Chapter Text
It was a beautiful day. The sun was setting, and the sky was painted pretty orange hues.
Michael had just finished his shift at the daycare, and he was heading home.
He double-checked that his mask was secured in place, deeming that it was good enough.
In hindsight, he probably should've fixed it to his head better.
A woman bumped into him, knocking off his mask. He scrambled to put it back on, but…
"Oh, I'm so sor-"
The woman looked at Michael's face dead on, and screamed. Michael started to run, picking up his mask and fleeing into the nearby forest as pandemonium struck. Multiple people were running after him, and it was just his luck that there happened to be police there, huh?
Shit shit shit shit shit!
A loud BANG went off as one of the officers took a shot. It hit Michael in the shoulder, and he winced, resisting all of the instincts he had formed growing up that were telling him to hide, to curl up, to say sorry over and over and over.
They reached a cliff edge overlooking the sea and Oh shit… I'm cornered.
Michael backed up as much as he could, now facing the police officers. He held up his hands in what he hoped was a non-threatening way, and the police edged closer. Michael tried to think of something to say other than incomprehensible apologies, and failed miserably. One of the men chasing him looked at a woman, saying something.
The woman pulled out a gun.
She took a shot, hitting Michael's shin. Michael screamed.
She took another shot, hitting Michael's shin again. She shot a third time, breaking his leg with sheer force.
Michael stumbled, loosing his balance.
And he fell
Into
The water.
____________________
People didn't fall very often. After a while, humans learned to stay away. They still fell from time to time, but that was Jeremy's job. He routinely scanned the bay for drowning people, even jumpers. He carried them back to shore, keeping his identity a secret all the while.
Usually, he got to them pretty quickly, so it was pretty surprising when he found one that was already rotting.
This human's body had already washed onto shore, a white bear mask lying not too far. Jeremy swam up to the corpse, inspecting it. It was purple, which was weird, because he'd never seen humans turn that color. Jeremy poked it.
He looked at it's eyes. Or, more specifically, it's eyesockets. It had glowing pink lights instead of eyes. Human technology was strange.
Jeremy stared at the body hard.
It stared back.
Jeremy screamed. "WHAT THE FUCK?!?"