Predator (DWT x OC)

40

I guess I never really expected L'manburg to be so quiet without Tommy, so lost without Wilbur. Now, Jack, Niki and I sit wordlessly in Niki's house, blank eyed stares, gazes fixated on things no one else can see. I just sit on the couch, unmoving and quiet. Niki can't even bring herself to make dinner, nor Jack to crack a joke.

We're all just fucking exhausted.

Tommy and Wilbur, gone, maybe even dead, alone in the wilderness with nothing and no one, or just lying on the forest floor stiff as a board, and Tubbo forced to hunt them down, firmly in Schlatt's clutches. Everything has gone to shit, and I don't know what to do.

Jack lets me drift off with my head in his lap, and I go to sleep hoping that it'll all just go away when I wake up. Apparently, even after everything, I can still hope for the impossible.

------

I don't even know how we got here, back in another crowd, back in front of the podium with the same insane lunatic at the microphone, waiting to hear another fucking psychotic decree thats shatters everything all over again.

I cling onto Niki's hand, keeping close to Jack, who stands behind us. The energy of the crowd has shifted from the skittish, nervous anticipation of yesterday to today's looming sense of dread. It dulls the previously excited whispers to muted murmurs, apprehension dampening curiosity.

It feels as thought the whole world breathes in when Schlatt takes the stage, flanked by Fundy, Quackity and George, all dressed identically in crisp black suits, red ties and serious faces. Niki holds onto my hand extra tightly.

"Well hello again." Schlatt starts off, holding the microphone with one hand, grinning at the crowd.

"I have a few more announcements to make! From the beginning, I told everyone that I would be making some changes, and yesterday, well yesterday I certainly did." He pauses, allowing for a little chuckle, one that makes me want to throw up. "But it doesn't stop there, oh no ladies and gentlemen, it does not."

"Firstly, I'd like to make George and Fundy official members of my cabinet."

Okay, no surprises there. Still, it hurts to see George standing up there.

"Secondly, I'd also announce my Secretary of State, Tubbo!" Tubbo walks ashen faced onto the stage, dressed in a suit. It looks insane, like a child playing dress up, next to Schlatt, as grown man. Because that's what it is, a fucking kid, manipulated by some fucked up adult.

I don't want a repeat of yesterday, so I grit my teeth and try not to scream.

Schlatt surveys the audience before him, and he looks almost unfocused, as though he can't remember what he wants to say next. I can see him spot me, both Niki and I at the front, and narrow his eyes, for just a second, before they're renewed with maniacal vigour.

"People of L'manburg! The sun rises over another beautiful day in our great country. The sun rises on another chapter, the next page of the textbook that children will be reading until the end of time. I think, well I think that we've done our country a great disservice." He pauses, glancing over at the sturdy walls that stand impassively over the scene that I know is about to unfold, whatever it is.

"I think that we should tear down the walls."

"No you can't do that!" I hear Eret cry out in his deep voice, responding in the chorus of cries.

"NO!" Niki screams out next to me, shaking her head furiously, then turns to me, wide eyed, clutching my sleeve. "No he can't do that."

I blink, grabbing back onto Niki's wrist. "I think he just did." I mutter dumbfounded. Those walls were everything, the very structures that created Lmanburg. In fact, they were built, before the idea of L'manburg itself, the boundary that carved a piece of our home into the Greater SMP. The protection during the war, impenetrable, immovable black stone that shielded us from annihilation.