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Chapter Text

Everything was dark. No spark of sunlight dropped against my skin as I was staring at my own dead body. I couldn't even see a hint of light in the eyes- which now didn't even look like eyes. Someone bludgeoned them into a bloody pulp, which is even more grotesque if you see it face to face.

How did I even end up in this situation? I was peacefully walking back home from buying groceries, listening to music from my headphones. Trying to take a shortcut through the woods really was an idiotic move coming from my part. I was just scared of my parents waiting too long for me, since today was important... I don’t even remember what today was…was it my birthday? Was it a holiday? Was it my parents’ wedding anniversary? Did I even have parents? Who even was I… What was my name… The only thing I remember was that I was trying to go home through the woods…Was I even trying to go back home...What is home...Why would anyone do that to another living being…Why…me?

Within the empty abyss, I stood, finding solace only in my own lifeless form. Was this limbo? Does this happen once you die? I couldn't help but fall to my knees and lament.

"Human youth, such a weak and fragile soul, taken bef're their timeth.  Truly, what a pity"* I heard a very deep voice say on the other side of the void. My teary eyes looked up to find the source of the voice. The creature in front of me was a giant eldritch demon, taking the form of a knight in silver armour surrounded by an aureole of black lightning. I couldn't help but become as still as stone, not even crying anymore, for the fear this creature created for me.

"Who are you...?" I stammered softly. Who wouldn't become quiet at a creature quadruple their size? If the creature wanted to, it could hold me in its palm - at least if it had one.

"I am nezp'rdian hivemind of chaos.  Sayeth mine own nameth and thee might bringeth the endeth to the entire univ'rse" It opened its mouth to create a smile, only to see red flames beyond the shadow of its body. I could feel the shiver down my spine and my stomach turning upside down. This truly was a terrifying sight to see.

"What happened to me..." I stuttered once more. The creature gave me a demonic laugh.

"Thy timeth ranneth. Thee did get murd'r'd by one of thy owneth kind, truly what a tragedy." I remained silent. Why did my life have to be so short? I began crying more, which seemed to only feed this demon more with my agony.

"...But, we couldst maketh a dealeth to earneth thy life backeth"

My eyes widened. I could...earn my life back...but how? I shouldn't trust this entity, but at this point I'm desperate. "What kind of deal? Actually you know, scratch that...I'll help you with anything as long as you help me!" I shouted, my voice echoing throughout the empty darkness.

"V'ry well.  Has't thee hath heard of the myth of "Slenderman" as most humans wouldst calleth it?"

Slenderman...that name seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on where I heard of it before. I shook my head no.

"Oh, thee poor thing." The entity chuckled. I looked at it confused. Who was this Slenderman?

I couldn't understand what this creature was talking about, especially for it speaking in old English. "How could I possibly help you with this 'Slenderman'?"

"Int'rvene in its followeth'rs' liveth.  I'll sendeth thee in the past to maketh those folk avoideth becoming victims to It." I nodded my head in understanding, just becoming desperate to return back to my old life...if it was even nice...Oh, who am I kidding? Anything is nicer than living in the void of your own consciousness...all alone.

"Valorous choice, child of man.  Thee has't quite the stout soul, so I'm sure thee can stand ho these children of men from becoming monst'rs" The demon said. "From anon on, thy nameth shalt beest (Y/N), as to representeth thy courageousness.  Ch'rish it with loveth and careth, as it's the only thing thee has't."

(Y/N)...That's a very strange name. Oh well, I'll do anything just for one bit of living again.

"Do we has't a dealeth?" It asked. This was really risky. I mean...a deal with a demon...OH WHO CARES ANYMORE, I'M GOING IN!

"Yes."

With that said, a red glow started emanating from my body, and I screamed in pain. It felt worse than someone ripping your organs from your body.

"Valorous luck, child of man"

raen saw dne ehT

Chapter Text

"Big bro/sis/sib! Wake up! Wake up!" My mind couldn't comprehend what was happening at the moment....I was too sleepy...But this annoying high-pitched voice kept chanting in my ear to wake up.

"Five more minutes..." I murmured, hugging tightly on what felt like a polyester pillow.

"But (Y/N)! It's an important week, did you forget? Did you forget?!" My sleep was then disturbed by a heavyweight hopping on my bed. As I opened my eyes, I saw a close-up of a child's face, with small yet innocent (e/c) eyes looking down at me. I shrieked for a split second, which startled the child a bit, so much so that his little plastic astronaut helmet fell off before he began laughing.

"Billy! What did I tell you about disturbing your older brother/sister/sibling while they were asleep?!" I heard a low and tired feminine voice say as "Billy" began looking at the door, for the other intruder. An older woman, well into her 40s, entered, as she was picking up clothes from the floor. "My god, (Y/N)...stop being such a slob, you're almost nineteen, finishing high school this year..." The woman huffed but smiled sweetly at me.

Wait a minute...This must be the past that the entity was talking about... So this means, that this must be my family...well at least in this timeline. I need to stop something from happening, but I don't know what...I should try to play along, I guess...

"Sorry, mom...I'll try cleaning after I get ready..." I groaned, getting up, and scratching my head. Then, I looked at the little boy, who I assumed was Billy, who was currently sitting next to me on my bed. He must be my younger brother... "What's so important that you must wake me up from my sleep, you little starman?" I said, giving him a dopey smirk.

"You forgot?! My eighth birthday is in a few days! I'm so excited!" He giggled, picking back his helmet and jumping off my bed, running to "mom" and hugging her by her torso.

"Honey, (Y/N) didn't forget your birthday, they're just really sleepy. Do you remember when they thought their name was Falco after playing with you that one game on your consoles? Well, that's what's happening to them again. They'll be back on their feet in less than an hour!" The woman chortled, as Billy nodded.

"Yeah! I still remember you got angry at us for playing the Subspace Emissary late at night! (Y/N) was saying that because they kept playing as Falco in Brawl!" Billy laughed.

"I'm waiting for you two to come downstairs in a few minutes. (Y/N), sweetie, make sure to clean your room before you come. You're old enough to understand that I'm not getting any younger!" The woman joked as Billy swarmed past her, his arms extended as if they were aeroplane wings and running around the halls.

"Yes, momma!" I smiled at her as she left an empty basket in my room, most likely for me to pick up all the clothes from the floor. Feeling slight pity for the woman, I decided to clean my room. Picking up the clothes wasn't exactly something I was dreaming of doing, but I knew I couldn't disobey my "mother", even if she was my mother until I finished this mission and got my life back.

The room was littered with various things, from band clothing like "Pierce the Veil", to even electronics. My eyes immediately fell on a small Samsung phone. I tried turning it on, but it seemed as if the battery ran low. Shoot, I need to find a charger.

I kept scavenging through my room, looking through the drawers, through everything for a sign of a phone charger. In the end, I found a black charger in the last drawer next to my bed, and I plugged the charger into the phone. The phone immediately gave a signal of life as I saw the logo. As the phone turned on, I was met with the wallpaper of L from Death Note, surrounded by pixelated roses. But that wasn't what piqued my interest: The date on the phone was: Sunday, 2nd September 2012.

From what I remember when I died, the year was 202x, well over 10 years after 2012. The demon really was right when it said that I'd be going through time!

I decided to look more through my phone, just for clues about this life. Deciding to first open the browser app and look through the tabs. There was a tab with a website called Tumblr, I looked through my account. My page was filled with strange edgy entries. I had the username "Grinny_Cat94", and almost all the entries were just Homestuck fanart and Hetalia fanfiction.

Yeah...I'm not getting too much info from this...I should check maybe an app...like Facebook. Opening Facebook felt weird. I don't even remember if I had an account on that platform before I died, but after all, this was 2012. Of course, people used old-fashioned apps.

Friend requests popped up as I opened the app, but I tried to ignore them, just trying to look through my profile.

The information that I collected informed me that I was born on (date)/(month)/1994 in a suburban town called Springvale, located in Timestone County, New York, where I still live at the present moment.

My detective session was short-lived as Billy entered my room once more, all giddy with joy. "(Y/N)! Whatcha doing? Oooooo are you playing angry birds? Can I see???" He tried looking over my shoulder, but I put my palm on the clear plastic of the helmet in a teasing motion. "Aah! I can't see!"

I laughed a little as I closed the phone so he wouldn't be so invasive. "Didn't mom teach you to not be so nosy?" The boy giggled at me as he hopped on my bed once more, this time standing tall on his feet.

"Maybe...but c'mon what are you hiding?! Is it a crush?" He kept giggling as I pushed him onto the bed, causing him to fall on his back screaming "I surrender!"

"Yeah, it's my one and only crush, Ludwig the Bloodsucker*!" I joked. "Hey, since you're here, wanna help me clean my room, I'll sneak for you more than 3 Oreos tonight," I said, finding an opportunity to get help at doing my chores better and faster. The mention of Oreos seemed to have excited him, as he nodded. "Alright, so, The clothes go into the mint-coloured basket, while everything else goes on my bed. Capiche*?

"Aye, aye, captain!" The boy smiled, showing that his two front teeth were missing when he smiled. We spent a few minutes just cleaning up, with the TV booted up in the background, with cartoons like "Adventure Time" playing in the background. In the end, I let Billy watch TV while I was cleaning, since after all, he was just a kid.

"Kids, breakfast is ready!" I heard mom yell. I looked at Billy, as he took my hand and smiled sweetly at me. "Wanna race?" I joked. Without warning, the boy began running down the stairs, still holding my hand.

As we got to the kitchen,  Billy began jumping up and down. "Yay! We both won!". I was breathing heavily from the initial startle and from running this fast. "We indeed did, little rascal!" I gently pulled his ear teasingly, as a parent would to their kid when they're being bratty.

"Who's ready for mac n cheese?" Mom asked, and Billy immediately ran to the table in excitement.

"I love mac n cheese! Thank you, momma!" The little boy laughed, stuffing his face with the little creamy cheddar-filled macaroni. As Billy, I began eating the mac n cheese, but not as if this was my last meal. I ate quickly, but not overeating every bite.

"Liu put the box down!"

Both me and Billy turned our heads towards the noise. It was coming from the house that was on the opposite of our street, meaning we could see them through the window.

"Mom, what's going on?" I ask. Mom herself didn't know what was going on, so she looked through the window too.

"Oh! There are new neighbours? We need to get ready! Kids, go pick your outfits, we're going on a visit for a few hours!" Mom ran upstairs to get ready, leaving me and Billy alone.

"Awh...I hope the new neighbours aren't boring...and I hope they don't have mean kids!" Billy sighed. I nodded and patted his back. As I was still eating my mac n cheese, Billy found a letter on the counter. His eyes sparkled.

"(Y/N), look! Pa wrote something for me!" Billy laughed as he brought the letter to the table for me to read. "'From Robert Crowley to Bill Crowley; Open when it's your birthday, champ'. I wonder what's inside..."

"He's coming back from Washington I just know it! He's coming for my birthday! I wonder what kind of goodies he will bring back! Oh, oh! Maybe a trip to the Bahamas! Or maybe he'll be coming back to mom! She's been really sad since he left...But I'm sure he's just busy with work!" He smiled and began swinging around.

Before I could open the letter, I heard mom calling for us. I couldn't just let her know I had this letter, so I put it in my pyjamas' pocket, hoping she wouldn't see it. Might as well put it in a backpack just so mom can't find it.

After getting dressed up, both I and Billy ran downstairs. "There you are!... Billy, please take your astronaut helmet off, we don't want our new neighbours to judge us." Mom said. I could see Billy getting saddened at that. As mom got outside, I put a hand on Billy's shoulder and put his helmet back on. "Don't let people judge you for who you are, little starman!"

Billy smiled melancholically, tucking the helmet so it would fit comfortably around his head. "Thank you, big bro/sis/sib!"

"No problem."

As the next-door neighbours were unpacking, I saw mom introducing herself to the neighbour. "My name is Barbara! Pleasure meeting you mrs..." "Woods! Margaret Woods!" I heard a new woman's voice chime over my mother's. The woman was gorgeous, with brown curls and soft red lips. She seemed to have spotted us, as mom began saying. "Kids, come here!"

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Woods!" I said, remembering the name she used when introducing herself to mom. "Why, how polite you are! You look around my little Jeffrey's age!... Well, not so little anymore, he'll need to go to college soon, just like his brother, Liu!" The woman chortled.

I laughed along, just trying to make a good impression. The woman smiled at me "I know you and my sons would get along, they're both two very polite and well-mannered young men! My little Jeffrey does need a little push in the right direction though, but he means no harm! And knowing that he'll be neighbours with someone as polite as you, he'll most likely stop being so rebellious."

I call bullshit on that...but whatever. I just continued smiling. "Oh, and this is Billy!" My mother said, presenting my little brother, who held the helmet behind his back.

"Aww, what a sweetheart! You truly are blessed with two beautiful children! I should bring my sons too! Jeffrey, Liu!" The woman called. Two boys appeared, pushing each other to the door. "Boys! Behave!"

"Sorry mom..." The taller one, with green eyes and brown hair, stuttered. He was wearing a blue shirt, with "Jenkins College" written on it. He had quite soft features, making his face look more feminine and friendlier than who I assume is his brother, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey was wearing a normal white hoodie, with shaggy brown hair, and blue eyes. His features were a little sharper, but you could still see who was the older brother out of these two.

"Billy, why don't you go back home? You'll probably get bored talking with us." Mom said, telling Billy to go back home, probably scared that he'd embarrass her for merely acting like a kid. I honestly felt bad.

"Can (Y/N) come too?" He asked, to which Mom shook her head. Billy seemed disappointed but nodded in sadness and began walking back home.

I honestly felt really bad for Billy.

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With Billy
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The young boy felt downcast. Almost nobody around his age liked him. He was deemed "weird" for merely talking about his love for space and aliens. While kicking rocks, the young boy went down the street back to his house, looking back to see his sibling looking at him with a saddened expression. They were the only one who was nice to him. Yes, they did bicker sometimes, but they were the only one who would listen to his rants, and who would comfort him when sad. Someone he viewed as a hero.

Walking back through the front door, he walked to his backyard to play with his little figurines. As he was playing, he heard rattling through the hedges. It wasn't something unusual, as racoons would usually sneak through the hedges from the forest, as the back of the house was just the vast forest. Billy payed no attention until he saw a figure peak through a gap of the hedge. It was a man!

Billy couldn't help but remain in awe at this man. He was as tall as the garden hedges, and wore a white mask...at least that's what Billy believed. The man appeared faceless, dressed as the perfect groom, his attire complimented by a black tie.

"Wanna play with me, I'm lonely!" Billy smiled at the stranger. He didn't know that a great storm was gonna come.

Chapter Text

"Please excuse our house's lack of furniture!" Mr Woods joked as me and my mother entered the house. The interior was awfully similar to my house, just that the rooms were mirrored and unfurnished, which is honestly not a surprise as they just moved in recently.

"Oh, Peter, you know we need just a few weeks and this house will be fantastic! Right, honey?" Mrs Woods asked Jeffrey, to which he scoffed and nodded, not interested in anything.

"If I may be rude and ask, why did you two decide to move when your two sons are already adults?" My mom asked Mr and Mrs Woods. They both began chuckling and gave us a sweet smile.

"Well, Liu is going to college here in New York, and we didn't want a long-distance relationship with him, since Skype isn't always the best solution. We were also planning on living in a peaceful neighbourhood, as the neighbourhood we used to live in back in Michigan was quite noisy, and Margaret's friend from high school who lives in this town told her that this neighbourhood has the most friendly neighbours around, and by the looks of it, she was right!" Mr Woods chuckled.

My mom giggled too, seeming to enjoy this conversation. Jeffrey looked bored out of his mind, while Liu was sitting there listening to the conversation with a smile. Mrs Woods seemed to have noticed her son's boredom, as she said: "Jeff, honey, why don't you go outside with Ms. Crowley's son/daughter/child? They are a very polite young man/woman/person, and they could show you around the neighbourhood!"

My eyes widened. She didn't even ask me if I wanted to, but it was trivial for an adult to make someone younger than them to do something so that they wouldn't have to deal with the "pesky youngins". Knowing that I might appear as rude if I said no, I nodded my head, which seemed to have relieved my mom. Jeffrey rolled his eyes and walked up to me, jerking his head towards the direction of the door, signalling me to come with him. I got up and started walking ahead of him towards the door.

As the door closed, Jeffrey let out a long groan, as if tired already. "You tired already? We just got out the door." I said not much enthusiasm in my voice.

"Psht. Nah, it's just that my ma keeps annoying me with the whole 'Jeffrey go make friends', 'Jeffrey do this', 'Jeffrey do that', blegh." He looked me up and down and snorted "You look like such a poser, I bet you can't even name 3 Evanescence songs that aren't on the top charts."

Ok, now I was getting annoyed by this guy. "Haha, very funny indeed. You are the king of comedy, Jeffrey." with that said, I started walking down the road back to my house, leaving him on the porch of his house. I should check up on Billy.

As I got inside my house, I was hearing childish giggles coming from upstairs. Curious, I climbed the stairs to see what was happening. It was coming from behind a badly painted rainbow door. Opening it, I was met with the sight of Billy lying on his stomach and kicking his feet back and forth. The room looked quite colourful, as there were a lot of drawings on the walls, and even some gaming consoles on the floor.

"Hi, starman!" I greeted Billy. His mouth wasn't visible from the astronaut helmet, but his eyes clearly sparkled as he saw me. "Hi, big bro/sis/sib!"

"Whatcha doing there?" I asked, looking at the walls, all of the drawings had different themes, from cowboys, astronauts, and dinosaurs to even clowns! Very colourful clowns with cone noses. It really was heartwarming to see those drawings, since they were so creative.

"I'm drawing Laughing Jack and my new friend fighting dinosaurs!" The young boy giggled. My smile faltered slightly. Laughing Jack...? I looked closer at the drawing and saw the same colourful clown from the drawing on the walls, and a tall gentleman figure, whose face wasn't finished yet, fighting a dinosaur with colourful feathers. They must be imaginary friends.

"Can you tell me more about these friends of yours?" I asked, sitting next to the boy. Billy seemed very happy at the moment.

"You remember Laughing Jack, right? He always brings us candies, like that one time when momma grounded you, and he brought you a paleta payaso* so you would feel better!" The boy giggled. I honestly had no clue about any of this, but I pretended to remember.

"Oh yes! He was always the funny yet kind one!" I laughed, which seemed to make Billy happy. "But I don't know anything about your new friend. Who are they?"

"Well, I just met him, but he's-" the sound of somebody knocking on the front door interrupted Billy's voice. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "I think our stupid new neighbour is missing my beautiful face," I joked, which made the little boy giggle slightly. "I think I sadly need to leave you for now. I don't trust this new guy to even be around me, so you sure as hell aren't allowed around him."

"Okay...have fun then..." Billy sighed in sadness. I felt really bad for him, he seemed quite like a lonely kid.

"I promise to come back soon, and then, we can maybe play some more Smash Bros Brawl. Or maybe Just Dance 3? Anything you wish, Starman!" I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

"You're the best, (Y/N)!" He got on his knees and hugged me, and I couldn't help but hug him back. the knocking became even more consistent, which was annoying me. It felt as if Jeffrey wanted to break my door at this point.

As I left the playroom, I heard Billy mumble to himself, his voice becoming quieter as I got to the front door. Opening it revealed none other than Jeffrey.

"Ugh, what do you want, dipshit?" I asked annoyed.

"Woah there, big bro/sis/sib (Y/N)," He began mocking me with a high-pitched voice, most likely that resembling of a small child. "You wouldn't want your little brother to learn such vulgar language coming from his hero, or worse, your mother to hear that you cussed."

"Ok fine, what do you want from me? A kiss on the cheek?" I joked, trying to mock him back.

"Nah, I don't swing that way. I'm just getting bored of this stupid neighbourhood. The door to my house was locked for some reason and I didn't want to knock on the door. Some kids already asked me to search for Herobrine with them on their Minecraft pocket edition, but I don't believe in that bullshit. 'Oooh spooky game with spooky ghosts! They'll come eat me in my sleep!'. It just doesn't make sense that something coded by someone, a real human, is being haunted by the spirit of some random twelve-year-old who drowned ten years ago."

"But what if the spirit of some random twelve-year-old who drowned ten years ago heard what you said right now? What would you do?" I joked.

"Oh, what could ghosts even do if they were real? Throw objects at me?" Jeffrey joked once more.

"I would if I were a ghost," I smirked at him.

"Ok, that was a nice one not gonna lie." He laughed.

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment, or as an insult, but whatever. Wanna show you around the neighbourhood?"

The boy just shrugged. But then I realized...I didn't know this neighbourhood either...FUCK. Luckily, I have my phone on me, so I could use a map app and look through it. "Not gonna lie, I feel like buying a game for my PS3. Are there any malls nearby?" Jeffrey asked.

I gave him a stoic face. "We're in the middle of the suburbs...I mean, I think there are strip malls, but I'm not sure if they have game stores..." I quickly searched on the Maps app for a game store. I found one, but it was a fifteen-minute bus trip to the nearest city, Bromside. Since neither of us had a car, we guessed that this was the most reasonable option.  "Do you want to go to the mall that's at the entrance of Bromside? There's a pretty big GameStop there." I said.

"Sure. I'm pretty bored of this weird-ass forest. I mean, it looks like the perfect place for a killer to hide, and I'm not into the life of being chased around all day by some dude who looks like the Joker. I would much rather prefer going to the city." Jeffrey responded.

"Cool-io. Let's go to the bus stop then." I said and we began walking. The walk was quite awkward, as we didn't even talk once. Jeffrey kept looking at one side as if he were alone with his thoughts.

As we got to the nearest bus stop, right in front of a forest track, I contacted my mom through messages and told her that I was going with Jeff to the outskirts of the nearest city.

Sitting there was quite boring. Having nothing to do, I tried opening a conversation with Jeff. "So...what kind of games do you play on your PS3?"

"Y'know, Call of Duty, Fallout, Uncharted, those types of games. I wouldn't call myself a hardcore gamer, more of a casual one." Jeffrey replied.

I nodded my head. Of course, he'd like those games, he was quite an edgelord after all. Jeff seemed a little...shaken... as if he saw a ghost

"What's wrong?" I asked. His face and hands were pale, and the tip of his shaking fingers were slightly more red-tinted. His hazy pale blue eyes were like saucers. His whole body in general was quivering, but his face remained serious, only his eyes stayed widened.

"Don't..."

"Huh-"

"Looks like we found ourselves some fresh meat!" I turned my head to the right, where the suburban neighbourhood ended. The voice came from the mouth of a guy wearing a red backwards baseball cap, the freckles on his nose scrunching as he snorted. Next to him were two other fellas, both of them were much taller than him, making the freckled boy look like two bodyguards protected him. I must admit, the guy could've been mistaken for a thirteen-year-old, from his short height, to even his baby face. But his voice was quite low and raspy, making me realize that he was indeed around my age...either that or he hit puberty quite quickly.

"Ugh, what do you want, pipsqueak?" I rolled my eyes, already knowing that this will turn out like those stereotypical high school movies with bullies. The boy seemed shocked to see me, as if we were old buddies who haven't seen each other since forever.

"(Y/N)...Pipsqueak?! What the hell are you talking about? You want a knuckle sandwich from me?!" He seemed red with fury, his face matching his ginger hair.

"Oh, (Y/N)'s right, Randy." A mocking voice joined. 'Randy's' fury seemed to become even more apparent as he looked behind. "Mind your biz, Natalie! What even are you doing here?" I looked at the person who the ginger was talking to, and saw two girls.

"Me and Jane wanted to hang out until we heard your agitating, grating voice. It seems you wanted to pick on the new kid and your old friend, huh?" The brunette frowned like a disappointed mother.

"OH YOU-"

"Do you want me to call my father to deal with you once more? You know that he can be quite the good cop and bad cop at the same time, right?" The taller girl with dark coils next to 'Natalie' asked the ginger, smirking at him. Randy seemed angry as hell, but he just took his gang and started walking away, mumbling and grumbling.

Jeff seemed to be out of his trance as he looked at us. "Wait, what happened?"

"Average neighbourhood bully shit, y'know," I responded, smiling at the girls. "By the way, thank you for saving us! That little poodle would've probably stabbed us if he got close!" I snorted.

"No problem, bro!" 'Natalie' smiled as she sat next to me "I'm Natalie, Natalie Ouellette, and this is my friend, Jane Richardson." She handed her hand out for a handshake. On closer inspection, it had small doodles: from squiggles, flowers to even skulls. As I was about to say my name, she began laughing. "We already know your name, (Y/N) Crowley. You were quite the name in the past, back when you hung around Randy and his gang." She giggled.

"Even then, we knew you weren't a bad kid, just an easily influenced one, and it seems it was true." Jane smiled. Wow, all these people are either trying to insult me or compliment me, no in between.

"Yeah...haha..." I laughed awkwardly. "By the way, just as Randy asked, what are you two doing here?" This question caused Jane to blush and Natalie to begin giggling.

"Well..." Natalie began prolonging her words, "You know Mary, right? That one blue-eyed blondie in the northern part of the suburbs, right?"

I had no clue who she was talking about, but I just nodded. "Somebody really likes her-" "Oh Natalie, shush!" Jane playfully punched Natalie, and both of the girls became a giggling mess. "Anyways we were planning on getting her something cute from Claire's!"

"Ugh, normal girl stuff..." Jeff rasped.

"That sounds sweet! Me and Jeff were planning on getting videogames! Maybe you can come with us?" I asked

"Sure! Maybe we can become friends! Our friend group isn't that big, since most kids at school are just...really ew." Jane responded.

"Yeah, but there are some exceptions, like that Helen boy!" Natalie chimed in.

"Oh shush, you only find him cool since you share the same art classes with him! Remember when you tried interacting with him? It went worse than with Tobias!" Jane scoffed.

"Yeah, but at least he politely told us that he wasn't interested in friends, unlike Tobias who just ignored us!"

The whole conversation was so weird since I didn't know any of these people. I felt like in some sort of teenage movie you'd see on Disney Channel or Nickelodeon.

"Sure, I wouldn't mind!" I smiled at them. I'm sure our friendship will bloom one way or another!

Chapter Text

"So...How is it being a gander* in New York? Is Springvale any different from where you grew up?" The dishevelled brown-haired girl whom I grew to know as Natalie, asked Jeff... well, not just this one question. If I could gain a dollar for every time she asked Jeff a question, I would have 2 every minute during this bus drive, which wouldn't be quite a lot, but I could buy a gourmet sandwich from one of those fancy restaurants In the city.

The bus was exactly in the same condition as a school bus, except that it was full of old people instead of students. Jane and Natalie were sitting right behind me and Jeff, which gave me more access to get to know my surroundings.

What I learned from these two is that I, or who I know as "(Y/N) Crowley", used to be a member of Randy's "juvenile gangster gang" back in my pre-teen years, before I eventually gave up because I realized that Randy "was a lame-o" as Jane quoted. Since then, I've been quite the loner, not because people hated me, but because it was my own personal choice.

"Of course it is different, Nat! New York and Michigan are two different states!" Jane laughed, stating the obvious. I could sense Natalie was quite embarrassed, but she laughed it off.

I was surprised Jeff didn't even grunt in annoyance or anything...he was awfully quiet... Weird kid for real. Was he wearing earphones?.... No, I don't think so. If he did, they would've been dangling from his ears, attached to his phone or from an iPod or something.

"Earth to Jeff...Earth to Jeff...Did you fall asleep with your eyes open? Hello?!" Natalie kept poking, patting even punching Jeff's shoulder since he wasn't responding at all, He was looking out the window into the woods. Maybe he was daydreaming? Who knows. "He died with his eyes opened, I don't know, he won't respond!"

"Natalie, chillax, take a chill pill. He's just lost in thoughts." I said, smiling at the girl in the backseat. She seemed disappointed as she took a sketchbook out of her backpack and began sketching something.

Jane began giggling as Natalie finished the drawing and showed it to her. I naturally got nosy and looked at them with curiosity. Natalie seemed to have sensed that I was interested, as she gave me the sketchbook to look at it. I couldn't hold my serious face anymore, and I eventually broke down into laughter. Natalie made two drawings: One was with Jeff, depicted as what I assume is the overly attached girlfriend meme, with the top caption "My face when" and the bottom text "When I'm thinking of my next victim while daydreaming". I mean, the girl does kind of look like Jeff in the meme, with the hair and the piercing eyes which Jeff naturally has, but this caricature was funny. The second drawing was a small ragecomic, with Jeff finding out about the comic and ripping the page, and a caricature of me with the "me gusta" face saying "Y u do this?" in the second panel, and in the second panel was Jeff with the "rage-guy" face being like "THESE DRAWINGS SUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK"

Just as prophesized by the comic, Jeff seemed to have seen the drawing, as he gave me a dirty look and said "Haha really funny...", which caused Natalie and Jane to laugh. Unaffectedly, I began laughing too. Their laughs were contagious, I couldn't help myself.

As we were laughing, much to Jeff's annoyance, the bus finally stopped on the Boulevard of Bromside's city gates, where there was a bus stop. I gave the sketchbook back to Natalie and got out of the bus.

"The mall should be a bit farther. We're still in the woodsy area, so...should we go by foot?" Jane asked.

"Does it look like we have any way of transport that isn't going by foot?" Jeff replied sarcastically.

"Can we not fight, for 5 minutes please?" I asked, genuinely tired of Jeff trying to pick fights with everyone. They both quieted down, which made me smile. With that done, we began going on our journey to the mall

We were pretty tired from all the walking, but we finally got to civilization. Hip hurrah for us I guess.

"So, you two are going to Claires, I and Jeff are going to GameStop, and then after that, we'll reunite at the food court, is that good?" I asked, making a plan inside my head. Everyone was alright with that, so we exchanged contacts and continued with our days.

The walk to the GameStop was quite quiet... "You saw it too, right?"

"Huh...?" I turned my head to Jeff. What was he talking about?

"That weird cryptid with the white... never mind, It must be because I'm tired and hungry." He yawned.

"Why? Did you not sleep last night?"

"Not really..."

As I was about to ask him why, I saw that we were in front of the GameStop, which stood up with all it's 'glory', and by that I mean all the tacky geeky stuff that was everywhere, the perfect lure for sore losers who would much rather spend their time trolling forums than be productive. "So... what exactly are you looking for...?"

Jeff didn't even respond as he pulled his hood on his head and began looking at the PS3 games section. How rude of him... Either way, I began looking through the store to see if I could find anything interesting, like a video game or something. As I was looking, I saw that at the counter there was a copy of Minecraft on the Xbox 360. Being curious as usual, I picked it up and began studying it. It looked... normal, nothing unusual. Maybe a kid left it here...

"That game is second hand you wouldn't want it." I looked up from the game, and saw a girl around my age at the counter, who looked rather tired. She had long black yet a bit greasy hair and a very pallid face, with under-eye bags, making her look like she had been staring at the computer screen for nights. This must be self-explanatory, as this was GameStop!

"I don't really mind if it's second-hand. May I ask why it's here?"

"Some brony brought it here 'cause he saw another player in his Minecraft world while he was playing single-player, and that it was apparently some "paranormal activity" or some bullshit."

"Well, I don't really care to be completely honest. Even if it was 'possessed' or whatever, It'd sell a lot of cash for a stupid clickbait video on YouTube."

"That's... actually genius bro. I haven't even thought of that." The girl began looking to her left, then to her right, as if making sure nobody was looking at what she was doing. "Look, let's make a deal.I'll give you this game for free, only and ONLY if you make the greens outta it, and if you invite me to witness it first-hand."

"Umm... sure." I wasn't even planning on doing this in the first place... but the thought of money made it tempting. And a free copy of Minecraft? That's free real estate baby! "But first, give me your digits so I can call you."

"Oh, of course. I'm Kate, by the way, Kate Milens, and you?"

"I'm (Y/N)... (Y/N) Crowley." Phew, that was close. I almost forgot what my name was... well, until I come back to life... in my world.

We exchanged phone numbers, and as we did that, a new voice appeared. "Yo Kate! Stop flirting with that dude/chick and help me here!" I turned around to see a blond-haired guy trying to carry a huge box of games, pushing Jeff a bit. "Watch where you're going!" the brunette spat out at the blond, as he was looking at two games in his hands, as if thinking which one to choose.

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fine, Mr Grossman!" Kate groaned like a stereotypical moody teenager as she let her phone down and walked towards the blond guy, helping him lift the big box of video games or whatever. I moved to the side as they began carrying the box to the backdoor of the store. "Please stop calling me that!" I heard the guy shout at Kate from inside the room where only employees were allowed.

They both came back to the counter and "Mr Grossman" looked at the copy of Minecraft which I was planning on buying, while he was rubbing his stubble. "Oh, you wouldn't want a secondhand game, now would you? Why don't you just buy a new copy-" "Will, they know the game is haunted. You don't have to tell them again, or else it'd be like we're in a broken phonograph..."

The blond looked at me surprised but then smirked. "You've got the balls to play a supposedly 'haunted' game? Well, it's good to know that not everyone is superstitious and believes in conspiracies on the internet!"

"William, I swear to god... I don't believe in conspiracies, the tall man was real, I swear! Hell, even your stupid imaginary friend from childhood might be real!"

"Yeah, the tall man is gonna come to my house tonight and hypnotize me ooooooo!" Will began doing jazz hands and shaking them "Also, to be frank with you, I know Laughing Jack was a figment of my imagination, nothing more!"

Laughing Jack... hold on! Billy mentioned having a friend named Laughing Jack. This was all getting fishy... "My brother has an imaginary friend named Laughing Jack..." Kate looked at me and then at Will "See? Laughing Jack does exist-" "But then again, it could be from a TV show or something..." I muttered.

"Wasn't Laughing Jack like that one character from that one show in the 80s which apparently never existed? Candle Cove or whatever the fuck it was called?" Kate asked.

"Bitch, first of all, Laughing Jack wasn't from any show, and two, there was no character named Laughing Jack in Candle Cove, you're confusing him with The Laughingstock!" William began arguing, sounding like a total geek. He then looked at me. "Well, uh..." "(Y/N)." "(Y/N), if your brother has some sort of drawing or something with Laughing Jack, please come to this GameStop and show me. This all sounds too suspicious... Either I gave my imaginary friend the blandest fucking name, or he's truly some kind of entity, though I doubt that..."

"Yeah... I promise..." I laughed awkwardly. These two were so weird, but it was very hypocritical of me to say something alike. I mean... A demon brought me to life in this timeline, why should I judge? Just as I was about to talk to them more, Jeff appeared next to me with a Portal 2 PS3 edition disc which was on back-to-school sale for 40% off. My mind was wondering why Portal 2 was on a school sale... Like maybe educational games should be, but Portal 2? You know something, I should stop wondering so much.

We both paid and left, before I waved back at Kate and Will. Now I really was wondering, what will this Minecraft disc have in store for me?