Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[RING RING]
...
[RING RING]

the noise of the telephone interrupts the otherwise calming silence the night offers

[RING RING]

Tommy tosses around in bed, subconsciously trying to block out the annoying noise.

[RING RING]

the phone however can not care.and, much to his dismay, it'll go on and on until someone stops it.

[RING RING]

'someone' who according to Tommy should be the idiot calling him in the middle of the night, this shouldn't be his problem.

[RING RING]

"AUGH" he complains, tired at last of the incessant ringing. Pulling aside the sheets with exaggerated force Tommy sits on the bed rubbing his eyes and starts patting the bed looking for the phone that still wouldn't shut up

[RING RING]

whoever was calling him was pretty resilient — and stupid he might add,normally people would just give up after a minute or two of waiting, they must have something really important to say,or again, they might just be stupid.

Tommy finally feels the charger cable between the sheets and follows it until he finds the phone, without looking at it he pulls the cable out.

[RING RING]

the sound , now made clearer after Tommy pulled the covers off it, made his head ache. the brightness of the screen didn't help either. he almost cut the call immediately until he bothered to read the contact name.

'wilbur soot'

[RING RING]

what the hell could Wilbur even want at this hour? with him much less?
With the sheets still covering his legs, Tommy answers the call, now more confused than angry.

"Hello? Wilbur?" he asked, not expecting the sudden burst of pure noise that came out of the speaker in that second
“jesus cristh!” he shrieked

the static from the phone seemed more prominent than usual, Tommy could hear a voice through the noise but making out what it was saying was another story.
"Hello?" he tried again, through the static he could faintly hear his name being called

"tommy? hello tommy is it working now?" the static, though still lingering in the background, clears up enough for Wilbur to be understood

"yeah man i couldn't hear you before" tommy groaned rubbing his eyes

"oh yeah I'm sorry about that, say tommy how's it going! I'm sorry for calling in the middle of the night but i had to ask you a favor"

"I'm fine i was sleeping-" tommy interrupts himself with a yawn "does it have to be right now?"

"yeah sorry man but i need you to stay awake tonight"
….
oh he had to be fucking with him

"w...why would I ever do that?" tommy frowned

"please man! i might need you for a recording later just don't sleep" Wilbur pleaded through the phone much to Tommy's ever growing confusing, he narrows his eyes and considers it before finally giving in

"uh.. ok i won't"

it was a flimsy excuse at best and a flat out lie at worse,but wilbur seemed so adamant that there was no way he could win if this ever turned into an argument, atleast not while this sleepy

"thank you so much tommy!" Wilbur cheered "I'm gonna go back to working on some stuff now, I'll leave you alone"
before tommy could respond Wilbur chimes in again "remember not to sleep!" before hanging up abruptly
Tommy's left looking down at the phone on his hand dumbfounded.

"what does he even need me for" he huffed.

______

he lays back down in bed,the call couldn't have lasted more than two minutes but Wilbur's words echoe on the back on his mind.
his eyes are closed, he's relaxed, he's not thinking about anything, he should he sleeping by all means. but every time his mind starts to drift off he's reminded of his call with Wilbur and, willingly or not, he's woken up again and again.

hours pass like this until tommy can see the sun peaking behind the horizon and his room is flooded with light, only then he gets up from his bed. looking out the window he can see the pink and orange tones illuminating the sky starting to fade into the usual blue, the birds are starting to sing and people where already going out for work.

and Wilbur never called.

he spent the whole night waiting and Wilbur never fucking called
the lack of sleep was catching up to him it seemed, he felt himself lose balance as he made his way to the kitchen
"AGH" he protests, bringing his hands up to his head to attempt calm his headache "WHY DID I EVEN LISTEN TO HIM!" he yelled, angrily kicking an empty cardboard box that stood on his way
he eventually calms himself, slowing down and really thinking about the question he had just asked.

"why did i do that"

it comes out quieter this time.he himself not being sure of the answer

_______

"and then he never called! can you fucking believe it?"

pacing around your apartment and ranting about your problems to a friend helps a lot. tommy at least found it helpful,tubbo's a good listener after all,even if he's clearly doing something of his own while on call.

"seems pretty fucked up, i would have just ignored him though to be honest" tubbo remarks, tipping away at his keyboard on whatever project he's working on

"i know! at first i was just gonna go back to sleep and maybe leave the phone right next to my ear for if he did call me"

"but?"

"but!" tommy stomps the ground and turns around for emphasis,even if tubbo isn't there to see him, its the theatrics that matter here "i just couldn't go back to sleep after that!"

"that sucks"

"i know! now I'm all sleepy and shit tubs it sucks!" maybe he'd take a nap later but right now he needed to call Wilbur now, he'd leave tubbo alone to finish his work.

once he had said goodbye to his friend Tommy dramatically slumped on a kitchen stool mentally preparing to tell Wilbur to go fuck himself. he already had his finger hovering over the call button when the phone rang.
almost as if he had read his mind. Wilbur soot was calling him. his surprise was quickly overwritten by the anger from before though.
Tommy picks up with the intention of screaming as soon as he is given the chance but Wilbur beats him to it
"hello tommy" he speaks with that soft tone that Tommy's come to know, stil,l this wasn't about to stop him from yelling regardless

"YOU SON OF A BITCH I WAS JUST ABOUT TO CALL YOU" he held the phone extra close to his mouth for extra loudness

Wilburs laugh left the amusement showing clearly on his voice even though the static
"good morning tommy" his cheery tone heavily contrasting Tommy's dramatic anger
"don't 'good morning' me you fucking bastard!" he could practically hear Wilbur rolling his eyes "you left me to stare at the ceiling for hours for no reason!"

"oh Tommy im sorry about that!" he didn't sound sorry at all but tommy let him continue "i feel asleep mid-work and never called you"
tommy huffed "you should be sorry! i had work to do today and now I'm gonna be exhausted all day!" Wilbur hummed and tommy could imagine him tilting his head before he spoke
"you should relax tommy, go to the couch and nap for a bit"

he was planning on doing that anyways, prick.

still Tommy's suddenly too tired to argue
"i suppose you're right" he says before jumping off the stool and stretching his arms towards the ceiling, the faint sound of distant windchimes made it's way to his ears but he ignored then as he layed down on the couch, he had almost forgotten about the phone until Wilbur spoke up again
"you really are tired aren't you? I'm sorry for keeping you up" another giggle escaped him "thank you for staying up for me though"
"hmm whatever..." Wilbur was right, he was tired,his mind had even started to get hazy in the middle of the call.how hadn't he realized how bad it was before was beyond him.

tommy stared at the ceiling for less than a minute before he was completely out. Wilbur had hanged up before that but he can't exactly pinpoint when, he doubts he even said goodbye-
or maybe he didn't hear him…
not like it matters,he's got some sleep to catch up on

____________________

After that argument Wilbur started calling him frequently, in addition to the discord calls Tommy was used to, Wilbur seemed to favor just calling him on his cell phone lately. the calls had almost becomed part of his daily routine as much as Wilbur liked to deny it every time they met in person.

almost as if he knew that Tommy was thinking about the Wilbur calls him on his cell phone and Tommy doesn't waste time answering.

"hi will!" Wilbur's voice takes a while to work its way past the initial static of the call. His phone had been 'malfunctioning lately' Will had explained a few days ago, so he already knew what to expect.

"hello tommy?" he can finally hear
"Will hi! how's it going big man?"

"I'm good, I'm good but how 'bout you king?

they both fall comfortably into their little routine and jump from topic to topic for almost half an hour. from the new song Wilbur was writing to how tommy was considering getting a dog, even touching on gossip and other silly drama they had seen on twitter that day nothing was really off Limits,it was a nice break from a boring day of just subtitling

"now tommy.." wilbur interrupted him while talking about the new video of him that he was editing "You haven't been editing all day with no breaks haven't you?" he teased, clearly knowing the answer already

"w-what? me? noooo Wilbur y'know I'm the healthiest guy there is"

"tommy..." Wilbur's voice takes a serious tone for a moment "you've got to take breaks man it's not a joke"

tommy sighs, he knows it's true but it's hard to regulate his screen time when he so easily let's himself be taken over by the repetitive workflow that is subtitling.

"come on tommy, how 'bout you go stand outside for a bit" suggested Wilbur in an attempt to lighten up the mood

"outside?" Tommy asks, looking out the window he can see how the wind lifts tree leaves into the sky and drags any paper that had the misfortune of being left on the sidewalk. "it looks kinda cold out i don't know man"
opening the window he can smell the distinctive humid smell in the air that always predates a storm
"looks like it's gonna rain too.." he adds

Wilbur sighs from the other end of the call almost as if he's disappointed "it's probably going to start raining in an hour minimum" he argues "so you better go out now and stay for about 20... maybe half an hour breathing in the fresh air"
tommy groans in annoyance but gives in without much pushback much to his own surprise
"fine fine, I'll go breathe in the nasty city air are you happy?" Tommy gets up from his desk and starts looking under his bed for his shoes when Wilbur replies with an overly cheery tone "very! take care man I've got some stuff to do so I'll call you tomorrow! byeeee"
Wilbur ended the call before tommy could say goodbye back.
it was abrupt but Tommy could see it coming anyway. lately it wasn't uncommon for wilbur to cut off their conversations with the excuse of his 'work'. not like it really matters, tommy has better things to do than wonder what projects wilbur is working on right now. like for example going to stand in the parking lot for 30 minutes.

Already on the stairs, any doubt he had had dissipated more and more with each step he took down. His back had already begun to hurt from sitting so much in his chair, maybe Wilbur was right at the end of it..
His footsteps echo off the walls of the narrow stairs, the building was clearly designed around the elevator, leaving the stairs as afterthought clearly added to meet safety protocols. As uncomfortable as they are, Tommy enjoys taking them instead of the elevator, not only does he not have to wait in the lobby like a fool for it to come down, but it also serves him as exercise (or so he likes to believe).

random thoughts of that same caliber bounced around his head until he hits the ground floor. with a quick twist of the keys he opens the door and is immediately greeted by the cold harsh wind he saw earlier now seeming much more real than before.
before he could turn back though the same melodic sound of windchimes he'd heard a few nights ago drew him further into the cold air.while tommy hadn't piezed together yet to wich one of his neighbors they belonged to he figures it must be driving them crazy in this weather.

Tommy stands almost smack in the middle of the parking lot, looking up he can see the clouds darken and swirl around each other, occasionally colliding and lighting up the sky with lightning only to later shatter his ears with mighty thunder that sounded as if the sky it was going to fall on him. As strange as it may seem to Tommy, this does not bother him at all, the almost chaotic environment seems to turn around him as if he were in the eye of a hurricane.
in a short time tommy stops noticing the cold or how strong the wind is getting or even the drops that begin to fall on his hair, the sound of the wind sweeping against the trees mixes in his ears with the bells ringing making him feel almost as he you were underwater.
little and nothing goes through his head at the moment, hypnotized by the dancing of the leaves in the wind tommy spends the first 15 of the designated 30 Minutes standing motionless on the pavement.
It's only when what was once a light drizzle turns into a storm that Tommy realizes how wet his clothes are, even so he doesn't move, somehow knowing that he still has 2 minutes left until he reaches 30.
.
.
.
There were only about 56 seconds left when Tommy heard something that was neither the wind nor the chimes.

"HEY KID!" The voice of one of his neighbors calls him, he doesn't know much about her but he swears that he crossed paths with her on the stairs from time to time.
still Tommy doesn't bother to look at her, too occupied staring at his own shoes to care.
"KID!" she shouts again from the buildings entrance "WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE?"
this time tommy quietly replies.

"i'm having a break"

"WHAT?" oh she couldn't hear him, the wind had grown even louder than he thought and while he wasn't in the mood to shout he figured there's no other way.

"IM HAVING A BREAK" he responds again, now much louder. the woman seemed visibly confused at that

"ON THE RAIN?" she had a good point, not that they where arguing anyways.
"YEAH" he states drily like it's the most normal thing ever.

mid conversation, somewhere in his mind the imaginary alarm he had set goes off, finally marking the end of his 30 minute break.
almost mechanically he made his way back to the buildings entrance where his neighbor stood worriedly looking over to where he was.
only then realizes that not only where his sneakers completely soaked but his socks as well, making him feel like he was walking in a swamp.

Once he found himself inside the lobby Tommy seemed to come back to reality, the noise of both the wind and the bells was drowned out by the doors, allowing him to hear his neighbor well for the first time that afternoon.
"what where you doing out there? you're gonna get sick" she comments

Tommy has no excuse really, he has no need to lie to the poor girl either,much less when she looks so worried for him even if she doesn't even know his name.

"i was taking a break from work" he explains "and then it started raining" it wasn't the most logical course of action looking back his neighbor seemed to agree judging by the look on her face.

while she did not seem convinced, the girl let him go without further questions, although not without first accompanying him to his door.
"You look like you're going to pass out kid come on, let's take the elevator this time" she tells him, practically dragging him towards the elevator.
"are you alright?" she asks him once the elevator doors had closed, coincidentally they seemed to live on the same floor so there was no need to make any additional stops "You don't have a cough or anything?"

"uhmm no I'm fine thanks" he replies, and oddly enough Tommy was telling the truth, his only problem right now where his wet socks and how cold it was, even so he doubts that he will get sick.
this time it's tommys turn to ask a question
"what's your name sorry? I'm tom by the way" he figures he might as well know her name after all of that.
she smiles at him, maybe realizing that he was slowly recovering from that dizzy feeling that overwhelmed him no less than 5 minutes ago, or maybe he was overthinking things too much.
"I'm Rebecca nice to meet you, i think we've seen each other on the stairs a few times haven't we?"
Tommy nods. Now he remembers, the two of them were the only ones who used the stairs. At least up to the 5th floor. he recalls bumping into her on his way down or up all the way back when he has just moved there.
the elevator dinged announcing the floor they where now in and once the doors opened they both went to their own apartments after a quick farewell.

Without wasting much time, Tommy enters his house. all the lights and his computer were still on just as Tommy had left them in his haste. He almost made his way to his desk to get back to work before remembering that he was completely drenched, opting instead to grab clean clothes from his closet to change into.

already in the bathroom Tommy thinks clearly for the first time in the 40 minutes that had already passed since wilbur cut off the call.
"that was pretty fucking stupid of me" he mutters to himself
he takes off his hoodie and pants, leaving them in the bathtub for the time being.
he felt less 'relaxed and refreshed' as Wilbur had promised and more like his brain had been put through a washing machine but it's fine, he had a video to edit now.

Chapter Text

the strings of his guitar vibrated under his fingers while silly meowing sounds replace the lyrics that he still hasn't gotten around to writing. the notes, no more than experimental, make the slightest echo against the walls of the room and drown out the noise of the washing machine in the background.
It's a familiar scene for Wilbur, something he's done hundreds if not thousands of times before and thousands of times since, just playing the guitar in his room.
Still, with the sun shining through his window and having spent such a lovely day outside, he can't shake the feeling that someone is watching him.

it's a feeling that Wilbur had found himself adapting to lately as eyes consistently seemed to burn the back of his skull . maybe he should search something else to distract himself with.

suddenly he felt the eyes disappear- or close, he wasn't really sure.
_________

tommy had no plans for the rest of the day.
he'd already brought groceries, he'd cleaned the floors, he'd made his bed and had gone live for an hour before throwing himself on the couch with the intention to watch YouTube and do nothing else.

that's at least untill he heard his phone ringing from beside the couch.
leaning over the screen displayed Wilbur's contact name right above the 'accept' and 'deny ' call buttons.

it was quite early for Wilbur to be calling if his recent schedule is anything to go out off. he seemed to have made a habit of calling tommy more near sundown lately.

but hey, change in routine is always appreciated.

"hi will" he greets with no shortage of his usual cheerfulness.

"hey tommy! d'you wanna hear a new song I'm writing?" Wilbur offers him right off the bat, already knowing the answer.
he had never and would never turn down such a thing.

Chapter Text

it was around 10 am when tommy finally got home, apparently everyone in the city had the exact same schedule as him today because the store had been more than full.
now with the rest of his snacks secured in the cupboard tommy could finally relax. he was about to pick one of the packets for himself before he felt his phone ring on his pocket.

________

"remember when you where a kid and your friends would trick you into thinking the blue fire was actually cold?" Wilbur absentmindedly comments through the phone, the conversation had gone on for a good 20 minutes for now wondering from topic to topic and it didn't seem to be slowing down any time soon.
tommy didn't mind this at all though, it's not like he had anything to do

"oh yeah" since he was busy opening a packet of chips for himself tommy held the phone against his ear with his shoulder.
he exaggerates slightly his struggles against the plastic and earns himself a small giggle from Wilbur.

"Eryn tried to do that to me once" he adds once the packet pops open.
with a grin tommy stuffs shoves as many chips as he can into his mouth starts chewing through the phone.

"told him to fuck off though, 'm not that stupid-"

"Swallow if you're going to talk please" Wilbur scolds him and, although it's a bit odd how it seemed to bother him so much, Tommy obeys.
he almost chokes, but Wilbur still hums in approval. so he continued.
"As I was saying, I never actually did it"

before he could stuff his mouth with chips again or move on from the conversation Wilbur brought it back with a simple-and rather stupid- sujestion.

"you should try it"

"what-"

"get up and turn on the stove, just stick your hand on top of it"

it wasn't even a funny joke.
why Wilbur phrased that like it was a reasonable request was beyond him.
his nonchalant tone only made it all the more confusing.still tommy couldn't help but consider it for some strange reason.
"but.. I'll get burned" he tries to argue

"that's part of the fun isn't it?" Wilbur insist

he stood there next to the dinner table weighing his options, he didn't particularly remember standing up from his chair but that didn't matter now.

Wilbur said it'll be fun.

no part of this sounded fun. leaving his chips up on the table along with his phone wasn't fun, turning the burner on wasn't fun either.
the blue flame taunted him swaying from side to side fueled by the gas stove.
"come on tommy" Wilbur spoke to him and even though he had left his phone up on the table tommy could hear him as clear as ever. "don't pussy out"
he wasn't a pussy, he doesn't know why he suddenly cares so much about this but still, he's not a pussy and he's gonna prove it right now.

"it won't hurt, i promise"

and while realistically tommy knows that that's bullshit it does still helps to alleviate his fears ever so slightly.

"maybe you'll ever get a cool scar"

that'll be cool, but this was definitely not the best way to go about it if that's the goal.

"or you could talk about this on stream?" Wilbur hesitated, clearly trying to make as good of a pitch as he could.

it wasn't that bad of an idea,he could monetize this experience. 'i burned my hand' sounds like it could make a very good title,but would it be worth the pain in the long run?.

he can tell Wilbur's thinking about that one alongside himself "actually don't talk about this to anyone" he takes it back and tommy would have found it amusing if this had been any other time.

yeah that'll probably be better, now that he thinks about it he'll probably be too embarrassed to actually share what happened anyways.

the world sits still,waiting for him.

Wilbur's speaking again, probably making up more reasons as to why this is actually a good idea and definitely not insane.

whatever he's saying seems to do it's magic though.

lowering his hand onto the flame tommy feels his hearth rate pick up and sweat trickle down his forehead.
he feels the phantom brush of a hand on his shoulder trying to uselessly reassure him before he finally bites the bullet and fully slams his hand against the burner.

hopefully the neighbors didn't hear him scream, that'll be embarrassing and would force out of him an explanation he's not looking forward to give.

to say that was the worst pain he'd ever felt was one hell of an understatement.
he could feel the layers of skin peel off one by one every second he kept him hand on the flame.
the fire enveloped his palm and resurfaced through his fingers like a light.

before any more damage could be done his hand was ripped off from the fire.

"TOMMY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Wilbur yelled through the phone that he had apparently left on the countertop next to himself.
he knew Wilbur had asked him a question but he couldn't focus enough to answer him,the pain clouded his mind and paralyzed his body in a way he'd never felt before.
he clutched his wrist and watched how the warped skin of his now burned hand peeled away to reveal his raw flesh.

the sight was nauseating and the blood gushing out every time he moved a finger wasn't helping.

"tommy why did you keep in on the fire for too long?"
he can't really give a straight answer, tommy doesn't understand why he even listened to Wilbur In the first place.

he instinctively tries to shield his hand from the pain by resting it against his chest, wich proved to be huge mistake; any contact made with the raw burnt skin doubled the already existing pain and stained his shirt a deep red. Wilbur was yelling at him again.

"Tommy!"
he could barely make out what he was saying through his crying.

"TOMMY LISTEN"
he was listening. he hadn't noticed when tears started to fall down his cheeks but now he found himself gasping for air between sobs.
"TOMMY SHUT UP" wilburs voice finally overpowers his and the apartment goes silent Against his will. his crying doesn't stop but it does calm down a little bit.

"listen, everything's gonna be ok alright?"
it's hard to believe, but he's not in the mood to argue right now so he nods as if Wilbur Could see him, still barely holding back tears.
wilbur sights.
"I'll take care of this"
he doesn't know how,but tommy knows he will.
he would like to say Wilbur sounded remorseful, but it was clear the man was just tired, if not a bit annoyed even.

his words echo on Tommy's mind but before he could wonder what Wilbur was planing his vision went black and, as far as he knew, he never quite hit the floor.
__________

the area near the beach in Brighton was -in Wilbur's Humble opinion - the best place fuck around with friends in, so when ash had sujested a couple of days prior that they all hang out near the bridge and maybe have a couple of drinks at sundown he couldn't have agreed more.

It was already almost 5 in the afternoon, definitely not early but the sun had not yet set and that was enough. the cracks between the written-over concrete of the small bridge created the perfect place for wild plants to grow and add a much needed natural touch to the pseudo cave that formed below it. the dry land under the bridge where once a small river ran had now become the prime spot for teenagers to smoke and for people to take aesthetic pictures.

they didn't particularly fit any of those categories at the moment, being neither teenagers nor looking for pictures, but a certain 18 year old with a camera might be able to change that.

out of all the people in the groupchat that they had sent the invites in tommy was the only one that answered.
not that it mattered, everyone was busy and they weren't particularly eager to spend their night fuckin around near the road, Wilbur wasn't surprised.
what wasn't surprising either was Tommy's near immediate response confirming that he'll be there, he knew the guy well enough to know that, if there's something tommy likes more than anything, is fucking around.

They had arranged to meet at 4:30 and while Ash and Wilbur practically arrived at the same time Tommy seemed to be taking his time.

It was just as Wilbur was about to call Tommy to ask him if he was coming that he caught a glimpse of a head of blonde curls skipping his way towards both him and Ash.

Ash waves at him from where he's sat and watches as tommy cheerfully waves back.

"you're late!" wilbur shouts at him once he's within earshot, though there's no real heat behind it, he's glad tommy could at least make it.
tommy light-heartedly excuses himself with an apologetic smile
"I'm sorry gentlemen I'm truly sorry" he mocks wiping a tear off his cheek and sits down on the concrete next to ash
"hope you guys didn't miss me too much"
he adds more sincerely this time.

"oh no,not at all" taunts Wilbur "I was actually gonna tell you not to come"

tommy shoots him a grin before dumping the contents of his backpack. at least 5 packets of various snacks including an almost full but opened pack of chips all fall into his lap .

"dig in boys!"

in his rush to grab the Doritos for himself Wilbur misses the way Ash stares at Tommy before carefully taking a packet for himself.
Tommy takes the half-eaten package for himself and enthusiastically savors each potato like he's been waiting all day for this very moment.

with The sun shining right in front of them, blinding them ever so slightly,they relax below the concrete bridge where next to them on the high grass several crickets contributed to the atmosphere with chirps that drowned out the birds own.

no one was talking but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, not by a long shot, Wilbur would had been more than content to just let the soft wind hit his face until he noted the slight frown on ash's face.
Following his gaze led him to Tommy's lap, more specially to his hands that rested folded on top of it.
one of them wrapped in bandages.

weird. even the slightest injury would have tommy running his mouth for hours on hours even if just to complain for the sake of it.
tommy hadn't noticed them staring yet, he seemed to focused on his chips to care and that was something Wilbur found himself being thankful for, he'd hate to make tommy uncomfortable, maybe there was a reason he hadn't mentioned it?
whatever injury was below the gauze had been hastily bandaged, the tape and knots preventing it from unraveling it left that clear.

tapping him on the shoulder a couple times to get his attention ash points at the presumed injury looking up to meet Tommy's eyes , wordlessly asking what had happened to him.

it takes a second for tommy to realize what he means,after that and still without saying a word he brings the injured hand up to his face and Wilbur swears that the boy almost seemed surprised himself.
"this?" he asks obliviously.
ash nods, Wilbur doesn't dare to interrupt.
tommy thinks about his answer for a bit, leaning forward and resting his chin on his other palm analyzing the bandages as if there was something on them to analyze in the first place, still, something in his head appears to click back into place. looking past ash entirely he fixates his eyes on Wilbur.
"i burnt myself" he responds finally like it's the most obvious thing in the world, like Wilbur was supposed to know that already.
ash catches onto this and he too turns back to meets Wilburs eyes looking for answers he doesn't have.
a clear tension starts to rise seemingly out of nowhere between the three, there goes Wilbur's comfortable scene.

ash.. well he does not break the silence as Wilbur would hope, but he signs a quick "how?" to tommy anyways.

"touched the stove" the boy shrugs leaving no room for argument.

and so no one speaks, the crickets grow louder and the winds wips their hair in front of their eyes a couple times but no one moves an inch, not until ash forms an L shape with his index and thumb in front of Tommy's direct line of sight.

godbless him really, beacuse the heavy atmosphere was gone as quickly as it had appeared once Tommy started laughing.
he jokingly punched ash in the gut and while he didn't do too much damage but ash still cartoonishly fell over backwards towards the concrete with a huff to match tommys renewed goofy mood.

he turns to Wilbur, the cold in his stare having melted away as he smiled brightly like nothing had happened.

"hey will?"

"yeah?" tommys gaze lingers on him when he speaks, he hadn't realized he still had his mouth full of chips before but now he was uncomfortably aware.

"have you got any lyrics for your new song yet?"

ash perqued up at the mention of music.
oh his new song! he had been working on it for a few weeks now, it was barebones for now but even the simple cords he had written down held great promise in his eyes.
he hadn't told anyone about yet but he was more than happy to-

"hold on" he cuts his own thoughts short. something doesn't make sense.
"how do you know about my song?"

tommy wasn't paying too much attention to him that much was clear
" you told me about it?" he shrugged "how else would i know about it"

"i had't talked to anyone about it yet.." Wilbur hesitated, his memory isn't one to fail him often but it wasn't impossible.

"yes you did! you told me yesterday idiot!"

both ash and tommy where looking at him like he was crazy now, he really must have forgotten then.
to prove himself further tommy began huming the cord progression he had written down, it was sloppy, but it was unmistakably his song.

"huh… i guess i did forget.."
he tried to remember again but this time tommy threw a light punch to his shoulder while laughing at his face.

"it's 'cus you're going senile will!"
ash stiffens a chuckle covering his mouth with one hand while tommy keeps the bit going "soon enough we're gonna have to send you to a retirement home!"

"like Phil" ash helpfully adds causing tommy to laugh even harder.

________

when Wilbur turned on his phone for maybe the first time that night it was 11:45.

they had run out of beer (and coke, in Tommy's case) nearly an hour ago, not that they had bringed that many anyways but it was still something to take note off.
while neither him or ash were particularly drunk he decided to call it quits before it got too late. the street around here where known to be quite safe but he would rather not risk it. hearing tommy yawning beside him only solidified his choice.
"well boys" he anounces,standing up with a groan and straightening himself.
"i think it's time to get going, it's getting a bit to late for me"

tommy makes a comment under his breath about him being old but he chooses to ignore it. ash seems to agree with him at least beacuse he too stands up and begins to pick up the empty cans around them.
tommy looks at him incredulously like he had been betrayed right in front of his eyes.
"are we really going?" he protests, tugging at ash's shirt wich only earns him a firm nod from the other.
seeing that tommy wasn't satisfied at all with his answer ash then motions at his wrist pointing to a clock that isn't there and looks up to the moon that now sat high above them in the dark sky.
the boy squints and with a frown looks up to the sky too before pulling out his phone to confirm.

[11:48]

tommy looks at wilbur with played up disgust and starts to pick up the empty packets From all around them.
when getting up from the floor,without thinking and out of habit, he uses his left hand to steady himself against the concrete which proves to be a massive mistake very quickly.
only imagining the pain makes Wilbur grit his teeth.
the short but still loud yelp echoed below the bridge starting the few pigeons that had shown up looking for crumbs to eat.

tommy makes an effort to play it off but the way he clutches his hand to his chest cannot be ignored, ash leans over to him and places a hand on his shoulder offering to carry the backpack himself but tommy shoves him off with a groan.

"it's fine" he tries to reassure them even if it's clearly not true "it's just- it doesn't hurt"

Wilbur and ash share a concerned look and again decide against asking anymore questions.
at least ash does.
Wilbur can't shake the feeling that somethings off with tommy, more specially with his injury.
there's something he isn't telling them and Wilbur can't understand why.

ash was the first one the split off when walking back home. waving at them from the other side of the street until he finally disappeared behind both a building and the darkness that the streetlamps did their best to fight off.

just like that Wilbur and tommy where silently walking along each other through the now slightly chillier streets of Brighton,summer was coming to an end after all.
sleepiness seemed to be catching onto tommy if the way he kept quiet was anything to go out off, he had already calmed down from the small accident and his injured hand now swayed by his side like normal as he walked.
now was the perfect moment, he can only hope it doesn't go to waste.

"hey tommy"

the blonde only hummed in acknowledgement,urging him to continue.

"how did you burn your hand?"

"you know how" he responds rather dryly "don't act stupid "

the change of attitude caught him off guard, he wasn't defensive per say, but for the fourth time that week Wilbur felt like something was wrong.

"well you told me it was with the stove but how did it happen?" he peered over forward to take a better look at the bandages on Tommy's hand, upon realizing this the boy shoves it in his pocket. "it looks pretty bad for a stovetop Burn"

"why are you- what are you talking about will?"

tommy sounds genuinely confused, maybe a bit angry too. "did you just fucking forget that too?"

"forget? forget what man?"

"you- i" tommy looked around the street, Wilbur for a second does the same before Tommy's eyes land firmly on him "i can't tell you"

tommy wasn't making any sense right now and Wilbur would have been quick to rule this out as a bit if he hadn't been standing right next to him.scanning his face left him with no results,nothing to let him on that this was a joke. if anything he seemed genuinely offended.

"why can't you?" he asks, and its a genuine question.

but tommy doesn't seem to take it as that.
"i don't fucking know man you tell me! you can't just call me, tell me to-"
tommy cuts himself off and goes silent.

"tommy?"

"and then you pretend it didn't happen!"
he goes back to shouting like nothing had happened, whatever he had cut off had him nervously gripping his backpack with his good hand.
he stops walking entirely and fully turns to face Wilbur Sporting a defensive stance. it only serves to worry him even more.

"tommy i didn't call you today,i don't remember even calling you this week"

it's a bit embarrassing to admit out loud, it makes him sound like a bad friend, but it's not like they had no contact either, they texted daily and even streamed together in that time but they definitely hadn't called.

"i just assumed you didn't want to talk since you're usually the one to-"

tommy payed no mind to his explanation though, apparently still too caught up on his first comment to really process nor care about it

"what do you mean you haven't called me, stop fucking lying to my face"

"i swear i didn't man, i-" Wilbur interrupts himself when his eyes finally meet Tommy's, the boy was looking at him with an unprecedented mix of horror and disbelief. he was at a loss for words but that wasn't about to stop him from trying anyways.
"tommy you said i called you today right?"

tommy nods frantically. "you've been calling me almost every day willbur please-"

"tommy i haven't. where is this coming from-" Wilbur cuts himself off this time, weighing in all the options
"tell me what happened and let's see if i remember ok?"

"i- alright " he lets off a deep, shaky breath that Wilbur would have probably laughed at given it had been in any other context. "you called me this morning when i got home from buying the snacks"

"go on"

"i was eating one of the chips when you told me to- " abruptly tommy broke into a coughing fit that had him leaning against a mailbox.
Wilbur reaches out to support him but tommy shoves his hand away as he tries to regain his breath.
"you told-" he kept trying to speak "you-"

"tommy hey it's fine just wait it out" finally he allows Wilbur to place a hand on his back " don't try to talk for now ok?"
tommy looks apprehensive but still nods.

eventually the coughing dies out and Tommy's left panting for air while Wilbur rubs circles on his back.
they stand there in relative silence for a minute, tommy trying to regain his composure with Wilbur overthinking the situation right behind him.

when he feels he's ready tommy looks at Wilbur and, steading his voice as much as he can, goes back to his story.

"then I- i burned myself. it hurt alot and you told me that you'll take care of it and that it was gonna be fine " he looks to Wilbur for confirmation, a small nod or anything to indicate that he remembered, that he believed him.

but there wasn't anything Wilbur could do, he wasn't going to lie to him and say he did.
disappointment makes it's way to Tommy's eyes and he looks away from Wilbur and back towards his feet.

"then i .. well i guess i patched myself up" he lifts his injured hand up to his face for the second time that night " i don't really remember what happened though"

and well if that wasn't concerning Wilbur doesn't know what is.

"tommy i didn't even call you" and it was the Truth, he hadn't done anything that morning aside from tidying up the house and buying the beer.

"will please stop fucking with me it's not funny" he's making a clear effort to mask the desperation in his eyes, it's not working but Wilbur doesn't have the hearth to tell him that.

tommy doesn't give Wilbur time to think of a response, or an excuse as he surely sees it as.
offended, frustrated, but more than anything confused tommy turns around to face the road and without sparing Wilbur as much as a goodbye he starts walking away to what's surely the opposite way to his house. leaving Wilbur to stand alone under the streetlights.
he considers chasing after him but what else can he say if/once he catches up to him? keep insisting that it wasn't him? tommy clearly wasn't believing him.
that didn't Matter anymore though. tommy was gone and that was it
still he couldn't help but wonder, what was tommy taking about?

____________

Tommy forced himself not to think all the way back to his house. every time he at least considered that Wilbur had been telling the truth his head feels like it's about to explode.
there was no way that wilbur had not lied to him, surely he just played dumb so as not to face consequences.

but Wilbur isn't one to lie, he isn't one to call him every day, Wilbur would never send him to burn his hand just like that.
Wilbur doesn't usually lie, so why didn't he admit the truth when they were alone? why had he acted as if he was genuinely confused when Tommy had very clearly heard his voice over the speaker telling him to do it.

the scene played on loop on Tommy's mind, there was no way he had imagined it.
Wilbur was lying to him. there was simply no other option.
Tommy wasn't crazy, so there was no other option.

But why would he lie like that? did he find it funny?

again tommy feels like needles are stuck in his forehead, headaches weren't particularly rare for him but this was in a whole other level.

It seems as if his body is punishing him for thinking about the situation, but Tommy can't help but follow through; there's a lot he doesn't understand, and that's bothering him alot more than he had expected.

Wilbur is not a bad person, he is one of his best friends at the end of it all.
something is definitely w-

[RING RING]

he thought he had set his phone on silent for the day, but a ring and a buzz coming from his pocket proved him wrong

[RING RING]

His phone began to ring with a sound that Tommy had been more than familiarized with at this point.
and somehow he knows exactly who's calling.

[RING RING]

"Hello?" he hesitantly answers the call while leaning on a random pole on the street, the migraine was starting to make standing upright a little difficult.

"Hi Tommy..." Wilbur's voice was, again like every time before today, slightly distorted on the phone. "listen man i wanted to say sorry about...everything today"

he had been expecting more arguing Soo this sudden change in attitude by Wilbur took him by surprise to say the least.

Tommy didn't know how to respond to that.so he doesn't. he stays quiet and decides that he's gonna let Wilbur make his case before he interrupts. will seems to catch onto that pretty quickly and without much wait let's the rest of the apology roll out his tongue a bit too fast, like he's nervous and trying to get this over with.
"i don't know why i wasn't remembering anything earlier tommy I'm so sorry, my minds a lot clearer now.." he thinks about what he's going to say for a second, tommy nothing but patient "I'm pretty sure the beer hit me a bit stronger than normal, I'm sorry Tommy, it won't happen again"

…

it made sense really.
he was drunk, as much as he liked to deny it wilbur had at least 3 cans of beer. Tommy isn't exactly an expert in alcohol (he barely drank himself) but that seemed like a decent amount. so he believed him. Wilbur wasn't a liar after all. Tommy knew it had to be Fluke and it turns out it was. it made perfect sense.

he felt the pins on his head being plucked out, his brain no longer working overtime. Wilbur was still making excuses through the phone but he barely listened.

He took a little while to collect himself before moving on, almost forgetting he was on the phone for a minute.
Thankfully Wilbur didn't seem to mind

"I.. yeah it's fine. just don't freak me out like that again"

"Of course man, I won't"

he hung up and threw a look back towards where he had left Wilbur standing alone after running off.
Hopefully he gets home safe.

Chapter Text

Wilbur opened his door around 12:30 with his phone weighing heavily in his pocket.
It took him a lot of effort not to call Tommy in the middle of his walk back to see if he was okay, while he is worried Wilbur acknowledges that in these situations it is better to wait for things to calm down before asking for forgiveness or an explanation.
What he did do as soon as he got home however was call Ash.

Well, the idea of "calling" didn't really apply with him, it was more Wilbur spamming messages until he responded.
still it did the trick, it seemed ash had already made it home too because he "picked up" almost immediately.

Wilbur wasted no time in explaining to Ash what had happened not more than ten minutes ago.
impatiently he stares at the three jumping dots until finally the message comes through.

> ?
> thats weird

yeah no shit<

after a few minutes of back and forth he realized that this wasn't really going anywhere.

> maybe
>you just call him
>and see how it goes

ash was probably right but he can't help but think that calling tommy after all of that might seem ..

a bit insensitive don't you think <

>what
> it's just a call

he's definitely overthinking this.

"ughhh" Wilbur sighs and leans the phone against the table rubbing his eyes a little.

it was too late for this bullshit, so Wilbur says his goodbyes to Ash and finally puts his phone to charge.

He looks around his house tidying up whatever needs tidying up while he kicks off his slippers and leaves his jacket hanging over the back of a chair.

opening the cupboard Wilbur sets himself into making some tea before he goes to bed.
the kettle was already on the stove from his morning coffee so all he had to do was change the water and set it to boil.
Wilbur throws brief glances at his phone but quickly shakes the thoughts off as soon as they come.The waters ready by now if the vapor coming from the kettle is anything to go out of so he gets going and grabs a tea sack from his cabinet.

the tea's halfway down the cup when he feels the entire day start to weight down on him making it hard to keeps his eyes open and,against his own will he yawns, one look at the clock told him that it was around 0:10 and,while Wilbur was an adult with no bedtime, he'd rather not sleep in too much tomorrow.

it didn't take to long for him to fall asleep once his head hit the pillow.
_________

he had expected to wake up the birds singing and sunshine behind the curtain but life had other plans.

what followed up had to be the most stressful week of Wilbur's entire life.
even with his talk with tommy still fresh in his mind he struggled to find a moment of peace when he could sit down and really think of what to do about it.
between merch meetings, Lovejoy practice and scheduled recordings he could barely take a breather before he was called back into whatever boring business talk he had planed for the day.

he was expecting it to be exhausting, and it was! but he found the hectic routine preferable to sitting on his house all day. lately he has been making as many excuses as he could to be out doing something.

ash had chalked it up to paranoia and James had told him to stop drinking,still Wilbur couldn't ignore the eyes burning his back whenever he was alone.

he had tried shutting the windows, locking the doors, turning all lights off, even sleeping in James's couch one day to test his theory that he was being stalked.
obviously he hadn't told James about this, instead making a shit excuse about how he lost his keys as to not look .. insane for lack of a better word.

it was just an uncomfortable Sensation at the back of his mind whenever he was out and doing something, but when the room was quiet and his phone didn't provide sufficient distractions it became unbearable. whenever he would turn around the eyes would close, maybe wary of being perceived.

'well if that's their plan they where doing a shit job at it' Wilbur joked to himself, desperate to find the humor in this situation but there wasn't any.

his phone buzzed with a useless notification pulling him out of his thoughts for a second, it was some spam email he didn't care about but he still took this opportunity to scroll through any missing DMS he might have gotten that day, after all any distraction was more than welcomed right now.

some discord @'s later he was staring at Instagram and mindlessly scrolling through his friends more recent posts,he would probably get much more enrichment from something like Twitter but it'll take more than a stalker to force him to open that goddamn website again.

his feed iwas just the usual stuff. Phil and Kristin chilling, ranboo anouncing a stream and a picture of tommy and tubbo on the beach.
that last one he stared at the most, there wasn't anything odd about it but seeing tommy again reminded him that he's yet to talk to him ever since they .. split off when coming home.
as much as ash had insisted it's wasn't as simple as just messaging him,at least not then.
no one would react well to a dumb "are you ok" text after Storming off like that.

but.. now that he thinks about it..

it's been almost week since then, tommy has most likely cooled off by now. it surely won't hurt to try right? like that he pushes back his nerves and just shoots him a causal dm hoping to move past it all.

hey tommy how's it going<

he hopes it doesn't come off as awkward.

…

and so the wait begins,at first it's an hour. then two.

then Wilbur gets up to eat, and take a bath, and go to sleep.

10 hours turn into a day and a day turn into 2. again he lost track of time.
still no response.

he regrets the simplicity of his initial text, there were definitively better options he could have chosen. seeing that tommy had been active on Twitter a few minutes ago he decided it was the perfect time to switch up his strategy.

wanna hang out today? the Lovejoy boys are coming
over <

they weren't but Wilbur could definitely force them to if tommy agreed.

this one was simple too but much more calculated on his end.a casual invitation. it prompted discussion about the hangout itself or possibly reasons why one might not be able to attend, both topic that could be easily Segway into Wilbur's planned out apology (was it really an apology if he didn't do anything?)

He was expecting to wait a week for a response but Tommy immediately read both messages in less than a minute.

he was already planning the night out before tommy finished tipping, he was gonna get ash to buy a pizza, mark to bring drinks and joe... well he could do whatever he wanted.
maybe tommy could get tubbo or ranboo to come around,or he could get James too, that'll be awesome.
the text that came cut his fantasies short. it was blunt and to the point.

> sorry i can't. I'm busy.

uh, well that's less than ideal.
hes been busy himself almost all week but it never crossed him that tommy might have been too. it's alright though, he can fix this.

don't worry, maybe another time <

>sure

tommy not sounding particularly enthusiastic about it came as a disappointment but not a surprise as wilbur reminds himself that they didn't end up on the best of terms the last time. still he wont let the conversation die that easily.

how about tomorrow? <
i could tell James and the rest to come over then
instead <

would rescheduling work? was tommy actually busy or was he just avoiding him?
luckily he could already see the three dots that told him that tommy was writing a response so he would find out in a second.

>uh
>alright, I'll be there

yes!
Wilbur discreetly pumped his fist in the air not caring if he came across a little desperate,he'd pick that over tommy hating him any day.
he didn't lose any time messaging his friends, he had a meetup to plan.

__________

a meetup that ended up looking much more like a party than the "chill night with the boys" he had visualized.

let me lay it all out to you.

he first invited James, and agreed to let him bring jack. jack then asked if Niki could come, he said yes. that would have made it eight people counting himself and Lovejoy if ranboo hadn't caught wind of the whole thing somehow and asked about it. before he could feel left out Wilbur invited them over without really thinking about it. ranboo then after finding out tommy was also going decided to bring tubbo along with him too.
Scott smajor was also there, he didn't remember inviting him but the man had walked in behind jack with such confidence that Wilbur couldn't find it in him to kick him out.

so there were eleven people in his house.

it might not sound like much but keep in mind that he was very underprepared for this. not to mention his house wasn't big by any means.
In between ordering more pizza,drinks and trying to make this all seem planned Wilbur had completely forgotten the original purpose of this rushed meetup-turned- party.

the blonde who was sitting on his couch with a glass of coke, chatting with tubo about God knows what.
Tommy.

he had looked a bit surprised when he came in,being amongst the last to show up he had found himself in admittedly a much different environment that he had prepared for.
that might have been Wilbur's fault but the boy seemed to be enjoying himself at least.

He pushed past James and mark who where trying to pull him into their conversation in favor of getting closer to the couch.

someone had turned the lights on a while ago leaving the room to rely on the table lamps scattered around for decoration. it added to the ambiance admittedly but it did make it a bit hard not to trip on the furniture.

tubbo noticed him halfway there and waved at him, encouraging to sit down with them.

tommy,who until now hadn't noticed him, turned to look at him as the couch dipped under his weight.his expression was unreadable in the low light but he didn't seem angry, which was a good start.
Then, from what Wilbur felt was out of nowhere,tommy flashed a bright smile for him before going back to sipping his coke.

"-wilbur are you even.." tubbo snaps his fingers in front of him a couple of times. effectively pulling him out of his own mind to realize that he had been unintentionally ignoring him. "are you ok dude?"

oh he has been staring hadn't he?

"ah! yeah sorry i was just thinking of when the pizzas getting here" heh good save.

"did they give you a time or anything? I'm fucking starving" tommy pipped up, it caught wilbur off guard but he tried not to let it Show. if tommy was mad at him right now he was definitely acting nice to not draw in any attention so Wilbur was going to do the same.

"they did say it was a busy night so it might take a bit longer than normal"

both boys let out an understanding "ow" before slumping down further into the couch, tubbo in particular was being extra dramatic about it, grabbing his stomach and groaning.

"if the pizzas don't get here in 2 minutes I'm gonna have to eat jack to survive"

"oi!" the man in question seemed to have heard him "what's that about eating me huh? I'll have you know i have wife and kids that'll sue you if you that!"
Niki, who was standing next him, leaned on him as she laughed. tubbo childishly stuck his tongue earning himself a good chuckle from tommy to his right.

on queue the doorbell rang. it was the pizza.
unless someone else decided to show up uninvited-Wilbur though while looking at scott.

"see? god wants me to live tubbo"added jack on time as the punchline to his joke. the room laughed some more while tubbo jumped out the couch to go get the food.

that left him alone with tommy.

without tubbo between them he gets the chance to take a better look at him. his clothes hung on him a bit more messy than usual and his bangs (they're longer than the should be -he noted- tommy normally keeps them short) where doing a poor job at hiding the slight dark circles under his eyes. the boy looked tired.
and still he had showed up to his dumb party.

by all accounts this should be awkward, sitting next to each other in silence like this while everyone around them chatted amicably, but somehow tommy still retains his smile. even when there's no one looking, no one to question him of he was in a bad mood, he still smiles.
there's nothing but a small bit of tension in the air that was most likely his fault.
was tommy genuinely having fun?

he can't keep drowning himself in questions. not when he has the answers whiting Arms reach.

so for the second time that week Wilbur braces himself to initiate conversation.

"hey tommy.."

"sup will!" the blonde shoots back in his still carefree tone,oddly upbeat for the chill vibe around them.

"listen.." and tommy hesitantly leaned over, his smile faltering slightly when he caught unto Wilburs seriousness. "i wanted to apologize for .. what happened the other day-"

"you don't need to apologize more man! it's all good!"

"huh.. but-"

"if anything it's me who should apologize, i stormed out like an idiot in the middle of the night." he fiddled with his sleeve a bit "i felt really bad for leaving you alone there after, was thing about calling you back again just to make you sure got home safe"

"oh" no other answer felt more fitting in that moment, all his worries washed down the hypothetical drain in his brain as he looked at tommy in the eyes.

"so are we good now?" Wilbur felt the need to ask.

"we've been good for a while dude, but in case you need face to face confirmation then yes. we're good" he sat again staring forward towards where jack was making a fool of himself in front of the tv, effectively ending their little conversation. he could sense an air of uneasiness coming off him but Wilbur couldn't care less,that was bound to happen he still felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.all he had left to do was go enjoy the accidental party and get some pizza slices down the hatch before they were all gone.

_________

tubbo came back shortly after with about 5 pizzas all balanced in his right hand, everyone in the room scrambled to get a slice before he even set them down on the table.

he was now back at the couch with Wilbur and tommy, the only difference being that now the three of them were stuffing their mouths with pizza.

strangely enough that tension he had felt in the air earlier had risen ever so slightly.

tubbo and tommy where talking amongst themselves again, with tubbo occasionally asking him a question or two to not completely ignore him.

he didn't mind this arrangement in the slightest, it left him free to both short his thoughts out and chat with the rest of his guests while still having a vague idea of what the two sat at the couch where going on about, Wilburs anything but noisy.

it's only when tubbo stands up to go talk to ranboo that Wilbur actually tries to spark up real conversation with tommy, their discussion before barely counted with Wilbur having said less than a full sentence.

the blond had been spaced out more or less the entire night and now that tubbo was gone he swayed his cups back and forth in his hand , watching how the liquid moved as if psychics were a completely new concept to him, if this were anyone else Wilbur would have asked they were drunk.

"tommy?"

he got no response, Tommy's eyes slowly closed while his body dipped forward.
it didn't take a genius to deduce that he was falling asleep.

"tommy" he tries a bit louder this time, it's baffling how he's managed to not be stirred up even a little when having the speaker this close to him, as expected he doesn't react.

the cup is slipping down his fingers when Wilbur takes it to avoid having to clean up soda from his floor.

he goes to shake tommy by the shoulders but Tommy's eyes fly wide open the second Wilbur touches him.out of instinct the boy recoils and backs away as far he can without leaving the couch.

everyone turns around surprised by the sudden movement.tubbo in particular reaches out to pat Tommy's back.

"are you ok big man?" tubbo looks at Wilbur mirroring in his eyes the same confusing he sports.
tommy looks up to meet his Friends gaze "I- I'm ok" then down to meet Wilbur's "you scared me a little there" he lets out a strained laugh and goes back go sitting normally on the couch, eventually everyone goes back to their conversations, taking their eyes off the both of them. (he didn't know how tommy felt at the moment but for him tag was a relief)

"sorry for that,i didn't want you falling on your face so i woke you up" Wilbur's jokes as he passes tommy his cup back, he quickly goes back to staring at it avoiding any eye contact wilbur may attempt.

"it's fine,i didnt notice i was this tired before coming"

"do you wanna lay down on the couch?" Wilbur offers but tommy shakes his head.

"did you sleep last night?"

"not much" tommys tone went back to the overly happy one he was using earlier, this time however it felt way less natural, his short "nap" before may not have been enough.

"uh, that's weird, was it too cold in your apartment?"

"nop! it was fine"

"have you gotten that window you talked about fixed?"

"yeah"

"how've you been since we last spoke?"

"good"

he was getting nothing but short, to the point answers. tommy wasn't one to be mean about it but he had a sneaking suspicion that he may not want to talk to him right now.
so he took this opportunity to talk a bit about his week, tommy didn't have to answer if he didn't feel like it.

"lately I've been super busy" he starts and ignores the way Tommy frowns in confusion. "i barely had time to chat with James here and there"

the boy tenses up but still refuses to look at him. "really? ..only James?"

"yeah, this merch drop is turning out to be a much bigger headache than i anticipated"

he explains to the air (because tommy seeemed to be spacing out again) how he had been jumping between the studio to the meeting room and his own house for the entire week.
tommy nodded here and there when he felt it was necessary. Wilbur could see the cup start to slip off his grasp again.

"hey tommy"

"yeah?" the boy jumps again but it's nothing compared to before.

"nothing you were just dozing off again.." Wilbur watches as tommy slumps down more In the couch "maybe you should go home if you're this tired"

Tommy's eyes shot open wide as plates again "no no! I'm fine, i just gotta.." he chugs the warm cup of soda he had been holding for more than 20 minutes "that's good, good as new ey? no need to worry"

"yeah alright… I'm not kicking you out of my house tommy im just a bit worried"

"no need to big guy! just leave me here! go uhmm enjoy your party!"

so that's what he did. tommy had made no move to push Wilbur away but he did move as far back the opposite way as he could, again backing himself towards the armrest.

Wilbur spend the rest of the night chatting with his other friends.occasionally throwing glances at tommy who didn't move an inch from where he had left him, even when tubbo went back to sitting with him he still stared straight ahead, either exhausted or lost in though.

when everyone started to leave around 1am tommy didn't stop to say goodbye, Wilbur only saw him rush out the door behind tubbo and ranboo.
he had told his worries to the two before they went out, both ranboo and tubbo reassure him that they'll walk tommy home just in case and that they were planning to do so anyways.
one by one everyone else made their way out, either Patting him on the back or hugging him before turning to the door.
Scott even tried to apologize for showing up uninvited but Wilbur brushed him off, he was always a delight to be around regardless.

and just like that he was left standing alone in the mess that was his living room, a small smile tugged at his lips when he remembered that he had both apologized and talked to tommy, even considering the stilted atmosphere he considers it a success.

Chapter Text

tommy has always considered Wilbur an interesting person, he'd never thought he'd find himself meaning it as anything other than a positive.

lately though it felt like his uniqueness had taken a turn for the worst. nearly diving into unsettling territory if Tommy's being honest.

that party had solidified it on his mind, whatever was going on was not normal.

he could look past it when,after their call and on stream Wilbur had denied the whole "don't sleep" fiasco, the guy was probably trying to save face for his undoubtedly shitty actions

he could brush it off when Wilbur conviniently forgot about his injured hand when ash was there, only to beg for forgiveness through the phone later like a coward instead of saying it to his face.

he tried to move on from Wilbur's subtle comments about how he hadn't talked to anyone in weeks, even when tommy knows for a fact that he has been calling him nearly every day for almost a month now. the keyword there was 'tried'.

it was something when he decided to repeat his apology face to face after going so long pretending that the whole discussion ever happened.
but to act like he doesn't exist entirely was another.
was he that ashamed of being caught talking to him? he had told tommy after their discussion and later apologize not to bring up their calls in real life. ever.
what's all the secrecy for?

he's done nothing but contradict himself for the past 3 weeks and it's making Tommy's head hurt.

it may seem like a small detail, but he's grown tired of Wilbur's bullshit.

of him pretending like he doesn't talk Tommy's ear off every night with nonsense ideas, like he doesn't cut him off every time and talks to him instead of with him.

normally he would confront Wilbur about this, but this is where his second problem lies.
as much as he was a lying coward Wilbur was also unfathomably scary when he wanted to.

every tiny nonsensical order he threw at him made his brain feel like he's in a minefield where, if he doesn't do as he's told ,he'll explode into a million pieces.
it took a while for him to figure that out too, he thinks back to that moment in front of the stove almost every day.everything had made sense In that moment , at least on paper. his rational Brain had been completely on board with Wilburs plan, it was only his own self preservation instincts fighting it.

it's rare for him to actually remember what he and Wilbur talk about these days. normally he'd hang up the phone and, mere minutes later he'd found himself struggling to string even two words the man may have said to him, like a dream he had woken up from a little too long ago to recall.

he's found that seeing him face to face doesn't help either. Wilbur retreats into his usual persona, kind and funny like always. just like that he was back to being the Wilbur he knows and loves, the second he's out of sight though tommy cannot Trust him. it freaks him out.

the worst part for him however was that no one seemed to be noticing anything.
well he actually hasn't shared his suspicions with anyone yet but surely they'll pick up on this? or was it only him noticing the inconsistencies?

he paces around his apartment brainstorming possible answers, solutions or anything really.

Wilbur seemed to have picked up his unwillingness to talk to him lately, it only motivated him more to call even more frecuently if that was even possible.

and now that he practically had ran away from his house yesterday he's already expecting the call to come.

when he heard the phone ringing he didn't see the point in stalling.
he's had enough of tiptoeing around Wilbur.

"hello?"

"hi tommy"
____________

everything was going as well as he expected it to.

"i still can't believe you did that"

"why did you feel the need to apologize again-"

"i was trying to be nice to you untill you just left without notice"

"you said i could go home"

"it's a courtesy thing, you're not actually supposed to go"

that being not well at all.

him and Wilbur had been going back and forth for a while now, neither making much progress in getting their point across as all they where doing is yelling at each other.
it was achieving nothing aside from riling them both up

"well maybe if you started to mean the shit you say I'll actually listen" he yelled- maybe a bit too loud, his neighbors surely heard that but he didn't give a shit.

"what are you implying" Wilbur wasn't backing out, if they where face to face right now tommy could swear that he'd be backed into corner. Wilbur dropped all the anger from his voice, switching into a more cold and calculating demeanor.

he was trying to scare him again.

"right after i ran off you called me and we made up, it was all normal untill the fuckin party, where you, for some fuckin reason, decided to act like the entire last week had just ... not happened at all and apologize again!"

"and you kept cutting me off-"

"beacuse you weren't making sense!"

"I'm not arguing with you"

"well I am bitch! so argue with me!"

he had picked up the phone expecting a fight and he was resolved on getting one.

"you're not arguing either." wilbur left no room for questioning and tommy felt his lips clasp shut, leaving his words to die on his throat. He was trying to scare him and it was working.
every fiber of his being begged him to shut up.

"a-alright" he hesitantly complied,only because he couldn't do anything else.

"listen to me alright? are you listening?"

Wilbur leaned into the microphone. tommy could almost feel his breathing on his ear.

"i am"

"good, I don't think you should be hanging out with me at… least not Any time soon, I'm pretty pissed off still over that blatant act of disrespect" Wilbur lectures him, what his deal was lately with respect (or rather lack there off) escaped tommy completely but he still listened."but i still want us to be friends tommy, I'll still call you and we'll still talk"
he tried to sound pleading but the forcefulness was to blatant for tommy to ignore even with the migraine he felt creeping in. "you'll answer my calls, right?"

it wasn't a question, he was asking for confirmation. tommy just wanted to hang up, already regretting having picked up in the first place as he leaned on the nearest wall with his free hand clutching his head.

"yeah.." he responds weakly after a bit too long. "I'll pick up.. no worries"

"yeah see? we'll talk like we always do we just won't hang out, on top of Everything already it's starting to get colder and colder every day with winter coming soon, i wouldn't want you to get sick, you're no fun like that "

"right"

"see? we agree."

they did right?

"yeah we do"

they had too.

"alright i won't waste more of your time man, don't pay too much attention to all we talked today, just keep your promises alright?, you can forget about the rest"

he opened his mouth to talk but Wilbur didn't give him time to respond, instead he kept talking.
"remember,I'll call you later. don't miss it."

later is a rather loose timeframe but he can work with that.
"yeah.. i..i won't" the conversation seemed over, unless Wilbur had anything else to say.
tommy was praying he didn't.

"bye Wilbur"

he didn't return the farewell, instead abruptly ending the call. he didn't notice though for his head was fucking killing him.

tommy felt Liquid run down his nose but doesn't register what it is until he tastes iron on his lips.
the blood droplet made it's way past his chin and into his shirt staining it crimson.
his hand dropped to his side-almost letting his phone slip off.

he takes a deep breath and holds it letting his head tilt forward as he lets it out. he could feel his hearth still pounding in his chest, he hadn't noticed how bad it before but now that it's calming down he's aware of it.

another drop hits his chest this time slightly larger than the first one, his eyes drag over to the open bathroom door,his feet however remained rooted to the ground.
a soft thud against the carpet forces him to look down again, his phone had dropped from his lackluster hold and now layed on the ground next to his feet.

that small event seemed to be enough to snap him out of his (admittedly foggy and nonsensical) thoughts.
he mutters a soft "oh" to himself before leaving over and picking the phone up and turning it around to check if the screens cracked, thankfully it wasn't.

upon unlocking it the screen opened on the phone app, tommy stared at it for second trying to remember why he had opened it on the first place.

another warm drop landed on his shirt.

his emergency contacts where showed at the top of the list, there's his mom, his dad and Phil who he had added there as a joke.

he looked down at his stained shirt and then back to his phone,this time his eyes lingered specifically on his mom's number, he hadn't called her in a while and if there was anyone who knew how to get blood off it was her.
maybe shouldn't ask that right away it's really not that good of a look. still he finds it hard to really care right now.

with that in mind he hits the call button like he had imagined he was about to do before spacing out, his mother doesn't take long to pick up.

"Tom hi! it's been what? almost a week? what have you been up too?" his mother cheerfully greets him , it's a nice change of pace from the usual.. whatever he has with Wilbur.

"hi mum, just hanging out... nothing much. i was actually wondering.." he rethinks how he should approach this but ultimately decides to keep it simple.
" do you happen to know how to get blood off a shirt ?"

Chapter Text

out of all the rooms in his apartment the kitchen always felt like the most suffocating. Tommy had always attributed it to him being used to the kitchen at his parents' house with its more open concept and view of the living room, but today he feels that there is something else that bothers him.
the ticking of the clock, only occasionally interrupted by the trickle of the counterfeit faucet, bounced off the thin walls of the apartment not helping his growing impatience.

propped up against the counter and in front of the fridge Tommy drums his fingers to pass the time, it's maybe not the most efficient way but it's all he can do while he waits in the kitchen.
he tells himself that he is waiting for his phone to charge, after all there is not much he can do without it at this time of night without having to turn on the computer, however this is a weak excuse and he knows it.It's late, Tommy doesn't even feel like using his phone right now, yet he's still there,planted in the kitchen.

right there is where Tommy begins to notice all the little details he normally would have ignored, the slightly chipped paint hiding just behind the fridge, the moisture marks starting to show in the corners of the ceiling, the spider web on the door frame, they all start to bother him more as he look at them; although they are all insignificant compared to the frankly overwhelming ticking of the clock that seemed to grow louder and louder with each passing second, it's another thing Tommy never payed attention to before but now he finds himself having to resist the urge to rip it off the wall and slam it onto the floor.
as time went on the kitchen seemed to get colder and colder- or so he feels,tommy shivers and hugshimself as he waits.

for what? it's not clear, not even to him.
still there he stands next to the Charging cellphone, trembling in the kitchen instead of being tucked in bed as he imagines that all his neighbors are now, nothing seems to be happening and that is what leaves him the most restless.

"something is going to happen" he tells himself "and if I miss it I'm going to regret it"

maybe it's paranoia speaking-if he thinks about it it's definitely paranoia-but Tommy would rather freeze in the kitchen at 2am than risk the consequences of not doing so (what the consequences are, he's not even sure).

it's a strange feeling that that washes over him, a mixture of fear, anticipation and what he can only describe as a numbness slowly rising like a tide. as if to prevent Tommy from getting lost in his own mind, the irregular dripping from the faucet brings him back to reality, it's not much but Tommy can appreciate the break in the monotony that dominated the environment.

there was very little to do, so out of nowhere he finds looking directly at the light extremely interesting, as if to please him the light bulb flickers almost in time with the clock.
It's not natural- something tells him- there's something strange going on here.
the truth of the situation escapes him, but Tommy is no fool; something is going to happen and he is going to be the first witness it.
.
.
.
.
surely it Could happen faster though?
.
.
.
.
[RING RING]
there it is.
as soon as the phone rang tommy was huddling over it to answer as soon as possible.

"hello?" he asked, even if he already knew what answer he'll get, even if deep down he already knew who was calling him before the phone even rang.

"hello tommy" Wilburs voice greets him through the static, like it had all those times before, it had been nearly a week since they had last spoken and tommy had been (eagerly?) waiting.

___________

Walking down the sidewalk alone to the nearest park is not how Tommy had imagined spending the night, but Wilbur seemed to have other plans.
the cold wing pushed him forward while autumn leaves crunched beneath his feet. normally he'd stop to take it all in:
; listening to the crickets and breathing in the cold wind,but the phone on his ear served as a constant reminder that this was not a leisure walk.

"Tommy, do you know how to dig?" Wilbur asks him halfway there, making his presence known after a long silence.

"dig?" Needless to say Tommy was extremely confused "what do you mean? like a dog?"

Wilbur sighs, "Yes, Tommy like a dog. Do you know or not?"
It's a weird question, and although Wilbur has always been a weird guy this one was definitely a highlight.

"It would be kind of weird if i didn't know how to dig" He ends up answering "I've never dug a hole before but if i could if i wanted to"

Wilbur hums a yes, and Tommy imagines him nodding.

"Okay, let's go practice then" said Wilbur determined

"can I ask why?"

"well in case someday you have to dig duh,I'll be there don't worry"

what he meant by practice Tommy can only imagine, it's a ridiculous idea but Tommy doesn't feel like arguing with him, he has a feeling that that wouldn't end well anyways.
he Simply nods as if Wilbur could see him and continues his way to the park making a mental note to ignore the wind chimes that seem to follow him wherever he goes.
he had been ignoring them lately, but it's becoming harder and harder every time.

The rest of the trek there was spent in silence, only interrupted by occasional comments from Wilbur that only served to convince him more and more of the importance of the supposed practice.

Once he steps on the freshly cut grass Tommy makes a beeline to the more densely wooded area of the park.

immediately he collapses to his knees and let his hands bury themselves in the dirt. the world itself seems to be completely focused on him and only him, birds sat on nearby branches ready to watch a spectacle, bugs quieted down to let the scene play out and moonlight lit up the small clearing he found himself in like a spotlight.

Wilbur was there watching aswell, standing tall and wrapped in shadows below and behind tree branches that blocked most moonlight and obscured his face while the Wind played with the fake fur of an unfamiliar winter coat he wore.
tommy, through his blurry vision and from the down angle he was at, could only catch a glimpse of the man's glasses that reflected a small spec of light making them seen almost as if they where glowing.

as he had gotten used to doing lately tommy ignored all of this turning his eyes back go the soft ground he kneeled in. his mind completely lost in thoughs or rather lack there of untill Wilbur broke the silence.

"so? what are you waiting for?" his voice echoed through the clearing "dig."

so he did.

throwing handful after handful of dirt behind him Tommy dug until his hands ached, and all he could hear was the wind howling through the trees and the chimes that it carried along.

if tommy had been any more lucid he may have made a joke about the windchimes that followed the man around like his own soundtrack, but sadly he wasn't.

Fresh mud had collected under his fingernails and his jeans were completely ruined, with dirt covering every fiber of the fabric from his knees down.
he doesn't know just how long he spent like that, time could have stopped completely and tommy wouldn't have noticed.

"Enough" orders Wilbur, whatever friendly tone he may have had before forgotten as he spoke up from above him.

Tommy stops and looks up to where will's standing, patiently waiting to be spoken to again.
If anyone had seen him, they would have noticed the awkward and uncharacteristic way Tommy sits looking up, his back straight and his almost gray eyes fixated on where he imagines Wilbur's face to be-he hasn't been able to get a good look at him yet. Wilbur seems to take note of this.

"relax" he says, so he does. he lets his limbs hang limp off his body and his head slam against the soft fallen leaves that covered the dirt at this time of year.

"you did well tommy" he praises "i think should rest now,I'll take care of everything"
he had nothing to worry about, Wilbur will take care of everything, now all that Tommy had to do was lay his head on the soft Crunchy leaves and-
"Not here idiot,go home" he reprimands like he's talking to an infant that doesn't understand instructions, normally it would offend Tommy greatly but seeing as he was getting ready to sleep on the dirt a few seconds ago it made sense. he lazily got up and made his way home without looking back, he didnt think about anything while walking, he didn't say anything when he got home either, tommy simply made his way to the nearest soft thing (that happened to be the couch thankfully) and rested there, quickly falling into a dreamless sleep.

.

Chapter Text

[RING RING]

the phone made itself heard, piercing his ears with its loud volume and waking him up. Tommy could swear he had turned down before going to bed.

[RING RING]

while the ringtone echoed a second time on the thin walls of his apartment a sense of deja Vu washed over him.

[RING RING]

before he has been angry and confused. tonight though he knew exactly what was going on.

[RING RING]

tommy tossed aside the blankets and shook off the last bit of sleepiness that clung to him while he picked the phone up from his desk

[RING RING]

the screen lit up displaying clear as day Wilbur's contact name and the clock that marked 2 in the morning.
he didn't mind,he already knew.
Wilbur had arranged something for them a couple of days prior, he didn't go into any specifics (he never does) but he did let tommy know that he'll call him late at night.
or was it early in the Morning? whatever he shouldn't be up anyways.

"hello?"

"I'm assuming you're ready, get that red hoodie of yours on, it's cold out."

the lights on his room flickered. he reached in his closet for his red hoodie.

"are you gonna be there?" he asked while holding his phone with his shoulder.

"of course, I'm already here waiting for you so hurry up"

"sorry i … just woke up" he puts on the first pair of jeans he could find "I'm getting ready right now"

tommy slips his sneakers on with ease and get ready to open the door.
"I'm out already, i should be there in 10 minutes"

"why don't you run and make it 5?"

…

"yeah good idea"

he slammed the door to his apartment shut and ran.

Chapter Text

tommy got to his apartment at some ungodly hour of the morning
he struggles with the keys, his shaking hands refusing to cooperate as he aims for the doors lock. by some miracle he manages to get it open without making too much of a scene, after all it'll be hard to explain to his neighbors why he was covered in mud at 3am.
now that he thinks about it tommy doesn't even know himself.
his house is as dark and cold as the night outside,the cold at least seems to stir his Brain up A bit, faded memories resurface when he finally steps into his apartment.

the park had been cold too, a breeze made it's way through the trees while tommy avoided tripping on rots on the ground.
the air was humid and there was a distinct rain smell that permieted the atmosphere, it hadn't been the most ideal night for a walk, that fact made evident in the mud that clung to his sneakers even after walking all the way back home.

Tommy crawls into the bathroom without even bothering to turn on the kitchen light. he needed a bath First of all.his hunger and thirst can wait.

leaving muddy tracks on the floor and with his clothes still on, the boy turns on the shower faucet and goes inside. the hot water serves to clear his thoughts a bit but the mist clogging his mind isn't about to give up that easily.
his memory still fails him as he tries to remember whatever he had been up to these last few hours.
the mud on his pants and sneakers is washed into the drain while the grime on his sweatshirt runs down his arms to his fingertips.

a woman had been sat on one of the benches,he recalls. she had her phone out, probably waiting for a friend to pick her up.the lights illuminating the trail seemed to dim at times but she payed no mind to them, her eyes still glued to the phone.

tommy brings his hands in front of his face with more effort than usual, reddish mud runs down his arms leaving long stretched smears that, if Tommy narrows his eyes , appear like veins on top of his skin
the edges of his vision are blurry.maybe it's the exhaustion or the hunger or a combination of both ,but when
his legs threaten to collapse the boy simply ignores them in favor of continuing to look at his hands. that same mud that runs down his arm can be seen hiding under his fingernails. it's not a very comfortable sensation.

with his back pressed against a thick dark tree tommy had been hiding the in shadows like he had been told to, soon the sound of distant windchimes made it's way to him. it was pleasant, but there was something off about it that he couldn't quite place. they sounded vaguely like words that he couldn't make out.

his eyes felt heavy and the warm water against his back wasn't helping.tommy leans against the tiled walls and drops to his knees on the shower floor.
Sitting there, with the water still running and his clothes soaked, Tommy can't concentrate on anything but his hands; he curls his fingers and uncurls them, watching how the water dripped off their tips as he waved his hands around some more.

snapping back to reality tommy goes back to cleaning himself, he's I'm the shower for a reason after all,so he slowly stretches himself to grab the shampoo bottle that sat on the corner of the shower.

tommy picked up the knife that had been so carelessly thrown in front of him.whoever did it spoke to him but their words seemed to be drowned out by a static that tommy couldn't figure out where it was coming from, thinking about it only makes it grow louder.

without him noticing his fingers had curled around the simple chefs knife and, to his horror, held it like the weapon it had the potential to be. that same force soon stiffened his legs, near forcing him to stand upright.
finally he was turned against his will to face the bench the woman had still been sitting on.

.
.

the shower seemed to make no noise anymore. The whole world seemed to stop just for him.
The shampoo bottle falls to the floor but Tommy barely registers it.
something is wrong. very wrong
the dirt on him weighed him down now more than ever, he had to get rid of it. it wasn't a "want" anymore its a need

His heart beats faster as he tries to remember. his heads spinning even worse than it had before
tommy takes the soap and begins rubbing it roughly against his jeans seeing how the mud comes off them more and with each pass, maybe as a distraction probably out of disgust

the woman had laid on the ground below him with dirt clinging to her hair. she had been weakly struggling against him, uselessly trying to get him off herself, but it didn't work. tommy didn't move (not that he could)
hand shaped shadows warped around her neck blocking her airways.effectively choking her as tommy watched. it's hold on her didn't bulge and neither did tommy. the shadows did not let go until she was unconscious and perfectly positioned for tommy to plunge the knife into her chest.

Tommy feels vile rising up his throat,
the puzzle pieces abruptly fit together, giving him a disturbing insight into what happened after leaving his apartment that night. he looks at his hands again, now recognizing the red mud for what it is. blood

the tears that had been silently running down his cheeks turned into a disconsolate cry,the boy struggling to breathe inbetween sobs.
the guilt weighs him down as much as the consequences that he will surely have to face.
did she have a family? friends? god forbid children? surely, maybe, he hopes not.
why did he fucking do that? how did he fucking do that?
tommy struggles to both breathe and comprehend what's going on.
his mind tries to construct an explanation, an excuse that maybe he could give the court but nothing comes out. not that's he's lucid enough for that anyways. he could beg and plead but that wont save him.
he did that didn't he? he really did that. It didn't feel real, it shouldn't be.
but l there's still blood seeping out of his clothes and staining his shower.

in a desperate attempt to accommodate his thoughts Tommy pulls his hair out with all the strength he has left.
god he just wants to scream.

"don't scream"
.
his legs had given up from exhaustion, leaving him to slam his head against the freshly dug up dirt
.
"just go home"
.
his shaking hands reached up to tug at his hair desperately. screams of horror are caught on his throat.
.
"and take a shower, your hair's a mess right now"

when he looked up the shadow looming over him wasn't there anymore, blown away by the cold wind; leaving him alone in the dirt
it was getting late.
And he really needed to get home.

Tommy can't scream. he feels his throat closing up more and more with each attempt,making it even more difficult for him to breathe.
with his head resting on his knees and his hands busy pulling at his hair, Tommy is only able to stare at his reflection in the drain grate.
the shape of the metal distorts his image but is clear enough for Tommy to see the state he is in.
dark purple circles outlined his puffy red eyes, he no longer had dirt on his face (thank god) but his hair was another story entirely; It seems that the shower alone had not helped at all to untangle it and get the dirt out of his curls.

between his crying and the horrible memories that lurk just beneath the surface Tommy fails to notice the black spots that start lining his vision

before it all goes dark he catches a final glimpse of his reflection; his hair really was a fucking mess.

.
.

he doesn't know how long he had spent laying on his bedrooms floor , everything after he came out of the shower had been a blur;with his legs sore and his eyelids becoming heavier by the second he had passed out only a few steps away from his bed
it's a miracle he had managed to even get dressed in the first place
he had woken up in that same uncomfortable position, spread out on the carpeted floor, he couldn't bring himself to stand up or even straighten himself
every tiny movement stung more than the last one, even swallowing his own spit proved to be a challenge when the lump in his throats barely let him breathe in their first place.
he waited in place for a while ,though he couldn't tell exactly what he was waiting for; maybe the lights would turn on and he'd be forced to stand up, maybe someone would come knocking at his door .. or maybe he'd finally wake up, letting him rule out the past week as a long confusing nightmare

tommy felt as if he had been trapped in his own body, conscious and watching while unable to move, similar to a state of sleep paralysis. the days had been merging together and he doesn't remember the last time he had an actual meal - well he does but it was definitely a few days ago by now.
that seemed to be catching up to him though, as he could feel his stomach twist and Groan along with his head pounding from the inside practically begging him to at least have something to drink

he tries to stand up again, only for his trembling arms to fail him, letting him fall again ,he tried to protect his head this time but his slowed down reactions left him to slam both his torso and head against the soft carpet floor he had been laying on
the pain lingers for god knows how long, though it at least seems to help him to focus on something other than the pitiful state he was in
he looks down at his legs, readying himself for another attempt at standing up.
"come on tommy you're better than this" he tries to tell himself, but his voice comes out as less than a whisper, raspy and used as if he had been screaming the night before.

with all the strength he had he grabbed the beds blankets and pulled, supporting himself with his other arm while he rearranged his legs into a kneeling position in front of the bed. while the effort may have lasted less than a minute it had sufficiently drained the boy who once again had gone limp, now with his upper torso slumped against the mattress instead of the floor

his heart was pounding as if he had just ran up a flight of stairs and while the dizziness and soreness where slowly getting better it wasn't really anything to be optimistic about, not when minutes prior he had been struggling to breathe

"what did i do?" he asks himself,as his head starts to clear up, surely he would remember if something happened that left him this fucked up!.he had barely left the house lately so any kind of arduous physical activity was off the table, it wasn't alcohol either - he doesn't think so at least, he's doesn't even like that shit
"god damnit .." he groaned, rubbing his eyes with more force than needed. he tries to straighten himself again, this time the goal is to sit on the bed and have some proper rest
he pushes himself unto the bed with way less effort than before,it's a relief to be able to move now, but tommy is in no way planing to do any more of that today. ideally he'd fall sleep for a week straight but he's willing to settle for a full day.. and maybe a night too just for good measure.
with that in mind he rests his head unto the pillow and closes his eyes again, ignoring the dryness of his mouth. it's not long untill he has fallen asleep again

_________________________

the phone was left ringing for the 6th time that day
when Wilbur gives up it had become clear that Tommy couldn't or didn't want to answer.
"He's an adult and he can do whatever he wants" Wilbur reminded himself, but something didn't add up; Tommy isn't one to disappear without a trace like this, he always answers calls even if he's not in the mood to talk- Tommy never hesitated to tell him the fuck up when he was busy- not to mention no one has seen him in weeks.
the last person he spoke with had apparently been tubbo a few days ago,but he hadn't notice anything out of the ordinary either, Tommy had mentioned being tired but apart from that the conversation was normal. short, but normal.
Wilbur leaves his cell phone on the kitchen table, accepting defeat. concluding that Tommy might simply be taking time for himself and leaving it at that .after all even if it isn't true he's in no place to monitor his friends life (no matter how worried he might be)

.

Chapter Text

after rushing out of the house tommy soon found himself stepping on the newly familiar ground of his local park.

Wilbur was,as promised, waiting for him by the treeline. He waved at Tommy to follow him through the foliage.They had yet to speak to each other since Tommy hung up the phone, no one said hi so no one replied.
However, Tommy is almost thankful for the silence, it gives him time to notice the little things.
Wilbur leads the way in front of him through the trees like he has walked this made up path thousands of times.

Eventually they coincide with the dirt path you're actually supposed to walk on, before he could get on though Wilbur tugs at his hoodie.
"don't move, hide behind the tree"
tommy looks up at him where his face was against mostly obscured by the trees but made no move to obey as he stared at where he imagined Wilbur's face should be. he could like last time barely make out the outline of wills glasses. his eyes however were getting blurrier by the second so it made sense.
he watches Wilbur's mouth move but cannot make the words out through the ringing on his ears.
he squints at him, as if that'll make any difference.
eventually he does as he's told, hiding behind the thick trunk with wilbur who looks at him up and down curiously at the same time as he lowers himself slightly until the two are face to face.
tommy does his best to keep his eyes in focus but still can't make out any features of his face.Wilbur doesn't pay mind to his efforts though. he instead pointing behind him where the path is,urging tommy to look.

someone sat alone in one of the benches that lined the path,right under a lamppost.

"see that person over there?"

Wilbur asks, still pointing. they hadn't looked up from their phone yet, completely unaware of the strangers watching them.

before he could respond his attention is called back to wilbur when he hears the blunt sound of something falling on the dirt behind him.
tommy looks down to find a chef's knife laying between the fallen leaves.

"i want you to kill them"

this, although briefly and slightly, snaps tommy out his haze.

"wh- no! i won't do that" he splutters hugging himself tightly while backing up towards the tree trunk they were hiding behind.
Wilbur looks down at him disappointed
"wha-at if i get caught?" his breath hitched "what if they scream for help! I'll - I'll go to jail..."
Wilbur giggled,placing a hand on Tommy's shoulders
"don't worry about that tommy, I'll be on the lookout" he mocks bringing up a pair of binoculars to his eyes,like they where talking about skipping school and not planing to kill someone.
his heart rate picked up at the thought, he tried to get further away from Wilbur but his back was already pressed uncomfortably hard Against the tree.
as his vision started to blur again so he bit his tongue until he tasted iron, it didn't help as much as he wished it had but at least it was something.
Wilbur kept talking, his words merging together in an almost melodic way, like bells against the wind.it took quite the effort to be able to understand him.
an effort tommy wasn't nearly well rested enough to pull out.
he must have noticed tommy hadn't picked anything of that up because his brows furrowed.
tommy meanwhile slipped further and further down against the tree until he's sitting on its roots.

"pick up the knife tommy" his words finally make sense again but he almost wishes they didn't.
,
he unwilling leans forward, reaching for the knife at Wilbur's feet.
"no.. i" he grips at the dirt near the knife, desperately trying to avoid it to the best of his abilities. he grits his teeth letting out a labored "fuck" while Wilbur watched, his eyebrows raised with what could only be described as a twisted sense of amusement.

"i don't know why you're making such a scene about this. it's not that hard"

tommy grips the handle and raises the knife close to his chest, he's not to sure how to hold it, he doesn't really want to do it at all.

seeing this Wilbur huffs and guides the knife in Tommy's hand to a more comfortable position, tommy watches in horror as his hands grip the knife brandishing the tip outwards. Wilbur meanwhile hums satisfied. "besides, even if you do get caught, you're rich! rich people don't go to jail" he rambles, not caring about the glare Tommy send this way. "sure it'll put a stain in your record but as long as you don't get caught the next tim-"
"i don't want to kill them" tommy cuts wilbur off. which soon proved to be a mistake.

his eyes darken."kill them, I'll take care of the rest, just kill them" he orders and tommy knows he's lost the battle when his legs stiffen forcing him to stand up.
hes dizzy, he makes his way into the path and towards the bench.
he's trembling. he must have looked pretty bad, the person had stood up now,wary of his every move.
he couldn't hear what they where saying, static filled his ears and clouded his eyes.
he felt a slight bush on his back before he lunged forward and his vision went black. …
…
…
__________________

Tommy woke up screaming.

his hearth was still pounding on his chest and even though was almost winter sweat trickled down his forehead.
not that he cared anyways, his mind still processing the dream he just woke up from.
looking over to his bedside table and checking his phone tommy looked at the clock first.

6:43 pm
…
damn, alright. he had been expecting it to be late but not by this much.
he reluctantly got up and opened the window, seeing that the sun was getting ready to set, Tommy groaned and rubbed his eyes deciding to now focus on the avalanche of notifications he had gotten while asleep.

12 missed calls.

without even bothering to read who they where from tommy immediately deletes all of them,not wanting to entertain the thought of getting a phone call right now. whoever had been calling him Would just have to suck it up.

He was about to put his phone down when he felt his stomach grumble loudly, only then tommy became aware of just how hungry and thirsty he was.
clutching his stomach he opened the doordash app and scrolled through the options while serving himself a glass of water.

and by god he couldn't have imagined just how bad he needed it until he finally got a taste.

tommy finished drinking the whole glass in seconds, ignoring how he almost choked he reaches again for the bottle, only that now he doesn't waste any time pouring himself a glass. If his mother were here she would surely scold him for drinking from the Bottle but Tommy doesn't care.he ends up chugging the entire thing.
the Plastic creaks when he folds it and tosses it into the trash can.

now- he thinks to himself- some food.

he picks his phone back up again and settles for a simple McDonald's combo, once the order is placed Tommy leaves the kitchen for the bathroom, his clothes from the night (day?) before were neatly folded on top of the toilet. assuming he folded them after taking a bath he gives himself a pat on the back for being so clean and organized, although not remembering doing it is quite annoying he supposes that it is not that bad,he still felt somewhat dizzy after all so that might be why.

he hopes the food can keep him occupied enough not to think about it.

It doesn't take long for his order to arrive. when the doorbell rings Tommy is already running for the elevator.
the food does not last even 5 minutes in his presence, he stuffed the burger with the fries and devoured it in seconds. next where the nuggets ,he barely took time to chew on them too.

as he settles down with his now full stomach his eyes seemed drawn to the table and away from everything else In the room.
he still has the trash to throw away but he pushes the task side,the bright obnoxious red of the McDonald's cardboard hurt to look at. whoever was in charge should really consider costumers with tired eyes on their next board meeting, he can't be the only one that has though of this.
his eyes feeling so heavy surprised him for a second, surely he had slept more than enough for that not to happen.
he pushes those questions aside, looking forward again his eyes meet the same bright red box.
ugh.
to avoid any further distractions and with a drawn out movement of his arm he swept any and all trash out of sight.
the empty cardboard and dirty papers hit the floor but he didn't care, it was their fault for hurting his eyes.

he much preferred the warm brown tones of the table
tommy followed the subtle lines and patterns that ran through each panel with his eyes distantly wondering how tall the tree they each came from was, had it been in a forest? did a bird live in it? too many questions that he doesn't know the answer too so his mind goes back to staring at the wood.

for a moment at least.

he can't seem to keep himself from wondering out and bringing his thoughts with him.
on the topic of wood, lots of things in his apartment where made out of wood; much more than he first realized.
his desk, his bedframe, his floors, the doors, the doorframes...

even in his kitchen, the table was an obvious one but even some of his silverware had wodden handles.
the chefs knife on the sink was a good example,he didn't use it much, but it's a nice knife nonetheless; with it's dark wooden handle, it had been fairly cheap too.
he hadn't been looking at it before but he certainly was now.
from his angle he couldn't see much, just the kitchen sink and the knife's tip peaking out.

it it's clean- of course it is, he barely uses it.

he doesn't remember pulling it out the drawer recently.

the nightmare from before resurfaces and makes his stomach turn and paired up with the anxiety that he was already feeling makes him want to go back to stare at the table forever.

some bad dreams you forget about once you wake up.
most you remember, but find out how dumb they are upon waking up. at least that's how it's always been for him

rarely does a one linger like this, to be frank it's running his day.
he wacks his head a little like he's trying to fix a broken tv that only plays one channel.

the nightmare it's isn't clear, not at all, he doesn't think he could recall even half of it coherently. but even like that key imagery stays burned into his mind

the phone rang. the lights flickered. a shadow lead the way through the trees. there was a person in front of him and he killed them.

objectively speaking he's had worse nightmares before.
dreams of the world ending, of his friends dying, of falling endlessly.
and they all sucked, he had woken up crying from all of them.
but this one felt different.

those 4 points repeated over and over in his brain like a broken record

the phone rang. the lights flickered. a shadow lead the way through the trees. there was a person in front of him and he killed them.

the image that was the most clear to him was sadly of a corpse laying under him, it's empty eyes haunting him now that he brought the thought out.

it'll be a shame if he threw up so he tries to focus on something else. he turns back to the good ol table pretending to having gotten about the nightmare.

"This fuckin sucks" he mumbled now pressing his face unto the wodden surface.

he stayed like that for a while, maybe 10 minutes maybe an hour, he can't be too sure and he refuses to check.
the wood was far from comfortable but he also refused to stand up so he had to make do with it.
using his own arms as pillows he felt himself start to drift off.

for a blissful minute,he sleeps.

...

[RING RING]

it doesn't take long for him to wake up again.
it seems like life had other plans for him

[RING RING]

the phone ringing was the last thing he wanted to hear.
the nightmare went back to playing over and over in the back of his head, not helping the situation at all

[RING RING]

this whole scenario was too familiar, too similar to the one playing and replaying in his mind for him to be comfortable with it.

[RING RING]

was this another nightmare? was he lucid Dreaming? he could swear he was trying to sleep a minute ago, maybe he's dreaming again.

[RING RING]

going to sleep with nightmares in your mind seems like a recipe for disaster and tommy feels like he's paying the price right now.

why did he think that falling asleep in the first place would be a good idea?

[RING RING]

fuck. he needs to wake up right the fuck now before the nightmare gets going, he can't afford to look at those soulless eyes again. he can't.

[RING RING]

maybe if he doesn't answer the phone it won't happen, maybe that's the trigger? no this isn't a videogame cutscene he needs to get it together.

he pushes the chair out of his way and rushes over to the phone that was placed face down on the kitchen counter right where he had left it after ordering his food.
maybe it was his mind fuckin with him but- no! it was most definitely his mind, the apartment was dimmer than usual beacuse this was a nightmare god damnit!.

[RING RING]

fuck, the phone was still ringing.
of course it's still ringing.

[RING RING]

if this was a dream maybe he could make it stop with his mind?
he'd try that.
tommy focused all of his energy (wich wasn't much) into the phone, mentally begging it to stop ringing.
he waited for the next ring to come.
..
..
..

it didn't.

either the phone gave up ringing or he really did stop it with his mind.
tommy likes to think it's the latter.

he hadn't realized how high his hearth rate was until now that it was calming down.
was he in the clear? did he even answer the phone in the dream? was that a requirement?

it didn't matter, all tommy needed to do now is wake up, the sooner the better.
but how does one force themselves to wake up from a dream?
can he?
is he trapped in his own mind until something so horrible happens that wakes him up like a regular nightmare?
he can't bear to look behind him for he knows the knife is still in the sink.

would he have to use it again?

the sun had completely set by by now and tommy felt like he was going to throw up, who knew physical symptoms of anxiety could manifest in dreams? how fun.
tommy gripped the counter as hard as he could until his knuckles turned white and it started to hurt. breathing heavily he considers throwing cold water over himself before remembering that the sink was precisely where the knife was and scratching the idea completely.

he felt as the world around him wobbled. was he dizzy or was the building gonna collapse? that's not what originally happened but maybe this is a different nightmare entirely.
old or new it was still terrifying to think about.
so he sat down on the floor and waited for the inevitable.

whatever it was he was gonna face it head on.

___________

"huh, that's weird"

tommy hadn't logged onto anywhere in a week now. ranboo knew that Wilbur is and had been worrying for him for quite a while but it feels like the situation just weighed in on him right now.
beacuse tommy wasn't answering his calls either.

first was Discord, and he couldn't Blame him so much for that, even he misses most discord calls when he's not on his PC. phonecalls wouldn't have set off any alarms for him either hadn't Wilbur been so adamant about failing to contact him lately.
apparently he had gone completely off the grid after rushing out of Wilbur's party. ranboo knew they weren't on the best terms at the minute, it wasn't hard to figure out, that's why he had brushed all of this off as Tommy ignoring Wilbur.
it was only when tubbo asked him if he's heard of the boy lately when he truly started to worry.
apparently the two had talked very briefly a couple days ago but now Tubbo too Couldn't get a hold of him.
he felt dumb for not noticing it before.
but he's had stuff to do.
he had been busy this whole past few weeks.
he hadn't really noticed Tommy's absence until now.

ranboo doesn't know what to do, so he waits a minute or two before calling again.
miraculously tommy picks up the phone almost immediately this time. but he doesn't really get a chance to be relieved.

"hello?"

"ran?" his friend's voice sounds unusually small and shaky as if he had been crying.
shocked,Ranboo almost forgets to respond. but his mind's set back on track when he hears poorly contained sniffling from the over side of the call.

"tommy? are you ok man?"

He doesn't try to hide the concern in his voice with that question and Tommy seems to have picked up on this.

"yeah..." he doesn't sound so sure when he talks, making an audible effort to calm down before responding, taking deep breaths and muttering something Ranboo doesn't quite catch. "i wasn't expecting it to be you ... on the call i mean-" .

"I'm glad it's you though!-" he interrupts himself, taking a deep breath afterwards.
"I'm glad it's you" he adds at the end, quietly and to himself like ranboo wasn't supposed to hear it.

"tommy ..." he doesn't know how.. delicate the situation is Right now,of if it even is delicate in the first place.
"have you been crying?" but he'd rather ask and be shut down than to not try at all.

he wasn't expecting anything else aside from maybe a quick 'no' and a change of topic but for the second time that day tommy flipped his expectations with a surprisingly earnest admission.

"yeah.." he sniffled.catching ranboo, who was already preparing to push, completely off guard.

"are you... like are you good right now?"

"I'm gonna be honest big man, I'm not" his voice cracked slightly at the end of the sentence making his statement all the more evident.

he didn't seem comfortable speaking right now but ranboo wanted to know more, if not for his own morbid curiosity then out of worry for his friend's well being.

"what happend? if you don't mind of course"

"i had a very bad nightmare last night.." tommy hiccuped "or was it today? don't really know but it fucked me up a fair bit"

oh, that made sense. it didn't really explain his absence lately but it's something at least. seeing as he was not responding tommy continued.
"I'm just... I've been feeling a bit down lately"

"I'm guessing the nightmare didn't really help that huh?" he joked.

…

the two seconds of silence that followed where enough for ranboo to overthinking his entire life, he hadn't overstepped to much hadn't he? tommy was venting about a situation that had him crying a few minutes ago and he just joked about it.
thankfully a small chuckle made it's way through the speaker. barely audible but still there, it was enough for ranboo to relax slightly.
"i guess it didn't"

they both stayed silent for a bit after that, tommy trying to level his breathing and ranboo simply waiting for the right moment to speak.

...

"are you still there?" tommy asks and although his voice lacked the waver it had before it still was eeriely quiet compared to Tommy's normal tone.

"of course" he reassures and before they can fall silent again Ranboo tries to take another step forward.

"do you want to talk about it? the nightmare i mean"

tommy's breath hitched. "no i.. i really don't "

"that's fine"

tommy sounds as if he's about to say something else but stops himself. instead taking a deep breath and shaking the mention of the nightmare off.

"ranboo?"

"yeah?"

"thanks for calling man, i was kinda freaking out before so it helped"

considering how this whole call has been he should have seen coming but again ranboo gets caught off guard by how... honest tommy sounds.

"i- it's no problem man! i hope things starts looking up for you from now on"

"i hope that too"

"if you need anything you can always-"

he was interrupted by the sound of the call being ended.

huh, that's weird.

_______________________

a memory, purposefully forgotten, failed to resurface and layed dormant amongst many others.

"get up"
and he does, tommy looks up at the moon and down to his hands, now stained with blood.
finally his eyes land on the strange shadow looming over him.
it's outline is familiar, a cloud of smoke simulates the fur lining of a coat while white voids shined where his eyes where supposed to be.

"you're not Wilbur are you?"

the shadow looks at him and smiles, it's teeth whiter than what should be possible.
"does it matter? we're still friends aren't we?"
tommy nods, knowing there's not much else he can do.
"you did well" it starts dragging the body off between the trees,Tommy wonders where and almost as if it could read his minds it adds "that hole you dug last week remember that?-hopefully you don't- well it's gonna come in Handy tonight."
bloody tracks stain the dirt where the body had just laid on.
"I'll take care of this, go home and shower for now, make yourself a favor too and forget about it."

he doesn't want to forget. he wants to scream.

"don't scream"

his legs had given up from exhaustion, leaving him to slam his head against the freshly dug up dirt

"just go home"

his shaking hands reached up to tug at his hair desperately. screams of horror are caught on his throat.

"and take a shower, your hairs a mess right now"

Chapter Text

ranboos week had been nothing to write home about and, he simply hadn't done much.

it's safe to say that he was bored.

so, with a winter that promised the coldest temperatures the city had seen in a while, him and tubbo had both agreed to spend what they asumed would be their last beach day (at least until spring) together fucking around.
of course they couldn't exactly do that now.
not with a storm darkening the sky and casting shadow on their mood.
only loud thunders occasionally overpowering the strong downpour.

now the two stood frustrated in front of a window in tubbos house, the strong rhythmic patter of the rain on the glass firmly shutting down all and any plans they might have had that day.

"UGH" tubbo flopped down next to ranboo on the couch "it's looking like it's gonna rain all night"

"yeah.." ranboo felt his stomach rumble."can we even order some pizza? i doubt it'll be safe to drive in this climate.. much less a motorbike"

"no shot, the streets are probably starting to flood at this point"

another look out the window told him enough, the dirt outside had completely saturated and it was starting to resemble more of a swamp than a backyard.

he sighs.
if he was right then he'd end up stranded in here for at least the night.
he looked down at his legs and frowned.it wouldn't be that big of an issue if he had at least bought something other than skinny jeans to wear to sleep.

tubbo seemingly read his mind at that moment.
"you can always borrow some clothes from me man, i don't mind" he offered before really thinking about it. "on second thought I doubt they'll fit you.. maybe my dad has something-"

ranboo cut him off with his arms crossed "I'm not wearing your dad's clothes" he huffed.

"fine, be uncomfortable then" huffed tubbo, reaching behind him and grabbing a pillow off the sofa that, before they could react, hit ranboo square in the face.

they yelped as the culprit laughed.

"you are 10 years old"
yelled ranboo, picking the pillow back up and attempting to throw it back at tubbo who expertly dodged it.

"yeah well-"
a loud rattle sound but him off.
a gust of wind that threatened to bust the windows open let a cold chill spread past the poorly shut glass and through the air.

"Jesus Christ man, i didn't think it'll be this cold" tubbo hugged himself "i'm gonna turn on the heater" without giving ranboo time to object-not that they where going to really-he rushed out of the room and to the hallway where the thermostat was.
"don't turn it up too much i don't want to cook in here either!" yelled ranboo,their friend had a bit of a track record of fucking with the temperature just to mess with them so he isn't taking any chances.

not wanting to be bored while waiting for him he turned to look out of the garden's glass doors , the swing that hangs from the tree violently shook back and forth as lighting illuminated the sky.
the scene would make a perfect opening for a tv show- he thinks to himself.

he felt the heating turn on, a small vent began to steadily warm up the room.

"good news bossman!"

his friend and most likely roommate for the night came back balancing two steaming plates in each hand.

"mother dearest was kind enough to prepare some dinner for us"

a generous serving of spaghetti was placed right on his lap along with a fork.

"oh sweet"
genuinely relieved, ranboo picked the silverware up and digged in. the homemade sauce was a delight to taste after months of living out of takeout, tubbos mom might be no match for his own but she was still a very good cook.

it was a Shame her son didn't inherit that in the slightest- he joked , reminding himself of the many cooking streams that ended in pathetic failure. of course he didn't say it out loud; he didn't want to anger tubbo,not while he had a fork in hand.

unaware of his inner speech tubbo silently picked up the remote and switched to whatever random news channel he landed on first.
they all had originally been going on about the economy or what not but eventually every channel started to be filled with reports of fallen branches and blocked roads.
"this is the strongest storm the city has faced all year" claimed a meteorologist c5n had brought in. "we expected the downpour to continue until early hours of the morning"

aside from what was directly Being explained all they understood about the colored maps and winds simulations being shown on the screen was that ranboo's chances of going home that night were nearing cero.

tubbo peered his head over their shoulder with a smirk
"looks like you're stuck with me again"

"i survived 3 months with you i think I can survive one night."

"we'll see about that"

neither the rain nor the wind seemed to be backing down, thankfully the room was already starting to warm up.

they both sat in relative peace until ranboo felt the need to pull his hoodie off.
"godbless modern technology really" he declared while his arms remained tangled on the sleeves. "i think i would have died if i was like.. a medieval peasant in winter"

"you think so?"

"yeah.. I'll freeze and it'll suck" he stated earning himself a pity laugh from tubbo.

ranboo rolled their fork over their plate catching as many noodles as possible, careful not to spill any sauce on his shirt he attempted to chew, almost immediately regretting it after realizing how long it'll take.
tubbo didn't look at him once during all of this,he stared at his own plate lost in though.

"that reminds me, didn't Tom say the A.C at his place was busted?"

"uh?"

"remember he was complaining about it last summer, you recon he got it fixed?" he comments hoping to stir ranboos memory.

"i mean yeah? i hope he did, he didn't really talk about getting it fixed though didn't he?"

"nah, knowing him he's just gonna bitch about it until winters passes, forget about it on spring, and go back to bitching about it next summer"

"ha! probably" he was about to laugh some more, tommy definitely deserved it after making him the butt of all his jokes every time he got a chance, but something about it didn't feel right,not after how worrying their last conversation had been. "hope winter doesn't hit Him too hard" he adds, hoping to make it up to him even if he couldn't hear them.

tubbo caught on pretty quickly on the sudden shift of atmosphere.
"what's the sad face for? did something happen?"

"i don't really know, have you talked to him lately?"

their hopes of finding anything else where quickly swept away by tubbo
"now that i think about it not really, at least not any real conversations "

"hm i see" they sigh,defeated.
ranboo turned back to his pasta, tangling the noodles on his fork and promptly dropping them back on the plate.

"are you ok dude?"

"yeah it's nothing, I've just been a bit worried for him lately, he hasn't really... talked to anyone" no messages,no hanging out, no fan sightings. he was successfully off the grid.

"didn't you call him last week?"

"that's the thing..he didn't sound too good then and no one can seem to get a hold of him ever since"

tubbo fiddled a bit with his fork.

"we talked a bit ago through text, I didn't think much of it really "

ranboo perked up a bit at this and won over by his own curiosity they
continued asking their friend questions "what's the last thing he said?"

tubbo quickly opened his and Tommy's chatlogs and responded without looking up from his phone.
"i asked him a few days ago if he wanted to be on a stream, he said no" he chewed on his pasta as he spoke, gesturing with his fork at every opportunity. "you think he's taking a break?"

"probably, he did mention he hadn't been doing too good, maybe it's a mental health thing"

they both nod deep in thought, tubbos mouth still too full to speak while ranboo had nothing to say.

"maybe" he starts through a mouthful of spaghetti " his dog died or something "

"don't say that " this time it's tubbos turn to receive a pillow to the head.

"AUCH" he shields his eyes "what was that for! we have no idea!"

"that's exactly why you shouldn't say that!" argued ranboo, their voice pitching up for emphasis.

"listen man, all I'm saying is that Betty is getting quite old for a dog…"

ranboo gave an offended gasp
"you wouldn't like me saying that about your cat would you?"

in the midst of their little argument a thunder followed by a loud crash startled them both.
ranboo (who was the closest) rushed to the window just in time to see a tree slowly coming down into the powerlines.

"uhm tubbo?"

they didn't get time to finish his sentence before the lights in the house- and presumably the entire neighborhood- cut off.

"great" said tubbo,obvious sarcasm dripping from his voice "just what we needed"

Chapter Text

his ceiling isn't an interesting sight, not at all really. but having been woken up by crashing thunder Wilbur traces the white paint's every detail hoping to bore himself back to sleep. about an hour passes on monotony before Wilbur even turns his head over.

his alarm clock sat on his bedside table taunting him, proudly displaying and in big numbers [4:21 amazing] impossible to miss. no matter how hard Wilbur tries.

looking around the room it was.. unnaturally dark. the Window, even with it's curtains drawn let in little to no light aside from the bright flashes of lightning, the same that woke him up.

it's strange - he thinks - how the torrential rain and hail hadn't done the trick earlier.

he can clearly hear his roof Being bombarded with sizy chunks of ice, those same slammed themselves into the pavement in front of his window.

the street outside was barely visible with the moonlight doing very little to match the usual glow of the LEDs that lined sidewalks.

 Wilbur- almost embarrassingly slowly- connects the dots. frowning he steps cautiously over to where he knows the light switch is.

as expected when he flicks it on nothing changes.

great.

Wilbur faces the wall for a minute, thinking over his options; it'll be best for him to just go back to sleep at this point but looking back at his track record he doubts it'll actually work.

with a disappointed sigh he makes his way through the darkness over to where his phone had been charging and turns it on.

34%

he lets his face relax a little, that's good enough.

seems like the one night he finally manages to fall asleep everything goes to shit.

he doesn't get much peace before a cold shiver runs down his spine and he hears faint shuffling from the kitchen.

his eyes darted to the doorway and while the hall was pitch black but Wilbur swears he can see light wisps clouding the air.

He rests his hand on the doorway, leaning over as carefully as he can and taking his time with stepping out of his room and into the hallway.

Wilbur winces when the floor creaks, a bit embarrassed to be being so cautious In his own home. reaching his hands in front of him to avoid hitting himself against a wall he continues until he's met with the kitchen door.

it's closed.

he never closes it.

his breath hitched as he placed his hand on the handle, nearly wincing at how cold it was.

there where no noise coming from the other side of the door anymore but that wasn't enough to ease his worries, Wilbur pulled the handle down and pushed.

the door however didn't bulge.

his face contorts, he never closes the door, much less lock it

does That door even have a lock?- he thinks while reaching to try and open it again.

just like last time it doesn't work.

he doesn't think he'd be able to go back to sleep again tonight, or the next one either.

so, taking a deep breath, Wilbur backs off three steps and rams his shoulder into the door that flies open like it hadn't been locked in the first place and Wilbur lands on the floor with little grace.

illuminated by dim moonlight the kitchen was empty.

not a single disturbance in sight.

his head burned, but he hadn't hit it.

________

the torrential rain had yet to subside.leaving no time for the pavement to dry and more importantly leaving no time for the fallen cables to be fixed.

just like that portions of every city in the south of England remained still in the dark.

he supposed he'd gotten lucky in that regard, although Being woken up in the middle of the night by thunder so loud it sounded like the sky was gonna fall might have been irritating. At least he could make himself a coffee and wait it out watching tv.

but coffee was all he really had, the last week had passed quickly and he had spent nearly half of it resting, he hadn't paid much attention to the persistent storm until now that it started to inconvenience him. The point is, he was nearly out of food in his pantry.

with his energy giving him more wiggle room he was determined to make something out of the day.

if the weather allowed for it at least.

he stared out the window for hours, the tv in the background had been completely ignored in favor of watching the water drops race on the glass, eventually getting up to have something to eat and returning to his spot near the window soon after.

finally it's around 6 pm when the rain slows down enough for him to reasonably go out.

tommy threads the ground carefully both not to slip and not to trip on all the Debris ;Broken plant pots swept away by the wind and road signs too weak to withstand it littered the streets. but With the winds having looked more like a hurricane than a simple storm it was to be expected.

raindrop stirring the puddles under his shoes brough Tommy's attention back up to the grey skies where the rain that had previously calmed down started slowly to pick back up. 

he felt it on his shoulders before he could really process what was happening. 

he squints up at the clouds, like that'll somehow make everything make sense, the skies in return let a single drop fall directly in his eye.

“ahg!” the whine didn't echo on the empty streets like he’d expected it to, the rain drowned it out as he let himself be mindlessly pushed by the wind; too overwhelmed by the disgusting feeling of wet clothes clinging to his skin to really notice.

his bangs stick to his face and blind him before he wipes them away for the third time.

he notices with a grimace that, with every step he takes, he feels like a swamp is contained in his shoes.

it's disgusting, it makes him feel disgusting. he tries to ignore the feeling that has started to pool in his head; zoning in and out periodically and barely looking above the pavement.

shouldn't i be there yet?-he questions distantly- have i been waking that slowly?.

tommy raises his gaze to have it be met with unfamiliar streets.

he'd gone too far, he realizes.so turns around.now with the wind pushing on his face making him shiver he keeps going, tracing his steps up until where he had forgotten to turn in the first place.

 another shiver wrecks his body and he brings his hands to his forearms to try and preserve some heat.

 Come to think of it now he could have at least grabbed an umbrella before heading out.

 whatever, he's almost there anyways.

 among all the dark houses and closed businesses the kiosk's lights shone brighter than ever.

 the billboard's LED lights were reflecting off the thin layer of water covering the pavement, rendering all of Tommy's efforts not to look directly at it useless.

 Even with his eyes burning slightly Tommy makes his way through the automatic doors.walking slowly through the corridors and leaving muscle memory to do all the thinking.

 he grabs what he always does plus some extra cereal boxes, he has a feeling he's gonna end up eating a lot of that in the coming days if today was anything to go out of.

 his eyes feel heavy but the store is not a particularly good place to rest so he perseveres.

 the way back home Tommy did it on autopilot;he's lucky he didn't even up get lost again.He might have accidentally fallen into a ditch or two but that's not important,pretty good for walking around with his eyes half closed anyways.

 he doesn't quite register he's home until he's sat down at his sofa letting the cushions get as soaked as he is. the bags left forgotten by the door.

his stomach grumbles.

without bothering to actually organize anything tommy pulls the sandwiches he brought out and begins to eagerly unwrap them.

soft bread, fresh ham and delicious cheese, pretty generously rationed too.

he's lucky he's decided to grab so many he'd take this has his lunch and dinner

 with a blank face he takes a big breath, staring at the ceiling while he tries to convince himself to actually out the groceries away his fingers grip his damp sweater.

he pulls it off with some effort before throwing it on the floor with a splat, he cringes a bit at the noise.

tommy only drags himself out of the Couch after it became too wet for comfort. He places most of the food in his pantry and fridge before heading to the bathroom to finally free himself from the deja Vu that the soaked clothes carried.

they end up drying in his bathroom and tommy ends up laying on his bed.

his phones beeping on the bedside table, clogged to no end with notifications from the last week.

 without much enthusiasm Tommy opens the most recent one , a tubbo message from the night before.

 >hey dude how's it going, the lights went out here, are you ok?

 >ranboo says hi btw

 the messages bring a small smile to his lips from him, he doesn't really know what to answer however.

 yeah I'm fine, lights are good too<

is he lying? Maybe a little. He wouldn't exactly rate his current situation anything above a 5 but Tubbo didn't need to know that.

Besides, he was getting better already! he'd had lunch today! and went shopping! definitely a step up from his near hibernation the last few days.

he mentally pats himself on the back for that and stares back at his phone.

a single message is too little, it makes him sound too disinterested. his eyes wander over to the clock on the phone's upper corner.

9:38 pm is a pretty reasonable time to go to bed right?

 I think I'm gonna go sleep right now tho<

 before returning his phone off he sent a final message to tubbo

 tell ranboo i say hi too<

_______

the air today wasn't as cold as before. something Tommy was grateful for;his apartment had been freezing lately.

he'd had enough foresight after yesterday to actually wear a jacket today as well so the wind wasn't bothering him either.

he'd even dare to say that it was a nice afternoon.

he had been holed up in his apartment for too long, a walk was well overdue- at least that's what wilbur had told him.

He had to admit he was right. feeling the fresh air hit his face in a way that didn't make him want to rip it off was nice.

a light brush on his shoulder from a passerby brought his attention back to the real world to see a familiar coat waiting for him.

"will!" he shouts and waves his hand up with his newfound energy. Wilbur waves back a bit more discreetly.

with a push Tommy opens himself a path through the crowd with a smirk, fully intending to tackle Wilbur into the floor.

he gets dodged sadly.

Wilbur swiftly moves to the side and leaves tommy to stumble forwards, what little people walked around side eyed him as he turned around and called to Wilbur again.

"why did you dodge that!?" he pouts ,brushing imaginary dirt off his pants.

"tommy you're being to loud" Wilbur whispers instead of answering.

"what do you mean?"

"look around man" he leans forward to speak in his ear "everyone thinks you're weird"

few people where actually looking at him, but it was enough to be unsettling.

black smoke from his cigarette left Wilbur's mouth as he spoke "you have to calm down, let's walk away a bit"

tommy nods and let's himself be silently guided around the streets.

"what happened?" he mutters, not daring to look at will while they walk.

"i don't know man, people are fucking stupid, let's keep going"

they reached a more secluded street in no time, only then Wilbur turned to look at him with a smile and with his bangs covering his eyes.

"so,i see you're doing better today"

tommy lightens up "i woke up feeling much better today thankfully"

"not tired anymore?"

"i mean.. kinda? still a tiny bit sleepy but it's a normal kind of sleepy you know?" 

Wilbur hums "i see, that's good. you've been holed up in your apartment for a while now. just be nice to break the circle"

"yeah… you were right" 

"y'know if you're feeling better i know something we could do to pass the time" 

"sure! lead the way bossman!" tommy skips forward, avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk while Wilbur watches. his lips pressed into a thin line before tugging up into a smile that shows too much teeth.

"will do"

Chapter Text

illuminated by dim moonlight the kitchen was empty.

not a single disturbance in sight. his head burned, but he hadn't hit it.

clutching his forehead Wilbur stood up and made his way to the bathroom, again forgetting the lights were out and getting frustrated with the Lightswitch.

he opens the cabinet behind the mirror, ignoring sight of himself in it in favor of the ibuprofen hidden behind. he swallows the pill with some help from the sink water, he knew of course that it wasn't going to magically make his headache disappear but still he couldn't help the disappointment that crawled through.

In his bedroom the Window still rattled with the wind outside. the storm having not calmed down one bit. Wilbur layed back down on his bed, trying his best to leave his mind blank  and failing miserably as he spirals into nonsensical worse-case-scenario catastrophes and childish fears of what's under his bed and in his closet that lead him to huddle further into the blankets. He doesn't know what time it is when he feels something brush his feet through the blankets, making his jump in panic.

he supposes he came back to his senses right in time for the sun to rise fully. His house was still dark but it was more manageable now, a slither of light made it through the thick clouds and reached his window. with still trembling hands he made himself a coffee and sank into his couch staring into his own eyes on the unpowered television.

_______

"dude you have to understand-"

these past few weeks had not been kind to Wilbur.

"what I'm getting here is that you're going mad and possibly need to be medicated"

that at first fleeting annoyance, that slight gut feeling that something was off, turned into a  constant concern. and it was getting worse again. 

How many times had he looked behind him while walking only to see no one following him? or how many times  had he been woken up by phantom steps and slamming cabinets only to see his perfectly empty house just as he had left it?

"i don't need- don't be ridiculous, i swear i HEARD something in the kitchen i FELT the vibrations of the sounds I'm not kidding" Wilbur gestures frantically.

James takes a long look at him fidgeting with the spoon on his tea.

"i don't think you're kidding i think you're losing your mind,the lack of sleep is getting to you man"

"maybe it is but.." 

"but what " he insists.

"i don't know what to do"  he sounds a little more desperate this time.

Wilbur looks up from his dessert to meet his eyes, quickly  regretting it when he sees how concerned his friend is.

James looks around the caffe and, not deeming the place secluded enough, he  sits up in his chair and leans over the table to speak closer  to Wilbur's ears, cuping his hand around it he whispers with  a voice so uncharacteristically soft for him; "listen, if being alone is fuckin you up that much you can always stay with me, or i can stay at your place" and  Wilbur even  considers it for a second, a small spark of hope lights up his eyes before it's  stamped out. "it's not the house.. " he shrinks on his seat "it's everywhere"

he takes a sip of coffee, placing his head in his hands "what do you mean everywhere"

"I've told you before dude-" James cuts him off "yeah but it never made any fuckin sense"  

it's a nonsensical feeling,Wilbur understands that. trying to make sense of it only left him Pacing in circles and with a headache.  "it's like" he tries again " like someone's watching me"

"right, but who?"

"i don't fucking know? just something.. i feel it around me sometimes too it's not just it's eyes.. sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night, feeling like someone had touched my shoulder or-or my feet will drag on nothing it'll feel like I'm walking around in water-"

"water?" 

"yeah the whole atmosphere turns heavy-or i just get really dizzy- i think I'm fucking haunted or something "  thankfully the sounds of the busy caffe drown out their conversation to the other clients, but still he hides from James's concerned eyes behind his mug.

He was supposed to come here as a distraction, not to vent. Now both of them had barely touched their food and we're staring into the wall in silence. it wasn't ideal and he's got the perfect way to fix that.

"so what have you been up to" asks Wilbur as casually as he can as he puts the cup down.

James bursts out laughing,sure he could have been a little more subtle with the change of topics but Wilbur didn't have the energy for that at the moment, at least James found that hilarious.

"not much man! setting up some gig stuff... i visited my mom the other day" James scratches his chin trying to think back on what he did.

"I've been putting off some work with my own lately" confesses Wilbur while digging his fork into his cheesecake slice.

"with your mom?" James giggles at his own joke, Wilbur remains unamused "no the gigs" 

"is it because of .. everything going on?" 

wilbur nods "sadly"

the air turns heavy again and James takes note of it quickly. though this time he doesn't give Wilbur the chance to back off.

"have you considered a psychologist man? like genuinely" 

" i have but i don't think this is .. a me thing,i think there's something else going on"

"maybe  that is why you need a psychologist will" he argues "thinking you're actually right about all of this sounds like a symptom" 

"maybe... but i still don't think that's the right play"

James huffs "then what would 'the right play' be?" he takes another short sip of his coffee, carefully eyeing Wilbur to see his reaction "have you talked to anyone else about this?"

"i have ... briefly" he wacks his brain trying to remember "ash knows .. obviously.. mark and Joe know as well"

he mentally goes down his list of friends.

"Phil and Niki too. i kinda gave up on calling Tommy though" he admits as much as it hurts to, he doesnt like the ide of givin up on him, but  tommy had been avoiding him

 and he had enough to deal with on his own already.

"Is he still not answering you?"

"yeah- have you heard anything from him?"

"i told you man if he's not calling you then he's not gonna be calling me" Wilbur buries his head in his hands, a faint ringing clouds his hearing.

"i worry about him y'know"

"i know you do man, but you should be worrying about yourself right now"

a waitress briefly interrupts them, she places the receipt between them.

"thank you" says James, Wilbur takes another bite of his cake brings the fork down to the table

"i was thinking" he traces de patterns on a napkin with the fork  "maybe I'll go out this week, tryna force myself to work a little"

"will if you're not feeling well then you shouldn't force yourself to-"

"no James " he puts the fork back down " i really need a distraction from all of this i-" Wilbur stops talking. interrupting himself. he stares straight ahead as alert ad ever, ignoring whatever James was saying all his focus shifted to the ringing on his ears, he looks around to see if anyone else is hearing it too only to see James staring at him like he's crazy. was he? "do you hear that?"

James' face drops "Hear what ?"

he closes his eyes, trying to focus on the sound. "can you not hear it?"  it was so loud,he couldnt be the only one hearing it.

wilbur brings his hands to covers his ears and he feels James hand on his shoulder "will are you ok"

he could barely make out the words.

when he opens his eyes again the world around his swirls, the cafe merging into a pallette of color, the table would be more bearable to look at if it weren't for the impossible dark shadow under it that crawled around his legs.

James saw Wilbur jolt back into the booth, not giving him time to react before he was pushing himself away from the table clutching his sleeves.

"i ... I'm going to the bathroom"

Wilbur stumbles through strangers tables knocking out a few backpacks in the process.he doesn't notice how James follows him just a few steps behind.  he throws the door open to be greeted by a sterile stillness of the just-cleaned Bathroom.

the lights quickly flicker once before going back to normal. the smell of bleach makes an unpleasant contrast with the rest of the cafe. all stall doors hung open. knowing he was alone was both comforting and the exact opposite. He doesn't ignore his gut this time, not anymore; he lets that discomfort settle along with the fear in his mind. 

he lets himself lean his weight on the marble sink, his eyes Meeting their reflection in the mirror. 

he struggles to recognize himself in it.  he knows he's been a mess, he knows he LOOKs like a mess. his eyes are tired, he hasn't brushed his hair today and his shirt was crinkled to no end. he knows that's the truth, that's why the man in the mirror seems so foreign. his hair is fluffier than his, brushed neatly over  his forehead, his shirt newly ironed, his scarf tied in a stylish knot, his eyes as bright as ever. a perfect image of himself he knows doesn't resemble him in the slightest.

his jaw goes slack as the other  Wilbur stares at him. He's never felt more out of place.  his legs tremble  when he takes a step back, his shock doubles when his reflection doesn't mimic him as it should. the Wilbur in the mirror instead leans forward, closing their distance to what it was before,in his mind Wilbur doesn't doubt that had he gone further backwards the man would have popped out the mirror entirely.

his mouth feels too dry to speak, he struggles to breathe under the others paralyzing gaze. the man in the mirror seems to realize this smiling at Wilbur like he could read his mind. "you don't have to worry" his warped  reflection, as expected, used his voice to speak. even his teeth reflected small imperfections Wilbur didn't even know he had.  it still didn't move when Wilbur's hands came to clutch at his collar, feeling himself gasping for air.

 "you're going to be ok" logically Wilbur doubts it but he clings to the comfort nonetheless. "it's not gonna happen anymore" Wil takes a step forward towards the mirror again. "I'm sorry you had to deal with this" why was he apologizing? "I've been careless, I'm sorry" with what? he stumbles back against the marble, leaning over and, ironically enough, mirroring his reflection whose smile got even softer if that was possible as it looked at him with pity in his eyes. he lets his heart rate fade into the background, and now no longer pumping on his ears the noise fades into a pleasant.. almost melody? it burns his ears but Wilbur doesn't mind.

"you don't have to think about this anymore" he doesn't? "So don't"

alright.

his reflection stops moving and his eyes fog over, in the time it takes for them to adjust the mirror had gone back to normal.he looks at his disveiled  self and raises his hand, the reflection following suit.

time starts back up for Wilbur when the door creaks open to let someone step through. "Wilbur" James's voice is stern but concern still seeps through. Wilbur doesn't acknowledge him with more than a grunt but he does straighten himself off the marble, still staring at himself.

he spares James  a glance through the mirror. a hand rose to his shoulder and James squeezed him lightly. "will?"  he tries again.

a spark ran through his body, bringing him back to reality "sorry" he turns to look at his friend, hesitating slightly when turning his back to the mirror.

"don't apologize man, are you ok?" 

"i- yeah, there's nothing to worry about" he repeats those words that echo still in his head, though he can't quite place who said it.

James  brows furrow at this "will you were freaking out a minute ago what are you talking about"

"a-a minute?" it felt like hours since he got up from the table.

"yeah? you got up and i followed you and now you suddenly say you're all ok while looking very much not  ok" explains James, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. he feels pretty out of it after that for quite a while, James leads him back to their table without him even noticing and he goes back to finishing his cheesecake. he likes to think he had been listening to him talking but he can't be too sure.

"will?"

the cookie base crumbled when Wilbur tries to pick it up with the fork, he squinted further and scooped the piece up instead.

"Wilbur"

he brings the fork up to his mouth, savoring the soft cream and chewing slowly on the strawberry chunks.

James looks down on him, not too hard to do since he's almost slumped over the table.  "are you listening to me?" 

"uh? yeah, sorry"  he apologizes but James isn't mad.

"are you gonna need a ride home?" he offers "i don't want you to walk back alone" Wilbur wanted to argue that his concern was misplaced, that he was an adult and he could manage himself, but the truth is; he didn't want to walk alone either.

so he accepts. he gets on James's car and they ride off, the sky was beginning to turn a soft orange as the sun came down.

his house was still dark when they got there , the whole street was too. James waited for him In The car, parked in front of the sidewalk. the doorknob twists under his hand and he pushes the door open.

He tries the Lightswitch and isn't too surprised when it doesn't work. James notices him lingering by the door and calls out for him from the car. "you can stay at mine if you want to" he shouts with his hands cupping his mouth.

Wilbur doesn't think it over twice before accepting. that's how  when he wakes up the next day he's in a couch instead of his bed. the tv was on and James, from his kitchen, greets him good morning.

"you weren't kidding when you said you needed sleep man"

Wilbur rubs the sleep off his eyes "uh? what time is it?"

"it's 2 pm man" James laughs at him.

"uh.." Wilbur looks around feeling much more aware than before, it's enough to notice the  pair of James's spare pajamas he supposed he had been offered last night.

He wishes he had taken them now that his legs felt sore,his jeans were not the most comfortable clothes to sleep in and the small couch hadn't helped,he stretches and hears his bones creak.

"so" his friend passed him a glass of water he didn't  know  he needed. "Are you feeling better?" wilbur opens his eyes fully as he chugs the entire glass in one go.

“i think i am”  yesterday still was a tad blurry in his mind, but he does genuinely mean it, a strange-almost foreign by now -calm washed over him.

Chapter Text

things have been.. calm for Wilbur lately. oddly so, he felt his life turn back to a normal he had almost forgotten.

it was welcomed of course, he wouldn't dare to say otherwise as his routine slowly went back to normal.  projects began to move along again, he went back to streaming (sometimes), every piece fell back into place like they hadn't fallen off in the first place.

this but doesn't erase at all the real doubt in his mind about what had truly happened;his head begins to hurt when he thinks too long about it, there's a clear barrier there that he can't breach. it's a terrifying though but that feeling never quite lasts, he always finds himself being easily distracted in one way of another. sometimes it feels almost scripted.he did research, but nothing seemed to watch, so he begrudgingly left it at that.

he still deals with that lingering fear, of course, his habits of over vigilance don't simply go away with a good week or two. every corner could hide a presence even bigger than the one that left him and he's acutely aware of that.

still he carried on, because that's all he can do.

it was just a strange lapse in his life that he'd made peace with not understanding.for now, at least.

today though he doesn't have much to do,so he's thinking himself into getting a headache again.

he eyes his phone on his lap. no notifications pop up,no important ones at least; none that he cares about.

at the top of all chats sits one where he had been basically talking to himself, half the messages hadn't even been read. it's  a bit embarrassing to read back on.

tommy hadnt even been online in a while. even before he himself started to go out less tommy had already been not answering.

something is going on. He remembers briefly how he had felt no more than a week before and the dots connect in his mind.

he had been  at the edge of isolating himself completely; it's something he recognizes now, James had to drag him out the house that day and the only reason he accepted was because of the power outage. he had gone down faster than ever before.

he had felt as his phone was being monitored. he barely answered texts.

was it a reach to think that  tommy could be feeling the same way? he didn't really think so; even the strange comments he had made the last few times they spoke tracked.

he surely isn't busy, he can't be. he hasn't uploaded anything and even after asking his editors Wilbur confirmed that he was also not messaging them.

his phone dings just in time and he's be lying if he said he didn't pounce on it like a tiger. when the message opened he  couldn't hide his disappointment.

it was Niki. godbless her but it wasn't what he was waiting for.

will we're going to go eat tomorrow at that new place Scott found<

wanna come?<

oh, that sounded nice actually, a good excuse to get out the house was always welcomed.

______

Phil messages Kristin, he's finally out the train after that delay midway through and already heading to the meeting spot.

the sun shone bright outside the Brighton train station, so much so that Phil had to bring a hand up to his eyes to see the bustling street before him, thankfully not as unfamiliar as they might have been a year or so ago.

he stretches his legs for one last time as he heads out, he didn't have to debate himself much on whether to walk or not; the sun wasn't too warm due to it being winter but it still provided a comfort he liked to make the most out off in the  cloudy England. 

with a pleased smile he walks along with the slowly spreading crowd Outside  the station following a familiar path down to the dock area where  seagulls swarmed the couples eating by the sea.

not far from the coast but not in sight of it either was a relatively small, new restaurant tucker away in side street off the main commercial sector. 

from the storefront he could spot about 3 tables dragged togheter at the back of the place where his friends all sat.

it wasn't anything fancy, Phil noted walking in,  a much more homely establishment than what he was expecting. the rustic  vibe extended from the outside front to the inside as well,  plants hung from wooden beams across the ceiling as well as decorated window sills and corners.The lights where fairly low but not annoyingly so, enough for it to give a candlelight sorta feeling.

the rest of the tables were almost empty except at the very back where a large group had pulled a couple of tables together to sit.

he spotted Niki's pink hair first, she seemed notice him aswell beacuse after a few words with the table everyone was looking at him walking over, some waving and the rest simply smiling at him.

"Phil!" calls out Wilbur from one end of the table pulling a chair and motioning for Phil to sit next to him. a request Phil was delighted to fullfil.

shooting him a smile and a nod he rests his jacket on the chair and pulls it back closer to the table.

he was quickly passed a menu, the rest laying in a pile in the middle of the table.

"we've all decided what we're having already so once you're done we can call the waitress" explains Niki.

he nods. "I'm sorry I'm a bit late, the train had some delays in the way here"

the table waves off his apologies with a Chorus of "don't worry" and "it's ok" 

the conversation on table resumes to what it was before he got here. tubbo had sat down next to jack and Freddy and was talking animatedly with them; theirs was the dominant conversation in the table, something about jacks car. on second place where Niki and Scott, talking softly by his side about their cats. at last and at his left Wilbur, James and ash whispered to each other.

"what's the secrecy for?" he leans over dramatically and matches their tone with a smile that Wilbur took a moment to return.

James laughs it off  "nothing, just some stuff we've been working on, we don't want to spoil everyone on it"  

"uhhhh!" Phil leans over a bit more " are you back to working?"  he asks Wilbur who  shrinks back into chair with an embarrassed  smile.

"yeah! I went  back to the studio the other day"

he looked proud of himself and while he was sure he didn't know the full extent of Wilburs situation the last few weeks Phil he had received enough panicked phonecalls to know that he did deserve a proud smile back.

Wilbur hid his own  dumb smile with his glass. "so, what are you having?"

Phil eyed the menu one last time "pasta i think, some classic spaghetti"

"boring!" booed tubo from the other side of the table "I'm having spicy chicken wings"

"and good luck with that!" quips back jack, they've clearly argued about this before Phil got there. the thought makes him giggle.

____

topics came and went until eventually their food arrived as well. Phil Digged into his pasta and took some fries from Wilbur while he wasn't looking.

he chatted with Niki to his right who was sharing a pizza with Freddy and jack.

"so" he speaks once his mouths not full of spaghetti anymore "have I missed something here in the city?" 

she swallows her own food before answering. "hm, aside from this place opening then nothing much.."  she takes another bite, before remembering something, with a "uhm!" she rushes her chewing.

"slow down!" advices Phil after she almost chokes. "i do have news, but they're not really good" 

"uh? what happened?"  his interest peaks almost instantly. 

"well actually" she backpedals "it's nothing that happened to us" her eyes circle round the table "but lately there have been weird amount of disappearances in the city" 

Her tone is that of gossip, but worry is still clear in her eyes as she looks back down at her pizza and finishes the slice.

Phil dips some bread in the sauce and innocently grabs another fry off Wilbur's plate, taking his hand off before it could get slapped."really?" 

niki paid no mind to his antics and grabbed another slice. "yeah, in the news, all gone without a trace" 

from phil’s side wilbur raised his eyebrows still chewing on some fries and Freddy, who had apparently been overhearing their conversation,Leans over the table with a slice of pizza dangling from his hand. "actually, they found two bodies today" he takes a bite a "they're checking to see if it's any of the missing people" 

"i had no idea" mutters Niki "was this morning?"  Freddy nods, still chewing.

"did they say anything else? where was this?

he  puts his hand up for her to wait and only responds once he's done chewing. "pretty near where the second person was last seen actually" 

"so? is it them?"  he inquires further.

"that's the thing!" Freddy jumps,a bit too excited "the body's too rotten to see, there was some fucked up shit going on with the bones too, really freaky, it was all over the news this morning"

Niki Looks over to him concerned, needles to say she hadn't watched the news today. "what do you mean too roten? they haven't even been missing for that long.." 

"oh you'd be surprised how quickly a body rots" comments jack like it's a normal thing to say.

Phil omits his own comment about how the entire table was listening to them talk by this point. "what, have you done research?"  he teases instead.

"I'll have you know i have! still, the case is really weird, it think there's a serial killer on the loose"

all eyes landed on jack, mixes of  amusement and worry from everyone seated,wilbur in particular  jolted in his seat.

"do you really think so?" he asks, cautious. jacks on his hesitance though, he puffs up his chest clearly having been waiting for this moment.

puffs up his chest and continued.

"all the signs are there! Think about it, all the people were of completely different backgrounds and age groups, not a single one had anything to do with the other; those are telltale signs of a serial killer!"

phil sips his drink, it wasn't too far fetched of a conclusion, but it wasn't pleasant to think about .

"you've been watching too much 'crime time' man, it's rotting your brain" jokes Scott, both he and Niki laugh a little but Wilburs face remains serious. 

"don't joke about that stuff jack"  he gets up nearly slaming the table. but jacks doesn't back down, he too stands up to defends himself.

"I'm not joking, i mean it 100%"

Freddy scratches his chin considering it, he scoots over closer to them to speak "jacks right" he says and Phil doesn't  miss the way Wilbur shudders." but have there ever been a serial killer here on England? I've always thought of them as an American thing…"

jack looks almost offended.

"of course there have been man, are you fucking stupid?"

the table quiets down for a second while almost everyone pulls their phones out. Phil knew there had been but pointing them out while Wilbur was nervously gripping his chair right to his side felt insensitive.

unluckily for them no one else could see that.

tubbo, who up to that point had been too busy devouring way too many chicken wings for him, was the first one to speak up again.

"there where actually, this guy from the 70's killed like 15 people apparently" 

Wilbur caved in and pulled his phone out, before he could search any crime statistics to worry himself further Phil interrupted.

"thats the 70's though! how many years ago was that? 50? who fucking cares?"

"actually" said jack, now smugly chewing on his food "there's this guy they caught on 2020"  

he turned his phone for the table to see, with quite literally a list of serial killers in the UK. the most recent one was, as jack said, caught on 2020 after having killed 8 people 

Wilbur recoiled back "jack can you shut the fuck up" 

Phil nodded too.

"it's just not a nice topic to discuss while eating "  Niki tries to soften the blow.

Freddy looked ready to argue but jack threw his hands in the air in defeat "alright man,but you can't deny that this is really interesting!"

Phil feels a bit bad for shutting him up, he couldn't deny that he DID find it interesting. it was his first time hearing about it after all. he's surprised the disappearances hadn't made national news yet.

he could still hear jack and Freddy mumbling to each other about it.

Niki shifted uncomfortably in her seat, glancing apologetically at wilbur who picked at his fries. she eventually moved on too and began chatting with Toby from across the table. phil however didnt take his eyes of him.

Wilbur still had his phone up, presumably looking at that fucking list jack had pulled up. James was looking over it too, talking too quietly for Phil to hear.

he moved his seat closer to them, ignoring Niki Brief glance his way when his chair squeaked.

"will?" 

the man jumped "yeah?" 

"you ok mate?"

they made eye contact and Wilbur put his phone down with a sigh. "I'm fine Phil" his eyes dart from side to side before going back to meet his "i just have to calm down again"

Phil's face softened "alright man, I'm here if you need something" he knew that Wilbur knew meant it, so Phil didn't see use in saying anything else; instead he snuck another frie from wilburs plate.

"hey!" 

"what? you weren't eating anymore!" 

"yes i was i just got distracted!"  he then stuck a fistful of fries in his mouth to prove his point.

Phil giggled as Wilbur choked and reached for his glass, only to find it conveniently empty.

"hmm! hm! " he frantically gestures to Phil for the big water bottle in the middle of the table, Phil obliged but no without laughing some more.

"ah!" gasps Wilbur once he downs the glass "you're a dick Phil" he points an accusatory finger at the man "i was dying and what where you doing? laughing your ass off."

Phil had to hold back his laughter this time, faking a serious expression "I'll do better  next time" 

"you better!" Wilbur tried to keep his lips pursed but they split up into a grin.

they laughed together for a bit and Wilbur eventually pulled his phone back up, for a second his smile faltered,he looked at Phil and opened his mouth like he was about to say something before promptly closing it again and pocketing his phone.

Phil didn't point it out.

____________

with the sun coming down and the streets bathed in what little orange light was left Phil pushed the  restaurants door and walked into the city. he regretted leaving so early but , contrary to everyone else who lived nearby, he still had a train to catch.

he wasn't running late by any means, he had at least 50 minutes to make a 10 minute walk to the station before his train got there,so Phil took one look up to the stars and decided to wonder the area.

he strayed from the more commercial streets, walking into neighborhoods and just looking around familiarizing himself with the area while he killed time.

all the houses around him had a colonial look to them,with trees spaced out every other house or so covering the street with their leaves; it looked like a pleasant street to drive through as long as the leaves didn't fall all over your car.

Phil walked at a leisurely pase, eyeing each house enough to satisfy his curiosity but not too much to look weird.

he stopped abruptly in front of a house however when From the corner of his eye he spotted a gray cat laying on top of a package licking itself.

he must a looked like a idiot, but Phil didn't care, he backtracked, stuffed his face between the fence and tried calling the kitty.

"kittyy!" he called. the cat lazily lifted it's head and yawned, noticing Phil who nearly squealed.

"hii!" he cooed  "come here!" 

the cat stood up, stretched, and walked up to him slowly  swishing its tail around in the air.

despite it's arrogant demeanor the cat playfully butted it's head into Phil's hand through the fence, rubbing  it's face on Phil's fingers. "such a lovely guy you are!" 

it had taken Phil weeks of coaxing to even get close to his neighbors cat (although now they where best friends) this one just seemed extra friendly.

"if you didn't have a collar you would be coming with me little guy" he tells the cat in a silly voice. 

speaking of the collar, he hadn't checked the cats name yet.

the cat wore a light yellow collar with a circular plate hanging off it.it was a little hard to read, clearly worm with the years, but there was a small carving in the metal that read 'mike'

"Mike?" he snorted, the cat perked up at its name being called "who names their cat mike?"

the cat, mike, meowed softly.

"sorry mate, i shouldn't be making fun of you name"

from behind him he could hear footsteps approaching but he was too occupied with his new buddy to care.

the cat did seem to care however and pinned it's ears to it's head once the figure got closer.

from a reflection on the houses windows Phil could see the person wore a bright red coat, they stumbling over their own feet  slightly when walking past him, when they do though his new friend arched it's back and hissed with all it's might before running back into the house.

the hiss  catches their attention and their coat swishes back when they turn to see the animal retreat into it's house.

Phil, still crouched down and with his hand extended, looked up to see what had startled the cat like that.

the face he was met with was achingly familiar but still it took him a few seconds to fully recognize.

blonde curly hair, pale skin, blue eyes.

"tommy?" they locked eyes and Phil had to double take on who he was looking at .

his face was slightly thinner than normal, his eyes were much dulled and his hair stuck to his forehead with sweat.

"Phil" he acknowledged him with a croaky voice. Phil even dares to say he sounded slightly annoyed. 

he stands up, slowly and not breaking eye contact. Tommy takes a step back.

"oh hi Tom" he tries to sound casual, struggling with to ignore the others  painfully neutral expression "are you.." he looks down a the boys clothes, aside form the red coat he was wearing a pair of visibly dirty sweatpants and Rainboots "out for a walk?" 

tommy narrows his eyes, looking him up and down with his face partially obscured by his hood. 

"yeah" he responds after a few uncomfortable seconds. "weather's nice"

Phil looks up at the sky, it had been nice earlier that day but now the clouds covered what little sun was left. bathing the sky in a sickly grey light. 

not convinced he answers with an "i guess so"

Tommy gives an almost imperceptible nod standing still. his eyes only wander briefly to his hands, looking at himself while he picks at the dirt under  his nail.

Phil stumbles awkwardly over his own words. "where- how've you been?"

tommy again doesn't instantly respond.

they looked straight at each other for longer. Tommy's eyes greyer than normal. 

"fine" he responds, not taking his eyes off Phil's hands. His posture was worse than normal and he looked ready to run.

one could argue that he did not, in fact, look fine. every single second Phil looked at him the red flags rose Higher and higher.

phil hadn't as much as heard of the boy in almost a month by now and was scared that treating him like anything more than a scared animal might set him off.

he thinks of a more indirect way of asking the question on everyone's mind lately. "did your phone break?"Phil had wanted to give him an easy out, to not make this feel like confrontation, still the boy flinched at the mention of his phone.

"no" is the firm response Phil gets.

He looks back briefly at the house, the cat was long gone by now, one of the windows hung open and Phil wonders if that's how he got in. he forces himself to relax, letting out a big sigh. tommy gives him that same unreadable stare the entire time.

"i just- I thought I'd ask since you haven't been answering any messages.. lately. Wilbur and the rest are all worried y'know"

…

no response.

"where you going somewhere?" he tries this time.

looking at the boys terribly dirty clothes he'd guess he already went 'somewhere', while some stains looked already dried and even like there have been attempts to remove them most where fresh.

tommy shrugs, "i have to go."

"i- you do?" Phil strutters.

"yeah."

"well uh?-" before he could properly say goodbye tommy took off.

as he watched the boy sprint down the street Phil pulled out his phone to look at the time, it looks like he has to go as well, his train arrived in 5 minutes.

with a final mental goodbye to both the city and his friends Phil boards the train leaving the busy station, it's not long until he's replaying that interaction with tommy in his head.

sat on the almost empty train he decides to give Wilbur a call.

Chapter Text

"c'mon!" Wilbur pushes him to walk forward "hurry up" he barely manages not to trip on himself. his shoelaces had come loose a while ago and he still hadn't found a moment to tie them with Wilbur pushing him around. he hadn't even called him before going to pick him up at his apartment today.

he's not too sure he briefly recalls following Wilbur around before doing.. something, trying to be more specific makes him feel like nails are being hammered into his skull so he avoids it.

deep in though he pockets his hands briefly before taking them out in a panic,one look at his finger showed a small drop of blood and a sting in the tip of his index finger. the knife in his pockets now seemed to weight more and he opted to hide his hands in his pants instead.

the streetlights switch on drawing his eyes above but Wilbur loomed over him quickly blocking his view "it's turning night already!" he insists like tommy hadn't already realized that.

he doesn't feel like arguing with him but that won't stop him from throwing a little tantrum, he stops walking and let's his legs rest for a few seconds at a time, grunting every time he's forced to move again.

Wilbur ignores his whining.

he keeps his head down most of the time, cringing every time he steps on his shoelaces as he watches them get progressively dirtier. he grounded himself counting the leaves that dotted the sidewalks and occasionally catching a glimpse of the houses to his side,they seemed nice.

stepping down into the street with a little hop,Tommy felt his ankle twist.

the pain ignited his senses again and his brain scrambled to cushion his fall with at least his own arms but that wasn't needed. cold hands held him in place.

"be careful" was all he heard after.

with a hand clutching his chest he takes a deep breath as Wilbur let's go off him, he turns around but no one's there.he goes back to walking. 

Nothing stands out to him aside from the cold breaths near his exposed neck. he stepped back up the sidewalk with the grace of a sick dog.

it's disorienting-tommy finds- he tries to make sense of the route he's taking in his head but the streets tangled together each time he tried to think about them;Wilbur guided him, he knew he shouldn't have to worry but it didn't ease him as much as it should.

"don't look up" he hears the man instruct sometime after "there's man in front of you, keep walking"

the warning sends shivers down his spine and Wilbur puts a hand on his shoulder. it didn't help much.

he could see him now, barely a shadow on the pavement. He could hear him whispering and... baby talking? as he passed by him. they ignored each other, something he was thankful for;he was about to let out a sigh of relief when a cat screeched and ran.

he turns back on pure instinct, Wilbur tugged at his shoulder to get him back on track but not before he locked eyes with the stranger crouched down where the cat was.

Wilbur barks another order at him but he doesn't quite listen. The man looked puzzled but he wasn't looking at his dirty clothes or the leaves sticking out of his hair.

no, In fact, he was looking directly at him with a spark of hesitant recognition in his eyes, one that tommy did not reciprocate until his eyes managed to focus on his face.

they spoke and tommy thought he heard his own name.

he was still crouching but he looked a tad shorter than himself, light short blonde hair with a comfortable looking military green coat.

a coat he could easily picture hung on his own house by the door.

"Phil" he mutters mostly to himself, recognizing the man before him.

Wilbur's grip on his shoulder tightens "you need to get out of here" he hissed.

tommy felt a sharp pain on his temple but stood still, trying to get a better read on Phil's eyes while the man rushes to get up up.

"oh hi Tom! are you... on a walk?" Phils eyes move to inspect him, looking at him up and down, he can feel Wilbur tense when his eyes land on his stained pants briefly before going down to his shoes.

Wilbur pressed himself against his back and clawed at his arms. "you can't run now, just lie and get out of here"

"yeah" he responds after a few uncomfortable seconds that Phil patiently waited through. "weather's nice"

Wilbur sighed and Phil looked up as If to confirm it, his face betrayed that he wasn't too convinced.

"i guess so.." 

Wilbur forcefully pushes his head down for a brief nod he isn't sure Phil catched . "there,you talked to him already. you have to go now "

Phil kept staring,sandwiching him between himself and Wilbur, how could the walls close in on him if there weren't any?

his breath picks up without him noticing and Wilbur's grip on him turns softer (but not any warmer)

"calm down tom" since when has he started calling him that? "he's still looking at you. wait until he's done and then you run ok?"

he fiddles with his hands, having been made uncomfortably aware of how dirty they were with Phil's stare.

the man stands now even more awkwardly and stumbles over his own words. "where- how've you been?"

"ugh" Wilbur grunted.

they looked straight at each other for longer. Phil's eyes twitched focusing on his Every movement.

"at least say something now, we don't have all day" 

tommys eyes darted from left to right;the street was still empty thankfully.

he opens his mouth but the words take longer than normal to come up.

"fine" he finally spits out, not taking his eyes off Phil's hands. leaning back and angling his legs to run if it became necessary.

Phil still didn't look convinced, he slowly held his hands forward as if trying to calm a feral animal.

"he's on edge, you can use that" comments Wilbur "he's not gonna do anything to you. for now"

that last part unnerved him even more.

"did your phone break?" Phil asked and tommy failed to suppress a flinch so instinctual he didn't see it coming.

an airy giggle escapes Wilbur who still clung to his back. "it didn't, didn't it?"

"no" he responds firmly to both of them.

"Hmm you could have lied to him there" teases Wilbur "it would have made a little more sense" he doesn't like lying,much less lying to Phil, but he feels another nail embed itself into his skull when he tries to argue back.

Phil, oblivious to their dialogue, looked taken aback "i just- I thought I'd ask since you haven't been answering any messages.. lately. Wilbur and the rest are all worried y'know" he tries to justify his perfectly innocent question. wilbur meanwhile perks up at the mention of his name.

"I'm not worried, i don't know why he's lying to you"

he takes a deep breath, but he doesn't respond. not to Wilbur and not to Phil.

"were you going somewhere?" asked phil, focusing again on his stained pants.l 

"yes, you're going home" Wilbur weakly pushed him, it wasn't enough to move him but he wasn't trying to. "this guy's staring too much, it'll be better if you get him off you case for now"

tommy felt his feet shifting on the ground, steadying Him and fixing his balance.

Wilbur pushes forward again,this time with a little more strength " did you hear me tommy? go." 

he swallows the knot on his throat and speaks.

"i have to go." he tells Phil. ignoring how Wilburs eyes were Drilling holes into his head from behind.

"i- you do?" Phil strutters but Tommy doesn't give him time to say anything else.

with a quick "yeah" he's off.

pounding his feet against the ground he races to turn the street and get Phil's eyes off his back.

he stops abruptly to catch his breath and a look of himself on a closed storefront, feeling but not seeing Wilbur standing behind him.

"i think those pants are ruined now" the man comments

tommy nods. they were pretty dirty, he could feel the stains on his skin even after they'd dried up.

"you should go home and get changed"

tommy doesn't respond, he knows he doesn't need to.

he goes back to walking, Wilbur occasionally pushing him to go faster whenever he catches him lacking, he stumbles even more than before as he lets his mind wander as far as it could go. 

seeing Phil had stirred something up in his head,had he really missed that much? he tried to backtrack bit by bit in his head. had he missed a call or something?

"you didn't" Wilbur interrupted his thoughts "they didn't tell you,you checked your phone,remember?" 

he does now, he's been on his phone all day yesterday.

he sees his building in the distance now.

 his hands were sore and he struggled with the keys for while,He pushed the elevator buttons and leaned against the one wall without a mirror and saw himself reflected in the one in front of him.

god. what a sight.

pitiful really.

he opens the shower faucet and let's it warm up while he throws his dirty clothes in a pile in the floor.

he washes the sweat off his back and sits below the water letting it naturally comb through his hair.

leaves fall off his hair, he hasn't washed it in a while, the waters tainted grey.

a hand leaves his shoulder leaving a tingling sensation on his skin and Tommy's eyes snap open. he feels cold,too cold.the bathroom's filled with hot vapor and he feels the water burning his skin but it doesn't seem to reach the chill that ran through his bones. he rushed out the shower, doing what needs to be done in record time.he ignores the pile of dirty clothes on the floor, he'd deal with those later. feeling disoriented in a more distressing way than usual he rummages through his closet failing to make out the ever present shadow in the corner of his eye while he searches for a short that won't choke him and pants that will let him move.

the lights being on don't help much. they make his head hurt more if anything.

oddly so he doesn't feel tired, terribly dizzy? sure, but not tired. his bones still ache though, his legs are heavy and his Joints protest every movement. but he's not tired,he feels more awake than ever.

like a match about to drop in a sea of gasoline, Tommy sits down and waits, just of a second, for his brain to make sense of everything again.

taking a deep breath he Rests his head in his hands and holds himself still,that dull ache on the back of his head grows steadily, pulsing like an alarm every time he focused on it too much.

he tries to ignore it.

he searching within himself answers for a problem he can't name. a solution for that lingering guilt that seemed to never leave his throat.

the match drops and tommy jumps out his chair, moving it back so abruptly the floor squeaks.

that impotence and that guilt… It felt more like anger now.

______________

the sunset wasn't as pretty as it could have been, not with the clouds blocking the sky today, but nothing like a beer and a friend to fix that.

leaning on the pier and watching the water Wilbur swishes his beer can around, feeling the liquid follow inside, it was lukewarm at best now but it didn't matter.

him and ash were both silent, but it was the comfortable kind; after the constant conversation at diner they both needed some calm to balance it all out.

breaking their peace his ringtone startled ash who almost let his own can fall. Wilbur fumbled to answer the call and shut the noise up.

Phil's voice came through the speaker. sounding worried and slightly muffled by the sounds of the train.

_____________

tommy turns around and sees nothing.he runs back to his room and sees nothing. back in the kitchen there's still nothing.

he doesn't know quite who or what he's looking for.

he tooples everything off his desk out of frustration before dropping to the floor to see under the bed, it's too dark to be sure but tommy deems it empty stands back up and now runs to his closet; the clothes he left in disarray while searching for something to wear where still there, untouched.

another spark burns behind his eyes and tommy rushes to the bathroom. his dirty clothes where still on the floor and he kneels next to them before beginning his search. 

letting pure instinct guide him he grabs his coat and shakes it above the pile. a knife falls off one of the front pockets and into his sweaty tshirt, staining red whatever it's shard edges touched.

_________

"what?" Wilbur leans into the wooden fence separating him from the waves below "and what happened?"

"I saw him while killing some time before my train arrived" repeated Phil " I asked him some questions but at one point he just ran away "

he had thrown away the can by now, him and ash where huddled around the phone listening to Phil speak with Wilbur committing as much information to memory as he could.

"what did he tell you?" 

"he told me that he was .. out for a walk. but he didn't sound too sure on that" 

"what?"

_________

tommy kicked the knife out of sight. it slid on the still wet floor tiles and hit the toilet with a 'ding'.

he didn't recognize the weapon, it was fully alien to him. with it's unmistakably sharp edge a leather handle and a solid metallic hilt.

a small string that was supposed to secure the knife to a sheath Hung loose.

it wasn't his. He doesn't own anything that fancy.

he abandons it on the bathroom floor, refusing to think about it much more.

the kitchen lights flicker above his head when he enters the room and wilbur stands right under it waiting for him. 

_________

"alright.. " Wilbur takes a deep breath " How dirty?"

"really. I didn't really focus on that too much but he looked like he'd been rolling around in mud"

him and ash's eyes meet,with a nod they both know what to do.

with Phil still on the line through Wilburs phone ash looked for tommy Among his contacts.

"thanks for calling me man"

"no problem will, you let me know if he answers you. I assume you're already calling him"

"yeah" admits Wilbur, looking over to ash who was waiting for the phone to be picked up. "goodbye Phil" 

"bye mate, take care "

wilbur doesn't lose time getting close to ash again, seeing the 'ringing' message pulsing on his screen below Tommy's profile picture.

_________

he takes slow steps towards the center of the room,where Wilbur stood.

"calm down tommy" the man speaks but he ignores him.

"where did that come from" he asks, hoping Wilbur would understand right away. "it's not mine" he takes a shaky breath before continuing "I've never seen it before"

Wilbur didn't seem surprised but he did look disappointed.

"you took it" answered the man, still dropped I'm shadows even when directly below the light "we where hanging out and you took it home with you" a factual sounding answer that completely ignored the blood staining the blade.

"from where? where were we? can you please make sense for a second?" he pleads trying to reach out to the man but his hands phase through the shadows.

"it's not important,you took it because you wanted it" Wilbur looks down at his hands and takes a step back from him, still unbothered 

"I don't want it though! why would I do that" 

he tilts his head. "I'm not sure, do you not want it anymore?"

"no I don't!" he cried out without realizing that tears were running down his cheeks already.

"alright" he heard the man say while he whipped his tears.

he waited for anything more to be said but it didn't happen,once he opened his eyes again Wilbur had vanished completely.

he didn't dare to move, only staring at where Wilbur once was.

his phone started ringing and tommy let the sound pierce his ears for a while, he could feel the device vibrating on his pocket.

it wasn't helping his mood.

not at all.

So Tommy threw his phone onto the floor and silenced it with his foot's heel.

Chapter Text

tommy had been debating on whether to eat or not today. He had a sandwich that morning and he was having a coffee now. and that was supposed to be it.

he kept thinking, about nothing in particular, about himself and about Wilbur.

Wilbur-doesn't remember the last normal conversation he's had with him. the real him at least.

because real people don't disappear into thin air.

real people appear in mirrors.

real people can be seen.

real, good people, like Wilbur, don't say and do the things it does.

his head's hurting already. that's not good.

even kept awake by the pain in his foot Tommy comes up with no worthy conclusions. he should have taken the time to properly clean the glass in the floor or at least take the shards off his feet.. but he didn't really want to go back to the bathroom.

he was hungry, his stomach hurt and he was dizzy. but he doubted he'd be able to keep anything down. the reason stared at him through the shadow making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Just under the doorway leading to his room stood a humanoid shadow that Tommy tragically recognizes all too well. it didn't bother looking like Wilbur anymore.while it kept the silhouette it was much taller, it's hands now clawed.

 It is the first time that it presents itself like this, subtly and without trying to grab his attention. almost as if he was watching him. Tommy tries to pretend he doesn't feel his eyes burning holes in his back.

his phone doesn't work anymore-it would have been a miracle if it did- he doesn't really have anything else to do but sit at his kitchen table slowly taking sips from his cup while his hands shake, making the task much more complicated than it needs to be.

 the delicate silence in the apartment is only broken when Tommy's stomach growls embarrassingly loud.

"you're hungry." it speaks, its voice echoing slightly.

and it is right. Tommy hates that it is right. "eat." 

 thats easy to ask.he'd do that if he hadn't completely run out of snacks thank you very much. so he goes to argue "there's no food for me to eat right now-" 

"then cook something" 

it's an order. and Tommy's not about to fry his brain trying to fight it.he can't remember how many times he tried; but he's sure that this wouldn't be the first nor the last. 

how he's meant to cook the food however was not specified, giving tommy an idea that he hopes won't backfire.

he stands up slowly, making sure to move the chair back up to the table once he's behind it.

at that same speed he goes over to the counter, picking up from the cabinets everything he's going to need with a turtle's pace,he makes sure to close the doors as gently as he can too.

the shadow keeps looking at him, patient and still as he takes out the cutting board and a small table knife, it's not optimal for the task, not in the slightest, but that's kind of the point. he ends up knocking a pot over accidentally, but takes the opportunity to delay his task even further by completely sitting on the floor before picking it up, standing up again, and placing it back where it belonged.

he hopes this is infuriating to watch, he hopes he's being the most unbearable motherfucker that bastard has ever seen.

He grabs a frozen chicken breast from his freezer and carefully sets It on the sink to defrost, running the tiniest drop of hot water over it for minimum efficiency.

he might not have the strength to fight, but as long as he's alive and breathing he'll find a way to be as petty as possible at any given time.

granted tommy knows that it is going easy on him. they weren't in a rush, he could take as long as he pleased.it didn't even seem to be looking at him, not that he was gonna check anyways, he'd be caught dead before he willingly turns around.

opening the fridge again for some water he doesn't notice a half rotten orange rolling off the shelf until it hit his feet.

he must have bought it a while ago and had forgotten to eat it. green mold grew on the skin but it hadn't started to smell quite yet. He kicked it out of his way for the time being,it was noticeably mushier than a normal orange.

doing one thing at a time,Tommy waits for the chicken to be completely soft again before he moves on!What's possibly the simplest way to cook something through? easy,you boil it, it might not be the tastiest thing ever but it'll do.

 so,making sure to open the faucet just enough for the thinnest stream of water to come through, tommy sets a small pot under it and waits, hearing his own hearth pounding against his ribs.

a hollow chuckle coming from behind almost stopped it from beating.

"Why do you drag this on? are you looking to starve yourself?" it spoke using what was unmistakably Wilbur's voice, but this thing wasn't Wilbur, Tommy is not gonna allow himself to make that mistake again.

so instead of responding he takes the finally filled up pot and places it on the stove. before turning it on though he made his way back over to the cabinet and grabbed from there some salt and pepper.

he thinks for a little before adding a healthy dose of both condiments into the water and, not bearing the silence, firing back with a question of his own.

"why do you still use his voice?"

He didn't wait for a response,he didn't think he'd be getting one to begin with, instead he kept working. turning the stovetop on and moving back over to where he had left the chicken, placing it over a board and cutting it roughly in half. adding some condiments to it as well.

the shadow stayed quiet. but tommy saw it crouch down in the microwave's door reflection. it stood back up quickly, although now it was holding the poor orange in its hand.

it started squishing it, digging its sharp nails into it.

"why him out of everyone. why did it have to be him?" 

he wasn't looking for a fight as much as he was looking for answers.even if he knows he might not get to keep them for long. He can't know if he's asked this before.his voice came out more desperate than angry

he unceremoniously drops the chicken into the water and the shadow drops the orange on the floor.

it huffed, still staring at him. " easy " it spoke, now sounding much closer than before. tommy tried to not let that affect him too much. "you always listen to him"

he hated how true that was.

“and?” he asks anyway, knowing that there must be more to this.

"he's easy to copy, simple looking" the comment came as a surprise for tommy,if it has been anyone else saying it he might have even laughed. 

" easy to watch as well." the shadow adds as if it was an afterthought. 

the water kept bubbling and the clock kept ticking, but no one spoke.

"leave him alone"

"I've stopped needing"

"please don't hurt him"

"i won't. promise that to yourself though" 

with that tommy goes still.

he doesn't need to turn back to feel it how close it had gotten.

the shadow leaves him eventually, it is just him and the flickering lights of his kitchen.

not a single thought sticks around long enough to be considered coherent.

he'd never do that- he assures himself.

but it's made clear to him time and time again that he doesn't really have a say in any of this.

eventually the chicken's cooked through.

he takes it out of the water and plates it, adding some ketchup up to top his meal off.

he's never consider himself to be any good at cooking. he's relied on his mom (and now delivery) to eat for .. well forever.

 even considering the circumstances The tasteless chicken breasts he's having right now are surprisingly edible.

daring a look at the doorway he relaxes his shoulder after confirming it was empty.

the only thing out of place was the shriveled husk of the orange that had rolled away before.

it was dry, deformed almost beyond recognition, and it stained the floor with a liquid so dark he cant imagine it coming out of a fruit.

he pokes at it a bit more until the exterior cracks.the inside was almost empty.

he picked it up with a paper towel.he wasn't taking any chances.

It made him sick to his stomach, but thankfully not sick enough to throw up his miserable dinner.

Chapter Text

ash slaps the strings and the bass's sound fizzles out in an electric buzz. they're done practicing for today, Wilbur slumps back against the wall with a frown.

The microphones get folded back into their cases and cables are disconnected and detangled. there's not much else to pack, it was only him and Wilbur for today, ‘bit of an impromptu practice session. a break for the both of them in sense.

the lights in the studio go out and Ash slings the bass off his back to fit in his car. He's used to them going their separate ways after practice by now but Wilbur lingers on the sidewalk while Ash waits to get the car on the street.

this street always had a tendency to get crowded,there was no red light but the cars still barely moved. Meanwhile Wilbur paces back and forth fidgeting with his guitar case,ash eyes him curiously from the driver's seat;he's been like this all morning. as anxious and lost as a stray dog, he cant really blame him.

when he finally makes up his mind and knocks on the car's hood ash already had his finger hovering over the window button. it goes down painfully slow,mostly on purpose. the lost time's worth it when Wilburs mildly annoyed face pokes into his car.
He breathes in the smell of car freshener and leans over more comfortably, avoiding placing too much weight on the lowered window pane.
"ash.. could you do me a favor?" Wilbur asks and ash lifts an eyebrow, even only having a faint idea of what's about to be said he nods nonetheless.

"You still have Tommy's apartment key right?"

he sure does- ash jingles his keys in front of him. one, with a "T" written in marker, stands out from the bunch.
Wilbur leans even more to get a good look at it,brushing his hair off his eyes to be completely sure it was real, then backing off.
"cool.. perfect" he mutters "could you please go check up on him? not break into his house of course but just ... see if he's there? and he's ok?"

Wilbur, with his Nerves eating him alive, patiently waits through Ash's deliverance;who after a stroke or two of his mustache just gives him a thumbs up and a nod.
Wilbur smiles relieved "thanks man... I'll leave you to it"
he leaves, shedding a weight off his shoulders and giving ash a pat on his. waving at him down the street with his curls jumping every step he took.

he doesn't think of much on the way there, too focused on leather coating the steering wheel and whatever song played on the radio. humming a tune ash almost forgets to take the much familiar turn to Tommy's. the building doesn't stand out at all in the skyline,but ash’s used to it now.
it's not the first time Wilbur had asked him to check on him lately, though before he'd been satisfied with knowing his lights were on.
He parks the car on the street not too far from the building's main entrance, it's a tight fit but he makes it work.
leaves swirl in the grass near the door, carried by the light wind and forming small tornados before gently falling back down. When he gets to it a woman he's seen before opens the door to leave and waits for him to get in too, he thanks her and makes sure to close the door behind him.

his steps echo slightly on the clean ceramic floor. the main hall isn't too spacious,it's got a couple of small colorful couches he doesn't think anyone has ever sat in and a couple off brand paintings hung in the wall,it's an old building, and though it's been given a new coat of paint in the Recent years the one missing spot comes to view when he gets on the elevator. It seems everyone forgot about it when discussing the renovations. The door creaks when it shuts and the vintage wooden panels on the walls desperately need polish. the mirror was nicked in a couple places but it wasn't the worst offender by far, that'll probably be the buttons that refused to go down correctly.
he doesn't understand how tommy can bear fighting with this thing every day, though knowing him he probably takes the stairs.

he watched with his hands in his pocket how the L.E.D arrow above the door blinked up into he hit the 7th floor.the door creaked like it always does, but stepping out into the hallway the air turned noticeably denser, like stepping outside in a hot summer day ash winced at the whiplash.
the lack of windows was probably to blame, but along with the dimming lights it made a chill run down his spine.
Tommy's door, closed and with light clearly shining behind it, taunted him at the end of the hallway. the keys in his pocket felt heavy, he wraps his fist around them but he doesn't take them out.the plan was not to break into tommy's house-not for now at least. he was here for a check in, truth be told he would have come eventually even if wilbur hadn't asked for it.

Everyone has their own needs, everyone has their own times for things, Tommy's no different. they all, for the most part, agreed to give him as much space as they thought he needed, but perhaps they had the situation wrong.
things had been odd for a while and they continued to get ever weirder. ash still struggles to call it "worse" but Wilbur never did.
He remembers, after he crawled out of his sudden paranoid spiral, he had been quick to Connect his own situation to Tommy's; but Ash didn't really take it seriously.
it sounded bad,and he regrets it, especially after yesterday.
Phil's concern was quickly mirrored by everyone else the more he talked and ash was not an exception.
truth be told, it didn't make it sound like a mental health break.
Tommy himself never called it that. He never called it anything. they've been putting words in his mouth without noticing.

coming face to face with the door he knocks on it three times in quick succession.
immediately he heard ruckus coming from inside. a chair quickly pulled away, a door hastily thrown open-or closed.
he's home,that much is clear.but no one answers, so ash knocks again,now with an ear pressed against the door.
he hears a one sided conversation coming from inside but it's far too quiet for him to make out.

…

he knocks again.
this time though, all noise halts and he can hear the jangling of keys near the door.
he takes a step back and tommy peeks his head in through the door.

his hair and sleeves were wet.
his skin was tinted a light red all over and he smelled of too much perfume.

The boy, freshly out of the shower most likely,looked him up and down with an unconvinced eye, trying especially to look behind him in the hallway at a Point, ash let him, moving briefly a step to the left.

without uttering a word he opened the door a little more but still not enough to let him in though.
ash waves at him before saying anything but Tommy doesn't wave back, his lips are pursed in a thin line.
"what do you want?" he asks, sounding more annoyed than confused. droplets run down his face and he aggressively wipes them off.

ash tries to get a good look at the inside for the apartment but Tommy,not returning his little favor from before,intentionally blocks his view.
"We haven't seen you in a while" he signs and Tommy squints at his hands, mesmerized by the movement until he understands what's being said. "I just passed by to see what's up"

He finished talking and Tommy's eyes followed his hands back down to his pockets.
not responding The blonde curled his fingers around the door and stopped himself from closing it completely with his foot.
his eyes flickered back to his living room, they came back to ash as wide as they've ever been.
“why” he asked, a mix between a hiss and a whisper while gritting his teeth . ash blinks, a bit dumbfounded.
"we're worried?"
Tommy looked back briefly at his house again. like before panicked blue eyes met Ash's met and the hall's lights flickered.

"well" he looked around the hallway and stopped himself from looking behind him again.
the air was even thicker than before,it coated ash's throat uncomfortably like syrup. he has no doubt tommy felt it too.

"I'm fine" he lies, forcefully swallowing saliva and almost choking.
Tommy whispers something to himself,his mouth barely moved but ash could hear wisps of air escaping his lips. he didn't quite catch what was being said before tommy raised his voice again.

"you don't have to worry. you can go" his grip on the door gives out and his hands fall limply to his sides, poorly faking a relaxed posture.
Ash doesn't move,instead he stands on his tiptoes trying to see past Tommy and into his house, to see whatever he kept looking back to.
he sneaks a peak over Tommy's curls but just sees an empty- and fairly disorganized-living room.

"please go" the boy repeats, this time placing a hand on ash's chest, threatening to push him away but applying no force.

"Is everything ok?"

he tries to open the door further but Tommy stops him.
"tommy?"
"I'm FINE” he shouts, not really sounding too convinced. ash can hear him muttering to himself again; a soft “it's gonna be ok"

he looks back at ash, "you have to go, I'm busy, please go" tommy looks directly at the ground,his shoulder shagged down as he plead.ash doesn't know what to do.

"ok" he backs down "can you maybe call Wilbur later-"
tommy cuts him off, stomping the ground " I won't" he hissed.

"someone else?" he tried to suggest, but tommys chest deflated and his shoulders sagged even more "I can't."
“did something happen?” ash tries, but tommy doesn't look up, not even noticing his hands were moving.
He goes to tap the boy's shoulder but static zaps his hand away. Tommy flinches,waking up again his eyes peek between his wet bangs "goodbye" he mutters and slams the door on ash’s face.

as soon as the doors locked he heard the same one sided conversation as before pick back up, but ash doesn't linger there, it didn't feel right to. He goes for the elevator instead.

again he fights with the stuck buttons and again he stares at himself in the chipped mirror, its the same as before, but the lights had not stopped flickering since he left the hallway. He wonders why they haven't been fixed yet, why no one complained. more static zaps him every time he tries to lean on the walls, he makes a mental note to take the stairs next time.
when hes finally out the building the wind had picked up considerably, blowing his hair right on his eyes and forcing to rush to his car to not freeze and more or less kicking out the parking lot .

he relaxes finally on the driver's seat, ignoring his phone vibrating on the passenger seat for just a minute while he fixes his hair and lets out a sigh he didn't know he was holding.

he picks it up now, not being surprised when half the messages are from a new group chat he didn't know he was in where tubbo and jack were having a random argument he didn't care about.

he opens wilburs contact. now comes the hard part.

Chapter Text

to help someone that refuses to be helped is no easy task.

it didn't make any sense, not to him and not to ash either. so for now  wilbur tries to push the worry off. 

it's not my Problem-he uselessly lies to himself, it's not even a good excuse considering how many times tommy had gone out of his way to help him before, it very much should be his problem.

He dwells on his and ash's past messages, quite the lengthy texts attempting to explain the unexplainable. a back and forth of careful speculation that lead no one nowhere.

Wilbur can only imagine being in his shoes. He can see So clearly what HE would have done. how HE would have talked to the boy. but hindsight is a privilege Ash didn't have and he can't blame him for that.

it breaks his heart. to be unable to do anything weighted on him like a lifetime of guilt, he went to sleep that night choking on the knot on his throat.

he's awake again now.his phone rested on his pillow next to a head of tangled curls he dreaded brushing. knowing damn well it wouldn't work he sent Tommy one more message before tossing his phone away and pulling the sheets off himself.

he yawns one last time on the way to the bathroom and finishes stretching only once he's in front of his cupboards, his shoulders sag again when he cant find even an ounce of coffee.

he might have to go to the store later.

When Wilbur turned on the TV that morning he wasn't expecting to see anything interesting. He hadn't been watching the news much lately, with channels broadcasting news 24/7 it's not uncommon for them to try to fill as much time as they can with irrelevant stories.

 For better or worse, it seems like today is not one of those days, far from it actually. Every channel Wilbur switches to shows the same story.

he remembers then why he had been avoiding the tv in the first place.

jacks comments from a few nights ago ring in his ears;a body had been found by some children digging in the park near his house.

Wilbur isn't one to be driven by morbid curiosity that often, but something about this particular case hooked him. Maybe it was boredom-or maybe he just wanted a distraction from his own problems (though maybe stressing himself out with this was  a bad idea)

It was interesting regardless. 

surfacing from his thoughts and  Looking back at the screen the term body however seemed a bit generous. the news  right now showed an almost  clean skeleton, what little skin and muscle still clung to it was more dried than rotten.

it was  cartoonishly surreal, so much so that it was barely censored. still, Wilbur felt his stomach turn at the sight.

 the ground around the body was covered in its own hair that had fallen off as the scalp rotted.same as the nails that were scattered around the fingers, some lost completely below the dirt. small yellow signs marked each one, police tape surrounded the hole tied to the trees around it. 

The dirt itself below it had been saturated with dark, almost black,blood and husks of what might have been organs layed on the ground against the spine  after  having sunk through the ribcage which in itself was also subject for speculation.

the carcass was brittle,the bone marrow appeared to have been drained completely, siphoned off through small almost invisible holes present in almost every bone, they were cleanly drilled and ranged from 2 millimeters in diameter to as small as a needle.

as eye-catching as they were, the strange holes however were clearly not the cause of the death.for in the middle of the once bright orange sweater sat a large vertical tear and a deep rust colored stain.

With every single sample of DNA they took somehow came out faulty, it was based on the body's clothing that the police managed to identify it.

Kate jackson  the 26 year old woman had been reported missing almost a month ago and  had last been seen in security footage,right before  being picked up by her friends  in a park a block away from her house at around midnight. 

the same park where her body had been found.

the same park Wilbur walks through to get groceries every week.

"the horrifying state the victim was found in lines up with the series of equally mutilated corpses that have Sprung up in Brighton in the last month" the news anchor lady comments over a collage 3 of mostly censored pictures he can only assume are the other corpses "though paradoxically, this one, the oldest one, seems to be in a more recognizable state than the others"

Wilbur leaned on his couch closer to the tv.

“thought authorities are still waiting to definitively identify the remains found only a couple of days ago underneath the old pier, this may confirm the connection between the  four recent disappearances and these new discoveries the police force has made“

he nods like he lady was talking directly to him.wilbur stays glued to the tv.

autopsies performed throughout the day revealed that the lack of clues was not only limited to the body. the land in which she had been buried, aside from the hole itself, showed no signs of having been dug up recently; tree leaves and even grass covered the makeshift grave with terrifying efficiency.

 no security cameras captured anything out of the ordinary. the video seemed to pause when Kate was sitting on a bench waiting alone for her friends to pick her up, and when the camera started again no one was there, as if Kate It would had vanished into thin air.

the security system had not been compromised, at least not according official reports, it all seemed like a poorly timed technological failure.

Regardless, It was an alarming situation, especially for Wilbur who lived so close to the crime scene.

_____________

"aren't you hungry?"

The Shadow- Tommy wasn't even sure what it really was anymore -hovered over him, obscuring what little light came through the closed shutter.

laying on the carpeted floor of his room tommy cannot find the energy to respond, but it doesn't seem necessary, the shadow tilts its head at him already knowing the answer.

"laying down on the floor isn't gonna fix your issues tommy"  it scolds him and  although it's tone wasn't particularly stern, Tommy still felt as if was being yelled at. 

even then he doesn't react, only  laying down still and breathing heavily. He's struggling to keep his eyes open right now, how is he supposed to go get food?

"you're gonna regret it if you don't eat anything"

he knows that.

but the shadow keeps arguing "i don't think you have anything left in the house" it comments.

he doesn't, he had completely ran out of food yesterday and he hadn't had the energy to go buy anything in the last week.

"maybe you could have takeout again" 

he couldn't, the phone was broken. He had barely bothered to touch it after smashing it against the floor.

if the shadow had a face it'll probably look disappointed right now, luckily it doesn't so tommy doesn't have to look at it and be made to feel even worse.

it's near glowing eyes narrowed  staring right at him, it was planning something and tommy can only pray it's to leave him alone.

it seems to be his lucky day today. the shadow moves out of  his direct line of sight and tommy makes no effort to chase it, instead closing his eyes falsely believing he could finally rest.

he can faintly hear the sound of his closet being opened, maybe that's where it slept? it's fine, he doesn't mind it as long as it isn't staring directly at him.

"get up"

 it was and order now. 

at the same time it spoke a jacket was dropped right on his face "put this on if you're not gonna change"

it hurts,but tommy obeys. 

when he goes to stand up every organ in his body protests but he does his best to ignore  them.

his legs are heavy and his arms refuse to cooperate but he manages to get the jacket on in less then 5 minutes.

"see? you're not that tired of all" 

tommy doesn't acknowledge it's mockery. he unwilling and slowly makes his way out his room and falls down onto the couch.

"tommy"  

the shadow's back to  looming over him

"get out the door and buy yourself some food, you're of no use like this" 

tommy didn't know it was even possible for him to feel dizzier than before but now he couldn't move his head to side without almost throwing up.

he doesn't remember getting over that feeling, nor does he remember getting up from the couch.

his vision Only comes back slightly when he feels himself weakly pushing the buttons on the elevator.

eventually the wind threatens to push him over but he resists, making his way over to the store and nearly collapsing out of relief once he was beyond the automatic doors.

_____________

walking down the street that afternoon the change in the atmosphere was palpable.

the few people who did walk through the streets did so with a caution similar to  Wilbur's. He wasn't too thrilled about having to go out So soon either but after he was left with an empty cupboard and a sad looking fridge he didn't have much of a choice.

 Without thinking, Wilbur takes his usual route to the supermarket, only realizing where he is when the lights of the police cars temporarily blind him.

 the park had obviously been closed.  police tape marked the line for civilians all around it with cops constantly circling the perimeter.

 Wilbur was tempted to walk over and ask how things were going but he decided against it last moment.

 he just continued walking, there was no need to upset himself even more with further details.

When the automatic doors open to let him through Wilbur notices again how empty everything is, the market seemed to be no exception in terms of the paranoia that dominated the neighborhood.

 pacing the aisles and grabbing the different items on his list Wilbur gets carried away by habit and lets his mind wander.

 coffee.. his first priority, he should probably cut back on how much he drinks it.

 pasta... his car still has gas right?  he hasn't used it In a long time.

canned tomatoes... he might  cook spaghetti tonight, he's been craving some lately.

minced meat ... a woman with a stroller lightly brushes his back.

two bottles of water... that man in the gray jacket reminds him off Tommy

salt... tommy hadn't answered his text after the call was cut,nor did he respond after ash visited him. Wilbur wonders for the seventh time that day if he's ok.

cartons of milk… to cut the coffee bitterness.

some yogurt ...  strawberry and vanilla.

12 eggs... again Wilbur crosses paths with the boy in the gray jacket, although this time he can see blond curls under the hood, Wilbur almost ignores him but curiosity wins him over and he turns completely around.

the boy had his back to him,grabbing a coke from the fridge

he grabs a coke too, trying not to stare.

"tommy?" wilbur calls out, half expecting nothing to happen. the boy did not turn around but he almost dropped the bottle    before freezing up.

and  that was all the confirmation wilbur needed.a  hopeful smile forms on his face without him even noticing.

still when the boy- no. when tommy does turn around  the smile falls as quickly it appeared.

he was hunched over like a cornered animal.his hands clung around the shopping basket like a lifeline. his eyes,near bloodshot and gray, stared at him through greasy blond hair in terror like he had just murdered someone in front of him.

wilbur couldn't help but gasp. 

his posture was as bad as it could get, his clothes were stained with dirt and the grey jacket he had clearly thrown over himself before coming here wasn't doing him any favors.

"tommy?" he asks, trying not to let his worry show  "how've you been man" . It comes out  forced, too optimistic to be casual, but it's the best he can manage.

tommy looks at him attentively,wary of his every move and still clutching his groceries he doesn't respond but he does mutters curses to himself.

"are you ok tommy?" he forces a small chuckle, tommy stays frozen "you don't look too hot right now" 

moving slowly a deliberately wilbur takes a step forward, lifting his hands halfway up his chest as if a gun was pointed at his temple.

the boy's eyes narrowed and darted around and all over him trying to look for an opening, one that Wilbur wasn't Willing to give him.

tommy leaned to the right and so did Wilbur, slowly but surely approaching the boy and backing him up against the shelves. maybe it's cruel - wilbur thinks to himself -to corner him like that when he's clearly not alright, but Wilbur needed to talk to him.

"tommy what's going on?" he tried again and  Tommy lowered his stance even more. eyeing his legs for any sudden movement looking almost feral in a way,breathing heavily and staring like a deer in headlights.

At this point Wilbur wasn't expecting him to respond, wich made it all the more shocking when the boy did open his mouth "it's fine" he spoke sounding like he either hadn't spoke  in days or had spent the last week screaming his lungs out, Wilbur can't decide which option he hates the most.

"it's clearly not fine" he uselessly argues, he knows tommy won't listen to him,their little staredown near the fridge section was definitely starting to catch the attention of the few other that happened to be shopping too, the small crowd-if you could even call it that- seemed to be only fueling Tommy's restlessness much to Wilbur's annoyance. His  efforts seeming even more pointless.

staring at the people around them and trying to make out their hussed conversations wilbur fails to notice tommy slowly shifting his balance until a knee strikes him straight in the stomach, pushing him backwards and leaving him to slam his back into the shelves.

snacks of all tipes fall unto his head as wilbur tries to catch his breath again, a back of chips lands on his head and he swats it off but he doesn't hear it hit the floor.

looking up to tommy standing above him gave him a truly surreal sight, the fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling warped around the boys head like black hole dimming all the light around itself. 

the same darkness that obscured Tommy's face extended his shadow across the floor and hid any reflections that may have  been visible on the fridge doors behind him. Tommy's eyes seemed  unnaturally bright against the darkest surrounding them and a hand on his shoulder kept him from collapsing then and there on top of Wilbur; who noticed only then how the small crowd that had forced around them all turned to look away, their heads  turned to the side almost forcefully the second tommy raised his knee. 

the third thing that caught his eye was how eerily quiet everything went at that same moment.

the chips didn't make a sound when they hit the ground and neither did Wilbur, all that reaches his ears was a low,humming static.

nothing and no one moved. the few items Wilbur had knocked out that Hadn't reached the ground yet could be seen suspended on the air like gravity was nothing more than a suggestion to them, Wilbur's hand that had reached out to grab tommy as a last attempt not to fall was still extended towards the boy -who looked at it with a mixture of horror and guilt- and no matter how hard Wilbur tried  he couldn't get himself to move it, nor to move any other part of himself now that he tried. all he saw was the shadowy grip  on Tommy's shoulder tighten before time seemed to restart. chips and other snacks continued to fall onto his head, passerbys walked away like nothing had happened and tommy..

tommy,having  seemingly broken out his trance like state,bolted towards the exit doors before wilbur could get up and catch him.

he slipped slightly on his way out but he didn't fall "TOMMY GET BACK!"  he shouted, but one heard him, at least that what it felt like. no one turned around, the cashier didn't notice him running inside the store, the security guard didn't even move as tommy ran out the doors with his (now stolen) groceries.

Wilbur's chest rose and fell as quickly as his hearth was beating.

he halted near the entrance, turning to look more closely at the security guard.

"hey!" he shook him by the shoulders, desperately trying to get a reaction "he just ran off without paying shit! s-shouldn't you  chase after him?" he stammered,yelling at him . the man however stayed still looking beyond him, Wilbur felt his legs go weak and backed away when he saw the man's eyes as clouded as Tommy's had been.

a terrible feeling struck him for maybe the third time in the last five minutes when he realized that no only was no one in the store moving, but they we're all looking at  him.

about ten pairs of eyes. all on him.

the room was spinning,he could have sworn the walls had been narrowing towards him before the cashier spoke up

"uhm are you alright?" 

the world unfroze again, this time completely.

the people that had been staring demed him to be just another crazy guy of the bunch and moved on with their days, the security guard had a close eye on him and the cashier looked about ready to go home.

nothing out of the ordinary.

it was gonna drive Wilbur mad.

he realized that he'd never responded the poor girls question so with a firm nods he lets her know that he's fine and goes up to her to get his stuff scanned and payed for.

he looked down at the bags he was carrying now as he went out the shop,he hadn't finished getting everything he needed, not by a long shot. but the idea of spending a second more in there made him want to puke.

he looked around one last time, barely knowing why since he knew tommy was probably already halfway to his house.

a lady walked past him, leaving the store as well. he watched her walk down the street for a minute, he should really get going too.

he speedwalked-almost bordering on running - the entire way home, making a point to detour near where he knows the park is.

the groceries where dropped on his table as soon as he was inside, and Wilbur threw himself face first into the couch.

"FUCK" he screamed into one of the cushions "WHAT THE FUCK I'M I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW"

balling his fist he hit the armrest with all he had and continued to lay there until he had composed himself.

the groceries were eventually put away into their respective cabinets and couch cushions were rearranged again.

Wilbur took a deep breath.

and another one.

and a third one for good measure while eyeing the door the entire time.

a part of him wanted to run all the way to Tommy's and see for himself what was happening. 

the other, more prominent part of himself, was  afraid.

Chapter Text

its a one man party for jack manifold tonight , he treated himself to a nice dinner and took to the streets to fuck around until hed found a suitable place to get fucked up at.

at the end he doesn't quite do that, jack leaves the pub with his head just lightly buzzing, having gotten bored halfway through the night. He takes the long route back home still,not trusting himself to drive and a bit embarrassed to ask someone to call him an Uber like this. He walks the mostly empty street with his dead phone on his pocket.

its a nice kind of quiet outside, a well welcomed contrast to the constant noice in the pub,crickets hide in the bushes and the grass adding their own tune to the night.

he takes the time while walking to stretch a little. jack cracks his fingers and neck before raising his arms above his head and letting them fall to his sides, a cold breeze pushes him forward and he takes it as a sign to picks up the pace.

the walk is quite boring without music-he notes.he temptably grabs his phone again and pushes the “on” button.
it of course did nothing.

he hears, distantly, steps on the dirt behind him. thye turn even lighter when against the sidewalk.
he turns,half expecting to see an animal taking a night stroll.instead, from the corner of his eye, a shadow ducks quickly behind a parked car.
sure he may be a bit tipsy, but he's sure he's not hallucinating.

his heart stops beating for just a second as he hears rustling from behind the vehicle.
whatever that was, it was hiding from him.

he stalks, careful step after careful step closer and closer to the car.
with a hand steady against the hood he leans over to the other side to find nothing.
the house's lights where off, there was nothing and no one on sight on either side of the street.

breathing deep and wiping the sweat off his face jack looks around one last time and steers himself again on the path home. he swears he could hear heavy breathing somewhere. whether it was behind him or to his side was hard to pinpoint.

jack stops when another shiver makes the hairs on his arms stand up.
"oi! you fucking idiot! i know you're in there" he shouts into the night like a madman, nothing heard him it seemed.

"fucking hell man, can't even walk home in peace"

he takes a few more steps, waits for a car to pass by and crosses the street still feeling those eyes on his back, he bites his in surprise when what was quiet stealthy steps turn in less than a second into a full sprint towards him, he manages to dodge a tackle by a hair.

his shoes slip momentarily and jack backs off more, standing at the edge where the sidewalk meets the road he stops himself from panting as he attempts to meet the stalker face to face.
which he oddly enough fails at.
the person, if you could even call it that, was nothing more than a silhouette. wrapped in a darkness so deep it made his eyes hurt to even look at. they both froze, looking at each other and jack took this change to analyze it further.
it stood only barely taller than him and, at the end of it's legs the black faded revealing a pair of dirty black sneakers and grey sweatpants, he can make out what's maybe a jacket by the outline.
the thing leaned forward and in a fraction of a second it leaped. it's movements were hard to read and jack found out the hard way when two hands firmly grasped his wrists and a foot was put behind his own to make him trip. that first dodge might have been a stroke of luck- he thinks bitterly.

He doesn't fall completely yet, his other foot still firmly planted helps him regain some balance, he throws his body weight unto the figure as harshly as he can manage and slams his head into the attacker's own.
only then when he's freed himself it occurs to him to scream.
"HELP" jack calls out while the ... thing regains it's balance "HELP SOMEONE PLEASE" he yells before a pair of hands wrap tightly around his neck and silence him.he chokes on the words he didn't get to speak.
he scratches at its hands and again tries to wiggle his way out the figures grasp. jack kicks it in the stomach and it's hands let go but when he goes to scream again he finds he can't hear himself anymore, nor can he hear the buzzing of the crickets that where just there,or the shadows frantic breathing;it all melts into static as soon as it hits his ears.
the realization distracts him enough for it to tackle him again, this time successfully.
jack braces for an impact he felt took too long to come, an extra second he used to lift his head as far from the floor as possible to not get knocked out.
pain bursts on his back as he slightly bounces on concrete. He's pinned down completely now with the figure sitting on his chest and restricting his arms . He stares at where its eyes would be and it stares back.
the sounds come back into focus slowly but surely and jack stays still. recovering from the fall and watching the thing watch him.
he can almost feel it's heavy breathing on his face and he definitely felt how it's grip on his arms faltered slightly; jack still didn't move, he didn't want to be a reminder to tighten it.
he could hear it's breathing become more and more chopped up, this staring contest had gone on for long enough it seemed because the shadow finally looked away from his eyes to wipe his own on it's shoulder.
"what the..." jack whispered, the thing still on top off him didn't hear him and looked down on itself instead.

it's grip weakened even more and jack casually shifted his legs for a better chance at escaping. there still no one to help but he could maybe make a run for it -he thinks, slowly gaining more hope.

the figure leans over him even more, again looking at him in the eye. Jack's slowly removing his hands from below the attacker's when a water drop hits his cheek.

he looks back to it standing above him, from where it's eyes should be;another tear drops.
this time it washes away darkness as it drops and jack recoils when he notes he can finally see its eyes. bloodshot and a dull grey, seeming too bright among the void that still surrounded them.
he pushes past the shock and past the hands pinning him down, shoving the now crying shadow off himself bringing a knee to its chest.
with a clank a knife that it was presumably carrying in its pocket hits the sidewalk. Jack gulps knowing damn well where that would have ended up hadn't he fought back.

the sound snapped the thing out of whatever got to it before, it wiped its tears and strung back up to grab the knife back but Jack kicked it as far into the street as he could and bolted the opposite way.
the figure didn't give chase.
jack didn't slow down.
he ran, feeling his heart pumping in his throat for a while, not daring to look back.
his feet were aching when he finally spotted a random 24/7 convenience store, he briefly felt bad for the worker behind the counter seeing their shocked faces when he kicked the door open and stumbled inside.
"sorry" he apologized between short breaths. "I'm really- a dude was fucking chasing me, well he wasn't but he could have and I wasn't taking any chances"
the shopkeeper stared at him with their jaw hanging.
"do you .. want to call the police...?" they asked, picking the store phone up.

"I'd much appreciate that thank you.." he places a hand on his chest, feeling his own Heart beat frantically "could you give me a minute though?"
the shoopkeep nods, they hand him a coin for the coffee machine that he insists in paying for and leave him to calm down.

jack slumps down on crate left in the floor. the gears on his mind turn, bringing out bit by bit every article and broadcast he'd watched lately.

at nighttime- he thinks- in a street empty save from himself,attacked by a mysterious person at random. he could practically see his own face with "missing" neatly written below it. much worse even, he could imagine his body, surrounded with yellow tape and officers from all sides,looking down on a version of himself decomposed beyond recognition.

there's no doubt on his mind about who he had just met. who else would have it been?
how many knife wielding killers does this city have now?

he forces a chuckle out of himselsef and washes the vile down with the cheap coffee.

"fuck me man ..." he muttered, eyeing his own shadow with suspicion hes sure it didnt deserve.
He forces himself to remember as much as he could. dull grey eyes, short hair, grey sweatpants and black sneakers.
he can give the shadow a body if he so desires, a simulation of what it's full legs or even torso may look like was easy to conjure.
it's face it's where he struggled, he couldn't phatom that it was a person submerged there below the void. not aside the eyes at least.
"are you good ?" the shoopkeep asked him, crouching beside him. "what happened?"

their eyes let on that they where more curious than worried,but jack didn't find find it in him to mind. he'd no doubt would have felt the same way in their place.
"fuck if I know! I was just trynna get home!" he begins "I was walking down the street right? not a soul in sight"
the shoopkeep fully crouches next to him, nodding along.
"till I heard a noise, and I went to check, but it was nothing! except it WAS something because a… a weird shadow dude-"

"shadow dude?" they tilt their head.

"yeah they were like. fully black and shit it was creepy" jack confirms

"did you take.. something before going out?"

"no! well yes I was a bit tipsy but it literally attacked me! I bet I have a bruise in my back or something it proper threw me into the floor"

the shoopkeep straightened their bangs briefly to look at him better and get a better read on him.
"right" they say "go on"
they either believed him or deemed him too crazy to argue with.

"thanks. so the guys trying to pin me down, it's got a knife on its pocket too. I realized when I kicked it in the stomach to get it away from me" jack mimics having something on his pocket putting a hand inside and wiggling it.

"oh god.." they gasp with wide eyes "do you think they were going to kill you?"

“im not sure..”

they both stay silent, processing the events.
He choose to leave the crying part out the story, unsure if he'd even tell the cops that part. for some reason it felt rude, like telling the whole class your friend was crying over a test. except this wasn't that at all and he couldn't pinpoint exactly where the comparison came from. it felt personal in a way that brought jack chill down his spine.

the shoopkeep stands up and goes back to where they left the phone.”you should really call the police”

"yeah" jacks laughs a bit more sincerely this time " I should"

Chapter Text

"it was bound to happen eventually" it speaks using his mouth.

it peels himself off his skin like glue, standing now in front of him against the light.

he gasps for air, placing his hands against the sidewalk letting his hair almost grace it with how low he dipped his head.

it stares at him, void-like eyes burning his back while he catches his breath. 

it moves over to the knife, left abandoned near where he fell. it points at it.he picks it up as per request.

he stands up.

they're Looking at each other, his face is still contorted by exhaustion. it lacks a face to describe.

it speaks, now with its own mouth, mimicking fangs that stand out against the pure white inside. "keep moving,there's still time to catch something else" 

___________

shedding the day's clothes unto the "to-wash" pile Wilbur changed into his pajamas almost with desperation.

I'll shower in the morning- he tells his reflection in the mirror while he brushes his teeth.

He spits the toothpaste out and watches it wash down the drain.

the bed, a final destination softer than he deserves, awaits him past the bedroom door.

but so did a smaller, much more persistent temptation.

his phone buzzed In the nightstand,shaking the pen next to it slightly.

he ignored it. 

until it did so again.

and again.

without looking at it he reaches his hand and grips it harshly.

though his annoyance vanishes into confusion when he opens the texts.

jack,both in group chats and in DMS,seemed to be losing his mind with texts the length of a highschool essay he lacked the glasses to read.

he doesn't try much with them but he does join a discord call he'd been invited to.

immediately he's meet with screaming. 

"WILBUR" two people, jack and tubbo by the looks of it, yell out his name like he's a rescue dog in an avalanche.

"auch" he whines, covering his ears "what's going on"

jack shushed tubbo and tubbo shushed him back , both competing on who was gonna speak untill jack cut it all off with a loud clap "Wilbur you are not gonna believe what fucking happened to me tonight" 

"he almost got killed!"tubbo backed him up immediately.

"I did! they almost got me-"

things were moving a bit too fast all of a sudden. "who almost got you-what the fuck are you talking about it's 2 am can you stop yelling" 

"sorry-sorry, you see I was walking home at around 1" jack retold, not slowing down "all alone in the street right?"

"right" 

"and I heard a sound" Wilbur noded even if they couldn't see him "went to check and it was nothing, but I could feel something behind me" he emphasizes the word 'feel' specifically.

"then!" he yells out, the volume makes Wilbur jump "out of nowhere, a guy tries to crash into me in the middle of the sidewalk"

he wakes up fully after hearing that "what?! are you serious?"

"yes man why would I lie about this stuff!" 

Wilbur got up from bed,missing the softness of the sheets already, and reluctantly marched into the kitchen.

he'd better make himself something to drink. "what happened next"

jack hummed "this shadow guy fucking jumped me" Wilbur brews himself a cup of coffee in the meantime.

__________________

"and then I called the police" 

 "and what did you tell them?" tubbo could be heard through the microphone tossing around in his bed. 

jack sighed into his phone, " well I told them what happened! I'm sure they thought I had gone mad but they at least said they'd look into it"

"is that all?" Wilbur asks but his question goes ignored as tubbo talks over him.

"not gonna lie dude it does kinda sound like you're insane the way you tell it" 

jack huffed. "they know I wasn't lying though I've got a nasty bruise in back after that to show for it" 

Wilbur sipped his coffee, adamant to not let his eyelids fall closed for too long.

tubbo giggles. "you should have let it stab you a little bit-" 

"what are you saying man!"

"just a little bit just a little bit! to show some more concrete evidence!" 

he takes another sip. feeling the caffeine settle in and finally ruling out sleep until at least sunrise,Wilbur tunes back in to the conversation.

"I would have ended up AS evidence ON the concrete if I let that happen toby are you stupid?!" jack yells, a bit too loudly might he add, into the mic.

"just saying,that's what I would have done"

"and you wouldn't be alive to tell it right will?" he acknowledges him and this catches Wilbur off guard.he jumps "uh?oh yeah you're a dumbass toby" 

"fuck you man I even forgot you where here!" 

"I'm tired, give me a break" he massaged his temple, trying to calm the emerging headache he felt coming."you've been yelling so much you didn't even hear me talk"

tubbo murmurs a soft sorry, Wilbur's shoulders shrink slightly. he wasn't really as mad as he was tired.

"you can go sleep if you want will. I'm kinda done with the story now" jack offers.

"nono jack.." he insists, imagining himself dragging the man by his arm if they where face to face "actually I wanted to ask a few more things" 

"ask away then" 

tubbo shuffles in his bed some more, he meanwhile replays jacks descriptions on his head,he'd brushed over the finer details in the rush of the moment. Wilbur needed more.

"the.. person.. how did they look" 

jack sighs "I've told you man, I'd barely call them a person, didn't look like anything" 

"but how did the 'nothing' look?" he insists, guided by a gut feeling that insists he can understand it.

jack paused thinking. "i don't know? it kinda... hurt to look at? like I shouldn't be looking at it"

tubbo hums along "like your eyes were closed?" 

"no it was like there was just no light, like it sucked it all off" jack puts the visual to the table and Wilbur puts his cup down. 

he goes silent; he feels the description hit a bit too close to home for comfort.

"and... aside from that, what else?"

"I don't know…"

"where they skinny? fat? could you tell?" he cuts jack off without meaning to.

"Jesus Christ man are you the police or something? it was pretty skinny not too heavy either, it only really got me down because of how fast it was"

"ohh I'm jack manifold and I could definitely defeat the shadow monster If I was a bit faster" tubbo jokes, his voice fading a bit at the end.

"shut up man"

Wilbur ignores their banter "how tall?" he asks.

"about an inch or two taller than me, not too much though" the man pauses to consider the question some more "why are you asking? are you gonna go hunt it down yourself bounty hunter style?"

Wilbur doesn't respond, too busy thinking. tubbo takes this as a yes.

"are you?" tubbo cackles "can you imagine jack, Wilbur prowling around the streets with a cig on his mouth and a handgun on his pocket that'll be awesome" Tubbo giggled into his pillow.

"big guy you sound feverish"  jack comments.

"I should definitely sleep that's for sure"

"I'm not gonna hunt anyone down.. I'm just asking.." 

"because....?"

"because ..." Wilbur thinks about it some more "I'm just curious" 

a deep yawn interrupts them both "guys, I think it's time for me to go" tubo spoke while audibly stretching "don't wanna pass out without my phone charging" 

"good night big man" 

"goodnight "

jack and Wilbur responded almost in unison.

their both stayed silent after they heard the discord disconnect sound.

Wilbur takes a big sigh.

"so jack, are you actually ok? not just fiscally y'know... if that where me I'd definitely be freaking the fuck out" he knows very well how he would have reacted, he can't get it through his head how jacks so calm about it.

"yeah I .. I kinda feel like it won't bother me again"

Wilbur laughs "why? do you think they're scared of you now that you've defeated them?" 

"I didn't defeat then.. I got mad lucky really.." he hesitates "saw an opening and I took it"

"did it slip up?"

a faint "no" and some shuffling came through the speaker. jack took a deep breath before really responding.

".. it.. started crying"

"what"

Wilbur struggles to picture the shadow, described so viciously before, breaking down so simply.

"I didn't tell the police this" he warns "mostly because It made me sound less cool but also It didn't feel right. but when it pinned me to the ground it stared at me, like a lot. it looked at me right in the eyes and it just started crying... like it didn't want to do it"

a pang of remorse,a dash of clarity or maybe something else,Wilbur shuffles all scenarios in his head.

"do you think that's what's going on?"

"fuck if I know..." 

"why didn't you tell the police?" 

jack swallowed "this is gonna sound really stupid but.."

"but?"

"but it just felt mean" 

 "mean?" he chokes out " about the guy that was literally about to kill you? are you insane?"

"I don't know man! it felt like something I wasn't meant to see like I was spying on someone's window, felt like someone was going to call ME weird if I shared it" 

 "..."

"even now I feel weird saying it... like someone's judging me" jack added, lowly and closed to the mic.

"I'm not judging you"

"it's not you" he stated ominously. Wilbur felt a shiver run down his spine and settle under his skin. "it's that fucking thing man"

they marinate in the silence, waiting for jack to explain himself. Wilbur picks his cup up again, it was almost empty anyways, he might as well finish it.

"d'you think they followed you?" 

"not them, I know they didn't I saw them stay there, shits just been weird ever since I got home, is probably just my nerves"

this is starting to hit a bit too close to home for Wilbur.

"Jack?" he asks.

he isn't sure if he's right.

"yeah?"

you can't really be sure in a situation like this.

"do you remember that little... break I took a while ago?"

but he can't ignore the parallels any further, it'll be foolish to do so.

".. yes" jack answered carefully.

"the way you described all of this feels ... familiar" 

jack furrows his brows in silence, letting him continue.

"I felt like I was always being watched too, by something I couldn't see" he admits to maybe the first person since it happened despite the searing pain it brings up on his temple.

"you think it followed you too?" 

"not really.. I'm not sure. I never saw a person with a knife-"

jack cuts him off "lucky bastard"

it gets a giggle out of him that quickly dies down.

"but I did feel followed, watched, judged.." he paused, taking a final sip from his coffee "for a long time I did.

"it's not really that bad anymore" jack explains "really it was mostly when getting back home and talking about it now-" a sharp hiss sounds away from the mic.

"are you ok?" Wilbur asks him.

"yeah man" he winces again "my head just started hurting real bad it's like a-"

"a nail got hammered in?"

Wilbur remembers the feeling vividly.

"yeah…" 

he can't feel his own skull shattering if he focuses enough on the feeling. 

the cup clinks when Wilbur leaves it on the sink, finally empty,to wash later. "what do you think is going on?" he asks. 

He's known,deep down and since the beginning,that it was never a 'him' thing nor a mental health episode. at risk of sounding conspiratorial, Wilbur kept it all close to his chest.

"I don't know" jack hesitates "I'm sure it's connected to the corpses though, there's no way it isn't"

"yeah?"

"yes! think about it for a second, what else could stalk it's victims so well?,kill and hide and .. do whatever it does to then with no witnesses, fucking make me feel like I'm gonna puke just by talking about it?" he got more and more giddy with every word.

Wilbur leaned into his counter. the water dripping distracted him a bit so he closes the tab properly. "d'you think that's what it is? did you feel it stalking you before it lunged at you?" 

"a bit when I was walking home, not before today thought .never. although maybe it's because it caught me right when I was alone.." he trails off, inspecting his own situation. "maybe it never got that with you"

Wilbur swallows. "so if I had gone out.. alone. do you think he would have gotten to me?"

"probably" jack almost apologizes. 

the more he considers it all the more sense it makes,but that doesn't mean the likes it.

another thought,perhaps related, popped up in his head.

"tommy.." he can't help but whisper, briefly forgetting jack could hear him.

"uh? what 's with him?" the man asked.

"I think the same might the happening to him" 

"how?" jack presses the phone closer to his ear "do you know anything?" 

Wilbur sights.he takes a deep breath before responding. "I saw him almost a week ago by now, in the store"

his friend jumps forwards on his seat "have you? why didn't you say anything?!" 

it was a fair question to ask,and Wilbur had not other answer other than he just didn't want to. the encounter shook him for the rest of the day,and by the next one he remembers vividly tipping a whole paragraph about it to Phil. but he never sent it.

"I don't know,it was really weird I couldn't really explain it" he lets his shoulders sag again, rubbing circles into the cold countertop.

jack huffs "everything we're talking about is weird"

"ha, I guess so.." Wilbur closes his eyes, remembering every little details like it was burned into his retinas. "I saw him at the store, buying whatever. when he saw me though he started freaking out really bad, acting like I had him cornered or something"

"why would he-"

"there was something off with him too. something was behind him I could tell, but I couldn't see what. he ended up kicking me into the shelves"

jack chuckled, mostly out of shock "Jesus Christ mate, are you good?" 

"it wasn't that hard of a kick, just startled me a bunch. after that he ran off" 

"he just dropped everything and ran?" 

"no he didn't drop shit he full on robbed the store and no one did anything. It was like they where all.. frozen for a second. until they weren't and I just went home" he recalled it as baffled as he had been experiencing it, he remembers the faces of everyone staring at him with unseeing eyes as terrifying, but in hindsight it was more surreal than anything.

"frozen?"

"I may have hit my head on the way down" he backtracks, still not sure himself if what he saw was real.

jack stopped him in his tracks.

"i don't think you did.have you spoken to him since?" 

"no one has, he didn't even speak to me then. I had ash check up on him a while ago and he was also acting strange"

they both turned silent, considering their dwindling options.

calling didn't work.

catching him on the street didn't work.

showing up at his door didn't work.

jack let out a groan "I feel like a bad Friend but I don't really know what to do" he lamented.

Wilbur replies, simple and sincere "no one does" it's not as comforting as he intended it to be.

_____

"it's getting late"

"it was already late"

"yeah, goodnight man"

"goodnight"

Chapter Text

a man, brown hair and around his mid twenties, carelessly walked the street smoking a cigar.
across the road and much behind was himself, following diligently and as nonchalantly as posible with blackened hands hidden inside his own coat.
the man, still unaware, crossed the street to his side and walked into a closed restaurants parking lot.
he followed, his footsteps careful and silent.
the man went further into the back towards the dumpsters, lifting the lid and throwing his cigarette inside.
when it closed the man let it fall harshly, the metal creaked and slammed. he took his chance, leaping while the sound echoed and the man was distracted he made his way up to him.

"don't fuck it up this time" he heard it needlessly whisper inside his head. "be quick."
his hands grip the strangers jacket and he tugs, kicking the man's foot when he tried to stabilize himself he brings him to the floor.
he tries to lock his hands into place, tightly gripping the man's jacket while hes kept on the floor.
his arms attempt pull away but he keeps his fingers secured.the man thrashes under him, pushing himself up with his legs he makes his fingers come loose.
he swallows a cry and his hands skillfully retrieve a knife from his pocket
being quick as he was asked to, the knife was plunged into the man's neck.
the blood that gouged out slipped right off himself and he was puppeteered off the body, left to crouch beside it.
he tried to close his eyes. it thankfully allowed it, slipping off his body and taking his place standing above the body.
it outstretched it's hand, it's fingers grew slowly at first before separating, digging into the flesh and penetrating bone.
he hears the cracking and swears to feel it on his own spine.

tommy collapses.

and he wakes up sobbing.
_______

his apartment was kept clean but not organized, he hasn't been in the mood to make much of a mess in a while anyways . he'd wake up every day to yesterday's clothes washed and neatly folded, an unusual cleaness that he found no comfort in.
a window left open let in more cold air than light. the breeze circulated the small apartment and always reached him no matter where he was.
in the couch, feverishly lying between blankets he felt the cold seep into his skin.
"I'm cold" he whined to no one in particular.
the clock in the kitchen kept ticking.

his mouth was painfully dry so mourning the slight warmth of the blankets he tears himself away from them;stomach twisting when he gets up he hazeley walks to the kitchen.
He serves himself some room temperature water from the sink and drinks it all in one go, almost choking.
the cold tiled floor makes his toes curl inward, regretting not having worm any socks or sandals he quickly tiptoes back to the couch passing by the open window this time: a short and tall rectangular window where the dining area became the living room, it led to the front of the building and occasionally let in the sound of car horns if traffic ever got particularly heavy. there was thankfully none of that today, the wind was cold but he could ignore it in favor of savoring the way it hit his face.
made him feel something other that tired.

_____________

Wilbur brushed his hair off his eyes for what felt like the thousandth time. the wind flew down his collar like a cold hand making him shiver. with weather like this it shouldn't be long until it starts snowing-he tells himself.
"we couldn't have picked a worse day for this"
jack pushes his scarf more over his mouth. and lowers his beanie "it's the wind man, it's not too cold otherwise"
he nods, burying his face on his own scarf. the wind could be heard howling as it maneuvered between buildings, dragging salty air from the sea into the city.

jack locks his car, the kia's lights blink and he pockets the key.

"well, we're here now."

he stared at the pale and fading paint job on Tommy's building. noting down plants hanging from balconies and even a cat looking out a window he craned his neck up to the very top where the Aircon units sat.
buildings always look the tallest when you are at the base.
"we sure are"
Wilbur spun the key he'd borrowed from ash, with a quick jank on the door they both went into and the lobby's lights turned on automatically.
jack took the lead and Wilbur watched him press the button at least 4 times before they heard the bing.
the elevator after that didn't make them wait much thankfully.

"fucking hell man" jack winced when the door creaked "this thing's gonna leave us stranded"

"or fall" added Wilbur when they both had to squeeze in. jack leaned against the ugly yellow wallpaper, turning his eyes to the floor and playing with his scarf. Wilbur knew conversation was out of the picture, both stood away from each other with their shoulders tense.
he took a final look at himself in the mirror, while the elevator took it's sweet time to rise Wilbur straightened his jacket and took a deep breath, looking into his own eyes the dirty mirror distorted their color making them appear darker than how he knew they where.

he stares, somewhat transfixed by his own image, untill the doors open and jack pushes to get out first.
"finally, that felt like it took forever" he dramatically Stretches lifting his arms in the air.
Wilbur nods "yeah, it's weird"

"what's weird?" jack turns.

"the elevator"

it doesn't dawn on him until a few seconds pass why jack Looked at him how he did. he must be the weird one then.

Wilbur stands in front of the door, Tommy's door. jack reaches to knock on it but he stops him, grabbing his sleeve.
"last time ash knocked it didn't get him anywhere" he whispers.
jack shakes him off "Are we going to just break In then?"

Wilbur pulls out his borrowed keys, dangling them in Jack's face. "it's not breaking in if you have the key"

jack looks apprehensive.
at the last second he stops Wilbur's hand when he goes to slot the key in.
his face contours and he gives Wilbur's hand a light squeeze "I don't feel good about this"
he can't argue when a shiver runs down his spine. "me neither"

the door taunts them both,Wilbur tries to look into the peephole but blocking it was the first thing tommy had done once he moved in.

"let's stop then" jack tries.

Wilbur mumbles "I don't feel good about that either" as he tries to jam the key inside again, jack now fully grabs his arm.
"we shouldn't be here" he whisper-shouts into his ear, trying to untangle Wilbur's fingers away from the key.

"what are you talking about?"Wilbur shoves his shoulder into his and jack cautiously let's go off his hand, turning his head frantically to the empty hallway.
"it looks like we're breaking in, let's just go"
he tried again to gently guide Wilbur away from the door but gets shoved off for the second time.
"there's no one here jack! what's gotten into you?"

Wilbur looks below to the floor where jack was trying to trip him;a cold wind from below the door froze him in place.he looks at jack, whose eyes are wide as plates.
his shaking hands let go off the key and warmth rushes back into his body.
wheezing like a drowning man brought to shore he kicks the key away and backs off from the door.
Jack picks the key up and follows him.
they both breathe heavily.
Wilbur snaps out of it and grabs the key out of jacks hand, goin up to the door he attempts to twist the lock. jack stayed back, watching him struggle.

"it's not working"

Wilbur begins shaking the door.
jack doesn't get any closer.

"Wilbur stop"
he starts to bang on the door.
"WILBUR"

"Tommy? tommy are you there?" he calls him loud enough for the boy to hear it from the other side of the apartment.

jack panics."Wilbur FUCKING quit it! you're gonna get the police called on us"

"but-"

his key pops out and the door unlocks.
the men both freeze as tommy opens it, slowly and not completely.

"who is it?" he asks before they can fully see him.
he spots jack first and immediately backs out horrified. "why are you here?" his voice wavers.

"tommy-" Wilbur tries to interrupt but only ends up calling attention to himself.
"why are YOU here too? are you-" Tommy cuts himself of with a panicked breath "what's your problem!?"

jack backed off, hands going up in the air slowly. his eyes fixed in Tommy's.
"wow calm down man!"

"we're worried about you" Wilbur takes another step forward, his hand is swatted away when he tried placing it on the boys shoulder "can we come in? please?"

dull grey eyes fly between him and jack. when he looks behind himself he's thrown off balance for a second.

"no you can't,go away"

"we're not going to, tommy we have to talk"
his hands grip the handle and Wilbur readies himself.
"no we dont-!" an attempt was made to slam the door the door but Wilbur holds it open. "let go of it!" he yells, pushing with his whole weight against Wilbur.
they tug at the door and it creak when either of them gain or lose ground.
"jack give me a hand here " he yells.
the man, without taking his eyes off Tommy's, scurries to lock his foot between the door.
"why are you here? you're not-" tommy struggles to talk through gritted teeth "you're not gonna get anything-good!

"we don't want anything.." jack calmy answers. tommy stomps on his foot "THEN GO!"

"tommy what are you talking about??" Wilbur tried to reach for him again, static pinching the tip of his fingers.

"PLEASE JUST GO-" he choked on air, halfway folding over himself and without letting go of the door tommy tries to suppress a coughing fit.
Wilbur holds his arms out, preparing for him to fall.
but he didn't.
instead he froze. fingers completely locked in place and holding the door halfway closed. Wilbur tugged at it again but it wouldn't bulge.

tommy planted his feet well on the floor. holding unto the door thighly. his eyes darkened as he stared directly at jack through his bangs.
the man gripped his shoulders from behind, his hands slight trembling.
"Wilbur we should go"
Wilbur whips his head around.
"are you fucking-" he struggles with the door with tommy, who now was posing more of a challenge "-kidding me?"

when he turns back, Tommy's eyes burned directly into his. his upright posture a stark contrast to how he was previously hunched over.
tommy digs his nails into the wood, bearing his teeth at Wilbur.
his eyes wide with a panic he'd seen before.

and like before he lifts his hands up, inching closer to tommy slowly.

jack stared behind tommy and, like he was seeing something Wilbur couldn't, backed off trembling.

he goes for the boys shoulder, but tommy does more than shove him off now.
he finds his wrist on a firm grip, he grabs him with his other hand instead, letting go of the door.
tommy squeals and pries his nails off it too, getting Wilbur's hand off him but not letting it go he attempts to push him back into the hallway.

"tommy what the fuck is happening?" he asks and is met with Tommy's unseeing eyes, focused on nothing but their feet planted in the floor "what the fuck happened before?"

jack jumps when Wilbur gets pushed into him by tommy that attempts to tug at his hair at every chance he gets.

like a glass hitting the floor jack snaps "What's your problem?" he shouts, trying to get in-between Wilbur and tommy.

jack pushes his arm between the two, Wilbur who was trying not to loose balance and not to hurt tommy ended up accidentally receiving an elbow to the face when tommy attempts to hit his head against jacks.
"hey!"
"tommy get off me!"

they get tangled in a mess of pushing and pulling.Wilbur tugs at tommy shirt accidentally and gets his fingers bitten and jack in turn gets shoved into the wall.

another door opens In the hallway, catching their attention. a young woman partially walks out.

"what's going on in here"

Wilbur immediately let's go of tommy who goes still stands like he's ready to bolt.

"hi.." jack greets her awkwardly.
her eyes narrow on him and Wilbur.
she also looked at tommy, although it was clear she knew him at least by face.

"who are you people" she closes her own door and folds her arms, tommy slowly begins to back off closer and closer to his apartment.
there was no way they could paint themselves in a good light here.
jack thankfully took the lead.
"we're Tommy's friends" Wilbur nodded along "we came here to check on him since we hadn't seen him in a long time"

he looks to his right where tommy had already gone back behind the door. he held it tight and halfway closed, watching the scene in the hall continue without him.
"we were worried" Wilbur added, loud enough for tommy to hear him.

Wilbur knows he can't protest as he is dragged back into the elevator.

jack let's the tension fall off his shoulders, strongly rubs his eyes. in there they don't talk.
jack avoids looking at anything but the floor and Wilbur takes an interest in his own reflection again.

he fells the air grow colder. a sense of deja vu strikes him and when he turns to look at jack he's completely frozen. he couldn't hear the elevator moving anymore.
he turns back to face the mirror and his image was frozen too. it leaned close to the glass as he had been before.
it tilts his head though when Wilbur stares at it for long enough.

"you shouldn't be here" his own voice echoes beyond the glass.

"what?"

the elevator rocked back into motion, he could hear jack softly breathing again.
the doors opened and they walked out.

jack hit his head against the stearing weel.
"what the fuck just happened"

Wilbur slams the door without meaning to. "we fucked up that's what happened"

jack groans and presses the horn with his forehead for a second " there was something else"

"what?"

"I'm not sure" he rubs his eyes some more "i think it was just the lighting actually, don't listen to me" jack continue to mumble to himself.

Wilbur huffed, he was a bit too pissed with himself to care.

"please lets go home”

Chapter Text

"you've been holed up in here for too long, people are starting to think you're dead. go for a walk somewhere you'll be seen, we can't have people knocking on the door every day" the words had echoed on his head ever since he'd walked out his door.

he thought he'd hate this,he had originally groaned at the thought of even getting out of bed; but the few other people in the street seemed to all share his tired stance and cautious look, no one was bothering no one and that's how he likes it.

there was doubt in the back of his mind if he'll have enough energy to go back home. he kicks a rock about it, that's a problem for future tommy. he just wants to get this over with now, maybe the ocean breeze can clear his head a bit.

he went unnoticed, people came and went around him. he selfishly hoped no one recognized him, it was a bit of a miracle it hadn't happened yet and he prayed it stayed like that. he doesn't think he has the hearth to deny a photo to anyone but he doesn't really want the world to see his face like this, he'd scared even himself in the mirror that morning.

the rocks in the beach creak when he jumps into them from the street and continue creaking with every step he takes. with the sea in front of him he gazes towards the horizon, not bothering to shake the lingering feeling that something is wrong and ignoring the shadows in the corners of his vision Tommy walks further into the beach, letting the wind give him to the water.

the sea was dark and turbulent, it wasn't a good day for swimming. that would explain the empty beach. some seagulls flew over its surface while others bravely approached him on the shore where he stood. They were interesting little animals and tommy took pleasure in watching them fly around. technically they hunted fish to survive but by seeing how fat these were Tommy can safely assume that they live off the garbage that people leave behind.

they are a good distraction normally, but today they seem not to be enough; the sound of crashing waves dissolves into a static that blocks his ears making tommy start to feel like his head is being filled with cotton. god nothing seems to be going right for him, to say that he feels sick it would be and understatement.

his stomach growled, he doesn't remember if he ate anything before going out.
he wonders what a doctor would say if he where to actually visit one.it doesn't sound like a bad idea to set up an appointment , but He'd probably forget the date before he can get to it anyways. this memory thing was getting bad, he feels like he's been skipping days in the calendar, whole weeks gone from his mind.
he feels like a stranger,not worthy of knowing the details of his own day to day.
he knows his own mind is keeping things from him but the thought of telling anyone about it, even a doctor,made his skin crawl and his head hurt even more.

with his head on the clouds tommy fails to notice someone approaching him until he feels a light tap on his shoulder
in an immediate, intuitive Motion tommy graba the unsuspecting hand, staggering back into the sea ever so slightly he Looks at the culprit. the person - whom Tommy now realizes is an older lady - flinches at this and she too takes a step back.
he immediately lets her go, embarrassed by his over the top reaction.

"sorry! i- uhm i'm sorry i just.." he stutters looking for a reasonable excuse.

"oh I'm sorry for startling you kid" the old lady chuckled "it's my fault for coming in from behind i don't blame you"

tommy doesn't respond, vacant eyes look back into the sea now with the lady standing beside him,if she wants some company he's more than happy to be it. god knows he probably needs it too.

after a few seconds she speaks again
"you seemed quite lost there, are you ok?

he thought a bit before answering -he also thought about not answering at all but that'll be needlessly rude.
"yeah.. its just that .. I've not Been sleeping well lately" not thinking much if it Tommy turns his attention back to the seagulls in the sea "I came here to relax a bit"

the lady, strangely enough, seemed to light up at this and responded with a cheery tone "ah! insomnia! I've dealt with it in the past kid i know how much of a pain it can be"
while he doubts that his situation is as simple as insomnia he nods in agreement nonetheless.
"i might have something to help you with it if you're willing to take it" She added, eyeing tommy more carefully. a knowing glint in her eyes was something that, had Tommy been more awake, he would have found suspicious. Luckily for the lady that is not the case and the thought of finally getting some real rest seemed incredibly enticing to him right now.

"you do?"

the lady chuckled, she Must have picked up on the desperation in his tone but tommy couldn't find it in himself to care.
"i do, although it's not right here, would you mind coming to my car with me"

he blinks.

well if this wasn't suspicious before then it definitely was now, tommy distantly wonders if he was getting kidnapped. still for some fucking reason, he agrees to accompany her to her car.

she goes to grab his hand but he refuses. the lady walks in front of him, her purple poncho sways with the wind and he stares at the small pompons laced into its ends.
her gray hair was tied up, also with a pompon tied into the hair tie.
the walk wasn't too long, with his focus switching between the lady in front of him and the rocks they were walking on the whole trip was a blur as expected.

"we're here" she says.
the "car" was less of a car and more of a van. painted white with an uncountable amount of stickers and writing on it.
the lady threw open one of the side doors, revealing the inside to be filled to the brim with boxes stacked upon boxes.

Thankfully she didn't try and drag him inside or something, instead she started rummaging through a few of them, muttering to herself while Tommy stood idly by the van, waiting patiently for the lady to find whatever she was looking for.

From his place leaning on the vans hood, Tommy can hear how the woman rummages through the boxes, some things that fall end up outside the truck and on the rocks on the beach. it's quite a strange collection, especially when you consider that this lady seems to take it with her wherever she goes; There were porcelain statuettes, rusty bells, doll parts, broken watches among many other things that Tommy would never consider to be more than garbage, however the woman seems to care about all the objects equally, hurrying to pick them back up and delicately brushing any dust off them before placing them back in their respective box.

time doesn't seem to pass at all, at least from Tommy's perspective.
almost as if the world is in slow motion, the sea seemed to have calmed down and the sky was gradually clearing up but the atmosphere around him remained just as heavy. after what felt like an eternity that couldn't actually have been more than 5 minutes the lady spoke to him again, snapping him out of his own thoughts

"kid come here, i finally found it"

"what even is 'it' " tommy huffed, he wasn't particularly eager to see what the lady had in store for him, at this point he'd rather just go home and rot in bed.
she only smiled and motioned for him to come closer, so he did.
Tommy crouched down to look inside the truck, just in time for the woman to pull an old, faded puppet out of one of the many boxes.

"tadah!"

its face was semi realistic, carved in foam and painted over. it's bright red cheeks where highlighted by the fact that the doll was smiling, the puppets body didn't look like it was designed to fit it's head, with dangling cloth limbs that seemed almost unfinished and mannequin hands taped at the ends, making it look as if it had been made out of scraps.
the lady handed him the doll, it wasn't too big, almost like those ventriloquist dolls. now that tommy was holding it the doll had a certain charm to it. the almost silly smile it held made it seem much less creepy than how he would have looked without it

"and? what do you think of him?" the lady asked, smiling with pride towards the doll.

tommy held it up in the air, watching as its wooden legs swayed with the wind
"he's quite a delightful little man if I do say so myself" he found himself joking maybe for the first time in weeks "how much is he?" Tommy asks
he reached for his wallet only to find his pockets empty. ah, of course he hadn't brought it.
he was about to apologize and give the doll back but the lady was quick to brush him off "i don't need any money kid don't worry" confused he let the lady speak, "all i ask from you is to give me a lock of your hair"

he blinks again. processing the request.

it was a little weird but Tommy isn't one to judge, not when this lovely lady had given HIM-a random Stranger-this doll for free! so he agreed.
she pulled a pair of scissors from her pocket like she had been waiting to do it since she woke up and motioned for tommy to sit on one of the boxes which he did without any complains.

she awkwardly leaned over his head, inspecting it,distantly he wonders of he has lice, it'll be a bit embarrassing if he did.

"I'm gonna try and cut one where people won't notice,i wouldn't want to ruin your haircut" she jokes.

"it's okay"he reassures, almost immediately after he heard the quick 'snip' of the scissors near his ear.

Once she had the hair in her hand, the lady rummaged through her pockets and came up with a small metal case she out the hair in.

Tommy looked away. too busy inspecting his new toy (well it wasn't really a toy, it seemed too fragile to be played with) to care, what the hell is an old lady doing with a lock of hair anyway? curse him? If he's being completely honest he believes that he can deal with a curse-he might as well be doing that right now with how shitty his days had been until this moment.

"Does he have a name?" tommy asked her before turning to leave
"you can call him whatever you see fit kid"
oh that's a lot of power to give to someone like him, he'd make this lady regret it
"i think im calling him uncle nasty" he announced, but instead of protesting the lady just laughed
"sounds like it'd fit him"
with that he was off, out of the beach and with his newly acquired friend. he walked back home with the doll in hand making sure to be gentle with it as to not have it fall apart. his head starts to clear up along with the sky, maybe he'll call tubbo once he's home,they haven't talked in a while after all.

while objectively the Trek back was as uneventful as the way over it still felt as fun as it could have been, maybe it was thanks to his new companion but the city seemed much less lonely compared to before.

he reaches his apartment in record time and in his excitement running up the stairs tommy bumps into someone familiar.

"ah!" they yelped, tommy staggered and covered the doll with his arms in case of impact.
"oh God I'm sorry"
"you're fine, just scared me a little"
the woman —whom Tommy recognized as Rebecca,his neighbor from the same floor—now waved at him with a smile.
"Tom right?" she asks while holding her hand out.

tommy smiles and shakes it "yep! the one and only!" He tries to add a little twirl for presentation but, after seemingly forgetting that they were not on solid ground he missteps and nearly falls down the stairs with uncle nasty on his hands. he holds unto the doll with one arm, clutching the handrail with the other.
, before he could even deny any of this ever happening she giggled at him and picked her groceries back up, starting to go up the stairs.
he sighs, relaxing and wordlessly offering himself to help carry her bags with his spare hand. they engage in simple conversation.

"these bags are quite heavy" comments tommy "why aren't you taking the elevator?"

"I was going to" she hauls the bags over two steps in front of her "but when I took it to get down this morning it was so stuffy in there, felt even more precarious than normal"

he hums "that's an achievement I think. I rarely take it personally, I'm always a bit afraid it'll fall or keep me traped there"
"what's that doll you've got there?" she asks him, changing the topic.
tommy lights up.
" a new friend i got today" the answered cheerfully and propped uncle nasty to sit up straight on his arm. moving his dangly arms to make it appear as if he was waving
while she looked at him perplexed she didn't say anything, instead she returns the wave with an awkward smile.
"so..what's it's name?" she hesitantly asks.
tommy beamed at this.

"this! is uncle nasty! i got it from a lady at the beach today!"

his neighbor,seemingly unfazed by the odd name furrowed her brows at the last part of that sentence
"you went to the beach today? it's quite cloudy, must have been empty.." she trails off looking to the side
"it was!" Tommy's enthusiasm contrasts her sudden change of mood "it was only me and that strange lady,she was lovely though "
she hums, smiling slightly, yet that worried look on her eyes doesn't go away.
as they neared their floor she turns to him and speaks again.
"be careful if you go out to the beach alone like that, I'm sure you've heard the news lately..."
he hadn't …
Tommy hadn't really turned on his TV in weeks. yet somehow, deep inside, a part of him knew what his neighbor was talking about.
"i.. yeah i will" he promises, even if that same part of him told him there was nothing to worry about.

Rebecca seemed satisfied by that, and with a much lighter tone said her goodbyes before taking her bags and entering her own apartment. soon enough Tommy found himself doing the same.

_________

tubbo was obviously no stranger to getting random calls mid-stream, this one though he couldn't have seen coming.
after being completely unreachable for weeks,tommy of all people, was calling him on discord.

he almost forgets he had a camera in Front of him. He stares at the chat before picking up, carefully reading their reactions when he announces the call to them.
"chat Tommy's calling" he plays off his anticipation with forced disinterest.
panicked messages inmediatamente poured in, none were worth nothing more than a glance. He knew what they were saying. he shared most of their questions after all.

small red flags that on their own might be meaningless but they can pull a surprising amount of weight when stacked together.

"hello? I'm live by the way tommy" he warns him preemptively and accidentally interrupts him.

"you're live.. uh hi chat! and hi tubbo"
hearing his voice tubbo let out a sigh he hadn't realize he was been holding.

" hi man we haven't talked in a bit how's it going ?" he can hear tommy swallow thickly

"nothing much, nothing much! 'been a bit sick lately so i didn't have much energy to hang out" tommy, from what he could hear at least, was fiddling with something on his desk.
"are you feeling better today bossman? last time we talked ranboo told me you where feeling a bit under the weather" although his voice was laced with concern he tried not to let it show too much, not wanting Chat to pick up on it. to them tommy had just been on an internet break after all.

"oh yeah ranboo.. FUCK why do you keep falling.." a thud rapidly followed by another could be heard.

"uhm tommy?"

"sorry tubbo I'm just trying to ... balance this guy so he'll sit straight "

a loud crashing sound on his end was quickly accompanied by an even louder
"FUCK"

"tommy what are you talking about-"

tommy cut him off "oh tubbo that's what I called you for, I need to introduce you to this fella right here. his name's uncle nasty!"

"uncle... nasty?"

just before he could question the odd naming choice tubbos saw a notification pop up on his second monitor, a picture from tommy of what he could only assume was the "uncle nasty" in question. a cheaply constructed puppet that looked like tommy had pulled it out of the trashcan of a magician reject.

he doesn't hide his confusion nor his disgust. the doll had an uncanny looking face and a smile that did nothing to better it.

"tommy what the fuck is that?"

"he's my new friend, uncle nasty! go on show the chat I'm sure they'll love him!"

"where did you even get that shit bro it looks crusty as fuck"

"ey! don't insult him like that"

tubbo hesitantly pulled up the picture of the strange puppet up on his stream.
immediately the messages that had been asking him to show the puppet where buried by people spamming crosses and "ewwws"

tommy, who apparently was now watching the stream, turned to yell at them.

" hey guys could you stop being so fucking mean to him? look I've sat him up all pretty for you lot and All you're doing is mistreating him!"
the genuineness in his voice caught tubbo off guard.even if it was part of a bizarre bit he felt strange jumping back into their stream dinamic after so long.
he decides to do it anyway. they could talk properly later.

"tommy he looks evil"

"quit it man! you're a Fucking asshole y'know?!" he yells.

tubbo scoffs "well i wouldn't be this mean if that thing wasn't so ugly"

after a minute or so of back and forth between the two Tommy seemed to reach his limit and the call was abruptly cut leaving Tubbo alone with this audience again. a quick look at the VIP list showed him that tommy had taped out of the stream as well.

"huh" tubbo looked back to his chat "that was weird wasn't it guys?"

a chorus of "yes" flooded the chatroom, agreeing with him as they often do.

"hopefully tommy will go back go his senses and throw that shit away before i go over to Brighton again" he joked, even though he hadn't gone in weeks and he hadn't seen tommy in almost months "i bet that doll would kill me on my sleep"

tabbing back into the game tubbo quickly left the bit behind.
now that he knew tommy was up to chat though hell definitely be hitting his line later.

_______

tommy slammed his headphones unto the desk, burying his face in his hands and groaning.
uncle nasty watched while propped up against his water bottle and leaning, dangerously close to falling over.

"I'm sure he'll come around to you eventually little guy" he told the puppet, staring at it's unseeing eyes. "I just have to fix you up a little, you definitely need a bath"
the doll smelled like dust, no doubt it had been collecting it while sitting in that box.
he straightens him again, only for it to inmediatamente hunch back down.

"uhm I'm gonna have to get a little seat for you"

he rubs his chin and looks around. quickly spotting a random small box on the side of his bed.
he had no idea what had been in it before and it wasn't the fanciest seat but seeing as he can't properly hold his own weight tommy supposes that the uncle nasty can't really complain.

his chest filled with a sense of pride once the doll had been settled on his new seat, his dangling limbs hanged from the side while his head rested against one of the walls; it wasn't the most comfortable position but tommy knew that if he could, the doll would have appreciated it greatly, after all everything was better than sitting in a dusty box for god knows how long.

he sits down on his bed next to the box and sets it near a window. now uncle nasty could watch the sky or scare any curious stranger that happened to be looking at his window! win-win Situation.

he leans on the wall, and closes his eyes with a content smile.
when he opens them again the rooms bathed in orange light and the PC screen is flashing with an incoming call.
he stretches mostly his neck, lamenting the unfortunate position of his accidental nap when it cracks a bit too loud.

he forces his eyes to focus on the call.
'tubbo' it reads.
tommy sighs and gets off the bed, sliding his headphones back on he answers the call.

"hello?"

"hi Tom, i just just ended. though i'd call you back to catch up"

"oh yeah, hi man"

an awkward silence lingered while he waited for Tubbo to speak.

"so.. how've you been?" tubbo threads slowly through carefully chosen words
"I know you said fine before but that was… a long time ago. we were all really worried

"i.. " tommy slowed himself down, not daring to admit that not even he truly knew how 'hed been'. lately life seemed like a mess of plot points barely strung together, he did not want to burden tubbo with his nonsense, but he could feel the way not telling anyone was affecting him. he knew he needed help, but for what?
Tubbo waited patiently. "I've been.. weird this past months"

"weird?"

"yeah... things have been weird, i think im sick.. I'm not sure"

"you're sick?" tubbo exclaimed, audibly alarmed.
"i think! I'm not too sure what's happening.. I'm feeling better now tho! i went to the beach today" it was true too, he was having a pretty good day today.

"I.. that's ..good tommy but what happened? like before .. feeling better "

"i .. was really tired, i couldn't .. i know i slept some but it always felt like i had ran marathon, I'd wake up and be barely able to get out of bed.. "

tubbo stayed quiet, half processing what Tommy just told him and half waiting for him to continue talking. Tommy knows that once he's started he can't stop, so he continues

"I'm sure i went out at some points, i know i did .. i know i went to the park once, but i can't seem to remember anything from those times" he rubs his head in anticipation but the headache never comes.

"what do you mean you don't remember? did your head hurt or something?"

"no .. well it did hurt but i don't think i got hit or anything, i know i went out and did .. something because my shoes would be dirty and my whole body would hurt but every time i tried to remember it everything would just get foggy and ..."

"and?"

"i don't know"

tommy said his piece and tubbo hummed. he took his time to respond, tommy can't blame him.
he can hear him sitting up on his chair before he hears him speak.
"i think you... should probably go to the doctor"

"i know but.. I'm feeling better already! I'm tell you its like a curse has been lifted!"

"tommy that doesn't sound like something that just goes away-"

"but it did I swear! ever since I went to the beach and got uncle nasty my whole heads cleared up!"
tubbo was taken aback by this, tommy waited for his response.

"uncle nasty? you mean that weird ass puppet? i was gonna ask you where did you even get it?"

finally a question he could happily answer.
"yeah uncle nasty! i got him at the beach today from a lovely lady!"

tubbo tapped his fingers on his desk.
"just ... a random lady? in the beach? did she like ... sell it to you or what?",

"uhm no she didn't.she gave me it for free after i told her I hadn't been sleeping well"the purposefully avoided the 'lock of Hair' part of the tale.

"why would she do that"

"to help?"

tubbo wasn't convinced, but there was nothing to convince him off. as outlandish as it was He was telling nothing but the truth.

"so you're telling me that: after being unnaturally exhausted for weeks, you went to the beach, HAPPENED to run into a random lady who HAPPENED to also be carrying a strange doll that she GAVE to you FOR FREE to help you sleep?"

"well if you say it like that it sounds sketchy but i can assure you toby she was absolutely lovely!" he jumps to defend her "also she wasn't carrying it she had it on her van and I walked her to it"

tubbo chocked " YOU FOLLOWED A STRANGER TO A VAN??" If he was there with him tommy can bet he'll be shaken by the shoulders right now. "tommy what if that doll has a tracker on it?"

"why would it fucking have a tracker?uncle nasty is a good guy he'll never track me"

"whatever dude, just don't call me crying when the demons are tearing you apart or when they need someone to pay the ransom"

"i won't call you 'cus it won't happen," tommy hummed.

they dropped any meaningful topics after that and tubbo moved onto catching tommy up with some projects of his.
it felt nice talking to someone- he thinks while Tubbo talks about how his PC camera had died yesterday. he had missed the feeling of company.

Chapter Text

placed the important things on the summary so u can read it on email no problem nothing else to add here, if you could take a minute to answer it'll be greatly appreciated

Chapter Text

Wilbur, still on his bed where he had collapsed yesterday, stared at his phone held above his head.

with a tap he loops the clip again. waiting a second for Twitter to load the video again before it began playing. he lowers the device up to his nose, almost pressing on the screen with it, focusing intently on Tommy's voice this time.

audibly smiling, upbeat and relaxed .it sounded overly familiar in way he hasn't heard in a while. with odd normality he addresses the chat before moving to casually chat to tubbo about a very ugly and dingy looking- puppet he had gotten for himself while Wilbur watched with the same confused eyes as tubbo in the clip.

that poorly taken picture a puppet invaded the screen again as tubbo pulled it up for chat to see. it was hard to pinpoint what exactly felt so off about it but Tommy seemed very happy with it, cartoonishly so.

Wilbur stares at his face on the screens reflection for a second while the clip lagged, eyebags as sunken as expected.

tubbo insults the puppet as any sane person would and Wilbur gets ready to really pay attention. he's watched the clip up to 5 times already but Tommy's reaction is the most interesting thing about it to him.he gets defensive very quickly, yelling and swearing until he himself abruptly cuts the call.
the clip ends with tubbo sending a last confused look to the camera before minimizing his webcam and going back to the game.

Wilbur kept staring at his phone while the clip looped. listening to a tommy that seemed miles away from how he spoke when he last saw him. he had 4 unread messages from jack that he hadn't bothered to read yet but he could imagine already what they said and he didn't really have it in him to reply.

with a groan he peels himself off the bed, reading 11:30 on his bedside clock it feels both too late for breakfast and too early for lunch, his stomach growls but he ignores it for the time being.

Wilbur threatens to put his phone down but backs out and loads the clip again, grabbing the armrest of his Couch as he falls into it. he looks at the ceiling, at his hands, at the wall,the clock and at his reflection on the turned off tv. he moves his hand up and it follows, eyes locked with his own.

he grabs at his hair, not pulling but definitely about to as he rewatches the clip.

the gears on his head turn, forcing his eyes shut for a minute he tries to go over Tommy's wording on the clip, looking desperately for some sort of double meaning.he wanted to call tje defensiveness irrational, to tie it to all the other inexplicable behavior hed seen from him lately, but he was on stream and tubbo had insulted his new toy, so there's a chance he had been playing it up for the camera.

Wilbur remembers the way his eyes burned into him and jack. that definitely hadn't been an act right? he briefly opens his dms with tubbo to ask him something - anything about tommy before backing out.feeling the boy might be just as lost he is.

shamefully he opens Twitter, the curiosity eating him alive, most if not all posts he saw were about the awful puppet and Tommy's "return from his hiatus" the rest of the people where even more in the dark than him.

he throws the phone into a cushion and grabs a different one to scream into.

+

he had to start his day eventually, as much as he didn't want to.

there wasn't much to do, though he had yet to buy that replacement charger he needed so maybe that'll be a good start.

Without much enthusiasm he pulls his coat over his shoulders and slips on a comfortable pair of shoes, the cold air makes him shiver the first time he opens the door but it doesn't take long until he gets accustomed to it.

He walks past the park,going around it instead of through it out of habit after the police had closed it for weeks. once on the main street he quickly spotted a hardware store he knew already sold what he needed.

letting the automatic doors and his memory do all the work Wilbur walked into the store dragging his feet and only briefly stopping to stare at himself on the mirrors on the decorative isle before
grabbing a micro USB charger heading to pay without any issues.

kicking rocks as he went along Wilbur looks down at his feet on the sidewalk,
focusing more than he probably should on the laces of his brown boots and only barely avoiding bumping into multiple people and tripping on whatever trash was thrown about until a familiar pair of dirty sneakers appeared in front of him.

he recognizes him halfway through looking up. the guy excitedly walking back to his house, swinging groceries back and forth.

the sight almost knocks him off his feet.

he stands in the middle of the sidewalk, eyes practically bulging out of their sockets and tommy notices very quickly. his bag stops swinging and he stays still too. barely outside arms reach the boy eyes Wilbur up and down, confused but definitely not annoyed or scared as he had been before.

"why are you looking at me like that" he pouts and Wilbur almost can't believe it.

he blinks once. twice. tommy was, expectedly, still there.

"what is wrong with you" he asks impulsively and not as kindly as he hoped he did. Tommy's shoulders sag down.

"what the fuck are you talking about man?" he tugs at his backpacks straps, Wilbur hadn't noticed it before somehow. "you're the one acting weird"

Wilbur hesitantly closes the distance one small step at a time, eventually placing a stern Hand on Tommy's shoulder. his friend looks at it and then back at him.

everything he's wanted to ask him, to say to him in the last months seemed like not enough. as he stared at him for an uncomfortable amount of time nothing sensible enough comes to mind, so with them both still standing in the middle of the sidewalk Wilbur takes to pleading.
"you have to tell me whats going on with you tommy"

he crouches down slightly and tommy scrunches up his eyebrows below his bangs.

"what are you talking about-"
he tenses up and,unconsciously, Wilbur grips his shoulder tighter.

"what's your problem man" tommy slaps his hand on top of Wilbur's, not prying him off yet but threatening to do so.
immediately and a tad embarrassed Wilbur relaxed his grip.

"I called you,a lot." he fumbles hi’s words "you never answered, you didn't answer anyone, Phil talks to you and you run, I talk to you and you kick me out or just kick me.what's going on. please"

tommys eyes shot open like he's hearing this for the first time. he brings a hand up to his forehead and brushes his overgrown bangs out the way.

"I found out my phone is broken so if you called me yesterday and I didn't-"

"not yesterday. what about last week? last month?when did the phone break? why didn't you tell me it broke when I asked you specifically if there was something wrong with it?" Wilbur makes a conscious effort not to grip tommys shoulders when talking.

"what are you talking about" he continues to rubs at his eyes "what about Phil? I haven't seen him in ages, and we've hung out a bunch lately-”

he cuts the last word short, mind clearly blanking for just a second.tommy tightened his grip on the backpack.

“tommy we haven't talked in months”

he shakes his head, his bangs going over his eyes again_ “right sorry” _daring to look behind himself for a second before turning back to will.

"what's going on?" he asks so earnestly that Wilbur can't get himself to doubt him anymore. he pulls him aside, no longer in the way of everyone trying to walk through.

"listen will I haven't been feeling too well I'm sorry”

"that's ok man I just- whats happening? please tell me"

tommy lifts his bags up to shoulder high._"I'm good now, I'm just buying some food, my house was completely empty”

he wasn't lying,Wilbur could see that much, but it still didn't make any sense to him.
impulsive as always. Wilbur opens his mouth.

“can I come over now”

tommy tilts his head _“now?”

he nods and ,although clearly hesitant, tommy accepts.
"alright.."

a thousand thoughts, all somehow contradicting each other, swirled in Wilbur's head. he allowed himself to ignore them all for now. letting tommy lead the way but still keeping a steady hand on his shoulder, too afraid that he might run like before.

tommy seems to pull his backpack straps as far away from will as he can.

"why don't you put the groceries on the backpack" _Wilbur tries to calm the atmosphere but tommy backs off slightly,as much as Wilbur's arm allowed him to do so. _ "Its full already"

the backpack, red and scruffy, did not look full at all.

with unsure steps on both ends they get closer to the apartment.

stepping into the small parking lot of the building, leaves swirled in circles on the pavement, getting on his way often enough for him to notice they where swirling specifically around tommy.

he takes a step back without realizing, walking slower than before. feeling a familiar but unknown pair of eyes on his back.

"tommy?"_ merely opening his mouth to speak sends a shiver down his spine.

"yeah?"

"don't you think something's wrong?" saying it out loud felt like an understatement.

tommy stops, turning to look around with a weary look on his eyes.

"yeah, this place sucks,let's get to my house quick"

"oh-alright”

getting to the entrance, the tree by the door stood surrounded by rotten bark that had peeled off it, tommy takes notice of it and briefly freezes,letting Wilbur to stumble behind him. deep dark green streaks separated the healthy bark from the rotten chunks that threaten to fall off with the lightest touch. Wilbur attempts to get closer to it but Tommy silently stops him.

once inside the building they take the stairs and Wilbur for once is thankful. the stairwell is dingy and dark, but far less claustrophobic than the elevator.
the wall up in silence with only their steps echoing slightly on the stairwell until they reach Tommy's floor. the hallway was unchanged at first glance and tommy walked calm paying no mind at the way the tiles im the floor swayed ever so slightly- or perhaps it was his own mind playing tricks on him again- Wilbur thought.

tommy twists the lock, and opens the door into the inside.
it looked cleaner than the peak Wilbur had gotten before though before he could get too comfortable looking around the boy quickly settles the backpack in the couch and out of it pulls out the same horrid puppet he had on the stream, complete with its dirty cloth limbs and oversized head. he sits it on the couch, facing wilbur with its eerie bulging eyes.

as if things weren't awkward enough already, Tommy stood still watching his reaction.

“thats.. the puppet you showed tubbo”

tommy nods.

“yes, his name's uncle nasty”

he certainly is nasty-he thought, but abstained from actually saying.
tommy accommodated the puppets arms to have them folded, mirroring wilbur who immediately pressed his arms to his side. tommy giggled before sitting down next to the puppet.

“whats got you thinking so much?” he asks, with an awfully stilted attempt at casualty.

“why were you carrying it on your backpack?”

tommy paused, looking around like a cat following a fly for a second. “ well hes my friend”

he claws at his own jeans , digging his nails into his leg for only a second that Wilbur doesn't miss.

“tommy are you ok?” he tempts placing his hand back on Tommy's shoulder but his friend recoils.

“What's that have to do with uncle nasty?”

“nothing-” Wilbur locked eyes with the puppet, somehow expecting it to blink back at him, it didn't. “I'm just worried in general”

“well I was sick for a bit, doesn't really matter right now though, Ive been feeling much better this past few days ever since I got him”

“what”

“ever since i got him ive been feeling better, so i bring him with me” he chooses to ignore how little sense that makes,at least for now.

tommy stands up. impatient and now in the middle of the room he tugs at his own sleeves.
“want tea? I bought some today”

Wilbur sighs. “yes please”

tommy turns to the cabinets ignoring Wilbur's perplexed look, going for the kettle and putting it under the faucet to fill it before turning the burners on and setting it in place.

“I only got green tea I hope that's ok” tommy comments, getting two cups ready.

“it's fine” he takes a seat, pulling out one of the two remaining kitchen chairs. “so..” he stumbles for any ‘non awkward’ conversation topics. “what's up with the puppet”

“uh..well I got him at beach a bit ago.." he stands arms crossed in front of the burner.

“alright… thats good”

that makes sense, that dingy doll probably washed up on the shore, Wilbur found it surprisingly easy to imagine it covered in seaweed and drenched in dirty salt water.

the puppets' empty eyes stared through his very soul from the couch while Tommy's twitched at every slight movement he made.

“why is the window like that” he points at the window on the hall that usually sat open but was now blocked by two of the kitchen chairs stacked on each other.

tommy robotically turned to it.

“ah..” he pauses, scrunching his face to think. “it kept opening on its own..”

Wilbur looked again at the barricade, tape held the chairs to the wall and pressed then against the clear glass, a tablecloth Wilbur knew Tommy had spare blocked the view to the street. it looked desperately thrown together.

“do you ….” he turns back to the boy who was already intently staring at him “need help?”

tommy shook his head.

“it's stable now. that's what the tape is for”

Wilbur blinked “that's not- ... alright”

Wilbur turns to back to the living room and in turn, the puppet. it's soulless plastic eyes stared directly at him from the couch.”did it like, wash up here from france..?”

the kettle whistles, water inside already boiling. tommy let's out a small chuckle while he pours the hot water into two cups.

“no he did not, I got him from an old lady in the beach actually! she said it was to help with my issues and it completely did”

“cool..” Wilbur sits up awkwardly when tommy hands him a cup with a tea sack still hanging off it.

“if you want Sugar it's right there” he points to a glass jar on the counter, Wilbur nods but he doesn't go for it, staring instead right at Tommy's eyes through his bangs.

greyish blue and tired looking they focused solely on swirling the tea in front of them.

against the silence of the apartment the only sounds to pick out where the ‘clinks’ of spoons on ceramic mugs and the whistling wind outside. it slapped harshly against the Windows, trying to force it's way in past the barricade.

tommy frowned, taking a slow sip from his cup.

he sat up, looking over to the nearby window. “its trying to get in again”

Wilbur chokes on his drink. “what?!”

tommy doesn't respond, silently staring at the window still.

he wraps his hands tighter around the mug, warming his hands up and preventing them from shaking.

the wind continued to whistle outside.

from behind them, the dool falls of the couch. hitting it's head against he wood floor with a ‘tud’ that would have been hollow if it wasn't for the sound of a smaller marble (?) inside of it rattling.

“oh oh” tommy rushes to it, gently cradling the doll on his arms and sitting it on his lap while wilbur incredulously watches.

“you could hear his little brain rattle, poor guy..” tommy coos at it, adjusting it's arms and legs to be properly seated and failing when the dolls floppy limbs untangle on their own.

“it's .. Brain” Wilbur takes a sip of his drink “what does it even have in there”

“wholesome thoughts I asume” tommy smiles at the doll “definitely no crimes to commit right uncle nasty?”

he watches how tommy makes the puppet nod.

“no I mean.. whats inside the head” Wilbur asks again.

tommy looks at him confused. “I'm not sure, probably a little stone or something, it's his Brain though”

the tape holding the window shut wavered.

“did someone actually try getting in through the window?” Wilbur asks, thinking of the sheer height one would have had to climbing to get to it and questioning Tommy's judgement.

tommy turned back to him with inexpensive eyes. he takes his time before saying anything, idly playing with the fools cloth limbs.

“I'm not sure how.. but someone was here with me, I don't remember much but I never opened the door for them so I figured that's how they got here”

"uh.." Wilbur leans over the table, thinking back to his conversation with jack from a week ago.

the lights flicker above them.

“then, after I got uncle nasty, I started to hear scratching on the windows, so I sealed them up”

“who was it”

the wind crashed harder into the sealed window

“I dont-”

the plastic lock on it snaps and the glass swings open, taking the chairs stacked against it into the air before they slam loudly into the floor.

"tommy!" Wilbur runs over to the boy, immediately standing in between him and the window and pulling him off his chair and away from the window by the shoulders. tommy let's himself be dragged,hunched over the doll and frozen completely.

dead leaves carried by the wind enter the apartment, Wilbur shakes tommy but he doesn't react.
"tommy!"

he burries his head into the doll as the apartment got frigidly cold.
frustrated, Wilbur yells.
"can you focus on me for a second??" he harshly tugs the dolls off tommys arms and he immediately reacts, blindly lunging for it.
"hey!"_ will Yelps when a foot behind his own trips him.

tommy stilled. wills hand lets go of the doll and it hits the floor as harshly as Wilbur does. a frighteningly familiar curtain glossed over tommys eyes when the dolls head shatters. from it a small brass jingle bell rolls off silently.
the wind threatens to push it under the fridge but Wilbur grabs it before getting up. the Metal buzzed lightly against his skin.
rubbing his back he stares at tommy again who volts out the house. slamming his own door on the way out.
the wind leaves with him and Wilbur is left alone in the cold apartment.
holding himself tighly he straighted his back, adjusted his glasses and tire his laces tight.

he's not willing to let him go again.

the leftover tea slowly cools on the cups and the dolls broken head is spread across the dinning area floor.

Wilbur runs after him.

Chapter Text

Wilbur stumbled his way out of the door. the thick atmosphere making itself felt as soon as he crossed the apartment line. no longer did the wind roar In his ears and freeze the blood on his veins. the air sat disgustingly stagnant and heavy, coated with an unmistakable humid and almost putrid smell.
little to no light came through the small, sparsely placed windows, coating the blank white walls in a sickly pale orange hue that stopped abruptly at the closed off stairwell.

He steadied himself. hands wiping non-existent sweat out of habit before dashing for the staircase where he could still hear Tommy's steps echoing from the floors below.
looking down yielded nothing aside from making his stomach turn.

_this it_ he thought to himself _ the final stretch.

his knees buckled under his own weight after the first step down; putting all of trust on the railing to not fall, Wilbur stared down into the dark, regained his balance and began jumping down from step to step, adamant to not let the strange shadows that formed in the dark get to him.

one floor Down, the hallway was the same as the one above, with only the sligh difference of a few mats placed in front of some doors. He turned back to the stairs no more than a minute after, feeling a sense of deja Vu when the first step weighed him down again. Each time he rushed down unto a lower step Wilbur found the air to be increasingly more difficult to breathe, it sat on his lungs like sludge that he struggled to breathe out.

two floors down. Tommy's steps still echoed below.though further away than before they seemed more reachable than ever.
He sped up his pace as much as he could muster without breaking his nose against the ceramic.

halfway down already and briefly stepping into the third floor hallway Wilbur felt vile rise up his throat. the air changed again. it felt sharp entering his lungs and it almost refused to leave clawing at his trachea on its way out.
the building's signature vintage orange curtains stayed frozen mid sway like a sculpture, while the subtle patterns on the fabric dissolved and rearranged themselves every time he blinked.
the windows, as before, let in the palest orange tinted light that dissolved directly into the floor and let nothing of the outside be seen.
it seemed as if the entire building stood both frozen in time and in constant, impossible movement.

Wilbur grabbed at his hair_ "I need to keep going"_ he mumbled, attempting to put one foot after the other and go back to the staircase.
He didn't have the time to look around before the hallways twisted and the floor tiles gave up after every step he took. He jumped, leaning away from the walls and standing now in the middle of the collapsing floor.

the stench in the air became thicker, but he could not hold his breath for too long either. the air stung at his eyes every time he blinked and burned his mouth when he tried to breathe.

the hall In front of him twisted like a rag getting drained, leaving the floor to eventually be where the ceiling was. _this isn't real_ he tried to convince himself, Wilbur tried to reach for a wall for support but his hand found itself slipping on layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer-
he fell.far slower than how he would have liked.

the floor didn't give up (surprisingly) as he slammed his head against it for the second time today.

his own heavy breathing and heartbeat saved his ears from the unbearable silence of the halls.
Wilbur fought the pain it caused him and closed his eyes, not wanting to see how the ceiling fan above him warped itself into a claw that slowly made its way towards him.
he felt a pounding headache forming behind his eyes while he curled up into himself.

_"Wilbur?"_

his eyes shot open.

Tommy's voice didn't echo in the impossibly wide room.

he stands in front of him , only a few meters away and almost floating, the only bits of the floor left where ether ones under him after all.

Tommy doesn't seem bothered by this though as he steps towards him through the air without any effort.
one foot after the other, tiles match his pace and gently place themselves below him.

Wilbur can only watch as the space around them shifts again, walls that before seemed like part of an unreachable skybox shrink back, surrounding him again In a familiar manner.
the tiles where he and tommy stood extended, wriggling like worms, they reached the now visible end of the hallway where they eventually hit the wall and settled to sleep again.

Wilbur didn't trust his legs to hold his weight yet, kneeling still on the cold tiles.

his eyes hurted even more now, it was starting to feel like a punishment to keep them open.

the ceiling came crashing down but it never hurt him, instead falling neatly in place against the walls like a puzzle piece.

amidst the chaos rearranging itself only one thing remained true.
tommy, who stood staring at him during all of this, his brows furrowed in confusion and concern.
he looked at Wilbur like he was going insane.
and maybe he was.

_"what's going on?"_ he asks way too calmly to be seeing the same things Wilbur was. _"are you ok?"$

he reached out to him, crouching down to meet his eyes.
_"tommy?"_
looking around everything seemed normal again. no imposible geometry to be seen.
"did you see that?" he muttered, still unsure if he himself had even seen it. the air felt breathable again, the stench only partially gone.

_"see what? i saw you freaking out that's all" _ he tilted his head like a confused dog, Wilbur would have found it amusing if not for the situation they were in.

_"well i .. the... "_; he attempts to explain and subsequently watches in shock as tommy bursts out laughing right in front of him.his smile a bit too wide for it to feel comforting.

_"i think you're going crazy man"_

_"w-what.."_

_"why are you even here?"_ tommy taunts.

_"i was... i was looking for you! I'm not doing this shit again tommy please!"_

_"im right here!"_ he opened his arms,not looking for a hug but instead to show he was indeed right there.

_"i see you"_ he squinted, forcing his eyes to focus after all that's happened. as his eyes adjusted to what was no longer the blinding void he paid more attention to the man standing before him.

which might have been a mistake. it took him a second, or maybe two, to realize that what stood in front of him was not his friend.

like an artist's abandoned work lines cut through it at sharp angles. its face was unfinished, skin too smooth and eyes too dull to be real, to be alive.
the longer he stared the more the image distorted. the illusion of Tommy stood still, moving it's mouth unsynchronized with the words that came out of it.
He tried to school his expression, to not let it Show how much he didn't believe a single word this thing was saying to him, but he couldn't help it.
as it continued to speak nonsense in that familiar voice, mannerisms only slightly out of line he cut the thing off.
_"you're not tommy”_

its lifeless eyes snapped back to him.
The world stood quiet as they stared each other down.
Wilbur stands up, the dizziness having faded by now.noticing too that the copy that stood on Tommy's place was slightly taller than normal.

_"what are you talking about wilb-" _
He didn't give it time to finish. slamming his fist right on its poorly constructed mask.
a corrupted scream that sounded too much like tommy echoed in the hall as the creature's face shattered and black smoke replaced the now missing features on 'tommys' face.

he sucked in a deep breath, trying to make himself look as big as possible,fearing the consequences almost immediately.

instead of attacking him though the copycat swayed slightly before looking at him in the eyes again.

impossible white voids meet brown, in a way that he feels he's heard about before.

fearing what would happen if he didn't, Wilbur ,pushed it away, kicking it in the stomach.
more of its shell peeled away, chips falling into the floor and immediately pulverizing.
it screeched like nails on a chalkboard, wilbur pulled his hands over his ears.

_this thing hasn't even tried anything yet.._ he thought, and feeling emboldened by it's lack of reaction Wilbur lunged at it a third time.
This time though the thing dodged and slammed his back from behind.
his chest slammed against the floor, effectively knocking the air out of his lungs and leaving Wilbur wheezing and coughing.

its voice, no longer sounding like Tommy ,felt like water rushing into his ears. “you're an idiot”

he didn't respond, still trying to catch his breath and stand up.

before Wilbur could do anything about it the copycats remaining Shell shattered, the black smoke inside flooded the hallway. he waved his hand around trying desperately not to breathe it in but it didn't seem to have any function besides a smoke screen.

eventually it all cleared and Wilbur was left standing alone again, too stunned to fully process it all, he turned finally to the stairwell and ran down

with each rushed step down more seemed to fall into place.
jacks story resurfaced on his head again, as it had done so much lately.
the figure he had described felt all too familiar now. though it hadn't brandished a knife at him, whatever had happened felt like a derailment, a distraction even.

he thought back to the corpses, disgustingly mangled and left thrown about. there's only one thing that could do that, and Wilbur had it standing in front of him, spoke to it, punched it twice even. though it hadn't tried to distract or lure jack.

_maybe i'm special_ the thought was shaken off as soon as it surfaced.
_ or maybe it isn't coming for me_

he didn't have time to celebrate nor mourn this new Discovery however, he had a boy to catch up to after all.

\\\\\\\\\

taking the final leap off the staircase Wilbur took a deep breath; savoring the fresh air and the smell of floor cleaner of the buildings lobby where a light breeze hitting his face made him aware of just how much his curls where sticking to his forehead.
the door to the parking lot was left open, small chimes above it still rang softly, daring not to spare a glance to the stairs behind him Wilbur ran outside.

crushing the rotten bark that had shed from the entrance's tree under his soles he sprinted across the parking lot , coming to a halt on the sidewalk where cars only occasionally dashed by, engines roaring on his ears briefly before Wilbur lost sight of then again. looking both ways with his hearth pounding on his ears it dawned on him on that moment that he had no fucking idea where tommy had run off to.

_"fuck me" he whispered, biting his chapped lips and moving his hair away from his face.
another car passes, and Wilbur crosses the street.

he reached for his phone on instinct, fingers brushing lightly against the cool screen on his pocket for a hopeful second before realizing that he'll be calling the Broken phone of the runaway he's chasing

_ "oh god damnit "
frustrated he sank his hands further on his coats pockets, felling inside them the lukewarm metal of the slightly rusted broken bell.
a groan escapes him before he stomps the ground frustrated.

thinking nothing of it he took a tentative step to the right and begins walking

lacking anything better to do with his hands he takes the useless bell out and examines it. head wiping around in the meantime for any tells on where Tommy might have gone.

the singular jingle bell, constructed of a stained metal he couldn't name , lacked anything to make it ring. the thing felt oddly warm to the touch.

he grips it as he takes another step,his hand however no longer felt warm.
he opens his palm near his face, still walking forward at a moderate pase. noting how the bell got colder with every passing second. he turned around, feeling the chill reach his spine.
taking a step back towards his starting spot he noted how his hand warmed up again.

_"uh". Wilbur shook the small jingle bell, it expectedly made no sound.
he continued walking past the building and now opposite to the direction he had taken before.
the bell got warmer with each step, but it never felt unbearable or scolding. it wasn't until the first crossroads where he felt it go cold again.

he held it up this time (though not without feeling like an idiot about it) stretched in front of him as far as his arm could go.
it was even colder.
thinking it might be too good to be true he switched the bell to face the left street and felt the cold pinch slightly at his skin.
lacking any other direction he went right, feeling reassured when his palms warmed up again.
he had no time to question anything, so trusting this strange broken bell with his life Wilbur took to running.

forward,then left. then forward again and right, he runs letting the apparent sensor on the bell guide him until he finds himself among the familiar streets of his neighborhood.
Wilbur shook his head in disbelief, they stood uncharacteristically Desolate ;as if him and tommy were the only two people on earth.

only a few more turns around his neighborhood after he felt the bell flare up on his hand, hot metal almost burning his skin.
he brazed himself when stood face to face with the parks iron gates, throwing the scolding bell back into his pocket for the time being he waled into the grave pathway.

his steps felt heavy and loud, every little rock that made up the pathways between the trees loudly creaked when Wilbur placed his foot down after each step.
it felt like walking into the jaws of a beast. he shuddered, trying his best to ignore the eyes he could feel burning on the back of his neck.

He continued walking, slow and as steady as he can.

_“crickets are usually quite loud at this hour”_ he remarks quietly to himself. acknowledging the silence doesn't make it any less ominous.

eventually, a sound different from his own footsteps was carried by the wind, a quiet but frantic conversation he couldn't make out the words of. He let himself be guided by it, walking away from the path and into the trees.

benches sat empty on the dark, the lights above them that normally turned on past sundown seemed to have been violently smashed, buzzing sparks ran through the smashed light bulbs and glass shards were gathered at his feet covertly hiding under dead foliage.

letting out a deep breath condensation took him by surprise. it felt much colder than before.

he better keep walking.

the conversation died down, but Wilbur continued in it's direction, feeling reassured by the burning bell on his pocket (and silently hoping it wouldn't ruin his coat while it's at it)

parting a particularly thick bush he was met with a clearing, usually occupied with picnic mats on summer. Wilbur saw tommy sat down at the base of a large tree, hugging his knees and muttering to himself.

he slowed his pase, now barely moving, trying to approach the boy as stealthily as possible. he doubts he can catch him if he decides to run again.

finding himself nearly at arm's reach Wilbur noted first the lack of reaction, tommy hadn't acknowledged him yet. even though Wilbur could hear his hearth beating from this distance.
he only shivers when a branch snapped under Wilburs foot. the quiet sound not quite drowned out by Tommy and wilburs own breathing.

bracing Himself to put an arm on his friends shoulder Wilbur missed the way shadows began to curl around them both until it was too late.
a dark tendril wrapped around tommy arms, pulling them away from his chest and making the boy stumble forwards against the tree.

Wilbur barely had time to back away.

the shadows began expanding, thigly curling around Tommy's limbs like ropes and forcing him to stand up no more different than how a puppet would.

his head still hung limp staring into the ground before it was forced to face will as well.

Wilbur knew, somehow deep within him, that tommy could not see him. not with the lack of reaction, or the glaze that muted his eyes.

still he called it for him, hesitantly but he did.
_"tommy?"_

his eyes moved in on his direction. a sign of conciseness finally

_"tommy! tommy it's me...i"_ he looked around for anything that might be of help, tommy stood stiffly against the rough bark _"I'm gonna get us out of here ok ?"_ Wilbur took a step forward, afraid that the floor might disappear beneath his feet again. _"I'm gonna.. I'm going to help you alright?"_

he reached out for of one of the strings when a strange, gurgling sound joined the rustling leaves on the treetops.

looking up Wilbur felt his blood freeze.

a black mesh, not too different from a spider web, hung above them both like a hunting net.

fully expecting it to fall down unto him Wilbur back off as much as he could again, shielding himself with his arms, eyes shutting on instinct.

he was not trapped however, after seconds of not feeling anything he opened his eyes to see the net retreating, folding into itself and creating a black core that rested atop Tommy's head.

the boy still oblivious.

the strands of black that held him up began to shift, lifting up and growing sharp ends and eventually, not giving wilbur any time to reach, plunging deep into Tommy's back.

his eyes, previously relaxed, shot open as he let out a loud painfull scream.
Wilbur held back a scream of his own as blood began to drip down tommys back.

he stared in horror as tommy curled up in pain, briefly they made eye contact and he looked at wilbur with all the awareness he had been lacking tonight.

they closed right after though as he held back tears and more tendrils wrapped around his limbs.

suddenly the noise all stopped and the night went quiet.

the darkness surrounding him seemingly banished and tommy stood back up, now more naturally than before.

blood still dripped from his back but it didn't look like it bothered him anymore.

he stared at Wilbur and he couldn't help but stare back.

the blue from his eyes was gone now, pupils taking the space. He was met with dark, unreflective eyes.

the small marble buzzed lightly on his pocket, without taking his eyes off tommy he slowly moved his hand to grab it.

Tommy's hands rose up like tugged on strings and now blackened fingertips pointed at him.

Wilbur steadied himself and Tommy lunged.

he narrowly dodges him,getting a hold of Tommy's hair and trying to pry him away while the boy places his foot behind his own to make him trip while digging sharp blackened claws onto his arms.

his back hits a tree and taking advantage of the support he grabs at Tommy's arms and twist them away from himself. bringing his knew up at the same time hitting tommy on his stomach and sending the boy stumbling back.

he feels a little bad, but the murderous glare on Tommy's dark eyes pushed those thoughts away very quickly.

_"please snap out man!"_ he shouts, bringing his fists up to his chest to pretend like he knows how to fight.

tommy doesn't respond, but he does sidestep an inch before lunging at Wilbur again and slamming his head against the rough bark behind him.

Wilbur tears himself away from it, landing a rough hit on Tommy's left shoulder that he's sure hurted his knuckles more than anything.

he sees clawed hands go for his neck and he forgoes dodging, letting his legs go limp under him instead

Wilbur drops on his back and tommy stands above him with an unfeeling face. panicking and with nothing else to do, he throws the buzzing, silent jingle bell at tommy.

it rings for the first time as it hits Tommy's forehead.
it's strangely loud for such a small bell, and he feels the vibrations on his chest like he would a concert speaker.

Wilbur holds in his breath as Tommy's eyes blink and the blue returns to them.

he watches, back hurting too much to move.

lacking any momentum the bell falls immediately downward instead of bouncing off. it echoes a second ring, way too loud and sounding more fitting for an actual bell, as it hits the floor and Tommy's limbs go slack. black strings retreat from his back his back before all dropping to the floor. mixing themselves with blood and dirt.

the bell rings thrice, this time on its own while Tommy, barely supporting himself against the tree trunk ,coughed up black phlegm that rotted the already dead leaves it fell on.

as the strange blackened sludge fell into the bell Wilbur could hear it sizzling and melting the substance off itself.

this loud sizzling sound is only interrupted by the fourth and fifth jingle, one rapid after the other. the bell doesn't stop this time, and Wilbur loses count.

he covers his ears and Tommy drops to the floor, back still bleeding and his breathing heavy.

the bell continued to melt the void around it, almost absorbing it.
only when the sizzling stopped did Wilbur attempt to stand up.
lightly he brushed the dirt and leaves of himself and painfully walked the steps over to tommy, who layed trembling and coughing on the floor.
tears rolled down his cheeks but he didn't look conscious.
He attempted to pick the boy up before remembering the wounds on his back. about 10 different punctures on his hoodie and thru his skin, all thin but deep enough to still be bleeding. Wilbur pressed the fabric as close to them as he could to try and mitigate it.
he struggles for anything to say, but it's not like Tommy would hear him anyways.
Wilbur lets his mouth hang open in disbelief while he pants and lightly holds Tommy's shoulders.

the wind slowly returned and took the frigid cold away with it. a faint sound of crickets was also beginning to make itself heard.

he sat in stunned silence, seeing the night rise back to life in front of him. clouds dissipated, letting the sickening gray of the sky melt into a deep blue.

a pained whine from Tommy broke him out of his trance, the boy curled up tighter into himself and after almost forgetting he still had it Wilbur picks up his phone and calls an ambulance.