#i would extremely confidently say ''Nope!'' and promptly die

[yoshistory]

i did share with my therapist today that i found various neopets accounts all with names and usernames and characters i had apparently made over two-ish years that i had no recollection of until the moment i saw them and they were like "concerning." yeah boss i agree

[justgalactic]

Fear

A Halloween themed sanders sides fic I wrote!

Fear. A human survival instinct. When confronted with something scary, a human will do one of four things. Fight. Flight. Friend. Freeze.

A dark woods is never a good place to be alone, everybody knows that. But on Halloween night especially, your mind can play tricks on you. It will bend and warp the reality around you.

So, when Roman was walking through the forest just for the thrill of adventuring, and the flashlight on his phone flickered for a moment before dying completely, he knew he was in trouble. No way to call anybody, and no map to rely on to get home, chills started to run up his spine.

Under those same menacing trees was a man, huddled under a thick, dark hoodie. Virgil, as perpetually nervous and scared as he was, had always enjoyed late night walks outside, just to clear his head. It was his first time venturing into these woods in particular, however, and he had promptly gotten himself lost. His fingers drummed nervously on his legs as he tried to find the way out.

As the dim sliver of a moon shone down on the woods, a third man skipped through the trees, humming to himself, trying to remain calm. On his way to a party, Patton had assumed that a shortcut through the woods would make his journey quick and easy. But, over an hour later, he knew that he was lost. Patton fiddled with parts of his costume, mainly the long black cat tail, and tried to force himself to smile as he ventured deeper into the woods.

In another part of the dark forest, a man named Logan cursed his flashlight and the batteries he’d used for it, which apparently hadn’t been as new as he’d thought. It was too dark to continue writing in his notepad, so he tucked that into the satchel that was slung around his shoulder, along with the dead flashlight. A cold breeze made goosebumps crawl up his arms and Logan shivered, wishing he’d worn a jacket.

In the darkness, the howling of wolves rang out. All four of them snapped to attention, trying to find where the source of the howl was coming from. Logan tried to listen, tried to focus on where the wolves were, but the howling seemed to be coming from everywhere. It terrified him so much, and he froze.

His feet were glued to the ground, even as his heart raced in his chest, even as every fiber of his being begged him to move, to do something- he remained still. His blood ran cold. Soon, he felt his hands quaking, and his jaw quivering. He could hear panting, and saw two eyes appear out of the darkness. Logan tried his hardest to get his body to move, but it just wouldn’t. A single tear rolled down his cheek as he stood there, paralyzed in fear, the wolf inching ever closer.

Virgil heard a low growl through the trees around him, and it sounded so impossibly close- he ran.

Running through the woods, stumbling over sticks and leaves, Virgil’s breaths were coming quick and short. Cold, autumn air felt coarse against his throat, and harshly scraped against his lungs, but he kept running. Running and running and running and running and…he saw two figures up ahead. His legs wouldn’t stop running, even as he realized that one of them was the very creature he was running from. The other was a man, standing, positively petrified, a statue of pure terror. As Virgil raced by, without thinking, he grabbed the man’s hand, pulling him along.

Something grabbed Logan’s hand, and he almost screamed until he realized that it was another person, pulling him, urging him to run. The tug was all he needed, and his legs started to work again. Not perfectly at first, of course. He stumbled and tripped over himself, almost pulling the stranger down with him. Still, he finally got his footing, and never let go of the man’s hand.

They saw another man, but only actually noticed him when it was too late. They barreled into him, and all three fell to the ground. That gave the wolves all the advantage they needed, and they stalked closer.

Looking around, Virgil realized he’d run him and the stranger into a dead end, surrounded on three sides by short cliffs, too small to be impressive, but too big and steep to climb. He felt the man holding his hand tense up, and glanced over. He was frozen in panic once again. Every muscle in Virgil’s body was aching to run, but he knew that there was nowhere to go.

And then there was the third. Roman’s terrified face had immediately morphed into one of a powerful, confident anger. He stood up and stuck out his chest, trying to become intimidating. Logan and Virgil, still on the ground, winced, knowing that it would be impossible for one man to take on an entire pack of wolves. Roman himself seemed to realize this too, and backed away as the wolves walked ever closer. Then, a shaky voice floated through the woods.

“H-hey…it’s alright…we’re all friends…” They turned to the sound, and saw an extremely scared man holding his hand out like you would for a dog to sniff. The wolves moved to him, and the largest one slowly leaned its head towards the man’s hand. Virgil, Logan, and Roman all flinched, expecting for the wolf to lunge- but instead it sniffed the man’s hand, and turned up its nose, leaning the pack away. Logan let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“That was…weird,” Virgil said, breaking the tense silence. The others nodded in agreement. “Hey, none of you happen to have working flashlights or phones, do you?” He asked, talking as if he already knew the answer. They all showed his their dead phones and flashlights. “Of course not,” he sighed.

“We have to get moving though,” Roman said, helping Virgil and Logan to their feet. “I think there’s something going on in these woods, and I’d like to get out as soon as possible.”

They kept walking, but were entirely trapped. It seemed like there was no hope in sight-

“Patton! Why don’t you and your friends go grab your bags and we can head out trick or treating?”

“Okay!” Patton called back, slightly annoyed that his mom had interrupted their game of pretend, but excited by the prospect of candy. He led his friends through his backyard to his house.

“You know, that probably wouldn’t work in real life,” Logan pointed out.

“But wolves are like big fluffy puppies!” Patton replied happily.

“Big, fluffy puppies with giant teeth and that are like four times as big as you. They’d eat you alive.”

“Cool…” Virgil mumbled, imagining the ferociousness of such a creature. Roman took a proud stance.

“Fear not! I could fight them off for you!” He announced.

“Nope,” Logan responded immediately. “They’d eat you too.”

“I’d fight them off!” Roman protested.

“You would die,” Logan insisted. Virgil snickered at the defeated look on Roman’s face.

“You’d die quicker,” Roman replied.

“Why do you think that? If anything, you’d die first because-” he was interrupted as Virgil grabbed his shoulders and hissed,

“Boo!” in his ear. Logan froze, and shrieked in terror. Once he realized what had happened, he clamped his jaw shut, and turned to glare at Virgil and Roman, both doubled over in laughter. Even Patton giggled, watching Logan’s face turn bright red.

“That’s why,” Roman chuckled.

“W-whatever…” he mumbled. “At least I wouldn’t try to pet random wolves.” He looked pointedly at Patton.

“Still better than doing nothing,” Virgil smirked, nudging Logan in the side.

“Come o-on!” Patton groaned. “I want candy!” They all raced inside, following him.

Later in the night, still upset about what he’d done earlier, Logan screamed in Virgil’s ear, frightening him. Virgil ran almost a block away before he realized that it was just Logan. When the others finally caught up to him, it took Logan almost fifteen minutes to stop laughing.

Even later, Logan tried to do the same thing to Roman, who responded by whirling around and punching him firmly in the gut. Roman apologized, and claimed that it was an immediate reaction.

But he could barely manage to say the words ‘I’m sorry’ through his fits of giggles.