Chapter Text
The grass rustled against the force of the boots batting against it like rain against a pavement. The soft rustling of the grass as the boots crashed against patch after patch, footstep after footstep, was drowned out by the horrific inhuman screaming that echoed through the forest.
Story stifled a sob as she ran. Stumbling as she pushed passed trees, panic rising as she ran. She was so scared, so panicked, so tired of running but the adrenaline pumping through her veins acted as a lifeline to keep her going. To keep her from stopping. She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t fall. She couldn’t die. Not here. Not now. Not after she’d come so far.
Story tumbled to her knees as she reached a clearing. The screeching had long since stopped, (how long ago? She was so focused on running she hadn’t even realised she wasn’t being followed anymore) but the adrenaline was still pumping and she could practically hear her blood thumping against her ears. Taking a breath, Story began to survey her surroundings. A forest. She was in a forest. It was almost familiar but she couldn't place where she'd seen it before. (she chalked it up to forest scenery just being familiar in general). The forest spanned farther than the eye could see and the inhuman screeching had been replaced by the soft ambience of the life in the woods. When she really thought about it, Story had no idea how she even wound up there. Taking another breath, she tried to recall what led up to this. But it all came back in short flashes, like trying to remember a dream.
Beeping.
Horrid beeping.
The fire alarm.
The fire alarm was going again.
She was crying. It was never a good thing when the fire alarm was going.
The dog.
The dog was back.
The dog was leading.
Leading her to a forest. Not this forest.
The screeching.
The tall man.
The forest.
She didn’t notice she was crying. Stifling another sob, she wiped her eyes. She’d gotten so far. She was so close to figuring out the answers but that stupid dog showed up again and ruined everything. And now she was stuck in this stupid fucking forest!
A sudden singing broke through the silence, and by extension Story’s thought process, causing her to gasp in surprise.
“How much is that doggy in the window? the one with the waggly tail-”
A male voice sang out. She recognised the song almost immediately and scrambled to her feet, terrified. She began to run off in a random direction, any direction. So long as she escaped whoever was singing.
“How much is that doggy in the window? I do hope that doggie’s for sale.”
Story was blindsided as a man appeared out from behind a tree. Seemingly, he was just as blindsided as he didn't seem to notice her until they bumped into each other. The man stumbled back in surprise, but otherwise unphased. Meanwhile, Story fell to the ground. She bit back a scream as she scrambled to try and get away.
The man grabbed her wrist, chuckling slightly. “Easy there. I ain’t gonna hurt ya,” he cooed, pulling Story into a standing position. There was a bitter sweetness in his voice, causing Story to immediately distrust him. “I’m Sean, by the way,” he said, pulling his hand back and putting it in his pocket.
Looking down at his arm, Story couldn’t help but take notice of the deep scars that littered it. She would've guessed he caused them himself if not for how.. animal they looked. As her eyes trailed up his body she noticed that he was covered in similar claw marks. Particularly the deep scar that collared his throat, it seemed to continue down his chest but Story couldn’t tell exactly as it was cut off by his shirt.
Black dog . The words sent a shiver travelling down her spine, briefly wondering if he knew more than he initially let on.
“Um- I’m Story,” she mumbled, gripping the strap of her purse. “Were you the one singing?” she asked, glancing at his shirt again. He nodded, as if singing in the middle of a forest was a perfectly normal thing to do. “Yeah, it's painfully quiet around here sometimes y'know? Helps keep things a little interesting now and again.” Story nodded, forcing herself to make eye contact with the strange man as opposed to focusing on his probably (hopefully) coincidental shirt.
“What’re you doing here anyway?” Sean asked, snapping Story out of her train of thought as he cocked his head back. “I- I don’t know,” Story blurted out, grip tightening around her purse strap. “There.. There was a dog and this weird faceless creature and I thought I was finally going to get answers but then suddenly I’m here! And I don’t even know what here is and-” she could feel herself shaking as she rambled on before Sean cut her off ,“easy, easy. I don’t need your life story alright. I’m just asking cause you don’t exactly belong here.” he said, waving his hand as if to signal for her to stop talking.
“Belong here?” Story asked, calming down. Sean looked her up and down,the corner of his mouth tugging back.
“I mean, you’re not a carrier are you?” he asked, crossing his arms. Story felt her brow furrow. She’d heard that term before. Carrier… Carrier…
Oh.
Oh.
She remembered now, it had been years since she’d seen Lee and Mo but she remembered full well about that… weird book. -Dangerous book.- Story shook her head. “I don’t think so, no. But I might know one?” she eventually answered with a shrug. Sean chuckled “Don’t we all?” he said, looking wistfully into the distance. Story decided not to question it. This guy clearly had a few screws loose.
“Uh, do you know the way out of here?” she asked after a short silence. “I need to get home. I don’t know how long I’ve been here and I think I need to feed my bird.” She was oversharing. She knew that, but the silence in this forest was deafening. Sean began to chew the inside of his cheek, looking around. “Honestly? No clue. You don’t belong here,” he repeated bluntly. Story was a little offended, even though she didn’t know why.
“You mean you don’t even know which direction leads out of here? To a road or- or-” She waved, gesturing vaguely. “-or anywhere that isn’t in this stupid forest?” Seans eyes widened at her statement, and he laughed, much to Story’s confusion. “OH! You don’t know where you are, do you?” he asked. “No,” She replied, feeling herself get frustrated, “Why do you think I’ve been asking you?”
Sean shook his head, still silently laughing. “It’s not that, I mean.” He sighed, trying to sort out what he was trying to say in his head. “We’re not exactly in your dimension,” He clarified. Story didn’t question it. Sure this guy was crazy but she knew exactly what he was saying, and weirdly enough she believed him. Why not. It made enough sense. Cryptic dogs and eldritch monsters connected to weird medicine companies? Being dragged to some weird forest pocket dimension only made sense to explain whatever was happening.
Her knees collapsed and she fell to the floor. Nothing was exactly voluntary at this point as she started sobbing. Hiding her hands in her face all while not even thinking of being self conscious of the man standing in front of her.
Sean looked back over at her and sighed, he did not know how to handle this. (sacrificing your humanity and spending like a year in purgatory does that to you I guess.) “Hey. Hey, hey..” He said, approaching Story and putting a hand on her back, he thinks he’s trying to be reassuring? “Hey- It’s gonna be ok, alright? There’s gotta be a way for you to get out of here right? We just gotta find it.” Story sniffled, wiping at her face with her hand. “I- I’m sorry I just.-” She sniffed again, stifling yet another sob -“Everything is just so much y’know?”
He didn’t. But he nodded anyway, he didn't know why.
They sat like that for a little while more, Sean doing his best to remember how to comfort someone while Story desperately tried to calm herself down. “Ok,” She wiped her face one last time, although she knew she still looked a right mess, “I think I’m good to go now.” Sean patted her on the back one last time and stood up, offering his hand to help Story up, which she graciously took. Sean wordlessly began to walk away, motioning for Story to follow. “C’mon then, no harm looking around yeah?” he said. Story sniffled again, still trying to recover from her (frankly embarrassing) outburst. She was nervous, but followed along anyway. He was right after all. If they were going to find a way out of here they might as well figure out a way out together.
“So…” Story started after about a minute of uncomfortable silence, “How did you get here anyway?” she asked, trying to form a conversation. Sean kept walking, but was visibly surprised by the question. His hand unconsciously drifted up to his neck, feeling the scar around his throat. Story took notice and immedietly began to regret asking, “Oh- sorry you don’t have to- I didn’t mean- I was just-” Story stuttered out, trying to backtrack. Sean just held his hand up again, signalling Story to shut it. “It’s ok. It’s just a bit of a long story..” he muttered. Story nodded, but noted his seeming drop in mood. “Um.. hey, you don’t happen to know anything about a black dog do you?” she asked, cautiously, not wanting to upset Sean further, but still trying to keep some form of conversation going. It was stupid sure, but so far Sean seemed to just know things. So it felt smart to ask, just to see, or something like that. Sean looked over to Story, smirking wryly as if he was trying to hide his excitement. “You listen to Led Zeppelin?” he asked in return, only serving to confuse Story. “Oh- uh.” It was at this point that Story noticed the rest of the writing on his shirt. (something she probably should have done earlier considering how often she’d been staring at it.) “Oh. no, no I don’t it’s just-” She started, but Sean interrupted her -“Ah yeah, I remember now. You did mention a black dog earlier didn’t you?” He chuckled dryly, Story could tell he was a little disappointed. “Yeah, no. No black dog’s around these parts. But there are a plethora of other monsters,” He said with a shrug. Once again stating completely wild statements as if they’re common knowledge.
“Monsters?” Story began to ask, but she was cut off by a sudden growling beginning to echo throughout the woods. Sean once again seemed unphased. “Well speak of the devil…” he muttered, grabbing Story’s hand and beginning to dash through the woods, pulling her along behind him. He was surprisingly nimble compared to Story. Clearly, he knew his way around this place. (Although Story had assumed he’d been here for a while, so she guessed that wasn’t surprising).
They ran through the trees for awhile, everything rushing so fast Story didn’t have a moment to try and compile her thoughts as she focused on trying desperately to keep up. All of a sudden Sean stopped, holding his arm out to stop Story running ahead of him. He looked uncharacteristically terrified as he stared dead ahead, and as Story followed his eyes she understood why.
It stood tall right in front of them, and the screeching which Story had unintentionally tuned out was quickly approaching from all other sides. Story still couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.
They were trapped.
She didn’t know what to do. This was the first time she had come face to face with the beast in a long time. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to go. They were going to die. No. He was going to die. Deep down, Story knew that the monster would never hurt her. But it had no reservations against the people around her. Story felt herself almost unconsciously grip Seans arm. She knew it was more out of guilt than fear. Guilt that she’d dragged yet another undeserving bystander into her mess and now he was going to die because of her. He’d been so so kind and all Story could do to repay him was get him killed.
“What…-” Sean swallowed harshly, eyes still glued to the beast in front of them-” what is that thing..” he muttered, frozen in place. “ The Ajax monster .” Story heard herself say, suddenly aware that she wasn’t fully in control of her own actions. She couldn’t stop herself when she began walking towards the creature, beginning to lose grip on Sean's arm. She was in a trance. “What the fuck are you doing?” Sean hissed out. Grabbing Story’s arm to try and stop her. But Story didn’t reply and just kept approaching the beast.
The monster loomed over them both, seemingly mirroring Story’s actions as it began to approach her. Sean kept glancing behind them as he uselessly tried to pull Story back. He was all too aware of the inhuman chorus of screeches that continued to rapidly approach from the surrounding forest. He tried(and failed) to get Story’s attention again as he watched her reach for the monster, who once more mirrored her actions. They reached out for each other, and just as their hands met-
They were out of the woods.
Quite literally in fact. Story lowered her arm, whatever strange trance that had overcome her had disappeared as she was back in control of her own actions. Looking around she found that the Ajax monster had transported her to some parking lot in the middle of nowhere. (better than the woods at least. She was back in her world.) She could hear coughing behind her, but it took a moment to process who it belonged to.
She turned around and ran to Sean, who was curled over on the ground, gripping at his shirt as he continued trying to hack out his lungs. Story crouched down, not knowing what to do other than place a reassuring hand on his back just like he had done to her earlier. She was worried, but more so relieved that the monster hadn’t killed him. She couldn’t handle another death on her conscience. After Sean had regained some of his composure he slowly turned to face her.
“Story-” he choked out, still recovering from the coughing fit -“What the fuck did you do?”