"Why is it storming so often?" Clockwork wondered as she watched streams of rainwater zigzag down the window. It was dark outside, but it was morning, and the sun should've been pretty high in the sky. A bolt of lightning cut the sky open with a blinding flash and a rumble of thunder gently shook the shutters. The main part of the storm was already gone, but it was still raining like it would never stop.
"I want to go outside." Toby said unhappily, which didn't answer her question in the least bit.
"No." Slenderman said firmly.
"The hellhounds don't come out in the rain!"
"You'll catch pneumonia or something. You'll get covered in mud. You'll fall in the river." One of his tendrils twitched. "Or all three."
"But at least I don't get cut up by hellhounds!" Toby complained. He thunked his head against the cold glass of the window and Clockwork moved away from him, not appreciating the lack of personal space. "Let me go out there, please? I won't go far."
"You're not going outside in the rain, Toby."
Toby groaned and slid down the window and onto the floor, so his chin was resting on the sill. He looked like a little kid when he did that, and Clockwork had to resist a squeal. He looked miserable, bringing up an image of a puppy behind a cage, which also made Clockwork resist a squeal.
If Toby were a puppy she would love him to death.
"Please?" Toby said again.
"No."
Just then Toby twitched violently and banged his head on the side of the window. He yelped, once again bringing up that image of a puppy, and drew back, checking his head to make sure he wasn't bleeding.
"Ow." He said emotionlessly.
Clockwork reached out patted his head, unable to resist the urge anymore, and he gave her a look that looked like confusion, surprise, and a tad bit of disgust.
"Aww..." She cooed. He looked even more confused, grabbing her own hand and giving it back to her like it wasn't attached to her body or anything.
"This is yours."
"I realize that."
He let go of her hand, his face dead serious, like he'd just handed her a weapon of mass destruction. Clockwork started laughing. He raised an eyebrow and went back to longingly gazing out the window like nothing had ever happened.
"Please?" He said again.
"No." Slenderman answered, his voice just as firm. Toby's gaze hardened and he slumped farther towards the floor, sighing hugely. Clockwork kneeled down next to him, folding her arms underneath her chin and looking out the window as well.
The rain seemed a lot more inviting when you weren't allowed to go out in it.
She mimicked Toby's huge sigh but he didn't take notice to her. She glanced in his direction and elbowed him, but he still ignored her. She grinned and elbowed him harder and finally he looked at her and shoved her sideways, hard enough that she lost her balance and fell over.
She came up giggling and elbowed him again. "Hey, hey Toby." He ignored her. "Hey, Toby. Toby. Toby I have an idea. Toby. To-"
"What!?" He finally exploded. She started laughing and he had to wait a moment before she got a hold of herself. He gave her a dull look, and she suddenly realized that she was really bothering him, he wasn't joking.
This was so much fun.
She leaned closer to him so Slenderman wouldn't hear her, and he leaned farther away. She rolled her eyes.
"You could always... sneak out." She whispered. He was unimpressed.
"And I do that how?" He asked, uninterested.
"Who's window leads onto the roof?"
He hesitated. "Mine... actually..." A realization dawned in his eyes. "Oh my gods."
"Have you really never thought of that?" It was Clockwork's turn to be unimpressed. He shot her a look.
"I don't go in my room often." He said. "Unless Slender sends me up there..."
"Awe, does Slenderman put you in time out?"
"He refuses to call it that." Toby rolled his eyes and stood up. "But that's essentially what it is."
"Aww!" Clockwork stood up as well. Toby rolled his eyes again and shook his head at her, then glanced over to where Slenderman was reading the newspaper while he was sitting on the couch. Clockwork couldn't help but wonder how he read anything if he didn't have any eyes.
Toby hesitated, then he casually walked away down the hallway and up the stairs like he was doing something completely normal and ordinary and certainly didn't need anyone like Slenderman knowing where he was going.
A few moments afterwards, so Slender wouldn't be suspicious, Clockwork followed him. She went up the stairs and found him waiting for her at the top, mischief and excitement flashing through his eyes. It was the kind of look that made you instantly check your valuables.
"I was wondering if you were coming with me." He said, that mischief leaking into his voice and making Clockwork wonder if he'd stolen something or if he was just extremely excited.
"I have nothing else to do."
Toby's eyes crinkled like he was grinning, which made the fake smile look even more disturbing. He stepped back and slipped down the hallway with startling quietness, and Clockwork followed him.
All of the doors were closed, which made Clockwork kind of claustrophobic. There were claw marks at the base of Jeff's door, like Smiledog would paw at it, and there was something hissing like an angry cat behind one of them, though Clockwork wasn't sure who's it was.
Toby's room was at the very end, and it was actually around a little bend, so you couldn't even see the door if you just stood at the beginning of the hallway and looked.
He hesitated at the door knob. "Slender might have bolted that window shut since last time." He muttered.
"Last time?"
"Nothing!" He said cheerily, and threw the door open.
Clockwork's eyes widened. "Whoa."
It was so much cleaner than she had definitely imagined. The window was directly in front of the door, big and inviting, the piece of the roof sticking out little bit, dark and slick with rain water. To her left was the closet and the dresser like Toby had said there was, and they both fit together like puzzle pieces against the wall, almost like they were the same object. To her right was Toby's bed, which was lofted, with a bunch of cardboard boxes underneath it, though they looked empty.
She did a curious 360, and her eyes stopped on a corner of the room that was oddly sheltered from everywhere else. If you curled up in it, you couldn't see the door, or the window, because the closet and a night table with a green lamp blocked your view. It could have been done on accident, but it was just large enough for a person to fit in without difficulty.
Clockwork heard a scraping sound and turned to see Toby had opened the window. He was sitting up on the sill, twisted to look outside, one hand still on the window. The sound of the rain was louder now, and a few splashes of water jumped into the room.
"This is such a terrible idea." Toby said with relish.
Clockwork grinned and stepped onto the window sill too, looking out at the slippery roof top, as ice cold rain still poured from overhead. For a moment they just gazed out at the storm, the odd temptation of getting really wet and muddy sinking in for a little bit.
"YOLO." Toby said, and he slid out of the window. He was gone off the edge of the roof almost instantly.
Clockwork shrugged. "YOLO." She agreed, and jumped after him.
There was a cold shock of rain and Clockwork was instantly soaked through. The roof, already steep enough, provided no traction at all, and made the perfect waterslide, very effectively launching Clockwork off of it.
She managed to twist a little so she didn't break both of her legs and rolled onto the soggy ground, mud and grass sticking to her like glue. She stumbled to her feet, bewildered, already numb from cold.
"That." She gasped. "Was awesome!"
Toby laughed, streaked with mud as well. He pulled his goggles off - they were splattered with too much rainwater and mud to see out of them properly - and put them on top of his head, pushing his hair so it stuck up in spikes.
"Heck yes it was awesome!"
"This is such a bad idea!" Clockwork laughed. Toby leaned his head back and soaked up the rain on his face. He started laughing again.
"No, this is great!"
"We left the window open."
"I don't care if anything gets wet." He laughed. "Nothing in my room is of value."
Clockwork started spontaneously laughing for no reason. This whole thing was just hilarious, jumping out of a window into the pouring rain just because Slenderman told them not to. Toby pulled his face mask off (maybe so he could breath, how does one breath in a rain soaked face mask?) and grinned, rather evilly. Clockwork realized his intentions too late;
Toby shoved her over and she yelped, falling into a massive puddle and splashing mud and rainwater all over both her and Toby. Toby burst out laughing and she shot him a look.
"Traitor!" She accused.
"Oh gods your face!"
Clockwork rolled her eyes and pretended to be annoyed with him. "Oh, you got me, you're so funny you little -" She knocked his legs out from under him with her foot and he fell too, laughing so hard he could barely breath.
Clockwork tried to get up but he grabbed her arm and yanked her back down into the mud again. She laughed and tugged herself away from him, picking up a particularly sticky glob of mud and throwing it with no particular goal.
It hit him in the forehead and he recoiled, brown dripping down his face. She fell onto her knees from the laughter and he made a disgusted sound, blinking mud out of his eyes and pulling most of the brown goop off his face, though it was still in his hair and left brown streaks down his face like tears.
"Who's the traitor now!?" He teased, and he threw the clump of dirt back at her.
Clockwork squealed and jumped back so it only splattered across her chest instead of her face. Before she could retaliate, though, a second projectile splashed into the side of her head.
She yelped from cold and broke into more laughter, trying to work chunks of mud out of her hair and only succeeding in making it worse.
"Dang it, Toby!"
He managed to control his laughter enough to speak. "We're going to get in so much trouble for this!"
"Yep!" Clockwork said excitedly. He laughed. He was standing up, leaning his hands on his knees, rain steaming in little waterfalls from his hair.
"The mud on your face looks like war paint." Clockwork giggled. He raised his eyebrows.
Toby reached up and with two fingers drew lines under each eye with mud. Clockwork laughed.
"You look great!" She lied. In all honesty he looked more like a mud sculpture than a person, with patches of real skin every now and then. His eyes still glittered coppery brown, though, as amazing as they always were.
"So are you going to get up or are you just going to play in the mud?" He asked her. She snickered.
"Be a gentleman and help me up." She teased.
"You are literally halfway standing up already." He rolled his eyes and grinned. "Whatever." He held out his hand and she took it, but instead of pulling herself up, she dragged Toby back into the mud.
"I knew you were going to do that!" He laughed, rolling over onto his back, laughing. "I totally thought you were going to do that!"
"I'm so evil." Clockwork snickered. He looked over at her and raised his eyebrows. Then he rolled his eyes and shoved her sideways without getting up. She laughed.
"You're so mean to me." Toby said with a fake whimper.
"I know." Clockwork grinned.
Toby sighed and closed his eyes against the rain. It wasn't pouring anymore, but it was still coming down generously.
Clockwork almost said something clever about how Toby looked great with war paint mud and grass all over his hair, but she was interrupted by a booming voice that made her jump.
"TOBY!!!" Slenderman roared. Toby's eyes snapped open and he shot upright.
"Crap." Clockwork muttered.
"Run!" Toby cried. He jumped to his feet, pulled Clockwork up, and started pulling her towards the trees. "Just run!"
"Where are we going!?" She gasped as they fled into the forest, Slenderman no doubt right behind them.
"We're going to find the pages!" Toby said, leading her into the path.
"Oh my gosh, Toby!"
"No no no, don't look back, he's right there!" Toby laughed with excitement; Clockwork had never seen him this happy. They bolted through the woods, Toby snatched a white page off of a brick Silo, and they ran on without even hesitating.
"How come the pages never get damaged by the weather!?" Clockwork called as Toby ducked behind a cement wall and came back with another page. He handed it to Clockwork, who stuffed it in her pocket as they ran off again, Slenderman hissing with annoyance behind them.
"They're cursed." Toby panted. "I think. I don't really know."
Toby dashed into a section of woods where the trees were all cut down and came back with a third page. Clockwork was starting to get tired, but she was so full of excitement she didn't care.
They found 5 of the pages in record time, because Toby knew exactly where all of them were and seemed to have every tree memorized so he never stumbled.
Slenderman kept getting closer, and Clockwork almost looked back when they had 6 pages, but Toby wouldn't let her.
Just as Toby snagged number 7, a black tendril wrapped around his foot and yanked him back. He yelped, and started laughing as Slenderman held him upside down like he was a rat someone found under the house.
"Go on without me!" He cried to Clockwork. "I'm not going to make it!"
"TOBY WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!?" Slenderman exploded. Toby was laughing hard enough it was actually difficult for Slenderman to hold onto him.
"This is the greatest idea I've had in ages!" He cried. "Don't ruin it now!"
Clockwork turned around and saw a flicker of bright white, a page waving at her from its spot tacked to a massive dead tree a few yards away. She was about to run for it when Slenderman wrapped a tentacle around her waist and pulled her back.
"No!" She cried through her laughter. "We were so close!" In a last effort, she threw her knife at the tree.
It hit the page right where it was nailed to the wall and bounced into the ground. The page fluttered for a moment, then the stress on the area around the puncture from the nail was too much, and with a faint ripping sound it drifted to the ground.
"YES!" Clockwork yelled in triumph as Slender carried her and Toby away. "That totally counts! That counts! We got them all!"
Toby laughed from her right, where Slender hadn't bothered to pick him up by a more reasonable spot, so he was still upside-down.
"Good work, team." He said, still trying to catch his breath from all that sprinting.
Clockwork high-fived him and they both laughed.