generation loss oneshots

All He Heard

The room was dark. Not unlike the rest of the mall, but this was a bit darker. Definitely more unsettling.

Charlie was just glad that the people wearing masks weren't following them anymore.

Walking further into the room revealed a set of a house. It sat eerily in the middle of the dark space and Charlie felt his chest tighten with a feeling that was similar to deja vu and something else.

"What the fuck is that?" He whispered to Ranboo.

"It's a house," Ranboo said, unhelpfully.

"No, but does it look familiar to you too?"

Ranboo didn't answer, looking over the set carefully. Charlie sighed and looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the button that they needed to find.

He didn't know why Ranboo trusted that person on the screen. He held his tongue about it because he didn't see any other way out of this scenario, but he had a weird feeling about Hetch.

And deep down, he was afraid of what Ranboo would do or say if he voiced his thoughts. Sure, Ranboo broke him out of that trancelike state he had been in, mindlessly streaming to thousands of people for god knows how long, but could he really trust Ranboo? What if Ranboo knew something Charlie didn't and was keeping it from him? What if Ranboo was in on the whole thing?

He hated having these thoughts. He wanted to trust Ranboo, he really did. But being trusting would most likely get him killed. So until Ranboo proved themself, Charlie wasn't putting his full trust in them.

But again, he didn't really see another way out of this scenario, and being with Ranboo was drastically better than being stuck streaming or being chased by people in masks.

A creak startled Charlie out of his thoughts and he turned abruptly in the direction of the sound. An inhuman hand reached out from behind the left side of the set, grabbing onto the wall, its nails digging into the flimsy wood.

"Ranboo?" Charlie said shakily, feeling himself freeze.

"We- we gotta go," Ranboo stammered, quickly grabbing onto Charlie's hand.

Ranboo pulled on Charlie, prompting him to start running but it was too late. The monster lunged out of the darkness, lurching towards them faster than expected. Its claws grabbed onto Charlie's torso, pulling him backwards. Charlie screamed and grabbed tighter onto Ranboo's hand, holding tight enough that his feet started to leave the floor. Ranboo's eyes went wide and they tried to reach for Charlie's other hand but the monster ripped Charlie away, tugging Ranboo forward a bit as their hands separated.

"Ranboo!" Charlie shrieked as the monster struggled to carry him backwards. He twisted in its sharp grasp, trying to tug himself from its arms. As he struggled, a shining of red caught his eye. He paused for a moment, hoping to see what was causing it.

"Ranboo! The button!" He yelled, throwing an arm out to shakily point at it.

Ranboo unstuck themself from their frozen state of panic and turned, before turning back to Charlie and then back to the button before they broke into an unsteady sprint towards the red light.

The monster threw Charlie to the floor just in front of the set of the cabin, his head slamming into the corner of the floor of the set as he landed on his back, the impact stealing the breath from his chest. His vision flashed white and Charlie gagged, unable to make a sound.

Charlie gasped painfully, desperately trying to push himself up as he watched the monster click click click onto all fours. Blood soaked into his hair from the back of his head, pain rocketing through his skull as he moved. It crawled towards him, its wires scraping on the floor, sparks shooting up from the concrete. He wanted to scream but he was still trying to pull air into his crumpled lungs, so instead he started pushing himself backwards, trying to crawl away. But once again the monster was faster and suddenly it was looming over him. Its hand grabbed his leg, its long claws digging into his thigh. He thought that it had stabbed into him but he didn't feel any pain.