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Harold needed to know. He needed to know why his friend never received her hat for so long. With the door locked he got to work.
Carefully, Harold began the summoning ritual. Whispering a few words beneath his breath, and after lighting a candle, the walls of the room he was in began to darken. A strange red light formed inside the room as a shadow slowly rose up from the floor.
Harold stared angrily at the being. “Alright, no one else is in here except for me...now tell me, who are you, and why the hell did you keep Rylie’s hat away from her?”
“Harold?” a voice spoke from behind.
Harold recognized that voice. “Hobo?” He turned his head towards the door.
Hobo stepped into the room, a nervous grin on his face. “Hey buddy!...What’s up?”
Harold just stared. His mind raced a mile a minute as he tried to figure out what was going on. “I...wait, I was trying to summon the dark overlord, why the hell are you here?!”
Hobo gave him a shrug. “I dunno, dude. I just got here.”
Harold scratched his head as Hobo moved back towards the door.
“I was gonna go and find something to eat and wanted to know if you wanna come along?” Hobo called out as he was at the doorway.
Harold wondered if perhaps he had somehow messed up the ritual. He looked to the candle, then back over to Hobo.
“Why did you appear?” Harold grumbled to himself.
Hobo paused, looking over his shoulder to look at Harold. He raised a brow. “Huh? Did’ja say something, dude?”
Harold stood up, looking over to Hobo.
“I was trying to summon the dark overlord, why did you appear instead?” Harold was glaring at Hobo now.
Hobo gave another quick shrug. “I dunno dude, I was just walking over here. Maybe the ritual didn’t work?” he was starting to feel a little uneasy.
Harold shook his head. “No! I did this ritual exactly! There shouldn’t have been any issues whatsoever!”
Hobo held up his hands in defense. “Whoa, calm down!”
Harold thought and thought before it finally clicked for him. Hobo always appeared when the dark overlord was being summoned.
Another thought came to him. He had locked the door. Why was it unlocked now?
Harold looked over to Hobo, eyes widening as something peculiar dawned on him
Hobo stared back, feeling a lump in his throat as he gave Harold a confused stare.
“It’s...I-it’s you! You’re the dark overlord! Aren’t you?” Harold shouted.
Hobo stared a second longer before booking it out of the room, running as fast as his legs could carry him.
“Get back here!” Harold yelled, making a run after Hobo.
Hobo rushed past hospital staff, quickly turning corners and trying his best not to look over his shoulder. He feared what he might see.
As Hobo made it outside, he looked around, wondering which way to go. He felt a pull at his scarf- Harold had grabbed it and was trying to hold him back! Crap. Thankfully, two little lemon kids fell out of Harold’s hat and onto his hands, breaking his grip on the scarf.
While Harold was distracted with the lemon kids, Hobo made his great escape. In a blink of an eye, he was gone. Harold turned to the lemon kids, glaring.
“Hey! Get back in the hat!”
Harold reached to pick up the lemon kids and stopped. He turned his head, realizing that Hobo had escaped.
Harold glanced left and right, wondering if he could be able to catch a simple glance of him in either direction.
No sign of him anywhere.
Hobo hunched over, hands on his knees in the forest as he tried to catch his breath.
“Oh, I’m certainly not as agile as I was long ago.” he heaved out.
The wind whistling through the branches helped calm his nerves.
Once he caught his breath, Hobo stood straight up. His back cracked as he rose. Just as he feared; he was getting old.
Hobo leaned himself against a tree. Taking a quick look around, he figured that he was in a forest of some sort. No matter, he could navigate it.
How hard could it be?
Very hard. By the time he finally made it out of there, leaves and branches were stuck in his hair, scratches on the areas where his ratty clothes had torn.
Even though he stood there, miserable and hungry, one thought was stuck in his head; Did Harold know who he was?
While Hobo desperately wanted to know, he also had the mind to slow down and think about what he needed to do. Avoid Harold. That was easy enough. All Hobo had to do was hide out for a few days, a week or so at most. He’d been out on the streets for a long time, so he knew what he was doing.
At least he hoped he knew.
The more he walked, the further his mind raced. Would he have to leave Gloomverse? No he couldn’t, not when his boys were within arms reach. Even if he couldn’t tell them who he was, he wanted to be there for them.
Petunia would know what to do. She always did.
Hobo’s expression softened, a warm smile spread across his face.
Oh Petunia. If she saw him in this state, all scratched up and filthy, she’d be pretty mad. Pretty. That word lingered on Hobo’s tongue for the longest time as he continued going down memory lane.
He shook his head, getting him out of that daydream. Hobo knew he had to go back.
Harold was pacing back and forth in the hospital room, unsure of whether he should waste time in looking for Hobo. He paused as there was a knock at the door. Turning, he saw a sheepish Hobo peering into the room.
“Hey-” Hobo was stopped at Harold glaring and yelling loudly “You!”
‘Not this again’ Hobo thought as he made a quick plan of escape just in case. He cleared his throat and entered the room.
“Dude, I’m not this...dark overlord dude you keep talking about. I just came in here cause the candle smelled good. Could smell it from across the long hallways.”
Harold opened his mouth to speak, then paused. This was Hobo he was talking to. “Well, what about opening the locked door?”
Hobo smiled nervously. “Sometimes...things happen when you get hungry that no one can explain. If you locked the door, then it wasn’t locked good enough if I could open it.”
‘Almost in the clear.’ Hobo smiled and walked over to Harold, placing an arm around him.
“I’m sure you’ll meet this dark overlord one day. Now come on, let’s go get something to eat. Nothing from this hospital though, their food kinda stinks.”
Harold let out a laugh at this. “Yeah, it’s not exactly five star quality.”
The two laughed and began idle chatter as the door closed behind them. The candle, once put out, flickered before going out once more for good.