Hey everyone! We're really, really close to 5k reads, so I thought that it was close enough and I would go ahead and thank you guys with a chapter twice as long as normal! Thank you all so much for the reads, votes, and comments. I love interacting with y'all and hearing what you think about my story.
I may not be the most frequent updater, but thank you to everyone who's stuck with me since the beginning and also those who have just found this story. Thanks for all of your support and feedback! I appreciate all of you and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Toby cursed under his breath and threw another large stone at the outside wall of the abandoned building. He felt awful about hitting BEN and he knew that Jeff cared about (Y/N) despite how he acted and wouldn't do anything to seriously harm her. But he was just so frustrated! (Y/N) had already been gone for twenty-four hours with lord knows who doing lord knows what to her. For all he knew, he would be finding her lifeless body.
Toby growled, threw another stone at the wall, and turned to watch the stars. A crumbling noise made him return his attention to the wall. To his surprise, the wall had caved in to reveal a doorway. He stepped cautiously to the door and turned the handle. It was unlocked.
The door led to a dimly lit stairway leading straight down into the ground with no end in sight. He twitched nervously. The stairway gave him an eerie feeling, but despite the aura of death it gave off, he felt like he needed to see what horrors it held at the bottom.
Down, down, down Toby trekked. After what felt like hours, the end of the narrow passage was finally in sight. A bright, white light leaked through a cracked door about thirty steps down. As Toby drew nearer, his anxious feeling grew. He thought about his friends stories above him. What had they found? Was he just wasting time? He took a deep breath at the bottom of the staircase and pushed the door open slowly. Inside the cold, white room was...
You stared in awe at the door of the room. Toby stared back, obviously surprised, with tears in his eyes. Without saying a word, he ran to you and kissed you, running his hands through your hair and down your shoulders as if searching you for wounds. When he broke away, you both were crying.
"I love you," he choked.
"I love you too, Toby," you laughed through your tears. He kissed you again and leaned his head into your shoulder with a broken laugh.
"Are you alright?" He asked suddenly, jumping back to examine you. His eyes fell on your bleeding wrists and you saw the anger welling up inside him.
"I'm fine," you answered quickly, but your voice was quiet and he could tell you were lying. You were extremely light headed and your thoughts felt cloudy. Your wrists ached and your body begged you to sleep, but you couldn't. You wanted to be strong, for you and for Toby, but you couldn't keep from shedding a few tears. You quickly blinked them away and whispered, "I'm fine," again.
"I'm getting you out of here, alright?" He said quietly and reached for one of your wrist straps.
"No!" You shouted and clenched your fists, causing fresh blood to flow from the wounds on your wrists. Toby stared in horror.
"What do you mean, no?" He said with a voice that sounded like a pained whimper.
"If you try to release me, he'll kill you," you shivered.
"Who will?" Toby asked. You nodded behind him and Toby turned around slowly. Directly behind him stood Doctor Smiley with a syringe of a think blue liquid, ready to pounce if Toby made a wrong move. Toby stepped back until his back was pressed against your hip, as if shielding you.
"Don't worry, boy," Doc laughed, "I wouldn't harm her. I need her."
"So you really think that she's this One then," Toby snarled.
"I don't think, I know," Doc grinned.
"How?"
"She's got the mark."
"Mark?" You echoed, "You never mentioned a mark."
"You never asked," Doc shrugged.
"What's the mark?" Toby asked and you felt him twitching against your side.
"There is a small, pale mark of Zalgo on her lower back, so faint that you would have never seen it if you weren't looking," Doc laughed and smiled mischievously. "I searched very thoroughly. Quite the specimen you are, dear. I almost wasn't able to resist myself. Why if the situation was different, I may have even..."
Toby shouted in anger and prepared to run at the Doctor. Knowing what would happen if Toby lost his cool, you cried out for him to stop. After seeing the look in his eyes, you feared that your protest wouldn't be enough to calm his rage and you racked your brain for something convincing.
"Toby please," you whispered. Anger and fear flashed in his eyes. "If you try anything, he'll kill you. I can't let that happen. Where would I be if you were gone? I'd be all alone."
You hated using something like that against him, but it was for his own good. You knew it pained him to hear it, it pained you too, but it was true nonetheless. With clenched fists, Toby hissed through his teeth before returning back to your side. You could feel him shaking and twitching with rage and wanted nothing more than to wrap your arms around him and tell him that you were okay; you wanted to tell him that he was okay. But that would have to wait.
Doctor Smiley stared at the two of you curiously before laughing, "What a perfect match", and setting a small stool in front of you. He sat down and eyed Toby.
"I had planned on tying you up, Mr. Rogers, but this reunion is just so touching, I can't find it in me to break it up," he sighed. "Please find it in yourself to behave, will you? For the sake of your love, if not for yourself."
Toby twitched, but did not speak.
"Now that the two of you are calm and ready to listen, shall I ramble on about my 'evil plans' and monologue for a bit?" Doc chuckled.
"How about we skip your trouble childhood sob story and cut straight to the part where you explain what the hell you're planning on doing to (Y/N)?" Toby snapped.
"Fine with me, though you're missing out on the most interesting bits of my past," sneered the Doc. He shifted in his seat a little, cleared his throat, and spoke.
"Your precious (Y/N) is The One. Her blood acts as a poison to Zalgo, though the reason why is unknown and virtually unimportant. Over the years using trial and error, others before me have conducted countless experiment and found that The One is always a human female born exactly fifty years after the previous. No two Ones can exist at the same time, nor can another be born before the fifty years has ended. My predecessors also found that for the blood toxin to kill Zalgo, he must be fed approximately one gallon."
"That's impossible," Toby growled.
"Impossible to survive, yes. Impossible to obtain, no."
"You'd kill her!" shouted Toby.
"Yes, she would not survive losing that much blood," Doc frowned.
"Why would you even need to kill Zalgo in the first place? He rarely messes with anyone as low as us," Toby inquired. "What's your motive?"
"Power, of course," the Doctor laughed, "What else motivates people these days?"
"And what would you do with Zalgo's powers?"
"You ask such simple questions," Doc sighed, "but the being possessing powers of his caliber would rule the Creepypastas."
"Who says you'd rule better than Zalgo?" you asked.
"No one did, I decided for myself. Zalgo's rule is neither good nor bad. If I was in his position, Creepypastas would no longer have to hide in the shadows. We could take this world."
"This already is our world," Toby claimed. "We live in the shadows because this is the life we chose. We rejected society, not the other way around. We make our own choices; we freed ourselves from the shackles of society and time and we took the first steps into the dark on our own. No one took the world from us, we relinquished it willingly."
"What a beautiful way of viewing the world, Mr. Rogers, but we are not as individual as you seem to believe. We all felt the pull of the darkness. Not everyone gave in to it as willingly as you did," Doctor Smiley responded grimly. Toby clenched his fists.
"Whether or not you cooperate is entirely up to you, but I will have my way despite your choices. It's only up to you if we do this the easy way or the hard way," Doc frowned.
"Let us talk for a moment in private," you asked. Toby stared at you in shock.
"There isn't anything to discuss," Toby whispered. You nodded to the Doctor, who nodded back and left the room.
"There isn't anything to discuss," Toby repeated.
"He's going to kill me either way, Toby," you said. "If you try to stop him, he'll kill you too."
"Then let him!" Toby shouted. "At least I'd be standing up, not watching him kill you slowly on the side lines."
"Toby...," you whispered.
"No," he protested through clenched teeth, tears running down his cheeks. "Like you said before, where would I be if you were gone? I'd be alone."
"I can't let you die unnecessarily," you cried. "I won't."
"You don't get to decide for me," Toby hissed and hung his head, staring at the ground as he spoke. "You don't get to decide for me whether or not I live without you or not."
"What about your friends? They're like you family. Where would they be if we both were gone?"
Toby's head shot up and he stared at you. "Dammit!" He shouted and slammed his fist into the wall behind him. Blood welled from his knuckles, but you knew he couldn't feel it. The pain he was feeling was far different from the physical pain he'd never known.
"Please don't do this," you pleaded.
"Then promise me something," he whispered.
"Anything," you nodded.
"Promise me that you'll live."
"I can't do that," you winced. Toby ignored you and continued.
"Promise me that you'll live. Promise me that when we get out of this, you'll marry me. I know we're young and I know that we haven't known each other for as long as it feels like we have and I know I don't deserve you, but please, do me the honor of marrying me." Toby stepped closer to you, his nose a mere inch from yours, his eyes full of hope.
"Toby," you whimpered and dropped your head onto his shoulder, "Of course I'll marry you."
He tipped your chin up and kissed you passionately. You tasted the salt of his tears, but he still smelled the same as he always had; the same old Toby. Whatever happened, whatever Doctor Smiley was going to do to you, a new determination to survive bloomed inside your chest with every second he kept his lips pressed to yours. You broke apart and, with a faint nod, Toby walked to the door where Doc had disappeared and knocked.
"Have you reached a decision?" He asked with a syringe ready in hand if Toby were to protest again.
"Do it," he nodded with confidence, "but I want to stay with her."
"I don't see the harm in it," Doc shrugged, "aside from the psychological damage."
The Doctor stepped behind your table and lowered it slowly. As the table moved, you let out a small cry of pain as your bloody wrists rubbed against the restraints, which Toby quickly silenced with another kiss. You sighed in relief when you were finally laying down.
"You may want to sit for this," the Doc suggested and you nodded. He undid the restraints as gently as possible and cautioned you not to sit up to quickly. He set up a large chair that both you and Toby could sit in together comfortably, then went to fetch the IV and blood bags. Slowly, Toby helped you sit up and held your hair back as you threw up into a bucket the Doctor had given you. Your head throbbed and your wrists burned, but with some coaxing, Toby had you on your feet and into the chair with him relatively quickly.
He sat beside you and you leaned your head on his shoulder, trying not to look as the Doctor inserted the IV needle into your arm and set the empty blood bag on the floor to fill. The two of you watched as your blood traveled down the plastic tubing and into the bag.
After two bag fulls, you began to fade in and out of consciousness. You could feel Toby slowly petting your hair and singing softly in your ear, but you couldn't move or speak.
"I'll see you when you wake up, okay?" Toby choked. The last thing you saw was his smiling face and tears running down his cheeks before you lost consciousness and the world went black.
We're nearing the end everyone! I only plan to write a few more chapter and maybe an Epilogue, buuuuuut I would really like to write a sequel if you guys want one! So on the this and the next couple chapters, start leaving comments if you want another book!
Thank you all so much for reading and feel free to vote or comment! See you next chapter!