We're All Crazy Here! [Creepypasta Fanfiction]

48: Panic Apple!

[Be sure to scroll back and make sure you didn't miss the last chapter!]

Five seconds from panic.

Smirky bit his tongue, and lurched his stock-still mind back to its senses by the taste of blood. The cabinet was off the beaten track – he hadn't been spotted yet.

Four seconds from panic.

He forced the file shut with a soft snap. The sound sounded muffled, like his ears were stuffed with cotton. His heavy breathing was so much louder.

Three seconds from panic.

The illusionist did his best to shove the Manila folder back where he'd found it; the depths and darkest corners of the cabinet.

Two seconds from panic.

He snagged a different file as he reeled his arm back. Whose? No time to check... Smirky picked a random page and threw his attention into looking busy.

One second from panic.

He then hopped off the stool, engrossed as could be. Everything about his body language read as relaxed, unhurried, and certainly gave off no 'I saw what you put in my file' vibes.

Zalgo was standing right there, arms crossed. The demon cleared his throat and spoke in a casual drawl, though his eying of the file in Smirky's hands was more than a passing glance.

"It's wonderful to see you already up and breaking the rules. Now, are there any hard feelings about the whole formula trick thing?"

Smirky lifted his head from the page and made eye-contact. He gave an unfaltering, unapologetic smirk. "There are."

"Oh." Clearly, that wasn't the expected answer. "But I trust these... hard feelings, won't be too problematic?"

"They might be."

He was skating on thin ice. But, at the moment, thin ice was safest - provided he didn't go under and into the frigid black water. "I've felt different ever since, you see."

The illusionist innocently tilted his head to one side, smirk morphing into an impeccable smile - sure that laying the act on thick would convey the message faster:

Don't mention it again.

It did.

Zalgo dropped the subject like a steamy hot potato wearing hot pink high heels.

We're very sorry for giving you that mental image.

We have no idea where it came from.

(Word count, word count, boosty boost boost!)

He didn't ask about the strength of the illusions. He didn't bring up Laughing Jack's name, or Smiley's, or anything about a 'final test'. Instead, he drew attention to the file.

"Ah, rule-breaking. The cabinet is strictly off-limits to anyone but myself. You know that. Yet it looks as though you've been quite busy."

"That I have," he murmured.

Was it a trick of the light, or did Zalgo's burning eyes flicker for a second? The demon began regarding him with a new strange kind of intense stare.

"How are your illusions? Are you finding them, perhaps, stronger than you're used to?"

One could've heard a pin drop.