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They were moving, Aimsey realized, as they blinked open their eyes. As sleep lets go of its hold on them and they regain full consciousness, confusion starts to set in. What is this place? Where are they?
They’re in some sort of… room, they realize, and it’s really dark and hard to see, but how did they get here? Sitting up, they realize they have an axe in their inventory, and there’s blood on their hands.
Suddenly, the memories of just before they’d passed out came flooding back, hitting them like a train. The darkness. The buttons. The dog. Guqqie. Swinging axes. Blood, cracking skulls. That stupid voice and the eye.
“No,” Aimsey whispers to themself, staring down at their bloodstained hands. “Please.”
Suddenly, there's a creaking sound, followed by a beam of light entering the room as a door opens. Aimsey hides in the corner, holding their breath, watching as some white figures attempt to wrestle another person into the room, shoving them as they try to fight back. The person falls to the ground, but immediately springs up and attempts to escape once more as the door slams shut in their face. The beam of light disappears, shrouding the room in darkness once more.
“Fuck! Let me out! Let me fucking go!” A snarl, raspy and angered, echoes, followed by a pounding sound. Aimsey jumps, startled. A few more moments pass by before the person stops banging on the door.
“Fuuuck~” The stranger drawls miserably, going quiet.
“H-hello?” Aimsey calls out, lifting their head, voice quivering. The darkness of the room is making them nervous. They hate the dark. “Is there someone there?”
There’s a small gasp.
“Yeah, just, uh- just hold on.” It’s the same British voice that was yelling just a few seconds ago, now quieter. There’s some shuffling, and the sound of a match, and a yellow glow fills the room. Aimsey shifts her gaze to look at the source of it, and their brown eyes meet another pair of blue-green eyes.
The eyes belong to another person, a guy maybe a few years younger than Aimsey. He’s holding out a torch, which provides a little light, and Aimsey squints to get a better look at him. He looks slightly disheveled, with messy brown hair that’s dyed blonde at the ends. His shirt is torn and dirty, and there are scars covering most of his face. He looks a little bit familiar, and Aimsey thinks they might have seen him before, but doesn’t remember.
“Who- who are you?” They quiver.
“I don’t even really know that,” the person answers. He chuckles sadly, voice hoarse.
Aimsey doesn’t know what to think of his response. “Ok, well can- can you at least tell me your name?”
“Tubbo,” Tubbo responds, shuffling a little closer to them. The name definitely sounds familiar. “You?”
“Aimsey.” Aimsey replies. “Do you know where we are?”
Tubbo is quiet for a moment. “I think we’re on a train or boat of some sort, and I know we’re going to purgatory,” he says finally. “Were you also taken by the purgatory workers?”
“Do you mean, like, kidnapped?” Aimsey asks him, shocked.
“Yeah, I guess you could call it that,” Tubbo says, tilting his head in confusion. “You weren’t?”
“No! I was just exploring when I found this underground room, and there were a bunch of buttons and a voice and I had to kill a dog and then a fucking person and then- and then I passed out and now I’m here.”
They have to take a few deep breaths, to keep from panicking.
Tubbo sits down next to them and pulls something out of his inventory to offer it to them. It looks like a slice of bread with some sort of topping on it.
“Here. Eat. Avocado toast,” he tells them. Aimsey takes it slowly and cautiously bites into it. It’s not the best thing they’d ever eaten, but it’s still food.
“Thanks,” they say, and after a moment ask, “What are purgatory workers?”
“I don’t really know who they are and what they want,” Tubbo says, “But they were at the egg island when the first purgatory happened. And then they somehow managed to get to Quesadilla island to try and kill everyone, and then they took me here.”
First purgatory? Quesadilla island?
Tubbo must have noticed the confusion etched onto Aimsey face, because he speaks up again.
“Oh, right. You don’t- you don’t know about that. Sorry. It’s- uh- it’s a really long story.” His voice cracks on the last part.
I don’t want to tell it, is what goes unspoken. Aimsey nods. He must have experience with this.
“What’s going to happen to us?” They ask him.
Tubbo looks up again, gaze focused on any place but their eyes. Aimsey notices that his own eyes have dark circles around them. He looks like he hasn’t slept in weeks. It’s a moment before he answers.
“Purgatory. We’re going to have to kill people and die. A lot of fucking times.”
“Oh,” Aimsey says. Then panic sets in. “Oh. Fuck. Oh. Are you- are you sure there’s no way out? There has to be something, right?”
Tubbo just rests his head on his knees.
“The room is reinforced,” he says miserably. Any fight he might have had in him is gone, now. “You kinda just get used to it, after a bit.”
“Get used to what? Killing people and dying? How the fuck do you expect me to just get used to that?” Aimsey cries, voice raising in panic. They push themselves up off the ground and start frantically looking for an exit, something, anything. They slam their axe into the wall a couple of times, but it does nothing.
Tubbo just watched them the entire time, saying nothing, not making any move to stop them. Finally, Aimsey ran out of strength, giving up and slowly releasing their grip on the ax handle. They pant, struggling to catch their breath, as the axe falls to the ground, making a loud clanging noise. They could briefly see Tubbo flinch at the noise for a quick second behind them. They turn to face the other.
“How long is this going to last?” They ask sharply.
“Uh- The first purgatory lasted 2 weeks, but I’m pretty sure this one is only going to be 5 days.”
5 days, okay. That wasn’t that bad, right? Aimsey had so many questions, and Tubbo seemed to know a lot. They could just… force him to give them the answers if they really wanted. But, looking at him, they could see how absolutely hopeless he looked. Aimsey decided to stick to their morals. They took a sharp breath.
“Am I going to have to kill you?”
Tubbo stared at the wall, fidgeting with his hands.
“Probably, if we’re put on separate teams.” He stated.
“Ok,” Aimsey said. “Well, I won’t.”
Tubbo turned his head and looked at them, confused.
“I won’t kill you,” They repeated, “I don’t fucking care if I have to or not.” There was some silence for a moment as they both thought.
“But,” Aimsey continued after a minute, “I need you to promise to do the same.”
Tubbo looked at them apologetically. “I don’t- I don’t know, I’m sorry. I don’t think I really have a choice in that, King, I barely even know you.”
“Please,” Aimsey pleaded.
Tubbo sighed. “Fine. But I don’t understand why you care so much about that.”
Aimsey didn’t either. They just held out their hand for Tubbo to shake, and he did after a moment of consideration.
“We’ll stick together, ok?” They asked.
There was a glimmer of something akin to hope visible in Tubbo’s eyes, just for a second, but still there nonetheless. Aimsey had only just met him, but they felt like they’d known him all their life.
“Ok,” Tubbo breathed.
A few minutes later, the room they were in started to fill with a strange gas, that made Aimsey feel woozy and lightheaded. As they started to pass out once more, they looked at Tubbo again, repeating the promise they made in their head.
I won’t kill you, they thought, closing their eyes, I won’t.