#benil

Sees BEN sitting in the corner of the kitchen, perched on the counter like a bird, eating sour skittles.

ok so BEN right, ik there’s many of yours so honestly just answer whatever you feel like. To get to know em better I’ll ask some questions

-Uncommon fears?

-Routine on a daily relax day

-Specific people they don’t like (and maybe why)?

-Favorite drinks?

-you already know

-The qster

-The Qyo attack

-Q

Ill go with the main BEN thats currently present in tata to save confusion:

-Uncommon fears: Idk if its uncommon, but he cant stand food. He doesnt like eating or even really seeing food. Theres an instance in tata of Slender forcing the household to be present for meal, but BEN is largely exempt from it cuz food makes him horridly nauseous to even look at it. He doesnt need to eat given he isnt human or anything, but even the sight or idea of eating gives him anxiety and panic attacks. Hes only present to bug Twitch in the fic. He does like sour candies though, those are fine.

-Routine on a relax day: He rarely gives himself a day to "relax". He's rarely relaxed or comfortable, but when twitch is around hes usually bothering her. Its either that or he goes swimming by the waterfall in the woods.

-Specific people they don't like: Zalgo and Rinku. It's cuz of where the two of em are from. He doesn't like the implications that come from them being present in Home.

"So, next time….Tell someone you're going into areas of the House that are dangerous, please. Ah-" Jack's finger rose, to stop Twitch's words. "Someone who isn't Ben. God, I didn't even notice he was talking to you, I was so focused on the guys on their job….Listen, Twitch…You are unstable, a brand new poltergeist, one that is much more powerful than most we've seen. So you really need to remain where others can find you until we know how to keep your entire body from frying half the House." The hand that was placed against Twitch's face, pulling her cheek down so that he may check the whites of her eyes, released its grip. Twitch only stared silently, pupils blown so wide it made that nausea creep its way up Jack's throat with unsettling quickness.

"What oh-so-interesting things did you find?" Ben chittered from atop the white table that usually held various glass vials, all of which had been hastily moved earlier to keep him from knocking them over. He sat with the arches of his feet propped against the edge of the table, knees fanned out and arms dangling between in a way that made him look more like a bird perching than a person sitting.

"A black mirror." Twitch's voice was barely above a whisper.

"A black mirror? In the V hallway? What room was it?" Jack looked surprised, despite having been one of the people to get her from the room.

"She was in 1a. Usually you can't get into that end of the hallway, it's blocked off past 3a and 3b. It's the only hallway not blocked on the west end, but I have no idea how she got into the other end of the hallway from where she could've gotten in. You were literally there, dude." 

"I can never tell what's going on in that end of the House, you know that. Whatever the hell lurks over there fries my brain."

Ben idly scratched at his nose, not ever peeling his eyes away from Twitch the entire time. He ignored Jack's response, keeping his focus on her. "But it certainly wasn't blocked off when we went there. So how exactly did you get over there, Twitch?"

"Don't say my name."

"How did you get in there, Twitch?" Jack reiterated. She huffed, ignoring the self-satisfied snickers that came from the freak on the table.

"I walked. Went through the third hallway and walked all the way back. Saw Ben on the way there, called him a slut, then continued to the back. The staircase was fine other than a few holes. West side was fine. The V hallway wasn't blocked off at all. It was just normal. It had less damage than triple I, honestly. Just dustier. I found the black mirror in the room, passed out. I don't have any other answers for you."

"Okay….please just, stay out of the west wing unless you're asked to go in there. This House has a lot of shit in it, you have yet to even meet most of the Residents here properly, and triple I has a couple ghosts lurking, ones much older than you that you could cause serious harm to you." Jack tried to maintain a meaningful look with her, but Twitch's face showed no evidence of understanding. She simply stared, pointedly ignoring Ben's attempts to lean into her line of sight behind Jack.

"Why is the House built like that?"

"What?" The exasperated sigh that came out of him almost pulled a smirk onto her face.

"Why is the House built the way it is? It's like some parts were built over, but the parts that should be new look even older. It's like a castle in some parts, and a log cabin in others. Some parts are even made with concrete and metal, but have centuries-old wood holding it up. Why does it look like that? What's the weird symbols that are everywhere? What the fuck. Is. This. Fucking. House. Jack." She pointedly bobbed her head with each word of her last sentence, lips twitching slightly.

Jack returned her wide-eyed stare for a moment, leg bouncing in anxiety. Ben was quiet for once in his life, nail tearing under his teeth as he waited from Jack's direction. For them both it was a hard question, but in Jack's case it was because he simply didn't know.

"This House…from what I know…is formerly the residence of a very, very old cult. Called Lunamos, I believe. It was a cult dedicated to a goddess of the moon, some called her Luna, but according to Rinku her real name was Loria. She's some goddess from another world, but she's one that is known to many different worlds."

"If Rinku knows her, and he's Dark Link, yeah? So she's the goddess of the moon from Hyrule?" Twitch sneered, to her the suggestion was ridiculous, but it was hard to write it off as nonsense given her current living situation.

"Rinku knows better about this place than either of us. He has experience with that cult, he'd give you better answers. Trust me, you aren't the only one disoriented so badly by this House." There's a beat of silence, before finally Jack waves his hand, dismissing her as best he can. "Go on. Stay the hell out of the west hallways. Please." Twitch rolled her eyes, jumping down from the stool she sat on to quickly leave.

Ben tilted his head as he watched her leave, rocking back in forth in place before finally jumping off of the table. He ignored Jack's attempts to flail towards the table to catch the now-falling vials that were jostled off of the table from his movement, catching them before Jack could even get close, and casually placing them back. Jack scoffed, glaring at Ben, who only gave a playful nose scrunch in response.

"Ya know…."

"No, I don't, Benil, shut up."

"You knooowwww……" He leaned into Jack's side, hands clasping over the crook of Jack's collar, his mouth pressing into his shoulder as he spoke. His bare heel rhythmically thumped against the tile flooring of Jack's lab, in time with the twitching of the hollowghast's eyelid. "She really is very powerful. Maybe a better method of controlling her behavior is to give her a better outlet."

"She is not going out on a job."

"I'm not saying right now, Hemmersen. Put her into training, Jeff's been itching for extra things to do around the House when not on a job, give her to him. He's calm and strict, he could handle her I'm sure."

"And why would you ever suggest a helpful solution if there isn't a way it will benefit you?"

"Who said it wouldn't?"

"How the hell would her being put on a job benefit you other than causing headaches that we would make you go clean up since you suggested her in the first place?"

"Entertainment. She's batshit, I'm very sure you've noticed."

"Quit using so many S's when you speak, you sound like a bee."

"Shut up."

"Sthut up?"

Ben scoffs, halfheartedly shoving Jack's shoulder, knocking him off balance slightly. Jack easily regained his footing, barely leaning. He thought about it, the idea of Twitch being permitted on a job. It gave him worse anxiety than her own face did.

She was small, but built like a tank. It was clear she was built for work despite her stature, even if she rarely ever did anything. He remembered the first night she was here, trying to get her to answer even the most basic questions about herself. Her personality wouldn't matter on a general population control job, but those missions could always go awry, would she be able to handle something like that? The way she spoke was like listening to a siren song, disorienting and haunting. She made his heart race in a way that made him wildly uncomfortable, like he was always in danger when she was around.

"Ben."

"Yeah?"

"Does Twitch…unnerve you at all? You've called her creepy and a freak and batshit…but are you afraid of her?"

"Afraid of that thing? Nah. She's harmless."

"She definitely isn't."

"You get what I mean. She isn't going to do anything to us."

"Are you sure about that?"

The two shared a look. Ben regarded the thought for a moment. A poltergeist really wasn't anything special in most cases, but humans were fickle and unpredictable. They were the worst when it came to consistency, especially in death. Most poltergeists were most useful in cases that required taking over electronics or messing with important devices and machinery. Cybernetics was where they thrived, and Twitch shouldn't be any different. But something was weird about her. It was more than the electricity in the House that she affected whenever she'd have one of her meltdowns. Though she had no clue, the Slenderman and Ben both felt whenever she'd go off, the sheer energy coming off of her feeling like smoke before a fire caught up. Suffocating and caustic, just like her.

"She's dangerous, sure. All new human ghosts are."

"You would know, yeah?"

"We both know I'm not human."

"No, but you're a ghost, yes? You've never said of what, but you are one. So how do you handle something so unpredictable as a human ghost? If you want to put her out on a job, you have to prove to me and Charlie that she won't ruin the entire job because she lost control. Would you be able to stop her if she had one of her meltdowns?"

Ben hummed, thumping his heel against the floor for a few beats.

"Yes, I could."

A frustrated noise pushed its way out of Jack's throat. He shook his head, running his hand over his face. "Fine. Tell Jeff to start teaching her our rules. I doubt she'll react well to you, so don't go trying to cut into her training time to be a shit, please? Okay? Okay." Jack pushes past Ben, crouching slightly to get out of the door. Ben hummed to himself as the door shut with a loud, metallic clang.

He giggled to himself, running a finger over his front teeth. He stood there in the silence of the lab, emerald green eyes that were usually so obscured by his pupils now focused, the red and yellow at the center revealed by the pupils cinching. He hummed again, jagged nail dragging over the enamel. I don't wish to tell you what is in his head, but I must as your faithful narrator, mustn't I?

In his head there were a menagerie of devious little thoughts. Different ways he could spin this in his favor, whatever would entertain him the most. Because really, that was all he ever cared about. Entertainment. No matter how short or long-lived it was, he wanted entertainment to cut through the monotony of his miserable existence. A disgusting brain filled with just as disgusting thoughts-

Oh, I am getting careless with my words. Ignore that.

In his mind, he thought of Twitch's abilities and what he knew of her so far. She was one of those Habitat girls that had grown up in the throes of Creepypasta and its effect on the internet. One heavily embroiled in the fan side of it, she was another mentally ill teenager that was obsessed with the occult and supernatural, like so many others, according to the information Toby had found on her. Little city girl from the Midwest US, grew up in the mill of a school a thousand strong where she could easily disappear into the crowd. From what he saw, she had one other friend that died shortly before she did, an emancipated teenage boy who was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his own apartment. She had only a few other friends, but she was the classic emo kid with problems and a bad attitude. But she was loved by some, clearly, given how pathetic everyone looked at her funeral. The little redhead in the front row came to mind, Tenn something. Maybe that was it. Dangle old memories in her face and see what he could get out of her, see what could be used. Yeah.

Yeah, that was it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This isn't the hardest thing, really. Most people assume it's hard to do these kinds of things to people, but I never found it difficult. She was easy to find, even with how quiet her footsteps are. When you're attuned to the kind of energy she puts off, it's easy to track her down. She hadn't been here more than a month now. What day is it? May 18th. Good. Now to find the mayflower.

She likes to avoid me, but every time I speak to her there's this little lull in the facade. Like she wants to step closer but can't. I think I'll pull her closer this time. Whenever she looks up at me with that little face it makes me want to choke her until she couldn't speak another word. Too bad I missed my chance to get that from her.

"Twitch~"

"It's Twitch, not tweesh. Say it right."

"Well, that's rude! I have an accent I can't help it."

"You have a fucking lisp, not an accent. You don't know how to pronounce S's for sthit." I don't have a lisp.

"You're so mean! What did I ever do to you?" It was easy to use the size difference to my advantage, especially since she didn't seem to want the embarrassment of actually trying to run from me. Mostly she'd try to walk as fast as she could, but with such little legs it was a bit hard for her to keep out of range. I snatched the back of her shirt, earning a few rather hard scratches against my arm, but it was easy enough to keep her from doing it again. That look on her face was so funny. To me, she looked confused and angry, but there was this twinge of fear that kept trying to creep in. I want to make that worse.

"You exist! Leave me the hell alone!" Her voice is rough and raspy, not the squeaky noise you'd expect from someone like her. She had a little bit of what Jeff calls a Valley Girl accent, the way she drawls out the ends of her words when she's annoyed, though she didn't employ the excessive use of the word "like" like most examples of the accent. She was annoyingly strong as well, almost the same level as Toby.

"I want to talk to you about some things."

"Well, I don't want to talk to you. Let go."

"Noooooooo…Just come on! I just wanna talk." I dragged her along to our shared hallway, ignoring her grumbling and periodic attacks on my wrist. She made a funny noise when I yanked her into my room, I wonder if I can get more out of her. I gestured vaguely to the room as I locked the door behind us. "Sit wherever! I wanna ask a couple questions if that's okay."

"It's not okay." Too bad~

"Anyways…." I crawled onto my own bed to splay out and stretch a bit while she likely was deciding in her head whether or not to try and stab me. I hope she uses my sewing needles. "I wanted to ask about you! Tell me about yourself, Twitch." I enunciated as clearly as I could, enjoying the sneer I got as a reaction.

"Why?"

"I just want to know. Nothing sinister. You're new. I like the new people, I want to know about you. What's so bad about that?"

"I don't fucking like you, Ben."

"I think you do. Otherwise, you would have fought much harder to get me off of you."

"No, I wouldn't have. Because there's no point in trying to physically harm you just to get you away from me, I shouldn't have to do that. I should be able to tell you fucking no and you take that as a no. Ever head of consent, freak?"

I stared at her for a moment, trying to remember what that word meant.

"Unbelievable. Please go die, and leave me the fuck alone." She tries to leave, but I'm not done. This time the grab is a little more rough on my end, yanking her shirt up enough to show off her belly. Stretchmarks and a bit of chub, but she's built like a fucking tank. Why is she so strong? The hand that rears back to slap me hits its mark, and damn does it fucking sting. Not even Jeff has managed to get a clean shot like that on me, not that hard. I have to breathe out for a second to process, and she goes for another one. This time she isn't expecting her back and head to slam into the wall.

"Hit me again, and you're gonna regret it." I won't regret it, though. Please hit me again, please please please please please. She smells like lavender and petrichor, I want to bite through her. "How about you stop acting like a mega bitch and chill the fuck out? We are having a normal conversation, yeah? A normal conversation where I don't have to hold you in a fucking headlock just to get you to not hit me. Yeah? That sound good?" Her eyes were so wide, I want to pluck them out. Pretty thing yell at me again, I want to cut your tongue out.

It was silent for a beat, just us, nose to nose. Please understand, please want me. I want to burn you up, don't you want to do it too? Show me show me show me show me

"I don't want to answer your questions, Ben. Let me go." She's trying so hard to sound calm and brave, what a sweet girl.

"I don't want to let you go, Twitch. Answer my questions." It's a bit too much for me. She is suffocating, something that feels like nostalgia. Her cheek is soft under my mouth, just against my lips. I wonder what she would've tasted like alive. Pretty red instead of the watery black that was in her veins now. Poltergeists always mimic their alive forms, false pulses and shivers from sheer muscle memory going off. I wonder what her body remembers.

"What do you want to know?" Oh you're so fucking easy. Her voice is a whisper, a rasp barely crawling up the back of her throat. I breathe her in and out, and she turns her head away from me. I don't let her, I catch her with my nose pressed to hers. I feel dizzy.

"What were you like, before? What was your life like? Were you a good girl, nice and proper? Or did you do stupid shit like every teenager in high school? Tell me about you, Twitch." Tell me everything, I want to know everything. I want to tear you apart.

"I was stupid. Delusional and ill. That's all."

"There's a story to that, tell me it."

"No."

"Yes." I might've felt embarrassed at the way my yes sounded, but she was too much. That lull was starting, the break in the facade. Everytime I leaned into her, she'd pull away but each time was a little less. The swaying back and forth with our faces touching and it was like a spell went over her. I could feel ever shiver in my hands, I knew it was still there. Pay attention, keep your focus on me, little ghost.

"I let an obsession of mine almost kill me. When I thought that obsession was gone, it came back and did kill me. There's nothing else important about me, Ben." Oh, yes there is. You don't even know do you? You don't know how much there is to you. Pretty little ghost, wail for me, please.

"Stay in here with me." This wasn't going the exact way I wanted, but if I can't get information to use, I'll take feelings instead. They're just as useful. Her lips are chapped when I first pass my lips over them, she wets them the first time I pull back, like an instinct. Her hands are shaking in mine, and I lean a little harder into her.

"Why do your eyes look like that?" That surprises me a little. Pupils must have shrunk.

"How do they look to you?"

"Like the mask."

The mask? Oh, right. It's a game in her world.

"Ohhh, Majora's Mask. I forget that's a game sometimes."

"Don't you haunt it?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't quite align with the usual story that's pushed in your world. So, no. But I do know of the thing, yes."

"Usually, your pupils are so wide there's only a little sliver of green. Now you have red, and yellow, and orange, all in rings like that thing. I see it in my dreams, you know…" She sighs when my mouth hits her jaw. That works, keep going, ghost. "It haunts me, like you do."

"Like I do?" Her mouth opens against mine, hands digging into my shirt when I let her go. Her hair was tangled at the back, curls tangling and catching around my fingers, at least she can't get away. "Are you scared of me, Twitch? Am I your ghost, while you are mine?"

"I am not yours. Not ever." Mmm, you won't say that for long.

She doesn't fight it, doesn't push me away. She's still tense, but it melts away with every swipe of our tongues. She's a little drooly but that just makes it better. I need her to be messy and embarrassed. Lean into me, let me hold you up. She likes to claw, nails digging into my neck like she wants to choke me even as she chokes back a whine when my hand clamps into her hair. I can keep her in place like this, held perfectly still while she finally relaxes. She's so easy to move around, I shake her head a little just to laugh at her, and this time she doesn't even sneer. Oh, no. There it is. Just took a second, haha~

"You're disgusting." It doesn't sound sincere, but I know she means it. It's okay, though. She's no better than me, clearly. In fact, I wonder if she even meant me, or if she was telling herself~

Kisses are best messy in my opinion, and she is messy. Inexperienced, drooly, rough. She gets a bit angrier again when I tease her and pull back, getting yanked back in by my ears. Hands clawing, grabbing, like she wants to tear into me too.

It's easy to learn things about a person when you get them alone and desperate like this. Tiny reactions that compound into bigger ones. It's so easy to gain control of someone if you can get them dependent on you. Make them feel okay in the moment, then take it away. Keep doing it until they're chasing you for each little hit. I want to make her overdose on me.

I'll admit I lose myself in her as much as she does me. It's only a kiss, but something about the view of throwing her on my bed, her hair splayed out under her head like a coiling halo of snakes, I want her to poison me. What do you look like inside? What does the rest of you taste like? Right now, her mouth tastes like that same lavender and petrichor that her entire body puts off. She is dangerous in a way I can't figure out just yet. A perfect death, I want to see it over and over and over and over and over and over-

"You're staring."

"Is that so odd?"

"You talk weird."

"Do I?"

She hummed, and a sweeter look crossed face. Something like a calmness, something more gentle. Oh it does not fit her face. She is prettiest when she looks like she wants to kill me. Oh, there it is. She looks at me with this deep-seated anger in her eyes but her face is so relaxed. That perfect splatter of freckles across her nose, I could draw her second death in them. Her hands are hauntingly soft, painting over my cheeks with a touch that whispers to me like poison. My face is hot, I know I'm glowing, but I don't care.

"Your freckles glow. Why is that? What are you, really?"

"A ghost."

"Not like me."

"No, not like you. I'm a ghost of something a lot older than humans."

She hums again, trailing her fingers down the front of my throat. She lingers, passing her palm over the skin over and over.

"Is there others?"

"Other what?"

"Versions of you. The others have mentioned it in passing, that there are multiple versions of some of you, because of the different realities. How Rednels has access to other timelines and worlds. So, is there other versions of you? Of BEN."

So that's what it is. That's what you saw in the mirror.

"Yes, there are. Quite a few, in fact."

"Are you mine?"

I felt my lip twitch, trying to hide a smirk was hard when it felt so fucking good to be right.

"No. I'm from here, not Habitat. Yours is a different one. I call him IZZI. He's mostly cybernetic, a robot."

"You know him."

"Of him, yes."

"Why do you call him IZZI?"

"His official name from wherever he's from. Intelligence Zone of Zombification and Innovation." I quacks my hands, making a face. "Some government project from your world, I think. I don't know much about him."

"You're lying." You're perfect. She smiles when she says it. She knows, and I love that she does.

"Not about his name."

"No, not about his name. But you're lying about not knowing much about him. Can't I see him?"

"If he wants you to."

She doesn't ask anymore questions. She only lays there, fingers still idly swiping over my neck. It's almost peaceful, the silence between us. I wonder what she sees when she looks at me. What goes on inside of you? I want to crack your ribs open and watch it all spill out.

She lets me lay down on her, a knee nocked between hers, my face against her stomach. I can hear the buzzing of electricity inside her, the mimicked rhythmic thumping of whatever pseudo-heart was left. I think we have a good start here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I want to kill him. That's all I could think of. The way he'd look, dead-eyed and gone. Blood or whatever vile viscous liquid that would be in his body. The quiet puts me on edge, but it's almost irritating how good his weight felt on top of me. We laid there for a while, I don't even remember when he left. I felt cold without him here.

I stared at the plastic stars stuck to the ceiling above me. They were the glow in the dark ones, ones my older brother had in his room as a child. I almost remember sneaking in his room when he wasn't home, playing his games and complaining about how much his room stunk to our dog that would waddle in after a short time. I still dream of hiding from monsters by locking myself in his closet.

I don't know why I felt compelled to get up, but I did, and found myself staring between the bars of the balcony's railing. The two floors that overlooked the parlor had bannisters made of the same cherry colored wood as the rest of the House, and enough space between them to sit with my legs hanging over the edge. The guys were back now, Jeff dumping his gear in a tote near the staircase, and Brian kicking it along in front of him towards the hallways beneath the stairs. Jeff walked alongside Jane towards the back of the House as well, down the opposite hallway. Toby stood trying to shake his bloodied boots off by the mat near the doors, which slowly creaked shut, closing with a loud bang. He looked up at the chandelier for a moment when he was down, idly swaying back and forth, then his head suddenly clicked towards me. He waved, tapping over in his black socks.

"What are you doing?" He called up to me.

"Watching."

He smiled, waving for me to come down. I sneered at him, earning a giggle back. He swung his arms back and forth, stopping suddenly with his hands splayed out beside him. He disappears under the edge of the balcony, and for a moment it's silent. Then the sound of Toby's insane ass scaling the pillars that lead to the second floor assaulted my ears, and I hit my knee on the railing as he launches himself over the edge of the balcony, onto the hallway floor. He shakes his entire body like a dog as he stands up, jaw quirking a few times before he speaks.

"I wanna show you something."

"Something I'm not supposed to be seeing?"

He smiles at me, some of his front teeth have chips in them, the very front two on the top a minor case of bunny teeth. It was nice to see him smile without it being followed by him dislocating his jaw for fun, often followed by Jeff's overdramatic and very loud dry heaving.

"Mmmmmaybe…Come with meee." He bares his teeth when he says it, like a toddler trying to smile. I sigh, assuming this will be yet another case of vomiting out viscous black liquids and bouts of schizophrenic hallucinations. Oh what fun.

At this point I'm used to be thrown over shoulders to be moved where I am wanted. Which is fine and all, as long as I'm close to the ground. In Toby's case, it's usually a football carry, but I feel as if him throwing me over his shoulder this time was to add height specifically to make the drop down to the first floor from the balcony way worse for me. He is the type to do that shit on purpose. He drops like a ragdoll, but lands like a cat, immediately bouncing back up from the floor and tearing the massive doors open like it's nothing. He didn't stop me from wiggling off of his shoulders, but he did grip the back of my shirt to keep me from smacking the ground too hard as I fell. I was hauled back up to my feet. No one here knows how to treat a lady, damn.

I didn't get a good look at the courtyard before. Honestly, I haven't left the House other than to stare at the hedge maze here and there. The front was covered in cobbled black stone, worn into grooves where foot traffic was most common along the steps up to the door. A broken fountain filled with stagnant water and debris sat in the center. Most of the area was just covered in stone and wood debris, like leftovers from whatever thousand times they tried to fix this house. When you step off the massive steps and look back up at the House, it's a little shocking just how big it is. Many parts of the House feel like they're smaller than they should be, especially when you take a look at it from the outside.

The House was some kind of fucked H-shape overall, and the stone that was used on the stairs wasn't what was used for the actual front walls. It tried to look like a castle, but the wood of the doors make it look more like a woodland mansion from Minecraft fucked a castle. Above the front doors were broken stained glass windows that had the same netting and wood behind it that covered the holes in the ceiling. The glass that remained showed some kind of religious scene, probably related to the Sistine Chapel-esque paintings in the dining hall. Something felt off when I stared at the glass, like my vision was different. Clearer, sharper, everything felt like a photo that had been refined. Before my vision was always blurry, I never wore glasses like I should have.

Toby tugged my arm so hard it probably would have dislocated had I been alive still. But this felt little more than a very weird pressure inside of my arm, as he dragged me along behind him into the treeline. It felt like every sense of mine had been turned up to 11, it was almost overwhelmed, but never quite tipped over the edge of making me freak the fuck out. I could hear the humming of whatever replaced my heart inside of me, drowning out any other noise other than the forest breathing. That makes no sense. What does that mean?

The forest is breathing.

It was breathing. I could feel it. I couldn't tell if I was still experiencing the same thing, if I was even still being pulled along by him now. All I could hear was her breathing. The crunch of the leaves, the desperate breathing and the cries. Who is she?

My head tipped back as we borderline ran. I stared at the sun peeking through the canopy of trees, the branches whipping by. The air was deafening, the breathing forcing air into my lungs again. I smelled something like lavendar and petrichor. The taste of iron. Something throbbed behind my eyes and down my cheeks.

He brought me to the Pond. The stone bridge under my feet, wet and slick to the point I nearly slipped when Toby pushed me closer to the edge. He still held a hand, but the other was buried in the back of my shirt so he could drag me over the ledge of the bridge. I was stuck bent over the stone while he squeezed his cheek against mine for both of us to look over at the water. With the hand still wrapped around mine he pointed a finger to the reflection of us in the water.

"That's where I found you. You were floating in the water, face up. I dragged you out." This is a bad idea.

"Toby."

"Yes?"

"Why are you doing this again? You already fuckedd me up once ttelling me about my death, isn't this shit dangerous?" There's a stutter in the letters, I keep repeating D's and T's. I hiss a breath out, earning the smallest quirk on his head next to mine. "We shouldn't be here."

"No, we shouldn't. But I want to be. I want to show you. Are you scared to learn about it?"

"I don't think I'm supposed to know. It's not really a matter of fear."

"Liar." He giggles like he's trying to hide it.

It almost felt like a blackout, but I was too aware. Too aware of the feeling of my head whipping back as he pulls me up. The hand on mine lets go and grips the front of my shirt as I'm hoisted into the air. The rush of air around my head is too loud, the splash of the water even louder. I can see every fucking bubble and wave, every shadow in the water, I can see his eyes below me staring back up. Eyes?

No, it's his eyes, it's Toby's, as he jumps in after me. Another hand in my shirt to keep me in place while he treads water. He's smiling, a funny joke to him and nothing more. I don't move, don't try to tread water or pull myself up. I don't need to breathe, I don't need to do anything. It's quiet now, terribly so. My hands find the collar of his shirt, my nails biting skin underneath the fabric. I feel wrong.

No, no, I feel very right.

There's a shift in his expression. Something next to realization, but not sure yet. A confirmation. A confirmation when he looks at me, and that smile pulls harder at his face, turning into a grimace. Every muscle in his face hardening just so slightly. Tense. Tense when he looks at me. You should look at me like that a lot more. I don't need to breathe.

But he does.

Tulpa, they said. In some iterations, they are something like a creature made from fiction. A story come to life. He and one of the Slenderman copies are tulpas. They can be killed. They might not stay dead, but they can be killed. For him, he needs air. He needs to breathe.

I don't need to breathe.

He realizes a little too late how much stronger I've gotten physically. He can't pull up, and I'm suddenly much heavier than when he threw me. In the water, it's different. It's like there's more to me, more I have accessible. I am rocks in his pockets and he has his feet tied.

But I guess not strong enough. That smile is gone, the mirth in his eyes gone. I'm yanked upwards by my hair, startling me enough to break the spell. Rocks bite at my head and back after the rush of air, the sound of grinding teeth in my ear. He has me by my face, hands gripping either side of my head with a pressure that should hurt much more than it does. Pupils pinpoint and he blows air out of his nose with each recovery breath. My chest kept seizing over and over until I realized it was me laughing. I choked on one of them, but I couldn't stop. Stuck under the little patch of stones beneath the bridge, the sun catching the water, I still felt like this was nothing greater than a dream before my death.

His curls were stuck to his face, straightened slightly from the weight of the water. That unnatural orange matched the sun above us, canine teeth tearing at his bottom lip while he tried to catch his breath. I couldn't stop laughing. He was soaking wet, face red and flustered. It was that easy. To break that silly facade of his, just by turning this stupid shit on him. All it took was trying to keep him under the water.

I couldn't move, my feet were free and any time he shifted his position I'd throw a kick at him, but it never did much. All I could do otherwise was laugh, which just made him angrier. Though the angrier he got, the calmer he seemed. Finally, I calmed down too, I was oddly out of breath, probably reflexive again. I just stared at him with a smile on my face, the first genuine one I feel like I've had since coming here. It just felt right. The look on his face.

His hands had found their way to my neck at some point, but he didn't hold me any tighter. My hands were free, and he didn't move a muscle when I tugged at a curl at the side of his head. He even mimicked the movement, taking one of my around his pointer finger, but never moving his hands from my neck.

"What was the purpose of this? To learn something about me? Or just to piss me off?"

"To learn. To watch."

"You're aware of what you are, how do you feel about the versions of you that got to be Toby and nothing else?"

"I am Toby and nothing else. They're no different from me." His fingers tensed. I didn't care.

"They're very different from you. You're nothing like a boy. So why are you testing something you know is a bad idea? Jack's told you, I heard him. To stop showing me things I'm not meant to see. Slender and Ben, too. You've been told by the three authorities in this House, but you're still bold enough to chase me around and play with fire, why?"

"Because it's funny. No other reason. I like to see what it does. I don't like being told not to do things."

Our noses were touching as he spoke. He leaned fully on me, a weird sensation with the lack of breathing. Just a constant pressure, hollow on the inside. This was different than when Bay leaned on me. His face didn't have that lecherous smile with wandering hands. His hands never moved from my neck, but he laid all of his weight onto me like Bay did.

He only stared and breathed at a steady pace now. His face was blank, eyes held open wide. My foot was propped against his hip, still idly kicking to try to shove him back.

"Why are you here, Twitch? You could have left. Home is a refuge. You could leave and hide out anywhere here."

That had to be a joke. There's no other place for me to be. No other place, that was the whole point. The entire delusion was to end with this. That's the fucking point. Leave? I can't leave. I can't leave.

His left hand gripped my jaw tighter than he should. Sometimes I felt like he knew, but then he just seemed too…in his own world. Either he didn't know, or he did and he didn't care. I wish I could be that stupid either way.

"You're stuck here, you know that? Clearly you do, that's why you haven't left. You just love us that much, huh?" He was smiling again. I wonder. If I took out enough teeth could I make him feel it? How far does the lack of pain go? Is it the same as the others? No, I bet he'd sit there and laugh the whole time. Maybe even egg me on. A fucked masochist like Ben. I can see it on his face.

"Do you know what's in the Pond?" He uses his face to turn mine towards the water, and lays his cheek into mine, keeping me in place. "We think it's one of Ben's guys. A Moon Child. The others call it the Siren Pond. Apparently the Child lures people into the pond like a siren and eats them. Do you think he'll eat us?"

"I don't think you should be too worried about him." That grating, disgusting smug voice. Toby shot up, staring at the stupid fuck above us on the bridge. Bay's reflection smirked at me from the water. "You two aren't supposed to be out here without telling the Jailor. Next time at least tell one of us."

Why the fuck should I tell you shit?

"Because I don't think you want your soul eaten a second time. As plucky as you are, you wouldn't be able to come back from what the Jailor or the other freaks in these woods could do to you."

"Did I say that out loud?" I crawled out to sit next to Toby, finally looking at the most annoying prick of Rednels headon.

"No, I read your mind."

"No, you did say it out loud." Toby immediately corrected, earning a scoff from Ben.

Ben sighs, staring off to the side for a moment. After a pause, he quirks his head to the left, signaling for us to follow. "C'mon. Go back to the House. You, Toby, especially know better, but I hate having to chastise you."

"Then don't chastise. Why does it matter if we're out here?" Toby called from his spot still on his knees. He didn't sound defiant despite his words, looking as docile as a dog in the position he was in. His curls were bouncing back from the weight of the water, like a little halo for an angel. How ironic.

"Because you're not supposed to be out here without telling someone first."

"I told Twitch."

"Someone who isn't one of the people going with you. Just, both of you get up and get back to the House." 

"Who the fuck put you in charge of me?" Toby stood in tandem with me, already knowing where this would go, and smacked me upside the head for the comment. "No, hell no! I'm not listening to the creepy prick who gropes me in my fucking bed every night! The fuck you gonna do about it if I don't listen to you?"

"Twitch." Toby hisses at me. I shove my hand into his face, pushing him away as best I can. We both grappled for our spot on the bank as he tried to keep me from talking.

"No. Why am I not allowed to know about the fucking Pond? You both told Toby he can't tell me about how I died, why not? What will it do if I know? What happened to me? Do you know what happened? Are you the one who fucking did it?"

"You know I'm not who killed you, Twitch."

"But you know who did." He's silent. Green eyes that catch the sun, something like what the Emerald City would've looked. Am I Dorothy now? So far from Kansas, faces of a million familiar strangers surrounding me.

Does he need to breathe?

"You mouth your thoughts, you should beat that habit. And no, I don't need to breathe. Poltergeists learning their deaths is dangerous to their growth. You need to wait before you learn about it or you'll make yourself explode." His hands mime an explosion, winking at me with his tongue sticking out. "Go back to the House, Twitch."

I shoved Toby back into the water, taking him by surprise. Bay barked out a laugh as he watched me stomp my way back towards the direction of the House. Neither of them followed me, I made the entire walk back by myself, my head pounding with something that wasn't a heartbeat. This felt like an earthquake inside my bones. I wanted to throw up.

There was no more breathing from the forest, it had gone still, quiet against my emotions spilling out. My head kept jerking to the sound, unhindered by the soreness I'd get when I was alive. My face felt like it was buzzing, my whole body felt like it wasn't fully there. And apparently, it wasn't, since I fully stepped through the doors without opening them, scaring the piss out of Jeff, who stood on the other side in nothing but a stained t shirt and plaid pajamas pants.

He said my name but didn't exactly seem keen on trying again when I ignored him, storming through the foyer and up the stairs. I could barely register where I was going, only driven by the constant repeating chant of "Get away" in my head. I just wanted my room and the quiet. I wanted to go home.

When I did make it to my room, I tied the laundry chute door shut with a shirt, tying it to the side of the heavy dresser so he couldn't open it. All of the electronics were unplugged, I think I ripped the cord to the TV. I had to hide, had to hide from the monsters. Find the closet, hide from the monsters. Under the covers.

I'd hide in my brother's closet. Hide in there from the monsters. My hands fumbled for the closet doors in the darkness. I have to hide. When I opened it, that deep black glass greeted me. The mirror from the weird rooms. The sun and moon motif seemed to almost glow in the dark, the whole mirror putting off its own light, like the moon and sun itself. My hands pressed into the smooth surface, my breathing returning in the panic, my body shoving and tearing air from me over and over again.

The pitch black pulled me in, like a vacuum in the dead of space. The nausea built up, but this time it felt harder. Like a stone in my chest. The images came on quicker this time, the heavy glass holding up my entire weight as I fell to my knees, trying to claw my way through it. The muscles in my eyes pulled the farther they rolled back, my breathing hitching and gagging me with every single exhale and inhale. It noticed me before I noticed it.

I felt the eyes on me, like the eyes of God training on a new disciple, and I think I cried out. It didn't turn though, only the tears in reality that surrounded its body with the eyes of heaven searing through me. The blood-like splatters of green, blue and yellow that assaulted my senses overtook a lot of what I could see, and then just two red eyes. Red eyes like the ones that led me through the River Styx that night.

Its eyes were somehow crueler than those first ones. The first pair was playful, mischievous, these were cold and dead. Oh, he is so much prettier like that. No life to his face, just a blank canvas. I wanted to break this stupid barrier keeping us apart, how dare it keep me away? You don't keep away soulmates, you should never do that…Let me closer, let me closer. I need to be there, let me closer.

A finger tapped against the glass, matching mine. A breath torn from me. Another tap. It tilted its head at me, please come closer. Something like amusement crossed its face, but only barely. How pretty your face is when you look like you want to brutalize me. Please come closer.

I could call its name, I wonder if I could hear it when it answers. I could hear the person from last time, but it and Sally were different. There was a complete absence of noise, like a black hole around them. I could hear the ambience of the room we were in, but its movements seemed to destroy the noise around it. There was so much nothing around it I wanted to be swallowed by it please come closer to me.

A door shut somewhere and its head whipped towards the source. I was already begging it not to leave, a pointed ear twitched in my direction and its face twitched. It barely looks back at me, then flits off, crawling over the furniture like some little freak, knocking over a glass that had been left on the dresser. A voice calls out shortly after, then the brunette from before comes in, cursing at the pile of glass now on the floor. They throw the bag they had in their hand onto a nearby chair, crouching to pick up the bigger chunks of glass. Where did he go?