no way out {eddsworld survival au}

eight

—tom's pov—

the next morning, tom was awoken to the sound of mumbling. his black orbs fluttered open and an annoyed look was immediately pasted on his face. he turned his head to see edd whispering incoherent things in his sleep and twitching.

"edd." tom said, sitting up and flinching as he hit his head against the top of the small sleeping hut. "wake up." he ducked his head and tapped his friend's shoulder. edd's eyelids twitched but he didn't seem to wake up. he decided it would be better if edd slept in so he could spend less time worrying about matt.

tom crawled out and stood up, stretching each arm and leg in turn. he picked up his spear and treaded quietly into the forest. did i really hurt matt that much? he wondered guiltily as a bird called from somewhere far off. i shouldn't have said anything. tom dug his teeth into his bottom lip in an attempt to suppress the thoughts. it didn't work.

minutes passed of tom wandering aimlessly around the forest; he'd completely forgotten about hunting and was now torturing himself with dark possibilities of matt's disappearance. suddenly, he remembered what he'd told to edd:

"listen, edd, if matt got lost, tord would've found him. the island isn't that huge! i'm sure tord's keeping him safe."

"what if.. it's true?" tom furrowed his eyebrows, stopping in his tracks.

i need to find tord.

he began to quicken his pace towards the creek, accidentally stumbling over roots a few times. tom swiftly crossed the water and noticed how his breath hitched once the trees started to give way to the sand. oh, please, matt, please be okay.

the moment before he was going to burst out of the forest and call for matt, he heard a familiar obnoxious laugh. it belonged to tord, of course, but there was no other voice with him. confused, tom ducked behind the low hanging branch of a tree and peered through the leaves at tord's camp.

the norwegian was laughing all by himself, sitting criss-cross with a damp purple hoodie held in his hands.

tom felt his heart stop and analyzed the area one more time. still no sign of matt. he gripped his spear tighter until his knuckles turned a ghostly white. where's matt? despite every instinct in his body telling him to run, he stayed put and watched.

tord stood up and held out the hoodie in front of him before he walked to the base of the overhanging rock. he seemed to find a piece of rock jutting out as he hung the hoodie there by the hood, almost as if it were a... prize.

tom felt his stomach twist as the horrible truth hit him like a bus. matt's dead. tord killed him. he kept watching with wide eyes. that sick bastard seems to think this is some sort of game. tom sucked in a breath rather loudly.

all of a sudden, tord's head whipped up, staring straight in tom's direction.

tom's heart dropped to his stomach. he staggered backwards before turning and sprinting away as fast as he possibly could, tears whipped away by the wind rushing past him. matt's dead. matt's fucking dead and tord fucking killed him.

there were no pounding footsteps behind him, but tom couldn't get tord's sadistic expression out of his memory. he pressed on and almost fell in the creek as he hurriedly crossed it. "edd! edd!" tom yelled out for his friend as he neared their camp.