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Timothy Wright - A Gentleman

It was meant to be a quiet walk. There wasn't much to do out in the country, so like most people, you and your boyfriend decided to go dick around in the woods. The two of you walked side by side down a heavily wooded trail, chatting with one another as you did.

Your boyfriend seemed uneased by the surrounding darkness, but you personally didn't mind. You were more used to the woods than he was after all. That was until you noticed a ghostly white mask peering out at you from the dark tree line. You saw it first, halting in place as your mind quickly tried to wrap around what you were seeing. Upon seeing you freeze, your boyfriend's gaze trailed over to what you were seeing, going stiff as a board. Slowly, the figure began to creep out from the tree line towards the two of you. Your breath caught in your chest, turning to your boyfriend to grab his hand and run... only to discover the spot next to you was empty.

Upon your hand being met with nothing but air, you stumbled and landed on your hands and knees, the grainy feeling of dirt and tiny rocks embedding themselves into your palms.

"Shit- SHIT-" You yelled, trying to scramble to your feet as fast as possible.

You were met with two hands weighing down on your shoulders.

"FUCK please, let me go, please-" You began to beg and squirm away, only for the grasp on your shoulders to be pulling you upward instead of pushing you down.

You whipped your head around, meeting the eyes of the masked man.

"Calm down, alright? Take a breath, I ain't gonna hurt ya." He muttered, voice muffled by his mask.

Slowly, he let go of your shoulders, stepping back with his hands raised.

"I'm sorry for scarin' you," The man continued, "I'm just huntin' out here. This is private property, you know? You shouldn't be out here, it's dangerous."

You took in a few shaky breaths, nodding your head. You were too scatter brained to register that it wasn't hunting season, and furthermore, question as to why he was hunting with a pistol. As you caught your breath, you glanced around, searching for your boyfriend. Your eyes burned once you realized he had left you behind.

"He... he just left...." You stumbled over your words, almost in disbelief.

The man in front of you huffed under his breath.

"Was he your man?" He asked, glaring off in the direction he ran.

"He... Was I guess." You muttered, crossing your arms and wiping at your eyes.

The man in front of you didn't saying anything, instead nodding slowly.

"I've got some "buddies" in the area... I'm sure they caught up to him and gave him a talking to," He muttered after a while. Something about his tone seemed off but you couldn't exactly pinpoint it.

"It's real dangerous out here at this time of the night. You need me to wait until someone can come get you and walk you home that won't ditch you?" He asked gruffly.

You sighed heavily, glancing off in your boyfriend's direction for a bit as well. After a pause, you turned back to him.

"..Would you mind walking me back? I don't think anyone else will come for me..." You asked, looking up at the man with a tired gaze.

He couldn't find it in himself to say no, nodding and walking you back down the trail. On the way home, the two of you introduced yourselves. Conversation came bafflingly easy, the two of you bantering off each other and chatting until you were smiling again. Once you were safely on your front porch, the man you now knew as Tim, began to turn around until you called out to him.

"Thanks for walking me home!"

He met your gaze, his lips tugging upwards into barely a smile.

"No problem, I hope I'll be seein' you around." He nodded to you.

You smiled back and waved to him before slipping inside your house, completely forgetting about your supposed boyfriend ditching you. It was probably for the best, considering you never saw him again after.

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Brian Thomas - I Got You

Currently, you were regretting ever agreeing to going to a bonfire party in the middle of the woods. It was a horror movie scenario that you would have thought you would have been too smart to participate in, but it seemed fun and your boyfriend had been insisting the two of you go for the entire week. He wore you down slowly until you agreed, throwing on the nicest yet most practical outfit you could, until he also complained about that.

Now, here you were, lost in the woods with your boyfriend, dressed in the most skimpy and uncomfortable outfit he could have picked out for you. On top of that, you were freezing, and he couldn't be bothered to notice.

"Baby, can we please just go back? The party will be over by the time we're there..." You pleaded, hugging yourself tighter.

"Don't be a downer, babe, come on. If anything, we can just get drunk here or something." Your boyfriend groaned, shrugging loosely as he gestured with the case of beer in his hand.

You clenched your jaw, way too tired and way too cold to even consider starting an argument. At this point, all you wanted was to go home. This feeling was enhanced even more when you started to hear the snapping of branches closing in nearby.

"Baby? I think there's someone out there." You whispered, trying to lean in closer to him.

Your boyfriend scoffed, trudging on through the brush without you, not even sparing you a glance. Your neck prickled with the feeling of eyes watching you. While trying to follow after him, your shorts caught on a branch, stabbing your thigh with brambles and thorns. Your breathing picked up as you tried to tear yourself free, watching helplessly as he left you behind.

"Hello?!" You called out.

He gave you no response, completely out of your line of sight and leaving you alone. Tears welled in your eyes as you tried to focus on freeing yourself, your panicked state making it harder by the minute and the numbness from the cold preventing you from fully flexing your fingers. In the far distance, a scream wrang out through the air, making you go still.

"Baby...?" You whispered helplessly.

The man that stepped out of the brush wasn't your boyfriend, instead it was a man in a dulling yellow hoodie, torn jeans, and a bit of stubble on his face, holding a flashlight. You watched him wipe something you assumed was dirt off of his face as he walked into your line of sight.

"Hey," He asked, "What are you doing all the way out here? Are you okay?"

For some reason, something about his genuine concern made the barrier holding back all of your tears burst. Your face burned with embarrassment as you began to sob in front of this stranger, holding yourself tightly as you shivered and sobbed.

"My boyfriend left me out here," You sniffled, "I don't know what to do! I don't know where to go!"

The man in front of you dropped his shoulders, a look of pity on his face as he stepped closer. He seemed to notice your predicament, glancing at your shorts and then you.

"Need some help with that?" He said.

You gave him a pitiful nod and he stepped closer to you, beginning to gently free you from the brabbles and thorns that had a hold of your outfit. His hands were careful, barely grazing over your thigh as he worked until you were free.

"There we are, see?" He muttered, "Nothing to cry over, alright? Where were you even going so dressed up? It's nearly 30 degrees out."

The man continued to speak to you as he took off his hoodie and passed it to you. You nearly burst into tears again accepting it, finally having something warm to wear over your outfit.

"He wanted to go to a bonfire party.." You mumbled, pulling the hood up and burying your nose in the collar of the sweatshirt.

The man scoffed.

"Oh yeah, we get a lot of his type. Folks that aren't supposed to be out here, trespassing..." He huffed, shaking his head.

"Oh- I'm so sorry, I had no idea I was trespassing-" You began to apologize to him before he cut you off.

"The only person who should be apologizing is your fucking boyfriend," He muttered, voice cold and monotone, "You need to get out of the cold, come on."

The man began to walk off, taking a shortcut out of the woods. You paused, calling out to him;

"What about my boyfriend?"

The man turned around, giving you a glare.

"If he's stupid enough to leave you out here looking like that, he isn't worth your time. He's gonna get what's coming to him and you don't deserve to have to deal with it when it comes."

You took in a deep breath, glancing in the direction of your boyfriend, before following behind the strange man instead. Upon arriving to your house, you asked for his name.

"I don't give out my name. Sorry." He stated simply.

You stared at him for a moment, before turning to walk inside with his hoodie. When he moved to stop you, you simply replied;

"The next time we see each other, I'll give you your sweatshirt in exchange for your name."

The man paused before giving you a small smirk with narrowed eyes and slowly retracting his hand.

"...Right. See you around."

You never did see your boyfriend after that night, but you figured it was for the best. Besides, nowadays you had a frequent admirer, who couldn't seem to keep you out of his thoughts.

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Tobias Rogers - That's Kinda Messed Up Man

You found it fun to at least have a little bit of impulsivity in your life, it kept things interesting and it didn't have to be a constant thing anyways. So, when your boyfriend said that the two of you should go on a walk through the woods at night, you said yes. In retrospect; this was a horrible, horrible idea. Your other impulsive plans were a bit scatter brained, but not outright dangerous like this. But alas, it was too late to go back now, so you followed behind him down the wooded trail.

"It's creepy out here, huh?" Your boyfriend asked, turning to glanced at you from over his shoulder.

"I guess so." You mumbled back, scanning the dark treeline.

"You scared?" He grinned.

"Not really. Just unused to this I guess." You replied with a shrug, slowing to a stop as your eyes caught a glint in the distance.

You squinted your eyes in the direction of the weird reflective surface that had been caught in the moonlight, turning fully around to try and figure out what exactly it was that caught your eye. Your boyfriend joined you at your side.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I thought I saw something. I don't know, it was probably nothing." You assured him, patting his shoulder and continuing to walk.

He did not follow you. After walking a couple paces forward, you noticed that he was rooted in place, turning yet again to see what he was staring at. In the darkness, a pair of orange goggles stared back at you, an axe at the man's side gleaming in the moonlight.

"Oh, fuck that!" You blurted out, turning to run.

Your boyfriend apparently had other plans, instead swiping your feet out from under you with his leg and running off ahead of you while you fell.

"SORRY!" Was all he bothered to yell over his shoulder as he took off.

You landed face first into the grass, smashing your teeth into the ground and getting a mouthful of dirt. You sputtered, retching as you desperately tried to simultaneously get to your feet and spit the dirt out of your mouth. Your eyes were wild with fear as you turned to look at your assailant, only to discover that the man hadn't moved, instead he was watching you with equally wide eyes.

"Hol-holy fuck. Di-did he j-just tr-ip you?" The guy seemed almost as shocked as you, pointing in the direction of your boyfriend, "That's br-brutal."

The man twitched occasionally as he spoke, sometimes making a clicking sound with his tongue as he moved. His voice was softer than you expected, giving you pause.

"I'm sorr-y I sca-scared you. I'm just.. ah, clea-clear-clearing the woods." He stuttered through his sentence, gesturing at the trees with his axe.

You didn't believe him in the slightest, but you also didn't think that running at this point would get you very far, so you nodded along with him instead.

"Shit, tha-that was fucked u-p, y-you sh-ould ditch h-im." The man continued, walking forward to offer you a very twitchy hand up.

After a brief moment of hesitance, you took it and let him pull you to your feet. Up close, the man seemed a lot less threatening. Big eyes, fluffy brown hair, and a soft facial shape, only made mildly intimidating by the scarring on his cheek and his height. You felt almost amused at your intial fear.

"So, you're not here to murder me?" You asked, only half-joking.

The man twitched.

"Uh. Not anymore."

You couldn't tell if he was kidding or just really awkward, but you laughed nontheless.

"Well, thanks for that," You replied with an amused grin, "I should probably get out of your hair then, so you can continue "clearing trees"."

"Wait," The man cut you off, tugging his goggles off his eyes and resting them on his head instead, "I- fuck, sorry, I'm no-not good at stuff like this.. Uh. I-I fee-feel like super b-bad for mak-making him ditch you..and.. so uh."

You grinned even wider, tilting your head.

"Yeah?"

The man huffed in frustration, giving you a half-hearted glare.

"Don't look a-at me l-l-like that," He muttered, "Just.. can I d-do any-any-anything to make it up to yo-u?"

Your gaze trailed him up and down lazily, before meeting his eyes again. You gave him a nod.

"Sure. You wanna go to the gas station down the road and get some slushies?" You began walking, tilting your head back at him to indicate for him to follow you. He does.

"Oh- yeah! Ye-yeah, I can def-definitely do that." He returned your look with a tiny smile, joining you at your side.

"Can I get your name then?" You asked, bumping his shoulder with your fist.

"My na-name's Toby," He replied, looking down at you as you walked. "Nice to mee-meet you."

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Jeffrey Woods - Quite Literally Thrown to the Wolves

Walking through the woods at night was not how you thought this date would go, but then again, you had done worse with your boyfriend before. Currently, he was dragging you through the woods to "find a good smoke spot". He didn't answer you when you asked why you couldn't just do this at home, and by this point, you were tired of asking questions that you knew he wouldn't answer. So, you followed behind him, making it apparent that you didn't want to be here by dragging your feet and muttering passive aggressive comments under your breath. After a while, he slowly became just as annoyed as you were.

"God, babe, can you shut up?" He snapped, "It's a good spot, I promise, if you would just stop complaining maybe we could actually have a decent time on this date."

"Are you kidding? This is hardly a date! It's like 11:00pm!" You pointed out, crossing your arms and stopping in your track. "I know like five different spots closer to the house that are better than anywhere you could possibly be taking me."

The two of you began to argue back and forth, shouting about your disappointment and displeasures. As the argument progressed, the two of you began to lose track of time and your surroundings, unaware of the pair of eyes that was now settled on the two of you. Teeth glinted from the dark tree line in your boyfriend's flashlight, reflecting a pale face with a smile way too wide to be normal. From your position, you were unable to see the figure in the dark, only going silent when you noticed the blood draining out of your boyfriend's face. Your hands dropped limply at your side at the sight of his terror, looking over your shoulder and making eye contact with the pair of unblinking, pale blue eyes. Your throat felt too dry to scream, instead turning back around to run, only for your boyfriend to grab a hold of your shoulders.

"What are you doing?! Ru-" You began to yell before you were thrust forward, onto the ground.

He pushed you. Your boyfriend had grabbed you by the shoulders, and thrown you towards the mysterious figure, before turning and booking it to leave you for dead. You hit the ground with a yelp, smashing your knee into a large, sharp rock on the ground. You felt the feeling of warm blood begin to drip down your leg. Your eyes were wide with shock, rage, and most of all fear, as you turned to look at the figure from the woods.

A man stepped out, covered in blood, his face covered in burns and two gashes on either side of his mouth, carving upwards and exposing his teeth. A knife hung loosely in his hand as he cocked his head at you.

"Fuck, lady, was he your boyfriend?" The guy rasped out, pointing in the direction of where your boyfriend ran with his knife.

Your shoulders trembled, holding your knee as you thought of an escape route. Your eyes flickered about, trying to think of what to do and how to get out of this alive. The man from the woods seemingly noticed.

"Hey, listen, I'll cut you some slack because that was pretty fucked up if he was your boyfriend," The guy chuckled, raising his hands, "You want me to go kill him for you? I'll do it, someone's gotta die today anyway, might as well be an asshole, huh?"

Your blood ran cold at what he way saying, but an uncomfortable part of you found yourself reassured by his words. Your eyes flickered away from him before meeting his gaze again and giving him a single slow nod. The man nodded back to you, disappearing off where you watched your boyfriend leave you behind. In the meantime, you shifted where you were currently sitting, assessing the damage done on your knee. You nearly screamed when you shifted it, determining that it was in fact dislocated when you tried to move it on your own. At the very least, the bleeding wasn't too bad, just a small gash on the left side of your knee from where you went down.

You stayed where you were, weirdly enough trusting the strange man to come back, and trying to ignore the distant screams of what you assumed was probably your now ex-boyfriend. And he did. The man arrived back from where he came from, trudging out of the woods covered in more blood than he was before. You studied his face as he approached and held out a hand to you.

"My.. uh, my knee's dislocated." You muttered, still shaky from what you witnessed.

"Damn, that's even more fucked up. What kinda shitty taste in men do you have?" He scoffed, leaning down and slugging your arm over his shoulders.

He easily held up your weight, getting you standing on one foot so you didn't have to put pressure on your injured knee.

"I.. I don't know. Um, thank you," You mumbled, still in shock about the whole situation, "Is he actually dead?"

"Do you want him to be?" The man asked, tilting his head down to look at you.

You didn't give him an answer, instead allowing him to help you back to your car. Jeff told you that night that the two of you had a deal now. He helped you, so now, you had to help him and keep quiet. You agreed to his deal; you did owe him a favor after all. But of course, he couldn't just take your word for it, which is why nowadays ever so often, you get a visit from him. The visits became more and more friendly the more frequent they became, and eventually, you find yourself missing Jeff's absence when he's not around. You now find it funny, as you comb through his hair while he lays asleep on your chest, how stuff like this turns out.

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Eyeless Jack - Picnic

Currently, you were sat in a nice, flowered clearing of the woods near your home. You had found the place a couple weeks back and decided it would be a perfect place for you to take your boyfriend on a date.

You had spent weeks planning this picnic and hours cooking and packing all of the foods you wanted to bring. Your boyfriend had been courteous enough to help you spread out the blanket and carry the containers of food, but not enough to stay off of his phone. Throughout the date you'd catch glances of him checking his phone, texting who you presumed was his boss, and each time your voice got a little quieter until eventually you were giving him the silent treatment.

"...Maybe we should go home." You mumbled after a while, your plate untouched.

His eyes flickered up to meet yours, finally putting his phone away in his pocket.

"Yeah," He sighed, "Maybe that's for the best. It's kinda creepy out here, don't you think?"

You felt tears pushing on the back of your eyes, but you managed to keep it together, instead nodding along with him and turning your back to him to start cleaning up. You began to pick up in silence, only then noticing that the woods had become completely silent as well. No crickets, no birds, instead nothing but sudden eerie silence. You heard your boyfriend's breath hitch.

"Hurry up." He demanded, his voice sounding ice cold with unease.

"I'm going as fast as I can, maybe if you helped me clean up a bit it wouldn't take so long!" You shot back.

"I wasn't the one who wanted to bring all this crap out here in the first place!" He said through gritted teeth, his eyes searching the surrounding woods anxiously.

You groaned and began trying to pack up even faster, shoving the containers back into the cooler as fast as you could manage. Apparently, still not fast enough, as your boyfriend got to his feet and began to stumble away from the picnic area. Your head shot up, looking at him expectantly.

"Where are you going?" You asked.

Without a word, he turned and ran off, running into the woods and leaving you behind. Your eyes welled with tears as you shouted after him.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!"

He didn't respond. You sniffled, turning back to your cooler only to come face to face with a masked figure. The figure was crouched down, directly in front of your face, wearing a dark blue mask that was dripping some sort of black substance. It almost looked like rain erosion around the edges and eyes of the mask. You screamed, falling backwards and attempting to scramble back as fast as you could. The figure didn't move, instead simply looking down at your cooler.

"Did you cook these yourself?" The figure questioned.

His voice sounded... more docile than you expected. His words were measured and practiced, like his tongue wasn't meant to speak them. Upon seeing that the figure wasn't moving any closer to you, you stopped trying to get away. Still being cautious but recognizing the non-immediate threat, you answered.

"I did. I made them for..." Your voice trailed off as you stared off in the direction of where your boyfriend fled.

The figure angled his head in the same direction, indicating that he was watching where he ran off to as well. The figure let out a low hum, moving from his crouched position to a standing one.

"Would you like me to speak with him?" He asked.

You eyed the figure, still wary but not feeling threatened. You nodded.

"Sure, if you don't mind," You mumbled, your voice shaking, "It took a while to make all of this, I hope he at least has some of it.."

The figure's neck cracked as he rolled his head, before starting off into the woods to go retrieve your boyfriend. While you waited, you figured since he was coming back, you might as well unpack again. By the time the figure returned, you had the picnic set up again. He returned empty handed.

"I'm afraid he has already left. My apologies." He said, crouching down to your level again.

You gave him a disappointed look, glancing at all your hard work again.

"However, I will gladly dine with you," The figure continued, settling next to you on the blanket, "If you'll have me that is. Everything smells delicious, so excuse me if I seem a little eager to invite myself. My name is Jack."

You paused for a beat, studying 'Jack'. You eventually gave him a small, shy smile and passed him a plate.

"Nice to meet you, Jack. Take what you want."

The figure pulled his mask up to expose his mouth on order to eat. You noticed he had slightly sharper teeth than usual, but weirdly enough, you didn't pay it much attention.

"Thank you. I have had a meal rather recently, but I don't mind seconds."

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Habit - Pity

You actually rather liked the woods. Ever since you were little, you've connected with animals better than people. They were easier, less cruel and easy to speak to. So, when your boyfriend and his friends decided to all go out together to drink in the woods, you figured you wouldn't mind going with them. You could even bring your camera and test out it's night vision! The problem was that they were loud. Way too loud for you to be as comfortable as you thought. Currently, you were sitting on a stump near the fire they started, sitting crisscross with your unused camera in your lap. The noise kept scaring away any animal that you could potentially photograph, so instead you took to just sitting and waiting it out until your boyfriend got bored and decided to finally take you home. You let your eyes drift, deciding to focus up at the night sky. At least you could see the stars through the trees.

"Hey, where's Tyler at?" One of the guys asked after a while.

Your boyfriend shrugged, taking another swig of beer.

"Eh, he probably went home early, I wouldn't worry about it too much." He waved him off, drunkenly stumbling over to you and throwing his arm over your shoulders.

You barely paid him any mind, continuing to focus on your surroundings instead. In the distance, behind the group of men, you noticed someone you hadn't seen before. You wouldn't have paid him much mind, it's easy to confuse them all with each other in a big group like this in the dark, if not for the distinct hat pulled down over his eyes. Still, you didn't think much of it at the time, letting your eyes drift away from the crowd to focus your attention elsewhere. Slowly, the groups' numbers began to thin, some of them seemingly disappearing without a trace. By now, you were exhausted and freezing cold, pulling your jacket tighter around yourself while your boyfriend chatted in a circle with his friends. You looked up at him, calling out to him;

"Baby? Can we go home now? It's getting really late."

He ignored you, still focused on his friends. Your gaze was caught by the man in the cap again, squinting your eyes as you tried to identify him now that the group was becoming smaller, yet you still couldn't seem to recognize him. The man seemed to notice your stare, turning to face you. He gave you a grin, flashing sharp canines as he waved to you from across the fire pit. His eyes seemed reflective in the fire's light. You gave him a polite smile and waved back before he slipped into the darkness again. Shortly after, your boyfriend walked over and grabbed your arm, clearly very drunk as he roughly tugged you to your feet.

"Come on, this place is giving me the creeps..." He grumbled, his hand shifting down to grab onto yours and pulling you along.

You sighed in relief, happily following him as he began to lead you away from the firepit. This relief quickly faded as he started walking off into a random direction in the woods.

"Uhm, baby? I don't think this is the way home." You gently reminded him, pulling him to a stop.

He scoffed at you, leaning in close enough that you could smell the whiskey on his breath. His eyes were bleary and squinty as he spoke to you.

"Shut up, oh my god," He groaned, "You didn't even wanna come out here, so don't even start with that..."

He spoke incoherently in half sentences, simply continuing to drag you along with him through the unfamiliar territory of the woods. You bit your tongue, adjusting your camera strap as to not get caught on a branch. You nearly froze again upon hearing a branch snap loudly nearby.

"Baby? I really think we should try and get back to the trail.." You mumbled, trying to sound as forceful as possible and failing miserably.

He whipped around, ready to yell at you again, only to clamp his mouth shut when he spotted something behind you. You looked over your shoulder, meeting the gaze of the man with the hat from earlier. He flashed you a grin that was eerily too wide.

"Hey there. What are you two doing all the way over here? Off to go find a good make out spot?" He joked, leaning with his arm propped up on a nearby tree, "She certainly doesn't look too eager."

He nods to you, making direct eye contact with your boyfriend as he does so. Your boyfriend glares back at him, drunkenly stumbling towards him.

"Fuck off, dude, we don't even know you." He spat.

The man in the cap clenched the fist currently up against the tree, cocking his head at your boyfriend.

"Alright alright," He chuckled, "You caught me!"

The man gestured outwards with his hands.

"I wasn't invited to your little meet up, but I mean come on. A big group like that with hardly any brain activity between the seven of you? How could I not pass up an opportunity like that?" His eyes glinted with excitement, "You barely even noticed your friends going missing."

Your boyfriend stiffened next to you, suddenly very sober. His eyes flickered from you to the man in front of you. You felt very unsafe.

"...Hey man, listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot," Your boyfriend began to backtrack, putting a hand on the small of your back and nudging you forward slightly, "I don't want any trouble."

The man outright cackled, leaning his head against the tree as well as he angled his head to look at your boyfriend. He almost seemed to completely ignore your existence, even despite your boyfriend pushing you towards him.

"Of course, no trouble at all," The man narrowed his eyes, "How about we go chat this out elsewhere then, hm? I'm sure your missus won't mind."

Your boyfriend took a step backwards, his hand leaving your back. You felt your shoulders begin to shake. The man stepped around you, placing a hand on your boyfriend's shoulder and giving it a friendly pat as he walked him off into the woods. As you watched them disappear into the darkness, you stayed rooted to where you were left standing, unsure of what to do and just how much danger you were in. You had never seen your boyfriend sober up that fast, let alone ever be pulled out of a rage so quickly. It was almost cathartic.

The man in the cap returned alone, finally looking at you again. He stepped in front of you, outwardly invading your personal space as he leaned down to get a good look at you.

"Now, what to do with you?" He muttered, flashing bloodied teeth.

You blinked rapidly, focusing on the blood around his mouth with an almost morbid curiosity.

"..What happened?" You asked bluntly.

The man raised his eyebrows, smirking at your question. He tilted his head left and right as he sized you up.

"Hm. Just a fight, nothing to worry about," He shrugged, "I wouldn't worry about catching up with your boyfriend though. He's already pretty far out."

His tone was almost patronizing, looking down at you like you were some kind of pet that didn't know any better. His eyes drifted downwards, focusing on your camera.

"What's that for? You sneakin' photos of people?"

You shook your head profusely.

"No, I really only photograph animals." You explained, fidgeting with your camera as you fought to keep eye contact with him. Something about his eyes made you squirm.

He reached forward all of a sudden, tugging you forward using the camera strap and studying you closer. He huffed out at laugh at your lack of reaction, simply letting him pull you closer.

"...You're brave for such a little thing." He muttered.

"Thank you I think?" You replied, narrowing your eyes and cocking your head at him as he did.

He nearly burst out laughing at you copying him.

"Now that I think about it, you might just be dumb as rocks." He scoffed.

Despite himself, Habit found himself fascinated by you. Your eyes reminded him of a domesticated animal released into the wild for the first time, someone who hasn't learned how to be afraid yet. Someone who simply doesn't know any better. It gave him pause.

"What sorts of animals do you photograph?" He asked after a while.

"Any. I love them all, so I don't really mind what kind." You shrugged loosely.

You were blunt compared to other humans, honest and straightforward. He pictured how you would taste, and he imagined it as bitter. He withdrew his hand from your camera strap, putting them in his pockets instead. Killing you would be boring, he decided. Your lack of reaction was proof enough. What was the point of an easy meal? Catching a rabbit who never knew danger wasn't even a hunt at that point. Slowly, he stepped back from you.

"All kinds of animals, huh?" He gave you another grin, "You'll have to show me sometime. I'm sure I'll be able to find you again."

Your calmness had gotten you lucky. Just fascinating enough for you to become a toy instead of a meal, because of course, he wouldn't let you go that easily. But after the absence of your boyfriend, you began to enjoy the extra company.

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I have never written for Habit before so I'm still getting used to it! I hope you enjoyed. <3

If you guys want a part two with the ladies, let me know =D