Dear Diary | Proxies

xxxii. computer keyboards

Slowly, we made our way out, each giving Masky enough time to stumble along. Once the doors to the office shut behind us, I was finally able to wrap myself onto Masky's other side. He huffed, but he didn't push me away. Hoody took the lead this time as we made our way through the house, leading us up the stairs and to the smaller staircase tucked away.

I was tense the entire way down the halls. There were people here, people I most likely hadn't met. Some doors we passed were silent behind, but I could hear movement behind others. One had someone clattering things around, opera music playing as they did. Another had presumably two girls babbling to each other by the high pitch of their voices. Jeff's was even occupied, I noticed. There were dull thumps like he was throwing something at a wall, and music played, some mix of metal and what I could only call dubstep? Either way, it was loud, and I couldn't help staring at the door as we passed, ridden with anxiety that he would butt his ugly head out and try and start something.

Thankfully, no such thing happened, and we were able to get up the stairs without a problem. Masky finally pulled away, silently stumbling towards his bedroom. He closed the door mostly, but he left it cracked, and we could hear his body topple onto his bed. I stared at the door, clenching and unclenching my hands. "Is he going to be okay," I finally asked.

Toby was chewing on his cheek, the one not marred. "Y-yeah. Yeah. He-he'll be f-fine."

It was silent again, but as I went to speak, I was abruptly cut off by a childish shriek. The door we were next to swung open, and then Toby was almost knocked over as someone forcefully wrapped around him, arms pulled tight around his waist. He made a gasped sound before bending slightly and picking them up, holding them by their armpits up in front of him, feet dangling above the ground.

It was a girl, and it clicked in my head almost instantly. This was Sally! She was small, smaller than I believed an eight-year-old normally was. She was clad in a pale pink nightdress, dark brown locks falling down her back to almost her ankles, and a black teddy bear clutched tightly in one hand. She was grinning, a tooth gap similar to Brian's making an appearance. "Toby! I missed you!" Her voice was high and happy, the sentence followed by a giggle.

"I-I miss-sss-ssed you, too!" He pulled her into a hug, and she kicked her feet up, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, clinging to him so tightly I'm sure it would have hurt if he could feel it. "L-look! We br-brought s-sss-someone new!"

He turned so his back to me, and the girl's wide, bright green eyes finally fell to me. I smiled, waving. "Hi, Sally! I've heard about you from Toby. It's nice to meet you."

Sally shrunk in a bit on herself, burying her face into Toby's neck. He patted her back reassuringly. "Sh-she's going to be s-staying with u-us from now o-on!"

Sally turned, whispering something to him. Toby nodded, and she asked another question, eyes looking at me in a playful manner. Toby nodded again, this time more enthusiastically.

The girl tapped his shoulder a few times, and he placed her on the ground carefully. She came bounding over to me, staring up at me. She stuck her hand out, the one not occupied with the bear. "Hi! I'm Sally. This is Mr. Death." I gently took her hand in mine, shaking it, and then I reached over to the bear and shook his.

"I hope we can become friends, Sally!"

She nodded in the way that kids do, throwing her entire body forward and back with the head movement. "Yeah!" She turned away. "Toby, me and Mr. Death were gonna have a tea party! Do you want to join? I've got your cup!"

"O-of course!" She grabbed his forearm, dragging him towards her bedroom, waving a goodbye to us as she did. "B-bye, June! B-bye, Hoody!"

I giggled. "I'll see you later, Tobes."