Ned is with Jake helping Jake decorate his Christmas tree, Ned doesn't completley care about Christmas but he didn't have anything else to be doing, so why not? Ned places an ornament on the tree and climbs up the ladder to place some higher up. Jake smiles at him under his mask.
"You're actually pretty good at this."
Jake comments affectionately as he places an ornament on the tree and looks up at Ned on the ladder, Ned shrugs and places another ornament on the tree, he glances back down at Jake and responds.
"I guess. It's just putting ornaments on a tree, dont think you can really be good or bad at doing that."
Jake chuckles, Ned stumbles and falls off the ladder, Jake tries to catch him, he does but ends up falling on his ass at the same time with Ned ontop of him. Jake blushes.
"Careful there Ned."
Ned groans and brushes himself off, getting off of Jake and helping him up.
"Damn ladder isn't sturdy, you should get that shit fixed."
Jake nods and replies.
"Guess so, might have a few screws loose or something.."
Ned sighs and looks over at the ladder
"Want me to take it back and get a different one?"
"Oh uh.. yeah sure!"
Ned nods and folds up the ladder and holds it over his shoulder then heads back out to the shed, putting it back and grabbing another ladder that wasn't as rusty and rickety. He picks it up and then hears Jake screaming, he drops the ladder and quickly heads back out and when he gets outside Jake is gone. Ned raises his eyebrows and looks around, he sees Jake's gun on the ground and picks it up, looking at it in his hands.
"What the hell...?"
Ned says silently to himself. He starts walking around through Project KEEP, looking for Jake everywhere but can't find him. He groans and suddenly hears a woman crying, he puts his hand on his gun and looks around for the source, worried about it possibly being a skinwalker before he realized it was coming from the Pura Mexicana place. He tilts his head and keeps his luger in his grip as he slowly opens the door and stops as he sees Pura crying.
"um... you okay there?"
Ned asks cautiously, Pura sniffles and looks back at him, wiping her eyes.
"My boyfriend and I had another fight... I-I think this time it's really over for good..."
She says, her eyes watery and her voice shaking.. Ned looks at her, he wasn't really good with the whole 'cheering people up' thing. He rubs the back of his neck.
"Anything I can do?"
He asks with a bit of hesitance, Pura shakes her head and leans into him, hugging him. Ned awkwardly hugs her back and rubs her back.
"It's okay hon.. It'll be okay."
He says softly, trying to be comforting. Pura suddenly tries to lean in and kiss him, Ned quickly pushes her off and stumbles back a bit, surprised at her sudden actions.
"I should probably get going.."
He says and heads for the door.
"W-Wait, no please stay Ned!"
She says in a desperate plea, just wanting somebody with her right now to help her cope, Ned shakes his head.
"Nah I'm sorry, I'm actually uh.. on a mission..."
He quickly gets out of her house and starts walking, trying to figure out where the hell Jake could have gone. He suddenly hears a woman screaming and realizes that it was coming from Pura's house. "Oh god." He mumbles to himself and draws his gun, quickly kicking her door in.
"PURA?"
He looks around and her window had been broken and she was gone, there was some blood on the ground. He's kind of.. horrified.
"Oh what the FUCK."
Suddenly his employer, Slick Collymore, comes up behind him and puts a hand on his shoulder.
"The fuck happened here Ned?"
Ned jumps and turns around, looking at Slick.
"No Slick, you need to get the FUCK out of here, that's what you needa do."
Slick chuckles and tilts his head.
"And why's that?"
Ned looks around.
"Something is kidnapping all of the people I talk to- Maybe a demon or something, I'm not sure but it got Jake and now Pura too."
Slick nods and locks arms with Ned.
"I'm sure we'll be able to find them, No worries... Besides, I'm sure if anything tries to get me I can handle myself, I'm alot more self competent than Jake or Pura is.."
He says with confidence. Ned sighs slightly.
"You want to help me find them?"
Slick smirks and nods.
"Of course, the two of us can walk together alone... see if we can find them.. I know alot of the good hiding spots in Project KEEP.. You can count on me~"
Ned grins and unlocks his arm with Slick and quickly heads out of Pura's house.
"Lets go, I'm sure we wont have much time before they're gone for good."
Slick furrows his brows as he watches Ned start running off, so determined to find Jake and Pura. Slick growls and mumbles under his breath.
"That's not what I meant.."
Before he follows closely behind Ned. Ned heads out into the Arizore forest where there was an old abandoned cabin.
"This place seems suspicious enough, dontcha think?"
Ned asks confidently as he looks back at Slick, Slick's eyes narrow as he looks at the building that was all too familiar to him. He nods.
"I guess.. Do you really think they're in there? Who knows what kind of creatures are lingering in there, y'know..?"
He tries to subtly steer Ned in another direction, But Ned is determined and just goes in anyways, the place is pitch black until he flips a light switch that surprisingly worked, his eyes focused and he saw Pura and Jake tied up in the corner of the cabin.
"What the hell? Who did this to you?"
Ned goes over to them and starts working on untying them.
"Look behind you..."
Jake says a bit timidly. Ned quickly looks behind himself and sees Slick there grinning widely.
"What the fuck! Why."
Ned says firmly standing up and looking down at Slick angrily. Slick simply responds with.
"They were in the way of course..."
Ned shakes his head, frustrated and then looks back at Pura and Jake. He didn't really get what the hell Slick was talking about. Pura points at a door in the cabin that lead to another room, Ned pushes past Slick and goes in there. Then just freezes with utter disturbance as he sees a bunch of Project KEEP surveillance videos that were mostly located in places Ned frequents, and there were photos of Ned hung up on the wall everywhere.
"oh what the FUCK!?"
He says, completley disgusted, he turns around and is faced with Collymore who was leaning on the doorframe.
"Guess now you finally know how I always can see you, huh?"
He chuckles. Ned stares at him in disbelief.
"Dude."
Slick moves toward Ned and Ned immediately backs up.
"No, get the hell away from me you're fucking crazy-"
Slick rolls his eyes and responds.
"It was about time somebody finally appreciated you.."
Slick says as he puts a hand on Ned's hip and pulls him closer, looking up at him with his gray eyes. Ned curls his lip in disgust and pushes Slick the fuck away from him, shaking his head.
He rushes out and finishes untying Pura and Jake and rushes out of the cabin with them, Slick gets angry at this and shoots Ned in the back, he had been aiming for his arm as a warning shot, actually shooting him in the back was never his intention, Slicks face immediately drops and Ned groans out in pain and stumbles a bit.
Pura gasped at the shot and jumped back a bit, looking at Slick, Jake quickly went to Ned's side.
"Are you okay??"
Jake asks with worry, Ned groans and sharply turns around at Slick and draws his luger out and aims at Slick, Ned shoots Slick in the stomach.
"AUGH FUCK!"
Slick shouts out in pain and holds his wound, the two of them stare at eachother. Neither of them wanted to kill the other but left eachother with about the same amount of harm and there was a bit of a mutual understanding that they wouldn't fuck with eachother anymore.
(END IDK WHAT ELSE TO DO)
