"Please...have a SEAT!" The snatcher yelled, breaking his weakened facade. Bow kid, or, Bonnie jumped back, but hat kid, also known as Harriet, only blinked.
The shadow of a bench lifted from the ground below the girls, forcing them to sit down.
Harriet was, sufficed to say, very unimpressed. She yawned in the snatcher's face when he was going to start ranting. Bonnie would have killed her friend right then and there for her blatant lack of care if she didn't think they were about to die already.
"All these Time Pieces landed in MY forest. They are MY property," Snatcher began. Harriet wanted to laugh but felt the intense glare of her curly-haired friend and was able to stifle it into just a smile, "So, let's make a deal, young ladies. You get out of my forest, and I never see you again. How's that sound for a deal?"
A paper scroll burned into existence by blue flames. Its purple seal melted away, and the paper unraveled, putting out the fire in the process. A feather unrolled with the paper, and floated at the bottom of the scroll, twitching impatiently to be used.
The contract said:
"Get out.
[] Get out
[] Just get out
The following parts of the forest you can enter: none of it.
Please,
Take your junk.
And leave.
Signed:_____________"
Bonnie and Harriet looked at each other before they both turned back to the fluffy ghost with grimaces.
"What?" He hissed, "Not a fan? Well too bad. You don't make the calls here."
Bonnie sighed and looked at it, took the feathered pen, and began to sign it. Before she could finish, her friend plucked the pen right from her fingers and pulled the paper over to herself. Bonnie gave her friend a glare, which Harriet retorted by sticking out her tongue. But the kid looked back to the page, taking the pen to the signature line.
That was, until she quickly moved it to the top, and started to scribble over the entire thing. Bonnie stared in horror and shock, and the snatcher's jaw would have dropped if he had one. Harriet paid no mind through. Once she was through, it now said:
"Stay and have fun!
[] Be nice...!
The following parts of the forest you can enter: all of it!
Please,
Be our BFF!!
And stay!
Signed: Bonnie & Harriet"
Bonnie read it, and her terrified look fell into a small smile. She wouldn't admit it, but it was pretty funny.
"You girls know...that's not how a contract works, right?" The snatcher's voice wavered. He still took the contract, bounding it back and lighting it aflame as he continued to speak, "I'm giving you a chance to scram, kids! There's no catches or clauses this time!"
He waited to see if there was any response, but the girls just stared, not even blinking. Against all natural laws, this ghost began to sweat.
"W-What if I give you your hat and bow back?" He offered, throwing back the girl's accessories. Even Bonnie seemed unimpressed.
"Oh!-and your souls back, will that make you leave?" He asked, pulling their souls from the shadows. The souls were immediately drawn back to the children's bodies. Bonnie patted her chest when it entered. Harriet seemed to care even less about being there now.
"No...?" The snatcher's hands clasped together nervously, "Hello? Anyone there? Why aren't you saying anything!?"
The girls stared at him with unblinking eyes.
The ghost, somehow, began to sweat more, getting more anxious and angry by the second. "come on! You two were talkative a minute ago...!"
Harriet looked to her friend, and Bonnie met their gaze. The girls smiled, not having to verbalize their idea, and stuck one of each of their hands out.
The ghost looked at their hands, his floof flared up a bit. He looked like he was about to burst when his hands dropped to his side and he let out a drawn-out sigh, "You both have quite the character...and are tough negotiators."
Bonnie smiled at the compliment, and Harriet smirked.
"Here. I'll sweeten the deal," the snatcher offered, taking a brightly glowing hourglass from whatever ghostly place he'd been stashing it in, "take my last timepiece."
At this notion, Harriet jumped from the bench with excitement. Finally, the thing she was here for...! Bonnie also got up, watching with weary eyes. The ghost held it in his partially corporeal hand with little to no care or caution.
The ghost looked to the girls, and tilted his hand down, as the glass began to slip from his claws.
"Catch."
Before either child could react, the hourglass shattered against the crumbling concrete. Time stopped, and rewound to before things were broken. Before things had been shattered to pieces, one way or another.
Bonnie blinked her eyes opened first, and took in an audible breath.
Harriet winced at the sound, and kept her eyes squeezed shut as she muttered, "It's bad, isn't it?"
"Uhm...it could have been worse..." Bonnie said with very little conviction.
Harriet's shoulders drooped, and she peered out of squinted eyes at the scene in front of her.
On the ground, there was the hourglass, rolling slightly from side to side as it was vibrating with the intensity of time itself. Just a few feet behind it was a pair of purple boots. Attached to brown pants, a red tailcoat, and-it was a man. A very horrified man stared at his palms.
"Who..." Harriet began, very hesitantly. They couldn't recall seeing anyone alive in these parts, but she continued anyway, "Who are you?"
The man's eyes snapped up to the two girls, and his brows furrowed immediately.
"What did you do?" The stranger's voice was familiar...it was almost like-"What did you do to ME—"
When he tried to stand up, he only tripped over his own two legs and fell flat on his face.
Harriet burst out into laughter, and Bonnie did chuckle. But she walked over as her hatted friend was bending backward from laughing so hard.
"That's mean, Harriet...and...I think this is-" Bonnie had gone to try and help the man up, but her arm was swatted away.
"Do not touch me you-you-" the man pushed himself up to a seated position again, trying to search for a suitable insult. But he was too busy trying to balance to find anything good for a space-fairing girl like her and her friend.
"You what?" Bonnie asked, tilting her head. She didn't seem to comprehend that was supposed to end up being an insult. That only infuriated the man even further, as he turned a bright red.
"Oh just shut up, kid!" He demanded, Harriet's howls only getting louder. The man glared at her, "You too! Both of you are so disrespectful, and rude—and absolute!-"
"YOU'RE SNATCHER?!" Harriet interjected, baffled and extremely entertained.
The man, now all known to be the fluffy snake-like ghost they had been fighting near minutes ago, was very offended it took her this long to find out. Bonnie wasn't shocked and just sat down next to the well-dressed human snatcher.
He looked at her, almost repulsed by her existence next to him. She didn't seem to notice as she watched her friend finally recover from their laughing fit and realization. The hatted one came over, staring at the snatcher's new look.
"You look pretty funny," she commented. The snatcher blinked and moved his head back in shock at her very blunt statement. That was until the girl leaned up close to his face, practically touching noses with him as she stared into his eyes.
He started to lean back, and she kept leaning forward. He ended up nearly falling again, and only caught himself on the palm of his hand, it digging into an exposed corner of stone.
"Please stop," he murmured, as he put his other hand out to stop Harriet's continuous advances. She did, standing back up straight and putting an arm across her chest and a hand to her chin.
Bonnie finally chimed in, "What are we going to do? We can't leave him."
"We could," Harriet corrected, "at least until we got all the other timepieces back."
"I guess we c-"
The snatcher quickly moved, grabbing the timepiece that was been left on the ground next to him. He sat back up, grasping in both hands the hourglass.
"This was not a part of the contract. You can't just leave me here like this, the whole place has developed to support dead things! I-I had adapted to being DEAD!" The snatcher insisted, his knuckles turning white from his grip.
Harriet was about to counter his argument, but Bonnie spoke up first, "he's not wrong... plus, we don't even know how to fix this. We need an expert."
"I'm an expert!" Harriet defended, her hand moving to her chest.
"Then how did this happen!" The snatcher retorted.
The whole arena fell silent.
After a long couple of awkward moments, Bonnie quietly finished, "Well...at least we got all the timepieces from Subcon forest?"
Harriet rolled her eyes but walked over and helped her friend up, before grabbing the snatcher by the back of his coat. "Whatever, let's just go ask the ExPeRt then."
"Wait-kid-where are we—"
Before he could finish a loud zap took the three humanoids out of the forest, and to the girl's base of operations.