#towok

@n30nmirag3

Marc and Nick were making their way down the empty sidewalk at a brisk pace. Both of them keeping their heads down, and sticking close to one another. Normally the street they were on would be bustling with people as there were several bars and restaurants there. A very popular tourist spot, but today only a handful were brave enough to step outside. The ones confident that they weren't targeted by someone in the yandere purge that started an hour earlier.

Still, the two of them ought to get off the streets as soon as possible. Even if no one was after them, that didn't mean they were safe. Today, anyone a yandere deemed was in the way of their darling could be killed, and they wouldn't even be charged... Marc's aunt had offered them to stay at her place until the purge was finished. Her house was in a far better neighborhood than their appartment, not to mention better locks on her doors, so of course they accepted. Just a few more blocks until they reached their destination.

"Pick up the pace a bit, Nick." Marc spoke up as he reached out to grab his friend's quivering hand. "Wanna get to Aunt Meg's place before the real crazies come out." God, how did this even become a thing; he thought to himself while he anxiously ran his fingers through his rust colored hair. A can of pepper spay he bought days earlier tucked away in the front pocket of his jeans. Marc prayed to God he wouldn't have to use it.

Nick wasn't faring much better. He clutched Marc's hand in a bone crushing grip in fear of somehow getting seperated from him. This was absolutely terrifying! He was outside on the yandere purge! There was a chance they could cross the wrong person and die if they didn't reach the house in time! His emerald green eyes filled with fear as he continued to look out for the first sign of danger. It was out of the corner of his right eye Nick spotted something that made his blood run cold.

In the dark alleyway between an Olive Garden and a T.G.I. Fridays he could make out four figures conversing with one another. Nick couldn't spot their features due to them having their backs to him, but he could see the glint of the knife in the hand of one of them. Marc followed Nick's line of sight, and tensed when he caught a glimpse of the weapon too. "Just keep walking..." He hissed urgently in his friend's ear. Better to leave now before they noticed them. They both turned back to the sidewalk, only to be greeted by a butcher knife pointed at their faces.

"Holy fuck!!!" Marc stumbled back in terror with his arms raised in defense. A sharp scream escaping from Nick who barely caught himself from back on the pavement. Fearful tears blurring his vision while the man holding the enormous took a step towards them. "Where. Is. She." The man growled out like a feral beast. His entire body trembling with rage, and one could not deny the unhinged glint in his eyes.

Marc and Nick glanced to one another before the former instinctively pushed the other behind him for protection. Nick was about to protest, just as worried for his best friend's safety when Marc spoke up. "We d-don't know..." He stammered out; doing his best to remain calm despite the deranged man in front of them looking incredibly close to snapping.

A massive dark hollow in the earth. Clicking claws against the floor patrol rows and clumps of cocoons, their observant eyes watching for any splits in their glossy surfaces. Five shallow inlets shoot off the main room, housing roaring piles of flame. Warmth floods it and dissipates in the only exit, a void of a tunnel leading upwards. The walls of sturdy black glisten from being newly structured for the cocoons, this queen’s first clutch, to mature in. It felt more like wading through the air, with the combined heat and tension. Any second... Just a little bit longer, and the hours of waiting would finally bear rewards.

Dozens of eyes lock onto one cocoon, hearing the telltale muffled chirp of a youngling about to emerge. All is suffocatingly silent whilst the nearest caretaker tactfully moves their claws along the cocoon’s surface, chattering all the while. Thrashing, the youngling inside punctures the shining shell with its small claws, and after a moment of rest it tears them down, creating an opening where the fluids it morphed in flow out in excess. All of the caretakers voices join to coo and encourage the youngling to emerge. 

The little hand withdraws, then returns with three others, grasping the edges of the hole. With one push, the side of the cocoon shatters, the youngling tumbling out with the flow of the rest of its fluid. Wasting no time, the caretaker scoops it up to cradle with one set of arms and fuss over its face with the other, moving hair and bits of the cocoon. The others cheer and scurry to one of the cocoons in their respective rows or piles. Meticulously tapping and running their claws around the gleaming shells. 

The boiling hot room is busy with noise and sound, soon enough countless cocoons burst and shatter. Hundreds of young are being carried out of the camber, and their chirps of fear and joy echo throughout the halls of the hive. A distinctive call announces a queen’s emergence, and her rainbow chitin stands out as she is carried away

An usually large cocoon among the rest makes its first chirp, and its caretaker relaxes his wings with a coo. Another adult nearby lapses her attention on the cocoon beneath her claws, interested to see what’s about to emerge. Another queen perhaps? A small hand breaks through the shell, and swiftly the entire side ruptures. Not a queen, but a very large youngling with dark blue chitin sprawls onto the floor. It near screams in joy, startling countless adults and other newly emerged younglings. Its caretaker grins, taking longer than usual to get the large youngling cradled in his arms.