A Guide To Murder

Chapter 115

"Oh thank goodness you're here," Jane sighed in relief once she saw Zalgo.

"What happened to him?" Zalgo asked, pointing at Hoody, who was on the floor being held by Jane. Masky was awkwardly on one knee beside him because, when he had touched Hoody before, Hoody had jumped away and almost had a heart attack.

"It's not important," Masky said quickly then coughed, getting to his feet. He gave Hoody a caring glance but Hoody was still crying into Jane's clothes, trembling. "Thank you for coming."

Zalgo sat on the chair Masky had been strapped to before and asked, "So what are we going to do exactly? Get back Slenderpants?"

Masky nodded. "Yeah, I guess we're going-"

The door was suddenly blown right off its hinges, crashing and breaking against the wall before it with a slam. Hoody jumped and held back a scream, eyes clenching shut.

"What the hell is that?" Zalgo asked, eyes wide once he saw the enormous wolf standing at the doorway.

"Ugh," Jane groaned. "Don't worry just slice its neck; I already killed one."

"Oh but, darling, that's so unoriginal," Zalgo remarked, getting to his feet and walking towards the Hound. "Hello there, little guy..."

The Hound bared its teeth, slamming its body against the door hedge it didn't fit through. Cracks formed in the wall that made the others jump but didn't faze Zalgo. "Don't you dare call me that, human!"

"Oh, did you hear that? He called me human..." Zalgo laughed before gripping the fur on its forehead harshly. "Who even said you could speak to the god of the underworld...?"

The wolf whimpered once before Zalgo grinned, pulling on the fur hard. Skin tore and Jane looked away as the wolf howled in pain. Zalgo kept pulling until all the skin and fur on its face had been torn off, leaving its face as nothing more than bloody pink muscle.

"I hate dogs," growled Zalgo as the Hound collapsed, a pool of blood forming underneath it. He turned to the others, holding up the skin that used to be on its face. "Any of you want a new mask? I heard fur's in right now."

"That's disgusting," Masky told him, covering his mouth with a hand.

Zalgo let the skin flop to the floor and smiled. "Well, you did ask for my help."

"Guys!"

They all looked up to see Charlie and Liu falling from an above vent and into the middle of the room, Charlie mumbling about something under his breath.

"Liu, is that you...?" Masky whispered.

"These idiots told me you died," Zalgo informed, confused.

"Well..." began Liu when something else fell from the vent and landed on top of Charlie, who giggled and hugged the thing.

"What. Is. That?" Masky demanded more than asked.

"Jeff called him Smile Dog," Liu explained quickly as the others watched Smile Dog lick Charlie's face. "It must have lost Jeff and found us or something, I don't really care. Jeff had just randomly decided he needed a dog when he saw this hell spawn. It left with Jeff but it found us a little bit ago and crawled into the vents with us. I don't know how we found you but we did."

"So did you find Slender or can I go back?" Zalgo asked impatiently.

"I was getting to that!" Liu exclaimed. "Charlie and I think he's a couple of halls down but we're pretty sure."

"Great," Jane said, smiling. Seeing her smile, Hoody smiled as well and Masky tried to swallow down his feelings at the action.

Charlie let out a funny groan and chomped down on his finger, Smile Dog barking.

"Don't eat your finger, you've been spending too much time with Toby." Liu laughed at his own bad joke then looked at the others. "...Uh, was that funny...?"

The others shook their heads slowly.