#saurusyaps

The words hung in the clearing for a second. HABIT paused. His head tilted slowly, eyes narrowing beneath the brim of the battered, worn cap on his head as he looked the girl over again. The red glint in one of her irises caught the low light filtering through the canopy of tree leaf's, flashing faintly every time she shifted with that oddly blood-stained camera.

He’d seen a lot of people in these woods. Most of them reacted the same way. Screaming, or begging, definitely running.. Whether they're his victims, his targets, those who were crybabies or a few idiots who thought they could fight him.

But answering a death threat with a cheeky little comeback?

That was new.

HABIT didn’t like new.

His eyebrows furrowed hard, jaw tightening as irritation crawled up his spine. It almost felt like she was mocking him. And HABIT had a massive problem with being mocked.

“I said I’m going to eat you,” he repeated slowly, voice dragging over the words like sandpaper. “Like… fucking alive.” He leaned forward slightly when she didn’t even look up, emphasizing the point. “Alive-uh.”

Mari barely looked up from the screen of the handheld camera she was holding. “I heard you,” she said, rolling her eyes as she skimmed through whatever footage she’d recorded trying to draw back her little adventure of searching for her friend. The small device beeped softly under her thumb. “I mean, really. Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

Mari had been wandering these woods for hours at this point.

Boots muddy from cutting through half-rotted trails, leggings twisted from brush snagging them during the hike. Her t-shirt clung faintly to her back from sweat despite the chilly air, and a washed-grey white sweater was tied around her waist where she’d apparently decided it was too warm to bother wearing. She looked like someone who’d gotten lost on a bad hiking trip if it weren’t for the fact she wasn’t even a little bit scared.

She’d been out here trying to drag Rory back from wherever the hell he’d disappeared to after biting her and vanishing into the trees with his.. Father? Mentor? Didn’t matter who Eyeless Jack was to Rory, he'd still left with him and now things felt too empty.

So far? Nothing.

Just mud, branches, and now this jackass. Entertaining jackass, but a jackass nonetheless. 

“Do you have a death wish?” HABIT scoffed as he reached up and adjusted the brim of his hat with two fingers, tilting it slightly back. His posture was loose but wrong somehow — like a coiled spring disguised as a slouch.

 “Mm… sometimes.” Mari shrugged. The answer came way too easily. “Why?” she added, finally glancing up from the camera. “Did you want me to run and scream? I’ve seen scarier people than you, I think.”

Something behind HABIT’s eyes twitched. “Is that right?” he gritted.

“It is.” Mari nodded once, casual as anything.

The clearing smelled faintly of wet bark and cold dirt. Like a woodsy area right after it rained. Dead leaves shifted under HABIT’s boots as he took a slow step forward. He was close enough now that Mari could see the tension building in his shoulders.

She finally lowered the camera. “You’re not even on the top ten list, honestly,” she added.

HABIT’s smile disappeared. “Careful,” he warned. 

Mari lifted a brow. “Or what?”

His head tilted again, a sharp, birdlike motion. “Or I’ll rip you open right here and eat you piece by piece while you’re still kicking.”

Mari studied him for a moment. Then she shrugged again. “You could try.”

That did it. HABIT’s jaw snapped tight. “Oh, I will try—”

“—but then Slender’s gonna be pissed,” she cut in casually. Silence.

HABIT froze mid-step. Not because he felt threatened, but because hearing that entities name again made him have to process that she might not be as useless to something as he thought.

“You’re one of his little worker bees,” HABIT said slowly.

“Unit proxy, technically.”

He scoffed this time with a half laugh. “Cute.” The word dripped with contempt. HABIT paced a small circle in the dirt now, restless energy crawling through his movements like static. “Oh that’s adorable,” he patronized. “You think the tall twig owns the woods?”

Mari rocked back on her heels. “No,” she said easily. “But he does own me.” That red glint in her eye flickered again. “..And he gets real cranky when people break his toys.”

“Oh good,” he said.

“Good?”