Chapter Text
When Sneeg had gotten up, he hadn’t noticed Charlie’s absence. He left his other sleeping sibling on the couch and stepped onto the wood floor. He quietly began making his way down the hall when he heard movement in the kitchen. Who else was awake at this hour?
Charlie was in the kitchen, trying to eat food. Sneeg sat next to him and tried to help him through it as much as he could, but his mind was only half there. The rest of his mind was taken over with thoughts of sitting on the bathroom floor and getting out that glass shard again. Or making a search for something else that was sharp but subtle. He made a few jokes to Charlie, but was hardly paying attention to anything that came out of his mouth. He rubbed at his bandaged arms.
“Okay, I’m… I’m finished so I’m gonna go back to the couch now.” Charlie got up and put his bowl on the counter. He turned to look at Sneeg. “Are you gonna come?”
Sneeg forgot to respond for a moment, but he looked up at Charlie. He saw the cracks in his glasses and made a mental note to remember to get him replacements somehow. “Nah, I’ll stay up a little later.” He smiled, leaning his elbows on the edge of the table.
Charlie nodded and almost immediately left the kitchen. Sneeg waited until he couldn’t see or hear him anymore before standing up and quietly making his way to the bathroom.
He’d hardly been able to sleep, his mind moving too fast at all times. All he could think about was leaving Wilbur at the hands of Showfall. What was wrong with him? He probably could have saved him if he weren’t so selfish. Why hadn’t he even thought of helping Wilbur? And now this poor family had to take care of them and he knew they’d all need to make the journey back to that mall.
He closed the door and flicked the light on, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light. He opened the cabinet under the sink and quickly found the glass shard.
He cut in the same spots he had last time. Either he was imagining it, or the cuts healed slightly slower than before.
He enjoyed the stinging, burning sensation. He knew he deserved it, and this punishment just felt so right. He couldn’t help but feel slight disappointment when he had finished, so he made another cut on his forearm.
He bandaged up everything, hid the glass, and went back to the living room, sitting next to his brothers. Ranboo was leaning into Charlie, with Charlie’s arm around them, his face slightly hidden as he rested his face on their head. Sneeg smiled.
—
Ranboo sat on the carpeted floor, wrapped in a soft purple blanket. Tommy was on Wilbur’s laptop, searching through google maps to try finding abandoned malls. He would show one to Ranboo every so often, asking if that was the one he’d escaped from. Ranboo always shook their head, but was slightly amused at the abandoned malls within a five hour drive of them. Tommy vaguely mentioned a number of abandoned stores and residences as well.
When Tommy came home from work that afternoon, he’d almost immediately grabbed Ranboo and dragged them upstairs.
Tommy, despite Ranboo’s initial impression of the guy, was funny and talkative in a way that made up for Ranboo’s silence.
As Tommy frustratedly searched the laptop, Ranboo looked up from the ground to speak. “Can you, um…” they cleared their throat, fidgeting with their fingers. “Can you tell me about Wilbur and… and Niki?” Saying her name hurt. So bad.
Tommy looked up. “Oh… sure. What do you want to know?”
“Just… anything.”
Tommy sighed, but nodded. “Niki and Wil were best friends since before I was born, so I guess she was like a sister to me? But they kind of stopped talking when… um…” he paused. “Well, Wilbur had some alcohol problems. It was a thing for a few years, and he got into a lot of arguments with people and didn’t want to reach out for help. He had a really big fight with Niki and she didn’t contact us anymore. Any of us. One day, months later, Wil tried to call her but she never picked up. He went to her house and found the door unlocked, and she was just… gone. He mentioned something about never getting the chance to apologize and I guess when he left, he was looking for her.”
Ranboo thought for a moment, picking at the carpet. “So… how did he know where to… where she was?”
Tommy shrugged. They lapsed into silence, only broken by the sound of Tommy typing on the laptop keyboard. Ranboo absentmindedly fidgets with the edge of their black mask.
Eventually, Tommy decided to break the silence. “What happened to her, exactly? If- if you want to say, that is.”
Ranboo took a shaky breath. “Um… she… she…” Why was nothing coming out of their mouth? Why were they shaking?
“Sorry. You don’t need to tell me anything.”
Ranboo bit their lip. They wanted to tell Tommy, he deserved to know, but the words got caught in their throat and choked them. They went back to staring at the carpet, blanket pulled a little closer around their shoulders.
“She…” Ranboo began again. “I don’t know how to explain this lightly… but she was shot. She could be alive, ‘cause, um… we can heal really fast or something, but…” they trailed off as Tommy stared at them, a look of slight horror on his face.
“... what ?”
“I… I’m not sure how to explain.”
Tommy opened his mouth, but closed it again, clearly unsure of what to do or say. He nodded and went back to the laptop. Ranboo made a mental note to come up with a better explanation.
A few more minutes of silence as Tommy searched, until he closed the laptop in frustration. “It’s probably not even on any map. This is going to take forever.”
Tommy was definitely upset, so Ranboo hesitantly opened their arms for a hug. Tommy glanced at them for a moment, then hugged them tightly, his face hidden in their shoulder. Either he was really shaky, or he was crying.
“Wilbur messed up so many damn times, but I can’t give up on him,” Tommy whispered. “He was getting better.”
Ranboo nodded and gave him a little squeeze. The two leaned on each other and let the tears spill.
—
Techno tapped on the steering wheel, listening to the radio and the sounds of the highway around him. The GPS said he’d get there in an hour and a half, and he was hoping he wouldn’t regret it.
He hadn’t told anyone he was coming, just in case he wanted to turn straight around and go back home. Like a coward.
Poetic, isn’t it, how someone will go great lengths to help the person that hurt them, even though they swore to never speak to them again. Such is his sibling bond.
He still didn’t understand why he was doing this. Wilbur always seemed to be in danger. Why did he even care anymore? How much did he have to go through before the pain finally numbed?
He hadn’t been entirely filled in on the situation, either. Apparently Wilbur was in danger, three traumatized strangers had coincidentally shown up in his car, and now everything was in disarray. His mom had wanted him to come home, and he knew this was hard on her. It always was. He just… he couldn’t keep helping Wilbur.
Techno turned up the radio to drown out his thoughts. An hour and twenty five minutes until he reached that country road.
—
Tommy had to admit, Ranboo wasn’t as strange as he seemed. Yes, he was quiet, shaky, and tall, but Tommy didn’t care in the slightest. He’d lost friends in the past few years, and he saw this as a new opportunity, as hope. Maybe something good could come from this whole situation.
He was sitting next to Ranboo in his room when he heard the crunch of the gravel driveway outside. He stood up and looked out the window. A familiar car came down the driveway, one that made him both incredibly nervous and ridiculously excited.
“Who is that?” Ranboo asked quietly.
“I think that’s my brother.” Tommy grabbed Ranboo’s hand and dragged him out of the room. “I haven’t seen him in ages.”
“Oh… okay.” Ranboo simply followed him in compliance.
Internally, Tommy felt the panic build up. He hadn’t seen Techno in months, and the last time they’d ever spoken was right before his big argument with Wilbur. He pushed down the thoughts as he reached the bottom of his steps to greet his brother.
Techno’s roots had grown out significantly, but they were still that familiar pale pink he always liked to have. He looked calm and almost expressionless as his parents hugged him. Tommy watched awkwardly as Ranboo tried to hide behind him, which wasn’t successful due to their height. Sneeg and Charlie peeked in from the living room.
When Phil and Kristen finally let go of Techno and he turned to see Tommy, the younger immediately ran and hugged him. After a moment, Techno gave his back an awkward pat.
Tommy moved back and gave Techno a confused look. “I didn’t think you’d– why are you here?!”
“I’m asking myself the same question.” Techno sighed. “I know I’m going to regret this.”
Tommy hugged him again. “Damn right you will.”
—
When Techno and Tommy took up residence in the living room to attempt finding Showfall, Charlie had fled and gone out into the woods in the backyard. The humid air was sticky and tiring, but it was nice compared to the dark days in the mall, where the only light usually came from LEDs and the air smelled of mildew in some places and cleaning solution in others. The occasional breeze felt funny on his skin.
As he walked further in, the dirt path became less and less prominent, and he began to walk on years’ worth of dry, crunching leaves and pine needles.
He picked up a pinecone and threw it, feeling the soreness in his shoulders but no real pain. They had definitely healed, but the skin would probably be a little lumpy forever.
Charlie subconsciously bit the corner of his lip with his canine as he picked up a moss covered rock about the size of his fist. It was a dull grey, with small shiny areas if you tilted it correctly in the sunlight. He really had missed out on a lot.
And all sound ceased.
Charlie looked up. Everything seemed normal. The sky hadn’t grown cloudy or dark, the trees hadn’t wilted into nothing, squirrels hadn’t dropped dead out of the trees. As he started walking again, he heard no crunching of the leaves under him.
“Hello?” He called out, hardly able to hear himself.
“Oh good, it’s working.” A voice, a familiar one, came from nowhere in particular. Charlie looked around desperately.
“What the f– oh no, no, no!” Charlie’s eyes went wide and his heart rate increased.
“Yep, that’s right! You didn’t think you got rid of us, did you?” The voice that definitely belonged to Hetch teased.
“Shut up, you’re not real. I’m imagining this.” Charlie could feel his heart in his throat. “Stop.”
“Now, Charlie, I have something I need to test real quick. I hope you don’t mind.”
Charlie took off, running as fast as he could in one direction. The lack of sound except for Hetch’s voice was just making everything worse.
Hetch sighed. “Are you running? It sounds like you’re running.”
“YES.”
“Alright. That’s not going to change anyth–”
“SHUT UP.”
“Charlie, this behavior is just going to make everything worse.”
“I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t–” Charlie was interrupted when he tripped over a rotting log, catching himself with his arms. The pain was only there for a moment, but he couldn’t help the tears that came to his eyes.
“Wait, one moment. There seems to be a… wardrobe malfunction … I’ll have to get back to you.” When Hetch went quiet, the sounds of the world were back again.
Charlie broke down.
—
Sneeg tapped on his arm, using his foot to gently rock the swinging bench he and Ranboo were sitting on. They were waiting for Charlie to come back from his walk.
A distant shout came from the woods, causing them both to jump.
“That was him.” Ranboo grabbed Sneeg’s hand and the two ran into the woods to find their brother.
Sneeg’s mind was racing as all the possibilities flashed through his mind. A panic attack, a broken ankle, maybe even a rabid animal, who knows?!
Sneeg’s grip on Ranboo tightened as Charlie came into view, sitting on a rock and tugging at his hair. He occasionally sobbed, seemingly unaware of the other two.
Sneeg approached. “Charlie? You okay, man?”
Charlie looked up slowly to stare into his eyes, his breath hitching. He stood up and hugged Sneeg. “He– I h–” More sobs came out and he just cried.
“Hey, hey. Deep breaths,” Sneeg said, trying to keep Charlie from hyperventilating. Ranboo watched, fidgeting with his hands.
“He can talk to me.” Charlie whispered.
“Who- who are you talking about?” Ranboo gave Sneeg an anxious glance.
“Hetch. HETCH IS TRYING TO BREAK ME.”
Sneeg winced at the shouting, but rubbed Charlie’s back. “Tell us what happened,” he said, trying to keep a level voice.
Charlie was silent for a minute, then spoke. “Okay.”
—
Wilbur woke up when he wasn’t supposed to. He knew this because he was in a dark, cold, quiet room, and heard something coming from far away. It was an almost metallic banging sound. He blinked, his brain begging him to go back to sleep.
He subconsciously tugged at his choker as he got up from his bed. Why was he wearing a choker in his sleep? And why was he wearing casual clothes and not pajamas? Did he pass out drunk again? No, that couldn’t be it. He had promised Tommy–
Tommy. Where was Tommy? Where were his parents? Where was he? Wilbur looked around the room, immediately noticing it only had three walls. Outside of that was… someplace else. He stepped closer and looked out. The area looked like a combination of a filming set and an empty mall.
“Hello? Anyone?” He called out. His voice echoed. No response.
Was he dreaming? Was this some stupid nightmare? He tried to remember what he did before falling asleep. All that appeared in his mind were blurry images of two people, and then a dim memory of something bleeding.
Wilbur left his ‘room’ and began to walk through the rest of the set, passing a living room, kitchen, and other bedrooms.
Beginning to move faster, he left the area and found an unmoving escalator. He looked around frantically before hurrying down it. He needed to leave.
He ran through the mall, but stopped abruptly when he almost crashed into someone. They wore a mask, white with a familiar design on it. Wilbur knew he’d seen it before.
“Uh… lovely night, huh?” He asked nervously. “Where’s the exit?”
They didn’t respond, simply grabbing his arms.
“Hey, what are you–” Wilbur stopped speaking as they pressed the button on the back of his choker. His eyes began to close and he felt his mind go foggy.
His body went limp, arms holding onto him.