#even vanessa is floored by how quickly they moved in

[twilightkitkat]

Really stupid idea but can you imagine if the TVA swore Wade and Logan to secrecy and then they come back and everyone is so incredibly confused. Like? Wade, what the fuck? Who is Logan and why is he living with you and why does he look like a dead superhero?

Especially with the insinuation that the entire movie timeline spanned over a few days. So Wade goes from hopelessly pining after his ex to bringing home this buff, hairy, muscular guy to live with him without warning after disappearing from his birthday party.

Like he just randomly walked out the door after blowing out the candles, then he mysteriously reemerged with this feral look-don't-touch beast of a man. And he's calling him stupid pet names like "peanut" and "babygirl" and the guy isn't biting his head off?

When asked, Wade just responds that Logan was his best birthday gift ever. Logan's ears turn pink and he covers his mouth to hide the small smile on his face. Wade wraps an arm around his shoulder and grins. Meanwhile, everyone thinks Wade left his own party because of a hook-up call that somehow ended with him landing himself a boyfriend.

[rafeandonlyrafe]

imagination part two

part one part three

words: 1k

warnings: 18+ only! smut, male receiving oral, face fucking

taglist: @drewstarkeyslut @thelomlisrafecameron @f4ll-for-you @dilvcv @drewsbabygirll @jjmaybankswifes-blog @rafescokenostril @jjsmarijuana @jjmaybankisbae @seeingstarks @angelofcigs @cece45450 @babygorewhore @vanessa-rafesgirl

“shit, baby!” rafe grabs the towel hanging on the wall, wrapping it around his waist to cover himself. “what did you forget honey?” 

you completely forgot what you were came back for, blinking several times at rafe, your eyes glazed over as you take in his muscles, the memory of what is now being covered by the towel seared into your mind.

“baby girl, what did you forget?” rafe asks again.

“i-um. my scrunchie.” you say, reaching for the scrunchie you left on the counter. a silly thing to come back for maybe, but rafe knows it's your favorite.

“im glad you got it, now let me get dressed and ill walk you out to your car, yeah?” rafe tucks the towel so it holds itself up, slowly advancing towards you.

“rafey, why were you calling my name?” you ask as he comes up to you, placing his hands on your shoulders. “were you… touching yourself?”

rafe swallows his surprise. “what does my innocent girl know about touching yourself?”

your cheeks flare red. “i don't wanna be innocent anymore, rafe. i-i want you to take my virginity.”

rafes eyes slide closed, his chest moving in a steady up and down motion, trying to control himself from going completely feral and doing what you ask by bending you over the counter and thrusting his length into you.

“baby, you should spend some more time thinking about it.”

“no.” you frown, “i want you. now.”

rafe groans, like he's releasing his last bit of self control, and walks you backwards into the bedroom. you move to the bed, allowing him to control your movements as you sit down on the comforter.

“we'll go slow.” rafe says, more commanding himself than telling you.

“can i see your dick again?” you ask, eyes now closer to level with the towel wrapped around his waist, sticking up in the center from where he had rehardened.

“yeah.” rafe nods, wishing he could get you naked first, but wanted to let you have a bit of control before he lost all of his and fucked you like an animal.

you tug at the towel, much more eager than rafe thought you would be. if he knew that you accidentally seeing him naked would spur this moment, he would have started walking around naked a lot earlier in your relationship.

the towel falls to the floor and your eyes widen, taking in how long and thick rafes cock is, jutting out from his body. you wrap your hand around the base and give him a stroke, making rafe groan out.

“is this good?” you question, and rafe nods, going to answer verbally when he cuts himself off with a gasp when you continue to move your hand.

you scrunch your face in concentration as you stroke him, trying to tell what he likes by the noises and faces he's making, and by how his cock twitches in your hand.

you swipe your thumb over his tip, a bit of precum leaking out. before you can really think over your actions, you lean forward and flick your tongue over his leaky head.

“fuck!” rafe shouts out, not expecting your actions. you quickly pull back, thinking you did something wrong or something that didn't feel good, but as you retreat, rafe pushes forward, his cock slipping past your lips, filling your mouth.

“fuck…” rafe groans again, unable to control the curses falling from his tongue. “baby just… just relax okay? im gonna fuck your mouth. i-i can't stop.” 

you nod curtly, wishing you had more experience before doing this with rafe, but you trust him to lead you, even as he pushes his hips further forward, until his cock hits the back of your throat, causing you to cough.

“relax, baby.” rafe warns again, pulling out to let you take a full breath before his cock is back in your mouth, and this time he doesn't move slowly, snapping his hips forward and back, thrusting himself repeatedly into your mouth.

you try to breathe through your nose the best you can, only gagging occasionally when rafe hits particularly deep. he brings his hands to your head, moving you in rhythm with him. 

you close your eyes, feeling tears fall down your cheeks. you hope that whatever you’re doing is making rafe feel good as he moans above you. 

“i’m sorry baby.” rafe runs his palm over the top of your hair. “i just can’t stop, you feel too good.”

you hum around his cock, trying to tell him that it’s okay, that you want to make him feel good like this, but he can’t let up as he continues to fuck your face, drool now rolling down your cheeks.

“gonna cum.” rafe warns only seconds before he shoots down your throat, somehow able to cum so quickly after just masturbating in the shower. you swallow everything he has to offer, moaning softly at the taste as he starts to soften in your mouth. he pulls out with a soft sigh, and you heave in large breaths, wiping your chin and neck clean.

rafe seems to suddenly realize what he just did as he kneels down in front of you, placing his hands on your knees. “are you okay? i’m so sorry, babygirl, i couldn’t stop.”

“it’s okay, rafey.” you shake your head. “it… felt really good. i liked that.”

“i didn’t hurt you?” rafe confirms.

“no.” you shake your head. “i wanna do it again.”

rafe laughs, pulling you into a kiss. you melt against him, wrapping your arms around his shoulders, keenly aware of the fact that he is still naked and the intense craving to have him between your thighs.

“i can’t get it back up right now, but we can definitely do that again, and more.” rafe says, standing up and letting you recover as he gets dressed, donning a simple pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

“are you… are you not going to fuck me tonight?” you ask, a pout coming to your face.

“not tonight baby.” rafe shakes his head. “need you to keep some of that innocence for a bit longer darling.”

“rafe, thats so unfair!” you whine.

“no it’s not. i’m giving you more time to think about wanting to lose your virginity because once i’m in that pussy baby-” rafe pauses to kiss the top of your head before moving his mouth to your ear “i am going to fucking destroy it.”

part three

[ther3allyra]

hii ^^ since you're taking Vanessa requests could you do Vanessa and reader who's really introverted and shy? like reader always tries to avoid eye contact and all 😭?

im sorry if that was a little hard to read but yeah feel free to ignore if you dont want to do it!

Please look at me.

Vanessa Shelly x Reader

Summary: Your extremely shy and have an obvious crush on the blonde police officer, maybe once she makes a move you’ll gain some confidence

Warnings: N/A

Word count: 918

A/N: HII lovely! Thank you for this request I absolutely loved writing this, apologise for this being later than I intended but school was busy, it’s also a little on the shorter side so I hope you don’t mind. Enjoy<3

You sat in the office bored, you longed for the time Vanessa would show up to spend time with you, not that you’d even be able to talk to her I mean the only words you e ever managed to speak to her was ‘Hi’ and ‘Y/N’. Most of the time it was a simple nod or a quick smile you’d give her before looking away shyly rubbing your arm. You longed for the moment you would be able to talk to her, hug her, kiss her. To say the least you had a HUGE crush on her, and you wanted to do something about it but couldn’t.

As you sat watching the monster screen you saw a car pull up just to the side, the vehicle almost staying out of view from the security camera hanging over the entrance door. Standing up quickly with such excitement that you flung open the office door and ran for the entrance, stopping suddenly in your tracks. The jingle of keys. Keys? Vanessa doesn’t have keys but you didn’t have much time to think before you had an Abby running straight for you.

‘Y/N!!!’ She squealed with delight, as you opened your arms bringing her in for a big hug. You look up to see your older brother Mike just closing the door, it must’ve been a double shift with him, had you forgotten?. You looked from Abby who was still giving you a big hug and giggling to Mike, back to Abby, and then back to Mike again mouthing the words ‘what is she doing here?’

Mike took a step forward as your little sister jumped out of your arms, saying something of ‘be right back’ and ‘saying hi to friends’. ‘I couldn’t find a babysitter, Max isn’t answering the phone’ Mike shrug at you, you honestly couldn’t feel to guilty as the night dragged on a little even though it was 3:46Am and you knew you couldn’t actually afford a proper babysitter, that’s why once you were old enough you started working here with your older brother.

As the night dragged itself along you longed wished Vanessa would turn up, maybe she would maybe she wouldn’t?, again it wasn’t as if you could talk to her which you so desperately wanted to do that it was obvious. Abby was busy trying to play a claw machine as Freddy and Mike stood next to her, to say the least it didn’t look as if the animatronic and your brother liked each other very much but both you and Abby hand gotten along great with all of them, you having the closest bond with Foxy. FOXY! You could ask his opinion on how you could talk to Vanessa, he couldn’t exactly speak but the amount you talk about her on the nights she usually calls he could tell you liked her very much. You looked around for the animatronic and once you saw him near the front door you ran for him.

‘Foxy!’ You called as you skidded to a halt near him, your breath catches in your throat as you realised Vanessa had actually turned up, she was most likely talking to the fox animatronic. You snuck a glance up at her and noticed both her and foxy staring at you so you stared down at the floor, your cheeks heating up a tad. You tried your best to avoid eye contact with her but you so desperately wanted to be with her. But now? You felt your heart race and you stood in your place.

‘Y/N?, are you ok?’ She questioned looking at you up and down in your spot, all you could do was nod and let out a simple ‘mhm’, not wanting to move, hoping the ground would open up and swallow you then and there to save you from the embarrassment.

The entire place was silent until Mike had popped up, he probably left Abby with the other animatronics. ‘Hey Ness!’ He smiled approaching you and Vanessa, the ground shook a little as Foxy had walked away. Mike ruffled the top of your hair as you glanced at him. You were so deep in thought you hadn’t noticed the conversation, and mikes watch beeping 6Am. It was 6Am and you hadn’t even spoken to Vanessa!!. Mike walked away to go and grab Abby as she’d most likely fallen asleep on one of the animatronics.

‘I have to go, but it was nice seeing you again Y/N!’ She smiled, but before she left she stepped forward embracing you in her arms. ‘Maybe next time you look at me, huh?’ She smiled and gave you a small kiss on the cheek, before stepping back giving you a smile and walking to her car.

She hugged you, SHE LITERALLY HUGGED YOU!! You got so excited, even the small kiss on the cheek there was some interaction between you and there was a glimmer of hope that you’d gain more confidence next time, and even more hope there was a chance she’d like you back. You followed Mike who was carrying Abby in his arms out to both of your guys car, you waved bye to Mike as he strapped Abby in, getting into your own car. You watched as Vanessa’s car drove by as she honked at you not long followed after Mike’s. You’d probably go grab some breakfast before going back to to Mike, and that’s what you decided to do, extremely happy with how the shift went.

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Ello! Can I request Fnaf movie Mike meeting like a Homeless kid who lives in the pizzeria who gives him tips and tricks to survive headcanons? Basically to confuse the robots they like wear the head of a offbrand/prototype Crow animatronic? They just chill and goof around but remain out of sight from the famous man behind the slaughter and his daughter? :3

Ever since you've made Freddy Fazbear's Pizza into your "home", you quickly learned the ins and outs of the establishment.

You knew what times the animatronics automatically started their shows, where all the security camera blindspots were, how to make a pizza quick and easy, etc.

Above all else, however, you knew how to avoid those robots so they didn't try to make you like them.

Normally, they'd be protective over children--they weren't hostile because you were a homeless kid breaking in and living there.

It's the missing kids themselves.

They've visited your dreams, and every time it ends the same way: with Cassidy asking if you wanted to "join" them and getting frustrated when you refused.

You learned what happened to them and communicated via drawings for a while...until you accidentally broke something, which made them assume you were deliberately trying to destroy the place.

So you've been playing a sort of cat-and-mouse game since, often pranking them and thwarting their attempts to capture you, but never meaning anything ill by it.

If anything, they seem to like these little games, too.

After reading some old employee handbooks, you discovered that the animatronics have a programming glitch that makes them confuse humans for endoskeletons without suits on--and they'd use lethal ways to "fix" them.

Conveniently, you've found a costume head of a crow (likely from a partner of Freddy's or some ripoff brand) backstage, and after successfully tricking Foxy with it...you realized how helpful this could be to the security guards who've applied here and "vanished".

Fastforward to when you meet Mike, fully aware he's the next guard to possibly die (the last one got himself killed before you could even properly warn him in advance--not that he would have believed you anyways).

He's understandably concerned bc you're just a kid who's all alone here with no family, and given his trauma....he suddenly feels like he needs to protect you.

Instead, though, it's the opposite.

"Slide that toolbox in front of the floor vent."

He eyes you strangely, wondering why a kid was bossing him around. "...why?"

"Trust me."

The second Mike does that, he jumps as something starts growling and slamming against the vent's grates, clearly trying to get out and failing as it retreats soon after.

"What the hell was that??"

"Probably just rats." You innocently shrug. "Or Mr. Cupcake who seems especially hungry tonight."

"I'm sorry....the cupcake moves?"

You realize he's absolutely clueless, so you tell him about the animatronics and their routines, showing him the crow costume head.

He's impressed that you know so much about this place (like you were an employee), but he doesn't believe they're capable of doing any harm until later on.

When he brings Abby, you easily see through the facade they're all putting on for her, but you play along with their antics while building the pillow fort (although you avoid talking or looking at Vanessa, never trusting her nor the yellow rabbit your "friends" spoke of).

During the final night where you both rescue her from Chica, you urge Mike to use the crow mask to trick Bonnie and Freddy.

He was certain it'll never work.

They couldn't be that dumb....surely they'll know it's him trying to sneak backstage..

Plus the mask was stuffy and heavy, and he just think it's easier to taze them.

But at your insistence, he tries it on and is shocked when they stare at him for a moment, before continuing their scheduled "show", completely unaware of his ruse.

It does make him wonder how you figured that out all on your own..

[mymelodymia]

Hii. Can you write something please where mike has a second younger sister she is older than Abby like 14 years and is allowed to go with mike to his work one day when Max babysits Abby because she wanted to know what he is doing and maybe help him with it but it ends Mike being alseep again and her getting bored and she looks around and Mike hears a screaming like in the movie with Abby only the reader is for real in danger and is scared and apologizes for running of later and Mike is able to protect her he manages to distract the animatronics and reader looks comfort in mike he will just be overly protective and comforting about her with hugging and stuff. Like Fluff and Angst please ^^. The reader is safe in the end as Mike and she doesn't understand what is happening why the animatronics can move and what they want but Mike protects her.

Dangerous things // Mike Schmidt x sister!reader

**not a ship**

Summary: you accidentally almost die 🫤

Warnings: blood, cupcake,

A/N: of course I can write about that love! You're actually the first FNAF reqs i've had, i had a liiittllee trouble writing this but, i tried my best and i like the way this came out.

+•°+*°•++•°+*°•+

You were currently babysitting Abby because max was buzy, you mainly sat in the living room watching cartoons with her.

You were curious about what goes on at Mike's job. You asked him if you could tag along when he got home that morning. He said no, thinking it was dangerous.

You called max after he left, and drove to his work and snook around, you didn't know how he didn't see you on the cameras. You found him asleep in his office, so you decided to explore.

You found the "showtime" button, and pressed it. (Stupid) and upon seeing you, an adult, the Animatronics went into kill mode, cupcake jumped at you, bitting your leg.

You screamed in pain, freddy then picked you up and threw you, which didn't mess up cupcake.

The impact on the floor knocked the breath out of you. Foxy ran by and slit open your bicep, all the way to your shoulder. You tried to shake off cupcake, but failed. They continued torturing you.

"AAHHH! GET OFF, AGHH! NO!" you screamed at the top of your lungs, (somewhat like when mike was bitten by cupcake)

Meanwhile with Mike, he heard screaming in his dream and woke up quickly, he ran out to find who was screaming. And upon seeing you laying on your back with cupcake bitting the living shit out of your leg, sitting in a pool of blood.

"MIKE, HELP! AHH, MIKE!" You screamed as he ran in, freddy tried to kill him but mike got him with his tazer, and helped take care of most, but he couldn't get bonnie and Chika.

He helped you up and ran to his office, you fell to the floor. Mike was holding your wounds. You pointed at the screens. Mike ran over to see what it was.

It was Bonnie and chika, with cupcake. They let cupcake go into the vents, Mike blocked it with his back. He used all of his strength to not let cupcake get to you.

Cupcake Eventually left. Mike returned to you, who was laying flat on your back in a pool of your blood.

He moved you to his lap, your head resting on his thigh. He pet your hair softly, "im sorry mike" you said through tears. "Its okay, youre gonna be ok. Dont worry, i got you" he reassured you in a tight hug. "Dont worry, i got you. Ill protect you"

He slowly let you down, running quickly he ran and got supplies, and called Vanessa. (I ship them so hard)

She arrived while he was wrapping you up, he didn't even let her touch you for a while since you were both panicking.

She helped Mike wrap you up while he had you in his lap, supporting your upper body. He played with your hair while whispering words of comfort.

They got you to a hospital where you stayed for a few hours, before Mike got you home with a broken leg, but sadly he had to go back to work. When he returned home he saw you hadn't moved since he last saw you.

It was a pretty long recovery but, Mike and Abby helped you through it. They were both very supportive when you were recovering.

+•°+*°•+

A/N: i hope i didn't forget anything in this reqs. I hope you liked it ☺️

Tags

None :((((

[athenodora-sulpicia-writer]

Hi!! Could you please do Vanessa Ives x fem reader with some angst?? 💗💗

A Little bit Broken- Vanessa Ives

A/N: Hey, I hope this is close enough to what you wanted, there wasn’t much to go off of aside from the angst so I took some creative liberties.

Warning(s): Alluding to smut.

I hadn’t wanted to believe that Vanessa had fallen so quickly and irreversibly into despair but when the proofs staring right back at you, there’s not much of an argument you can muster to try and convince yourself otherwise.

I’d tried to leave her be, to give her time and space. Even though my heart and mind kept fighting against my decision, I loved her and I would do anything for her even if it meant leaving her for some time.

Yet when I’d received a private letter from Mr Lyles and he’d told me of the state of Vanessa, I couldn’t believe, I didn’t want to believe it but deep I knew what the letter contained was true and it had broken me leaving me in tears.

I’d only received the letter an hour ago in the late evening, it was now terribly late and dark but I couldn’t wait until the morning to see her and to hold and make sure she was safe.

I had to force my way through the back door the kitchen, it had been stuck and the handle would barely move. At the time I couldn’t tell whether the door had been locked or whether it had some how sealed itself shut in the two weeks that I’d left Vanessa to herself.

Now I stood bare the stairwell, I’d just walked through the living room that had letters and papers scattered across floor and dust had seemed to be as common in the as oxygen.

Looking at the hallway and the grand stairs, things didn’t look anymore promising. The floor no longer held a clean sheen of polish or its dark mahogany colour, instead it was almost black with some sort of dirt and dust, everything seemed to be in a desperate need of care.

But that was all beside the point, I wasn’t hear to worry about the state of the house or it’s decor, my mine and only concern was the woman that I knew would be hiding upstairs in her room, hiding herself away from the world.

It took me a minute to gather the strength I knew I would need to be able to face her. What had become in the weeks I’d left her alone, had she been eating? Drinking? Sleeping? I knew I wasn’t going to get the answers to any of those questions, until I braved the stairs upwards.

And so I did, lifting the skirts of my dress I took one step at a time, not to certain of the security of the stairs, considering the state of the rest of the house, I knew it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.

Once I’d made it to the top of the stairs I began to walk down the darkened hallway that I’d mesmerised by heart, my final destination being the last room at the end of it.

At first I walked at a somewhat cautious and silent pace, not wanting to alarm the ravenette I knew was here.

“Vanessa!” I called out to the silence of the corridor, a few seconds past and no reply came but then I heard a loud bang and then crash and sound of shattered glass penetrated my senses and I didn’t even have to think twice before break out into a sprint to her room.

It didn’t even take me ten seconds to reach the end of the corridor and into Vanessa room, to where I heard the shattered glass. My eyes darted quickly around the room and then they landed on their target.

She was there, disheveled but alive and suddenly a wave of relief washed over me, and as my face broke out into a wide smile and my eyes began to water with tears, I took a step forward to run to her and embrace her.

But then I stopped myself, my eyes quickly caught the glimpse of shattered glass that was lying on the floor next to the writing desk Vanessa was sat at.

I might have scared her when I called and she must have accidentally knocked the gas lamp off her desk and it must have smashed upon impact.

“Vanessa I…” I began to say but then I stopped myself when she looked at me, her eyes locking with mine and their usual bright blue that always seemed as if they were sapphires, were now a dull version of what they once were, clouded and glassed over and I almost struggled to read her expression.

“What are you doing here?” She’d spoken to me but her voice was almost lifeless, almost bleak sounding and my heart broke at not only the tone of her voice but also the question she’d asked me.

It was so blatant and sharp, did she not want me here? Had I don’t something wrong? My mind began to reel with all these questions and suddenly an anger I didn’t know I had began to let itself loose.

“What am I doing here? What do you mean what am I doing here? I’m here for you!” I started to shout, I didn’t want and I’m not sure where it came from but suddenly I was angry and upset all at once.

“I didn’t ask you to be here,” she responded back, her voice colder than before, louder and almost steel like.

She continued to stare at me, only now she was getting up from her seat at her writing desk. She wasn’t wearing an awful lot, just a simple black, almost sleeveless dress. And then some of questions began to be answered.

I could quickly see she hadn’t been eating properly, she hadn’t been starving herself, from what I can see but she’d certainly lost some weight. Her face was a little more hollowed and her hair didn’t seem to have been brushed in several days and suddenly that anger I had was stunning into a rage but it was a caring rage.

“You didn’t have to, I got a letter of Lyles and ran out of my home as quickly as I could.” I began to explain the bite was still in my voice. “I was hoping what he said wasn’t true, that you weren’t letting your self perish in a hellhole, it seems my hope was stupid.”

I stood closer to her, now only a foot or two away. There were so many things I wanted to do, I wanted to scream and shout her for what she’d done to herself, I wanted to take her downstairs and make her eat a proper meal but then I wanted to pour her an nice bath and sit with her and wash her hair and just take of her.

“What did you expect!” She shouted and screamed at me and suddenly I wanted to jump out of my skin and walk away. I’d never heard her about like this before and it scared me, more so than the demons and witches that had plagued us for so long.

“Everyone’s gone, Ethan’s off to the American gallows, Malcolm’s burying his dead children and you were tortured and almost killed and it’s all my fault!” She screamed again and suddenly tears were falling quickly down her cheeks and she began to shake in her spot standing on the floor.

All of it was true, Ethan had been shipped, Malcolm was burying his dead sun and I had almost died but none of that was Vanessa’s fault. We’d all made our own choices and we new that going into this, she couldn’t and shouldn’t blame herself.

“How is any of it your fault? We all made our choices Van and we chose to stand by you, at least I did, I love you!” She knew I loved and she exactly how much and the. Suddenly the tears became less and her eyes darkened and suddenly she was running towards me.

Her lips crashed upon mine and suddenly I was kissing her back. Her normally soft lips were now harsh and rough and I couldn’t tell whether this was out of passion, anger, lust or a mix of all three.

Then before I could understand it, I had accepted it and soon we were pulling each other free of the clothes that confined us both.

Though as Vanessa was trying to get my corset off, I stopped her movements and looked at her. “Why now?”

“I’ve missed you and I can’t bare the thought of not being near you for a moment longer.” It was a simple answer but it was good enough for me and as such I allowed her to continue unlacing my corset and soon we were spending the rest of the night together entertained in each others bodies, enjoying the intimacy of one another.

[alexanderflowerbird]

Getting some writing done today :3 Here's a little snippet. I'm working on New Faith and then later tonight I'm gonna work on Blood Sun Territory CW: gore, demonic possession, swearing, nipple twisting, pregnancy violence [I try to make these warnings as specific as possible so don't laugh if you feel like they're silly, better safe than sorry]

“I think it’s the thrall,” Mercutio says, even though he feels like he’s talking out of his ass. “Vanessa is the focal point… it’s like Jennifer… something happens, I guess, that makes everyone come around, it gets weird like this, and then they’re possessed enmasse.” Vincente glares ahead, watching as a group of teenagers come around the corner on skateboards and bikes, dead eyed with wide smiles, abandoning their childhood vehicles near the Dowarger’s fence to enter the quickly overrun yard. 

“And when… the thing, whatever it is happens… They’re going to eat her?” Vincente asks, and Mercutio almost wants to shrink away from the responsibility of confirming or denying such an outcome. 

“Maybe.” He decides to say, because he isn’t entirely sure, but it feels too likely to deny, especially when a denial might give Vincente hope he definitely shouldn’t have. He hasn’t seen her yet. He doesn’t know how bad Vanessa’s body has been damaged by the demon’s presence and aspirations for pregnancy. How it’s depraved misunderstanding about how babies are made, how they are born, has dealt Vanessa an injury that she should already be dead from. It will be devastating enough for Vincente to see her, to see her insides on the outside, to look at her and know that the woman he loved like a sister is gone… hope dashed on top of that is too much. 

“We’re going in there.” Vincente says and Mercutio sighs, resigned. “Sure. They’re not hostile, not right now anyway. Vanessa… whatever’s inside of Vanessa now isn’t going to turn all of these people on us when we could be more vessels for the demons coming up through whatever this dark-sided shit is. She said as much to me and Derek, that we’d be back.” 

“Why dancing? Why a house party?” Vincente asks aloud. 

“Shit man, I don’t fucking know. These demons, they’re different I guess. Maybe they’re from some special secret circle of hell we’ve never had the displeasure of meeting demons from where all they wanna do is party like it’s 1999. When Dorrance attacked me, he wanted to know what kissing was like, how to do it. Ms.Dorothy’s demon wanted to be her. None of it makes sense. Demons don’t want to be us, they think we’re trash, God’s worst idea, should’ve been left on the cutting room floor.” 

“Perhaps their opinions have changed.” Vincente guesses. 

“Yeah, maybe, but that’s a pretty big fucking paradigm shift after fucking eons of trying to fuck us up and get us to fuck each other up.” Mercutio does sink into the chair when Vincente urges the car to move closer to the house, his instinctual desire to hide himself from the radiating pulses of pain in his tattoos ruling him as they parallel park just beyond the house’s yard. He flinches and gasps when a hand smacks against the window and the face of Mitchell Coreworth appears through the glass, eyes dark and teeth chattering. His salt and pepper mustache has blood mixed in its bristly edges and his skin is jaundiced, made worse by the street lamp above them. Mercutio leans towards Vincente’s side of the car as Mitchell looks in on them and then around the car’s interior, blood and drool spooling down his chin. Mercutio suspects he’s bitten his tongue or broken some of his teeth somehow… his perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth gleam a little in the light when he decides to speak. 

“Nice…Car…Fellas…” He says, words muted by the windowpane. It’s another mimicry; Coreworth is a car enthusiast and has always been jealous of Vincente’s thunderbird. Mercutio recalls when they’d first moved into this neighborhood and Mitchell had noticed them, been neighborly and stuck around just so he could worm his way into asking Vincente if he could buy the car off of him. When the answer was a resounding no, he’d still come around to ask about parts, upkeep, upholstery. He had a friendship with Vincente that was purely car focused, and Vincente, gracious as Jesus calls him to be, was tolerant of the visits and questions and endless elderly, over-wrought suggestions. Coreworth bangs his hand on the hood twice, an imitation of a fond gesture for a beautiful animal if not for the way it sounds like he’s trying to dent the roof with his fist. He leans up again and wanders towards the Dowagers and Mercutio shudders out a breath. “There’s a huge area of effect. There’s no way all of these people have interacted personally with Vanessa, especially when she and Marcus had been staying home to take care of Kelly.” Mercutio says when he can manage to find his voice. “With Jennifer people had come by to see how she was, they were tight knit, and the priests were there to help her when they realized what she was experiencing was a possession. This is something else, more effective than the first couple runs I’m guessing. Vanessa’s some sort of beacon, opening people up to possession and once the hook’s in, she’s reeling them all here.” 

“Why aren’t we being reeled in?” Vincente asks after a moment. 

“Who says we aren’t? Just because we’re following our usual motivations to show up doesn’t mean we’re not being affected and drawn in. What I’m confused about is how are we not being puppeted by fucking demons ourselves at this point.” 

“Would we know? The priest from Jennifer’s case didn’t realize.” 

“I mean he was hearing voices, he should’ve clocked it. Have you been hearing voices?” “No. Have you?” 

“Not any unusual ones.” Mercutio tries to joke. Vincente glares at him, and he holds his hands up. “No, I haven’t been hearing voices, alright?” Vincente frowns even more at him, but carries on.

“Perhaps certain people are immune.” Mercutio shrugs, returning his attention to the house, the people in the yard and on the sidewalk just outside. Some of them have started stripping off their clothes. Mrs.Lennox, a retired teacher from two blocks down with a notorious habit of considering herself the neighborhood watch expert, is shrieking with laughter while pulling and twisting the nipples of Jacob Mottimor, a round, bulky man who always has a story about the good old days when he was almost a football star. He is laughing too, even though the way she’s yanking on him makes Mercutio wince with the desire to protect his own chest. “If that’s the case, it’s rare… I haven’t read anything about people making it out of the towns that have been affected to tell what happened, how they survived it. We should look anyway, dig deep for people who were front and center to this shit, but as far as I can tell? Something happens and everyone’s done for. Which is why we shouldn’t be here.” He points out, even though it’s not going to change Vincente’s mind about this ridiculous, suicidal plan. He looks over at Vincente, and sees he is thumbing the cross around his throat. Mercutio resists the urge to roll his eyes– Vincente must be thinking that maybe it’s God that is protecting them, which is stupid even if the fact that they’re alive after all they’ve been through would suggest that someone somewhere is looking out for them and keeping them from whatever comes after death.

[agirlwithdemonblood]

The Broken Fan - Chapter 6

Pairings: Jensen Ackles & Reader (Read as first person!)

Series Summary: Always a nobody, always invisible, will this convention change things?

Chapter Summary: Jensen and I face some hardships that shouldn't have occured, and he gives me a wonderful surprise.

Warnings: Fighting, mentions of physical assault, descriptions of physical assault/fight, swearing, mentions of injury and blood.

Series Masterlist here! Main masterlist here!

Jensen's POV

The auditorium was filled with people who were cheering and screaming my name, but the only sound that came out clearly was that of my own heart pounding loudly in my ears, like a heavy drum or the rain beating on a window pane.

The memories of our previous conversation was on loop in my mind, the excitement nearly overtaking my body. I couldn't wait. But it was also terrifying at the same time, maybe more in a good way.

You know when you go to the fair and you see a ride you really want to go on, but the fear nearly talks you out of it? Your hands shake, your legs feel like jello, your heart almost skips right out of your chest and for a second you feel like you can't do this, you just want to leave, run away screaming, hide.

But whenever you finally get on that ride and it starts, the fear starts to dissipate and turn into adrenaline instead. Your grimace turns into a smile, screams into laughter, fear into fun.

That's what I was feeling. So excited, but so fucking scared of the uncertainty. What if it goes wrong? What if I ruin her? What if she ruins me?

Sitting next to my best friend, I couldn't help but wonder what he would think of all this. Was I being crazy? Was this too fast?

Either way, if this was wrong, than I never wanted to be right.

Back to me

It's only been an hour and a half since Jensen left for the panel but I already missed him with every fibre of my being. Was he thinking of me too? Was he okay?

I had to admit, as soon as he left I felt like I was suffocating. I couldn't understand how this is real life, how this is happening to me out of all people. Why would he ever want me this way?

My thoughts were heading straight into overdrive as I sat there, alone, and I couldn't handle it anymore. I had to get out of this stuffy hotel room, away from the silence and the scent of him that drove me crazy.

Quickly grabbing my purse, I headed down the hallway to the elevators, thanking Jensen ahead of time for having a private floor so I wouldn't be caught by any superfans up here.

I wasn't ashamed in any form, but I knew how it already looked by us being together, and I haven't even spoken to him about how this could affect our personal lives when word gets out. I couldn't do that to him, so I'd be as careful as could be.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, my chest tightened with anxiety. Fans were everywhere, crowding around the lobby, nearly pressed into each other. I checked the time and realized quickly why, the panel just ended and Jensen was going to be signing soon.

I walked around sheepishly as I stared at the booths set up, trying to stay calm in the sea of voices and screams. I never really was good with crowds of people, and this... well this was my nightmare.

Suddenly, a warm feeling rushed over me, one that I've only ever felt when Jensen was around. The exact same feeling I had when he stared at me from the stage on the day we met.

I lifted my head up as my eyes scanned the room, falling straight onto my person. He was standing at the back of the room in front of his table, a wide smile spread across his face as he waved gently. I smiled and waved back before walking towards where he was.

I was so distracted by his eyes on mine, I didn't notice the same two girls from the other day approaching me from behind. I didn't notice Jensen's smile fading as he tried to move, but was asked to sit down.

Vanessa's rough grip on my shoulder pulled me out of my thoughts as she spun me towards herself and Amber. They smirked mischievously and I returned with a roll of my eyes, sick of their drama and pettiness.

"Y/N, Wow I didn't expect you to be back after you completely embarrassed yourself in front of Jensen yesterday." She stated smugly.

I laughed underneath my breath and turned to continue walking towards Jensen's tables, as I called out over my shoulder, "The only one embarrassing themselves is you, sweetie."

I was so close to him, only a few feet away but Vanessa wouldn't let up. She grabbed me once again and pulled me closer to her. "Are you one of those crazy fans? The ones that try to pry their way into Jensen's life?"

I scoffed in response, "Not that it's any of your business but you have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh really?" She hissed, as she pulled her phone from her purse, a picture of Jensen and I at the bar last night facing me. I swallowed hard and kept my eyes down, avoiding giving any information out.

"Explain this than."

I yanked my arm from her grip and backed up, "I don't owe you anything, leave me alone Vanessa."

I managed to walk away and get closer to the table, my eyes catching Jensen's worried and concerned expression spread across his face. I offered a reassuring smile, hoping that he could relax and have a good time, he didn't need to worry about this, not now.

I took a deep breath as I tried to push the anxiety out, but as soon as I felt her standing behind me, my nerves only grew. I rolled my eyes and turned towards her, "Listen Vanessa, I understand that your obsessed with Jensen, maybe a little too much, but your not his mother. You aren't his type either so maybe just worry about yourself rather than worry about an actor that doesn't even know you exist."

With that, I turned towards Jensen and gave him a smile before walking back towards the elevator, but unfortunately only made it two steps before a rather large impact hit my back and I quickly fell to the floor.

I turned on my back and before I could react, Vanessa jumped on top of me and started throwing punches, one after another. I held my hands up to block the hits but the little bitch was quick, she threw punch after punch before somebody finally tried to pull her off of me.

I could feel my face bleeding as she kept hitting, kept fighting to attack me, for god knows what reason. I could have easily defended myself, hell I've had fights with people three times bigger than her, but this was Jensen's convention I wasn't going to stoop to her level, I wasn't going to cause a scene here, not in Jensen's place.

Her weight was lifted off of my body and a breath of relief filled my lungs when I realized security pulled her off. My head lulled back onto the floor as I tried to keep calm, praying that I didn't look as bad as I felt.

I turned to face Jensen who was standing only a few feet away, a deep look of heartbreak and desperation covering his face. He tried to come closer, but another security guard had their hand up, blocking him from leaving. I watched as he leaned closer, whispering something to the woman before he disappeared out of my vision.

She came closer to me, slowly helping me stand from my spot before grabbing my arm to lead me out. I was convinced she was kicking me out when she brought me down the hallways to a securely locked door, but when I looked at her with surprise and she offered nothing but a reassuring smile, I figured out what Jensen told her.

Before I knew it, we walked through a door with his name on it and I was in a room that looked like a lounge. She kindly helped me sit before offering to clean my wounds but I politely declined, all I wanted was to see Jensen. He would help me.

She left as soon as he walked in and he stilled at the sight of me up close. A look of dread and heartbreak covered his face as he rushed over to my side, crouching in front of me. "Jesus honey, are you alright?"

I nodded sadly and shrugged, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen."

He shook his head and leaned upwards, laying a deep kiss to my temple. "Don't apologize." He reassured as he grabbed a towel to clean the blood off, "Why didn't you hit her back?"

"Because I knew if I did, in the long run that would look horrible on you. If we ever became public people would know me as the girl who got in a fight at the convention. That's not fair to you."

He scoffed as he gently wiped the blood from my eyes. "So you just took a bunch of hits to protect my image?"

"Yes." I stated as I shoved his hand down, "And I would do it again in a heartbeat Jensen. I've been hit before, it's no big deal."

He flinched as soon as the words left my mouth and his head dropped, the image of me ever being hit tearing at his soul.

He shook his head and sighed deeply, "Sweetie, I appreciate what you were trying to do but I want you to defend yourself when somebody hurts you, I don't want to be the reason you get the shit beaten out of you."

I smiled and leaned closer to him, reaching my hand to his chin and bringing it up to face me, "Trust me, in another place I would have kicked her ass but not in a convention-your convention, not when we are about to start our life together."

He frowned as the towel dropped in his lap, his head falling slightly. Guilt filled me as I watched how sad and broken he looked, "Listen, I know you don't understand. But I promise, I'm fine. If I felt like that bitch was going to kill me, I would have 100% defended myself but I knew she was pissed off and was going to get stopped by security, and she did."

"I just..." He whispered, "I hate the idea that you have been hit before, and especially seeing it for myself today. I wish I could have helped."

"I know Jensen. But the way I've grown up, I've had to learn how to defend myself. I know how to handle it and when not to say or do anything. Today, I shouldn't have said anything but I did because she was insulting us. That was my bad so whatever happened after that was my-"

His face shot up as a stern look appeared on his face, "Don't you dare say it was your fault."

I couldn't help but smile at the protective side of Jensen, it was hot and cute at the same time and it made my heart melt knowing he cared this much about me.

"I promise I'm okay." I spoke softly, leaning closer to him.

"Okay." He smiled softly. "I trust you."

"Okay, well you have to get back out there before the fans start busting down the doors trying to find you."

A whole hearted laugh escaped his lips as he shook his head at me, "I will but first let me clean you up."

The room was filled with a comfortable silence as he worked on getting the blood off of me, occasionally placing bandages on the bigger areas that were still bleeding, and by the time he was done, I knew I was even more in love with him than I've ever been.

He smiled and leaned closer, capturing my lips with his in a passionate and meaningful way. I smirked against him as he seperated, standing to help me up off the couch and into his arms tightly.

“Okay I should go.” He sighed, walking back towards the door but stopping before he could turn the knob. “I’ll be back soon. Can you try not to get punched by any more crazy fan girls while I’m gone?”

A loud giggle escaped my mouth as I rushed towards the door, leaning on my tiptoes to peck his lips over and over. I couldn’t get enough of him. I smirked and pulled away, “I’ll try but no promises. Being with you might mean I piss off more people than intended.”

A loud chuckle filled his throat as he shook his head and I swore I’ve never heard something so beautiful in my life. He winked before opening the door and quickly shutting it behind him, leaving me in the room to wait patiently, if I could do that.

It’s been a good two hours since he left and the separation was already tearing at my soul. It was ridiculous, I should be able to get through a few hours without him, I lived years without even knowing him. What the hell kind of hold did he have on me.

I walked towards the mirror and froze at my reflection, laughing lightly at the site of the bruises and cuts all over my face. I’ll definitely give her this, for a small girl she could really hit.

It amazed me more than pissed me off, the fact that I allowed somebody like her to even try to hurt me like that, was a shock itself.

I’ve been in a few fights in my lifetime, I mean you kind’ve have to be ready for one when your living on the street and the more I ran into people who wanted to start something, the more I learned about self defence.

I wasn’t an animal, I didn’t want to fight or even learn how to, but being a young woman living in a car I’d occasionally run into the stray drunk men who didn’t want to take no for an answer, and local crackheads who wanted to steal my home.

And not once have I ever let somebody attack me or say the things they’ve said about somebody I cared about without hitting back but Jensen was worth it. He was worth everything.

A ping on my phone interrupted my thoughts and an instant smile erupted on my face when I saw his name.

>>Meet me in the back alley in 10 mins, I have a suprise for you.<<

My heart was pounding as I stared at the message, a deep confusion spreading throughout me.

I’ve never gotten a surprise before and the idea of Jensen sneaking around planning something for me, well it made me feel like an excited little girl on her birthday.

I made my way out the hallways and found the exit, stepping outside before my eyes fell on him. He smiled and pushed himself off the wall, towards a large item hidden underneath a tarp.

“What’s going on?” I smiled nervously as he led me towards the covered mystery. His smile was bright and filled with joy as he led me towards the mystery present, hands holding mine tightly in his own.

“You know how yesterday you told me that you had no life here except for me? Well, I realized that this wasn’t the full truth. You do have a life here. One that you can bring with us.”

I titled my head quizzically before he moved towards the tarp and pulled it off, instantly filling me with shock. I gasped as I backed up, tears filling my eyes at my most prized possession. The home I thought I lost.

My car.

My eyes darted between my baby and him as I struggled to find the words. “Jensen… what did you… How did you…?”

He chuckled and stepped closer, hands resting on my shoulders to bring me back to earth. “Amber. When I went back to the signing, she came up to the counter and apologized for Vanessa, than she told me that she was the one who called the tow truck because Vanessa made her. I asked her what type of car, got the info and sent one of my handlers to go get it for you.”

The tears started rushing down my cheeks as I realized how much I really adored this man. He didn’t have to do this and he knew it, but he wanted to. This had to be the most thoughtful action somebody’s ever shown me.

“Jensen..” I whispered as I leaned my head against his chest, holding him tightly against me. “Thank you..”

He nodded, a gentle yet firm kissed pressed on top of my head as his arms tightened around me. “Of course. I know she’s a big part of your life, and she was your home before you met me, so I was wondering if maybe you wanted to take a road trip back home tomorrow. It’s a long drive so of course only if your up to it. We could always get her shipped out to Texas.”

My smile spread across my lips as I lifted my head to face him, “I’d love that.”

He leaned down gently before pushing his lips against mine, slowly leading me against the wall. My back was pressed as his hand move to my cheek, deepening the kiss with such love and passion I was seeing stars.

A loud clang interrupted our movements, and we quickly stood straight, trying to focus on where the source came from.

His face dropped when he noticed, his hand moving to my arm to grab mine and pull me away. I froze when I spotted what he was staring at, Vanessa.

Jensen tugged on my arm and I shook my head before pushing him gently behind the car to hide him away from her sight. I leaned against the wall and shook my head, “What do you want?”

She scoffed and stepped closer, inches away from me. “You got me kicked out of the convention you bitch.”

I all but laughed as I kicked off the wall, standing directly in front of her. “I actually didn’t do anything, your the freak who jumped me in the middle of the room.”

“Yeah! Because you are some sort of stalker fan girl who tricked their way into Jensen’s life. You have to be an idiot if you’d ever think he’d fall for a ugly homeless chick like you.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, footsteps started approaching us and I sighed. Clearly Jensen heard enough and was about done with this conversation, as was I.

The look on her face when she spotted him was nearly hysterical, yet aggravated me to the core. She was staring at him with such fake love in her eyes and it drove me crazy. She thought she loved him but she didn’t know a single thing about him, she didn’t have what we did.

“Actually Vanessa” I spoke, interrupting her trance. “He fell for me without even knowing I was homeless. Your attempt to break us apart has failed, it only brought us closer together.”

Vanessa rolled her eyes as she pushed passed me, nearly knocking me on my ass. I bit my tongue in anger as I watched her step inches from Jensen, her hand coming to his chest. “Jensen, I can offer you so much more than this piece of trash, dump her and let me show you how happy I could make you.”

Before Jensen could react or even respond, I lost my cool. I rushed towards her, my arm wrapping around her waist as I spun her to the ground. She fell on her knees and looked up at me with such anger and aggression I nearly felt bad for her.

She quickly stood and came closer until she was merely inches from my face and I instantly knew where this was going. I’ve been in this situation before and the two things I learned were to never show fear, and never back down.

Jensen grabbed my hand and shook his head, “No, this isn’t happening. C’mon.” He tried to pull me away but before we knew it, Vanessa jumped on top of me and pulled me to the ground, just like she did inside the hotel.

Jensen tried to jump in but my hand quickly rested on his leg, pushing him back. The last thing we need is for her to claim assault against him because he was defending me. No, this was my fight and I was going to end it.

I let her get a hit in before my arm came up behind her head, swinging her downwards until she fell directly beside me, causing me to jump on her and lay one hard hit onto her face. I stood up quickly and walked back to Jensen, nearly laughing at the way Vanessa was staring into space with such a confused look on her face.

I leaned closer to her and sighed, “You know why Jensen chose me? Because I don’t act like a crazy fucking bitch like you do. I don’t attack fans based on the fact that they got closer to the man they think they love. You don’t know him, I know him. The only damn reason I let you beat the shit out of me in there was because that was his territory, his place. It wasn’t mine to cause a scene, but you did that yourself. The only reason why I haven’t completely kicked your ass right here and now is because you are not worth it. So get over it. Get over the fact that Jensen fell in love with me and not with you and god damn it Vanessa, grow the fuck up.”

She stayed silent, a look of anger and defeat on her face as she stood from her spot and walked away, leaving us alone in the empty alley.

As soon as she left, I let out a shaky breath I didn't realize I was holding in, and swayed against the wall, head resting against the brick to try and keep my composure.

Jensen's hand immediately came to my shoulder as waves of adrenaline shook me to my core. His hand rubbed gently, easing some of the nerves I was still holding onto.

"Are you okay?" He spoke gently.

I shook my head and turned towards him, tears threatening to pour out at any second. "I will be."

His eyebrows furrowed in concern as he looked me up and down, "Did she hit you hard?"

"No, that was just.. really scary." My voice cracked as the tears started to fall.

For a second he looked surprised and it nearly made me laugh, but also made me feel so stupid. His arms pulled me closer into his chest and I breathed him in, the scent of his cologne relaxing me in a way I didn't know could happen.

"I didn't know you were scared baby."

I nodded against his chest, "Of course I was scared, I'm not a heartless monster. I hate fighting. I just do it because I have to, but you never know how it's going to end until it's done, and when it's finally finished, god it shakes you."

He nodded understandably as his lips pressed deep onto my forehead, hands rubbing my back in reassurance that he was here and I could finally breathe easily.

The silence was comforting and relaxing in a strange way, the sound of his heartbeat in my ear calmed my tense muscles and I swore I could just live in this moment with him forever.

His chin rubbed against my head as he sighed contently, lifting to take a look at my state. He smiled gently when he noticed the relaxed look across my face, a kiss being pressed gently against my lips. "Are you okay now?"

I nodded, "Mhm, i'm good. Thanks Jensen."

He broke the distance first, backing up and grabbing my hand tightly in his before he stopped to turn towards me, "I do.... you know?"

I stared back quizzically which made him chuckle, a deep red colour spreading across his freckled cheeks.

"Love you... You told Vanessa that I fell in love with you. I think you were saying that to piss her off but you know I do right?"

My heart pounded in my ears and I could feel the blood rushing to my head as those three words I haven't heard before fall from his lips. He... loved me?

"You do?" I questioned nearly inaudibly.

He nodded and this time he was the one who was filled with anxiety, he was the one who was scared. I smiled wide and jumped in his arms, loud laughter erupting from both of us.

"I love you too Jensen."

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Like, comment & reblog -feedback is my fuel ❤️

The Broken Fan taglist: @magssteenkamp @creative-writing92

[vilandel]

Heyyyy! 😁 Can I ask 25, 9, and 15 for the excerpt game? Thank you!

Hello, Oighear! Thank you for your ask 💘

25 ☘️ … that I consider a favorite If I can make two again, let's do it from two of my bigger stories I absolutely love <3

“I…”

“Yes, handsome?”

“I… I just want to forget… Just for a moment… It’s… so much right now… I know, it’s pathetic, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not. It’s normal that you feel that way. I would never blame you for feeling overwhelmed.”

Maybe she should. But Vanessa was too kind-hearted.

Nozel moved his head a bit so that their lips could meet. The kiss started out soft, but quickly became more fiery, more passionate. To a point that he started to curse the clothes they were still wearing and being grateful that he locked the door.

His lips started to wander across her jawline, her neck, her collarbone, making her moan and growing his desire for her. In the meantime, Vanessa tugged on his clothes and lead him to the couch. It wasn’t a small one, but not large either, maybe they would finish their embrace on the floor again. From Key To The Hearts chapter 4, and yes, it's rather hot (nothing explicit, though...). I put Nozel and Vanessa in a very unique situation in this story... Let's just say that Charlottes confession in Spade and Yami being dense are indirectly a reason that Nozel and Vanessa came into said situation 😅

“I’m coming in.”

“No!”

But it was too late. Noelle already entered his room… and saw them. On his bed. In a very specific position.

Two things became clear to Nozel in this very moment. First, he forgot to lock his door. Second, his beloved little sister saw him on top of her squadmate and best friend. Said squadmate was naked and as for himself, he was only wearing his trousers. And they both were… In a position that could only mean one thing. They were lovers.

“Nozel, is that… Vanessa, what are you… Wait, is he… OH MY GOD!” From Silver Cats & Black Roses, chapter 23. Just Noelle finding out that Nozel and Vanessa are a couple...

9 ☘️ … with characters I love Would surprise no one, I suppose?

“Has Vanessa done this?” Noelle asked in a whisper while softly stroke his cape with respect.

“Yes, she did. That had been a while before we started to be a couple.”

“I can’t believe that the two of you have been spending time together even before becoming a couple and I haven’t realized one thing ever. How blind was I?”

“You’re not blind, Noelle. It’s just a surprising occurrence, it had been for Vanessa and me as well. Back then, she made this cape for me as token of gratitude for the sewing box I gifted her.”

“That was a really thoughtful gift. Speaking of… Nozel, have you been the mysterious person to give me presents all those years?”

Nozel felt himself flinch. It reminded him of those years of being a distant, cold older brother, of his mistakes with how to take care of Noelle. And still, it didn’t stop him to secretly send her gifts for each of her birthdays…

It had been of secret, because already back then he felt ashamed of himself and was convinced he didn’t deserve to make her happy with presents. How wrong he had been…

“Did… did you know?”

“No, I never knew. And the Black Bulls were always curious about who would give me those mystery gifts. I only started to have suspicions after I found out about you and Vanessa. That sewing box was a thoughtful gift and yours were very thoughtful as well. And… I’m glad that you always gave those to me. We both never had real birthdays after mother’s death, as far as I can remember.”

No, neither of them didn’t. The only time there had been some kind of party for Noelles birthday, nobles started immediately to talk about her reputation and Nozel was still so imprisoned in his cold soul that the only solution he saw to stop this was to never celebrate that birthday again. As for him, he was feeling so guilty after losing his mother that he started to believe he didn’t deserved to have his birthday celebrated and over the years, only a few people remembered. Like Noelle…

Wait a minute!

“Noelle, were you the one to anonymously putting birthday presents in my room all those years? Even after you joined the Black Bulls?”

“Yes, how did you find out?”

“It was just a guess…”

Noelle just looked at him with big, surprised eyes, before she gave him a soft smile. So, Nozel smiled back. This was actually something just between the two of them and it was actually a really nice feeling. From Silver Cats & Black Roses chapter 27. I love a lot of parts in this story 💘

15 ☘️ … from an old piece that I like Let's give something from one of my first Black Clover Oneshots, okay? One in which I created my own wedding vows for the Clover Kingdom 💘

Vanessa looked up as Nozel hold her hands firmly, his gaze all on her. The determination in his eyes made her heart race.

“Faith. Hope. Love. By the three leaves of the Clover, I, Nozel Silva, take you, Vanessa Enoteca, as my wedded wife. I will have Faith in you, with your life and trust you mine. I will have Hope, helping you to all hardships and happiness of life. I will Love you, cherish you in sickness and in health, be it forever.”

Those were beautiful wedding vows. Such a shame that today, they were used more for arranged marriages. Vanessa hoped now to say them without hesitation. She took a deep breath and looked into Nozels eyes.

“Faith. Hope. Love. By the three leaves of the Clover, I, Vanessa Enoteca, take you, Nozel Silva, as my wedded husband. I will have Faith in you, with your life and trust you mine. I will have Hope, helping you to all hardships and happiness of life. I will Love you, cherish you in sickness and in health, be it forever.”

In the end, that wasn’t difficult at all.

Vanessa smiled at Nozel, who smiled back. He was happy, finally. Gosh, he was so beautiful when he smiled. From Night of Vows. Nozel and Vanessa didn't really get married, but had some kind of rehearsal. And I'm so proud of the vows I created!

[runakamoran]

A late FNAF piece for WIP Wednesday

I wanted to post it yesterday, but then I forgor 💀 Silent Hill 2 remake is taking my mind rn. But have a little piece of mini FNAF fic I've been working on this autumn. Post-canon SB Savior ending.

❗ TW: attempted murder, descriptions of violence

It's been over a month, but Vanessa still isn't sure what to do. You'll figure it out when you get there, they told her at work. But the road goes on and on, farm after farm, town after town. She never gets anywhere, and everything just becomes more confusing.

Turns out, even the Internet can't tell what to do if your identity has been stolen by an evil doppelganger who kept you captive for past six months. Or how to cope with the horror overtaking you every time you see your own face in the mirror. And how to move on after this, when all you have left is a bag of clothes, an old laptop, and a stolen van with altered license plates.

She tried to look for an answer. She's still looking, but never found.

The future seems bleak and blurry. She tries not to think about it. Not to think about what she’ll do when winter comes; when the van serving as their home becomes too cold to spend nights in; when her savings run dry just when she needs them most – when her laptop breaks, or her car, or the boy sleeping on the trunk floor doesn’t get better… A good number of “what ifs” she’s not prepared for, neither physically or mentally, make her head spin.

So Vanessa tries not to think about the future and focuses on here and now. The gas station is four miles away. They need to stop and have breakfast. Add another ten gallons to the tank and hope it'll be enough to get them to the next town.

Route 95 stretches forward, an endless gray stripe through the withered savannah. The sun rises slowly over the brown sandstone hills. The arid plateau, pitted with ravines, stretches for miles around. Every now and then, lone farms and ranches appear on the sides, but they quickly fade into the tawny Mojave Desert. Nevada will be behind them soon. California is next. And then.. who knows.

Vanessa hums lazily to a song of Crosby, Stills and Nash playing on radio. Behind her, Gregory sleeps, curled up on the floor. They've thrown out the back seats and lined the entire back of the van with rugs and blankets, turning it into some sort of motorhome. Next to her, plugged into the cigarette lighter by a charger cable, sits the third and final passenger, Freddy. Or what's left of him. The edge of the blanket hides him securely in case someone curious wants to look in the windows.

If a year ago someone told Vanessa her only company would be a street boy and a talking head, she would've probably laughed. It still seems as ridiculous as it sounds.

There's no one at the gas station except for one sleepy attendant. The woman buys a few sandwiches, a cup of coffee for herself and a box of juice for Gregory. The boy is snoring heavily, his swollen nose buried in the pillow; drool is dripping from his slightly open mouth. Vanessa pats his shoulder carefully. At least, she tries to - the boy shudders from her touch and immediately opens his eyes.

"Hush, it's me," she says softly. "Come on, it's time to take your meds."

"Good morning, superstars!" the voice from under the covers sounds much more cheerful. "You should have breakfast first! It's bad to take your medication on an empty stomach."

Greg grumbles discontentedly, tosses and turns in his makeshift bed. However, his whims quickly stop as soon as he hears the rustle of an opening package. The boy grasps his sandwich as if someone's going to take it away. It's an old habit.

He looked so much better than he was a week ago, but some wounds still needed attention. The bruises had healed, except for the biggest ones, especially the one stretching around his neck. Several cuts on his arms and legs still needed bandages, and the old ones covering his dark skin needed replacing. The biggest problem was his nose - the swelling was lessening, but the bridge was crooked, and his wheezing and frequent nosebleeding weren't encouraging at all. They couldn't see a doctor, so Vanessa had to deal with everything herself. As best she could.

They couldn't draw attention to themselves. According to official data, Vanessa Anderson-Johnson was found guilty of theft, vandalism, kidnapping and murder of at least nine people. Not long ago, her name was flashing in news across the country; but at least she knew the police won't be looking for her.

According to official data, Vanessa Anderson-Johnson was dead.

She tries to be gentle, but the boy still hisses when she puts antiseptic on his inflamed skin. He never complains and hardly ever cries, probably seeing it a sign of weakness. Nessa still makes him take painkillers, along with antibiotics and vitamins. He didn't survive a fight with a killer just to die from some infection.

When she's done, Vanessa puts away the first aid kit, pats the boy on the head, and tells him to stay here while she works in the cafe for a bit. Gregory waves lazily and curls up on his cot again, clearly not planning on getting up for the next couple of hours. Freddy promises to look after the boy, and she believes him. This robot adores his kid and will protect him - as much as a talking head wired to a car can do so.

Vanessa finishes another assignment and hopes she will get paid this time. Freelance is an unreliable thing. You never know who's sitting on the other side and whether they cheat or not. But at least she has the opportunity to earn some money without having to reveal her face and identity. And this is the only source of income available, so Nessa grits her teeth, endures insults and makes any edits, so the client will finally pay.

She tries not to look in the mirrors; but, washing her hands after bathroom break, she inadvertently meets her reflection. Vanessa freezes, when for a moment she sees her in her own face - her��crooked smile, her eyes burning with malicious joy. The woman jerks away from the mirror in horror. However, when she looks up again, she sees herself - her pale and nervous face, with chapped lips and dark eye bags. Despite everything, it's still her, Vanessa. Even if the rest of the world doesn't know.

That woman took everything from her. College savings, an old car, all belongings, her documents and job, her identity, her freedom. Even that nickname, Vanny, was a cruel mockery of a name she stole. But there was one thing she couldn't take away: her life. At the last moment, Vanessa was saved by the boy that woman considered her prey.

Vanessa takes longer than usual to wash her face, as if the cold water could wash away all her fatigue and road dust.

She tries not to think about that night, even though it's burned into her memory and comes back to her mind whether she wants it or not. They're almost out; the clock hit six in the morning, the doors are wide open. But Vanny is there first, along with every security bot in the mall. Freddy tried to stop them. He's but a head now.

Vanessa drags the boy toward the loading docks, despite his protests. Suddenly, he breaks free and disappears around the corner. The young woman runs to the security post, throws open the box and grabs the key to the service van. She turns to run again – and meets her double on the other side of the glass. The woman with Vanessa’s face grins back and raises the hammer.

The reflection shatters, a shower of shards scattering across the small office, and Vanny is already inside. Nessa barely has time to reach for the door before a strong, gloved fist strikes under her chin, in her stomach, in her temple. The ceiling spins, her breath hitches. Someone grabs her by the hair, throws her head against the table, thrashing her like a doll. Another blow, and Vanessa is on the floor. As usual in scenario like this, her double is always stronger.

The doppelganger pulls out her belt and tightens it around the real Vanessa's neck.

"Think about it," Vanny whispers, tightening her grip. "A simple security guard took advantage of her position, and used it to lure and kill children! But suddenly, she felt remorseful and hanged herself in her own office. What a story!"

The evil reflection floats and fades, and her head sinks into a silent vacuum. Vanessa always loses this fight.

"And no one will ever know… Not if they think I am you."

But she wasn't alone that night.

A scream tears through the void, and air comes back to her lungs. Vanny screams; Gregory hangs on her, clutching her hair with one hand. In the other, he holds a box cutter, and stabs her back over and over. Blood splatters across the shards of glass.

The woman howls in pain and spins around, trying to get the boy clinging to her like a small, ferocious bull terrier. Vanessa tries to crawl away, to get to her feet, but her body protests. Vanny barely manages to tear Gregory from her. The boy throws the cutter away - its blade has broken from his furious blows - and runs. The woman catches him at the door.

"Bastard! Son of a bitch!" she roars. "I'll rip your guts out, you brat!"

The sounds of struggle fade as her consciousness slips away; but Vanessa quickly comes to her senses. She must've been out for around ten minutes. In that time, the security post has changed drastically.

Empty concrete walls and floors, broken furniture - everything is covered in blood. Vanessa has never seen so much in her life. The air smells sickeningly of iron, and her aching head spins. Vomit rises in her throat, and she barely holds herself back. In the lake of red lies her double with a cut throat. She's still smiling.

Vanessa hears a small sob and remembers – oh god, Gregory. He’s still there, tucked in the far corner. Sitting with his arms wrapped around knees, huddled in a ball, covered in blood from head to toe. It doesn't take long for her to put two and two together. Forgetting her own pain, she grabs the key on the floor, scoops the boy up in her arms, and runs.

Halfway to the loading docks, he suddenly comes to life, wriggles out and runs off to grab some duffel bag. Vanessa doesn’t ask why – she shoves him into the backseat, starts the van and takes off, nearly knocking down the roller shutters.

From that moment on, they run.

Much later, Vanessa thought she shouldn't have done that. Maybe if she'd just waited for the police and explained the situation, they wouldn't have gotten stuck in this mess. But she was too scared and shocked to think straight, and it was too late to turn back now.

But it didn't matter, because she's still alive, no matter what. So, gathering everything she had left, Vanessa is building her future anew.

[star-going-supernova]

Prompt: after Freddy gets taken over by the virus during the events of Security Breach. Gregory has no choice but to hide in the museum wing, where he gains 11 new allies in the form of the classic and toy animatronics that were on display (and the souls that inhabit them, returned to take down Afton).

The glamrocks might be faster, but they're not built to take a hit, the classics can tank the worst the glamrocks can dish out, the toys can dish out just as good as the glamrocks.

Charlie and Cassidy make childsplay (pun intended) out of the virus and soon have the glamrocks and Vanessa freed from it, Afton's digital abilities being no match for Cassidy's supernatural might and Charlies control.

Tumblr generated prompt number 23! So, since this prompt is already pretty similar to The Thing About Night Guards in terms of older models coming to Gregory’s defense and also that would be so. many. characters. for such a short ficlet haha, I decided to focus only on Charlie (and the Puppet). I really like how this one turned out!

Once again, the lore escapes me. I’m uncertain of Charlie’s age when she was killed, but for the sake of this ficlet, she’s about the same age as Gregory.

An Extra Reflection

The Puppet, in Gregory’s humble opinion, was one of the creepier animatronics. Its spindly limbs, its exaggerated mask, the eerie way it somehow floated around—he certainly hadn’t been able to spot any wires like Sun and Moon used—none of it exactly inspired trust in him. 

But the Puppet had been the one to get between Gregory and Freddy after the virus infected his previous protector. So. He figured he could give it a chance. 

“Are you even an actual animatronic?” he mused as he followed it down a hall. It moved completely silently, and its body was minuscule. How could anything mechanical actually fit in there? 

It turned to look at him, slowing down so they were walking and floating side by side. Its eyes were empty and blank. The mask was incapable of movement. 

He shivered as it contemplated him. There was a hairline crack in its forehead from intercepting what would have been a deadly blow. But Gregory would swear that Freddy’s claws had done more damage than that, that the fracture had been worse half an hour ago. 

Anxious at its lack of response and continued staring, Gregory blurted out into the uncomfortable silence, “It’s just, y’know… one of these things is not like the other? You stand out. And you don’t—I dunno, look robot-y? No offense.”

Its body trembled in a way that might have indicated laughter, and it wavered its long, claw-like fingers in a so-so motion. 

Gregory huffed. “Yeah, great, that really clears things up.” 

For all that he was left with even more questions, something about the brief exchange settled some of his worries. He knew three things now, which was two more things than he’d known a while ago: first, the Puppet wanted to keep him safe; second, it had a sense of humor, which implied it was capable of intelligent thought and thus wasn’t mindless like the STAFF bots; third, if it was so-so a robot… maybe he didn’t have to worry about the virus affecting it. 

Even distracted with his thoughts, his hyperawareness was in overdrive. The moment the Puppet paused and lifted its head, Gregory froze and shifted, ready to run. He eyed their surroundings without fully looking away from the Puppet. 

It reached for him, and he made an effort not to flinch as it took his wrist and hustled him along. When he quickly glanced over his shoulder as the Puppet pulled him through a bathroom door, he was shocked to spot one of the older animatronics, the fuzzy Bonnie, trudging into view. 

He shivered as he made sure the door didn’t bang shut behind him. The Glamrocks were so loud. They clanked and thunked and shook the floor. They called out pretty lies and bitter taunts. 

The others, the old ones… they were so quiet. He wouldn’t have noticed Bonnie behind him until it was too late. 

Gregory let out a shaky breath and smiled wanly at the Puppet, hovering over him with its hands out, like it was ready to catch him or help in any way he might need. “Thanks,” he said. “I owe you twice now.” 

The Puppet shrugged, ducking its head almost bashfully. It floated further from the door, looking around the bathroom in mild curiosity. Gregory considered the stalls. You never knew how long it’d be before you got the chance to go again, not with homicidal robots stalking you. 

He stepped into the main area and recoiled at sudden movement in the corner of his eye. But it was only a large, floor-length mirror on the wall. Wow, Gregory, paranoid much? 

Gregory absently eyed his reflection. The rough night he’d been having was plain to see in the grime and blood staining his shirt. A few scratches stood out on his arm, and his band-aids had doubled in number over the past handful of hours. 

Movement behind his mirror self drew his attention, and his brain said, The Puppet, but his eyes said, Human girl. 

A startled noise slipped out of him as he whirled around. Across the room, the Puppet stopped its exploration and looked at him. It was alone.

Speechless, Gregory stared for a moment before peeking over his shoulder. 

The girl was still there, standing beside the Puppet. She looked to be around his age and of a similar height. She was wearing a black t-shirt with a black and white striped long-sleeve undershirt. Black shorts ended at her band-aid littered knees. Scrunched up black and white striped socks poked out of cherry-red high-tops. Her straight brown hair went a little past her shoulders—oh, and her eyes were completely black. 

He pointed at the mirror. Then at the Puppet. Back at the mirror. The Puppet. His thoughts were a jumble, and he couldn’t get out more than a stuttered sound before whatever he wanted to say withered into silence.

’Cause, like, she was clearly part of the Puppet. The stripes? Yeah, duh. But that, that really didn’t help this situation make any more sense. Was he hallucinating? Dead? Had Freddy succeeded in ripping out his throat?

The Puppet came closer, and he fully faced the mirror, mouth gaping. He gestured wordlessly and emphatically at the girl, and her eyes promptly went very wide.

“I’m torn,” Gregory said. “Either I’ve got brain damage or you’re a ghost.”

The Puppet’s body shook in silent laughter again as the girl flailed a bit. She darted forward to stand at Gregory’s side.

The girl’s mouth moved as the Puppet joined them, floating at their backs, looming like a bizarre guardian angel. Her face fell when it became clear he couldn’t hear her. 

“Sorry,” he said, even though it wasn’t his fault. Feeling genuinely bad for… whoever or whatever the Puppet and/or the girl was, he patted its arm. 

The girl’s mouth started moving just before he did, and the second he touched the Puppet, his ears popped and he heard, “—be able to see me like this.” 

Gregory choked at the electric shock he got, jerking his hand back even as he cried out, “I heard you! I heard you for a second!” 

She blinked, stunned, and the Puppet reached out—slowly, giving Gregory time to pull away—and laid its hand on the back of his neck. The shock wasn’t so bad this time, nearly ignorable. 

“Try again,” he said. The three of them made for a strange reflection, and he cracked a grin over it. 

“Hi,” the girl said, “my name’s Charlie.” 

“Nice to meet you, Charlie. I’m Gregory.” 

There was a moment of silence before the realization hit her, and then she was hugging herself around her stomach and falling to her knees as some painful-sounding combination of laughter and sobs exploded out of her. 

He was crouching down and reaching out like a dummy before he could even remember that she was a ghost, but it didn’t matter anyway because the Puppet followed, hand still on his neck, and instead of his own hand passing through her, his fingers landed on her shoulder just fine. He could tell she was oddly chilly beneath her shirt, but otherwise, she felt completely real and solid. 

Charlie’s head jerked up, hiccups spasming through her, her black eyes shiny with tears. They stared at each other in the mirror for a few seconds before Gregory sat down all the way and scooted closer to hug her. Her expression—one of such heartbreak and shock and desperation—spoke of profound loneliness. He wondered how long she’d been dead. He wondered when she’d last been hugged. 

She collapsed against him, shaking, and the Puppet kept him from falling backward. It knelt beside them, its arms magically extending to wrap around them both. Gregory’s head was pressed between Charlie’s and the Puppet’s, and he both was and wasn’t surprised to realize there was no sound of whirring or clicking or creaking coming from inside it. 

There was, however, oh so faintly, a heartbeat. 

[gwenbrightly]

Vanny Quest Chapter 2

Vanessa jolts awake to the all too familiar sensation of the room spinning and her ears ringing. She clutches her head as she begins to sit up, trying to prevent the headache she knows is going to hit her like a sledgehammer in the next few seconds. Her vision blurs and she almost passes out again as the pain takes hold. She barely manages to crawl to a garbage bin before throwing up what feels like everything she’s eaten in the past three days. She collapses back onto the floor and tries not to move. Why is it so much worse this time? It’s always been a little hard to function after… well. That. But not to the point that she can’t see straight. Never to the point that it feels like she’s been disemboweled, then stitched back together. (At least, not since the first time.)

Vanessa stares at the ceiling, trying to make sense of it all. How did she get up to the abandoned security office for Fazerblast? The last thing she remembers is coming to in the sewers after her alter ego chased that lost kid - George? Geoffrey? No, Gregory (that might have been his name) - down there. And then making her way back up to the atrium. The rest is all a hazy jumbled mess of memories. There’s no telling how long she’s been out. Or what might have happened while she was.

Vanessa is used to waking up in weird places. Thanks to this possession, this curse, or whatever the heck is wrong with her, it happens all the time. Usually her uniform is stained with substances she’d rather not think about too deeply. The missing person reports often follow. But not always. Sometimes there’s no one looking. She’s not sure which is worse. The hands that don’t stop shaking for days, nausea, and crippling guilt are pretty much the same either way.

She blinks. Did she come up here to plan another hunt tonight? Oh god. Vanessa sits up. What if she already went out again and she just doesn’t remember it? What if she killed that kid?

Panicking, Vanessa looks down at her hands. Clean. And her uniform. No blood this time, but that doesn’t mean anything. She knows better than to hope. She groans as a fresh wave of pain ripples through her. If she really did kill Gregory tonight… she deserves it. Vanessa has tried to quit her job time and time again, but somehow the letter of resignation never gets turned in. Over and over, she returns to the Pizzaplex and more people get hurt because of her.

Vanessa shakily pulls herself to a stand, leaning on the desk for support and glances around the room. It’s even more trashed than usual (Vanny is not a cleanly individual in the slightest). Almost like there’s been a fight of some sort, which is altogether possible. The purple computer chair Vanny stole from somewhere lies on its side in a corner. The blanket from the bed is now crumpled on the floor and she doesn’t see the pillow anywhere. But by far the most surprising thing she notices is that the Princess Quest III arcade machine’s screen is now lit up with a bright red “ERROR” message. Okay. Well, that proves it, then. Someone else has been here. Vanessa doesn’t remember playing the game and there’s no way Vanny would do something that would endanger her master’s plans.

For the first time in a long time, she’s beginning to feel hopeful. This changes everything! Vanessa might finally be free! She has to get out of here. She has to know for sure.

Crossing to the door, a little more quickly than her body is truly ready for (whee, more nausea), Vanessa is surprised to discover that it’s somehow been locked from the outside. Try as she might, the handle won’t budge. She can’t say wouldn’t have done the same; someone probably should have locked her up years ago. That said, the timing couldn’t be any more inconvenient. She peers through the window to see if maybe someone is still nearby. And stares at the scene unfolding as on the other side of the glass.

////

“Geez, Freddy,” Gregory says in frustration, “can’t you sit still for five seconds?”

“I am sorry, Superstar. Vanny must have nicked some of my internal wiring,” Freddy tells him regretfully.

Gregory glares at the knife currently sticking out of his friend’s back. Freddy has already attempted to remove it himself, to no avail, which is why he is currently sitting on the floor so his height is not a barrier to Gregory’s assistance.

“That sure sucks,” Gregory mutters.

“It does, but I do not think Vanny will be bothering us anymore.”

“She’d better not. I’m sick of her,”

Freddy twitches again and Gregory cringes.

“We really gotta get that thing out of you before it causes permanent damage,” Gregory comments, giving the knife another tug. It doesn’t budge.

“Perhaps if you shift your position so one of your feet is planted on my back, you will have better leverage,” Freddy suggests. It would be rather helpful if they could remove the knife before moving on.

“O-okay,” Gregory agrees, wondering how on earth Freddy can be so calm about having been stabbed by a homicidal maniac less than fifteen minutes ago. He is still freaking out majorly about the whole thing. Vanny came so close to- No. Let’s not think about that right now. (Or ever). He follows Freddy’s suggestion. With one foot on the floor and one foot on the animatronic’s back, Gregory gingerly gives the knife a tug. It loosens just a teeny bit. He lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and tugs again, harder.

“One more time,” Freddy encourages.

In hindsight, Gregory may have pulled a little too hard this time. The knife pulls free from Freddy’s casing and Gregory cartwheels backwards, not expecting it to come out so easily. He lands a few feet away from Vanny’s hideout with an ‘oof’. When he goes to right himself, he notices her watching him. Darn. He’d been hoping she would stay knocked out longer than that!

“Gregory! You-You’re not dead!” She calls through the window sounding way happier than she should.

“No thanks to you, backstabber.” Gregory retorts, giving her his fiercest glare. He’s pretty proud of himself for the comeback.

“Yeahhh… um. Sorry about that?” She says awkwardly, and she must be a good actress, because for a moment, Gregory almost believes that she really does feel bad about what she’s done to him and Freddy.

“Gregory! Are you okay?” Freddy asks, having sufficiently recovered.

“I am,” Gregory replies, “but I wish she wasn’t!”

“Vanny.” Freddy places a paw on Gregory’s shoulder protectively. And gives the woman a dirty look of his own.

“I can’t imagine what I’ve put you through. I’m so, so sorry,” Vanny begins.

Gregory rolls his eyes, not interested in hearing some made up sob story. There are about a million things he’d rather be doing.

“I didn’t want to hurt you - that wasn’t me. I mean, it was me. But it wasn’t! I wasn’t in control… She was! Ugh. This is all so confusing,” Vanny continues, pacing back and forth in front of the window and gesturing wildly.

“Vanny… Officer Vanessa… What are you talking about? Who was in control if you were not?” Freddy asks, curiosity piqued. It’s a dangerous question, he knows, but he can’t help himself. The others have been acting strangely all night and he is quite worried about them even without the damage caused by their various… accidents. Could what Vanessa is telling them be connected?

Vanessa stops pacing. “It started back when I started as a beta tester for the VR game Fazbear entertainment was working on awhile back… somehow the data they scanned in to use as a base was carrying something… Evil. After playing the game for a few days, I started hearing this voice in my head, and I know it sounds crazy, but it started forcing me to do stuff I wouldn’t normally do. Small things at first, then bigger things. I even started having memory problems after awhile. Eventually, the voice introduced itself as Glitchtrap. He claimed to be a digital version of William Afton.”

“Wait. That name sounds familiar,” Freddy muses, trying to remember where he’s heard it before.

“I’m not surprised. Corporate tries to keep it under wraps, but William Afton was one of the original founders of the company. He was also a suspect in the disappearance and murder of quite a few children back in the day, but they never caught him,”

“So, what exactly are you saying? That you’ve been possessed by William Afton’s serial killing ghost?” Gregory asks. The thought is wrong on so many levels… and yet… there’s definitely something deeper going on. He’s seen weird stuff happening in practically every corner of this place. Vanessa (he’ll accept for now that maybe Vanny and Vanessa are different entities) seems to be telling the truth, and he’s usually a pretty good judge of character. He has to be. Otherwise he’d probably be in juvie by now.

“I don’t know, to be honest. But something, a ghost, a virus, got inside my head and took over. Something that made me become Vanny. Something that wanted to follow in Afton’s footsteps or raise him from the dead, maybe? It’s hard to remember everything he told me…”

“That is… worrying,” Freddy says with a frown. This could be much more serious than he thought. “Do you think that the others have been infected with this Glitchtrap virus as well?”

“Definitely. And I’d be willing to bet that they have been for quite awhile,” Vanessa replies, “they’ve all developed some unhealthy habits that weren’t originally part of their programming.”

“Like Chica and her obsession with Monty Mix,” Gregory finishes for her. A robot being so obsessed with food has always felt weird to him.

“Yeah. Stuff like that keeps everyone distracted. They’re so focused on fixing Chica’s eating habits or Monty’s sudden anger issues that they don’t notice the other things that are happening.”

Like kids going missing. No one is brave enough to say that out loud, though.

“It is a relief to know that they have not been consciously trying to kill you, Gregory,” Freddy says, turning to his small charge.

“Yeah…” Gregory tries to smile at him, but he’s suddenly feeling more than a little guilty for going so hard on the other animatronics. Yes, in their current state they kinda deserved it. And yes, he did (most of) it to protect himself. But… What if they were all kind and warm and loyal like Freddy once upon a time? No one has ever cared like Freddy before. And Gregory just trashed all his friends without a second thought.

“I think we’re all free of the virus, at least for now,” Vanessa is saying.

“What do you mean?” Gregory asks her. It would be nice if they didn’t have to worry about being chased around the Pizzaplex anymore.

“There’s something about the Princess Quest games that’s special. She-Vanny kept moving them to different places every time I found one, so I never really had a chance to experiment with them, but I’ve felt different since you played the one in here,” she explains.

“Now that you mention it,” Gregory says thoughtfully, “I thought I saw a weird wave of golden light coming out of the machine when I beat the game.”

“Does that mean we are safe? I do not want any other children to experience what Gregory has tonight.” Freddy comments. He is proud of his Superstar’s bravery and resourcefulness, but that does not justify what Gregory has been through.

Vanessa stares at them through the window sadly for a moment before answering.

“I wish I could say yes, but I don’t think this is over. Vanny and Glitchtrap have been working on something down in the sinkhole. I don’t think any of us will be truly safe until we find out what it is… and destroy it.”

[queens-nightmare]

Writing is an interesting process. Sometimes you manage to write something on the first try and besides maybe a few adjustments, it's pretty much the final draft. And then sometimes you write something that doesn't fit (anymore after a while), so you have to scrap it.

I was talking to some friends on some RP server about my writing and told them how Step 24 was rewritten into 4 new steps (which pushed the steps after that back). It was a mess because rewriting them meant I had to rewrite the steps coming after the pushed steps.

...This might sound confusing, let me draw something quickly, lol

Quick info: Step 24 was the original end of what I call "The third floor (mini) arc". But with the rewriting, Step 27 became the actual ending.

Okay, and how was the stuff rewritten? :) Let's look at the scrapped Step 24 for this (under the cut. Also long post)

Read it? Good.

When I write stuff, I have a problem with exposition. I love giving it, and explaining stuff so that hopefully everyone understands what I try to convey. Probably comes from the fact that I have a harder time understanding subtext often, so this gets mirrored in my own writing ^^;

The panel with Snatcher explaining #76's backstory was a response to an ask I got ages ago. Which... in retrospect wasn't a good move on my part. I shoehorned it in, so that I could answer something about this Minion. And just, the whole page feels just "a speedrun of clearing the problem between Snatcher and Moonjumper."

No.

No, no, no, no! Snatcher had gotten a burst of uncontrollable emotions after learning that the letters from his family are still intact. He wouldn't be this calm menace who just tells Moonjumper his reasoning. Even it maybe could make sense that Snatcher is calm about it because, well, it's been 300 years, and he probably got calm about his own death and everything surrounding it...

But on the other hand, everyone and everything in Subcon must be in a more emotional and irrational state currently, because it's been only like 2 - 3 weeks since Vanessa was rescued and it's been only a day since Moonjumper appeared.

There is tension in the air.

======

So, with scrapping this calm conclusion to the "third floor arc", I wanted these steps to be an emotional rollercoaster between the characters. After all, Snatcher as quite a lot of bottled up emotions, and so does Vanessa too.

After making Snatcher and Moonjumper have an actual physical fight, and also making it as long as it felt natural for Snatcher wanting to get that steam out of his system, I wanted to give Vanessa a little bit of an emotional spotlight too.

But there were two options how to go about it in Step 26.

In the scrapped version, Vanessa is delusional about it. She doesn't want to believe that the issue of the freezing isn't just easily talked out with some snacks and tea. So, she, as a naive young woman who was friends with a dream being for 10 years, thinks during the fight between her "BFs" (Best friend and (former) boyfriend) that all this must be a bad dream.

Right? She probably is just dreaming all this and Moonjumper here could change it to a good ending, where everyone gets along. But this isn't a dream, this is reality and so Snatcher has to swoop in and bring her to her senses.

However, I felt that this version took something away from Vanessa, which is something that is important to all this:

Vanessa is selfish.

She is selfish for wanting that Snatcher just accepts Moonjumper and gets along with him. And also getting potentially back into a relationship with her since she was trapped for 300 years in her mind, so she technically is still the Vanessa right before the freezing (plus like 2 weeks of slowly adjusting to the new Subcon).

But Snatcher wasn't. He had a mindful journey of 300 years of experiences that changed him. He is Snatcher now, not that naive young man anymore named Phoenix Burnbright.

So, to give the hint for this, I shifted the text so that Vanessa is aware of how selfish she is. And Snatcher knows this too because he uses Moonjumper to stop Vanessa from turning the room into a fridge.

Not himself, or the Subconites, or anything else. He chose Moonjumper to stop this as quickly as possible. Oh and of course, Snatcher acknowledges that it technically makes sense from Vanessa's POV to have these wishes.

Who wouldn't wish that everything can be solved that easily?

Wait, I just realize that Vanessa isn't as delusional about life as you maybe think now. It's true that she probably has a false sense of real life because of Moonjumper allowing her to have beautiful dreams each night, but she also had to dance around her mother Elizabeth for 10 years, so she knows not everything can be just solved with the snap of a finger.

Also unbeknownst to Elizabeth, she technically prepared her daughter for the harsh would of the nobles, lmao. Y'know, putting on a mask around other people to keep your real thoughts a secret.

But yeah, Vanessa isn't screaming for Moonjumper to stop this bad dream but instead states very clearly that "If you [Snatcher] can have an emotional outburst, that I should be allowed to have one too."

And so I shifted it to exactly this. At least I think I did. I know my writing, but it always depends on the readers if the author managed to get their point across.

Thanks for reading, hope my text wasn't a tangled mess :'D

[jerzwriter]

Sunday Six 12.18.2022

Hey all! This week will likely be spent on Holiday Fics - the three I previewed last week that are just about done. But I also have some WIPs ready to come out shortly thereafter - maybe even this week - I've decided to ditch half my holiday duties. Just not feeling it this year. lol

So, here is a sneak peek at Part 4 of Vegas, Casey & Tobias's Wedding Rehearsal, and a scene that will either be a part of A Mother's Journal Part 3 or maybe a stand-alone associated with it.

I'm finishing Tobias & Casey's Wedding Day, too. I hope that will be our right after the rehearsal (just like in real life, lol), Reset is coming along, as is Where It Goes From Here, and I promised to wrap up Sometimes Love Is For. I also have an outline for another short series. I'm debating just how angsty I want to make it. But it's about what happens when the seemingly perfect couple who believed they were titanium comes to learn they may not be after all. It will explore being unfaithful... in different ways. So as you can see, I'm busy! lol

What Happened in Vegas, Part 4 | Ethan Ramsey x MC (Casey)

"This is OK," she said, pacing the floor, "this is absolutely OK. It's fine. We're in Vegas... right? Vegas. You think we're the first couple to get drunk and get married? If you can get married in a day, I'm sure you can get an annulment in a day, too, right?"

"I...I'm not sure it works that way, Casey."

"It has to. I'm Googling this. You should too."

But he didn't move quickly enough for her liking.

"Ethan! Take out your phone and Google it!"

"Casey, I think we should...."

"GOOGLE IT!!!"

It's Just a Rehearsal | Tobias Carrick x MC (Casey)

Casey was walking back toward the dining room when Tobias jumped out from the coat closet, holding his finger over her lips to ensure she did not speak. After leading her into the closet, he closed the door and leaned against it. No one was getting in here but the two... well, maybe three... of them.

"Tobias Carrick, are you kidnapping me on the eve of our wedding," she smiled, "is that what's going on here."

"Trust me, I've considered it."

"Well, if that's not your intention, why are we here... and we're not having sex. Everyone we love in this world is right outside that door."

"For once, that's not the reason I'm getting you alone... I tend to agree... it wouldn't be wise."

She snuggled in next to him and placed her head against his chest.

"Not that I'm complaining, but if you're not kidnapping me, and you're not trying to have sex with me... why are we hiding in this closet."

"Who was the idiot that said we shouldn't spend tonight together?"

"I think that was you, dear."

"God, I'm an asshole. Why are you marrying me?"

"Tobias!"

"I just needed, I needed a moment with you. There's something I have to do before tomorrow, and now's the time."

Wake the Dead WIP | Eli Sipes, Eli's family (pre-series)

"David!" Eli yelled, perplexed over why his brother insisted on walking so far ahead. This was unusual, but also dangerous. When his brother failed to respond, Eli picked up his pace to a slow jog to catch up with him.

"David, what the hell are you doing! You know we have to stick together when we're out here."

But his eyes stayed fixed on the gravel road underneath his feet. "I... I'm sorry... I just...." his voice was almost pained, and as his words tapered off, Eli's concern was turning into worry.

"What's going on? Did I do something to upset you?"

"No," he shook his head. "Not you...."

"Well, who did? Talk to me," he said, gripping his younger brother's shoulder and bringing him to a halt. "We're alone, and you know you can tell me anything. What's going on?"

"Are you in love with Vanessa?"

Eli raised his brow, he and Nessa thought they had been discreet but, perhaps not as much as they had thought.

"Do I, uh... love... uh... well, yeah. She's my best friend."

David finally allowed their eyes to meet, even if it was only to give his brother a sarcastic smirk.

"OK," Eli admitted nervously; lying to his sibling was not something he enjoyed doing. "It may be a little more than friends, it's... it's a little confusing, to be honest... but it's not 'in love', if that's what you're asking."

"It's not?"

"No, it's... I don't know, Dave, it's confusing, and we're working it out is all I can say right now. But... why do you ask?"

"Because... I think I'm in love."

Eli's eyes went wide once more. They didn't have know many people, so the options here were precious few. And as complicated as things were between him and Nessa, he wondered if they were about to become a whole lot more.

"Are you... do... are you saying you're in love with Nessa?"

"In love... yes," David replied. "I think so, but... not with Nessa."

@choicesficwriterscreations

Tagging separately.

[burning-peanut]

this is not my fault

Be aware - Tags: stalking • poor mental health • compulsions • violence • strong language • angst • victim blaming • does not suit me at all but in this fic there is no smut

The last tag is the most disturbing one.

He remembered clearly how he had put on the black, long-sleeved police shirt this morning, which was part of his sheriff persona. Part of the uniform that gave him the respect he lacked in the rest of his life. He remembered clearly how his fingers had gradually wandered over each button - which he had threaded one by one through the small eyelets, buttoning up his shirt. How the hard plastic had felt against his fingertips. That's why it didn't make sense that it was missing. The shirt. 

The light puffs of air, which he might not have even noticed if it weren't for the absence of his uniform top, brushed against his skin with feather-light touches. He got goose bumps. First on his arms, then all over his upper body. He felt cold. 

His arms ached in the unnatural position. They were tied behind his back. He couldn't tell with what, but he knew that the material pressing into his skin was anything but comfortable. His thumbs were already beginning to tingle slightly. The first signs that soon, in this unnatural position, they would fall asleep. He tried to change the position of his hands - to get the blood circulation going, which seemed to be hampered. But the restraints were too tight. 

He moaned softly as he tried to straighten his head, which had fallen forward in the sitting position. As he did so, he noticed a hot throbbing at the back of his head, its pulsations like jolts of electricity traveling across his skull to the back of his neck. He couldn't tell exactly where it hurt more - right where the pulsing was strongest or where the unpleasant pulses met his aching temples. 

Why the hell did he have such a headache? 

He still had his eyes closed, yet everything was spinning. It was hard for him to keep his balance, even though he knew he was just sitting on a chair. He could not make out whether the floor beneath him was really moving back and forth, or whether his perception was clouded by his aching head. What he did hear, however, was the thudding sound his body made along with the chair as they hit the dusty concrete floor altogether. Said same dust tingled unpleasantly in his nose as Travis inhaled it with his next breath. It hadn't been the first time in his life he'd hit his head on concrete, but it was certainly the most forceful. He passed out again. Lost consciousness. Before he even had a chance to look into the eyes of the person standing in front of him. Who was to blame for him finding himself in this miserable situation. 

The dark-haired man facing him did not make a fuss as he watched the policeman lying on the ground. A small pool of blood had already formed where Travis' head had hit the hard ground. 

The man twisted one corner of his mouth into a smile before walking up to him and kicking Travis' stomach with all his might. 

-

Laura paid no attention to the professor lecturing on basic biochemistry. Rather, she stared, stunned, at the dot on her cell phone display. He hadn't moved in two days. That was odd. Very strange. Many thoughts flashed through her mind meanwhile. Almost exclusively unpleasant ones. 

Why the hell wasn't he moving?

In the next moment, an impulse struck her. It surprised her, but she didn't resist it, as her body, as if by itself, began to gather her belongings, which were lying on the small table in front of her. Her laptop, the book and her notepad. The things were packed up so quickly that Laura's seatmate and new friend Vanessa didn't even notice her leaving until Laura had already almost left the lecture hall. The young blonde, who was already in the second semester of her veterinary studies, had a new hobby since a few weeks. 

Well, actually it was already months. But she had only really admitted it to herself a few weeks ago. She affectionately called it 'her little hobby'. Him, she called 'him' her new hobby. She knew how rotten and wrong it was, and she was sure that realization was the first step to recovery. After all, she didn't deny it anymore. At least not to herself anymore. God forbid she should tell anyone about it.

She was finally to the point where she could admit to herself that her behavior was no longer normal. That it was no longer healthy behavior. Not just a normal interest in a person. She wouldn't call herself a stalker, which was possibly just because she had never thought that thought through. Hadn't dared it until now. Her head resisted reflecting on her behavior in that way. 

Laura had been very good at reflecting, analyzing, and interpreting her own behavior all her life. It didn't take her long to realize why she was the way she was - why she acted the way she did. It just suited her to look at situations from a different angle. To look at emotional situations from a new perspective and make a professional, informed judgment about right and wrong. 

Perhaps that was exactly her problem. The moment she had admitted to herself that her behavior was pathological, she had stopped reflecting on her actions. And since then she had been in free fall. 

As if a wild animal had been accidentally set free. An animal that was perhaps harmless in its cage. But now, after it had freed itself, one no longer had any control over it. 

It was like trying to get the toothpaste back into the tube. It was impossible. The damage was done. That's why she hadn't even tried to fight it. 

Laura was a control freak. She knew that herself. She was in control of every aspect of her life. Her studies. Her finances. Her social life. Her health and her figure. She was a low-key, hardworking, affable young woman. She was good at her studies. She was popular with her friends. She found it easy to make friends and keep in touch. Everyone wondered why she had been single for so long after her breakup with Max. She was popular and even managed to talk to her parents regularly on the phone. She managed the money they gave her monthly as support with the utmost care. Laura was very disciplined in sports. It was easy for her to be consistent when it came to food. No chocolate, no alcohol, no fast food. And it was precisely for this reason that she allowed herself to lose control. She reined herself in every damn aspect of her life, which is why she let herself get away with this little sin. It was like a piece of chocolate that she consciously indulged in. Even though she knew it was wrong. But as long as it helped her keep control in all other areas of her life, it couldn't be too bad, could it? And after all, it wasn't hurting anyone. She probably was a stalker, yes. She was stalking Travis Hackett. And when she knew what he was doing and where he was, she felt a certain peace. Then she would look at her phone and see that he was carrying on with his daily routine as usual. Just like she was, too. 

She knew by now which days of the week he visited his parents. That he went fishing with his nephew once a month, or what times he went shopping. Travis Hackett's life was like clockwork, the regularity of which she had grown accustomed to over the past few months. And by now she had so much insight into his daily life that it would be a waste not to continue. Now she had already invested so much of her valuable time, now she couldn't just stop, right? 

And that's exactly why she knew it wasn't normal that the tracking device she had 'placed' in his police car had remained in the same location for almost 39 hours. Just like the location of his cell phone. This could only be attributed to two facts: Either he had been on to her, or the police car, along with his smartphone, had actually not moved for what felt like an eternity. 

Both possibilities put her in panic. In fear.  

Laura's obsession had started with something quite innocent. A Google alert. She just wanted to stay up to date. To learn how things were going with Travis after the FBI had taken care of the situation that had happened in North Kill in the summer of 2021. The summer they all nearly didn't survive.

The FBI had made it clear how they would talk about the summer in the future: As if it had never existed. The death of Chris Hackett: an accident. The death of Silas Vorez: not even officially announced. Covered up. Swept under the rug. 

That's it. As if nothing ever happened. But it did happen. Laura was very well held captive for two months, along with her boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. By him. By Sheriff Travis Hackett. 

Her hatred grew into a strange kind of curiosity after a while. After weeks of thinking about him, and him becoming her silent companion in her thoughts. She finally googled him. Found that he continued to be sheriff. That he was carrying on as usual. Was that right? Was he carrying on as usual? Laura couldn't believe it. In fact, she had a hell of a time believing it. 

One Google Allert on 'Travis Hackett' turned into two: 'Travis Hackett' ; 'North Kill'.  Then 'Travis Hackett' ; 'North Kill' ; 'Hackett North Kill' ; 'Hackett's Quarry.'  Then suddenly there were seven. When the information from the web suddenly wasn't enough for her, she researched him. At first it was just interest in his person. After all, it was okay to want to know more about the person who held you captive, right? She wondered what kind of person he was. She found old newspaper accounts of sports competitions and found out what school he had attended. She called the secretary's office there and the friendly lady was even willing to send her a PDF of his year's graduation book. Of course, under some pretense she had made up. 

She researched his family. Inquired at genealogy websites. Created a kind of family tree. She found out what insurance company he was with and what doctor he went to. It's unbelievable that information like that was just out there on the web, if you knew where to look. 

She could still remember the day she stumbled across an old advertisement in which he had put a car up for sale. Included was a phone number and his private email address. At the time, she had no idea what a stroke of luck this coincidence would turn out to be. 

She figured out how to hack passwords. 'Figured out' in this case meant weeks of intensive research. She acquired basic programming skills. In a shady online forum, she found a program that could help crack passwords, and after almost two months, she had actually done it - she had access to his email account. 

The very fact that Travis obviously didn't believe in two-factor authentication was an unspoken invitation, wasn't it? 

Not only was she reading his emails, she was logging into his browser interface via his Google profile, which ultimately gave her access to his password manager. 

She remembered exactly how she had jumped up from her chair in front of her computer, beaming with joy and cheering, when she saw the password list displayed in front of her. Unencrypted. 

But, let's be serious now, anyone who used NorthKill2020! as a password and did so for almost every website had only themselves to blame,  right? 

Now she was on his social media profiles. Read his emails. And when she saw him using iOS, she bought a friend's old iPhone from her savings. She used it to log into his Apple ID, whose password she had from his password managers. She simply deleted the email about registering another device on his Apple ID from his inbox. After a quick sync, she had everything on her phone. His apps, his text messages - even his photos. The device did exactly what it was supposed to do: it synced all the data he uploaded to its cloud. She had a mirror image of his phone, and without him knowing.

At least that's what she believed. 

She could see where his phone was via the location app, but that didn't do her any good if he didn't have the device with him. And unfortunately, Sheriff Hackett had a habit of leaving his cell phone at home very often. Almost every time his schedule said 'Fishing with Caleb,' for example. 

Even worse - it made her furious. 

What he didn't leave at home, however, was his car. Hiding the tracking device there had been a piece of cake. She had driven all the way to North Kill some time ago to do just that. She had seen in his duty schedule that he had the day shift and had followed him unobtrusively for half the day before he had finally stopped at a coffee shop to get a cup of the black, delicious liquid.  After he disappeared into the store, Laura got out of her vehicle that she had parked a few feet from his. As if it were the most normal thing in the world, she had strolled over to his police cruser and opened the passenger door. In the next moment, she caught the scent of his aftershave as she opened the glove compartment and deposited an AirTag under the owner's manual. Who the hell read a car's owner's manual? It was the perfect hiding place. 

The action had taken her less than 30 seconds before she was back behind the steering wheel of her car, started the engine and drove away. 

Since then, she could see two blue dots on her phone, most of the time moving fairly close together across the map of North Kill - the location of his cell phone and the location of his police car. 

Those dots that had been in the same spot since the day before yesterday, but had not moved. 

Laura had put so much blood, sweat and lifetime into her new hobby. She wasn't going to be easily ditched with this. She wouldn't just give up. If he had disposed his cell phone along with the tracking device, then that wouldn't scare her off. After all, he hadn't changed the password to his email account yet. 

Still, her mind was racing - thinking about what could have happened while she was already in the process of steering her car onto the highway. Heading for the North Kill. 

She just had to drive there and check. Because that's what the location function was for: she just had to know where he was right now. She couldn't think of anything else.  

It took Laura a little over two hours to arrive in the small town. She drove straight to the location her phone showed her. It was a secluded road in the woods. A road similar to the one where Max and she had gone off the road back then. The police car was parked on the side of the road as Laura parked her car directly behind it. 

When she opened the driver's door of her small car, a fresh breeze of cool air came directly toward her. It was quite cool for late April, which is why Laura zipped up the sweatshirt jacket she was wearing. She walked slowly towards the vehicle until she stood next to the driver's door and directed her gaze into the interior of the vehicle. She found his weapon.  

She put her hand on the cold metal handle of the driver's door and was surprised when it opened without any difficulty. She sat down inside and automatically reached her hand to the ignition, where she found the patrol car's key. 

At that moment she knew something had happened. Why did he leave the key in the ignition?

She looked around the empty vehicle. In the center console was a half-full, by now ice-cold cup of coffee. Next to it was his cell phone. She took it and tapped the display, whereupon it lit up dimly. The remaining energy of the battery would only keep the small device alive for a short time, so Laura took it in order to charge it immediately in her car. 

After checking the entire interior, checking the empty trunk, and making sure the AirTag was in proper working order, she removed the car's key from the ignition. She locked the car and walked back to hers. There, she plugged his iPhone into the charger in her center console before unlocking the small device with the numbers 7-7-6-5, his birthdate. The already familiar view of his home screen opened up for her. She opened his Messages app and checked the latest text messages. At the top was Caleb, below that was his colleague Ryan, and below that was Bobby. The other chats were already several days old and therefore of no consequence. Since Laura had already read the messages on her phone and knew that this information would not help her, she closed the app again. She opened the only app she had not managed to register on her smartphone - his banking app. To open it, it asked for a pin code. On the best of luck, she typed in Travis' date of birth again, and the app loaded the interface of his bank account and credit card. 

She scrolled through the expenses and debits of the last few days, finding nothing of interest there either. Among them were a couple of debits from the local supermarket, a cash withdrawal of $80, and a few other minor expenses. He'd obviously bought something at the hardware store, and at the fishing store. 

Nothing unusual, that is. 

Laura frowned. 

"Where the hell are you, Travis?" she spoke softly, seeming to be talking more to herself. 

Her eyes darted again, through the windshield, to the police car sitting abandoned by the side of the road. Before she knew it, she had exited her vehicle and was walking toward the car again. Then she unlocked it again and got in. She started the ignition, whereupon the engine howled briefly before its sound faded into a low growl reminiscent of a cat's purr. 

The on-board computer display glowed brightly as he booted up. 

"Why did you drive here? What was here in the woods?" 

She tapped her way through the unfamiliar interface of the police system, which apparently could be used to pull up all the information on assigned calls and distress calls. Laura finally managed to pull up the list of recent assignments before tapping on the last emergency call. There was a brief description on file there. The male caller had apparently phoned through around 3 p.m. that he had been in a wildlife accident.

"That's why you drove here... But what happened next?" 

Laura's eyes fell on the dashcam mounted in the front of the windshield. It took her a few minutes before she managed to pull up the memory state of the camera recordings. She started the last recording, which was several hours long. The date told her that the day was correct. Using the time, she navigated within a few seconds to where Travis pulled up behind the parked pickup truck that stopped beside the road. Laura looked out the front window and could still clearly see the pickup's tire tracks in the sand. 

She saw Travis get out and walk over to the car. He chatted briefly with the person sitting in the car, but was out of sight. Until the moment Travis turned away from the driver's door to walk in front of the vehicle. At that moment, a bulky man got out of the vehicle. He was holding something in his hand that Laura couldn't quite make out at first glance. It wasn't until the man hit Travis hard in the back of the head with it and he went down that she recognized it - it was a crowbar. 

The man, whom Laura had so far only seen from behind, grabbed the policeman lying on the ground and dragged him back to his vehicle. Travis was apparently unconscious, because he didn't move as the guy opened the rear car door and heaved him into the car with effort. At that moment, the dude looked in their direction, or rather, in the direction of the police car. It was easy to see his face before he closed the door of the vehicle, got in himself and drove off with Travis in the back. 

Laura thought she couldn't believe her eyes. 

She tapped around on the screen again to see if any more information about the caller had been recorded via 911. Sure enough, the man had given a name when he placed the 911 call. 

Laura's whole body began to tingle with tension as she read the name.

"Jason Radcliffe." she whispered softly. The last name was very familiar to her. 

-

"W-w-who ar-e y-ou?", it was hard for Travis to speak because his head hurt so incredibly. He had just regained consciousness, which was why everything was spinning in his head. Still, he knew for a fact that he had never seen the guy sitting in front of him. 

The man was smiling at him. His scruffy grin sent a shiver down Travis' spine. 

"Think about it, Sheriff Hackett. You know me. You rotten son of a bitch." 

Travis tried to look at him - tried to focus his gaze. But his eyes rolled back and forth so uncontrollably that he could only see the man's face in focus for brief moments before his field of vision blurred. 

"You've seen me before. In court." the man helped Travis out. But the latter was in no mood for a guessing game with his captor. 

"Whe-re a-m I?" 

"SAY HER NAME!" the guy then yelled at Travis as he jumped up from his chair. The chair fell over - because of the strong jerk - backwards. Travis, on the other hand, didn't even flinch as the man, inches in front of him, jumped out of his skin. His head was just too far off track to be able to follow the sudden action. Let alone show reflexes. 

"I'm Anne Radcliffe's brother, motherfucker. Does that name tell you anything?" Judging by the tone of his voice, the question was tongue-in-cheek. Still, Travis didn't know what the guy was getting at. He took another good look at him. He tried really hard - tried to notice the outline of his face. The slightly crooked nose. The wide upper lip. The dark eyes. 

Travis went inside himself for a few seconds before saying "I-I h-a-ave no i-de-a, bud-"

He couldn't complete the sentence. Next, he tasted the unpleasant taste of blood in his mouth. Then he perceived a dull pain followed by an unpleasant burning sensation on his cheek. The same spot the guy had just hit with his fist. 

Travis had had the taste of blood in his mouth so many times. The first time as a child when his mother had hit him. Followed by many more times in his childhood and adolescence. Then in the six years after Harrum Scarrum. Countless times. And since then - since the curse was broken - in his dreams. 

Travis considered for a moment if perhaps he was dreaming. If he'd ever had a real, painful dream like this before. 

"You and your fucking hillbilly family killed my sister. The hiker who was killed along with her husband by you motherfuckers." 

The guy's lower lip quivered as he said this, and he watched Travis slowly begin to shake his head. 

"A-c-c-qu-it-te-d." 

The next punch went into Travis' stomach, causing him to gag. 

"BULLSHIT!" roared the now very upset Jason Radcliffe. "You guys killed her! I know it for a fact! And I don't give a shit if the court acquitted you bastards!" 

The next moment, Travis was sure he was dreaming. He saw, a few feet behind the wild-eyed man across from him, a door open. Through it came Laura Kearney. With her hair open, long and blonde, she looked like an angel. 

He smiled at the thought of the little girl, while his eyes slowly fell shut and he lost consciousness again. 

-

"Hands up." Laura pointed Travis' service weapon at Jason, who stood a good few feet in front of her. Beside him, Travis sat tied up in a chair. His torso, as well as his head, had fallen forward and he was not moving. Laura saw the blood running down his neck to his torso. 

Radcliffe didn't move at first, before Laura gave him a stern look to let him know he'd better follow her instruction. 

"Is that his gun?" he asked with a nod in her direction as he slowly raised his hands. "Would explain why he didn't have one on his person."

When Laura was sure the guy couldn't be dangerous to her, or to Travis, she turned her gaze to the helpless cop. He was bound to the chair he was sitting in, topless. His body was slumped over and the blood he had on his face and torso instantly frightened her. Her eyes fell on a small side table that stood a good three feet from Radcliffe. On it lay all sorts of tools and utensils. As Laura looked at them more closely, she felt sick. There were pliers, wrenches, and even a saw. Neatly and tidily lined up. It looked like a jailer's torture kit. Next to all the utensils, which apparently had not been used yet, was Travis' utility belt. 

"Handcuffs." said Laura, pointing to the item, then to a support post a few feet away. "And don't take anything else."

The guy swallowed before taking a few slow steps toward the side table. He lowered a hand very slowly, his gaze darting over the items on it for only a fraction of a second before fixing back on Laura. 

It had only been a brief moment, but Laura had understood what he was about to do even before he had gotten around to performing his action. 

Within a moment, he grabbed a wrench, took it out - he was about to throw it in her direction before -

Laura's field of vision blurred for a second and the next moment she was in the forest. Standing in front of Silas, who was sleeping quietly in his cage. An exhausted Travis stood beside her, pleading with her to finally shoot the creature that had plagued his family for years. To free him from the curse that had weighed on his shoulders for so long. 

She knew it didn't make sense, but she had thanked the universe in hindsight that she had been able to do him this favor. The man who had held her captive for two months. The one who had lied to her, drugged her, and imprisoned her. The one who had defended her from his family. The one who had spared her life twice in the Hackett mansion and then protected her in the car. Who had yelled at her to hide when the monster on the roof of the car had lashed out at her with its claws. Who had trusted her enough to put a shotgun in her hand. 

The moment she'd shot Silas for him had been the moment they'd both been even. For what he had done to her. For what she had done to him. And also for not shooting her when his father had told him to. For sparing her again afterwards, when he could have stabbed her with the shard of glass, while she had immortalized herself with a bite mark in the skin on his arm. 

That's why she had been so sure at that moment that pulling the trigger had been the right thing to do. 

Just as it had been at this moment. 

So she pulled the trigger. 

A loud bang echoed through the otherwise empty barn.

-

It was bright. Damn bright. The light burned unpleasantly in his sensitive eyes, which is why he squeezed them tight again the next second. The muscles in his face ached as he tensed them. Especially his right eye. His cheek. He moaned softly before bringing his hands in front of his face in response. 

I can move my hands, he noticed. 

"Travis?" 

It took him a moment to place the voice. 

"...Laura?"

He felt a touch on his arm, then a gentle caress across his forehead. "Keep your eyes closed. You have a severe concussion."

"Where am I?" 

She gently stroked his cheek. The tender sensation was balm to his battered skin. 

"In the hospital. It's all right. I'm with you."

"What-"

Then her fingers moved to his lips. She gently stroked them, whereupon he fell silent. He opened his eyes very slowly, then dropped his head to the side, so he could look at her. Her gaze was concerned. 

"What are you doing here?" 

"Taking care of you."

He closed his eyes again and enjoyed the touch of her fingertips gently moving over his skin. 

"Why? I- I mean, how? How did you know-"

"I've got my eyes on you, Travis." Her voice sounded calm as she spoke the words. But still, in a strange way, they triggered unease in him. 

"Have you forgotten that we're a team, Travis? That we belong together? You and me?"

Travis didn't understand what she meant by that. It was too exhausting for him to think about it at that moment, too. He was only aware of how the mattress lowered a bit on its side as Laura sat down next to him on the bed. How warm her fingertips were as they moved over his lips again. How soft her lips were as she lowered them to his in a careful kiss. How pleasant the tender touch was to him and how a soft moan escaped him as he reflexively returned the kiss. How sweet her hair smelled as the soft blonde strands fell into his face as she carefully deepened the kiss. Her tongue gently stroked his lower lip.

He was confused. He didn't understand why Laura was kissing him. This was Laura, right? Why was she kissing him? Was it really Laura? Was he dreaming?

What he didn't notice was the soft jingle of keys in Laura's jacket pocket. His bunch of keys, to be exact. Because Laura had his house key copied during the time, he had been taken to the hospital by ambulance.  So that she would have access to his house in the future - to be able to take even better care of him, of course - she told herself, while she had butterflies in her stomach as she kissed him.

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[womanofwords]

High School (Part 4)

Previously

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Hero briskly walked into school with a new lease on their teenage life. They just had to help out around this place; how hard could that be?

He still had all his normal powers: flying, super strength, enhanced hearing. He could stop high school bullying with ease. He could be the helpful person he always was back when he was an adult.

Hero started with normal problems, like the teachers. They had so much trouble organizing homework, so he should probably just make it easier for them! He put up posters encouraging hard work. People were looking at him a lot more, so maybe this was a start to him being popular. Now that small problems were out of the way, he had to tackle the big fish: Villain.

Villain could be planning something evil right now. She was someone that liked to stick to the shadows, unseen as she schemed. There was probably a million plans to defeat him going through her head right now.

Just then, Villain sauntered in, a couple of people trailing after her. They laughed at Villain’s jokes, jockeyed for her attention, and the wierdest part was where they wore similar clothes to Villain. What could she be planning? He’d have to be sneaky, smart and subtle if he wanted to find out.

“What are you planning, Vanessa?” Hero demanded, in front of her entourage. So much for sneaky, smart and subtle.

“What are you doing, Harry?” Vanessa asked.

“Do you know him?” one of her new cronies whispered.

“Yeah, he’s my adoptive brother,” Vanessa explained, mumbling a little. Hero cocked his head to the side. Did she have the nerve to be embarrassed by him?

“I’m your brother and I have my suspicions about you, lady!” Hero snapped. “What are you doing with these people? And why are all of them dressed like you?”

“These are my friends!” Villain snapped. “And so what if we have similar styles of dressing? What’s it to you?” The entourage mumbled things in agreement.

“I’m just trying to keep my new school safe, happy and uneventful! And you’re getting in the way of that!”

Villain leaned down to look at Hero. She was a head taller than him, something that he hated. “I’m not getting in the way of anything! You’re getting in the way of me and my friends when we’re walking. Now move, little brother.” Hero felt his feet leave the ground as Villain levitated him via telekinesis, albeit only three feet. “Not gonna lie, you’re heavier than I thought you would be. Now for the love of God, leave me alone.” Hero was unceremoniously dropped to the floor as Villain and her friends walked away without a word, other students snickering.

You’re not fooling me one bit, Villain. I’ve got my eye on you, you know, Hero thought.

Not to be put off by a little slip-up, Hero watched Villain from the shadows, waiting for her to show her evil roots. There was Villain with her minions, Villain with a stack of books for homework, Villain levitating more people- AHA! Now was his time to strike!

“I knew it! Bullying students with your powers!” Hero yelled, jumping out of the shadows. “I knew it and nobody believed me!”

“Her-Harry, no, no! Don’t go near me! It’ll ruin everything!” Villain yelled. But Hero wasn’t listening. With one solid thud, he slammed into Villain, sending them both into the floor. The people that were in the air flew in all directions as they were freed.

“I did it! I saved you all from this hooligan!” Hero announced. He opened his arms, expecting to be met with cheers and applause and maybe even a bouquet of roses.

He was not met with cheers, but with screams.

“The bookshelf!” someone yelled. Hero turned to look at the bookshelf as it swayed over someone that was frantically, but not quickly, getting away from it. This wouldn’t be a problem for him, he could just use his super strength to hold the bookshelf up and keep it from falling. He stood up, stretching a bit, and prepared to walk over and hold up the bookshelf.

But Villain ruined it.

Villain’s telekinesis powers held up the huge bookshelf before Hero got a chance. Slowly, so very slowly, the bookshelf was righted, with a few books falling off, but nothing significant. Everything was the way it should, and a silence took hold.

One person cheered, and then everyone did. People cheered for Villain as Hero watched on with horror. Villain was not the good guy! Hero was the good guy! Everyone had gotten it so, so wrong! Their eyes grew wide and welled up with tears as he heard what people were saying about him. Curse enhanced hearing.

“Did you see how Harry looked? Totally feral.”

“I think that he’s going to be a villain.”

“I know, right? He’s just evil. Saw Van being nice and literally pounced.”

“I don’t think he’s evil. I just think he’s a busybody.”

“Yeah, I see your point. What ‘villain’ reminds teachers of homework?”

“That guy makes everything so much worse for all of us. Vanessa must be so embarrassed. And I bet his folks are going to be pissed. Grounded for life!”

That last one was actually true. Superhero actually grounded Hero after that.

“Hero, this is the last thing I expected from you,” Superhero lectured, after they were home. “You are supposed to be the good example for Villain, but here you are doing the exact opposite, being exactly what you shouldn’t be.”

“I wasn’t trying to do anything like that!” Hero yelled. “I was trying to stop her schemes!”

“Schemes?” Superhero’s eyes went wide. “The only scheme that’s happening is Villain doing her best to reform herself, and you’re actively handicapping this.”

“I’m being vigilant!” Hero yelled.

Superhero shook his head and left, congratulating Villain for being so good.

It made Hero want to be sick.

After this

Part 5

Part 6