Broken Bonds

Train Ride

Liu's pov:

"Everyone ready?"  Slender asked. Jeff rolled his eyes and grumbled while and I nodded. Slender nodded and beckoned us closer. "Alright, let's teleport over." Jeff walked over, but I stayed put. "I'm going to walk over. You go on without me and I'll meet you there by noon." I wanted to have another moment with just Sully and me before we go. Once we leave, moments like those will be very scarce and we'd have to be very careful. But unfortunately my luck didn't want to go that way. "Liu, I don't feel comfortable with you walking all that way by yourself." Slender said, concern surprisingly clear in his voice. 'You wouldn't be alone. And he knows it.' I felt Sully's temper flare again. He thinks that Slender's just trying to keep us apart, and to get me to actually interact with Jeff. 'Sully chill.... please.' Sully grumbled some things under his breath before going silent. "I'll be fine Slender. I know my way around here and no one knows I'm here." I was really hoping he'd just give in, but he continued to protest.

"I'll go with him."

Jeff's pov:

I wasn't really expecting Liu to fight Slender over teleporting. In all reality he seems much more comfortable walking. So after a few more passes between the two, I stepped in. "I'll go with him." They both stopped almost immediately. Slender tilled his head slightly, this probably sparked his interest over why. Liu on the other hand, he was just staring at me in surprise. Kinda looking like he thought I was crazy. It was silent for a few uncomfortable seconds before I repeated myself. "I said I'll go with him." This time Slender just nodded, seemingly happy with this. "Are you sure? It's a long walk and there can't be any breaks if we'd be there by noon." Liu tried to persuade me not to go. Before either of us could say anything else, Slender stepped in. "Liu, you go with Jeff. Or you teleport with us." Liu seemed to be thinking over his options for a second before reluctantly nodding. 'He really doesn't want me here huh?'

Shortly after Slender teleported, we started down the path. An extremely uncomfortable silence stretching between us. Liu was holding the strap of his bag nervously, I was drumming my fingers against my legs also uncomfortable. It took ten minutes for me to bite the bullet. "Hey.... uh... I'm sorry for last night..... I shouldn't of let my anger get ahead of me like that." Liu glanced at me briefly since I was walking besides him. "It's.... alright I guess." I nodded realizing that's all that's going to be said on that subject. It was five minutes until Liu spoke again. "So uhhh.... do you want to.... tell me a bit about the mansion?" It was a werid attempt at the awkard small talk, but better than the unnerving silence. "Oh sure." I made sure to take note on how Liu visibly relaxed when I agreed.

Liu's pov:

I honestly felt like I was back in an asylum with the silence. So after the ice was semi broken curtisy of Jeff, I tried to get rid of it for now. 'It'll get rid of that, and hopefully we'll know who to avoid and not to mess with.' 'Yeah, that was awkward, even on my end.' 'Yeah, you know it's bad when you feel it too.' I felt some tension leave me as soon as he agreed. So I gave him my attention while he talked. "It's honestly not too too bad. At least once you get used to it." 'Oh lovely. Once you get used to it.' 'The first bit gonna be living hell.' I kept my comments to myself and let Jeff continue. "It's only really super crowded during meals, other than that since it's so big, it's hard to be too crowded. Ontop of that, a good portion of the people are outside a lot." I nodded a bit reassured. "There are some people to avoid, Jane is one of them." It took me a second for the name to click. "Wait.... Jane Arknsaw? The girl that lived next door?" Jeff nodded before continuing. "Yeah, there's another girl named Nina, trust me you don't want to deal with her.  She's absolutely boy-crazy. Everyone agrees she shouldn't be allowed here, she kinda looks like me so she'll be easy to avoid." 'I bet he had something to do with this.' 'Yeah wouldn't be too surprised at this point.' I nodded to show I was paying attention.

"So anyways, last time I checked he wasn't there but Slender has three brothers. The one guy is named Offenderman. For the love of everything, stay away from him and don't accept anything from him, especially a rose." I shivered, the name suggested he did some bad things. I did not want to get involved with any of that. "Eyeless Jack aka E.J is normally pretty chill, I think you'd get along with him. But you do need to be a little careful around him. He's a cannibal so he eats people's organs to live. He's normally pretty good at not going after anyone's organs, but he does try occasionally." I nodded slightly uncomfortable with how that turned. "For at least the first week, I don't suggest going out at night. There's this creature called the Rake running around the forest, normally at night. But he does go after people a lot. Most of us don't go out at night, and if we do we stay close to the mansion. He tends not to go there." 'Hhehehe well shit.' 'Yeah...'

A few hours later

Things honestly didn't go as bad as I thought they would. Sully didn't curse out Jeff. Jeff didn't try anything, and we only had to take a small break once halfway through. Other than that it was relatively calm. Jeff filled up the silence with talk about the mansion and the people there. I was kinda surprised on how much he actually picked out about people. By the end I had a list of people to be careful about. And even some I'd be oh kay with. 'Yeah, I gotta admit. I thought things were going to go way worse.' 'Yeah I..... I actually kinda enjoyed it...' Sully chuckled before going silence again. We just entered the train station. Slender was easy to point out and he seemed rather surprised.

Slender's pov:

I was watching the crowd as soon as the clock struck twelve. I honestly think they may have killed each other. It was only my third scan over when I saw them. There was a surprisingly calm aura around them, and Liu was more relaxed than I ever seen him around a crowd. Of course still weary and cautious but that's to be expected out of him. They walked over to me, as calm as could be expected from the duo. "Liu, Jeff, the train is leaving shortly." I decided to give them space over what went on, at least until we were on the train.

We boarded the train and sat down. Jeff and I ended up sitting by each other, while Liu sat by the window looking out of it. The train sent us all forward a little as it started but didn't bother anyone. It only took a minute for Liu's zoned-out look to appear. I glanced at Jeff to see him drumming his finger against his thighs bored. 'Guess I should entertain him before he starts a fight.' "So what did you and Liu talk about?" Jeff shrugged slight before replying. "I just told him bout the mansion and some people there. And before you say anything, I did make up for yesterday." I nodded a bit shocked but didn't comment.