Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He wasn’t sure then he noticed it first. 

The TV hummed with the sounds of some daytime show Tommy didn’t pick with purpose. He was just tired and restless. The teen was curled up on the couch, wishing for sleep to claim him. 

The day had been long. He saw Ranboo and Tubbo in a few of his classes. He waited for the bus home along with Purpled. 

It should have been enough.

Tommy hugged himself tighter.

Four characters whose name he didn’t catch engaged in a domestic conversation. Mother, father and child. All together, they sat at a couch as bright sunlight basked the room in color.

The mother pinched the child’s cheek and her husband stared at her lovingly.

Tommy couldn’t help but cringe.

The fictional scene was so sweet it must have given him cavities.

Tommy grabbed the remote and started flicking through the channels. 

Flash, flash, flash, flash. 

The channels changed in the tempo of a pendulum. Never lingering on one too long. Nothing was catching his blue eyes, only the reflection of the short flickering scenes.

Nothing. Nothing but luckless taste of drywall and plain empty promises.

Tommy angrily turned the TV off and threw the remote onto the table.

The room was plunged into darkness. 

The blond closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 

He tried to think of a different day. A distant memory that almost sounds like fantasy now. Or it perhaps only have been a dream. A small little cozy dream he had let rewrite his reality.

But even fantasy has its limits. 

Their hugs never last. Their smiles eventually fade. The warmth stays for only so long to leave him sore and gluttonous afterwards.

Selfish, he mutters under his breath. 

He has friends, a warm bed, and a TV. What more can he want?

Rooted for now, he has all he needs.

In this house.

Nothing but a taste of drywall and a sweet smell that tickles his nose.

There was something rotting. Old, musky smell drafted through the floorboards. There was something there, right there, above the bending wood.

Tommy held his breath. 

The floorboards creaked leisurely. 

The slow heavy steps made his heart beat like crazy. 

At this point, he couldn’t pretend it was just a critter or a bird. Someone else was in his house. On the floor above. 

The steps moved around in a consistent tempo. Pacing.

Tommy took a shuddering breath. 

He heard the stories of burglars entering houses in the dead of night. Desperate people seeing no other out of their situation. Brash and fearful, yet motivated. And that made them dangerous.

The blond quietly as a mouse got up from the couch and weaved between the furniture towards the phone. He unhooked the receiver from the cradle and began dialing the police. Only the faint moonlight and force of habit helped him navigate where the numbers were.

The creaking above him continued. 

His breathing was picking up. 

Each time the rotary slowly rattled back into place, his anxiety was steadily rising.

He was worried.

Tommy’s parents were out of town for the past week. They left him enough money for groceries and a letter telling him they had to suddenly leave to deal with some- something.

The two were rarely home anyway. 

It isn’t like they didn’t try to find time to spend with him. They did! And that was what was frustrating. Their schedule didn’t line up, or they were so tired they spent most of their free days in bed. 

But that was fine. 

The blond dialled the last number and waited for the line to connect.

There was a harsh click and a woman’s voice came from the other side.

“ The number you have dialled has not been recognised .” 

Tommy frowned. 

Did he dial it wrong? Fuck! Damn the lack of light, he must have!

He put the receiver back on the hook and then unhooked it again to restart the process.

The steps continued pacing. 

The rotary rattled like a struggling engine.

Tommy smelled smoke. And the stench of rot was growing stronger.

His fingers flickered between numbers. 

The moon rays danced across the floor. 

The rattle of the rotary was deafening in the quiet and stillness. 

Wood almost right above his head creaked.

The last number rattled into place and Tommy almost slammed the receiver against his ear.

“Hello?” he whispered into the phone.

He waited for a couple seconds.

No response.

“Hello? Is this the L’manburg police? I think a burglar had broke into my house-”

The sudden sound coming from the phone made Tommy almost jump. 

It was loud and high pitched. 

After he recovered, he tried again.

“Hello?”

A long quiet again.

He was about to put the receiver back and try again, when a human voice came from the other side.

“ Look, guys, I don’t want trouble- ”

Tommy immediately dropped the receiver. The poor thing fell like a bungee jumper and after a bounce with the line, it ended up slamming against the wall harshly. 

He could only stare at the receiver with wide frightened eyes.

As he stared frozen, He picked up on another sound. A slow rising scratchy sound close by.

His eyes slowly looked up and to the side, catching the sight of the TV.

The TV that was now back on.

The staticy screen was basking the room in sharp white light.

Tommy’s eyebrows knitted.

He was pretty sure he had turned it off.

The static was quickly growing louder and louder.

The blond clenched his teeth.

It was quickly becoming quite loud.

He took a step back.

Tommy’s eyes flickered towards the front door. 

The TV let out a loud crackle.

The teen slammed hands over his ears and closed his eyes.

The static was so loud it was drowning out his thoughts. 

It hurt. It hurt so fucking much. 

Tommy dashed towards the door, grabbed the knob and slammed them open-

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” 

Tommy screamed.

Chairs creaked. His entire class turned their eyes towards him.

It took a blond painfully long to realise what had happened. He fell asleep. During class. It was just a dream. Thank fuck it was just a dream.

“Mister Innit?” the teacher asked in an authoritative tone. 

Tommy’s cheeks went red.

The teacher, a short woman in her late fifties gave him a stare so ugly he felt like withering on the spot, shook her finger and turned back to the blackboard.

The blond leaned back against the chair, looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath.

“As I was saying, Edgar Allan Poe is known for many famous works.” the teacher continued. Tommy could feel her eyes on him.

As if on cue, Tubbo nudged an elbow into his side.

Tommy turned towards him slowly.

Tubbo twitched his eyebrows at him quizzically. The blond rolled his eyes.

‘After.’ he mouthed.

The brunet seemed to have understood and nodded.

The glare the teacher was giving them was piercing.

Tommy turned to the board and looked at his notebook. He flipped to the next page and started attentively writing.

“The Fall of the House of Usher is the one that first comes to my mind. The Purloined Letter is also a good one. My literature teacher back in university enjoyed King Pest. He made a whole lecture centered around it. What a respectful man, I will forever hold dear the fact that I could be his student.” she continued, while she stood in front of the class with a paper in her hand.

His teacher was quite a dramatic lady. She held herself with all the regal of an 18th century monarch and spoke like an actor from old Greek plays. 

Many people from his class thought she was pretentious. And though it seemed to him like that at first. There was something weirdly genuine to her presentation. It was a play, yes, but a controlled and passionate one.

It was a tool, not the goal.

What was more pretentious right now, were the four boys at the back of the class, loudly chatting about some new PS2 game. Apparently some game about an evil residence or something? And zombies? And a cult ?

Probably another horror game. Tommy hated those. He could never understand why someone would want to be scared. 

Ranboo once talked him into playing one of the Silent Hill games with him and Tommy got so scared of the ugly long-tongued dog things he screamed like a very very manly man. The biggest man ever actually. When Tubbo heard about it, he teased him relentlessly for the rest of the week.

Tommy would always pick Pokemon Diamond and Pearl over any nightmare that decided to possess Ranboo that month.

The blond glared at his notebook and wrote as fast as he could. His teacher was very passionate. And also talked with the cadency of an automatic shotgun. 

One of the girls was already flipping to a third page.

The rest of the class was a blur. Tommy wasn’t sure he remembered anything from what the teacher had said, but at least ¾ of it were hopefully in his notebook so he could look at it later.

The moment the bell rang, the whole class threw their notebooks into the bags and got up. 

“Don’t forget to read page 57 and do the questions on page 59 and 60!” the teacher shouted at them as the river of students flooded out through the door.

Tommy and Tubbo looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

The two took the familiar trip up the stairs and down the hall, where Ranboo was already waiting for them.

“How was biology?” Tommy asked.

The teen in the face mask shook their head. “We were talking about plant roots today. Really boring.”

“Well our class today wasn’t so boring.” Tubbo teased and Tommy considered that the perfect time to elbow him back.

Ranboo watched them with confusion and helpfully supplied. “The cafeteria closes in half an hour. We should get going.”

The three started walking side to side through the school. Their school was huge. Two, technically three buildings connected by few long corridors. Multiple floors, too many stairs and a floor plan that still lead to them getting lost sometimes, despite the fact they were in their second year already.

It was like a labyrinth. And to add to confusion, Tubbo heard from one of the older students that the position of some classes changes every year. Insanity.

The conversation was slow. Ranboo mentioned a new cat he saw on the way to school that morning. Tubbo asked about the breed and Ranboo pulled out their black-orange Sony Ericsson to show him the blurry picture. 

Both Tommy and Tubbo stared at the screen with narrowed eyes trying to make out what they were actually looking at. The light coming from the nearby window wasn’t making it any easier.

It looked like a cat at least. Sort of.

The cafeteria was placed at the probably most inconvenient spot in the entire school. Far away from most classes and with so little room that it was laughable. 

The three dashed down the last long corridor, up the eight steps and all the way to the small window.

The cook narrowed her eyes on them. “You again.”

She was a short woman in white clothes with dark red dyed hair. Her hands were calloused from years of hard work and eyes were sunk.

Tommy grinned. 

They slammed their bills onto the table and announced. “Two of meal one, and one meal three.”

The woman counted the money and took it. 

Before long, the boys were presented with three steaming plates. They thanked her and took their food to their favorite table.

Their heavy bags landed on the linoleum floor and utensils clicked against the porcelain.

There were many unfortunate decisions about the school. The floor plan, the unfortunately small size of their food portions- but one thing was definitely a great decision. One of the walls of the cafeteria was a huge window.

The three always sat close to it. In autumn they watched the leaves dance in the wind. In winter, they could plan the perfect snowball war. In spring they watched nature wake up and kept an eye out for the local hedgehog Ronnie. And in summer, like now, bright rays of sun warmed their skin.

“Boo, you should have been in literature class with us today.” Tubbo muttered as if he was mourning something.  

Tommy buried his fork into his vegetables and gave him a look.

Ranboo pulled down their face mask and eagerly ate a bite of a beef schnitzel. “Huh? Did something happen?”

Tubbo grinned at Tommy. 

‘Don’t say it.’

The brunet’s smile grew. “Tommy fel- Auch!” 

Tommy innocently picked up a cabbage leaf as if he didn’t just kick Tubbo in the shin.

The older boy pursed his lips. Before Tommy could react, a foreign fork was invading his plate. It sank into a baby carrot and retreated with the stolen treasure.

“Come on! I was saving that one!” 

“Not anymore. Mine!” Tubbo exclaimed.

When Tommy turned back to his plate, he found another fork already shuffling around. 

Ranboo shrunk with a nervous smile, but still stole a tomato from Tommy’s plate.

Tommy wasn’t going to let that be! He sought revenge!

He stole a potato from Ranboo’s plate and a piece of the beef schnitzel from Tubbo’s.

“Ranboo, have you heard of Portal?” Tubbo asked between bites.

The teen inquisition shook his head. “No. What is it?”

“It came out last year! It is a really fun puzzle game from what I hear. Set in the same universe as Half-Life.”

“Really?!” Ranboo looked excited.

Tommy didn’t notice when a smile appeared on his lips. 

So probably another horror game. 

“You have a portal gun and shit. Boys from the IT class keep going on and on about it.” Tubbo smiled.

“Really?! That is so cool!” Ranboo exclaimed loudly.

Tommy frowned and looked around. Luckily, it didn’t seem there was anyone else at the cafeteria with them at that moment. Even the cook was gone from her window. She was probably helping with washing the dishes.

“Right!?” Tubbo said eagerly. 

The two ended up getting into a quite excited conversation about that game. Ranboo started coming up with loose theories of how it might connect to the other game and Tubbo rambled about science as he does. 

Tommy quietly ate his lunch and watched the outside.

Their summer vacation was just a couple weeks away. He couldn’t wait to finish the school year to enjoy the summer fully.

Cherries already ripened on the tree by the road. Two lemons in his own garden should soon follow. 

Birds were singing in the trees. 

It was going to be a great summer.

The three finished their food and left the plates at the designated and right now empty window. They went down to their lockers, passing by only one or two people at this late hour and were off. 

Tubbo and Ranboo immediately started walking towards the bus stop. Tommy didn’t follow.

They noticed a good fifteen steps later. Tubbo turned around and gave him a strange look. “You aren’t coming?” 

“I want to take a walk today.” Tommy answered.

Tubbo nodded. “Okay, then. Take care!”

Ranboo seconded him with a “goodbye”.

The blond waved. “See you tomorrow.”

“Hope you’ll have a better sleep this time!” Tubbo couldn’t help but tease.

“Fuck you.” Tommy answered with a smile. 

And there their paths diverged. 

You see, Tommy didn’t live that far from the school. Maybe forty minutes or so. 

A sunny day like this wasn’t to be wasted by a short bus trip and he was sure a particular someone else shared his attitude. 

The teen shifted his bag on his back and turned down a beaten path through the small forestry. 

A set of black beaky eyes watched him from a nearby tree. After a while, the bird took off with a loud caw. 

A black feather swung in the wind, before landing on a cracked pavement.

Chapter Text

A fence gate screeched as he closed it behind. 

Early summer sun caressed Tommy’s skin with its light touch. 

There was a strangely comforting ambience to walking alone. The districts he has to walk through are usually calm if not entirely empty at the hour his classes end. It hits right at that sweet spot between lunch and mid afternoon. He has about an hour until the morning shifts end and an army of cars rushes out of a local police station. 

Everything is steady and calm. Tommy walks with a small pep in his step. 

The blue sky is dusted with herds of fluffy sheep.

A small smile tugs at his lips. 

No matter how bad his day gets, this, this, never fails to make it all feel better. His personal sanctuary.

Well, not entirely personal.

Tommy stops in front of a small local grocery store. Its big windows give him a peek at lines of shelves of the most basic store items, vegetables, pastries, meat, chips and energy drinks. 

The store is mostly empty at that hour too. People have not yet returned from their lunches or already bought what they wanted and had no reason to mope around.

Almost perfectly on time, the automatic front doors open and a familiar purple hoodie walks out. Tommy waves at him and Purpled waves back with his free hand. His other hand clutches an energy drink. 

“Hello, Tommy.” Purpled greets him once he reaches him.

Tommy smiles. “Hi. How has your day been?”

The older blond has a dry bitter smile. “Eh.”

“Math?” Tommy questions with a knowing grin.

Purpled clicks the pin and takes a sip of his drink. 

“How was your day?” Purpled pulled the can away from his lips and leaned his head back.

Tommy scowled and rolled his eyes. 

The willow on the other side of the road swayed in the wind.

“Fine.”

The older boy took another sip of his drink. 

The subject drifts away. They talk about Pokemon and upcoming Nintendo games. Tommy kicks at the free stones of the cracked pavement. 

As the walk continues, the topics dry out. They settle into a natural silence, one that Tommy can’t leave unbroken.

“Hey, have you heard of that new Dreamworks movie that is coming later this year?” 

“Which one?”

Tommy cringed. “Apparently it will be called “The Bee Movie”. Steven Spielberg was in one of the teasers.”

Purpled looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“What the hell does the guy who did “E.T. the Alien” have anything to do with an animated movie about a bee?” the older blond sputtered.

Tommy snickered. “I was asking myself the same thing! And he was like conversing with a computer generated bee? The protagonist of the movie I think?”

Purpled looked down at his drink with a frown. 

“Are you sure no one added anything to your drink-?”

Tommy giggled. 

“No! I am telling you! It was a real fucking movie teaser!”

Purpled gave him a teasingly non-convinced look. 

“If you say so.”

The blond had a strong urge to start an argument. 

But the day was warm, the sun was shining so despite himself, after a deep breath, Tommy let it go. 

He shook his head.

“It’s a real movie.”

“Sure.”

“About a fucking bee.”

“Uhm.”

The two walked deeper into the sprawling forest of apartment buildings. Pine trees shielded them from the sun. 

Tommy was looking around, trying to find something to talk about. They already covered most topics. What else to talk about? 

As Tommy surveyed the surroundings, he noticed something that immediately made him tense up. 

There, pretty far ahead of them was a group of three boys. They were older, sporty, and carried themselves like they owned the place. 

Seeing them, Tommy swallowed dryly.

They didn’t notice him yet. 

But they were heading towards them, so soon, they would.

The blond looked away and noticed a beaten path through the grass. He had no idea where it led, but it was a way out. 

Tommy took a breath, schooled his expression the best he could and exclaimed. “Oh! This is a shortcut. Come on, Purpled.”

He pointed at the beaten path, which made Purpled frown. 

“Isn’t your house the other way?” the older asked.

Tommy rolled his eyes. 

“Don’t you want to have an adventure? You’ve been acting like you have a stick up your ass all day!”

Purpled raised a brow. There was an odd look in his eyes, but that quickly faded away, replaced by resignation and a hint of curiosity. 

Tommy internally cried in victory. 

But it was still not over yet. The three upperclassmen were still coming closer. 

The blond grabbed his friend by the wrist and pulled him to the beaten path. 

“Then let’s go!”

---

The beaten path, turns out, was going through the part of the city district Tommy hadn't been to yet. The tall apartment building and playgrounds around were completely unfamiliar to him. It did look very similar to the other neighbourhoods, but something felt different about it. 

The two were like adventurers on an exploration, mapping new untraveled roads. Adventure!

The nature was quiet. What was loudest were their steps in the grass. 

Tommy was looking around, scrutinizing the peeling drywalls and looming trees. Purpled was walking, his face uninterested and facing forward. 

The younger blond rolled his eyes. 

The other boy was acting so dry and boring today. No interest in nature or anything. The new path they were taking didn’t excite him at all! 

Tommy pouted. 

Purpled looked at him. 

Tommy crossed arms on his chest. 

Purpled raised a brow. 

“I thought you were taking the bus today.” 

The younger blond scratched the back of his neck and looked away. “I was planning to.”

Purpled was looking at him. “What changed?” he sounded almost- upset? Ah, that was probably still the Maths speaking. It must have really upset him. Purpled’s Maths teacher was a strange lady that was famous for almost failing multiple of her students because despite her saying she ‘gave them more attention and extra time after classes’ she was so shit at explaining that it didn’t help at all. 

Tommy shrugged. “I dunno. I felt like I needed a change.”

Purpled looked behind them and then into the distance. 

The younger blond nudged him. “Like you, I assume.”

The older boy usually took the bus. Not that his house was crazy far either, but he liked to be home quickly. 

Purpled wouldn’t look at him. He was quiet for a moment. Then he grumbled. 

Damn, the Maths must have been really bad. 

Tommy scanned the surroundings and noticed one of those cube buildings that served as a gardening shed or something like that. The one on their school grounds was used like that at least. 

It had one of those fire escape ladders on the side. 

An idea sparked in Tommy’s head. 

“Come with!” Tommy called out with a grin and sprinted towards the building. He didn’t wait for Purpled. He should get gud. 

The teen jumped up and grabbed the bottom of the ladder, slowly pulling himself up. Once he was at the top, he sighed in relief and sat down on the edge. His legs were dangling in the air. 

Purpled was watching him from below. 

Tommy giggled. 

“Come up, mister ‘I’m blue and I am making it everyone’s problem’.” 

Purpled frowned and looked at himself. “I am not blue.”

Tommy shook his head. Oh, another victim of Purpled’s Maths teacher. The older boy’s sense of humor had perished in the war!

“But you act like someone sucked all life from you! Come up. Don’t you want to have fun?” Tommy said with a bright smile. He kicked his legs and leaned down against the concrete roof. 

It was nice and cold. Not too rough. Why hadn’t he tried this before?

Not too long after, he heard metal sounds and noticed hands coming up in the corner of his eye. Purpled looked at him with a confused expression. Even so, he got all the way up to the roof and approached him. Tommy patted the spot next to him. 

Purpled tilted his head and made a face but joined him. 

Tommy smiled. 

The two were laying on the roof, their legs dangling off and the beautiful blue sky stretching above them. 

Fluffy clouds were moving past.

The younger blond pointed at the sky. “That one looks like a Victreebel.”

“Like what?”

“Victreebel! The pokemon!”

“Oh.”

“And that one,” Tommy excitedly pointed at a different cloud, “That one looks totally like Exeggcute!”

Purpled was looking at him with a confused expression. 

Tommy watched as the Victreebel cloud slowly fell apart and the image of the grass-poison pokemon was no more. Exeggcute lasted a bit longer but even it fell apart. Tommy’s eyes were chasing for another recognizable shape. 

Purpled was looking at him. 

That one looked like- Oh, that sucks, it already came apart. Maybe something other? Oh? Oh!

“That one looks like a sheep!” 

Purpled looked up. “Which one.”

“That one,” Tommy pointed again, “do you see it?”

“Not really.”

“And that one! The other one next to it. Coming from behind that building. What does it look like to you?” 

Purpled looked at Tommy and then at the sky. 

“Hmm.”

He looked like he was actually giving it a thought. Success!

“It reminds me of a skull.” 

Tommy frowned and focused on the cloud. He could kinda see it. 

The two ended up watching the sky and chatting for a long time. Purpled ended up getting a little out of his shell and his mood wasn’t as shit as before. Soon though, too soon if you asked Tommy, they had to get off. 

They continued down the beaten path until they got back out to some main road. Purpled somehow recognized one of the buildings and got them through a gate and to the road where the bus would have taken them. 

“Not much of a shortcut.” Purpled noted. 

“For the sake of adventure, doesn’t matter.” Tommy put hands on his hips.

“Adventure?”

“Wasn’t it one to you?” 

“No?”

“You are boring, Purpled!”

“No, you are boring.”

“No, you are!”

After some time of friendly bickering, they said goodbye to each other and they went their separate ways. 

Tommy walked and shifted his backpack on his back. Sun reflected on the high windows of apartment buildings and small shops. 

His house was in a calm part of the town. Away from all loud traffic. An unimportant little street for houses with small but proud gardens. To get there though, he had to pass through one of the more busy streets. One of those streets the town wasn’t very proud of. 

The pavement there was unkept and cracked. Walls painted with graffiti. trash cluttered corners. The smell was something you’d quickly want to forget. 

His parents didn’t care that he took that road. They usually just drove through it so never noticed the state. And they barely spend much time in town so the reputation wasn’t known to them. But it was known to Tommy. 

One of the side paths leading into that street led through a greenery in which stood ruins of an old shack that the local druggies used as a meeting spot. Tommy was always on the edge walking by that side road. He really didn’t want to have to deal with someone high out of their mind. 

A loud caw almost made him jump, while a dark bird flew overhead and disappeared into the crown of a tall apple tree. 

Tommy was so preoccupied with watching the bird that he didn’t notice steps approaching. It was only when he heard a voice. 

“What do we have here?” a wheezy voice said. 

The blond felt a shutter run down his spine. 

Maybe if he leaves quickly-

A hand landed on his shoulder and he felt someone’s weight settle on it. 

Tommy swallowed dryly. 

Oh fuck. 

“Surprising to see you at these parts. I heard they aren't very- safe.” said the cheeky voice of the one leaning on him.

Another hand landed on his other shoulder. 

Oh no.

“We wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you, hm?” said the sharp deep voice of the one leaning on his other shoulder.

Tommy shook their hands off. “I can take care of myself.”

He took two or three steps, only to be grabbed by those hands again and pulled back. The force almost made him stumble. 

“Are you sure?” taunted the one with the cheeky voice. From this angle, Tommy caught the sight of him. He wore a blue short-sleeved polo shirt with white sleeves. His eyes were hidden by huge glasses that looked more like goggles. 

On the other side, he was held by a boy wearing a wife beater that shoved all his muscles, a necklace with a fire pendant and a white bandana. 

Oh Tommy was screwed. 

From behind him he heard the third, wheezy one speak. “We weren’t asking, Tommy.”

He knew them. Who in their school hasn't? The notorious trio, The Dream Team. All three top sporty in their own category. 

The bandana guy, Sapnap, was built like a brick. MMA fighter since fourteen. Some rumours said his mother gave him his first boxing bag when he was still in the crib. And he wasn't just a fighter, but a winner. Get a right hook from that guy? There might not be a need to call an ambulance anymore.

The goggles one, George, maybe wasn’t built like Sapnap, but looks were deceiving. He was the school’s best floorball player. Quick witted, strategic, absolute monster to play against. Despite his unassuming figure, his power was in efficiency and practice. Stand in the goal post when he is attacking? Despite your armor, you will wish you had never been born. 

And the last one- 

“Twenty bucks. Call it a guarantee. You don’t have to pay it, but who knows what happens then.” said the wheezy voice, still standing behind him like an ominous bastard. 

Unashamed racketeering, if he saw one. 

“No.” he said immediately.

“No?” George leaned in. Tommy felt his lunch rising back up.  

The hands on him tightened. 

Tommy frowned deeply and sneered into those reflective goggles. “No.”

The wheezy voice behind him giggled. “Oh, is that so?”

The grip on him weakened.

Maybe they will let him go? No. Not a chance. 

“Then you agree to the consequences.” Sapnap muttered. 

The hands moved in a flash and harshly shoved him forward. Tommy stumbled but caught himself. 

“Run bug run.” the wheezy voice said. 

Oh hell no.

The teen scrambled to his feet. 

He should have seen this coming. 

How far was he from his house? Three long streets. That isn’t impossible. But the incline is going to be a bitch. 

The moment his mind settled, Tommy ran. 

Excited giggles and snickers erupted behind him. 

He was giving him a headstart, Tommy didn’t doubt that. 

The teen dashed on the pavement. Trees and fences moved past him. Crows cawed in the trees. His backpack bounced on his back. 

Tommy heard the moment when the other moved. 

It was like the world around them had suddenly fallen still and quiet. Just the sound of two pairs of footsteps. Just the sound of breathing. Just the feeling of heart leaping out of his chest. 

The steps were deafening. 

Tommy pushed forward and so had his pursuer. 

He reached the point where pavement turned to tiles. The teen slowed down a little to take the turn in time and continued up the stairs. The other option would have been a concrete incline ending in a fence. 

The blond rushed past the fence. Seconds later, he heard the unmistakable sound of someone jumping over it. 

Oh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck. 

Tommy pushed himself further. 

There was a dull pain in his side but he didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. Not when he knew exactly who was chasing him. 

The world was a blur. 

And then suddenly there were hands on him. A heavy fast force pushed down on his back and shoved him to the ground. Tommy couldn’t react in time and crashed with the pavement, painfully. The weight of his backpack pulled him to the side. 

The teen felt bruises and cuts blooming on his palms and knees. 

The pursuer slowed down and backed a little, towering over Tommy and casting a long shadow. 

The dirty blond had a wide toothy smile on his face. He looked like a predator. Like a wolf cornering a wounded prey. 

Tommy was burning with pain and anger. Why did he feel so scared? Why was his heart beating so loud he felt his pulse in his ears? Why was his chest caving under phantom weight, breath held, voice lost as if he lost the ability to speak?

He wanted to scream, to shout, to fight. But his body was stiff. Unmoving. Locked. Locked, like his eyes were locked with the monster above him. 

The teen was a man god damn it! Why is he just laying there? He must do something. Move. Move! MOVE!

In the eyes of the predator, he could see the truth. Tommy wouldn’t move. And those hungry green eyes reveled in it. 

“Tt. Pathetic.” the predator said in amusement, before a well aimed kick hit Tommy’s abdomen. 

The teen gasped in pain. 

He tried to push himself up, only to be kicked again and falling down on his side once more. 

“Dr-eam.” Tommy muttered with his teeth clenched. 

And the man they called Dream only smiled. 

Dream was the last member of The Dream Team, the one the trio was named after. He was rich, smart, strategic, and the best cross-country runner in his age category in the entire county. No one could outrun him. But once, long ago, there was a time- 

Tommy felt another kick. 

His body seized once again, arms caging around where his important organs were. 

Dream crouched. 

His eyes were scanning Tommy’s body with an intensity he didn’t like. “I wonder how much a bug like you can take.”

“Starting without us?” George said in mock offense. 

In the time Tommy was on the ground, the other two must have caught up with them. 

He didn’t miss how Sapnap’s eyes avoided looking at him. 

George looked like he was bursting with glee. 

“Show him, Dream. I want to see that waste of air squirm.” the goggled boy said. 

Dream’s grin widened. 

An abuser and an enabler. Or something. That was at least similar to what his parents described after the parent teacher meetings. 

Not long ago, Dream was even more egoistic than now. He wouldn’t just look for Tommy outside of school, he’d single him out in school too. In empty halls between classes, in the bathrooms. Tommy would be found by a janitor an hour later, and taken straight to the teacher to tell what happened. 

He’d tell, the teacher would sigh, warn Tommy against false reports with a scalding expression as if Tommy wasn’t the fucking victim, and then call Dream in. The older boy was a master actor. Pretending to not know, pulling out falsificated alibi and dismissing Tommy’s story in a swift swoop. 

Some teachers ate Dream’s story up, some less so. But even those let Dream off the hook with a slap on the wrist. Dream was warned not to do it again. That’s it. And Dream would do it again. The cycle continued. And with each report to the teacher, Tommy’s believability would diminish. Because why would possibly the school’s sweetheart Dream continue doing something so bad after a warning?

Tommy’s parents would speak out in Tommy’s favor, of course. He couldn’t hide all the injuries, he couldn’t always pretend everything was fine even though he tried. But their words passed the teacher council like water. Their outrage never amounted to anything. Dream didn’t stop. He would shift strategies. But he wouldn’t stop.

“An abuser and an enabler.” Tommy’s mother had muttered angrily after a one particular teacher-parent conference. 

Tommy would listen from his room while working on his homework. 

“The mother of that ‘Dream’. The infliction in her voice, the way she presents herself. She wouldn’t see a single wrong in that kid even if he brought home a dead cat.” Tommy’s mother continued, her anger rising. 

Tommy curled up on himself. He hated when his mother was shouting. 

“They have to do something about this.” Tommy’s father argued more calmly but his voice betrayed he wasn’t happy either. 

The teen heard the sound of his mother’s handbag hitting the shelf and flinched. 

“She sees him as some sort of- like- an angel! She is going to excuse his behavior no matter what! That is not a healthy way to raise a child! A child needs discipline! It needs to know the consequences of messing up!”

Tommy felt the urge to curl up in a blanket but immediately dismissed it, because he was sixteen already and not a fucking cry baby. 

“Clara-” Tommy’s father tried his familiar technique of trying to calm the situation down. 

“Don’t touch me.” his mother bristled like a cat. 

Tommy’s father sighed like a deflated balloon. 

“She is enabling him, that’s not right!” his mother said, a fraction calmer now. Her voice still kept Tommy on the edge.  

“You are right, honey.” 

“It’s going to teach that kid that what he is doing is okay!”

“You are right, honey.”

“She is feeding his ambition. This world belongs to ambitious people. That kid will make it far.”

“And people below him will suffer for it.”

“Yes. But he will make it.” 

Tommy gave up on his homework, he knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on it anyway. 

His heart stuttered when he heard steps clicking towards his door. Crap, it was 10:07 pm. He was seven minutes past his bedtime.

“Let’s go to bed, honey.” 

The steps stopped. 

There was silence for a moment. 

“You are right. Tommy is most definitely in bed by now.”

Tommy almost let out a sigh of relief. 

And the steps clicked away, deeper into the house, away from his room and from his curled up form, so small in his big office chair. 

He didn’t exactly snap back to the present. It was more like a slow waking up. Numbness seeped into his bones, pain into his flesh and taste of bile into his mouth. 

His eyes looked up, only to see a leg coming down and everything going black. 

---

Tommy woke up hours later. It was dark. Black birds were flying from a nearby tree to tree. Cold wind was rising and making him shiver. A mad headache made his eyes water. He pushed up his aching body, noting an awfully reeking puddle near where his mouth had been. He must have puked at some point.  

The teen checked his wallet. The total of poor ten bucks that had been there was gone. They even took the coins. At least they had the decency to leave his ID inside. It would have been a bitch to have to go and issue a new one. 

Tommy stumbled his way home. Every step reminding him of how weak he was. Every step reminding him that in this world, people like Dream are the ones who come on top. 

He could be grateful that they deem him pathetic enough to leave him alive. 

Once he came home, he closed the door, set his backpack down and bandaged his injuries. Tommy fell asleep curled up on the couch, while the TV murmured with a dumb sitcom he never had interest in to begin with.