u can make this a separate short story or a bonus chapter but I need logan being scared off gritty or being chased by gritty
Orange Monstrosity
logan and his fear of the Philadelphia Flyers Mascot, Gritty
Logan hates Philadelphia, not only because the Flyers are annoying to play against, but Gritty—the stupid mascot—has something against him. He tries to remember what he did to the horrifying creature except he comes up blank every time.
“Dude, chill.” Kyle says, sipping his overpriced coffee and smiling everytime Logan looks over his shoulder. Logan turns to glare at him, gripping the strap of his bag tighter as they walk down the halls of the visitor’s side of Xfinity Mobile Arena. Despite the handful of times he’s played here, he’s never been able to adjust to the feeling of being watched.
“Why couldn’t we play the Canadiens,” Logan whines, almost pushing Kyle into the wall when he sees a flash of orange and black, “At least Youppi is cute.”
“Because we played them last week Lo, now can you please hurry up, these halls get creepier and creepier each time we come.” Kyle grumbles, wrapping a hand around Logan’s upper arm and pulling him along.
Even as they make their way to the locker room, their teammates chatter surrounding them, Logan can’t shake the feeling of being watched.
:::
Logan got too comfortable.
The Panthers had pulled through to level the score after almost three periods of back-to-back goals but an absolute beauty of a face off win from Kyle and a top-bar shot from Liam, the Panthers and Flyers were heading to overtime.
With what was basically their PP unit out there, Logan leans forward, trying to get air into his lungs when he feels it—the beady stare of a specific mascot. He looks up and there he is, across the rink and in between the fans, staring.
“What’d you do to Gritty?” Calum asks, his eyes on the play, body tense as he waits for when Kyle will come careening over the wall. Despite being their captain and their leader on power-play goals, their usual game winning scorer is actually Calum.
“Exist.” Is all Logan gets to respond with before the two of them leap over the wall, the puck landing nicely on Logan’s stick. He shoots it to Calum as they all get on-side and it’s the greatest dangle of Calum’s life as the puck is nestled into the back of the net.
4-5, Panthers win.
:::
Logan doesn’t know how it happens, but he gets fucking lost. He’s walked down these halls for years when they play in fucking Philadelphia and he’s lost. He almost can’t believe his bad luck when of course, it gets worse.
He hears the squeaking first and he books it, momentarily grateful that he decided not to wear a suit as the sound of footsteps gets closer.
I hate Philadelphia, I hate Philadelphia, I hate Philadelphia, he thinks as he swings around a corner, somehow ending up in the visitors locker room. He was literally just here, but it’s completely empty now and he turns around, coming face to face with Gritty himself.
“C’mon man.” Logan says, “I just wanna go home.”
Gritty tilts his head, his eyes jiggling and he cringes, his body twitching slightly when Gritty steps forward. Due to the size of the mascot, he takes up the doorway aka, the only exit Logan has.
And listen, Logan is man enough to say that while he didn’t screech, he did scream when Gritty jerks towards him, quick footsteps forward until he’s stood in front of Logan.
This is so fucked, he thinks before staring at Gritty’s orange eyes and fucking shoving him. The sound of squeaking is the only thing he hears as he finally makes it to where they were all supposed to meet up.
Kyle makes a face at him, “Dude, what the fuck? Where’d you go?”
“Doesn’t even fucking matter man, I fucking hate Philadelphia.” Logan mutters, feeling jittery as he onto the bus, Kyle close behind. Even when the bus pulls away and towards the hotel, Logan feels watched and just knows that Gritty will have it out for him again when they come back in a few months.
