Chapter Text
Noelle had always been into horror. Whether that be the ancient poetry that she had been forced to read (although she didn’t hate it) for school, that one copy of Spooky Stories To Tell In The Dark that Dess rented from the library for her years ago, creepypastas written and voice acted online, or even local urban legends. And that’s where she finds herself tonight: Sleeping over with Kris and Susie, watching a genre of video she’d recently gotten addicted to. That being the kind discussing scary encounters in the woods, things that park rangers saw but got silenced over, weird happenings in places that would otherwise seem normal. Native cryptids, supernatural animal encounters, Things They Don’t Want You To KnowTM. That sort of thing.
Being scared stiff the entire time she watches the video despite being totally focused on it and enamored is something she had grown accustomed to losing aura for. But as long as Susie was there with her...or hell, even just a nice blanket, it would be fine. Sure, it might keep her up at night, but that just meant more time to spend with her!
But as they watch and browse the internet for more of these cryptids, getting into an argument about the Flatwoods Monster at some point (Susie thinks it looks dumb), they come upon a strange article that is oddly close to home.
“STRANGE CREATURE SPOTTINGS REPORTED IN HOMETOWN WOODS”
Upon further inspection, they find out it is, in fact, their Hometown. The exact same one. And not just that, this isn’t some fake report made up as part of an ARG or an internet rumor. This was reported by a real news agency from the nearby city. Apparently Snowy saw something “huge, dark, scary, with giant horns like a demon and a skull for a face” lurking in the woods that chased him when he got lost during a game of no-armed tag. His parents also report seeing it running from the scene when they came to find him, but it was sunset and so dark that they couldn’t make out what exactly it was.
Susie gawks at it, “Whoa! A cryptid in our own town? That’s pretty cool. Bet I could beat it in a fight, though.”
Kris gives her a thumbs up as if they’re agreeing, but Noelle shoots them both down, “What!? Susie, no! You can’t fight a cryptid, they’re like, supernatural! Even guns don’t work on them!”
“Has anyone ever shot one before?” Susie asks, knowing what answer she wants.
“Er...” Noelle hesitates “Not that I know of?”
“Then we can beat it.” Susie insists.
Noelle groans with frustration, “Susie, please! You’re going to get yourself hurt!”
Susie laughs it off, “Relax! I’m not actually gonna fight it. Probably doesn’t even exist.”
“It exists.” Kris mumbles.
“Wait, what?” Susie chuckles “Bro, not you too.”
“See!?” Noelle says “Even Kris knows it!”
Susie looks strangely at them, confused, “Why do you two want it to be real so badly? Isn’t that a bad thing?”
“Well...” Noelle tries to justify “Wouldn’t it just be kind of cool if something like that existed?”
“That’s weird.” Susie states “You’re weird.”
Kris gets up before Noelle can say anything, grabbing both of their attention, “I’ll be right back.”
Noelle eyes them with suspicion, “Kris, don’t do anything dumb!”
But as she turns back, Susie continues to deny it, “Look, I can get liking scary stories, but what’s the fun if you think it’s real?”
“Well...” Noelle tries to explain “You know how I told you about the good kind of scary?”
“And I’m it?”
“Yeah. That. Well, this is also the good sort of scary!”
“How??” Susie continues to be unconvinced.
“Um...” Noelle keeps trying to justify “Well, it means I get a little bit of a thrill whenever I think about it! And I have you to protect me! And there’s that sense of mystery, right?”
“But you won’t go out to find it and won’t let me fight it?” Susie adds.
Noelle stops in her tracks nervously, “I... Well... It’s just...”
Susie smirks, about to tease her, “What? Scared of being wrong?”
“N-No!” Noelle starts to blush out of embarrassment “I just... You know...”
Susie pokes her arm repeatedly, “Scare-dy-doe, scare-dy-doe, scare-dy-doe!”
Noelle snorts and pulls away from her with a grin, “Susiiiie, stoooop!” But they both know she secretly loves it.
And just as Susie is about to pounce and start tickling her like some kind of cuddle monster, the lights in the house cut out. Everything becomes completely black. So suddenly, in fact, that it makes both of them jump a bit and cling to each other, Noelle letting out a sheepish squeal.
Susie speaks up first, “Uh... Is this normal?”
Noelle shakes her head even though Susie can’t see it, whispering back, “No.”
“You got a flashlight?”
Noelle reaches around for her phone and unlocks it, activating the flashlight function, “I have my phone.”
“Good enough.” Susie snatches it from her without thinking, then starts pointing it around. Just a normal room, if really dark. Then she notices Noelle’s wallpaper: Her with her shirt off, facing away from the camera. “Uh...” she stutters “...S-Sorry...” and hands the phone back to Noelle beside her, who timidly takes it back. Susie can’t see it, but she’s beet-red at this point. They choose to ignore that.
“So...” Noelle starts “think it’s one of Kris’ pranks?”
Susie doesn’t even need to think about it, “...Probably. We really just gonna walk into it?”
Noelle smiles slightly to herself, “Well... Kris only does these things because they love us. It might hurt their feelings if we just ignore it.”
Susie chuckles, “You’re both weird as hell.”
“Says the girl who eats chalk!” Noelle shoots back with a giggle.
“HEY! I need my calcium!” Susie argues, making Noelle laugh harder.
But as the two banter, a bump in the dark followed by the sound of glass shattering startles them. Noelle jumps right into Susie’s arms. They stay silent for a moment, just long enough for Kris to yell from the other end of the house, in a clearly fake panic, “SUSIE! NOELLE!” That said, it’s still more emotion than they usually put into anything they say.
Noelle shouts back, a hint of concern in her voice, “Kris! Are you okay!?” After all, they may have overestimated their ability to see in the dark. They could have actually hurt themself!
But...no reply. It’s at that point she starts to wonder if that’s all part of the act. Perhaps Kris is just sitting in the other room, smirking, chuckling, ready to pounce as soon as they come out. At least, that’s what she imagines is happening. But it IS Kris, no telling what they’re planning. She starts to look around for another flashlight, “...Susie, stay close.”
Susie huffs, “Wow, you actually are scared!”
Noelle rolls her eyes affectionately, “Susie...”
“Or maybe you just wanna be close?” her tone shifts a bit as she nudges into Noelle.
Noelle giggles back, “This isn’t the time! Let’s just go get the lights back on. We can...” she whispers “...cuddle afterwards.”
Susie hadn’t actually expected that move to pay off, so she just smiles like an idiot, “O-Oh. Sweet.”
A silence ensues as they slowly walk out of the room, flashing the light side to side to make sure Kris isn’t about to jumpscare them. They’re nowhere to be found. Noelle tells her, “Hold on, I think there’s a flashlight in...” she hesitates noticeably “Dess’ room.”
“Oh.” Susie says, remembering the last time they touched something in her room “...You sure it’s...?”
Noelle sighs, “I know, but... It’s not like she’ll miss it. It might not even work.”
“If you say so.” Susie’s voice is low, quiet, and contemplative. Speaking about Dess had been for her ever since she learned what happened.
They sneak into the room, Noelle going straight for the computer desk. Inside is what she was hoping for: the flashlight. Two, in fact. She clicks them on, finding that they luckily both work. She chuckles fondly, “Right... One was hers, the other was...also hers, but for Azzy. They used to love exploring at night. Here.” She hands one to Susie, who takes it without a word. Noelle puts her phone back, turning the flashlight off.
And just as they’re about to leave, they hear another loud bang outside, followed by the door swinging open violently and hitting the wall, one of the mechanical santas falling on the floor as Kris practically SCREAMS, “SUSIE! HELP! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!”
They both freeze up for a moment. Noelle sighs with relief, thinking to herself, “(Thank the angel mom is staying at the office tonight... She’d kill us if we woke her up!)”
Only for Susie to quickly leap into action, “N-Noelle, hold up...” another thud from outside that makes her jump “Is this really a prank? This is a little real. What if there’s like, a burglar? Or something?”
Noelle stops to think about it for a moment, when the reality that this could actually be a thing hits her. “I... But, the crime rate is zero! If someone broke in, surely...” But her mom is staying at the office. She starts to go pale at the thought: “(Oh... Oh my gosh, Kris could actually be in danger... and I just...!)” She points the flashlight around the room, spotting one of Dess’ old baseball bats, “Susie, grab the bat. Just to be safe.”
She doesn’t even have to finish, Susie has already grabbed it and starts holding it in front of her as they both open the door. Slowly. But their speed hardly matters: As soon as they exit, they see something, someone, dash out of the front door of the house and slam the door shut. Kris is yelling from outside, right past the door, their voice getting further away. Susie’s breathing stops, just for a moment before she clenches her teeth together and yells, “KRIS! Dammit! Noelle, come on, we have to go save them!”
She doesn’t wait for an answer of any kind. She just dashes down the stairs, sliding down the railing and nearly ripping the front door off of its hinges to make chase. Noelle would be left in the dust by her own fear if not for the fact that she does cross-country. Thanks to those powerful legs, she catches up very quickly just halfway down the road, even managing to nearly outrun susie as they start to close in on where this strange apparition is taking Kris. Not that they could see what it is, anyways. Even with those beaming bright flashlights. The chase leads them down to..the shelter.
This late at night, in this level of darkness, god forbid on a new moon of all times, the place is even more eerie than it normally is. Like some cursed land that no mortal was ever meant to step foot on. The ambient sounds of hometown late at night, the occasional music that can be heard from peoples’ homes who stay up too late, the buzz of street lamps, even the wind itself all seem to vanish into silence here. The only thing to be heard this close to it is their own footsteps and an occasional chirp of some bug. And that odd, low droning.
As they reach the shelter and stop just before the entrance of the forest, Noelle stops in her tracks, frozen in place. Her flashlight points in the dark woods, seemingly empty of life. The light shakes uncontrollably. Susie puts the bat down and places a hand on her shoulder, startling her just a bit before she realizes who it is. “Hey.” Susie tells her “It’s alright. I’m right here.”
Noelle takes a deep breath to settle herself down, “...Thank you.”
Susie looks down at her, just to make sure she’s okay. It’s hard to tell in this darkness. She shines her light into the woods as well, “You think it dragged them in there?”
“It?” Noelle asks, as if Susie knows something.
“Not like we know what that thing was. It could be a kidnapper...or one of those cryptids you keep talking about.” Susie explains her reasoning.
Noelle nods along, “Should we...?” They both stare into the woods as she comments “...I was always told that...you should never go out into the woods at night. Ever. Especially alone. Nothing good happens in there.”
Susie grips her harder, “You’re not alone, though. I’m here.”
Noelle looks up at her, just barely making out her golden eyes shining in the dark, “...Yeah.”
Susie takes her hand off, then reaches for something on her person, “Here. It doesn’t feel right letting you go in without some protection of your own. Just think of it like insurance.” She hands Noelle a hunting knife, still in its sheath.
Noelle looks down at it with shock, “Wait, this is...Kris’ knife? Why do you...?”
Susie chuckles, “They let me borrow it the other day. Forgot to give it back.” But her tone suddenly shifts, “Seriously, take it. If this isn’t some prank, you’ll need it. Now come on, let’s find Kris. If we get separated, go back to the shelter and start waving your light around. I don’t have a phone, so... Just stay close, okay?” She picks the bat back up and raises it to the ready.
Noelle nods. They take one more look into the pitch black forest before the step forward into the brush. One careful step after another, difficult to feel around for stable ground and avoid falls. They move slowly, gradually, but after a short time Susie starts to get anxious, “It’s... It’s so damn hard to walk like this! We’ll never catch up if we can’t...! Dammit! This better be a prank!”
Noelle shivers as she grazes by a bush she didn’t see until now, not answering. Not for a lack of want, but the fear choking her. She wants to agree, to add “(And I’m going to slap them silly when this is over.)” But she can’t. She’d never done something this reckless, this stupid in a long time. If the circumstances were more casual, she may even find it thrilling.
She does, in a way. Susie next to her, darkness surrounding them, nothing but the chirps of bugs and rustling of nocturnal animals to accompany them. It would almost be nice if not for the context. Another good possibility ruined by some stupid joke. Wouldn’t be the first time. But in a way, that’s its own kind of charming. Something only Kris would dare to do. Times like these that she wonders if they’re really friends. But it’s usually just the anxiety talking.
Lost in her thoughts just as they are this damned forest, she finds herself...stopping for a moment. A few tigs broken underhoof, she gazes into a piece of the forest to the side that she’d never seen before. Something about it... The trees in that direction start to wind, gnarl, and bend around some kind of cleared path. As she shines the light down it, there forms a dark tunnel with no obvious end. Somewhere that the light doesn’t seem to want to reach.
Something about it. Something about it. It calls, like a quiet whisper of a voice she can only vaguely remember. Something not quite terrifying, not quite comforting. Stopped in place for what feels like an eternity and an instant, she takes a step off the beaten path and towards this one. And then another. As if in a trance, she follows its striking shape.
The shrubs begin to change shape, just as the trees do. Winding, curling upwards yet crawling across the ground. Their leaves, stems, and flowers are replaced by...thorns. The autumn colors don’t fade, but disappear completely as the ground becomes sparse of their coverage. No orange or yellow, no red here. Only green, brown, grey. And black. So much black. Not just the darkness ahead, but the dirt itself, far darker than normal. And the path ahead, a hypnotic and pale shadow. It continues to beckon, drowning out everything else.
The sounds of the forest are strange. Some are like uprooting trees, and others like a soft pattering, a quiet sneaking of something that doesn’t want to be seen. Something just as afraid as her. Nothing skulks here, no predators save a silent owl or two. They never call, never hoot, but she can hear their presence. Their wings may not make a sound, but their eyes do. They peek from within the shadows, atop the trees, watching. Waiting for her to pass. Backing away, yet welcoming as if she had always belonged here.
But she isn’t like her cousins, the wild fawns. She doesn’t belong here. Her loud, oblivious treading makes that crystal clear. Nothing to sneak by, here. And yet, still no sign of Kris. In fact...
She turns around, breaking from her trance. The path that once seemed so clear vanishes without a trace. Susie is nowhere to be found. Her hair stands up stiff, hands and legs shaking at the prospect. The one thing she didn’t want to happen. She starts to turn around, and around, searching for her, but...nothing. Not even a footstep in the dark as she stands completely still, silencing even her own breath. But she can’t silence her heart, thumping so loudly that the crickets couldn’t possibly match it. She calls into the wilderness, “Susie? Where are you!?”
But nobody comes.
She calls again, “Susie!? Kris!? Anyone!? Please!?”
The apprehension of her voice meeting nothing chokes her. Darkness constricts her. Her mind races for directions, “(It’s okay, Noelle! Just...turn back! Got the way you came! You’ll get back on the path and see her flashlight at the shelter, you’ll follow it and be safe! Just...go back...)”
“...Which way is back?”
She whimpers, gasping, twisting and turning her light around for any semblance of a landmark, anything she’s seen before. But it all looks the same. Every tree identical, every horrid thornbush forming a wall around her. She tries to calm down despite herself, but the panic persists. The light begins to shake again. She takes off into any familiar direction she can find, trying to reorient herself, looking past the tree cover and further into the dark in hopes of finding some shaft of light peeking out in the distance, but nothing. Nothing as far as she can see.
Her pace quickens, stepping over fallen logs and crushing twigs as she races through any safe way she can find. The woods only become more and more dead the further she goes. “No...” she starts to regret “No, this can’t be happening... Oh gosh...” She nearly trips as she puts her back to a tree. “I’m gonna die here! I’m gonna die! I can’t...!”
She thinks back on her last decision. Going down that path. There was a word for that, right? What was it? From those videos, the ones about cavers getting stuck in places they can’t get out of. Going into dark tunnels only to mysteriously vanish and never be seen again. Divers staring into the abyss and swimming into it, meeting the same fate. People suddenly jumping off of ledges down heights they know they can’t survive.
The Call of the Void.
A speck of white darts across her vision in the near darkness.
The forest falls deathly silent. Nothing to be heard. Not a chirp, a howl, footstep, slither, or crunch. Nothing. Pure silence.
Every single nerve in her subconscious immediately screams, “(RUN. RUN. RUN. RUN. RUN. RUN.)” And she can’t. There is nowhere to run to. Nothing but an infinite expanse of thorns and darkness. The cold bites at her fur as it stands up stiff, like icicles on her skin. A cold breeze, colder than the ambient autumn air rolls across her body and sends blood-chilling shivers throughout. It bites, stings as her mind burns in a hellfire. Her entire body begins to quake, and she lets out a pathetic squeal as she pleads, “KRIS! This isn’t funny anymore! Please, come out! I’m scared enough! You did it, you scared me! You got me really good! Just please come out so we can go home! PLEASE, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” she begs and begs, on the verge of tears...
But nobody answers.
The white light returns. It darts across her vision again. Circling. Like a predator. She tries to catch it in her lights, but it’s too fast. She tries to reach for the knife, but her hands shake so violently that they can hardly unfasten the knife’s protective sheath. And... It’s behind her. Something settles. Just a small noise, heard in the dead silence where even a pen being dropped in the soft and dark soil could be heard. A twig, breaking. Just behind her. Next to the tree that she had just been facing a moment ago.
Her heart begins to race, body quivering, hyperventilating hard enough that it could cause a panic attack on its own if she weren’t careful. She keeps her hand on the knife’s grip despite her inability to properly draw it. As if it would do any good. She doesn’t want to turn around. She doesn’t want to know what it is. But Something... Something whispers to her. Her name. A voice familiar, yet unfamiliar at once.
She slowly turns, light buried firmly into the ground in defiance of her curiosity, of her own will, to spare herself. But it’s not strong enough. It begins to slowly lift, crawling up the black soil and towards It.
The light shines on Something, unable to eradicate its darkness. Noelle’s body freezes completely. Her breath, her heart, seem to stop completely if only for a moment. Even their sound is cut off, just like everything else. The only thing she can still hear is the whispers. A low, unnatural droning.
It towers over her, in front of that cursed tree. Something with tattered rags for clothes, bathed in a ceaseless darkness. Long limbs, utterly gaunt, nearly skeletal, those rags, its skin...or perhaps something else, drenched in lacquer. It holds something long, crude, beaten and broken. A weapon. It stands crucified, perhaps mockingly, against the tree as if trying to blend in. Bones, ribs...its skull. Visible. Like a revenant. Horns that, at first, could be mistaken for tree branches. And within that inextinguishable black, behind its overgrown and untamed waterfall of hair...
A white eye stares through her. Straight forward. The voices, the droning... As she meets Its gaze, they all stop.
She stares up at It. Her flashlight drops to the ground, sinking as if it were in water. Its light, eaten. The eye still shines, the only thing left. Only It. A single chord plays. From where, she doesn’t know. But she hears it. A discordant, yet precise chord. She tries to speak, but it silences her. Every word, falling to that one note. A deep, melancholic reverberation that shakes nothing, yet resonates forever and burns itself into her memory.
As does the eye. That face. That invisible, blank face. She can’t remember it. Not now, as it stares at her, nor ever. Time seems to stand still in that moment, a cold texture like glass reaching out for her. It touches her. Smooth, yet sharp. Clean. Empty. Cold.
As her breath returns to her, Noelle does not scream. It isn’t enough. Unable to move her body, it moves on its own, propelled by a force beyond her ability to comprehend. By now, the only thing she can run on is pure, unbridled instinct. She runs. And runs. Through the thickets, the thorns tearing her clothes and scraping her hide, cutting and making blood. Each prick only deepens her fugue. She trips, scrapes her knee several times, collides with a tree. And another. Another. Sprinting, galloping through the forest with every ounce of energy and life she has in her. Her body begs for mercy, but she can’t give it. Her antlers nearly catch on a branch, but she rips them free and takes the branch down in the same action.
It doesn’t follow. It never would. It stays, and yet she can see it every time she looks back. Further and further away, yet still staring. Something. Something lurking, still yet following, still yet present, everywhere. By the time the struggle she’s put herself through catches up with her nerves, she’s too committed to care. She endures it like she has everything else. And the dark... Ever-present, suffocating. Impossible to see anything. No sound to find her way, no direction to find her goal. The only thing she had, the light, gone. The knife, the knife, by her side and yet useless.
“(Stab yourself.)” it cries “(It can all be over. It could all be over.)”
But she silences it, just like everything else. The chord doesn’t stop. Not until...
Light. She sees a light, shining in the dark. A beacon, guiding her through the jagged depths of this abyss. Something pushes her forward, one last stretch of strength to reach it, one last gasp of desperation before she can finally, finally be safe. Nothing else even remains on her mind.
And there it is. The end. She emerges from the bushes, tripping over herself into the clearing where that eerie drone calls home. No trees, only behind her. The light shines upon her, and sound finally returns to her.
“Noelle!?” Susie calls out to her from just a short distance away. She shines the light on herself to try to help.
Noelle stumbles to her feet and sprints towards Susie, covered in twigs, leaves, thorns, and other debris. But she doesn’t care. She latches onto that girl with everything she has and wails.
“Noelle!?” Susie gasps “Wh-What the hell happened to you!? I told you to stay near me, and the next thing I know you’re just GONE!? Do you have any idea how...?” She gulps as she notices that Noelle is crying into her chest, coupled with that unrelenting vicegrip that could choke someone to death if she wanted. Susie’s own panic subsides as she takes the terrified doe into her arms, “Whoa, hey... It’s alright. I’m right here. You’re safe, now.”
Noelle only tightens her grip, as possible as that can be. She sobs and chokes, grasping for any semblance of protection Susie can give, and finds herself wrapped in her warm embrace, hardly even able to speak.
“It’s okay.” Susie tries to console her, knowing it won’t be enough. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. Just...calm down. Breathe.” Noelle tries to breathe deeply, but only finds herself gasping and choking again. “Breathe.” Susie repeats. She tries again. Same result. She starts to cry again. “Ah, shit.” Susie curses her inability. All she can do is hold onto her and hope it helps.
Of course it does. Noelle can barely even form words, but she tries. She only manages to repeat, “Susie... Susie...” over and over.
Susie is about to ask her what she saw, what happened, but as she tries to get the words out, a strange feeling stops her. She’d never hesitated with her words this much before, especially without even knowing why. But they just seem...wrong. Something about them. She can’t word them in a way that doesn’t. She just keeps holding on, her eyes set on the darkened locks of gold beneath her. She drops Dess’ bat and combes her fingers through them.
But just then, she hears a rustling from those same bushes. Noelle jumps, ramming her antlers right into Susie’s shoulder and making her wince, but she doesn’t get angry. Or even blame her. She just lifts up her flashlight and shines it on...
Kris. Wearing some improvised getup out of twigs and leaves to make themselves look like some forest monster. And yet, it’s so badly made that nobody would ever be fooled by it, much less scared. She can’t even help but stare at it with some level of disappointment before suddenly realizing, “Wait, KRIS! There you are! What the hell!? You’re seriously just going to...?”
She trails off as Noelle separates from her, staring down at the ground with an unreadable expression before she turns and...approaches Kris. Slowly at first, but her pace quickens after a second. It seems like she’s about to tackle them just like she did Susie, although Kris obviously wouldn’t be able to handle that. She is quickly proven wrong. Noelle dashes forward and doesn’t slap, but slugs Kris directly in the cheek with a right hook so powerful that it makes Susie flinch and sends them to the ground in shock.
Noelle breathes as deeply as she can and lets out an uproarious scolding, “KRIS! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?”
It’s the first time any of them have ever heard her swear before. It’s enough to make Susie briefly cower. Kris is blown away, both by the punch and her screaming. Her clenched fist, so tight that they might begin to bleed, seething with such unadulterated rage that they’d never seen before, that they cannot respond in any way except to stare.
“HOW COULD YOU!?” she yells again, running up to Kris while they’re down and kicking them. She holds back, or at least tries to, but it doesn’t change the fact that her legs could probably shatter bones if she didn’t. “YOU! YOU’VE...!” She gasps again, sucking down tears to not choke on her own anger “YOU’VE SERIOUSLY GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME! I don’t...” Another gasp. And another. Deeper and deeper breaths, but they don’t help. “I can’t...” she shakes her head slowly, then rapidly, and slowly again, pinching her temples.
Kris tries to apologize desperately, backing away while still on the ground, practically crawling away from her.
Noelle continues, her words slowly transforming from hate-filled screams to sorrow-drenched tears, “I don’t know if I can... I... She’s... Why? Why did you...? How could you...?” She collapses to her knees and begins to sob again, whispering yet hoping Kris can still hear her, “I... I hate you... I hate you...”
Susie can hardly continue to watch this unfold despite her inability to find the words to even say. Instead, she just yells at Kris too, “Kris, what the hell did you do!? I’ve never seen anyone this scared in my life!”
Kris tries to plead with her that they don’t know, they have no idea. They keep trying to apologize to Noelle, but she won’t listen. She keeps pushing them away. They take out the twigs and leaves while pleading, begging for forgiveness that won’t come.
Susie runs over to them and grabs them by the collar, “Dammit, Kris, this is serious! Just tell me what happened!”
But Kris tells her that they don’t know again. Like a mantra. The fear she saw in Noelle’s eyes isn’t quite there, but something...similar in theirs. Susie has terrified a hundred kids before. She’s come to know what their reactions to her aggression mean. To sort the honest from the actors and see peoples’ true reactions behind their eyes. And now, all she can see is confusion and fear.
She asks again, this time less aggressively, “Kris, I need you to be honest right now. What did you do?”
Kris tells her they didn’t do anything. Another truth.
“Then... What the hell...? How is she...” Susie shakes her head of the stray trains of thought “What were you even doing out there!?”
Kris explains that they were going to hide out in a bush not too deeply into the forest and jump out to scare the two of them when they passed by.
Susie expresses incredulity, “What? The hell do you mean ‘were’?”
Kris tells her that they didn’t see her or Noelle and got worried, so they came back.
Noelle stops sobbing. She looks up at Kris being dangled by their sweater and asks, quietly, “...What?” She stands up, staring at Kris the entire time, “You...didn’t see us?”
Kris shakes their head.
“And you didn’t...set anything up? It was just you?”
Kris nods.
Just like that, everything falls silent again. Noelle’s arms and legs lock up, leaving her standing there stiff as a board, eyes wide, mouth agape as time seems to stand still. Her vision narrows and blurs, creating doubles. Her head spins, everything becoming a blur as the stress finally overcomes her. Her chest tightens up, heartbeat twisting, and she tries to grasp at it, but her body won’t respond.
To everyone else, it’s as if she had completely stopped working on a fundamental level. But as the realization hits, Susie and Kris look at each other. Susie grows pale and slowly lets Kris down. “Kris...” she commands calmly, but they can see the fear written on her downturned eyes “...go turn the lights back on.”
Kris nods slowly and takes off in a sprint as soon as their feet hit the ground.
Susie slowly makes her way over to Noelle and crouches to her level. She reaches out and places a hand over her chest, gently grasping it after feeling the intense drumming. Noelle finally reacts, gasping for air as if she had just been underwater for a second too long. Tears are streaming down her face, caught only by her ragged fur. Susie pulls her in, picking her up and holding her tightly.
And finally, Noelle can move again. Just slightly, but enough. She rests her head on Susie’s shoulder and grasps at her jacket and shirt, otherwise completely unresponsive. Susie carries her away from the cursed place, not looking back. “It’s okay.” she says. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” repeating ad nauseum until they finally arrive back at her home. The lights are on again.
By the time Susie brings Noelle back to her room, Kris has already done the courtesy of making her a cup of hot chocolate to soothe her nerves. Susie sets her down on her couch, slowly picking away at the debris covering her body, straightening her hair and fur up, and mending at her scrapes and cuts while she silently and slowly sips from her cup.
They don’t say a word to each other for the rest of the night, except for a barely audible “I’m sorry.” from Noelle, presumably towards Kris. And them, back to her. Kris isn’t normally one for hugs, but they gave her one. A long, lingering one. They both cry, for different reasons, but Susie is there beside them both the entire time.
By the time she’s recovered enough to talk again, it’s well past their bedtime. Yet, she can’t sleep. Not after that. Susie tries to invite her to sleep together, and Noelle tries. She tries incredibly hard, it’s everything she’s ever wanted. To be held, coddled, protected by the big, purple woman. But she can’t. It doesn’t help. Not as much as she needs it to. Hardly anything else could help as much, but it’s still not enough. She finds herself pacing back and forth, Susie still awake deep into the night, worrying about her. “Hey,” she asks “you coming back? I... You’re starting to scare me, Noelle. More than this already was.”
“I can’t.” is her immediate response. “I can’t. I just... I can’t.”
Susie stares at her worriedly, trying to think of what magic words can coax her into bed. She fails. Her curiosity gets the better of her, “...Why?”
Noelle stops in the dark center of her room, “...Something’s out there. It’s watching.”
Susie’s heart sinks as those words hit her. But she doesn’t know what to say. She tries to invite her again, “Noelle, come on. I’ll keep you safe, so just...”
But Noelle doesn’t bite. She stares. She stares for a while, but she doesn’t bite. But she wants to. But she doesn’t. Susie turns over in the bed helplessly, wishing for a way to help, trying to think of one but being unable to. She grips the pillows as hard as she can as if that’ll bring some comfort. “(This is what those stuffed animals are for, isn’t it?)” she imagines.
And Noelle continues to pace, continues to peek out into the halls. She eventually locks the door tightly and goes back to pacing. Until...Something draws her to the window. The closed window, blinded to keep any light out. So she crawls onto the couch, slowly reaching up to the curtains and parting them. She looks down into the back yard below.
An eye. Something stares back up at her.
That morning, Noelle wakes up to find herself having slept on top of Susie. Under normal circumstances, this revelation would turn her face into a stop sign. But not now. Instead, she simply lays there, head throbbing mildly, staring off into the wall on her left. The image is still baked into her mind, that which she doesn’t want to remember. But it invades. The only thing to clear her mind is...
She raises herself up to see it. That innocent, peaceful, dumb face sleeping beneath her with its mouth wide open and snoring like a train. Noelle sighs and lays back down, only for Susie to stir and eventually wake up after a loud yawn. “Mornin’...” she drawls, absentmindedly placing a hand on Noelle’s back and slowly caressing it. If Noelle could purr like a cat, she probably would right now.
“What happened?” Noelle asks, wondering how she got from staring out the window to suddenly being on top of Susie in an instant.
Susie shifts around a bit, “You uh... You just kinda fainted. Hit the ground pretty hard, too. I was...worried. Thought you might be hurt, or that you might have a concussion. But everything was closed, so I just...did whatever I could think to do. I’m just...” she hugs Noelle tightly “...glad you’re alright.”
Noelle lets out a sigh that she had been holding in for only angel knows how long, letting out a great deal of stress with it. The rest melts into the embrace she’s found herself in. “Can we just...stay like this for a while?”
Susie lets out a sigh of her own, “...Sure.” Another long silence passes, punctuated only by the chirps of birds singing incessantly outside. Normally it would be grating, but this time it’s at least a pleasant ambience to their intermission. But she has to break the silence at some point, “...You wanna talk about it?”
Noelle doesn’t even consider it, “No.”
Susie respects her, “Alright. But if you ever want to talk, I’ll listen.”
Noelle considers that, however, “...Thank you.”
Susie smiles for once since last night, almost proudly. She adds, however, “And uh, Kris said they were sorry about everything.”
“I know.” Noelle responds flatly, letting nothing shine through.
Susie doesn’t like the sound of that and hesitantly, desperately, asks, “You can...forgive them, right? They felt pretty horrible about it.”
Noelle goes silent for a while. Just long enough for Susie to start wondering if it was a bad idea to even bring them up at all, but she can’t help worrying. Then Noelle finally answers, “Yeah.”
Susie lets out a sigh of relief, but doesn’t say anything, instead turning in bed and bringing Noelle with her. They stare into each others’ eyes — Noelle’s tired and flat, Susie’s shining full of hope — for a while before Susie closes hers. Noelle smiles at her then, and whispers, “Hey, Susie?”
“Yeah?” she doesn’t open her eyes.
And finally, she manages to say it with just a bit of hesitation, numbed by her trauma as she gently intertwines their fingers, “I love you.”
Susie’s eyes shoot open in shock to meet Noelle’s, doe-eyed as she smiles, “...Huh?” Then she backtracks when she notices her hand is being held, “I mean, uh... Yeah! Me... Me too!” Noelle smiles softly at her and starts to drift back to sleep. But her dreamlike bliss is interrupted by Susie immediately worrying, “You sure your head’s alright?”
She just laughs, “I’m okay, Susie. As long as I’m...” She yawns, and before she knows it, is back asleep. Susie doesn’t get the rest of the sentiment, but just enough to piece it together. She doesn’t, but she’s at least content enough to drift off with her.