John's legs were slightly deformed--more like a lion's legs than a birds, he had ebony wings that hung lowly on his back, not proudly like the other, with a lion's tail that swished back and forth slowly. His hair was very messy and puffed, sure his hair was always messy but more so now than ever. He could barely even recognize John, sure he hadn’t seen him in years but by god, even without the monstrous features he had let himself go. Radford just–looked in horror at them, not knowing what to do or say, afraid he’d slip up and piss them off to his fate. There was an awkward tension among the three for a few moments, until Jack broke the silence. "Well, uh--just seeing if anyone was home, No one's moved in this town for a year so it's kind of everywhere!" He laughed, giving a sharp grin to Radford. He gave a dry, awkward laugh in response. John cleared his throat.“Say son, since you came out of the blue I’d like to know, who even are you? And or the two others–..The family you're with?” John said, raising his voice slightly to be heard, tilting his head slightly trying to look into the door a bit, Jack nudging him in the arm to cut it out. He scowled slightly, his sharp talons nearly impaling the cigarette he was holding. Radford gulped, letting out an awkward laugh, not knowing how the hell he knew he had two other people inside. “UuUh…Names–” He paused for a split second, an idea popping into his head–His fathers last name of course! “..David. Mhm–” John gave him an unreadable look, taking a puff of his cigarette, looking Radford up and down, clearly he wasn’t buying it, unlike John though Jack seemed to believe it entirely, nodding with a soft smile on his face, though his eyes still had a judging narrow to them. “Say, what family did you travel with?” “Oh! Uh…my two siblings..!” “Where are your parents?” Radford was silent for a moment–that struck a nerve. “Uh..” Jack quickly caught on, John’s eyes widening by the slightest–Radford knew he was catching on.”wELl–I'd better go inside–” He said, Jack giving him a strange look, clearly caught off guard by his eagerness to leave.  John quickly slipped his shoe under the door, stopping it from closing entirely. “David..?” he alluded to the lack of his last name. “..Marshall.”  Radford snapped, giving him a sharp glare. “...Alrighty. Have a nice night, Mr. Marshall.” John said in a flat, cold tone, letting out a puff of smoke from his frizzy mustache, walking off with Jack in toe, Jack glancing over his shoulder and waving with a friendly toothy grin–though still holding a grudge. Radford tried not to cough, watching them leave with relief.

 Radford quickly slammed the door, locking it as fast as humanly possible,  pressing his back on it. He let out a few coughs, slumping on the door,  his heart practically pounding out of his chest as his eyes darted to the hallway, hearing the hushed noises of Robert trying to calm down his panicking sister. “Shh..Calm down Rox its alright Radfords just at the door..” He mumbled, holding his shaking, sobbing sister close. She had woken up to the noise of Radford yelling about the monsters, getting worked up and so scared to the point where she hid in his closet. Robert was trying to get her out of there, holding out his hand, trying to comfort her while he himself was freaked out as well. Radford took a deep breath and walked to the door, seeing the scene playing out in front of him. “ She won’t get out of the closet because we were yelling.” Robert said softly, his tired eyes looking up at Radford. He let out a sigh, a small wave of guilt washing over him as he sat next to the closet, Roxie slowly walking to him, hugging him close, Robert joining in. The entire night was stressful, when Roxie fell asleep an hour later the two brothers decided on a plan. They had to hide out inside for a week before one of them went out to get groceries. (And or be a sacrifice.) After a dreaded few days of living off of cheap ramen noodles and bottled water from Radfords backpack, the next monday Radford decided that he’d go out, knowing that Robert would definitely get lost, he decided to take up the job. He took Roxie with though, he just had a bad feeling about leaving her at the house. 

“Take out the trash, do the laundry, and at  ALL   costs–” “ Stay inside. I know Rads you’ve told me more than five times now.” “I know I know, Just making sure.” Radford said with a sigh, putting a small barely functioning magnet on the emergency contact’s list on the fridge. Sure it only had two contacts on it–the police outside of their town and Radfords old friend but, it still worked. Roxie was just popping her mouth in boredom, swinging her legs on a beaten up arm chair across from them. It had been left by the previous owners–it had..a lot of scratch marks on it oddly enough. Like a cat had ripped the thing to shreds in a fit of rage or something. Robert leaned his back against the counter, crossing his arms as he watched Radford fumble with his keys–clearly reluctant to leave Robert and stalling doing so. After about a minute of Radford just fiddling with stuff, Robert cleared his throat, Radford looking up and “remembering” that Roxie was waiting. He let out a sigh,  walking over and scooping up Roxie by her arms like a cat and holding her. “Alright, we’ll be heading out now–stay safe Robert and do what's on the list, remember not to drink the tap water ok?” Robert nodded, Radford finally opening the door and leaving, a slight look of fear on his face as he went out, not knowing what the hell would happen.  Robert watched as his brother left, letting out a sigh. He was as worried as he was, but he also knew that these monsters were also people. Or at least they once were. Though he had more trust in their minds than Radford did he honestly couldn’t process what John looked like now from what Radford had said, hell even his voice sounded different, he had heard it for himself. It freaked him out.  Robert hated all of this, he knew he had a bad feeling about this trip but never in a million years would he have thought it would turn out like this. He honestly still couldn’t process it, but even still, he tried to have hope in it, after that fight with Radford he couldn’t bring himself to be in the mood he once was– for all of their sakes . He snapped out of his thoughts,reluctantly walking over to his room, he still flinched every time he passed Roxies–sure the door was closed but he swore he saw something crawl from underneath the crack. He swiftly entered his barebones room, seeing the tiny pile of clothes next to his bed and scooping them up, he glanced at his phone next to the pile in a box, he had let it die the night before purposely trying to waste the battery as much as he could so the constant reminder that his friend group was falling apart would stop nagging him. 

Sure, he could turn off his notifications but that wouldn’t have done any good–he didn’t need a repetitive buzzing to know that everything was going to shit. As he stared at the dead phone he saw his reflection in the void of the screen. He looked like a mess, he had eyebags under his eyes, frizzy hair, and faint smeared eyeliner under his eye bags. He shuddered, turning over the phone to its sticker covered backside, he had forgotten to even look at himself the entire trip–it's not like it mattered anyways though. At least the happy little frogs made him feel a bit better. But it still bothered him. How he’d lost himself in all this mess. He was honestly a happier person before all of this happened–he was more innocent, cheerful. Now he just felt like he was worthless. He took a deep breath, shaking off this looming crisis he was having and focusing on the task at hand. He shoved the box away with his foot, stuffing the clothes in his arms and waltzing out of his room to the laundry room. He got into the rhythm of chores, the work numbing his worries down. He finally got to the final chore, take out the trash. He groaned at the thought, they had a lot of trash due to all the boxes, the noodle cups, the random bags of bathroom stuff.. too much. While he was in the middle of picking up trash and violently shoving it into a tiny trash bag, he stepped on something. He froze, looking down, moving his foot off of it. He saw some random ring that had just–rolled there. He looked around, trying to see if it had fallen from a box or something but no. It had just–..appeared. He crouched down and picked it up, inspecting every detail of it. It was a simple emerald ring, it looked very old, with small scratch marks on the gem itself, the color had long dulled, it looked like a shadow of what it was supposed to be. it hadn’t been taken care of well just like the rest of the house, but it still had beauty too. He gently put down the trash bag, rubbing its gem on the bottom of his shirt in order to clean it the best he could, trying to get the thin veil of dust off of its surface. He put the ring on his index finger–not knowing any other way it was put on, grabbing the trash bag with his other hand and dragging it out to the backyard. He tossed the bag into the trash, but right as he did so, he saw a paper fly from the bag and up into the autumn sky. He jumped up, grabbed the bottom of it and gave it a read. “Maple Hills High School.” Was plastered on the front, His eyes widened, recognizing the name instantly. 

Maple Hill’s was a very prestigious high school that specialized in educating the exploration of space and the innerworks of engineering to their students. Or at least their reviews stated that. Robert had always wanted to attend that school hell, even when he was in elementary he wanted to go there– he was a strange little kid that's for sure. He read the flier, his eyes hung on each and every word with pure excitement, he was ever so slightly jumping in place. 

Just as he was about to finish the first paragraph though– CRASH! Robert snapped his head to the noise–seeing a hooded figure in his neighbors backyard, clearly trying to steal their rake. “HEY!” He yelled, shoving the paper in his pocket and running after the crook in a heartbeat, opening the fence gate and sprinting, he felt his heart pound through his chest as he ran, determination running through his veins to catch this crook. Sure, he had been told not to go outside of the house but come on! This was a crook at steak here! He had honestly never felt so alive. The crook was silent, huffing every now and then as he ran, his cloak blowing in the breeze. He was so focused on the crook that he didn’t even realize where he was until it was too late. Just as he was about to rip off his cloak the crook swiped his foot under Robert's feet and caused him to land on the dead grass with a harsh “THUD!”  pointing the stolen rake at his throat. Robert fearfully looked up, seeing the crook himself, the shadow parting away from his face as the sun shined on his back. The crook had dark hazel eyes that had a sharp gaze, glaring down at Robert as if he were in the wrong here, his lips parted into a tight v shaped pout. Robert gulped, from his point of view the kid looked tall, even if he was about his age he still looked like he’d punt him in a heartbeat. His eyes studied Robert for a moment, his glare softening into a stark realization, they were both human. 

The kid’s eyes widened as he looked at Robert longer, as if he recognized him or something. Robert blinked, narrowing his eyes. “Will you stop staring at me already–just get it over with! It's a plastic one anyways.”  He grumbled, his fear dissolving slightly. The kid lowered the rake from Robert's throat, putting it beside him. Just as Robert was about to scramble away– he paused. “ Pat pat..pat..pat..” He patted his pockets… The flier was gone. Robert's head snapped in rage towards the crook, the kid had a sly twisted grin on his face as he held up the flier with two of his fingers, in a position to rip it perfectly down the middle. “Dont. You. DARE. ” Robert yelped, trying desperately to pry it out of the kids hands to no avail, getting kicked in the face. He winced as he launched back, gritting his teeth as the crook held the flier up high, looking down at Robert with a smug grin. “This is important to you, isn’t it?” He mused, his voice lined with slyness as he spoke. “Why are you doing this–just because I'm the only other person you can toy with that won’t kill you?” “Not exactly, I want a favor from you. ” Robert groaned. “What, give you my pocket change? Not happening. It took me four months to save up for it-” “Nah..I can handle myself perfectly fine–I don’t need a hunting dog by my side.” “ Excuse yo-” “ I just need you to come with me, after that..” He swished the paper side to side in a tease. “I’ll give your precious little flier back.” Robert was dead quiet for a moment, on one hand that flier was his only chance at getting even the slightest bit of hope into getting into that school, if he ripped it– all hope would be lost. But on the other hand–if he followed this stranger kid, god knows what would happen to him. Sure, he was another human but that doesn't mean anything in terms of trust. For all he’d know he was planning to murder Robert to use his bones as weapons–he didn’t know! 

The crook’s smug smile brightened, as if he saw Robert's entire thought process rolling through his head. He reluctantly looked up at him, the kid extending his scarred hand down to Robert as an offer. “Deal?” Robert took his hand, helping himself up, “Deal.” 

Chapter Text

Chapter 7: Town Secrets

October 21st, 3:29pm (2:18 in the outside world) 

“What have I done?” Robert thought as he followed the crook, his mind had been racing ever since he had taken the deal, regret swarming his heart each step he took. His eyes were glued on the crook, he really wasn’t very hard to keep up with honestly. His dark blue cloak stood out like a flashlight in the barren forest–its void of tan making it easy to spot. And the fact his rake was pointing directly at Robert. Though the two had made a deal, Ross still held the rake to Robert as a threat as if he was going to run away or something. For some reason that Robert had no logical answer too, the crook was forcing him to stay in a line, and to not get out of his sight. Weird. But then again, Robert was getting second thoughts. And a lot of regret. Though Robert would kill to go to that school, he wouldn’t want to be the one killed in order to do so. His anxiety was practically screaming for him to run away, assuming the worst from this guy. But he wasn’t one to go back on a deal; his idiotic mind signed up too, so his body kept reluctantly trudging along. About 12 minutes of awkward silence passed, wherever this guy was taking Robert too had to be far. His eyes wandered around the forest, he of course hadn’t explored the town much or gotten fresh air in awhile so this was new. It calmed him down slightly. That was until his curious eyes wandered to the crook's hands.  His hands were covered with scars, though tiny, they still spoke a million words. Oddly he hadn’t noticed it much before.

 Robert gulped, his suspicions were being proven right in front of him. It took him a moment but he finally worked up the courage to speak, clearing his throat. “So uh..What even is your name? If I'm going to be walking with you for this long I might as well know.. Heh ..” “ Name’s Ross. Get it in your head, I doubt you’ll be forgetting it soon.” He replied, his voice far sharper than before, his cool demeanor seemed to have melted in a blink of an eye. Strange. Maybe he was feeling regretful about this like Robert was. Or he put on a fake persona to drive him in. Either one honestly. “..Where did you get those scars from? Just–Wondering.” His voice was sheepish, his confidence had melted once Ross’s true colors had as well. “I’m assuming you take me for the fighting type?” Ross said he had to be one of if not the most unreadable person Robert had ever met–he couldn’t tell whether he was being sarcastic or he was offended. “I might be..?” “You sound unsure.” “I–” If you're going to ask me a question, be sure about it.” Robert scoffed, he preferred the more sarcastic crook he met minutes prior than this new shift in tone. “ Fine. Did you or do you–Fight?” “Only when I need to.” Robert groaned under his breath, his nerves only worsening at his indicice answer. “ You can’t even be sure about your own answe–” “ Pardon?” “ Nothing. Anyways, where are you even taking me Mr. Ross?” Robert snapped, his stress clearly getting to him.  Ross turned his head to the side slightly, Robert only catching a glimpse of his eyes. “You’ll see Robert.” He felt his heart leap out of his chest. “ Where the hell did you learn my name from!–” 

Robert blurted out, stopping in his tracks. Ross turned his head away looking up. “We’re here.” Robert stared in disbelief at Ross for a moment, trying to understand how he found out. Then he remembered– the random shadow he saw in the backyard. When Robert had grabbed his bag from the backyard days prior–he saw a shadow in the neighbors backyard standing idly. He didn’t notice it much, only thinking of it as the trick of the eye from him moving so fast. But now he knew, Ross had eased dropped. Of course. Robert huffed, now more annoyed than scared, what did this guy want with him? He stubbornly looked up at where Ross’s head was pointed too. The place was breathtaking to say the least. It was a large mansion, abandoned clearly but still gorgeous even so. It had small gargoyles on each side, oddly looking more terrified than terrifying, and overgrown dead leaves covering their prominent features. Slightly disturbing.  The path to the place was narrow and broken beyond repair, some bricks were cracked, others broken or even missing. It was not safe at all in the slightest, but still..it was hypnotizing to be its presence. Robert was flooded with a sense of familiarity when he saw the place, his eyes glued to it. “Come on, there's no time to admire this old hunk of rotting wood right now.” Ross scolded, Robert huffed, reluctantly following along up the narrow path, cautiously making his way to the entrance. Ross slammed open the door, dust soaring in the air. The inside of the mansion was just as magnificent as the outside, but just as beaten up as well, the sunlight showing all of its cracks and scratches as well as its pure unfiltered glory.

 As soon as they walked in, they were met with a large, grand staircase with a sunlight soaked chandelier floating above. It looked like a movie set honestly, riches were clearly invested here in its days of glory. Robert,  mesmerized, walked onto the carpet wanting to get a closer look, immediately getting engulfed in dust as soon as he took his first step, dust launching into his mouth ajar, coughs and desperate wheezes escaping his vulnerable lungs as soon as it dawned on him, his back arching down trying to hack away the particles. From what little he could make out from his watery eyes, below him the carpet was musty and old, years of dust as if soaked into its pores of yellowed thread, an odd pattern sewn into its front. He heard Ross walking away, his head launching up, Ross was making his way up the stairs, walking as if he owned the place. Robert managed to wheeze the dust out of his throat and caught up to Ross–not quite understanding why after keeping such a close eye on him he just–ditched him. Strange guy. 

He caught up to Ross, seeing his hands clenching a dated scroll. Roberts' curiosity for history had been peaked, seeing the scroll made him think of all the ancient artifacts he saw at his local museum when he was little, the sense of nostalgia and curiosity drew him in, his eyes slyly going over Ross’s shoulder and onto the page itself. It looked hundreds of years old, with plenty of yellowing and tear upon it. There was an image of two people– both in hoods, their backs turned towards a smudged ink that Robert couldn’t make out, one was fallen to the ground–presumably dead while the other was standing up tall, holding their arm up high. It was strange and confusing–but interesting nonetheless. He wondered how Ross even got his grubby mits on this spectacular piece of history, he despised how Ross was the one in possession of it. Robert looked down at the text below–before he could read it Ross put his hand over the words, stopping in his tracks. 

“Seriously, trying to be nosy?” “ WeLl– You eavesdropped on me. I have the right.” Robert said, attempting to cover up his nosy nature as revenge, to Ross letting out a scoff. “ Fine. Found this scroll a few months ago, I’m still trying to decode this riddle on it.” “ A riddle?” “Yup,” Ross answered stubbornly. “Well– Go on. Read it. If you're smart enough.” Ross let out an offended huff, but gave in, clearing his throat sharply.   “ A wall of reflection, A seal of haze, to be cleared by ichor, another place shall stay.”  Robert blinked, trying to process how annoyingly fast Ross had read it, when he finally got the handle of what he said, he was puzzled. Usually, he was halfway decent at least getting some clue on what a riddle said– he always beat Radford at guessing them in 10 seconds but this time–Nope. He had zero idea for this one. He looked down at the paper, then Ross. “So uh…Do you have any idea?” He asked, trying to hide his confusion, masking it as condescending, acting like Ross should know what it is. I mean he had this thing for months, he might at least know a part.  “The wall of reflection obviously means a mirror–but the rest…” He squinted at the riddle again–trying to see if he could squeeze out any bit of information from it as if 3 months wasn’t enough time to do so, clearly trying to act like he was looking closer at it than Robert was. “That's all I've got.” Ross shrugged, his smug nature hinting in him slightly, guess wasn’t completely gone. 

“You're looking for mirrors here, aren’t you?” Robert asked, the puzzle pieces clicking perfectly in his mind now–Ross just wanted him as his little helper. Robert’s once curious gaze became as sharp as glass, great, he was being stepped on just like his other friends. Ross didn't reply and continued slowly walking up the hall. “Why do you even care about this stupid riddle anyways?” Silence.. “What, are you just bored?” Silence... “Why did you even bring me into this?” Silence…. Robert stomped his foot, his shoved down temper about all of this boiling over–he was unfortunate enough to have inherited his mothers anger issues so not a great mix of being used and having anger issues. “ANSWER ME!” He snapped, his voice echoing across the hallway. He swiftly covered his mouth, Ross calmly turning his head towards Robert.”" I- ""It’s simple really, I’m not just using you to look for the mirrors, I really could’ve done that myself–I was tasked to bring you here.” “...Tasked?” “Indeed, this isn’t the first scroll I've gotten you know, I had another one. It spoke of you. It told me someone would move here–another human like me, it described you. When I found you that night that scroll disappeared. I haven’t been able to find it since.” “...Who are you..?” “You know my name Rob–” “I mean really. Take off that hood.” Ross paled. “..My hood?” “Show me who you are. I won’t take another step until I see who you are.” Ross didn’t move for a moment, shuffling his feet uncomfortably. He let out a sigh and put the scroll in his pocket right next to Robert's flier (Which he still wanted), And slowly but carefully took off his hood. It dropped on his back. He looked nervous. His hair spiked up as soon as he took off the hood, it was jett black and very overgrown and dusty looking–he didn’t look well taken care of. He had a scar on his bottom v shaped lip,  small but noticeable along with heavy eye bags sagging under his nervous gaze. “So uh..Do you trust me now?” He asked awkwardly, giving him an estranged v shaped grin. Robert blinked. And then blinked again. He couldn’t believe that the crook he had been chasing after was some pretty boy. He shook off the fluttering feeling in his stomach and nodded. “I suppose so..Maybe.” “Good, good.” Ross awkwardly said, swiftly putting the hood back over his head. “Now will you look with me?” Robert nodded. “Alright then catch up slow poke.” Ross teased, quickly changing his slow pace to a forced sprint. The two ran around the mansion for about a minute, looking for the bedroom hall Ross had been directed to, until finally stopping in their tracks. The entire hallway was covered in mirrors, large, small, narrow, wide, any type of mirror that could come to mind was right there. Robert gulped. Ross grinned. 

Ross pranced around in the hall, checking every mirror in great length, Robert doing the same. Nearly 40 minutes had passed, they became sloppier and checking each mirror, Robert letting out a groan. “Ross I really don’t think we’re going to find this mirror any time soon–” “ We will.” Ross snapped, Robert sighed. He only checked a handful more mirrors until he let himself rest, backing away from the plethora of clustered reflection and on the actual surroundings. His eyes traveled from the dark blue wall paper onto the hundreds of clocks that never ticked and onto one dresser. It was the only non table hunk of wood in the hallway, having multiple drawers and golden knobs, a small sugar bowl of pearls sat atop the thing, a strange decoration in Robert's eyes. Then, Robert looked at what was above the dresser. 

A weird, dust fogged frame was above the dresser, Robert wondered if it was a painting or not. He noticed a small, emerald green glow shine on its surface–he realized his ring was reflecting on it. He also noticed the reflection in it. The gears in Robert's mind started to turn at ungodly speeds, he quickly went on his tippy toes and reached up for the mirror, trying to brush off the layers of dust settled on its clear surface, his hand going lower and lower until “ SLASH!” Robert winced. He stumbled back, holding his hand close to him in pain, blood pouring from it. The mirror had a large crack in its middle, and Robert had ran his hand down it, cutting himself. The gash was large, going down Roberts entire palm. The crimson ichor oozed down the mirror. Ross swiftly came to Robert's aid, he ripped off a patch from the bottom of his cloak to use as a makeshift bandage for Robert. “ It’s alright, I’ve got it. ” Ross muttered softly, his voice oddly comforting, clearly he had a soft spot for injuries. 

Robert let out a shaky breath, clutching his palm tightly as to numb the pain the best he could–he did this all the time when he was a kid–he remembered getting a cut on his knee once when he was little, Radford showed him how to numb the pain. Sure, it was dumb and didn’t help that much but the comfort of the thought eased the pain. Ross looked up at what had cut Robert, his eyes widening. “Robert–Robert look.” He said breathlessly, shaking Robert's shoulders lightly. “What–” He looked up, his eyes turning as big as saucers. His blood, his ichor, had managed to clear a streak of the dust and reveal that– there was a room on the other side of the mirror. It all made sense now. Ross snatched off his cloak, putting it on both of his hands like oven mitts and putting his foot on the dresser to help him up,grabbing the crack on the mirror and pulling the glass off with all of his might–after about 3 minutes of pure struggle the glass popped off like a tooth, knocking over the overflowing pearl sugar bowl and shattering it. Ross didn’t even bat an eye at this and continued, ripping off the second half of the glass, throwing it on the ground beside Robert and bravely hopping into the dark room. Robert stood still, staring at the void–hearing nothing but the sound of his own heavy breathing, cautiously waiting for Ross to get out. He waited for minutes, growing more and more anxious each minute. After 8 minutes, Ross came out with a large toothy grin on his face as he held up half of a scroll–it had been ripped in half but it still worked. Of what little it showed was a room full of some kind of fog with stars, one person without a hood hunched over. The other was ripped off. The ink was too light to make out what it said, faded with its time. “Well, even if it's only half it's still something!” Ross exclaimed proudly, climbing out of the wall and onto the ground victoriously. 

Ross went on a theory rant about what he could possibly think it meant, and who the people were on these scrolls. The two walked out of the cluster of mirrors, the echoey hallways and raced down the treacherous stairs right under the chandelier, having oddly..the time of their lives together. It was strange to Robert the overwhelming joy he had being in Ross’s presence, he had so much life and energy that Robert just didn’t have in his life as of late. He didn’t feel like strangling Ross anymore and more like hugging him tightly. As the two slid down the steep stairs and back into the barren forest, Robert remembered the whole reason why he was even here– his flier. “Well..Since our deal is over… Can I have my flier back?” Robert asked, his eyes pleading. Ross nodded, “You more than earned it.” He patted his back pocket, “ Pat pat..pat..pat..” “Oh. The scrolls gone.” He said flatly, grabbing Roberts flier and handing it to him. The glee on Roberts face appeared as if magic, he hopped slightly up and down finally getting to read it fully. “You’ve got quite the ambitions for schools Robert–But be careful I heard that some of the bathrooms have *gasp* gHOStS!” Ross said dramatically, wiggling his fingers as Robert scoffed. He giggled. “Really though–You should apply! You look like you’d be smart enough to get in.” Ross said, putting a hand on his hip, his eyes slightly softening when he looked at Robert. “Are you saying I look like a nerd?” Robert teased, Ross quickly jumping to defend himself. “nO– No, not at all–” Robert laughed. “I’m just pulling at your leg doofus, ..Thanks. By the way.” Robert mumbled, scratching the back of his head, his fluffy leaf ridden hair moving to his scratches. “No problem, goldy locks.” Ross grinned, before Robert could even think of saying another word,

                                                                                          “ROBERT!?! ROBERT WHERE ARE YOU!?” 

His head quickly snapped towards where the noise was coming from, Radford had just gotten home, with Roxie in toe. He clearly had an awful time due to his hair being puffed out due to stress. Robert let out a sigh, turning to Ross. “Best if you get back to that, Hm?” Ross said, crossing his arms with a soft smile. “Yeah…Ross– Will we meet again? ” “ Of course. ” Robert let out his hand for a handshake. “ Do you promise?” Ross took his hand with a grin, shaking it. “I promise.” 

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: Scary Reality

October 27th, 11:57am (10:46 in the outside world) 

 The strong hum of the water pounding on the sink drowned out the sound of the toothbrush scraping against Robert’s teeth.  He brushed, his mind completely caught up in thought. After god knows how long of stalling to call someone, Radford finally had cracked yesterday and called a professional. Robert had been told to stay in his room when the man came over–for “safety reasons”. Both for the safety of Robert not breathing in “Copper” from the pipes (Which he doubted that green water was caused by mere copper, the glow was far too strong for that) And for him just..not to see that guy. The monster plumber. How scary.   Though Robert understood why Radford was doing all of this—he still felt it was a bit unfair. I mean–these people were human, they still have the same minds they did before.

But, as Radford put it, “You can’t trust what you can’t see.”  Which in this case he was basically calling Robert crazy for not thinking the same.  He personally thought Radford was a bit more crazy himself. Robert spit out the toothpaste aggressively, the clump of cleanliness being washed away in seconds, he turned off the now crystal clean tap, swiftly wiping his mouth off with the new, cheap, scratchy hand towel Radford had bought 3 days prior when he went shopping. And when he found out where Robert had gone. Thinking of the day enthralled Robert even now though, running through the forest and finding ancient scrolls with a new friend on top of that? Thrilling! But he knew Radford didn’t think the same. As he rang his soaking hair out, he remembered Radford plucking each dead leaf out of his hair while scolding him for the 5th time that night in the bathroom. “Robert, For Christ's sake, Call me when you're in trouble.” He only called him “Robert” when he was scolded for something–Even so, it was still weird to hear his mothers tone out of Radfords mouth. (Really Radford was a lot like his mother now that he thought of it)  

“Rad–I didn’t have my phone on me–” “ You should’ve. ” He interrupted with a huff. “I told you not to even go past the house. Only to take out the trash.” “I lost my bag in there Radford!” Robert snapped slightly, Radford spitefully brushing the bottoms of Robert's hair–purposefully tugging on Robert's hair strands by the slightest. Robert made sure to hide his wince. His lie was hard to act out. “A stupid bag isn’t worth losing your life for!” “It had everything in there! If I lost my bag I would’ve lost my only way back home.” Radford put down the brush, letting out a deprived sigh, his hand falling onto Robert’s shoulder as if holding him in place.

 “ I thought I lost you Robert.” He said softly. That was the one thing that stuck with him throughout that whole lecture. Lost. As he fluffed out his hair with another scratchy towel he started to think what Radford meant by that. It had been ringing in his mind like the bells of a cathedral for three days straight. Had he thought Robert died? But that's ridiculous! He was only gone for– . . . Oh. Oh. He realized how long he had been gone. 

Over 4 hours. Over 4 hours of not receiving Radfords calls, Over 4 hours of not answering his texts, and over 4 hours of Radford being stressed as all hell.   The reality of it hit him like the ice cold water in his hair. He felt even more guilty now that he was really dwelling on it–He felt like a dumbass for not thinking of this days prior, his mind being so swept up in mystery and adventure he hadn’t even thought about what that caused.  His emotionless face turned to a soft frown as he fluffed out his hair, tying it into a ponytail and throwing it on his back. He looked at himself for a moment in the mirror, the echo of who he was shining in its pristine glass. He couldn’t really recognize who was looking back at him in all honesty.  His eye bags were much more toned down now, the medication that was being shoved down his throat sort of helped. Ish. He still hated Mr. Morning person Dr. Harvey though.

 He looked older than he was a few months ago–taller, more refined, Time really does fly, huh? Then again he had also just turned 14 back then when mom and dad had died. Now he was only a month away from being 15, to a tea. He felt so immature for his age–ashamed even. He always was in a world of his own–he could never quite pay attention that well, and had big dreams that he could never quite fulfill. Every teacher said so. Ms. Dicens, Mr. White, Mrs. Smith, all of them.

 He refused to listen to their poisonous words for years on end, but..it was all starting to get to him. “You don’t pay attention to the world around you, only the world in your head.” He heard Ms. Dicens snap, “Robert you chase your dreams more than you chase your  grades.” He heard Mr. White coo, “If you can’t handle what I’m giving you then why did you even accept honors science? That's idiotic Robert. Think rationally.”  He heard Mrs. Smith scoff. He hated every single one of them. Not a single one of them had a creative or caring bone in their body. Not his type of people to say the least. But he couldn’t let that stop him, he was young then, more immature. He’s less now ..God that sounds so stupid. He turned away from the mirror, pushing those awful haunting memories of the ghosts of his past down into the everlasting abyss of his mind. Stay on topic Robert, stay focused. He looked down at the flier in his hand, but not the front of it, no, the back. The back had a number etched into it, Ross’s number. With a note underneath. “Call me on the 27th, 12:05 pm sharp.”

 Why 12:05? Why now? Ross confused him but intrigued him nonetheless. As he walked to his bedroom, he glanced at Roxie’s cracked opened door, the faint sound of snoring coming from it. After days of persuasion Radford finally got her to go sleep in her own room, (After he cleaned up the burnt corpses of the spiders of course,) He needed to get better rest so he could attend some job interviews without being half asleep  and Roxie sleeping in his bed definitely wouldn’t help that.

 She kicked and squirmed so badly that Robert often saw Radford up and awake drinking the remains of cold coffee from the morning prior in the kitchen. Depressing. And a bit..strange. Radford didn’t even like coffee–So why on god's green earth would he drink cold black coffee of all things? Even after she went back to her own bed he still saw Radford doing it. He had actually noticed a lot of weird things going on with Radford ever since they had gotten here, he usually cut his hair every few weeks but oddly didn’t this time–just letting it grow out. His nails were getting very sharp and long–he accidentally scratched Robert yesterday when he was handing him a box of cereal, and his back had been getting seemingly very red and itchy but only on two parts of his back. Kind of in an angel wing pattern. Only Radford was getting these random strange symptoms–Roxie and Robert were doing just fine. All of this had really started ever since he went out to get groceries–even weirder. Robert swiftly snapped back into reality the moment he realized he nearly walked into a wall, god he was bad at paying attention. He looked down at the watch on his wrist, 12:08. Whoops. 

He swiftly plucked his phone from its charger and typed in his code, 1107, He was greeted with his new, solid olive default lock screen, he had forgotten that he had removed his friends from it. That remembrance made his mood even more ify. He swiftly (363) -251-7908, Ring…Ring…Ring.. The rattle of the dial tone rang in his ear as he tapped his foot impatiently on the soft carpet, glancing in the hallway hoping Roxie wouldn’t wake up anytime soon. “Your all has been forwarded to an automated voice message, please speak at the beep. ” He heard an oddly familiar voice say– Wait a minute. “Ross, don't joke with me.” He huffed, hearing a snicker from the other line. “I couldn’t help it! You were late anyways. Let me guess, texting your girlfriend?”  Robert scoffed, he couldn’t believe this kid. “No, taking a shower.” “Uh-huh, Well, I was going to ask you to meet somewhere but..now i’m starting to think you're too busy.” He teased, the crackle from the other line muffling his words slightly. “Yeah right, and where would you want to meet anyways? A cave in the forest?” “You're terrible at mocking me Robert.”  “..I hate that you're right.” “I always am.” Ross mused sarcastically, Robert chuckling under his breath. 

“But really though, where would you want to meet?” “Right now I’m in an old diner out of town–it's not too far off though if you know where to go.” Ross paused, the sound of scribbling of a pencil faintly being heard. “Want the address?” Robert was silent for a moment, staring at Roxie’s room. It was his job to take care of her and he was grounded from going outside until Radford said…But… Did Radford really expect Robert to listen? “Sure.” Robert wrote down the address Ross gave to him–putting it into google maps and seeing that it was only 25 minutes away, In a car..Which was 45 minutes on a bike. Uh oh. The thing was, Robert’s fastest route was on a bike. His tiny sister's bike. And if he even dared to go on foot that would be over an hour long walk. And of course no public buses were available here due to how tiny the town was. So in multiple senses of the word, he was screwed. He gulped, slowly and hesitantly raising his voice to the speaker. “I’ll be there in 20.” “Great, see you then dorkwad.” Ross hung up. 20??? 20??? Why did he say 20!? Of course he had to panic and lie at the end of the phone call–He couldn’t be late twice otherwise he’d get teased about an imaginary girlfriend for the rest of his life! He slowly put the phone in his pocket as he stared in horror at Roxie's room. He slowly walked over and poked his head in her bedroom, sound asleep. She had to be the second heaviest sleeper he had ever known, besides his dad of course. Roxie definitely got it from him. As he slowly shut her door seeing her peacefully sleep he muttered “I’m so sorry” Under his breath. And with a click, he was on his way. 

12:31 (11:20 in the outside world)

 Robert huffed and puffed as he peddled up the hill, he felt the pounding rain clap his back as he moved, it’s cold blanket of water being ignored by the burning sensation consuming both of Robert’s legs. He felt like his lungs would give out at any moment, he really was never much of the athletic type beyond fencing–even then it had been years since he had done so. His grip on the tiny bike dug into its cheap plastic, his head was down and trying to avoid getting his entire face doused in rain, his hood wiping in the clashing wind–he had never in his 14 closer to 15 years of being on this damned earth ever experienced such weather like this. It was a horrible thing to deal with on top of the humiliating circumstances, he felt the little pink strands of sparkly thick rope beat on his wrists, he was thankful to have put on a hoodie otherwise he would’ve been covered in not so great looking scars. He had managed to take a shortcut that Ross had advised when giving the address to him, though it was great for time it was not so great for his tires. One of his tires had already popped the minute he got onto the hill–so he was going extra slow now. Only his other foot was managing to scoot the bike up a bit faster–but even so it wasn’t by much. But on the bright side he was lucky his Sigbin neighbor hadn’t caught him sneaking out of the garage–he was too busy trying to protect his peonies to even give a single care in the world. The guy gave him the creeps, sure he had an intimidating look over all with his squinty eyes and bandaged hands but the fact he had strange elongated ears and bright yellow eyes made it even worse. Thank god for his peonies. Each minute Robert was stuck on this awful bike felt like a million hours, but finally 5 minutes later he saw the horizon of the diner and the back of the welcome sign, relief shining in his whole body. 

He practically ran to the diner at that point, throwing the bike into the empty parking lot and running inside, seeing Ross as the only customer inside. “A minute late, typical.” He teased, tapping his watch. Robert collapsed into the plastic booth across from him, he had never been so relieved to sit in a crammed diner booth in his entire life. Ross looked a bit more fresh now–his hair cut a bit shorter too, wearing a new pair of clothing that was a bit baggy on him but it worked. His hood was nowhere in sight. After a few moments of Robert catching his breath he sat up correctly, putting his head in his hands and looked at Ross, now actually getting to properly see the guy. He was a lot more beaten up than he realized–plenty of bruises and scars littered his face and hands, most minor but some major. He sipped some hot coco from his mug, looking up at Robert with his mischievous hazel eyes, a small v shaped smile spreading on his face. “I’m sure your wondering why I called you here, right?” Robert nodded, taking off his own hood feeling oddly out of place in front of Ross. Ross reached into his back pocket, pulling out a sliver of the other half of the scroll. Roberts' eyes widened. “How did you–” “Found it on a tree, a dagger was holding it in place..a bit strange but I’ll take what I can get.” Robert gave him a strange look, Ross only shrugging in return. Robert looked down at the scraps of paper, his eyes widening as big as saucers. 

“𓄼𓎢𓉔𓅱𓈎𓅂 𓏏𓅱 𓂧𓅲𓋴𓏏 𓄿 𓄼𓊪𓄿𓇋𓈖 𓇋𓈖 𓋴𓅂𓄿𓃭𓅂𓂧 𓊪𓃭𓄿𓎢𓅂 𓄿”

“...Are these hieroglyphics?” “Egyptian ones to be specific.” “ How–What–Huh–” “disappointingly they aren’t from the Egyptian times though.” “BUT STILL???” Robert grinned, feeling that surge of excitement from before hit even harder now as he gingerly graced the wimpy pieces of paper in his hands, Ross smiled. “I’ve been looking everywhere for a book that would translate it but I found nothing–so I was hoping you maybe had one? Since your a history nut yourself.” Robert scoffed, as if it was common knowledge that he should have a book like that. “Of course I do–Why didn’t you tell me this on the phone!? I would’ve come with it in hand!” “Well..I didn’t want to put more on your plate than you already have.” Ross teased, glancing towards the broken bike outside. “I don’t think Roxie would be all that happy with a broken bike coming home.” Ross snickered, Robert letting out a puff of embarrassment. “ She never used it that much anyways.” Robert looked up at the cat clock on the checkered wall, “11:36am” He blinked, wondering if he was hallucinating but no. He looked down at Ross’s watch, “ 12:27” “ I knew the time here wasn’t right!” He muttered stubbornly to himself, Ross catching wind of it. “Well yeah, the curse dose that.” Robert snapped his head up looking at Ross, his eyes wide with curiosity. “ Curse?”   “Duh the curse… You know about it right?” His once joking tone melted away into horror as he realized Robert was unaware of this supposed “Curse”. “Go on.” Robert chimed, leaning in forward slightly. Ross took a deep breath, sipping his hot coco and letting out a sigh. “I’m sure you’ve seen all the townsfolk around here aren’t really quite..normal like you and me. They are cursed. They have been for over a year now–.. In a month it will be two.. ” Robert nodded. “And how did this curse even happen?” “..That's what I’m not sure about. I have never known. That's why I’m even searching for these scrolls anyways– to cure the curse.” “Why do you want to anyways? They seem mentally normal honestly–” Ross slammed his mug into the table. Robert kept quiet. “ They aren’t normal. They are insane ” “..How do you know?” Ross fell silent, a look of grief washed upoun his face, his tone became hushed. “ ...Because my parents turned into one of them. They lost it. They went insane.”  Robert looked in shock, swiftly feeling bad for even mentioning it. “ ..The day the curse happened my parents weren’t the lucky ones that got it slow, it happened immediately, their minds shifted to human to god knows what…they destroyed everything in sight. I haven’t seen them since I escaped.” He said slowly, Robert nodded. “Where did you even go after that?” Ross tensed, furrowing his eyebrows. “I think that's enough, Robert.” Robert pursed his lips, his gaze falling away from Ross’s cold glare. “... Sorry. ” Robert mumbled, Ross didn’t respond, looking out the window. “The rain stopped.” Robert looked up, seeing the cloudy overcast. “Think you should head home now, I’ll meet you on Sunday, right?” Robert nodded. Right as Robert was getting up, Ross gave up his hand. “..Things are alright between us, Right?” Robert took his hand and shook it, a soft smile gracing his face. “Right. See you Sunday Ross.” He got up and left the diner, Ross waving from the window, he walked past the broken bike, deciding it was best if he just left it to rot. Besides, he needed to take a walk anyways. As soon as he was halfway down the sidewalk on the hill he checked his phone, “12:31” Guess he had just crossed the line between the cursed zone and the outside world. Weird. He had about 3 hours left until Radford got home–and an hour and 48 minutes before Roxie got up, so he’d be just fine. He paused for a moment, and turned behind him, looking at the horizon of the diner, then the road ahead of him. He waved his hand right at the point where the curse would stop..a green glow englufing the half of his hand reaching out, the ring on his finger lighting up like a lantern. “ Woah…” He muttered in shock, he couldn’t describe how it felt, but it was strange. He quickly pulled his hand away. It took him a moment to face the bottom of the hill–he realized it had started raining again. As he walked down the hill he thought about what Ross had said… Maybe Radford wasn’t safe from the curse after all. He felt a knot form in his throat–He was just being paranoid right? ..All he knew was that now, He was facing real danger. Real magic. And real consequences. And his family was the price. Oh. Oh no. 

Chapter Text

Chapter 9: Cold Coffee

October 30th, 3:42am (4:53 in the outside world) 

Robert felt his phone buzz and buzz into his mattress as he lay, his eyes wide with fear as he heard the rain slash upon his weak windows. This whole curse thing was really getting to him. Badly. Ever since Ross had told him about it, it had been consuming his mind for days. And with the mixture of what he saw? He really believed him now. He pressed his head deeply into his stiff pillow as he tried to grasp what the hell he just saw. “Right before you ran out of the kitchen, What did you see?” Ross had texted him, he had managed to steal the diner owner's phone a few days prior in order to text Robert–which he scolded him for lightly. It kept replaying over and over in his kind a few minutes ago so why not now when he was asked on the spot? “Think Robert, Think.” he thought, his face tightening into a small scowl. Eyes. Yellow, beady eyes. The hase of merky memory slowly started to piece together into something…horrific. 

He remembered the sound and smell of cold coffee being poured in the kitchen, Robert had been secretly texting Ross for a few hours is what he remembered–for some reason his dazed mind still couldn’t remember why he walked out of his room into the kitchen, yawning as he went, pretending to not be wide awake. The kitchen was oddly dark and quiet, only one, pathetic dimly lit stove light being present in the whole room, the small window above the sink long being shut by curtains now. A shadow stood in front of the coffee maker, oddly it's posture being very..straight. Weird. Only Roxie had good posture and that shadow was way too tall to be her. “Probably Radford,” He had thought, walking over, wondering why he didn’t turn on the lamp on the coffee table like he always did. “You’re up early.”   He mused, Robert stopping in his tracks.  He swiftly took notice of how. .strange Radford’s voice sounded. Like an echo and someone with the flu had a love child, kind of voice– What the hell? He took a step back hesitantly, raising his voice. “..Guess I am.” He mumbled, rolling his shoulders behind him.  Radford let out a soft, joking scoff, his head turning to the side as Roberts eyes darted to the mug in his hand–..His nails were short. His eyes slowly trickled back to Radfords face. He felt his heart skip a beat in his throat. One eye turned towards Robert with the side glance. The peering eye was bright yellow with sharp pupils glaring down at Robert, murky almost ink stained glasses graced his nose bridge  as a slow grin came upon his face, the grin not having any teeth at all but instead the outside behind of him. 

He also realized the light wasn’t affecting him at all. He was only Radfords shadow. He felt his heart race, his breath beginning to cut short–he felt suffocated by its gaze as it faced him, two yellow eyes glaring at him collectively. It began to walk forward to him. Slowly. “Do you really think you can do this? ” It said, still keeping Radfords voice with it. “You can’t fix this curse. Really you can’t. You're far too young, Weak, Fragile. You’ll die before you even see the next sunrise.”  He slowly backed up into the wall, his hand desperately hitting the smooth wall plate where the light stood–missing it every single hit he tried. “It’s best if you give up while you still can. Your little friend won’t be so loyal to you forever.”  Without thinking Robert shakily raised his voice, anger seething through his vocal cords as he replied with spite, That thing mentioning Ross struck a chord with him. “ I Never will. ” Roberts hand slammed upwards into the light with a Click! When Roberts' eyes adjusted he blinked. Robert blinked. Then again. Nothing. Nothing was there anymore.  The same mug once in that monster's hands  stood solitary on the counter, not a single soul clutching onto its handle. The once ice cold coffee pot began to steam with a fresh brew. He felt a cold shiver run down his spine–as if a ghost passed through him, What was that?

Guess he remembered more than he thought. He snapped out of his thoughts, looked down at his phone again, 3 missed calls. Shit. Ross had clearly panicked when he stopped replying– He answered the soon to be fourth call. “Hello?” “Oh thank god you’re ok–” “Yeah I’m fine–why would you care? Did you panic?” “Why would I not? You seemed panicked yourself when you were typing in all caps.” “Right.” “What the hell even happened?” “I’m not quite sure how to explain a shadow demon pretending to be my brother in my kitchen–” ..You just did.” “...Right.” “It sounds very familiar though–Describe it.” “Tall–Dark–” “And handsome?” “Ross.” “Alright alright–Continue.” “Beady yellow eyes that looked like they wanted to kill me–Kind of echoey voice.” “Sounds like a Fogwing to me.” “A what–” “Good old shapeshifter shadow puppets, used by people who’ve died to get back at their family members.” “But–That makes no sense–This was just–Some random demon thing?” “I’m out of luck for ya bud, try to keep some clovers and salt around–Maybe that will ward them off?” Robert let out an irritated huff–Of course Ross didn’t have a single clue on what this thing was, Why would he? At least he was trying. “Thanks.” “You're ok–Right?” “Just dandy.” “Look, I'm just trying to help.” “I get it–...Thanks.” “..Mhm WeE–” He heard Ross yelp on the other line before he could finish–the sound of thunder crackling in the air was heard in the distance, then a sheet of rain. Outside Roberts window, though thrashing, the rain hadn’t hit as hard as it did for Ross. “You don’t sound so ok yourself.” Robert teased, Ross letting out a crackled, stubborn huff on the other line. “At least I didn’t scream at you in all caps–” “Yeah yeah, anywho I managed to translate half of the hieroglyphics.” “And?” And it's pure nonsense!” Strange, it usually is very straightforward–"" “Maybe it doesn't want us to know?” “Maybe. But then what would be the point of it?” “True but I doubt that's the only purpose..” Robert yawned, Ross speaking up.”You should probably rest.” “Nah, I’ll be fine..” “Your voice tells me otherwise.” “Can’t help it if your voice makes me sleepy.” Robert joked, Ross scoffing in return. “Yeah right–sure, get some sleep you nerd.” “Alright alright, don’t drown out there alright?” “Can’t promise that with how the weathers going right now–But I'll try. “Really though, stay safe out there Ross.” “...You too.” He spoke, for the first time, a genuine softness creeping into his voice. “Night.” “Good night.” “Beep!” And the comforting sound of Ross’s voice left as soon as it came. Robert let out a sleepy sigh, the soft smile on his face fading away with the awkward, stale silence that filled the quiet air of his room, the rain becoming slightly softer with that new found silence. Just as he was about to put his phone away–It buzzed. “Uhh..Who is this??” Robert let out a hearty sigh, of course. Ross got caught. “An FBI agent.” He typed back, right as the owner was just going to type a response–he closed out the number. He knew Ross would find something else to communicate with him on soon. As he put down his phone, he felt his eyes start to droop as he stared at the tinking popcorn ceiling above him, the sounds of rain pounding on the surface above it echoing in his quiet room as he lay, his head pressed deeper and deeper into his stiff pillow until his eyes shut,all of  his memories of fear and worry escaping him in a single instant. Even if it was just for a moment.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: Classic Trap

October 31st, 9:13pm  (10:24 in the outside world) 

Glorious Halloween night at last. The past day or so had been one of stress and worry for Robert, but today should’ve been a break for him right? Dead wrong. He had been emailing Ross on his rinky-dink laptop since late yesterday discussing the strange scroll until Robert finally had managed to translate it. 

                                     “A place sealed in pain, A dust to choke,”

                              …

That was it. The rest was cut off. This, aggravated Robert for hours on end, but Ross had an idea. A brilliant one. Well, sort of. He had found a strange temple-like building long before he had even gotten his hands on the first scroll, he often lounged around in it due to the fact he had nowhere to go after..well, something Robert still didn’t know what. Ross had mentioned the fact he had seen symbols matching the ones Robert had decoded, so Robert found hope. Plenty of it. But the sort of part of this all was that they were going on Halloween night. The most dangerous night of the year in this town. Ross had explained to Robert that even before the curse, Halloween night had always been a rather odd day for the place, crime and violence rates shooting through the roof along with paranormal things being reported. Along with the curse it made this day even worse, with the people acting more amplified on strangeness and just–..aggressiveness. Ross had pointed out a scar he had gotten on his lower right calf, due to some kid in a striped sweater (Robert suspected the first monster he saw) tackling him for a damn candy bar. Snickers too. “Snickers isn’t even that good!” he remembered Ross huffing. It was a pretty deep wound, not caused by the fall but instead by sharp nails. But even with all of these red flags being twirled across the air Robert still persisted to go, he began to think Ross’s confidence was rubbing off on him. Just a little bit. The two were walking along the crunchy path of the forest side by side, Ross had lended Robert his cloak due to the fact Robert had forgotten to bring a sweater when Radford had ever so strangely shoved him out of the house two hours prior, noticing his shivering and being kind enough to lend his cloak. Radford himself had been acting especially strange tonight, a bit twitchy and standoffish, oddly eager for Robert to leave to go trick-or-treating. Though Robert protested, adding that he was nearly 15 and was too old to go, Radford shoved him out anyways, forcing him to wear a pumpkin t-shirt as a costume and move along. He would’ve brought Roxie along with him, but she had caught a bad case of the flu not too long ago, so Radford was in charge of taking care of her. Robert popped a sweetart into his mouth as he pushed the cloak away from his shadowed eyes, he and Ross had made a stop to about 3 houses (ones with the bowls outside of course) and then booked it to the forest before the cop car nearby would putz around to them. 

Robert had caved in, feeling bad for lying to Radford so much and had a sweet tooth, so a win-win of sorts. Ross pointed the small, orange pumpkin flashlight Robert had lent him around the darkened forest, trying to find any trace of where he had gone so long ago as Robert watched. Robert's sleepy eyes dropped each time he glanced back at Ross, they’d been walking for nearly an hour straight now and talk about the past and weird weather was starting to bore Robert a little bit, even if he always enjoyed hearing about Ross’s mysterious past he was really dying to get this over with. “So…any idea when we’re gonna see this thing? Or are we just gonna walk in a straight path for another hour?” Ross rolled his eyes with a playful, barely showing smile on his face. “We’re almost there, I promise Robs.” The new nickname hit him like a semi-truck. “ Robs-?” He replied, a small, flustered grin on his lips. Ross nodded. “You're called Robs right–? It isn’t weird to call your friend a nickname I don’t think. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve had an actual friend. Or any social interaction for that matter.. ” he chuckled in a somber tone, Robert turning his head towards Ross slightly, a red tint glowing on his face just subtly. “Well, for not having proper social interaction for nearly a year or two I think you’ve done a damn good job.” Robert joked, nudging him in the arm with his elbow. “If you managed to befriend me, then I’m sure you could be with anyone!” Ross laughed, replying with a smirk. “Yeah right, your only friends with me because I scared you enough with that rake and holding your dream flier hostage!” Robert scoffed with a smile on his face, Ross letting out a few giggles before Robert nearly tripped over something with a sudden yelp. 

Ah… Mi viejo templo.” He muttered under his breath, Robert giving him a strange look in return. Ross gave him a strange look back. “You know..templo-?” “What?” “..The thing the–” He gestured to the temple. “The temple?” “I–..por el amor Dios–Yes. The temple.”  Ross shot Robert a light glare before walking up to the temple in front of him, a look of nostalgia washing over his face, clearly knowing the path by heart, unlike Robert who was trying not to fall flat on his face in front of Ross. “So what do you think we’ll find here anyways?” Ross shrugged again. “I only dared to stay at the front, never got to go deeper.” “Lovely.” Robert mused sarcastically, Ross chuckling in response. “More mystery for us.” Robert squinted into the ebony darkness, his eyes not even being able to adjust to its closure. Ross pointed the flashlight into it, Robert catching his tongue before he could say another word. The temple was wide and spacious, dust and cobwebs littering each nook and cranny of it. It sure as hell was a lot bigger than it looked, a lot colder inside too. Robert could feel Ross’s cloak blow wildly behind him, he tried to hold it closer to his body. Ross gave him a funny look for that. “Wouldja’ look at that..” Ross pointed the flashlight a bit closer to the wall in front of them. Robert's head perked up immediately when he saw the carvings in the middle of stone in front of them, without hesitation walking forward to it. Ross followed in suit, oddly more hesitant. “I’d think you of all people wouldn’t be scared of some dark temple.” Robert teased, Ross giving him a fed up look in response. “Yeah right, “scared” psh…” He mumbled, crossing his arms, slightly shivering. Robert offered his hand, just to make Ross feel a bit better. Ross slowly took it, Robert could feel the rough scars on his hand rub against his. Oddly he liked it though, it didn’t hurt him to touch.  

“Could you hand me that flashlight?” Robert asked Ross nodded, handing it over. He pointed the pumpkin shaped light right at the carvings, brushing his free thumb over it. The dust danced in the air above him, he held in a cough, looking at the hieroglyphics with intrigue. For once he was actually starting to understand the jumble of reversed letters, his finger going over each he read aloud. “A place so…broke-?” Robert squinted, right as he pressed his finger on the symbol next to it,

He heard something click. 

Panic immediately set in, Ross’s hand gripped onto him so tight it began to hurt. “Ross what's going on–” “Don’t. Move.” He heard something tug, another thing roll, until he started to feel his feet start to slip from the ground he was standing on. Ross made the mistake of letting go. Ross screamed. Robert tried desperately to reach up, but met the cold hard stone beneath him before he was even anywhere close to where Ross was. He felt his head hit the ground, hard. His hands were sprawled out, so were his legs, half of him being tangled in the cloak. He could feel the warm rush of blood escape from his scalp. His scrunched up eyes slowly began to open, everything around him was blurry as he smelled the stench of what seemed to be poison hit his nose. With that fuel of thought he shot up, at an instant noticing the wide chamber he was stuck in. He looked up, seeing the closed entrance above him. Great. He heard very faint noises of Ross up there, he was panicking. But not just about Robert getting thrown down. He heard the sounds of blades flying. “Shit, shit, SHIT! Robert immediately got up, snatching his flashlight off of the blood soaked sand stone and searching around for the source of poison.  He saw a small puddle of water dripping from above, spiders crawling around the ceiling and multiple holes with a toxin coming out of them. Robert paced around the room, trying to find anything that could help him out, then he heard something begin to wurr. His head shot to the source of the noise, small blades were beginning to emerge from the middle of the room. He felt his heart scream out for mercy as his eyes got wider and wider, his body tensing in a panic, completely unsure of what to do. His eyes darted all around the room, his breath beginning to cut short. He saw four buttons, all shaped differently. He ran to them, desperately pressing them in different orders to no avail, the buttons beginning to get looser and loser until all of them popped out. They were a trick. His eyes began to water, he’d wasted 5 minutes of his precious air. His precious life. He could barely breathe, feeling tears stream down his cheeks. But he got an idea. A brilliant one. He ripped off a few squares of Ross’s patches and soaked them in water, shoving each thick patch over the sources of the toxins, beginning to be able to breathe, even if just a little bit. He had made a bunch over the holes with patches, being able to hold them away with two hands. His head raised up, just praying to live more than to escape. 

Then a light hit his desperate face. 

Ross, with the will of a god, had managed to crank open the entrance with a nearby wood slab. “GIVE ME YOUR HAND–!” He screamed, Robert just smiling to hear his voice. He reached up, letting go of the bunched up cloth and grabbing his one outreached arm tightly, Ross hoisted him up, oddly keeping his head down and hugged him tightly as they both stumbled back. “God are you ok!? What even happened up he-” Robert yelped as a nearby blade flew right at his hair, cutting a small piece from his bangs. Ross swiftly dragged Robert out, both of them somehow managing to dodge most of the blades, only getting a few cuts here and there. The two finally stumbled out, the scroll that was in Ross’s pocket fizzled into thin air, Robert finally knowing what that all meant now. “Well I guess I needed a haircut..” Robert half heartedly joked, Ross letting out a very worried sounding groan and hugging him. This time an actual one, not a body slam. Robert blinked. Then blinked again. He leaned his head down, a small smile forming on his face as his tired eyes closed, and just for a moment, he felt at peace. “We made it.” he mumbled, Ross nodding. “Just barely.” He laughed, letting go of him as he wiped his eyes lightly. Robert glanced down from Ross’s face to his pocket, noticing a fully intact scroll sitting there. Robert pointed it out, “New scroll.. god how many of these are there..? ” Ross looked down, grabbing the scroll and unraveling it. 

For once it wasn’t encrypted or reversed, no. Just straight forward–well, sort of.

“ A curse so close, with blood at bay, one way to resolve it only youth can display.”

Ross looked a bit startled by it, he seemed to understand it. “..I think this is the last scroll we’re going to get.” Roberts eyes widened, he swiftly went to Ross’s side, reading it over for himself. “What the hell does this mean?” He snapped, and just as he was learning the hieroglyphs too. “...I think we’ll go over that later.” Ross said with a heaving sigh, rolling it back up into his pocket. “For now, I think we should go nab some candy from some houses.” “And how do you expect us to make it without getting noticed?” Ross shrugged. “We’ll just say it's a human costume.” Robert laughed as he began to walk with Ross back to the neighborhood.

 “That’s got to be the most idiotic idea you’ve had in awhile!” he cackled, Ross beginning to laugh with him. “Give me a break! We nearly died out there so I can be at least a little fried in the brain.” Ross offered his hand, and Robert took it once more, “I think we should just go steal some candy instead. It's not like there’s cops everywhere, right? Besides, it's just candy!” Robert shook his head as Ross grinned, rubbing his nose bridge. “I won’t bail you out I swear to god, Ross.” Ross shrugged. “Last one at the blue house a wuss!” He began to sprint, Robert going after him. Maybe this Halloween was a bit of a break for Robert after all. 

Chapter Text

The first day of November, the death of fall. The dark morning sky began to brighten over the town, a red light tinting the dark clouds above, the sun beginning to part through the thick clouds in all of its pure bloody glory, its rays beating down on the backs of all who turn away from it. Even if they tried it could not be ignored. It was its second rising. The monster was collapsed front first on his bedroom floor, writhing in agony and spite as he felt his back desperately trying to launch the dreadful growing wings off itself to no avail, he held his chin up desperately wanting to call for anyone who could help, but his voice silent, his sharp teeth clenching too hard for him to open his mouth. He could feel the teeth that hung over his quivering lips cut into the flesh, dripping blood down onto the carpet as he felt the river of tears he had sobbed beat harder on his cheeks.
 The only traces of humanity he had left were barely even around, his shattered glasses thrown across the room and his clothes ripped on his back and front, his mind barely clasping onto its memories. All it could think about was what he longed for, to hug his siblings with normal arms, to apologize over and over to tell his brother he wasn't mad at him, to tell his sister he was sorry for leaving her for so long, to tell them both he loved them more than life itself.–..And yet none of those things he could do anymore. Memories he once cherished began to turn to dust, key components of how to function began to turn new, the faces of his very family he once wiped tears from or sung praises too began to be unrecognizable to him. He was forgetting everything he knew about the world and himself, only instinct taking over his mind. His body moved around in anguish trying to find some relief but found none, eventually finally tiring out and flopping to the floor, his eyes shutting loosely. The parted curtains on his window began to glow a vibrant red as the sun rose outside, the glow beginning to engulf his entire room. His eyebrows furrowed as he began to feel everything burn at the glow, a sense of anger and spite he had pushed deep down inside of him for years beginning to resurface, new forms of spite and distrust begging to form–the wings on his back flaunting up long and starkly. He slowly began to get up, his nails digging into the scratchy carpet below him, he stood not on two legs anymore but four, the new tail behind him slamming on the carpet, his once quivering lips grew tight and wider, holding baring teeth inside. His eyes opened to reveal a color of red so bright it could be seen in the dark, and pupils as thin as the strings holding onto his humanity, he saw the pure light of the sun. And he did not turn his back to it. 

Robert was simply in his bed, in a strange sprawled out sleeping position with his hair flopped around in every direction it could, his mind at peace for once and his shoulders relaxed. But that air of peace was soon shattered into a thousand pieces when his ears heard his poor sister's blood curdling scream. But this time, it wasn’t about spiders. 

Chapter 11: November Sun

November 14th, 4:36am (5:47 in the outside world) 

Ross was trudging through the dying, frostbitten forest in his own somber silence, the only sounds being of his own shoes crushing the rotting leaves below him. He could see his own breath dance in the air even with the stolen scarf he had wrapped around himself, his ungloved hands shivering in their tight fists. Robert and Roxie had long gone to sleep by now, which meant he was on his own now. This past week had been very quiet, unlike the chaos that was the first one. The first week, it had been chaotic and sorrowful, with Roxie nearly getting lost, Robert having to look for her for an hour straight, them having to figure out how to keep each other safe from the raging weather and.. the whole thing that had started this mess. Ross remembered that morning as clear as day. He was wandering around town trying to find some supplies that could help him protection wise, searching in the back alleys of auto shops and hardware stores just to find something, searching for some kind of resource had been Ross’s norm for what was now two years, that day marking the two year anniversary of the curse. He had hoped that maybe he and Robert could’ve gotten the curse over with before then, but he knew it was barely possible with how things were going right now, and decided to be patient. As he snuck out of the alley of the fourth shop he had been snooping around he looked up to see the sunrise, and to his horror he saw what it had become. 

Through the muddled, rainy sky he saw the horizon of the star shining above its silver lining, but that star, the sun itself had changed. It looked as if drenched in the blood of helpless victims before it, its horrific light beaming onto Ross’s face. He looked in shock, his eyes straining themselves just to look in pure awe and horror at what it had become. He felt his stomach twist at the sight of it, an awful feeling starting to form in his mind. In the whole two years of the curse being around it had never been so bright, the sun had always been a dim orange on each anniversary, never a voluminous red like it was in front of him. He had a feeling that meant the number of monsters had risen, of course it had. He rubbed his eyes and lowered his head, facing away in melancholy. As he opened his eyes once more though, he heard the sounds of frantic footsteps approaching. Two pairs to be exact. He froze, swiftly looking up. The most his readjusting eyes could see were two blonde blobs speeding in his direction–and just as he was going to move aside to dip back down into the shadows of the alley, he heard one call out to him. “ROSS–!”   Robert's voice, it had to be. He screamed out to him, his voice sounding raw and afraid, just as Ross was about to approach him he got tackled into the tightest hug of his entire life, the wind being knocked out of him in seconds.  He couldn’t even make out the jumbled mess Robert had manically blurted out to him, but he knew it was urgent. He peered over Robert's grasp to see his little sister standing behind. He had never actually seen her before, so it was a bit jarring to now abruptly see her there. She looked quite a lot like Robert, with a similar pattern of hair and same big green eyes along with a few freckles sputtered on her cheeks, with fresh tears now lining down the path of them. Her eyes looked misty and mortified, with a look that Ross could only feel pity for. She was so tiny and frail–much smaller than Ross expected, he knew this was serious if she was here. He took a deep breath and gently grabbed Robert's shoulders and put them back, parting away from his death grip of a hug and meeting him face to face. Robert looked frazzled to say the least, his hair a bed head mess and his eyes wide and terrified, a glossy shine to them as well..but the thing that caught Ross’s attention the most was his bleeding nose and new found cut on his lower lip. Ross clenched his jaw, his heart skipping a beat. “Robert I…” He trailed off, unsure of what to even mutter to him. “...Ross– do you remember when you said that those monsters “lost it” ?” Robert said with a shaky breath, seeming like he’d burst out into tears at any moment. Ross’s confused eyes turned wide, their usually narrow shape turning round, only pure fear swimming inside, his pupils as small as his composure. His grip tightened on Robert's shoulders.

                                                                                                                 “.. What?”  

Ross didn’t want to think of that part. The part where Robert explained what happened.  The part where Ross had realized that history had repeated itself. He didn’t want to think about any of it, the sobs, the anguish, the yelling, none of it. But he couldn’t help but linger on when Robert snapped at him. Ross had said something stupid in a stressed out attempt to comfort him, he remembered how it started. “I’m here for you, everything will be ok with me by your side.” He had shakily said, trying to give him a comforting smile.  Robert in a stressed out sobbing rage had snapped, not walking away, not giving him dirty looks, but stabbing him with his own words. “..Ross you being here for me isn’t enough to fix everything,”  He remembered him starting. “Everything I’ve had has been taken away from me—my home, my city, my friends–My own family. I thought that this whole hunt for scrolls would fix everything–slow down the process maybe, but it only made it worse. My own brother tried to fucking kill me back there Ross. The only other person who understood me, that actually gave a shit about me is gone. And with how things are going right now? It might be forever. All I ask of you is to help me take care of the only part of my family that's left. You can’t fix everything, no matter how hard you try. I’ve learned this the hard way, and I would’ve thought you did too. So just do that, the only thing I ask of you. You might be my only friend right now, but that doesn't mean you're my only hope. I’m going to start searching on my own, not for these damn scrolls but for other people that maybe actually know a thing or two about what they're talking about.”

 By then Robert was on the brink of yelling, standing up from his once sat position and glaring down at Ross..That memory lingered with Ross like an awful melody of his mistakes. Like another scar to his collection of what felt like a million, but for once it was mentally. For a while things were weird between him and Robert, Ross giving him his space and time to heal. Robert ended up apologizing on Saturday. Ross shed a few tears–he felt weak for doing so, but he did that day–he couldn’t help it, the stress was making even him of all people crack. Even if Robert had apologized he still felt Robert was right about a lot of it–..he just had never noticed. Ever since he was on his own he only had himself to keep him company, not quite adjusting to someone else's experience with him–and or thinking about another person. He apologized for that too, to which Robert said that he was wrong about all of it, the two just comforting each other for a while. Ross was lost in thought in all honesty, his eyes staring up at the sky with a dull look, he was tired, really tired. 

He hadn’t had any good sleep in ages really, but with being stuck in a damp abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods? He was on edge, and took protecting both Robert and Roxie to heart. As he walked he saw out of the corner of his eye Roberts' house. Police tape was covered around it with shattered glass and windows being displayed at the front, it was a horrifying sight to say the least. History repeating itself in the same house twice.. he thought, his eyes narrowing at the house. The old place he used to call home. The place that he shared a million memories with for most of his life, the place he and his family called home. He didn’t know what had happened when he had left, but clearly his house had gotten sold, most likely by pests who had found the abandoned house and decided to clean it up a bit and make some quick bucks off it, that vacancy not being filled until Robert’s family rented it out. Ross had a feeling all of the things he loved were still there, the ring that Robert wore proving that– that was his ring after all, he just never wanted to mention it.  The fact that the house was his family's legal property too. By all means this was very much against the law, putting up someone's property for rent..but then again most who “lost it” were considered dead by the law. He had overheard the cops talking about that, it was the very beginning of the curse when they started to account for that. He found their determination to understand the truth that was happening to them concerning, both for their own health (he couldn’t help but have some human worry for them) and his own barely standing safe zone of not getting caught. He was incredibly lucky the cops hadn’t found out who he was yet–they hadn’t for a long while. He was definitely wanted, that's for sure–but they didn’t quite know that the person stealing numerous supplies was a 5’8, 15 year old runaway. 

As Ross was lost in thought just staring at the old house and re-running old memories back in his head–he went as far back as when he was 13, 2020. It was the beginning of 8th grade for him (which now felt like ages ago), he was a shy, introverted kid with only one friend by his side Roy Rockerfeller. Roy was a snarky kid who acted like an ass a solid 92% of the time, always wore huge sweaters with some kind of brand of expensive jeans that always fit a bit too tight on him–never found a size that could fit in that bougie brand, and Ross was pretty sure that caused at least some of his complaining. Even if Roy at first seemed like a jerk, once you got to know him he wasn’t too bad, actually having a heart and such. 

It was about a week before the curse had happened, he was having a sleepover with Roy at his own house (Roy having to beg his parents to let him come) , It was far past twilight and the two were staying up watching horror movies, Roy boldly claiming an hour before that he could handle ‘The Exorcist’ just fine and then promptly hiding behind Ross, on the verge of tears the entire time from how scared he got, Ross being more amused than frightened with Roy’s yelps every few minutes–..even when nothing scary happened. Ross had managed to slip away from Roy when an ad break popped up on their cable, going to go pop some more popcorn. As he stood in his kitchen though, patiently waiting, he noticed his mom sitting on the couch. “Mom?” He called out, peeking from the side of the counter to get a better look at her. She was sitting in front of the living room tv, but not slouching on her side like she did normally. Her hair was strangely pristine, tied up into its normal side ponytail, but looking oddly–..shapely? He couldn’t describe it, but paired up with the fact she was sitting straight up like a mannequin and staring at the tv, Ross got worried. “Mom are you alrig–” “I’m fine, Hon!” She said cheerfully, barely turning her head to the side. Ross paused, hearing the frantic screeches of his microwave, but not tending to it. “You should get that sweetie, don’t want it to burn, now do we?” “..No, mom.” “Good! Now, if I fall asleep during this,” She turned around fully facing Ross,  her smiling, her yellow  eyes meeting with Ross’s. 

                                                                                                              “Turn it off for me, Ok?”

Ross had hoped that it was just a nightmare, or that he was just watching too many horror movies that night, but something clicked in his mind when he thought about it again.  The night that Robert had called him up he could barely hear what he was saying when he first called, the wind blowing so hard he could only hear its whipping–but he remembered Robert's clipping description. Shadow demon. It clicked, he had heard that the curse had sent small sprouts of itself to others he thought it was only through showing itself growing through the person, but no, it had sent discouraging warnings of its coming to everyone around it, making them creepily aware of its presence. All who had lost it had warnings telling others around them, and yet those warnings never made it fast enough. Ross tensed, his eyebrows furrowing. He decided to continue walking. As he did though, he was blissfully unaware of those watching him do so. Waiting for the perfect moment. And that moment only came a few minutes later. 

Robert was tossing and turning in his bed, unable to sleep. He was stuck with only himself to lull him to an unconscious state. His normal medication of course being stuck inside Radfords abandoned car at the moment and having absolutely no other choice but to try to bore himself to pass out. His eyelids were hung low, and looking up at the crumbling ceiling with disdain, he hated this. All of this. Being stuck wandering around an endless forest with nowhere to go and no path to follow,  being on weird terms with his best friend because he let his stress and anger get the best of him, having to take care of a 4 year old the best he could with said best friend–..and not having his brother. Or his house. Or any of his stuff. The most he had to his name was a dead unpaid cell phone, a dull pocket knife with a solid chunk of it rusted, and his own body to lug around aimlessly.

 He saw the rusted pocket knife glimmer in the moonlight beside him, in all honesty he trusted Vivienne (the knife) more than he trusted the entire population of the town around him right now. He thought it was quite silly to think of a knife like that–some tiny, rusted scrap of metal with a control to trust with your life. But it was true. He found it when he had arrived here, and wasn’t planning on giving it up anytime soon.

 As his eyes stammered around the room looking for any excuse to sleep, he heard Roxie crying in the middle of hers again. He took a deep breath, and twirled back up again from his bed and slumped down to the sleeping bag across from him. Roxie was bundled up inside with a tattered blanket, hugging herself in the cold night and hiccuping with tears. She had been getting nightmares every night ever since that morning sun came, and Robert knew who they were all about. 

She was also sick, very sick. The flu she’d had since Halloween hadn’t gone away since then, and was slowly eating away at her. Robert gently rested his hand on her hunched little shoulders, rubbing them gingerly in a sad attempt to calm her down. Within a few minutes her moans and sobs of sorrow quieted down into soft murmurs of sleep talk, giving Robert the conclusion he wished for. He got up from his crouched position, taking his hand away from the plastic and onto his own falling apart bed. Really none of this stuff was his own, all of it was the previous owner's stuff. The cabin they resided in these past two weeks had been abandoned for god knows how long, had been left completely untouched to their luck–at the most just being covered in dust.

Robert slunked back into his bed, seeing the dust particles dance in the air gracefully as the light outside illuminated the–..wait. Light outside? Robert pushed himself back up, the bandages on his head flailing as he did so. He shimmied his torso towards the window, the bed pressing even tighter against the wall. He saw four figures walking around just outside of the cabin. All of them wore hoodies far too big for them, like a makeshift cloak of sorts and held onto each other like creepy dolls, each holding hands. They all came in varying sizes–one of them he swore he had seen before.  Before he could get a closer look at the four– the one holding the flashlight turned in his direction. Robert ducked the moment their flashlight hit the window. They had spotted him. He swiftly crouched down onto the floor, scooping up Roxie and running her off into the huge pantry in the kitchen–it was about the size of a closet, but was just enough for her to sleep in. He quickly grabbed a battery operated lamp and turned it on for her, praying she wouldn’t wake up any time soon and closing the door. He ran to his dresser and snatched Vivienne off of the top of it, holding her close. (Yes, the knife is a girl.)

 The moment he saw the shadow begin to creep towards his window with all the others he bursted out of the back door and sped towards them, pointing the knife right at them like a sword. “FREEZE! STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE.”  He boomed, his voice turning low and gruff, with a demanding edge to it. It kind of frightened him how much he sounded like his uncle at that moment. The person with the flashlight yelped, shoving the flashlight to a shorter shadow next to them. The shadow froze up, pointing the flashlight at theirself to see if Robert was talking to them. Robert nodded. “U-uh…” the guy slowly turned the flashlight on himself, revealing a short, pudgy kid with brunette hair and a striped sweater. He looked like the cross between a human and a dog–a chupacabra.  “Wait–wait–wait.” The kid paused, squinting at Robert. “YOU'RE THAT MISSING HUMAN BOY EVERYBODYS BEEN TALKING ABOUT!” He pointed, his face tightening into a frightened stare. “Roy! It’s rude to poi–..”  The girl who once had held the flashlight paused. She went into the light, revealing herself. She had long brown hair tied into a ponytail, with a baggy demonic t-shirt under the hoodie, along with large moth wings and big eyes, small antennas popping from under her hood. “..Oh my god.” Her big eyes turned even wider as she stared. Robert took a step back. “What do you mean"missing "”..” “..You don’t know?” Roy croaked, cocking his head to the side. The girl slapped the back of his head. “oW–..heEyy…” He grumbled, the girl snatched the flashlight from him and attempted to get closer to Robert. Robert pointed the knife at them once more. She backed away fearfully. “That's scary..!” one of the smaller shadows mumbled, they had a pumpkin mask on with small antennas poking from them as well. “Really scar–” Before the kid in the skeleton mask could agree, Roy put his hand over their mouth. “Will you two idiots shut up!” Roy whisper yelled, backing away in defense of the two in spite of himself. The girl pursed her lips, unsure of what to do. Robert now felt like the bad guy in this situation. Great, just dandy. He let out a shaky sigh, slowly putting the knife down. “Look, I just want an explanation on what's going on.” he huffed, his eyelids drooping pathetically. The girl spoke up. “Would you like an explanation or an introduction first?” 

Ross felt the knife twirl at the ring of his neck, edging itself permanently into his skin; he was used to heavy amounts of  pain at this point–so he was unbothered by the leader's attempts to make him give up. “Look Ross, we’re offering you a deal that most would kill for!” The leader cooed, desperately trying to get their smooth words into Ross’s head to no avail. “A deal you yourself tried to murder me for!” Ross hissed, his torso lunging forward slightly at the leader–the best he could while being tied up to a throne.  The leader only smiled in response, the others behind them giving each other an unreadable look. “Now now, Ross. That was only because you were interfering with the gods! Our deal still stands here–” “ I WAS STOPPING YOU FROM POISONING THE WHOLE CHURCH YOU SICK BASTARDS!” Ross’s screech echoed throughout the cathedral, the members fell silent. The leader crouched down to Ross’s eye level, their white robes ruffling as they did so. Their eyes locked. “And yet how well did that go out for you, hm?” Ross grit his teeth, biting back tears. The leader grinned. “I’ll give you until sunrise to think about this, otherwise–..I think you’ll be seeing some old friends of yours, yeah?” The leader began to cackle, lifting their head back with their mouth wide as they did so.  An ember of fury ignited into Ross’s eyes, he wanted to scream and shout–to tear apart the leader limb by limb–but the moment he took another breath to speak the gag got lifted back into his jaw again, and he was alone in the small cathedral once more. Left to only dream of escaping, but with the decision of life or death–to worship a god for life or refuse and become a sacrifice for death. He didn’t want to do either– he didn’t want to have to go through this again! But he was only left with just that. All he could do was ponder and pray–pray that someone would find him–..even outside of the town itself.

“So, let me get this straight–Your names are Susie, Roy, Skid and Pump–” “Mhm.” “Get it in your head.” “Yup!” “Yes Sir!” “And–..You guys were looking for me..?” “Yes–well, me and Roy were.” Susie said, motioning to her and the chupacabra. “We weren’t the only ones–that sheriff guy sent multiple groups of people out to look for ya’.” Roy admitted as he drank what Robert assumed to be a packet of goat blood.  Robert blinked then again, He was trying to process that slowly. “.. Multiple groups..?” “Yup. He seemed really frantic about the whole thing– think he just figured out you guys were here when he checked the house..” Roy mumbled, giving a shrug to Robert. “That cop honestly scares me–He’s really intimidating!” Susie admitted, shivering as she spoke. Roy lent her his jacket in response, and then continued. “He and his partner seemed to be super serious about the whole thing–which from the crime scene thingy..I don’t blame them.” “..They said it was the second worst one they’d seen since that mansion up on the hill..” Susie sighed, glancing over to Robert with her big, worried saucer eyes. “What was it like?” “Huh? What do you mean?” “Like–..when that guy attacked you.” Robert when pale, his already messed up hair poofed up even higher. “..That “ guy”  was my older brother–..honestly the only parental figure I had left. Now I’ve only got my sister–Joh–I mean, that cop was looking for her too, right?” Susie and Roy nodded in unison, Skid and Pump listened intently to Robert just as they did. “What do you remember from it?” Roy pushed. “..It was painful. And scary.” “..And?” Robert fell silent. “I think that's all we should know, Roy.” Susie mumbled, gently nudging him in the arm. He huffed but gave up on continuing. “Besides–we’ve got to get you to sheriff windsor soon anyways and–” “Wait wait–You’re taking me to him now?” 

 “Well duh that's the whole point of us walking this direction!” Robert scratched the back of his head, he had been too tired to even process where they had been going this entire time. “Well I’ve got to go get Roxie and tell Ross–” “Wait. Ross?” “..Yeah? I’m not the only one in that cabin you kno–” “As in Ross Santiago?” Susie blurted out, Roy turned to her. “You know Ross?” “I–Of course I know Ross! We were in the same shelter–church–..ending up in a cult–together!” All of the group went silent. Susie let out a long sigh, taking a deep breath before explaining herself. “When this whole curse started I ran out of the town in fear of not knowing what to do–and a group of people found me and took me to their church thing or whatever. I saw Ross in the infirmary of the place and got sent to take care of him for a bit because the workers couldn’t–and long story short it turns out the church was a cult and Ross nearly got murdered for figuring them out and ended up escaping with me and a few other members–..well. At least me and the other members did. After the day Ross faked his death and snuck us out–..I never saw him again.” Susie finished breathlessly, everyone looked at her wide eyed. 

“That–..makes a lot of sense why he refused to tell me what happened after his parents “lost it.” Susie nodded. Roy looked at them bewildered. “I thought he was a monster like us!?” he croaked, Susie turned to Robert. “I figured after the cult’s shield wore off he would be like us–Right Robert?” They all turned to him. “..What? No–..he’s still human?” Roy and Susie exchanged suspicious glances to each other. “Are you sure?” “Yes–I’m sure.” “He’s not a mimic or anything–right?” “..Mimic?” Before Roy could insult Robert, Susie covered her hand over his mouth. “A Mimic is a type of monster that can look human but isn’t in reality, only shapeshifting as one.” Robert was silent in thought for a moment, before shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so. I know the curse takes itself by familial curses–like you and pump being the same species because your siblings, and Ross’s family got cursed into these lagoon type monsters–not any Mimic that you’re talking about.” Susie nodded, satisfied with the answer, but Roy interrupted. “Then how the hell are you and him human?? Your brother got turned into a monster so why didn’t you?” Robert gave Roy a slow glare. He shut up pretty quickly at that. “I don’t know. The. End.” Robert snapped, finally getting sick of Roy and storming off without the group. “Wait up!” Susie called out, rushing forward to Robert, Skid and Pump following along with her–muttering amongst themselves. 

As he continued walking Robert began to see some strange indicators that something was wrong. Weird traps, half pressed foot prints, and an overall just–..off vibe? Roberts anxiety started to creep up onto him until– “ Crunch!” Robert paused looking down. Underneath his foot was a dead leaf on top of Ross’s scarf that he had worn nearly 2 hours prior. He felt his breath hitch. He swiftly picked up the scarf and inspected it, getting strange looks from the group behind. “Why are you touching that scarf? It could be dirty..” Susie wondered aloud. “You should steal it.” Roy grinned. Robert ignored all of their comments and looked down, seeing Ross’s boot prints and then..another set. Without another thought he followed the trail, the group stopped behind. “Robert what are you doing–We’ve gotta go to the cop and–” “John can wait.” Robert snapped. Susie caught her own tongue. Roy scowled at Robert for interrupting her for a moment before turning to Skid and Pump, whispering something to them before they ran off. He motioned for Susie to follow, she shrugged–doing so. As the sky began to lighten Robert saw the horizon of the cathedral ahead from outside of the town, his head perking up. Susie swallowed on her own words. All of them had a bad feeling about this, but even so continued. Robert slid by into the back of it, the graveyard rotting in its own disdain as Robert peered through the windows. “I think we should get out of here. This place is weird–Come on Suz.” Roy mumbled, gently taking Susie’s hand, trying to get her to go with him–but to no avail. “Roy. Look.” She said breathlessly. Roberts' eyes stared right at what looked to be a statue sitting in the throne of the cathedral with both horror and pure anger, at first glance you’d think nothing of it until you’d look closer. Till you’d notice the gag and rope on the statue. Robert heard the sound of the cathedrals doors opening, the statue's head looked up. “Well Ross,” The leader cooed.

                                                                                             “ Looks like your time is up!”

Within a matter of seconds, Robert unearthed his blade, raising it up high to the stained glass window. Susie turned to Robert, and Roy did as well. They began to form a plan, fast.  As golden sunlight poured throughout all the rest of the windows, a silver shine peaked through the portrait of Mary and Jesus, and three pairs of glaring eyes peered through the otherside. The three of them had come up with a plan, a plan to save Ross. Just as Ross was about to admit his answer, the sound of breaking glass deafened all thoughts. Robert stood in the shards of glass, blood and cuts oozing down body as he stood, he pointed his blade straight at the leader, straight at all of them. He lowered his head, adjusted his stance, and within a moment's notice, he was ready to fight. He was lucky to have taken fencing, that's for sure. 

Chapter Text

Chapter 12: Bloody Glass

November 14th, 6:57 am (7:18 in the outside world)

John held his flashlight tightly, scanning the outskirts of town for any sign of family–His nephew and niece. This had become his routine for the past two weeks–to search until your legs grow numb. Over the past 14 days he had accumulated 6 groups of 4, all of varying ages and mindsets about the whole thing. John believed with every fiber of his being that they were getting closer, specifically with the youngest group–group 4. Group four consisted of Reynald Rockerfeller, Susan Wonder, [Redacted] Wonder, and [Redacted] Huesos, two teens, two 7 year olds. The only reason why “Skid” and “Pump” were a part of the group was because they were basically used as watchdogs–to keep an eye out for anything that could be strange or dangerous and alert the others to back away. (Also due to the fact Susan refused to go without “Pump”--To which John begrudgingly allowed.) 

Over these 14 days the group found multiple indicators of where Robert and Roxanne had gone, finding pieces of their clothing, dropped items, scarily enough–blood drops , along with their footprints. The more they found the more anxious John got–the blood drops making him even more antsy. His search had become more and more vigorous, to the point where he had nearly passed out in the woods by himself due to exhaustion. But at this point, he had long thrown any care he had out the window. Ever since the curse started he had become far more clingy to what little of the family he had left, though not being able to see them instead calling. He had called them all up until a year ago–..when his sister and her husband had passed. He remembered the day as clear as crystal, the mournful phone call he had gotten he could never forget. The sobs–the cracked voices, the apologies, all of it still tugged at his heart tightly. He still couldn’t bear to think of it. He still hated himself for not being able to go to their funeral–he knew it wasn’t his fault, the force field around them blocked him from leaving, but he still despised the fact he couldn’t even say his goodbyes to his own sister. His sharp teeth clenched onto themselves, concealing their bearing nature under his mustache–he couldn’t put into words how much he despised himself at this point. He felt like a monster– he looked like a monster , and at this point with how cold he had become, it was a rightful title to who he was at the moment. 

He felt like an awful uncle to his family, not being there enough for them. He had gotten so caught up in his own broken dreams that he hadn’t bothered to look up at the life passing by him. He remembered one of the first times he had ever hugged Radford– 15 years ago. He was so little then. It was hard for John to believe that the little boy he once could twirl in his arms was now a grown adult– 23. Sure, he was a college drop-out and worked at a movie theater but, no matter what he always was proud of him and the man he had become. He was a lot more mature than John had really grasped, taking care of 2 children now under his roof with no help–it was honestly a lot, but he knew Radford was doing well. 

Or at least he had thought so. The morning of November 1st he remembered getting a call, 6:30 am–he was half asleep and working on a report with Jack in the office before the phone practically rattled itself into John’s skull from across the room. He could recall the look of horror that spread on Jack’s face when he soon picked up the phone. “What is it now?” He remembered groaning to Jack, taking a swig from his mug. “ We lost another one.” Jack breathlessly replied, John’s face tightening at the response. “Who is it?” “No clue, got a call from a neighbor this time–..but do you remember that house we visited when those newbies moved in?” John paused, slowly nodding. “It’s that one—the neighbor seemed frightened as all hell, said some griffin had attacked this kid inside. Think he said he saw another kid too–hard to tell what he was saying from how fast he was talking. Always the Sigbins...” 

  Jack mumbled, John shaking his head and slipping on his trench coat, still silently mourning the gaping holes through its back that his wings had fashioned on it. It didn’t take long for them to find the house again, but to their surprise it was far more disturbing than usual. It echoed of the first time it had been attacked, the windows being smashed once more–but now scratch marks lined the edges, feathers flaunted around the entrance of the house along with a few drops of blood on the pavement. John hesitantly turned the doorknob, finding a completely ruined house, with broken tables, torn up fabric and most horrifying of all– broken family photos. John didn’t want to remember the moment he picked up one of them, to inspect who now lived there to put his worried mind to rest. But it only made his worries go to paranoia in a mere matter of seconds. A photo of Reina, Rodger, and Radford had been inside the cracked frame, it had been 17 years since John had last seen it. His heart sank to his stomach the moment he felt the wrinkled film on the sides of it, realization had struck him like a silver bullet. How couldn’t he have known? The fake name–the dumb voice, the two siblings come on now John! John’s nails had poked a jaggid hole through the side of the photo as he turned to where he saw the feathers trail to the most. John refused to let himself dwell on the horror’s he’d seen beyond that point, his teeth digging into the cigarette between them as he huffed through it, his face tightening into a scowl. 

Just as he was about to continue searching he heard two squeaky voices ring in his ears. “Mr.Windslor Mr.Windslor-!” They screeched from afar, John turning his head swiftly to be met with two out of breath children at his knees. He crouched down on one knee to get to their eye level as he always did, his police belt chiming with his movement as he did so. “What did you find?” John muttered, The kids continued, “We found them, we found them!” Skid cheered, John's eyes widened, a light of hope quickly reaching to their once dark view. Pump nodded “We found them in this creepy cabin–the girl is in the cabin I think and the boy is with Susie and Roy.” Pump nodded, proud of himself. Skid continued “I don’t know where they went off to bu–” Before John could respond–before anyone could speak really– a deafening yell roared against their voices. 

                     “POLICE–! SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, PLEASE–HELP!” 

John within a matter of seconds stood up straight, snapping towards the source of the noise. Susan, Reynald, and one other boy he didn’t recognize swiftly ran out from the woods, looking panicked and beaten up. John saw another figure with them, but only in the other boy’s arms. A lanky kid was draped within his grasp, barely even fitting in his arms as he got dragged towards John– he slowly realized who he was. John began to run towards them, his eyes wide and frightened. He grabbed his walkie talkie, quickly contacting the 3 other officers on standby. “We have an injured 10-53, I repeat injured 1o-53.” John swiftly got shoved the passed out person, said person slumping in his arms, his head cocking down as blood dripped from multiple glass cuts he had gotten–the person's heart beat was concerningly slow. 

John took a sharp breath, clenching his teeth as he picked Robert up, properly placing him in his arms–panic seething through his core as he tried his best not to snap at the group–wondering what the hell they’d done to cause this–or what they’d let Robert do. “When we find him a medic, all of you will be questioned about this. Got it?” John's tone was cold and stern, getting his point across. They all nodded–John exchanged a certain “What did you do? '' type look to the unknown boy with them, and the boy glared back in return. John grit his teeth, he was pissed and worried beyond words, trying his best to keep his frazzled composure. He swiftly propped Robert up on the front seat of the police car–doing his best to try and stop the bleeding with the little supplies he had. He felt his heart sink when he parted away Roberts frazzled hair from his face, the poor kid looked so tired–he could see the dry tear stains lined down his cheeks. Johns rough hands brushed against Roberts face, trying to gently nudge him awake–to no avail. Quickly though, he saw the headlights of the ambulance and other police cars swiftly pull by. 

    Jack, Scott and Sammy soon arrived–Medic’s in toe. The medic’s examined some of the children behind John, aiding them lightly, but the boy in the dark cloak refused to be touched by all means–flinching and backing away if they even dared to reach out to him. He was clearly messed up, and John found it–..questionable. But his worries didn’t comprise of some kids– his worries were set on his nephew. He tried his best to see how Robert was being aided and if there was any intervention needed, John's frantic nature being cranked up to the max–he snapped at some of the medic’s lightly–his wings hitting one point blank in the face. Whether purposeful or not is up for debate. Jack eventually took notice and with a free moment pulled him away, talking to him privately, husband to husband. Their rings clinked together when Jack pulled him by the hand into a more shadowed spot in the woods.

“John–I know you’re worried, rightfully so but–please just let the medics do their job, if you want Robert to get help then let him get it. ” John huffed, avoiding eye contact. “Well if these damn medics would do it right then I’–” “John.” Jack forced him to look him in the eyes, John cracked, his scowl softening to a small flurry of stubbornness. “..Look Jack I’ve just been looking for so long and–” “I know you have, and I get why you’re worried, I would be too–..just, try to take a breather for me–ok? If Radford got at least a little better, so can Robert. Right?” John tensed. “..” “..I’ll just take that as a yes.”

 John took a deep breath, before continuing. “ We need to ask them what happened, clearly all of them got beaten up and..” John quickly changed the subject, stubbornly waving Jack’s hands off of his shoulders with a light flick of the hand and pacing forward, a soft smile fading onto Jack’s tired face as he did so. As the two talked, Ross watched from afar his eyes narrowed and glaring. He refused to think the cops would be able to do anything to really help them–in the long run not knowing about this new cult at all, so what was the point? The only reason why Ross had even let Robert come here was because he had passed out–otherwise he would’ve ran off with him a long time ago. Ross watched as Susie and Roy ran off in the direction of the cabin, feeling Roy was a traitor for working with these policemen in all honesty–Ross was just about to slip away into the darkness of the forest to wait for Robert before a firm hand was placed on his shoulder. He slowly turned towards the source of the hand–being met with that cop. The one who had been looking for him this entire time since the curse started. He was an arachne with ginger hair put into two ponytails and a deranged smile always crooked on his freckled face. He ominously loomed over Ross, Ross slouching down–a nervous V shaped smile appearing on his face “Hello..?” Ross fearfully winced, the arachne’s grin cracking even larger–his eyes narrowing down at him. “Hello, Santiago. Been a hot minute, hasn’t it?” Shit. He had finally found out who he was–..because he had taken off his hood. Ross stared at the spider arm that had slipped his hood off, beginning to nervously chuckle. “Say,” The cop put his human arm onto Ross’s back, spinning him around towards the police car. “How about we have a chat, yeah?” Ross felt doom loom over him–laughing all throughout as it did. As he walked though, he heard the noises of the ambulance nearby, he bit his own breath. His nervously guilty demeanor began to fade into a new guilt–he felt like a fool for letting himself get caught, he should’ve been more alert–more awake. None of this would’ve happened if he had just stayed inside with Robert and Roxie, none of it. He felt his teeth wedge his lip between his tooth gap, nervously chewing as he got escorted towards the car. The cop clearly took notice of his distracted state–his creepy smile fading to a small clenched look.He was silent for a moment before stopping, the pitter patter of his spider legs coming to a halt. “...Look kid–I get you’re just trying to protect yourself–..and your friend.” The cop muttered, Ross quickly veering his head towards him. “..You understand?” “That doesn't mean I’m excusing you from all the sh–..stuff, You’ve done but–..I do get it.” Ross stared in awe. “Alright alright– Now just get in the car already yeesh..” he stubbornly mumbled, patting Ross’s back to get into the car as he stepped into the passenger's seat. Ross went inside, fiddling with his scar textured hands as he glanced nervously up at the rear view mirror, seeing the curly haired, sunglasses wearing wendigo officer in the driver's seat glance at him–and quickly slumping back in his seat. He turned to the back of the car window, his eyes tracing the silhouette of the ambulance as he wondered what Robert was feeling right now–if he could at all. He wondered if he was ok, if the staff were treating him correctly or if they understood the severity of it all, ..he began to slowly realize how much he cared about Robert–as cheesy as that sounds. His eyelids drooped the moment he heard the smooth purr of the engine below him start, slowly seeing the once huge shadow become a little dot in the distance. He hoped Robert was ok, prayed he was still breathing at the least. He looked down to the palm of his hand, rubbing his thumb against Robert’s ring that had slipped off of him–feeling Robert's finger prints pressed against his. He closed his hands around the ring, holding his fist to his heart and slumping back into his seat properly. He pressed the top of his fist to his lips, closing his eyes. All he could really do now was hope.  

Chapter Text

Chapter 13: Shattered Memories

November 14th, 2:17pm (3:28 pm in the outside world)

Robert’s hopes of being able to flee early crumbled the moment he was left alone in the hospital room, knowing full well he’d be staying for a cozy 7 days or more due to how severe his wounds were. He still felt the echoes of throbbing pain coursing through his body as he lay, sure the glass was already out of his skin by now but it still bled just as much. (at least it felt like it) Now it just had some bandages slapped on. Robert could tell just by looking at his hand that he had grown extremely pale, which was inevitable with the copious amounts of blood he lost–but it still was upsetting to look at. The whole thing was upsetting to him. The hurried noises of the nurses shuffling around, the awful jolt of being awake the moment the first piece of glass was pulled, and the awkward choice of pj’s or a hospital gown. He tried to go over what had happened before all of this in his head, but oddly found it foggy.

 Guess he really passed out hard. Glass, Blood, fighting, screaming,–there it was. He slowly began to regain the memory of the whole fight, a once blurry hase of memories began to click together one by one until it formed an awful truth. He recalled the fast feeling of burning swatch his skin the moment he landed in the echoey place of worship, adrenaline and spite taking over any inch of reason. The plan he had formed with Roy and Susie was simple: let Robert do the distraction of fighting and slowly get Ross out, Susie is the look out while Roy is the escapee, it was simple really. But that simplicity soon faded when the man in front of him grinned, as if he was prepared for this, seeming like he’d been waiting his whole life Robert knew this would spiral. But even so, somehow, his arm didn’t shake when he raised it, and somehow he didn’t cower under the man's glare. He simply glared back. It felt both agonizing and thrilling, for once Robert felt like he had strength. He felt powerful. The man spun smoothly towards him, his grin turning into a two-faced look of sympathy, deceit being written all over him as he slowly arched his forearms back. His shoulders began to roll and crack, his head turning and twisting around until— CRACK!   His neck had snapped. Like a broken accordion it recoiled, his jaw slacked. And with that, he began to mutate and reshape, his hands elongating into ebony claws and his legs bending and turning backwards–until he stopped. The monster before him was horrifically tall and thin, but intimidating beyond holy hell, losing all of its human traits–only being a statute of horror. And yet, Robert didn’t recoil. He didn’t gag or have any revulsion, none. He only stepped closer, still staring it directly in the eyes, never breaking that stiff contact. And so it had begun.

He could only recall about the middle of the fight after that– Robert quickly slashed at his chest, only skimming it lightly–he remembered wanting to get this over with, and fast. He got lightly stabbed– and then shoved away. He recoiled, stumbling, biting back from yelping, and quickly taking a sharp breath.  The moment the man tried to slash back at his chest in retaliation, Robert ducked and cut his ankle. An ooze of dark ichor bleed out onto the floor. The Man screeched and swiftly slashed at his face blindly, only hitting the tip of his nose bridge. Robert stumbled back holding it with his other hand. While he was distracted, a swift sweep knocked him off his feet. Only moments ago was winning–now he was fallen to his feet. He felt the claws of the man point at his throat, it felt like he was meeting someone all over again. Come on Robert, get up. He told himself. Get up, you coward! The stinging smell of blood in his nose and the ringing in his ears tensed his little hopes of winning but maybe–the man reached up to slash his throat a final time. Roberts eyes widened, the reality and horror of this all catching up to his cut of adrenaline. He couldn’t just “maybe” this or “whatever” that, he had to plan this out. Lives were on the line here, and he couldn’t lose a single one of them.

 Robert kicked the man off with all of his might, the shoe that once pressed him down stumbling back. He got to his feet, going into his planned footing before and slashing him left and right up and down, quick slashes that he couldn’t plan out. Right as the man was about to retaliate again, he went for the uppercut with his knife and dug through the very flesh of his jaw. The knife went through his jaw and all the way into his top lip. Robert tried hard not to gag as he quickly pulled it out–a few grainy cracks coming from the pull. He swiftly veered back, in the corner of his eye seeing Ross’s bewildered expression watch him in awe as he got hurried away.  He felt his heart pound just a little harder. The man screeched in agony, the black ooze consuming him entirely before he collapsed into liquid, soaking the floor in its ooze before disappearing. Robert stumbled back in horror, his eyes wide and swimming with entensity . He had a feeling the man wasn’t gone for good though, but even so he was proud of himself. He wasn’t usually proud of himself–but for once he gave himself credit. He remembered the feeling of all the pain catching up with him, and his adrenaline swiftly dying like an ember. The last thing he could recall was the blurred figures of Ross and the two others– a crooked smile faintly painting his exhausted face before his breath cut short, and his brain began to become foggy. Just as they were about to turn to them–..he fell to the ground. He swore he had heard Ross scream. 

That's where all of his memories left off at, maybe a few feelings like someone's rough hands touching his face or whispers of the nurses crept in here and there, but he didn’t really count those. Though troubling, the memory was still rather thrilling, the slashes and slips, the victory of landing the final blow–..and yet he still felt empty. The whole reason he was there was for Ross–not for glory or a won fight, to see him safe. He felt like a fool for being so ignorant, not being more careful–letting blind rage catch up to him–..What happened? What the fuck happened to him? All of this caught up to him. A tidal wave of memories and realization swept over him as he stared at the ceiling–rewinding the clock in his head. He landed on one memory that tugged at him, like a tight string. 

He remembered the day they first ever saw rain–in the road, running around like mad men over water in the sky. Before all of this madness had truly started–before this whole “curse” thing had really come to mind, before the real fear, before the lies, ..before everything. Back when he had normal–none scar riddled skin, back when he had smiled just a little more, back when he could just–..laugh with his family. He realized how much he longed to sit in their empty living room and eat together, to laugh in the car, to cry together, to smile at memories passed down to one another. He realized how much Radford and Roxie really loved him. God was he an idiot to be so cruel. He chewed on his bottom lip, leaving deep marks in them as he began to feel his eyes sting. His body huddled together in the cold bed, holding itself together like shattered glass. He felt his nails dig into his shoulders tightly, and his legs scrunch up to his stomach under the covers. He pressed his torso against his knees, and lowered his head. He began to cry. To cry and cry and cry. He couldn’t handle this anymore, none of it. Why did they have to come here? To move into this freaky, dinky little town? Why the fuck were they even here at all? They could’ve just gone to Glendale or Mesa, maybe even Yuma! but no. They just had to come here. Robert pressed his head harder into his knees until it began to hurt, tears tracking down his pj pants. Sometimes he wished he had never been born. He wondered if Ross had felt this way too.

Robert eventually had cried himself to sleep, sleeping through practically the whole day–only waking up to get a few more blood transfusions and some food before falling back asleep again. He didn’t leave the room, and didn’t want to. Not anymore. He had wallowed himself in a limbo of nightmares and worries, feeling hopeless and useless. Not even his own best friend wanted to come visit him–no one did. He felt like a used straw. All of his life being simply sucked out of him and tossed aside. It was about 8:45 pm now, and Robert had woken up a final time. He began to get fed up with this self pity–and tried to distract his mind by looking out the window. He realized how far away the hospital actually was, seeing the borders of the forcefield with the city outside. He had never seen this part of town–..and he realized it was his way back home. Back to everything he knew–his friends, his house! But he had the crushing remembrance of all that had happened again. He felt his throat close in, his breath cut short. No, not again– He thought. We’re not crying again, not this time! We’re getting out of here, we’re doing this again. He shut his eyes tightly before getting out of bed. He had decided it was about time to leave. And no one was going to stop him, nope! Nothing was getting in his way again. He tiptoed his way towards the thick wooden door, trying his best not to make a creak on the hardwood floor. He slipped on his old shoes left next to the bathroom, only putting on his jacket (which wasn’t even his, it was Radfords.) and leaving the rest for scraps. They were dirty and ripped anyways. He hugged the jacket close to him, feeling a new plunge of hope sink into his heart. He tried to think of it the way he would–make a plan, and go for it–without looking back. Maybe smile while you’re at it. He quietly made his way towards the thick door and went on his tiptoes to look up at the window above it–right then did he feel his heart stop in place. He saw the door inside the hospital room across from him, with a human boy in a white cult robe inside. He was clearly very young and hurt beyond holy hell. He had incredibly awful burn marks and cuts, to a point where Robert could barely stand to even look at him. But that wasn’t what scared him. The creature climbing into his window was. The creature was lanky and entirely shrouded in shadows, with fiery ember eyes and long claws. And it was coming directly for the child. Its long fingers were stretched out around the kid, nearly grabbing him.

 Within a moment's notice Robert swung his hospital door open, he knew exactly what this creature wanted, it wanted blood. Its flaming eyes darted to Robert, staring through his very soul and cocking its head to the side. Robert swiftly slashed his long nails against his index and middle finger, blood gently rushed down them as he swiftly raised them up. The creature's eyes widened with glee. “Is this what you want?!” he snapped, his teeth gritting. The creature grinned. “ Then come and get it.”

 In a matter of mere seconds Robert began to sprint down the empty hallway as fast as he could as he heard the primal stomps of the creature behind him on its fours. Fear struck him like lightning–what had he done? Been such a fool to sacrifice his own life for a random kid? And yet–..he couldn’t help it. Cult member or not, a kids a kid. And when some 10 year old child is about to get mauled to death by some goupy owl beast–what else can you do but try and step in? And at this point—at least he could be remembered for something useful. He twisted and turned in each direction, running into frantic nurses and doctors as he did so with little apologies along the way– the creature began to screech with frustration.  Robert's heart banged inside his chest, like the drum to a soldier's march. Wallpapers changed, room numbers began to get smaller and smaller, and he finally reached the elevator at the end of the hallway, a sigh of relief collapsing over his lungs–but foolishly he slowed down–the creature quickly trying to bite him–but getting a mouthful of Roberts shoe in return. He kicked it square in the face and began to make a run for it, an enraged howl ringing in its throat as it lunged at him running into the open elevator door left by the people before him. He ran in, the doors swiftly shutting when he slammed the “1” button on it. Right as the beast reached towards him– the doors shut right on its arm. The doors struggled and squeaked, desperately trying to close as the beast wriggled away–trying to open it. Robert quickly went to the doors and spread his hands on both of its sides, with all his might forcefully closing it shut. The beast's entire arm was cut off due to it. Robert gasped, stumbling back and falling into the wall behind him, his hand clasped over his heart as he huffed for air. His eyes only stared at the dismembered arm at his feet–it took about half of the entire elevator up. Robert felt himself begin to hyperventilate. The moment the elevator doors chimed open, Robert ran out as fast as he could, nearly tripping over the arm and shoving a snake doctor past him to their horror. 

Meanwhile Radford and Kevin were clumsily walking in the hallway nearby. “Thanks Kev–for all of this. I really– really , couldn’t have done this without you.” “Radford–please, this was nothing. I’ve done this with many other patients, and weirdly enough you were one of the easiest to treat! Unlike myself.. ” Radford chuckled somberly, his new sharp teeth showing themselves in their full glory as he did so. The morning that he had snapped, the officers had quickly taken him to the hospital–taking him to the new “Unwell Help” center that Kevin, his old college buddy had helped found a few months back. Kevin himself had snapped long ago–it was way back in December when he snapped at his job at the candy club, he had gone ballistic but somehow snapped out of it and drug himself to the hospital. It had given him the realization that not all of those who snapped were lost causes–and so he founded the center with a few others. (And ended up temporarily shutting down the candy club due to damaging it so badly and becoming a hospital worker instead.) He had quickly aided Radford–it had taken him a few weeks but he managed to get to a point where he was like the others–cursed, but not insane. His voice still sounded a little raspy and his mood swings still happened from time to time but it was one of the biggest improvements they’d ever seen. Radford was still getting used to his new body though and got Kevin to help him walk around the hospital, Kevin not minding at all if he pressed his new weight on him due to the fact he was literally made of stone. A gargoyle. As they walked Radford couldn’t help but have an awful gut feeling crawl up to him–about family. He had been worried about Robert and Roxie since day one–even when no one could make out what he was saying it was still obvious what he wanted, his siblings. He had been keeping track of the cops' findings of them, talking to Roy and Susie himself to make them understand a bit more about what was going on. (Due to John promptly scaring the shit out of them.) It seemed to help–because they found more and more clues to where they were. They called up today and said that they had found them–to Radfords barely uncountable joy and worry. He desperately wanted to see them but was told he’d have to wait–(weirdly, no one taking record of Robert being there–...or anyone else seeming to know about him being there but the two nurses that brought him up.) and that Robert was being cared for in another hospital. Radfords mood had become somber with the news. He could only hope that they were ok, only knowing that they had found Robert and were getting Roxie. But Kevin assured him that they’d be just fine–Radford calming down slightly, Kevin was lucky he was Radfords best friend–otherwise he would’ve been a cracked statue a long time ago. As they walked though, Radford paused when the feeling overwhelmed him. “Radford?” Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow–still holding his shoulders. “Hold on Kev–” Radford paused, listening to the new noises he was hearing with his newfound sharp hearing. His facial expression began to devolve into horror. “What the hell..” He mumbled, hearing the frantic noises of a “Code Yellow” being yelled across the doctors. Kevin began to worry as well–trying to listen in but failing miserably, only reading Radfords expressions. All of a sudden, they saw someone sprint past them. Radford looked up, his eyes widening with utter horror. He saw Robert covered in black blood and bandages run past them, his face of utter horror and fear. Radford within a matter of moments shoved Kevin off of him, his wings stretching out and standing in great length as he sprinted out of the hall–a new adrenaline rush kicking in. Within a matter of seconds he stretched out his name.

                “ROBERT–!” 

he desperately reached out to him. For a moment, and just that, he saw Roberts' horrified face turn to him. He felt his heart ache the moment he saw tears well up in his eyes. He was scared of him. And with that he ran out of the doors–into the pouring rain. And Radford ran after. 

Chapter Text

Chapter 14: Evergreen Cloak

November 14th, 10:19pm (11:30 in the outside world)

Robert felt the wind whip in his ears as he ran, rain pounding against his back like hail, his heart never ceasing to stop pounding. He bit back the tears stinging his eyes, he had long lost Radford now–But he knew Radford had been stopped by someone. He swore he heard him yell–no, shriek . In anger. He was sure that it was John who had stopped him. And for that he was eternally grateful. Great fear was ignited into him, the moment he saw Radford sparking the flame. He had been deathly afraid of seeing him again, ..or at least like that. That form, that monster –wasn’t his brother. And he refused to think otherwise. Radford wouldn’t have hurt him, he wouldn’t have hunted him out of his very home, for Christ's sake he’d never make Roxie cry out for help with his very presence. That was not the brother he’d known for his entire life, the one he’d looked up to– no, that was something else. Something that had taken his brother away from him. And he was more than determined to fix this whole curse now. He’d rather die than see his family cursed like that, for years to come. He didn’t want to finish his life off letting them suffer. All just because he wallowed in self pity. No, no. He was going to fix this, even if that meant he had to sacrifice his own life to do it. Whatever he had to do, he’d do it. Even if that meant going above and beyond his own soul. As he ran he began to see the horizon of the police station—he’d known it had been there but it was a weird sight to see. 

He’d known the cops had been involved with this so, in turn, he knew they had Roxie. God, poor Roxie. He’d worried about her for hours, ever since he left her in that cabinet he’d been internally bashing his skull in for it. He felt like an idiot for misplanning all of this really. If he had just shared the bed, stayed inside, closed the blinds–maybe, just maybe he wouldn’t have had to deal with all of this. To make everyone deal with this. The most he could do was to try and fix the mistakes he had made. It’s all he could do really. Just as he was about to reach the doors, he heard a voice stop him in his tracks. “ Robert?” He turned to the voice just to be met with Ross coming out of one of the buildings attached to the station, staring at him from under the awning. Robert hesitated to come closer, feeling a wave of spite hit him. It’s not like he bothered to even check up on him, so why did he care now? He paused, before responding. “Hi.”  Ross looked stunned, but glad to see him–a small smile waving itself on his face. Just as he shut the door behind him, Robert noticed something glitter in the palm of his hand. He froze, realizing it was what he had been missing. “My ring.” He only managed to choke those two pathetic words out before Ross swished over to him, Roberts furrowed eyebrows loosening. “I held onto it for you.” Ross said with a soft smile, letting the rain pound on his head as if it were simply sprinkling. He realized how bright Ross seemed to be now compared to moments before.  Before Robert could say another word, Ross gently grabbed Rob's wrists and tucked the ring into his hands gently. Their scars rubbed against each other. Ross’s smile wavered. Before Ross could speak, Robert cut though.“Where have you been?” he mumbled, looking up. Ross grimaced. “Interrogated.” Robert paused, his eyes widening. “Seriously? For what?” Ross gave him an unreadable look. “A lot of things.” He said nervously. Robert eyed him down just slightly, narrowing his eyes. Ross averted his gaze.“Anyways, Why the hell are you out of the hospital?” The rain seemed to pound a bit harder on Robert's back. He felt pressured to give an answer, but only clenched his jaw in return. “..Rob.” Ross cupped his hands around Roberts, holding them close. Robert tugged on his bottom lip with his teeth.

He felt his once stressed heart waltz with itself, his mind unsure of what to do. He fumbled with his words a bit before finally coughing out an answer, Ross not breaking his tense mood throughout all of it–blissfully unaware of what he was inflicting on Robert. “It's a long story, I can’t explain it all now, but I promise I will later. All I'll say is that it’s intense.” Robert gave Ross a sheepish grin, Ross finally seeming to finally give up on pushing for more answers, the eyelids drooping down to its normal mono form. His hands slipped away from Roberts as he nodded. “Alright, I’m just glad you’re here now–at least half ok.” He cracked a bit of a smile, before letting Robert continue. “Now, do you know where Roxie is? Is she in the station?” “Oh, right–yeah–Roxie is in there, she might’ve fallen asleep on the chairs but she’s just fine.” Ross pointed with his thumb to the station right next to them–Robert eagerly peeking inside, seeing his little sister curled up on the two chairs with an old shock blanket wrapped around her shoulders. He knew John had done that–weirdly it was obvious to Robert. Robert did know John, pretty well actually. His visits had only stopped when the curse had started, Robert had only now realized that. He remembered when he brought JD, his daughter over with him. Always talking for hours with each family member, whether it be from the news to the way Radfords plants grew he always knew how to strike a conversation. It was–..bizarre to imagine him as one of these cursed people. He couldn’t imagine John as a monster, I mean sure he wasn’t perfect–he was snappy sometimes and slipped up on certain things but overall he was a noble person. All he could hope now was that he still was a little bit of his old self. Hopefully he was nice to Rox–if he recognized her at all. 

He heard the sound of jingling keys snap him out of his thoughts, realizing that Ross was trying to unlock the door. He kept turning it the wrong way and huffing with annoyance. Robert simply waved him away and did it for him, that excitement of seeing his sister again hitting him like a bullet, within a matter of seconds he rushed to her side. He put his hand on her cheek, wiping the damp tears off of them. God did he miss her. He began to gently try to wake her up, sliding his hand to her shoulder and gently shaking her. “Roxy…” he muttered. “Rox…Roxanne..” it took only a few more shakes for her to start to shift, slowly waking up with a scrunched up face like always. “Come on Rox, you can get up. I know you can.” She hesitated, her eyes opening up by just the slightest. Robert smiled softly. Her eyes slowly began to widen as she realized who he was. “Robby..?” She muttered, a shocked smile beginning to form on her face, her tooth gap showing brightly. Robert nodded, his soft smiling beginning to form into uncontrollable grinning. “ ROBBY–!!” She jolted up with excitement, within an instant hugging his shoulders as tight as she could, spinning him side to side. She giggled with delight, resting her head on his with relief as she did so. Robert wrapped his arms around his little sister's back, hugging her back with just about the same intensity, uncontrollably beaming with elation as he picked her up and twirled her in his arms, lifting her up into the air before bringing her back down into a hug, laughing with pure gratitude that she was alive and well. 

Ross watched from the side lines, softly smiling as he did so, enjoying the moment with them as long as he could. As he was picking up his cloak and items from the chair beside them though, in the corner of his eye he saw the cop car rolling up the street, four adults inside. One gargoyle, two griffins, and one thunderbird. Ross felt his heart drop the moment he saw the blonde griffins head turn exactly to him, seeing his eyes widen and him practically punching the gargoyles arm next to him to look. Instantaneously, Ross snatched Robert and Roxie just out of their reach and hid them back, covering their mouths to not scream. “I hate to break this touching moment–but he might have to run.” Roberts' eyes widened with quick spite as he shoved Ross off, placing Roxie back down again. “Ross, for Christ's sake– why in the hell do we have to run?” “Two cops, two others.” “So It would be best I–” “ Robert Windslor if we don’t take a head start now we might not see the light of the goddamn day ever again do you understand me?” Robert clenched his mouth shut. “Good. Now take this, and follow my lead.” Ross threw a dark green cloak at Robert, putting on his own before heading to the back door. Robert froze for a moment–realizing that Ross had made it for him. “You..You made this for me?” He muttered, feeling his eyes get all watery. Ross froze, turning back to him. “Well if we’re going to save this town together we might as well look badass, right?” Robert sniffled down tearing up of joy before nodding, swiftly draping the cloak across his shoulders and popping the hood over his head, swooping up Roxie in his arms before running off with Ross to the back door–kicking open the door and running outside into the forest, hearing the frustrated noises of the 4 men behind them. Robert felt honor and excitement coursed through him like lightning as he ran, the joy of the fact Ross had hand switched a cloak just for Robert thrilling him to no end. He finally felt like he was doing something–making a change, a part of the team. And that he was finally reaching the end of this long journey for peace. 

Chapter Text

Chapter 15: Cutting Edge 

November 15th, 12:19am (1:30am in the outside world) 

Robert finally felt his legs stop in line with Ross, he’d finally found a good place to stop. Robert finally caught his breath, placing Roxie down and sitting on a tree stump nearby. As he did so though, Ross began to grab something out of his pocket–Robert looked up. He felt his heart stop when he saw what it was. “I thought we were done with those Ross–” Robert choked out, “Didn’t we get the last one?” Ross nodded. “We did, but the thing is– those scrolls were made for us. This one isn’t.” Robert paused, getting up. Ross showed the map on the back of the scroll–..and then the front. Robert nearly choked on his own spit. “ Ross is that–” “It is.” What was on the front of the scroll was something Robert would only expect to see from a satanist, or someone from a batshit crazy cult–..it was instructions for how to summon a god. And not just any god, the god of sunlight. The one that cult had been worshiping and praising for centuries. He felt a lump in his throat as he looked up at Ross, his face dead serious. “Do you seriously think this is going to work?” “The cult came from this god Rob, they summoned them to start the cult. So how about we summon them to end it?” A chaotic glint in Ross’s eye sent Roberts' nerves up the roof–he didn’t expect the end of this curse to be easy but–To summon a literal god? That's something beyond just some little town. Robert felt fear and doubt swirl in his mind, his eyebrows furrowing. “I mean–we said we were going to end this curse–..right Robs?” Robert dug his nails into his forearm. “..Right. But–What about Roxie? We can’t just leave her here– I don’t want to leave her again Ross.” Ross pondered for a moment, crossing his arms before wincing slightly. “We don’t really have any other choice though..” He muttered, Robert glaring at him. “The moment I reconnect I get separated..” “Robert, you'll see her again, she'll be safe in the station–” “All alone? In the dark? By herself?” Robert was getting snappy quickly, Roxie hiding behind his leg as Ross huffed with defeat. 

“We can’t bring some little kid to a temple to summon a god–” “But where else can we leave her then?” Ross paused for a moment, then glanced up. He carefully went past Robert and peaked through the tree’s. Then he turned to Robert. “People are there.” “Yes, because monsters are such an excellent choice.” Ross glared. “I mean people you know smartass, one of them I know myself.” Ross gestured up. Robert reluctantly walked up to where Ross was, Roxie in tow. Robert tensed, clenching his jaw. He saw both Radford and John up in the parking lot, in a heated argument. “..Those two? The ones about to claw their faces off?” Ross shook his head and veered Roberts head towards the two others with his hand. “The two black haired guys?” “They’re  both calm for the most part and are good with kids.” Robert pursed his lips, hearing Roxie chime up. “Rad! Rad’s up there, Rad!” She pointed up at him, Robert hunching slightly in distaste. “Wait– Radford?” Roxie nodded vigorously. Ross turned to Robert, who didn’t reply. “As in your brother?” “Look Ross I just–..I don’t trust him. I still don’t I mean–I think he’s supposed to be better now but..” Robert only fumbled in an explanation, eventually just shutting up. Ross slowly nodded. “I understand–but, how’s Roxie gonna sneak by him?” Robert went silent. “..Maybe we should take a chance.” “Are you sure? What if he snaps again?” “I think he’ll forget all about his argument right now when he sees Roxie, Rob.” 

Robert paused for a moment, before crouching down to Roxies eye level. “Ok Rox, I’m gonna need you to be a big girl for me, ok?” Roxie tensed. “Are you going away again?” Her eyes looked glossy with worry, guilt stung at Robert's heart. “I’m not leaving you Rox, you’re just gonna be with Rad for a little bit, ok?” Roxie stomped her foot. “But what about you-!? Robby, I don't want you to go!” She began to sniffle, wiping her eyes. “Why do you keep leaving me..” Robert's grip loosened, his lips tightened until he pulled Roxie into a tight hug. She cried in his arms, lowering her head into his shoulder. “I promise you I'll be back, Rox. In the blink of an eye! This time you won’t be alone, you’ll have your big brother Rad with you!” Roxie sniffled and hiccuped, only letting go when Robert slipped his way out of it. “Now, I need you to go up there like the brave girl you are and tell Radford that you lost your way to the station, ok?” “But..*sniffle* What about you?” “If he asks about me, just tell him I’m ok. Tell him I'll be back soon.” Roxie slowly nodded, Robert dried her eyes with his cloak before letting her run off to the surface, watching her go up and the shock in Radfords eyes. Ross put his hand on Robert's shoulder as they watched Roxie slowly get pulled into a sad, sniffly hug from Radford, hearing the faint sounds of John talking to Roxie as well. “Just like your brother, all emotional.” Ross joked, Robert nudging him in the arm with a soft smile before slowly going somber again. “Trust me Robs, this was for the best. This will all work out just fine, I promise.” Robert slowly nodded, and the two began to make their way to the temple, the once pounding rain now at a normal pace. Robert hoped that was a good sign.

Radford grit his teeth, glaring at John as he spoke. “I’d locked the doors and everything– there was no way she could’ve gotten out on her own!” “Well it was YOUR job to protect her! You should’ve locked the windows too!” “Those windows can’t even lock Radford, that's just absurd.” Radford nearly snapped at John, his teeth baring to yell  before getting a sharp tug on the shoulders by Kevin. As a small warning to calm down. With a few huffs he managed to compose himself, John glaring back in the process. “We tried our best in the moment, we had multiple kids on our hands and one dying in the car.” Radford paused, his burning glare simmering slightly. Robert was dying? And he didn’t know? His nails dug into his forearms, scratching them deeply. “And yet, how well did that go?” Kevin snapped, seeming just as sick of this as Radford was. John shot him a look. “We didn’t even know what hospital he was in.” “Exactly.” Jack took a few steps closer to Kevin from behind, Kevin backing down seeing his shadow flare in front. Radford tried to calm himself down, lowering his wings–but just as he was about to speak– “RAD!!” His head snapped towards the noise. Right at the edge of the forest came running Roxie, damp tears staining her cheeks but a bright smile gracing her features. “Is that your sister?” Kevin muttered, squinting as he looked. Radford only nodded eagerly, trying his best not to tackle his fragile sister into a tight hug, instead only crouching down onto one knee to let her come at her own pace. He’d seen how Robert had reacted–And just..didn’t want to scare her too. She began to slow down, a wave of realization of what he had become washing over her face. She stood in front of him, holding her hands to her chest–clawing at her shirt. “Hi, Rox.” Radfords voice wavered with eagerness–but he tried to remain calm. Roxie paused for a moment, staring him directly in the eyes, clearly seeing if he was still Radford or not. A slow smile washed over her face again. She ran right into him and hugged him tight, not exchanging any words but a few content giggles.  

John looked baffled, Kevin with a soft smile. “That was..unexpected.” John said slowly. “It’s called luck.” Kevin scoffed smugly. He could feel both of the cops eyes burning in the back of his head, but he had long lost the urge to care anymore. It’s not like there was too much law here anymore anyways. He only cared about the thrilled look on Radfords face at the moment, his eyes softening as he watched Roxie get hugged tightly. He was still a little disoriented with the fact she was human, but thought it was a good thing. Oddly though, he felt a sense of dread at the lack of the other sibling being there. He had a feeling something bad was about to happen, but not sure of what. He just hoped his intuition was wrong, and that they’d find him soon enough. 

The moment the two entered the temple Robert felt an uneasy feeling sink in his stomach. “So this cult had multiple temples?” He wondered aloud. Ross nodded, “These guys have been around for god knows how long, long before Mr. Mapquest was around I can assure you.” Robert couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. Ross had been trying to soothe both of their absolutely fried nerves with jokes and stories along the way, more like his old sarcastic self than the brooding vigilante he was now. It helped ease Robert just a little bit. “You never know, maybe some streets are carved into the walls or something.” Robert joked, Ross snicker bouncing back at him from the walls. “So how are we going to do this exactly?” Ross pulled out the scroll. “Well–from what I can tell from this is that, we go forward.” He pointed to the tunnel in front of them, its shadows bleeding out onto the walls around them. Robert felt a lump form in this throat, he hadn’t realized how much bigger this temple was unlike the last. He wondered if the cult had met here in the past. Ross grabbed a lighter from one of the pockets on his cloak, flicking it a few times until a spark lit their way. As they walked and Ross rambled on about its past, Robert swore he saw some of the shadows move. Maybe it was the trick of his eye or the bad lighting, but it messed with his head. Roberts' mood started to plummet back into its uneasiness, beads of sweat enveloping his forehead–stinging his scar just lightly. 

Then he felt something tug at his ankle. 

“You know how the sand is so red? Well, I wondered that too unti–.. Wait. Robert?” Ross turned around. He was met with the abyss of darkness from behind. His heart sank. “Robert?” he called out again. 

His lighter blew out. 

Ross began to panic, desperately trying to flick the lighter back on to no avail, hearing its sparks echo lifelessly into the air. Just as he was about to reach for the matches he felt something yank the back of his hood tightly, to the point where it hurt. With a quick violent bash he felt his head get slammed into the wall, and then pulled back again. He saw two glowing amber eyes stare right back at him. It was him. The cult leader. Ross clenched his jaw, trying to squirm free to no luck–the leader grabbing one of Ross’s matches and flicking them back to life. “I told you what would happen if you rejected the deal, Ross.” Ross froze. “How did you find me again?” He snapped, the leader smiled. “It was easy, just follow the amputee and it always leads right back to you.” Ross narrowed his eyes. “An amputee who kicked your ass.” The leader wrapped his hand around Ross’s forehead and slammed the back of his head into the wall again. “Enough with this nonsense!” He hissed, turning the blade to Ross’s side. “You knew this would happen eventually, it was inevitable.” Ross pressed his lips together, feeling the blade beginning to cut the skin. “Karma will strike back.” Ross said shakily. “Not if I kill it now.” The leader grinned. Before Ross could reply, before any breathes could be taken, or any tears shed–

The blade went through his side. 

And Ross slunk to the floor. Losing his breath. 

His eyes began to flutter, his body recoiling in pain desperately trying to fight back, but never getting to do so. His eyes shut, and his jaw went slack. His head slumped down, and blood traced his lips. His chest fell–..his breathing stopped. He was dead. 

A muffled scream of agony screeched from Robert's weary lungs as he banged his hands against the man holding him back, the man wincing a solid amount at Robert's sheer force. Robert sunk the sharpest edges of his teeth into the man's hand, letting his mouth free. “ YOU FUCKING BASTARD–!” He bellowed, his eyes wide and wild with pure wrath as he clawed at the body behind him. His waist launched forward as his legs kicked manically, his fury uncontrollable and released–he wanted to kill that man. To have his head ripped out into his hands, to feel his blood drenched on his clothes, to hear the sounds of his heart being ripped apart. He wanted revenge. And he wanted it now. As the man turned to him, pulling the blade out of the lifeless body below him–the man behind him managed to get control of Robert's flailing limbs and held him back completely, only his head and waist writhing frantically as he screamed cruel words that went in one ear and out the other. He felt a rage that had never been so strong before, a rage so out of character and horrific–one that could only be conjured up by something like this. The man raised his blade up to Robert's throat, to which Robert only froze–his eyes seething with a burning flame. “Such a shame, he would’ve been a great member if only he came back. Shame that someone stopped him from doing that. Don’t you think, Robert?” Robert's heavy breathing began to slow, the conniving words of the leader beginning to sink in as he spoke. He slowly began to realize that this was his fault. The man smiled, “Such a shame that a good fighter would be gone to the wind as well..wasting it all just to save his precious family.. What a heroic death.” “You’re a monster.” Robert only managed to choke out, tears stinging the corners of his eyes. The leader only scoffed, “Pot calls kettle black, like always.” Robert began to feel the cold edge of the blade sink into his throat, blood beginning to surface. 

Right as the stab began to burn–

“THWACK–!” 

..The leader's head fell to the ground. Black blood sprayed the air and Roberts face, the body falling back onto the sand below, the blood splattering and sinking into the sand before eventually simmering down. The man behind Robert screeched, dropping him and forming into a tall ink like monster like the one Robert had battled before, before promptly turning to glopy ash and subsiding to the body next to it. Robert stumbled back, letting out a startled gasp–before realizing he had bumped into someone. He snapped his head to realize–..it was Ross. Roberts' lip quivered as he stared in shock. “But–But you were dead– You’re dead. I saw you die.” Ross showed the wound, revealing that the cult leader had only stabbed through blood soaked cloth. “I’ve faked my death before, Remember?”  Robert stood, shaking for a moment before the stinging feeling of tears trailing down his cheeks hit him. He clenched his jaw, before tackling Ross into the tightest hug of his life. “ I THOUGHT I LOST YOU-!”  he yelled, hugging him close, Ross only laughing in a somber tone. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But you have to admit I did a good job.” Robert pulled away, putting his hand on Ross’s cheek. Ross smiled, leaning into his hand with a tired sigh. The two shared a moment of silent exhaustion, trying to process the most stressful 13 minutes of their entire lives before slowly letting go. Ross flicked his hood back on, tearing off another piece of his cloak and using it as makeshift bandage for now, before tip-toeing over the body. Robert held his breath, doing the same. The two stuck close together, not exchanging a single word after that, only glancing at the map and each other every once in a while. Finally–they saw the horizon of the end. “Is this it?” Robert slowly said, glancing down at the map. “Looks like it–big ominous door? Yup that's one for ya’.” Robert slowly traced his palm against the dry bricks of it, feeling a button curved on the inside. Absent-mindedly, he pressed it–the door began to shake. Ross quickly swooped Robert by his waist towards him, before the door fell in front of them both. The two exchanged a quick flustered look before letting go of each other, instead focusing their attention onto the room inside. It was absolutely huge, the ceiling seemingly stretching up all the way to the sky, and the floor seeming deep below. The two helped each other get down to the floor, eyeing the cryptic carvings of a looming sun above the town before looking up at the large window in front of them. Ross turned the scroll over, and placed it down on the floor. He dabbed his wound with his finger wincing slightly, using his own blood to trace the symbols onto the floor. Robert watched in both horror and fascination as he grabbed the sand and traced over the symbols with it–spreading it like glitter the best he could. Eventually the two were left with a large blood triangle with sand over it and blood symbols inside–the two backed away, and grabbed each other's hands. They both exchanged a look, before pressing their feet into the symbol, muttering god knows what from the scroll below. The triangle began to glow, and the window began to brighten. The ritual had worked.  

Chapter Text

Chapter 16: Final Deal

Time is screwed up. All you need to know is that it freezes and then fast forwards. 

Sunlight flooded the room, as if in an unruly way–both of their postures straightened. The whole room felt endless, the floor felt as if it had no bottom, and the ceiling no top. Their bodies felt weightless, and so did everything else around them. The triangle of blood began to float in the air, as the whole wall in front of them turned to pure light. Shadows began to grow darker as the light grew brighter and brighter, until they were as dark as they could be. Robert felt his hair begin to float up in the air, just slightly–But oddly enough Ross got none of this effect at all. Robert felt a push shove him forward, and yet Ross was stationary, staring in disbelief. He figured the god had done it. Robert clenched his teeth, his eyes wide and dreadful, everything he’s ever done leading up to this very moment–every scroll, every path, every word said, building this moment up like a bridge. A bridge to summoning a god. He hadn’t gotten enough time to grasp this at all. But it didn’t seem to matter anymore, it happened. It was the past. He was here, right now. In front of the presence of a god. And there was nothing he could do about it. Everything was on the line now, hell– the whole world could be on the line. And he felt it all crashing down onto him like a sinking ship. As they both stared, the light of the wall began to form into something–right in front of Robert. It was a body. A human one. It was no taller than Robert, and stood inhumanely straight, with loose cloth draping it lazily–only a small triangle pendant holding it all up. Every part of it was bright but the clothing on it, the clothing being made from Ross’s blood. It clearly savored every drop. And yet it had no head. Only light. 

“Hello.” 

Robert blinked. Ross only stared. Hello. That's what a god would say. Hello.

“You two summoned me for a reason, yes?” 

Robert only blankly nodded, his jaw slack in awe. Ross was frozen. 

“Explain.”

Robert drew a tense, and stunned breath.  

“We summoned you here to make a deal.” 

His words were tense, but firm. If this god was going to treat this so nonchalantly, then he would give the same respect. His eyes narrowed.

“Hm.” 

The god crossed their arms, tapping their fingers impatiently.

“Go on.” 

“You know your surroundings, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Then you know about the curse, the curse that you made.” 

“Correct. So, what's your point?” 

Robert furrowed his eyebrows, speaking with gritted teeth.

“My point is that, I’d like to end it.” 

They seemed amused.

“What’s your offer?”

Robert paused for a moment, feeling all of his insides shake. All he had was his body– his soul. His body was his house that he saw life through, it made up his life. Without it he’d be..  Robert didn’t want to think of that part. But he knew that was what the god wanted. So be it. 

Robert offered his hand.

“My soul.” 

The god walked forward. They offered their hand.

“I’ll take it.” 

Before their bodies could touch, Ross yelled out in vain.

“ STOP–!” 

Robert turned his head. 

Ross reached his hand out desperately. 

“Please. Your life isn’t worth this Rob, not at all.” 

Robert's hand began to lower. He quickly turned his head towards the god.

The god made a disgruntled noise, before snapping their fingers.

Ross yelped. 

To Robert's utter horror– he saw Ross’s legs begin to freeze, and turn to stone. 

“I don’t have all day for this, kid. He’s your timer.” 

Robert felt his heart speed up, everything felt like it was going in fast forward–a surge of adrenaline shot through his whole body. He snapped his head towards the god, his eyes wide with horror. 

The god simply offered their hand again robotically.

Robert stared, this was it. His heroic death. The real one. The end. 

He took a deep breath, embracing the air with open arms one last time. Before clasping his hands against the gods. 

“Deal.”

He turned to Ross, one last time–taking in all of his wonderful features in his head as he smiled at him, with all his teeth.

“See you on the other side, crook.” 

Ross let out a shaky scoff in disbelief, his eyes glossy and broken,until he managed to crack a desperate smile at Robert. He raised his arm to his head, and pointed his fingers to his forehead in a salute. 

“So long, Robert.” 

And with that, everything went blank. 

He heard the sounds of noises building up, talking was it? No, singing. Terrible singing. Suddenly, with a forced blink–..he was back in Radfords car again. Radfords shrill singing rang out in the car like the shriek of a banshee, as Roxies soft giggles waved their way underneath. Robert took a breath. He was breathing. His eyes snapped to the moving barbies on Roxies lap. He looked out the window, seeing the Arizona desert greet him. He looked back inside again, seeing Radfords hands moving around in the air to the beat.  What was going on? Before he could remember what memory he was in–he blinked. And he was gone. Instead he heard the clatters of glass hitting each other. He looked up, he saw Roxie playing with dolls..What were their names again? He looked around, seeing uncle John laughing with his dad, his mom dancing with JD behind them to some old jazz record of hers. He looked down at his hands, they were scarless. He felt himself forgetting things. He couldn’t remember the name of Roxies dolls, or what she wore–..or her style of hair. Didn’t she have a tooth gap? He felt his heart sink. He realized something awful.  His memories were being washed out. His soul was being stripped of all identification. He realized that this was death. The real thing. You die, your memories go with it. He hated that. Why couldn’t he just be a ghost? Or be in someone else's body? Reincarnated maybe? But, no. This was what giving up his soul was. Giving up everything he had.  He hoped the people he loved would remember him the best they could, he knew memories faded–it happened with his parents, and he knew it would happen to him too. Maybe Ross would remember his dumb stories and tell them to his family one day. Maybe his kids–..with a wife. He blinked away watery eyes, and found himself peeking out his old bedroom door. He realized what memory he was in, and hated it. He heard his mom sob into his dads shoulder as he held the house phone up to his ear with a shaky hand, muttering back answers to the police on the other end. It was when his Aunt had died. He didn’t even want to think about how she died. 

He quickly blinked away that memory, and finally found himself sitting on his old fluffy staircase, with Radford tying his shoes with a crouched knee. He knew this memory the best of all, fencing practice. He had fallen down the stairs for the first time in this one. He found himself looking up at Radford, who was smiling down at him. “Remember, two bunny ears and a loop, ok?” He paused for a moment. He registered Radfords face. And then he realized something was wrong. He had this memory to a tee for years, and remembered everything about it. And still did, even now. (It was that humiliating.) And he knew 19 year old Radfords face in this more than anything. Specifically, his tacky glasses. For something Robert knew he was forgetting Radford had to get them replaced with these girly pairs of bright pink, flower glasses. But he realized that right now, what he was seeing on Radfords face– was not those glasses. Instead, dark red ones. This wasn’t right– no. Then Robert realized. This was a loophole. The god was only recreating these memorizes for ones so deeply ingrained in Roberts head that they themself clearly being weak– couldn’t get. So instead, faked it. Just to get by. Oh what a mistake that was. Robert felt a surge of determination course through his veins in a quick pump of realization, and clenched his fist. This was like a lucid dream! If he was aware of it, he could take control! He saw Radfords face freeze, and contort into horror. Before he could do anything about seeing Robert take control, Robert launched his arm to Radfords face and grabbed his glasses, and crushed them in his hand. They fell onto the floor without noise. Radford screeched, an inhumane one. Memories began to flood back into Robert as he saw the fake world around him collapse and turn to white void, the fake Radford struggled to stand. 

“YOU FIEND!” 

he screeched, clutching his eyes. His voice was backed with the one of the god. Robert stumbled back, running up the stairs–until he felt a burning hand snatch his. He turned around, and screamed. Radfords eyes clearly had not been developed as well because–..he had none. Instead, black holes taking their place. 

“YOU PESTERING RAT–DON’T THINK YOU’RE GOING TO GET AWAY WITH THIS–!”

The god pulled his arm, trying to drag him down with them. Robert squirmed, desperately trying to get out of their grasp to no avail–slowly being hovered over the white void beneath him. Until he got an idea. Within seconds he kicked the gods face, and then grabbed both of their arms. They looked stunned. Robert smirked, tightening his nails into their burning skin.

“Say Hi to the cult leader for me, will ya’?” 

Before they could say any last words,

Robert let go of their arms. 

And with a blood curdling screech, 

They were gone. 

Everything around Robert crumbled, and right as the final tile of the floor turned to void, he was back in the temple. He felt himself get quickly launched by a huge burst of light, the screech echoing in the temple so loudly that he felt his ears genuinely bleed out in spats–loud ringing following with. He felt the pain of his head hitting the floor all over again, but this time the cloak softened the blow just slightly. It took him a moment to realize that he was alive. He shakily put his hand to his chest as he felt his heart race and his chest rise and fall with every breath he took that graced his lungs, he began to laugh hysterically in utter disbelief. This was real! THIS WAS REAL! ALL OF IT WAS REAL! 

He sprung forward from his landing, seeing the wall of light gone and revealing the real outside of the temple. And then he realized that the temple had moved up. He ran forward, quickly leaning over the railing and staring down at the town below. With the sheer force of the gods death, they had managed to somehow launch forward and up in the forest–and now were on top of stone trees. Wait– stone? He looked down more to realize that–... everyone had been turned to stone. He felt the smile wipe clean off of his face. He looked up at the sunrise, and saw it frozen in place. He turned to his left and saw the scroll thrown wildly aside and scrambled to it, desperately seeking help. He saw it had changed–entirely. Instead it was now a book. He flipped through the pages and realized– all of their scrolls had combined. Every scroll Ross had ever gotten was in this book, and new pages were as well. Ones explaining the truth. From the real sun god. 

“ To the mortal reading this, you have been tricked by a false god. But now have killed them, I applaud you greatly. That “God of Sunlight '' does not exist at all–there is only a Sun god and nothing else to it. That god you encountered was one of lies, literally speaking. They were the god of all lies, but due to time passing and the fact that mortals could lie on their own now, they were deemed useless. So, in response–they posed as my child, and tricked your people for centuries that they were just that. And I apologize for leading you and your partner down that path of finding them, but for good reason. All of these scrolls were in fact led by me, to steer your partner in the right direction of finding you, and in turn finding them, to end this all correctly. I knew you’d survive, don’t think I was planning your demise. I’d seen this happen by an oracle, a mortal one who knew the truth–but could not speak it. That oracle being your partner's mother. She knew all of this was happening and was the first target, so found me and informed me of its happening so I could stop it as soon as I could. I know to you mortals 2 years is a long time, but to us gods–it's as if a blink of an eye. But I still apologize for my deemed slowness. I trust that this will all go smoothly–But in the short run, this is a message to tell you that you’ve succeeded. 

Apologizes for the hell, and congratulations on reaching the end.

From, 𓋴𓅱𓇋𓃭𓅂𓉔. “ 

Robert just–..stared. Dumbfounded. He’d never guess the gods were so straightforward–..or that they were real. Guess he was a polytheist now. He slowly shut the book and put it under his arm and quickly heard the wave of noise come from below. He’d guessed 𓋴𓅱𓇋𓃭𓅂𓉔 had frozen time until he read the note. He glanced down and saw all the statues slowly cracking, seeing some wings fall off and tails too, all cut off by stone and now human. Most had turned back–some didn’t, due to them being slower but it still made him feel like a hero. He’d done it. He’d saved the town. He felt his cloak flutter in the wind–..and then quickly realized. Ross.

  He swiftly turned around, ..to see Ross fully turned to stone. Due to the huge impact of the death of the god–his stone had cracked, and his heart..his heart had broken in. A hollow hole only left inside. Robert felt his own heart shatter, quickly rushing to Ross’s side. He quickly put his hand to Ross’s face, his movements frantic and shaky. No, no. This couldn’t end like this–He couldn’t end with everyone being free but Ross. The one person who had started this all, the real hero. He couldn’t just take all the credit– he couldn’t walk out there without someone by his side. No no no. Ross couldn’t be gone– shouldn’t! Robert traced Ross’s face in his hands, feeling every nook and cranny embedded in his face–feeling his smile, his tears. Robert felt himself shed tears of his own. He was really gone. For good. His quiet tears began to devolve to shattered, sporadic sobs, his hand weakly slumping down right to where Ross’s heart was broken in. Then he heard something shatter. He glanced down at his hand–seeing the gem on the ring shatter..but a glowing green liquid traced down the cracked edges. His eyes widened as he stumbled back, feeling the statue begin to form rock over the heart. 

It had healed the broken in hole. Then the cracks began to grow bigger and bigger, until–..The statue cracked open. Robert shut his eyes when the dust reached his throat and eyes, coughing and stumbling back until he felt someone crash into him in a tight hug. He practically ragdolled into Ross’s desperate arms, Ross laughing frantically as he cried out, “ YOU’RE ALIVE–! WE’RE BOTH ALIVE-!” he shook Robert in his grasp, Robert beginning to laugh too. “IS IT OVER?” Ross yelled out frantically, to Robert only nodding excessively. He grabbed Roberts arm and drug him towards the window, his demeanor capturing the pure joy of a child. He grinned brighter than Robert had ever seen him at the window, nearly crying of joy seeing his parents in the crowd. “We need to go down!” He said frantically–Robert quickly swooped up the book before holding him back. “Before we do though, I want you to see this.” He pressed the book into Ross’s chest. He slowly began to flip through the pages, his eyes getting wider and wider until he reached 𓋴𓅱𓇋𓃭𓅂𓉔 ‘s note. 

His eyes were practically saucers by the end of it, looking up at Robert in shock. “You..They..” He was at a loss of words. “..You killed a god?” Robert could only nod dumbfoundedly. “It’s hard to explain–But with that explanation of the hospital..will come that one too.” He laughed sheepishly. Ross only scoffed, smiling and taking Roberts hand and leading them down to the crowd, the two hearing Ross’s name be called out. 

“ ROSS–? ROSS SANTIGO–?”

Ross looked in the crowd to see shockingly enough–the restaurant owner looking for him. The guy that owned that abandoned diner outside of the barrier. Weirdly enough, he lived right inside of the border but had found a loophole inside of it to the diner–but was still cursed. He was the one that took care of Ross for a little bit–making sure he didn’t starve n stuff. 

He was in the crossfire of de-transforming at the moment, and looked a bit scruffy. “God–There you are!” he said, relieved. Robert gave him a funny look as he hugged Ross tightly–Ross only gesturing that he was ok to Robert. “Are you alright?” “Dwindling on that.” Ross joked. The man only gave him a defeated look. “Well I just wanted to say that your parents are back there–they wanted me to help find you on their behalf.” The man pointed with his thumb to the back of the crowd. “Do you want me to get them here or..” “I’ll be fine going at my own pace, thanks dude.” The man only nodded, looking exhausted and disappeared into the crowd. Ross looked back at Robert. “Do you mind?” “Not at all.” Robert smiled. “I’m happy you finally got your happy-ish ending, Ross.” Robert said, hugging his shoulders. Ross smiled, his eyes fogging up. “Yeah. I couldn’t have done it without you, dumbass.” He snickered, knocking his elbow in between Robert's ribs before scurrying off, waving to Robert for good luck before getting swooped into the tightest hug of his life by his dad. 

Robert smiled somberly, his eyes softening as he saw his mom bombard him with kisses and sobs. Robert realized that beyond their attack–..that they were clueless. God, they had no idea what he had been through. But at least they were finally together now. As Robert watched, he began to wander in the crowd–watching family and friends begin to reunite as well. Ross had told him about how many teens had escaped the night of the curse–but he had realized how many until now. He saw his cousin reunite with his best friend that he hadn’t seen in 2 years, off in the crowd. God, he wouldn’t be able to be without Ross for a week–nonetheless 2 years. He felt a feeling of relief and excitement wash over him as he watched everyone connect and form back into humans, he still couldn’t believe he had done that. Him! The scrawny 14 year old that just moved in saved an entire town from a years long curse. Wow. 

As he watched, he heard the sounds of “excuse me’s” and “pardon” start to flow over the sound of joyful reunions, until he couldn’t help but turn around and–

“ROBERT–!” 

Radford crashed into him, grasping him into a hug that knocked the air out of his lungs. He felt himself get hugged into the air and dropped down again, he stumbled back from the whiplash. “God I’m so sorry I just–..Couldn’t help it.” Radford laughed in a sad tone. Robert finally looked up, seeing his brother standing there. Finally.  Though he had a few monstrous traits still stuck on him– he was finally himself again.  And Robert couldn’t help but smile uncontrollably at that. He realized that Roxie was also clung to his leg in a hug–he tried to hop over to Radford, but eventually just got helped up by him instead. Robert ended up hugging him again, this time at his own pace. “I’m glad you’re back, Rad.” He said, his tone full of relief. He heard a few sniffles come from Radford. “..And I’m sorry for lying to you so much.” He said with a sigh, both of them had already silently known about what had happened–at least just a little bit, and Robert had lied–a lot. “I forgive you, more than 100 times over. If all of that was for this? Then i’d honestly encourage it– but don’t ever fuckin do it again nearly gave me a heart attack.” Robert had to laugh, hugging him tighter before letting go. Radfords face fell when he realized how beat up Robert looked. “..Oh my god.” He muttered, taking off his hood. Robert only could give an exhausted expression in return. 

“Dying twice isn’t a forgiving thing to your looks I guess.” Robert teased–Radfords eyes widened. “ TWICE?” “... Ohhh godd..” He laughed nervously, Radford quickly grabbing his shoulders and shaking his head as they headed to the direction of home. “What are we going to do with you, Robs?” Radford joked, Robert only shrugging in return. The three began to talk as Robert scooped Roxie into his arms, dumping all of the life changing stuff that had happened to them now that they were finally together again. For good this time. As they walked, Robert couldn’t help but gaze at the sunrise. Weirdly enough, he felt a weight lifted off of his shoulders as he looked at it. The burden of lies was gone now, the control and the cult–all of it, gone. Robert felt his hopes finally be quelled. He did it.  He ended the curse.

Maybe this move wasn’t so bad after all. 

Chapter Text

Epilogue

  September 20th, 2024, One year, and 10 months since Mr. and Mrs. Windslors death. 

It had been almost a year since that day, you know the one. The one where they’d saved everyone, broken the years long cult and most importantly, The Curse. The break of the curse had caused a wave of reformation to wash over the town immediately, specifically, by the government. Robert had noticed it immediately, he wondered if they were keeping tabs on what had happened–hell, maybe the cops were the ones doing it, who knows, but they began to sneak into town–observing. They didn’t do all that great of a job hiding themselves in a fairly small town, and the word spread of them possibly being FBI agents or detectives waved around like wildfire. (Radford was thrilled by the FBI notion, forever an X Files nerd.)  

But even so, the flood of hidden officials still continued–and they began to question people. At first it started casually, with them pointing out features like feathers on their arms or sharp teeth and asking if it was a leftover costume, or why the weather was so hot as of late–but didn’t get too many answers, instead small town bitterness in return. Weirdly he felt kind of offended like the rest of them, in that small town conjoined way. With every citizen's conjoined effort they managed to pressure the hidden spies to show themselves, to which they gave in. For the first time in his entire stay, he actually felt a part of the community. And it felt…nice. When he and Ross had saved the town, he felt welcomed in with open arms–I mean, he should’ve been, he saved the whole town for Christ's sake, but still he didn’t expect it. He realized he had honestly been worrying over nothing when he started to branch out in meeting other people, slowly but surely he had managed to make a social standing for himself. Most of these conversations started out with someone recognizing him as “The Kid Who Killed a God” –Which was nice and all, but he didn’t really want to be constantly reminded of his near death experience everywhere he went. For a few months, that's really how it went–he was the kid that saved the town and killed a god, whoopie. 

Until one day, he got recognized for something else. He remembered being at the grocery store alone, for the first time in a while and picking out some green apples for Roxie, shoving them in his bag before feeling a pair of eyes staring at him. He glanced, seeing a smudge of purple in the corner of his eye before they adjusted. Staring at him to his right was a woman with long purple hair and a basket in her arms. She had glasses edging the bridge of her nose, her dark eyes peering through them as she gazed. Before Robert could muster the courage to speak, she did the talking for him. “You’re a Lunarven Uni student?” She asked, cocking her head to the side slightly, pointing down to his sweater. “A wh–Oh. No, no, no. This is my dads old sweater.” He laughed lightly, did he really look that old now? He’d only just turned 15. Maybe he looked otherwise. Yet the woman smiled graciously. “I see, what course did he take?” “Architecture, I think.” The woman perked up. “Really? I did too! Wonder if I ever saw him–What’s his name?” Robert paused for a moment, letting himself smile before saying “Roger, Roger Windslor. Or Roger David back then–when he wasn’t married.” She seemed to recognize the name, grinning. “ I knew you looked familiar! You look just like your father, I was an old friend of his back in college! My name is Lila Huesos, it's a pleasure to finally meet you!” She offered her mittened hand, to which Robert took it with a smile. “Robert Windslor, it's nice to meet you as well Ms. Huesos.” He felt a rush of relief hit him, finally–just a normal conversation about normal things. It was weird how much he missed little, average things like this. The two began to talk about his mother and father, Ms. Huesos gently consoling him on hearing the news of his passing–seeming fairly upset herself hearing it. But Robert could never forget the gentle words she said to him, they still meant a lot to him to this day. He’d remembered mentioning how he felt that he was starting to forget his parents, feeling as though he’d never regain those memories. 

Then she spoke softly, “I know that feeling all too well. Not long ago,” She spoke with a shaky breath.” I lost my own mother, and I felt the exact same way. I felt like I'd lost those memories for good, and would never see them again. My son had the same experience as well, but I’d like to think of it the same way he does. I remember him coming up and sitting on my lap one morning, wiping away my tears and saying with a smile, ‘Don’t be sad! Just because you can’t find those things now, doesn't mean they're gone forever! They go where the lost things go, right mom? They’re still out there. They’re just hiding. But they’re still watching–and I know they still love us!’  ..I still think about that. And he might be just a little kid–..But I think a bit of everyone we love still lives within us, right?” 

She’d smiled at Robert, her tone tender and sweet. Robert shed a few quiet tears and nodded–trying not to make too much noise, the woman giving him a gentle squeeze on the shoulder, as if a sign to stay strong. It was honestly the most someone had ever done to comfort him about the death of his parents. Death scares people, and people either acknowledge or ignore it. Many chose to ignore it, tell him to move on with his life–that it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Only because they were afraid to acknowledge that it was real. And for a while, he tried. He tried and tried. But couldn’t end up doing it. Without grief, without sorrow, without acknowledgement, how could you move on? It made him realize a lot. It made him realize the whole reason why he was here. To move on. Radford was desperately trying to escape his grief–under the intense pressure of being a young adult and his weighing sorrow made him crack, and try to run away from his problems–..like everyone had told him to do. “Just move on.”   He had a lot more appreciation for what he did now that he started to think about it. 

That moment had helped Robert grow and change. A lot. It helped start the domino effect of people slowly forgetting about it all and just treating him like a real person, it helped him learn to appreciate the people around him more–it helped him start to actually get his life back together. 

And he was forever grateful to Ms. Huesos for that. 

Months passed by, time dancing in a waltz of flow before finally bowing to the spot he was in now. And for once he felt like he was dancing with it. It was now September, nearing the edge of October in its wake– the crisp smell of autumn crackled through the air under the cracked open window of Robert's room, rushing in as he scribbled away in his notebook. He had been preparing for his upcoming science project at his new highschool, West Dock Wilson. Clearly, not Maple Hill. But it still was pretty alright, not perfect but good enough, at least he, Ross and Roy were in it together. Right–Roy. Not too long after the whole fesco had happened Ross had properly made the two reunite–at first, both being hesitant. But slowly but surely they began to bond on their own, before finally forming into a trio. They have been inseparable since. Robert felt his phone buzz next to him, picking up his frog sticker littered case and lazily flipping it onto his notebook–taping it to life. He saw a message from Ross. 

Ghoulish_ Amphibian: Yo Robs, you coming with us 2 the hangout or not? :) 

Robert stuck the pencil in his mouth, typing back.

1#Starsfan: I’m coming, I’m coming. Be patient! 

Ross only added a heart to that message for he stopped typing. Robert let out a huff and decided to actually be on his way before Ross had another awkward conversation with Rad. He nearly bumped into the stand with his cloak hung up on it before stumbling into his drawer, pulling out a last minute hoodie and grabbing his bag–slumping it on his shoulder, shoving his phone in his oversized pocket. He overheard the echoing, grainy sounds of the tv from the living room chime out in the hall. 

“But, my sister Scully–! ”

“Who’s more important, your sister? Or the fate of the entire world on our hands?” 

“Ditto, Moulder.” Robert mumbled, before heading for the door–Just as he did though. “Holdd itttt, mister.” Radford drew out his words, turning to him from the couch, Kevin turning with him, glancing over his arm around his shoulders. “And where do you think you’re going?” He questioned with a smug grin, his sharp teeth poking out from under his lips. Dammit. “Uh. Out.” He said stiffly. Radford raised an eyebrow. “With?” “Ross and Roy..?” Kevin gave him a knowing look. “You two aren’t going to steal liquor or something–right?” he joked, looking back just as smugly as Radford. Robert only scoffed, Radford snickering in response. “Alright alright, be back in 4 hours–and call me. ” “I always do, Rad.” Radford made an “Eh” noise before turning back to the tv, Kevin mouthing “5 hours” to him with a wink before turning back to the tv as well. Robert smiled as he saw Roxie carry her new Bratz covered in mud back inside the house past him, like brother like sister. He saw her knock the photo on the coffee table out of place though, and adjusted it–His mother and fathers sun bathed faces coming back into view again, with Radfords when he took his thumb off of it. It looked a lot better without a frame. With a spin of his spare keys he locked the door and glanced out to his neighbor kissing his goodbyes to his husband before he went out to the airport, quickly looking away–flustered.  Then he walked down the street. He walked down a few blocks until he finally reached number 7515 with its tacky frog pots and dandelions spread out on the lawn and knocked on the door, Ross answering in a flash. 

“You look dressy today.” Robert teased, seeing him wearing his best jacket–spikes and all. He adjusted the leather straps on it and fluffed out his long black hair. “Thanks.” He grinned, shutting the door behind him before intertwining his arm with Roberts. As the two walked, Robert began to take notice of how nervous Ross seemed. He raised his voice, “You alright, Ross?” Ross adjusted his shirt collar “Yeah–just fine. I was just wondering if um–” He fiddled with his cuff before blurting out. “Ifyouwouldntminditjustbeingusthistime–” Robert blinked, then again. “..Just us?” He said, dumbfounded–the two hadn’t been alone together in awhile he realized. Ross nodded. “Roy wouldn’t mind if we stopped at the candy club and uh–got something, right?” Robert slowly grinned. “So, a quick date?” Ross grew hot. “I’m joking, I’m joking!” Ross nervously laughed it off–but Robert secretly wished they were dating though. Right as the two were about to enter the candy club though–someone slipped out of the shadows. “Planning to go get candy? WHILE WE’RE ON A MISSION–!?!?” They turned, seeing Roy crossing his arms stubbornly. “ Shit.” Ross mumbled, scrunching up his face. He had forgotten to turn his location off. “Whoops.” Robert scratched the back of his head, slowly letting go off Ross’s arm–to him frowning lightly before putting his hands in his pockets. “You guys know we have a job to do! The paranormal can’t wait forever!” “We know.” The two said in unison, Roy letting out a stubborn huff before stomping down to the forest in the park, going to the edges and slipping off into it on his own. Robert paused–looking up at the sunset with Ross for a moment–holding his hand. 

“Wow..when was the last time we had a moment like this?” Robert wondered aloud, mesmerized by the mismash of colors spread out in the sky. “No clue..” Ross said dreamily, beginning to inch closer. Robert felt his heart pound. He began to wrap his arms around Roberts stiff free one, putting his head on his shoulder–his face soft against Roberts scarred shoulders peaking through just slightly. He began to laugh nervously–sounding like his idiot older brother when he was flustered. Then slowly, Ross raised his head up, and was just about to kiss Roberts cheek when–

Robert turned around and accidentally faced him. 

He planted a kiss on his lips instead of his cheek. 

His lips were soft against his, it was sweeter than he’d ever thought. And awkward. One was frozen, the other was not. Ross quickly realized what he had done. With a startled yelp Ross pulled away– Roberts facing burning as bright as the sun itself. Ross covered his mouth as Robert stood frozen, god this whole thing had been so awkward. And yet it was them. And he loved it. As Ross stared in horror– afraid of Robert acting out in confusion in horror, Robert simply grinned sheepishly, and grabbed Ross’s hand and held it. Ross stared. “Are you mad?” He said slowly, not looking Robert in the eye. Robert laughed with a hic. “No no, not at all!” His face was lit up with joy. Ross couldn’t help but smile too. “..Should I do this the right way?” he murmured. Robert nodded. “Go ahead.” Ross slowly turned Robert to him, and held both of his hands, looking down at them for a moment. He looked up, seeing his bright face. He smiled too. Slowly, Robert leaned in, Ross did too. The two paused, Ross snaking his arms up to Roberts shoulders before pulling him into a kiss–ruffling his hands in his tied up hair, pulling the scrunchie out of it. Robert wrapped his hands around Ross’s shoulders too in a hug. The two finally got their second kiss. And it was wonderful. 

…

…

But you should know better than to think it would end like that, right?

It was about 2am, and Robert had snuck back inside his house–Kevin managing to buy Robert out of it for him, by stalling his time with Radford. He was supposed to come home at 11 with Kevins word, but had come home 2 hours late–Why? Because he had passed out with Ross at the movie theater. The three of them eventually got bored of searching the forest for the one weird thing they saw on wednesday and ditching it to go to the theater, Roy staying for about a movie and half of another before getting drug off by his curfew at 10. Ross was lucky enough that his parents were out of town on a date together. Ross and Robert had eventually decided to make it a real date this time and got to do couple stuff–ya know..hand holding and head on shoulders and kisses..they clearly had never done this before but it still was amazing to them. The two had ended up passing out on a popcorn overdose and got found by a poor movie theater employee that wasn’t lucky enough like Radford to be a manager and get the day off–flashing their flashlight at them until Ross woke them both up to book it the hell out of there. He still could hardly believe that Ross was his boyfriend now. Honestly the whole day had felt like a dream to him, but he never woke up from it. He was now in bed, half passed out–sprawled out with his clothes still on until–He got a video call. 

“Calling you now, BIgMonEYrOY666” 

..God that username. But nonetheless, he picked it up. “ ROBERT–!” Ross and Roy both whisper-yelled. Robert rubbed his eyes, croaking out a simple “Yeah..?” The two flipped the camera off from the ground and to their distressed faces, he could tell it was urgent fully though by their cloaks–Roy with his dark orange one, Ross with his blue. “What are you..wh..why are you guys in the..in the forest..” He yawned, tripping over his words. Ross took over the camera. “So I managed to sneak Roy out of his curfew and got Susie to pose as his body in bed as like a stunt double right?” “Uh huh..” “The reason why is because we’ve been forming a theory about this guy– Do you remember the god of lies?” Robert began to sit up, his eyes widening, his voice becoming clearer. “Wh..What about him?” “Well–We believe he was reborn.” Roberts' eyes went wide. Roy took over the camera “AND–” he got shushed by Ross, “And–we um, we’ve been seeing him run around town and no one knows where he came from, and we saw him run into the forest and decided to follow him–and uh uH–” Roy was clearly freaking out, Ross trying to calm him down in the background, taking the camera back. “We found this.” Ross turned the camera to the ground again, and pointed it up at the old house Robert had seen with Ross months before–but..he vividly remembered it being abandoned and broken before. 

But it was in pristine condition. 

That wasn’t even the worst part, what was inside made Robert hop out of his bed. Inside, hundreds of waltzing people resided, happily dancing and laughing, drinking wine together in old 1800’s attire– but the thing was, some had floating heads, some with missing limbs, some with bones sticking out. Some with barely any body left at all. They were all dead. Roberts' breath hitched as he watched in horror. Ross turned the camera back to him and Roy. “So–I think we need you to bring the book here like–..right now. I have my location on. Come as soon as possible, please.” Robert nodded aggressively. Roy spoke up, “OH–AND UH–PLEASE WATCH OUT FOR THE TR A͛⦚– ”

…

His wifi blew out. And the call ended. Robert immediately snatched his cloak, swooping it over his body like a blanket of stealth before opening the window– running out into the darkness like a sparrow of the night. 

Roxies eyes were wide and terrified. She’d seen what was on Roberts phone right over his shoulder. And she had seen him slip into his cloak and run out the window. All without him noticing. “..Robby?” She called out weakly, clinging onto her dirty bratz doll. She thought this was some kind of prank–that he hadn’t really gone out without a trace–he hadn’t done this in nearly a year! But..this seemed too real. She still waited but..no response. She ran to the window , desperately trying to run after but to no avail–already losing him seconds before. Right as she was walking back to the window in a rush to go tell Radford–she saw a movie ticket dropped onto the ground. She realized she could show it as proof that he had been gone. She swooped it up in her hands, climbing back into the window and running to Radfords room–slamming her fist on the door, to Kevin answering groggily. “Hm?” “ROBBYS GONE–!” She screamed–she heard the sound of Radford jolt awake in the bed nearby. Kevin froze, his eyes widening. 

All the lights of the house flicked on, and Radford paced in the hallway as he waited for the police to pick up the line–they had been incredibly busy with the random spike in murders that had just happened as of late, and Radford knew there was more happening. But he prayed they’d answer his call sometime soon.

But, little did they know that all of their neighborhood's power lines were shut off. 

And not on purpose.

The whole neighborhood began to panic as their tap, their wifi, their power–all of it was cut off. 

They were all helpless as their houses were tormented by the ghosts set free. 

Ross stood at the doors in horror of what he and Roy had done– in an effort to ward them off they opened the doors of the old mansion to let the cold air bite them off to the dust for good, but had no clue it would release them out into the wild. And Ross had no idea why Roy was twitching after they did that. 

Ross eventually just split up with him after that and went to go look for Robert on his own.

Robert was hanging by his leg over the ground below him stuck in a trap–thankfully..he hadn’t stepped in the sharp trap below him that would’ve cut his foot off entirely. He tried to find a way to free himself out to no avail–..and then saw two glowing amber eyes off in the distance. He felt his heart sink as he saw the man grow closer and closer. He knew he was doomed. 

Special thanks to My Family, My friends, My teachers, and my online supporters. I couldn’t have done it without you guys listening to my stupid rants, reading my batshit crazy ideas, and staying with me throughout all the long hiatus’s and boring chapters. It means a million worlds to me, more than you could ever imagine.