Chapter 19
"Escapism"
I looked over to Toby, held his head down in shame. "Okay." I said, nodding my head. "What do you need to say to me?" I stared at Seth intently as I walked over to him, and sat down. He cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly. "Yes, your coworker, Mary? That was her name right?" I nodded. "I need you to tell me where she is." I furrowed my eyebrows. "I don't know where she is." I sharpy spoke, and he sighed. "Right.. Listen Y/N, no more bull shit okay? I need to know what happened to this girl, okay?" His eyes looked as if they were about to fall out of his skull. My eyes flicked back to Toby, his eyes met mine, and gave me an unspoken apology.
Seth followed my gaze and landed on Toby. I could have sworn he jumped when he saw Toby, he must have forgotten he was there. "I don't want to be rude, but could I talk to Y/N alone?" Seth's words sounded kind, but his voice said otherwise. Toby looked over to me, and I nodded. He stood up and walked into another room.
Seth turned back to me. His eyes bore into my skin. He stayed silent, as he gripped his knees. Finally he spoke up. "If that boy made you do something, you can tell me. I won't be mad." My mouth fell, and shut again. I couldn't believe him. I took a long breath. "Why do you care so much about her? What about all the other missing people?" I watched as Seth's eyes grew angry.
"I thought we could do this the nice way, Y/N. Go get your boyfriend, or whoever he is, and bring him to this room. Both of you will sit here and only sit here, while I search those rooms." He said brashly.
I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. I nodded, and stood up. I got up and walked to my bedroom. I opened the door- "Agh." I whacked someone with the door. Toby backed away from the door, holding his nose. "What the hell?" He groaned as he held his nose in pain. "What are you doing?" I asked in surprise. "I was.. Keeping an eye on you." I sighed and held my head back. "Okay, well, we need to go sit down." He gave me a questioning look. "I'll explain later."
He nodded and we walked out of the room. Seth stood in front of the couch, his arms crossed over one another. I looked down as I walked past him.
Seth shuffled into my room, you could hear banging around. I couldn't tell if he was throwing stuff or just really clumsy. One thing for sure though, was that he was a really bad detective. "So.. what happened?" Toby asked, and I took my time explaining the whole interrogation, Seth had not done too well at. "I have more to tell you." I whispered to Toby. He gave me a weird look. "Well, spit it out." I quickly shook my head, and he looked almost like he was glaring at me. "I can't." I whispered once again, leaning in close to Toby's ear. "Not with Seth here." He pulled away from me, and finally looked like he understood.
Another loud thud came from my room. I flipped towards my door, waiting for Seth to appear. Finally he appeared, holding my mothers notebook. I was immediately up, and off of the couch. "Hey! What are you doing?" I swiped for my mother's notebook, and a sick smile found Seth's face. "Is this important? Does it have something suspicious in it?" He held the book up to my eye level, but out of my reach. "That my moms journal, asshole." He scowled at me, but turned the book around to see my mothers name scrawled over it. He scoffed then threw the book onto the floor.
"Don't think you're so smart, Y/N." I walked around me, keeping his eyes on me at all times, like I would jump out and attack him. He yelped when he bumped into Toby, who had been standing behind him. Toby's hands came around and grasped onto Seth's shoulders. His eyes alone looked like they could kill. Seth looked up to Toby's eyes, and shuttered, he looked generally scared. I looked over to Toby's arms, I never realized how muscular his arms were.
"I think it would be best if you left." Seth nodded, fear was plastered over his face. Toby threw Seth backwards. Seth stumbled and ran into the door. As I walked over to Toby's side, Seth frantically jangled the door handle until the door swung open, and freed him.
Once the door was shut, Toby looked over to me. "What did yo-." I cut him off by shoving my mother's note in his face. He read it slowly, his eyes widened as he did so. "She's seen him." Him? The operator. The slenderman.
I nodded. "I saw him too." His eyes shot up to me. "He was tall, his face was all white." I described him with my hands, but stopped when I saw the color drain from Toby's face. "When did you see him?" He sounded the most serious I had ever heard him, and I decided this was indeed a serious matter. "When my mom died, like a week ago." He looked down, like he was thinking, then he started muttering. "What?" I asked him, as I took a step forward. His eyes again, shot up to me. "It's not long before it gets to you." He looked around in paranoia, like we would see the operator would show up like he was an old friend. "I'm stronger than you think, I'm not going down without a fight." He looked over to me, like he was contemplating my answer. "Whatever you say." Finally he said.
"Okay." My hands reached my sides. "My mom has.. or had been journaling for as long as I could remember. We need to go through all of them." Toby looked at me like I was insane. "Seriously? All of them." I nodded. "You don't want to be a minion for the rest of your life, do you?" He looked at me with a glare. "I'm not a minion." I scoffed. "You won't be when I'm done with you." I turned around, picked up the notebook and motioned for him to follow me to the couch.
I sat down, and Toby followed behind me, sitting right next to me. I opened the book to the first page. June 21st 1998-February 23 1999 was plastered on the front page. My mothers name was written a little lower. "I was about a year old when she wrote this." I mumbled, as I brushed my hand over the cover. "You're 21?" I looked over to Toby and nodded. "Finally old enough to drink, and with our little adventure I'll probably spend a lot of time doing it." I laughed sourly.
He gave me a weird look, or maybe a concerned look, but I brushed it off, and flipped to the first page.
"June 21st, 1998." I read aloud. "I can't believe this is the third journal I've started. Lucky number three I guess! Anyways, you know why we're here. I saw him again. He was hovering over my baby's crib, like.." I drawled off from the page, as I realized I was the baby she was talking about. Toby looked at me, and I snapped my eyes back onto the page. "Like.. he was just hunched over her. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't move to protect her, or scream at him to get away. I may not be able to see his face, but I can see the emotion in it. I don't care if you call me crazy. I feel like I'm crazy. I can see the way it looks at her. It's sick. It makes me physically sick. I know if he gets his hands on her he'll hurt her, kill her. I can't let that happen. I've never been a scientist, but I'll find a way to get him away from her. I scheduled a day for the priest to come by, maybe he could help. If he doesn't know what to do then I have a list of many other options."
I stopped once again as I ran out of words to read. I looked over to Toby. "What did you think?" My eyes met his, he looked just as confused as me. "What do you mean?" I don't think we had ever kept eye contact this long. "What stood out, did anything seem like it could help us?" He shook his head, and I shrunk down a little. I didn't realize it would actually take this long.
"Alright.." I drew out and flipped the page. "June 25th, 1998. I saw the priest today. I think his name was Joe, or Jhon, I can't remember. I think that's a side effect of it." I stopped reading and looked up to Toby. "Is that something we should write down?" I said as I tapped the line I had just read. "Yeah. Maybe we could have a board like the ones in crime shows." I looked at him, I had never heard him say anything like that, but I nodded.
I got up, told Toby to hold our spot and ran into my room to find an empty notebook and a pen.
Sooner than later I came back to the couch with both a pen, and a notebook. "You write, I'll read. Got it?" Toby nodded. "Got it." We switched notebooks, and I continued reading aloud.
"But that doesn't matter. The priest wasn't too much help, but he ended up telling me that it would do me good to pray some more. I don't know if I'll try it, but I'm desperate. He also told me that supernatural things like it are created by the hatred in our hearts. I don't know if I can believe that because ever since Y/N was born I haven't been able to feel anything but love, unless it shows up. I still don't have any idea how to get rid of it. I've only seen him hovering outside my house, creeping in the woods, since the last time I wrote. Maybe that means its getting better, that's all I hope."
I cleared my throat as I stopped reading. My throat already hurts. I looked over to Toby, he had already written a few things down. In the same handwriting as the note he wrote me on my first day living in this house.
It was crazy how things had changed. I thought I would think back at this moment in my life, and I would remember a crazy lunatic, who was also a giant asshole. Now when I think of the future, and looking back on my life, I certainly won't think fondly of this time of my life, but at least I would have a friend along my side.
Hello everyone! I know this is kind of weird to put so far into the book, but this is how I've imagined the Toby in my book!
You can find the artist on tumbler. Their username is buggee22.
I saw a video that said Toby's arms would be more muscular than anything else on his body, because he uses his hatchets to slash around, so that also applies to the book.
As always if you enjoyed please, vote, comment, and follow!