Night Monster (Eyeless Jack x Ticci Toby)

The Slender Man

I was sitting on Jack's bed doing crosswords, Jack was sitting at the foot of the bed with my hatchets sharpening them for me, I was completely clueless about how to do it myself so he offered to do it myself, for the past five minutes I've been asking him for help on crosswords, my little secret was the fact that most of them I've already done, I just wanted to talk with him, we also had a radio on a really bad station, I looked over at my neatly folded clothes I had put on top of his dresser.
"Starts with s... ends in k..." He said quietly, "Six letters..."
"The h-hint says it's a n-noise." I said, well aware I've already got it.
"Hm..." He trailed off, "S... k... Shreik?"
I pretended to check, smiling since I already knew he was right.
"Yup." I said as I smiled a bit more, "Shreik."
I saw him smile slightly knowing he was right, I went back to doing crosswords as he continued sharpening the hatchet, as we were sitting there a lot of interference suddenly started coming through the radio, Jack quickly looked at it, it was loud, soon it started to sound almost as if some sort of screaming started coming through, every now and then the audio completely cutting out, Jack quickly climbed over me and unplugged the radio, the entire complex was silent, which was rare, although I could hear heavy footsteps out in the hall.
"Shit." Jack hissed quietly as he started getting up.
He got off the bed and began trying to quietly move to the bathroom, I just sat there quietly watching him in confusion, the door to the room suddenly began to creak open and Jack froze, I looked at the door to see all the lights out in the hall were out, there, standing in the door, was an eight foot tall, slim figure shrouded in darkness, I immediately held my breath, knowing just who it was, Jack went running to the bathroom but long black tendrils shot from the door and restrained him, Ann slipped in from behind the figure as Jack attempted to fight the tendrils off, she stabbed a syringe into his leg and quickly injected whatever it was, as soon as the syringe was out of his leg the tendrils dropped him, he struggled to get up but Ann just placed her foot on his back and forced him back down, I quickly looked back at the door to see the figure was gone, I finally let myself breathe, something inhuman suddenly poked its head into the doorway, I couldn't tell what exactly it was with how dark it was, it began to come in and go over to Ann and Jack, he was now completely motionless, Ann began heading to the door but stopped and turned to me.
"I suggest you get outside." She said, "Before Master gets mad."
She pointed at the creature.
"Follow Rake." She said, "You'll get more instructions once you get out there."
She then left the room, I looked over at the creature as it grabbed Jack's arm and began dragging him out of the room, I got up quickly to follow, it went to drag Jack down the stairs but I kind of interfered, grabbing his other arm and picking him up slightly so he wouldn't get a concussion, once we reached outside I saw a majority of everyone was already out there, some were completely limp while others were sitting up, some of the ones who were still awake were crying heavily, Jack was dragged over to some other people and left, my shoulder was grabbed and I jumped, quickly turning to the person to see it was the person Jack went with back at the playground a week ago.
"What's your title?" He asked seriously.
"T-Toby." I said nervously.
"Not your name." The guy scoffed, "Your title, what you're called!"
"O-Oh." I said, "T-Ticci T-Toby."
"Then you're over there." He pointed off next to someone else, "Sit there and don't move at all."
I moved quickly, sitting down between two people and pulling my knees close, I looked around at everyone, about a quarter of everyone was sitting completely silently and just staring at the ground, others were shaking and crying, I bit at my finger slightly as I looked over at Jack, he was still completely motionless, Jeff was the same way along with quite a few others, now that I was looking around I realized there wasn't actually that many people here, I spotted Laughing Jack sitting off near a few other people who looked terrified, Laughing was in a straight jacket laughing quietly to himself.
"Toby?"
I quickly turned my head to look at someone else, I didn't really know them but I guess they knew me.
"U-Uh, y-yeah?" I asked.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Um..." I looked around again, "W-What's g-going on?"
"It's just a check-in." He said, "Slender does it every now and then."
"Check-i-in?" I asked quietly.
"He's basically just making sure no one's dead or missing." He said, "Also checking on the progress of each person and if someone needs to be moved someplace else."
I was quiet as I quickly glanced at Jack, then just buried my face into my knees, I heard someone else being dragged over, I looked over quickly to see the creature, I guess Rake, dragging I guy I've never seen before over near me, everyone was silently watching as he was left by himself, there was another person getting dragged by something I was certain wasn't human, it was humungous and rather hairy, it's head was also not normal, they were dragged off and left somewhere else, soon Ann came out dragging one last person, they weren't out cold but they were sobbing heavily, Ann took them off and left them, she then stepped back and began counting everyone, the overly large creature began going over to Jack.
"Seedy, no." The guy Jack was with the other day stopped the creature, "You can sit with him later."
The creature growled at the guy, he lifted his hands and the creature began walking off, it was growling out cuss words the entire time, soon Ann turned to the trees.
"Everyone accounted for and present, sir." She said, "I have the notes from the boys, where should we go?"
I saw slight movement within the trees, Ann followed the sounds until she disappeared from sight, a few people sighed as others went quiet, I then started to hear a few converstations.
"This year has been hell here." Someone muttered.
"I wonder what will happen to everyone." Another said.
"I'm more concerned about what's going to happen to the laughing psycho over there." Someone pointed at Laughing Jack.
"There's a lot of uncertainty this year." Clockwork said.
"Do you think anyone will end up in the mansion this year?" Someone else asked.
"Who knows." Another said.
I listened to the quiet conversations for a while until I saw Ann coming out of the forest, she made a hand motion towards the guy.
"Puppeteer." She said, "Stand who I say."
She began naming names, the guy had his hands raised and people who were out cold began getting up, I watched silently, soon Ann said Eyeless Jack, now I was a bit worried, then she said Masky and one of the two guys I didn't recognize stood up, that must be Masky without his mask on, Ann then began going around to each of them and putting something around their necks, when she was putting the thing around Masky's neck she slapped him, I restrained a laugh, she then nodded at this Puppeteer and everyone began laying back down, he then lowered his hands, Ann looked around slightly, then they fell upon the guy Jack was alone with a few months ago.
"Helen." She said.
He flinched slightly as he looked up at her.
"You're going to the mansion." She said.
He sighed, then began to sob, Ann looked at everyone else.
"Laughing Jack is being relocated to someplace where he can be contained." She said, "Toby."
I tensed up immediately, she motioned for me to follow, I held my breath as I slowly got up, she began walking into the forest and I silently followed her, soon we were quite some way into the forest, she stopped and turned to me.
"Alright, talk to me about Jack." She said.
"Um... h-huh?" I asked.
"Talk about Jack." She said, "Tell me everything you think about him, everything you've done, all of it."
"E-Everyth-thing?" I asked nervously.
"Everything." She scowled at me.
I held my breath slightly.
"D-Do I h-have t-to?" I asked quietly.
"Yes." She said, "Based on what you say determins what's going to happen."
I looked away quietly, biting my thumb, I took a deep breath and held it in, if I wanted to keep Jack then I had to confess everything.
Although this was going to be awkward.