Chapter Text
The human stumbled outside, hit with sudden cold. He rubbed his arms, clear goosebumps forming. Stumbling into the snow, he looked at the path ahead. He could make out a few trees, snowflakes melting on his arms. He paced forward, noticing a large branch left in the walkway. Kevin stepped over it and kept walking-crack.
He tensed, automatically picking up his pace and not looking back. After a few moments he looked back behind himself, swearing that the shadows moved, that something was there. Kevin, sped into a light sprint, stopping dead cold at the odd structure in front of him.
Out of the shadows slowly inched out was a boney hand. “Hey kid what gives?” The figure asked, unable to be seen out of the shadows. Kevin stood, frozen in complete fear. “You just gonna stare at me or are ya going to put er there pal?” They asked once more.
Kevin reached out at a snail’s pace, gripping the boney hand. He froze, feeling the ice cold hand grip his own. “See, now was that so hard?” They asked, short bitter chuckle coming from them.
“W-what’s so funny?” The human asked in pure confusion, taking a step back once his hand was released. Out of the shadows stepped a smaller skeleton figure, puft of pink hair standing out on him. “You looked like you were about to faint!” He laughed.
“I-I don’t understand…” Kevin whispered, purely confused at this point. What was so funny?! He was not only terrified, but lost, confused, and worried for his life. “Who are you?” He asked.
“Hmm? Name’s Mark.” The skeleton introduced himself, “Now, what’s your name human?”
“It’s Kevin.” He answered, a yelp escaping his lips as Mark grabbed his hand once more.
Mark didn’t acknowledge it, dragging the human as he walked. “Okay, so I had this brainstorm a second ago, you’re human, monsters hunt humans.” Kevin felt his heart stop, walking along with the monster. “But since Jack and I aren’t like that, what if we pretend kidnap you and just fake killing you to Brian? You’re up for that, right kid?” He snuck a glance at him. Kevin could swear one of the eye sockets of the skeleton flashed pink for a moment, but his eyes could just be playing tricks after all.
“I-uh-okay.” The human replied, at a loss for words. Could you even say no to a monster? Honestly, he wasn’t willing to see what’d happen if he did say no to him. “What does that mean?” Kevin asked.
“That means…” Mark paused, getting ahead of himself. “Wait, I have to go talk to Jack first. You uh… Just go on ahead, I’ll get to it in a minute.” He waved Kevin to walk ahead, letting the human pass.
Kevin shrugged his shoulders back, looking at the snowy path ahead. He’d almost forgotten about how cold it was. This snow was freezing compared to his thin t-shirt. He pulled his hat down firmer against the winds as he walked on ahead. He walked a few steps, turning to check on Mark. He was met with no one standing there, leaving him all alone again.
Walking further down the path, he was stopped by several dogs. It hadn’t taken much to get them off his back, usually it took throwing a stick or two. This place was calming even. The more he was out here, the worse the cold hit him. His fingers grew numb as he trudged down the path. “M-maybe someone has-”
“HUMAN!” A loud voice shouted from ahead. He looked up, eye to eye with the skeletons. “Halt!” A skeleton with bright green hair, whom Kevin assumed was Jack, shouted. The two sure looked odd. Both skeletons seemed the same size with Mark being a bit shorter than Jack, they both sported large coats, and of course bright hair. Just looking at them made Kevin feel ten times more cold.
“Wait, Jack.” Mark spoke up, hands in both his pockets. “The human seems to not like the cold, it’d kinda be like cheating if we tried to capture him when he’s freezing.” He mumbled to the other.
Jack nodded, glancing at Mark. “Yeah.” He turned back to Kevin, “Alright! Human, take my coat! I have plenty, ya need it more!” Jack slipped off the jacket, showing a green shirt he was wearing underneath. He tossed the jacket towards Kevin.
The human raised a brow, catching it and slipping it on. He threw the book bag back on, watching a large grin spread across Mark’s face. He held up a thumbs up before slipping his hands back into his pockets.
“Hey… Hey Jack.” He spoke up, nudging the other. “You gave him your, JACKet.” He chuckled, clearly amused by the half baked pun.
Jack sighed, crossing his arms. “MARK! This is why Brian wants to kill us!” He was pretty much shouting louder than anyone here at this point. “Okay, maybe he didn’t like my jokes either.”
“Yeah, guess the dude doesn’t like dick jokes.” Mark leaned on Jack, catching his breath. Personally, Kevin wondered if he even needed to catch his breath. Maybe it was just some weird habit. “Yeah, yeah, alright. We made this trap to catch you. It’s foolproof.” Mark mumbled, straightening his back and flipped his hair back to it’s normal position.
Kevin looked ahead to the snow. Drawn in the snow was several X’s and a switch by his feet. “Just turn all the X’s into O’s and ya can pass.” Jack explained, crossing his arms.
“Okay…” The human stepped forward, realizing the X’s did… Literally nothing. This caused Jack to glare daggers at the pink haired skeleton. “Mark… Did you really just draw fuckin’ X’s in the snow?!”
“That’s not what you wanted?” Mark asked, glancing at the other. “You said make X’s.” He replied.
“Yes! X’s that actually do something ya owof!” The green haired skeleton flailed his arms. “Why would those half arsed snow drawings stop him?! At least draw better X’s! This is like when you tried to sell people fried snow! That’s water!”
“Hey, someone bought it.” Mark laughed, clearly not bothered by the yelling. “And I was the one who made five hundred coins so I don’t see why not sell it.” He replied.
Kevin watched the two argue, furrowing his brows. Was he supposed to just… Stand here? Was he to wait? I mean, did he do something wrong or what? He looked around, spotting a stick. The human picked it up, drawing a circle around all the X’s as the skeletons argued. He set the stick down once he was done, walking past them. Hopefully that was the right thing to do.
“Mark! Look! He actually solved it!” He didn’t look back, small smile gracing his lips. Dare Kevin say, he was… Having real fun?
“Wow, humans are smarter than I would have thought.” Kevin heard Mark reply, the two skeletons sharing a laugh. “Where did those two meet? They’re made for each other..” He thought to himself, walking ahead.
After a while of pacing through snow he-“Human! You’re back for more!” Standing ahead of the path were the skeletons again, leaving Kevin at a loss. They were both at the end of the wooden bridge that he needed to cross. How… How’d they get ahead of him?
“Sure, but… How’d you two-”
“Shortcut.” Mark interrupted, almost knowing what Kevin was going to say. “We know them all, don’t worry about it kid.” He flashed a grin, almost startling the boy.
“Anyways, this is our… Uh… Gauntlet of death!” Jack shouted, as if someone couldn’t hear him. “As you can see, we’ve got fire, dogs, spears, all the classic kill you stuff. But uh… Don’t mind that box-”
“That’s Tinyboxtim. He wanted to be included.” Mark shot a glance at the other before turning back to Kevin. “So… You gonna set the trap er…?” The skeleton trailed off, watching Kevin look over the trap. No way he could “solve” this.
Jack made a noise that the Kevin assumed was him clearing his throat. “Well.. I am… Uh… Setting the trap. Righhht-you know what, we cannot catch the human this way. It’s just, not… Clever enough, we don't want to be known as the guys who caught him with this half baked scheme.”
“Okay… So we don’t want to known as the guys who used a realistic idea?” Mark asked, watching the trap put itself away.
“No! But this isn’t our best work Mark! Of all skeletons you should know that!” The green haired skeleton crossed his arms, turning around and pacing away. “I’ll be making a REAL trap if you excuse me. You can sit here with your miniature box!”
Mark shrugged, watching Kevin walk across the bridge carefully. Once across he turned his attention towards the skeleton. “How… How do you two know each other? You practically argue all the time.” Kevin spoke up, instantly realizing how rude that came out.
“Oh, don’t worry about it kid. I’ve just known him all my life really, He’s cool when we’re not catching humans… Catch him on a different day and you’d love the guy.” Mark replied, not looking away from the bridge.
“I… Okay. But, uh, are you going to catch up with him or?...”
The skeleton nodded, starting to walk ahead. “Yeah, come on kiddo, you don’t want to be caught behind again do you? You look like you saw a ghost when Jack and I beat you.” He chuckled.
Kevin quickly ran after the other, trying to catch up. When the cave ahead grew dark, he… Lost him, again. “How does he do that?” Kevin whispered, looking at the ice ahead. The human stepped a foot on the ice, sliding ahead to the end of it quickly. He yelped, falling onto his knees into the snow once he got off the ice.
“Human! This time, we’ve got an even greater way to catch you!” Jack shouted from the other end of a tile lit up floor. Next to him was a bright blue box with red details on it. “This puzzle was made by Hanson himself! You’ll love it!” He shouted pushing a few buttons.
The raven haired male watched the floor light up with plenty different colors. Jack babbled on about what each did but he couldn’t even process what was happening at this point. Suddenly the tiles stopped flashing, the hole floor red with pink tiles on both ends. Mark looked up at Jack, watching him just walk away. “Is he-”
“He’ll be fine.” The skeleton chuckled, glancing at the box. “Don’t worry… But uh… If we have to… Fake fight you, can you… Just avoid the attacks. I’ll go easy on ya kid.” The right eye socket flashed pink once more before he exited the room.
Kevin shrugged his shoulders, walking ahead to be met with a town at the end of the cave. He looked around, spotting monsters shuffle around happily. He first walked into a small store, noticing a purple haired rabbit girl look up from her desk. She flashed a smile, “Oh, a human. Not many come around much anymore.” She whispered, “Wanna buy something?”
He nodded, pulling the assortment of coins that dogs left behind when they bailed on attacking him. He’s actually gotten quite a lot down here. He pointed to the plate of cinnamon buns on the counter, sliding coins onto for three towards her. “Nice choice darlin’, those are homemade.” She grinned, letting him take three.
The human waved to her, storing them in a pocket of the bag. He wasn’t too hungry at the moment. He walked on ahead, making occasional conversation. He spotted a house further away from a place known as Grillby’s. He shrugged it off and walked further into the cold. With this jacket it was much easier to get through the weather of this place. The further he went, the more fog rolled into the place. “Human!” A familiar voice shouted from the other end of the path out of this town. Another figure could be scene next to him, hands in his pockets.
“You’ve come far, but, we must catch you. Brian won’t be as lenient as we are. This is your last chance, Kevin, either be captured or fight us!” Jack crossed his arms, glancing towards Mark.
Kevin sighed, he wasn’t fighting but he hasn’t come this far to be captured for some “Brian” to catch him now. He stepped forward, standing proud. “Uh… Jack, Mark, can you let me pass, please?” Kevin asked, not moving.
Mark shrugged, “Well shit, he want’s to fight I guess.” He whispered to Jack, one eye flashing pink. “Guess we’ll have to ‘attack’ him.”
Jack nodded with one eye a bright green. “Kevin! Prepare for your shit to be wrecked!” He yelled, nuding Mark.
The “fight” was nothing special. Of course the skeletons weren’t trying to kill Kevin, that’d be completely insane. It mostly consisted of Jack or Mark faking attacks while Kevin grew more confused. Finally, Mark pretended to fall forwards, faking some sort of death. “Oh no, Jack, he’s good. I don’t know if he can be beat.” He mumbled from the ground.
“Well, tiny human, you have taken down Mark.” Jack glanced at his friend on the floor, shrugging softly at him. “I will let you pass for now, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come back… Just in case, take our phone numbers, we will answer anytime” He hinted, moving aside and letting the human walk forward.
Kevin smiled gently at him, letting the skeleton add two contacts to the phone before he walked past. He walked slowly into a cave area, checking the cellular device once more. He fingers slid over the one that said Barry… He clicked call-nobody picked up.