Coincidence
You were singing along softly with the music playing through your earbuds as you walked along through the forest, enjoying the spring weather, your heavy coat keeping out the chilly spring winds. It was weather similar to this, you remembered, when you met your friend Hayden here on this same path one fateful Day. You’d decided to take a moment to relax on the edge of the path against a tree with your eyes closed, curled under your large coat and basking in the sun, when their voice nearly scared you to death. You hadn’t even heard them walking up to you, laughing softly and telling them they were okay when they apologized. You both immediately clicked, having a nice long conversation, until the sun was setting and they offered to walk you home.
From then on you kept in touch, talking with them daily and getting closer and closer to them, until eventually you developed feelings for the blonde man. They were just perfect, so kind and caring, considerate and nurturing, but also chaotic and thrill seeking, taking you on adventures that always left you wonder ‘what next’. You just wish that their job didn’t send them away so much, where you wouldn’t hear from them for weeks on end sometimes. You’d actually asked Hayden if they wanted to go on a walk with you today, since they lived close by apparently, but they said they were going to be fairly busy today. So, unfortunately, you were left alone, listening to music and enjoying the weather.
You’d sent a couple photos to Hayden for them to see once they were off work, blushing and reading through some of your conversations again. You squealed and hid your face as you read over something sweet they’d said to you, calling you the nickname they’d given you especially and complimenting you. It was beyond you how they managed to turn you into such a flustered mess, having previously prided yourself on not being the romantic type. You pondered telling them about your feelings, but the thought terrified you, the fear of them being weirded out and leaving you overwhelming you. You could deal with the pain, the pain of possibly seeing them smile and gush about another, the pain of eventually losing them. Yeah, you could deal with that.
You stopped when you neared the tree you had been sitting against that fateful day when you met Hayden, smiling, blushing and laughing softly. You sighed and sat down against it once more, looking up at the sky and letting out another soft sigh. You felt peaceful, at ease, comfortable in such a familiar spot. Maybe if you were lucky they’d find you again, take you away from everything, and it could just be you two. It sounded too good to be true, but you just wanted to be selfish for once, just once. You shut your eyes and sighed, listening to your music play, and nuzzling further into your coat.
You didn’t even realize you were falling asleep until you woke up, panicking for a moment as your eyes flew open, before freezing when you realized you were not in the same place you were before. The forest around you looked dead and gray, frozen, like nothing here had been disturbed for years. It didn’t look like ash or like the forest had been burned, it simply looked life sucked, and you quickly stood up to survey your surroundings. You paused your music as you stood, and you realized it was dead silent, aside from your breathing, the shuffling of your coat, and your footsteps, causing your stomach to churn as you strained to hear anything. Timidly, you started walking back the way you would have come if you were in the forest where you were before, praying you’d find something familiar.
The entire time you felt like something was watching you, following you. You constantly checked behind you as you walked, swearing you heard footsteps behind you that were trying to match with yours. You checked the signal on your phone and cursed when you saw there was nothing, stuffing it in your pocket and picking up your pace slightly. You just kept walking, silently hoping that if you did you’d find your way back to the forest you knew, but you couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes on you. You spun around one more time with wide eyes as you looked around for anything, any sign that you weren’t alone. There was nothing, and you were starting to panic, tearing up and looking around fearfully as you stood in place frozen with fear.
“(Y/N)-?”
You jumped and screamed at the sound of Hayden’s voice, spinning around with tears streaming down your cheeks as you stared wide eyed at the man’s familiar face, “Hayden?”
You both ran towards each other and embraced each other in tight hugs as you sobbed against Hayden, him patting your hair worriedly, “(Y/N), what’s wrong? What are you doing here?”
“I don’t know! I just- I was going on a walk and then I stopped at the tree where you and I first met, cause I remember which tree it was, and- and I sat down and closed my eyes and I guess I fell asleep? And then I woke up here, but- but I don’t remember getting here? And I just- I started walking to try and find the forest but I felt like someone was following me and I’m just- I was so fucking scared.”
Hayden hushed you gently as he pet your head, holding you tight and kissing your head to try and calm you down, “Hey, hey, it’s alright, I’m here. Do you know how you got here?”
You shook your head, sniffling and pulling back slightly, “No. I just- I just woke up. I fell asleep against the tree and I woke up here. What- what are you doing here? I thought you were at work?”
Hayden smiled and laughed softly at your question, starting to wipe the tears off of your face, “I am working actually. Um, I’ll explain everything to you later, okay?”
You gave Hayden a confused look, sniffling and wiping at your eyes. “What do you mean you are working?”
Hayden simply smiled and brushed some hair out of your face, “I’ll tell you later, I promise. Just come with me, okay?” Hayden started leading you off, the opposite direction where you were going.
You followed him, trusting him to keep you safe, but also having a horribly off feeling in your stomach. “Hayden, please, tell me what’s going on. I’m- I’m scared, and confused.”
Hayden stopped and cupped your cheek, causing you to blush as he smiled at you, “(N/N), you trust me right?”
You swallowed and nodded, absentmindedly leaning into his touch, “I do, yeah.”
“Then just follow me. I’ll explain later. Plus, I have some friends I want you to meet!”
His smile was nearly enough to put you at ease, making you smile as you nodded and continued to follow Hayden through the forest. You still couldn’t shake the feeling you were being watched as you walked with Hayden, trying to look through the trees to see if you could see anyone standing out there, but there was nothing that you could see. You noticed that Hayden had pulled out his phone when you looked back at them, texting someone or maybe a group chat, but when you tried to see he turned his phone off suddenly and put it in his pocket. His grip tightened around your hand slightly and you smiled softly, squeezing his hand back which caused him to look back at you curiously before returning your smile.
After a bit of Hayden’s eager walking he slowed to a more leisure pace, swinging your hands wildly between you two and giggling, making you start to laugh along with him. It was surprising how easily Hayden was able to put you at ease, making you almost completely forget about the feeling of being watched, the fear of waking up someplace unfamiliar suddenly. You were still scared and wary, definitely, but with Hayden you felt like you could get through anything. That’s when you looked up and saw it.
A large, large mansion that looked like something you’d place in the nineteen twenties, old, rundown, and overgrown with a large fence and gate surrounding it. You could barely just see through the vines covering the gate to see the actual mansion, but you could definitely see the top of it, with a large tower in the center. At the opened gate was a group of people, much taller than you, and they looked rather intimidating.
You stood behind Hayden as they led you forward, seemingly excited to see the new people, and you felt a slight pang of jealousy in your gut. You’d never met these people, and Hayden had never told you about them, so who were they and why was Hayden seemingly excited to see them? You dismissed the question in your head for now, more worried about where you were and who these people were that Hayden knew, and what the hell you were doing here.
“Hey guys! This is (Y/N). (Y/N), these are my friends and work buddies!” Hayden excitedly introduced you all to each other as you timidly stood behind them.
You looked up at all of Hayden’s collogues timidly, forcing a smile and waving, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you all.” You spoke softly, your voice taking a higher lilt to it.
The tallest one in a yellow hoodie smiled and nodded at you, speaking with a deep southern drawl that made you blush slightly and shiver. “Nice to meet you too. I’m Brian.”
Another one of them scoffed, a man with curly hair and green eyes in dark clothes, he looked Hispanic if you had to guess. “Damn Brian, never heard you introduce yourself so properly before.” Brian shot the shorter man a glare which only seemed to make him laugh, before he looked over at you. His gaze made you swallow and avoid eye contact, feeling scrutinized, like he was sizing you up. “Name’s Cody.”
“And I’m T-Toby!” A slightly taller man next Cody piped up and introduced himself, with similar curly hair, brown eyes and a couple scars on his face as well as freckles. “We’re twins.”
“Fraternal twins,” Cody corrected.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, dipshit.” Toby laughed as Cody let out an indignant ‘hey!’.
Another man, a little shorter than the others and much more scruffy and gruff, drew your attention, and he reeked of the familiar scent of tobacco. You forced yourself not to cover your nose as he glared down at you, causing you to take a step back. He scoffed, “Tim.” You didn’t like him.
A lady with black, unkempt hair scoffed and drew your attention, watching as she rolled her eyes before looked at you and smiled softly. You were immediately more at ease seeing her and her kinder attitude, “I’m Kate. It’s nice to meet you. Hayden told us a lot about you.”
You smiled and nodded, a little hurt Hayden told them about you but not you about them, but you quickly brushed it off as another lady stepped forward, the shortest of them all and even shorter than you. She made you feel the most at ease as she smiled at you, feeling like you could trust her almost immediately, “I’m Jordan, nice to meet you.”
You smiled and nodded again, silently greeting her personally as well. You looked back at Hayden who seemed to be a little upset until he realized you were looking at him, immediately brightening up. “So, these are my coworkers, and this is where we live!”
You looked back at the rundown, overgrown, abandoned looking mansion, frowning and holding Hayden’s hand a bit tighter. “You… you live here?”
You looked back at Hayden for an explanation, until Cody piped up with a laugh and explained first. “Don’t judge a book by its cover. The inside is much different than the outside, trust me probrecita~.”
You blushed slightly at the name Cody called you, tilting your head confused as the man laughed, looking at Hayden who was glaring at Cody now. His grip on your hand tightened painfully and you hissed softly, his grip immediately relaxing as he looked back at you, smiling apologetically. “Sorry. Come on, let’s go inside, I wanna show you my room!”
Hesitantly you followed them all inside, sticking close to Hayden the entire time and keeping your eyes cast downward, occasionally glancing up at the others curiously. It wasn’t till you stepped inside the building you realized what Cody meant, a long, large, luxurious hallway with red carpet and lit with antique lights greeting you. The others went ahead of you and Hayden as you took in the hallway in awe, confusion clear as day on your face and making Hayden laugh, causing you to blush.
He convinced you to keep following him, taking peeks down the hallways that diverged at the base of the stairs before heading up them. You passed the second floor quickly, seeing long hallways filled with doors with plaques on them, spotting Cody heading down one of the hallways on his own. You kept heading up with Hayden and the others, finally reaching the third floor. There was a large, large door there, with large handles and intricate detail, and it was intimidating. Not just because it was so massive, but because it felt bad, it felt wrong, something was wrong on the other side of that door.
You were thankful when you and Hayden quickly moved away from the door, looking back at it warily until it was out of view and finally sighing, following Hayden and watching all the others head off to individual rooms. You followed Hayden down a hall to what you assumed was their room, your suspicions confirmed by the nameplate on the door, and when they immediately opened it with their own key. You stepped inside and blinked at the sight and size of the room, letting out a soft ‘wow’ as you took in their room, with cyan striped walls and tons of posters on them. Their bed was covered in stuffed animals as you’ve seen from pictures they sent you, and there was purple very much everywhere.
You smiled softly and walked in with Hayden, spinning around in place in awe as Hayden asked, “What do you think?”
You looked back at Hayden with a smile, giggling seeing how excited they were, bouncing up and down in place, “It’s amazing! But, I’m- I’m still confused. Where are we?”
Hayden smiled at you, but it was different, and it immediately set you off. It wasn’t their same soft, cheery smile, stretched wide across their face with all the happiness in the world. This smile was just.. Wrong. There was something twisted behind it, something sick and demented.
“We’re home.”
