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It was him. It was him and he couldn’t believe it. Bdubs was chosen to be the first ever Boogeyman of the life games, and to say he was nervous was an understatement.

He was down in a cave with Etho just doing some resource gathering and trying not to lose his mind from the blasted curse.

It would be so easy. Etho was busy mining and not paying attention to him. He could just pull out his sword and quickly stab the fox hybrid through the chest. He could get it over with so quickly if he just-

No! Bdubs was not going to kill Etho. Etho was his friend, and he’d never forgive himself if he killed Etho just to rid himself of this stupid curse. The glare hybrid shook his head to try and lose this train of thought and went back to mining.

Sometime later, Bdubs picked up on what sounded like something- no, someone walking above him. It was Grian.

Now Grian would be a much better target. Sure, the parrot hybrid might hold a little bit of a grudge and put him on his hit list, but Grian was also the one who ran these games, wasn’t he? It was Grian who needed to pay for maꖌing him The Boogeyman on sess╎on one. Yeah! He could chase Grian to the end of the worꖎd border, rip him apart with an axe, and watch the bꖎood spill out onto the grass. Oh ⍑ow satisfy╎ng that would be! He might even lick the criᒲson liquid right off the blade-

“Hey Grian!” Etho poked his head up out of the hole in the ground and called out to him.

What was Bdubs even thinking?! He couldn’t believe himself right now, he really just fantasized that? And oh void he was holding an axe now.

The glare hybrid felt hot and uncomfortable in his own skin, and the fact that his heart was now pounding rather harshly definitely didn’t help.

“Hey Etho, hi Bdubs! I- wait, neither of you are The Boogeyman, are you?”

“Nope, it’s not me.” Etho replied as he and Bdubs climbed out. “And I can definitely vouch for Bdubs since we’ve been in that hole for a while and he didn’t try to attack me once.” Attempt it, no. Think about it, yes.

“Yes, and I can vouch for him too! All the same stuff he said, we’ve been in that hole foreeever!” That was definitely way too obvious, surely he was going to get found out now.

“Riiight…” Grian narrowed his eyes at the glare hybrid, and it took everything Bdubs had to not squirm under his gaze. “Anyways, I was actually about to head for the enchanter, if you two wanna come join me?”

“Wait- but I thought you didn’t get diamonds?” Bdubs gave him a look of feigned confusion. “Etho and I never saw a notification in chat that said otherwise.” What in the name of the void was that poor excuse of a cover up?

Grian seemed to buy into it though, because he wordlessly unsheathed a diamond sword to prove that he did in fact get a couple of diamonds. Or had Grian caught on and decided to have some defence ready?

Etho tilted his head down towards Bdubs with an incredulous look. “We can’t trust him.”

“I don’t know about this now, that’s got me real nervous!” Bdubs took a step back. Why was he starting to feel lighthea↸ed? And why is there a faint blo𝙹d red haze starting to cloud just the very edges of h╎s vision? What ℸ ̣he heck even is this curse?!

He felt sick.

He wanted blood.

He was scared.

Wait, a sword would be better than an axe.

What is even going on anymore?

He needed to kill.

Why did it have to be him?

Grian needed to pay.

Why-

“You coming Bdubs?” Etho asked.

“Oh,” Bdubs snapped his head up, “uhh- yep!” He hoped that his expression didn’t betray him too much. Just like how he was about to betray Grian

The three acquaintances eventually made it to spawn to enchant their gear. It was quiet for a while, save for the rustling of trees and ethereal sounds from the magic book filling the air, but some time later Bdubs made a request that would forever seal his fate. “Oh, Etho, you got that record?”

Etho hummed and nodded in response.

“Pop it in a jukebox for me, will ya? I wanna show Grian.” Void- another dumb excuse. Would he stop with these already?

Etho placed down a jukebox and slid in the music disc; 13 rang out across the area. It almost seemed to add a chilling edge to the air, but it didn’t matter. Bdubs’ skin was itching and burning and it needed to stop now.

“What’s going on?” There was a hint of concern in Grian’s voice.

“Tango came across this in a mob spawner earlier and decided to dub it as the Boogeyman theme, so now if you hear this, it means somebody’s about to die.” The fox hybrid explained.

“Ooh, sinister. I like it.” He grinned and went back to enchanting. “Dudes, how perfect would it be if one of you were actually Boogey right now?” Bdubs was shaking. There was no way Grian didn’t know. There was a pause before Grian looked over at Bdubs with wide eyes, who was idly toying with his blade. An apprehensive yet bloodthirsty look in his eyes.

“Bdubs?” He asked nervously. There it was.

Bdubs slowly looked up at Grian. His usual happy and energetic demeanor was replaced by a rapidly growing hunger for murder. “Oh…yes.” His voice almost wasn’t his own. “YOU’RE CORRECT!” Here we go.

Grian screamed as he jumped out of the way of the glare hybrid’s sword, flinching at the sound of his own loudly clattering to the ground. His assailant stepped out in front of it, forcing him to run off into the trees, and Bdubs was delighted by this. He chased Grian through the forest with his sword at the ready, cackling like a maniac the entire time. This was exhilarating!

Grian slipped on a loose patch of dirt and fell down a short cliff, landing hard on his face and stunning him for a few seconds, which is exactly what Bdubs wanted. The parrot hybrid flipped around and crawled backwards right into a tree, and Bdubs quickly closed the distance. There was no escape. All Grian could do was tightly close his eyes and put an arm up in front of his face as he braced for the impact of the sword.

“╎  ᔑᒲ  ℸ ̣⍑ᒷ  ʖ𝙹𝙹⊣ᒷ||!” Bdubs shouted as he brought his sword down. It sliced through him way too easily.

<Grian was slain by BdoubleO100>

And as the soon as the death message came up, the curse was gone.

What did he do? Did Bdubs really just kill Grian? But- why? Why did killing like that feel so good? What was that weird language he started speaking? What in the name of the void was this curse?!

No! No, he needed to stop spiraling like this! If he let this train of thought run any further, he was absolutely going to have a panic attack. Instead, he needed to go apologize.

And so he ran. He ran back through the forest, leaping back up over the short cliff, dodging trees and low-hanging branches, trying desperately to not devolve into a mental breakdown.

“GRIAN!” Bdubs sprinted over to the avian once he was back in view. “Grian I’m so sorry about that. That whole Boogeyman thing does some weird stuff to you, I just couldn’t control it anymore!” The moss-cloaked man was back to his usual self.

“No, you’re alright Bdubs.” The parrot hybrid replied. “It’s all part of the game, y’know? You did what you had to. Though you are going on my list. And Etho,” he turned his head over to the fox hybrid, “there’s NO possible way you couldn’t have known he was Boogey!”

“I genuinely didn’t know he was The Boogeyman!” He threw his hands up in mock surrender. “Like I said earlier, we were down in that cave for a long time, and he never attacked me once.”

“Welp, you clearly don’t know how Bdubs works then. If anybody needs me I’ll be over in the south corner, building my base and sulking.”

“I said I was sorryyyy!” Bdubs whined, and Grian chuckled a bit at how much he sounded like a pathetic wet cat. 

After they parted ways, Grian headed off to where he said he’d be, and Etho turned to look at Bdubs. “You do know you’ve just made a mortal enemy, right?” The fox hybrid questioned, a hint of humor in his voice.

“I’d really rather not think about that right now, honestly…” There’s no way Grian made this whole Boogeyman mechanic, that felt too violent to be his doing. Something’s up with these life games.