EJ finally came back the next morning. Slender captured him again and brought everyone outside for a meeting. I get ready and run down the stairs so that I could be with EJ, but accidentally bump into Masky on the way down.
"Sorry Masky." I apologies.
"What's go you so happy all of a sudden?" He asks with a chuckle.
"EJ is back. I need to see him." I tell him before waving for him to come with me to the meeting outside. We walk together until I see EJ next to Slender along with everyone else chatting with him. He seems happy with the crew. I skip up to him and feel his smile turn into a frown. I look down to see that my bracelet isn't on and panic. Where did I leave it? I thought I had it on when I left my room? I didn't do anything except for bumping into Masky--
"Yo, Y/N! Looking for something?" Masky says from behind me. I see the bracelet in his hands and nod yes.
EJ glares at Masky, who is behind me and is wrapping his arms around me so that he could put my bracelet on my wrist. His head is sitting on my shoulder as he does this and occasionally looks up at EJ who is watching us. EJ's face still doesn't change and I worry if the bracelet isn't working anymore.
"EJ? Is the bracelet working?" I ask politely.
"Yes it is." He says and gives me a smile, then returns to glare at Masky, who is still holding me.
"Then why are you glaring daggers at Masky still?" I ask him.
"That's not you're aura, it's natural instinct." EJ says, pulling me away from Masky's grasp and holds me in his arms.
Masky sighs and walks to Hoodie as Jeff comes over with BEN and greets EJ. They all chat about the old times when EJ was originally here and how things have been going since he left. It sounds like they were all friends before and they all got along quite well. I smile at his interactions and let myself get lost in the moment.
Slender clears his throat and speaks soon after. "Thank you for coming out here. This meeting is about Y/N. I have been hiding the true reason why I am keeping you here. You see, before I became who I am now, I had been working for some very... odd people. Long story short, they helped me become who I am, and I have helped many of you become who you are too. Y/N, you my dear, are different. I didn't make you into who you are, you already did." Slender says, giving us a moment to retain the words he 'spoke' before continuing.
"You are a being with an incredible aura about you, as you have noticed. You hold misfortune in you. Your family's fate, you're financial life, your happiness, your friends... Everything you loved, lost or dead. I chose to keep you after everything that had happened. I chose you, no matter what misfortune you could bring." Slender continues.
I nod, knowing exactly what he is saying. I'm the cause of everyone's misfortune. EJ holds me tighter, not wanting me to feel alone in this situation.
"But, I know now that I can't keep you for long. Your aura is strong here, and is only getting stronger. We have to find a way to harness it, otherwise we will all drive each other to the brink of killing us off. Eyeless had the worst of this only because their connection was stronger together and they spent more time together than she has with anyone else here. This, however, does not mean we can blame her for anything, but only her.. power." Slender says slowly, "This power, that has caused my brother not being able to keep up with her, and joining Zalgo..."
Everyone gasps, including me. Am I the reason why Trender left me?
Slender adds more, "We still have to meet Zalgo soon and give him a 'gift' for him ruling over us. He prefers human sacrifices, so each one of you, including Y/N, must go out and get one to give him so we can bundle it up for him. Also, because Y/N is a human, we need to look after her. Her aura is strong, so he can sense it. Her aura will make him stronger, so we need to be careful. Please be aware of this." He teleports away and goes back to his business in his office. I always wondered what type of work he is always doing, but now is not the time to question it.
EJ turns me over in his arms and looks at my bracelet. I still have an hour and thirty minutes with this power, so I should use it wisely. Maybe I could ask Slender for another? EJ leads me to the back of the mansion so that we are alone and waits until everyone else goes inside.
"Okay. Time for talk. Uh.." He scratches the back of his head. "I'm so sorry for.. everything. I didn't mean anything I said to you back then. Y/N I actually really.... I..." He tries to say something, but decides to skip over it. "I need to tell you about my past here."
I nod and sit down with my back against the building. He follows my lead and sits next to me. He takes my hand in his and faces me as he talks. "I used to be a creepypasta and was friends with everyone here. I loved it here, actually. I liked everyone but Masky, that's why I don't want you near him. He had gotten a little... weird. He seemed to know when things would happen and stopped caring about everyone all of a sudden. His attitude started getting cold and just... I don't know how to explain it.. Dark? I was the only one who interrogated him about it, which led us to become enemies. It led to the point where he would find the perfect moments to attack me, and ALWAYS landed a hit on me. I couldn't handle it anymore, so I left. I quit everything because of him."
"Knowing that he could do anything perfectly and secretly, I didn't want to be around it anymore. When I found out that he was around you, and saw you with him, I couldn't handle it. I couldn't even bare having him touch you, let alone even talk to you and make you believe that he is your friend... Even in my crazed state where I hated you, I always hated him more. When he was around you, I just wanted to grab you away from him because I was afraid that he would taint you." He continued, squeezing my hand tight.
"I still believe that. Please don't talk to him, Y/N. I feel that he still doesn't want me to be with you, even though nobody else see's it that way. He is crazy Y/N." EJ tells me, pulling me to him, hugging me. "He can't be trusted."
"What was that?" Masky says from around the corner. Wow he has perfect timing.. Is this what Masky was talking about?
"What do you want?" EJ asks Masky, holding me tight, making sure that Masky can't touch me.
"It's not what I want, it's Slender. He wants to see you two in his office." Masky tells us, "Oh, and don't fill Y/N's pretty head with your delusions about me." He says to EJ, then turns to leave. EJ lets out a sigh and pulls me up to my feet.
"Let's not keep him waiting then." EJ says as we head for the door. Once we reach Slender's office, we were let in and sit down at the chairs across from his desk.
"Y/N. I realize that your bracelet can only last for a while longer, so I want you to save it as much as you can. This means that you and EJ can no longer spend any time together. EJ, you will be free from the basement, but you must stay away from her. Please understand that this is only temporary, but it is necessary." Slender explains.
"Can't you make another bracelet please?" I ask.
"I am, but I need to save it for when we go to Zalgo's domain." He tells me. I shake my head and tell him I agree.
We both head out of the room and stop walking when we close the door to his office. I look down to the bracelet and see that I have an hour and one minute left on it.
"I have a little over an hour on this left. I'll take it off when I have exactly one hour left." I tell EJ. We stare at each other for a second before he talks.
"If we stay away for a while, maybe it will calm me down and we could interact like you can with everyone else without going mad." He ponders.
"You didn't react well when we didn't see each other for a few days." I say.
"That was because you were with Masky." He tells me.
"Oh. Okay. I guess this is goodbye for now." I remember. When I went up to hug him last night, he was fine. Startled, but fine. I also had the bracelet on though...
"I apologize in advance for anything the other Jack says or does." He tells me. I laugh and shake it off. "Let me give you this before the 20 seconds are up." He tells me before grabbing my head, kissing me for the last time. His hand slides off of my head and down my arm, grabbing my wrist. He pushes me against the wall and continues to kiss me and takes off my bracelet. He puts the bracelet in my hand and closes it.
I can feel him start to tense up at my aura, but he tries to control his behavior and forces his hand to wrap around my waist, pulling me to him, yet still backed up to the wall. His other hand is lost in my hair while his mind is lost in our kiss.
This didn't last very long, though. He stopped after a while and breaks the kiss, yet remains hovering over my lips. I feel his breath on my face and his hands curling up. His breathing gets slightly faster, yet remains next to me. I open my eyes and see him standing here, eyes closed, breathing in my scent.
He opens his eyes and stares into mine, not moving. I hold onto the bracelet in my hand, keeping myself from putting it on again. He sighs and looks down, still not separating from me. "We should.. part." He says to me. I nod my head and agree with him, yet he still won't move. After a couple of seconds, he looks back to me with unfamiliar eyes. I can tell that my aura is now affecting him. His eyes have a hint of red instead of pure black. I open my mouth to says something, but he moves his head to mine and kisses me on my forehead and lets go of me. He turns on his heel and walks to his room, opening and shutting the door without looking back at me.
I close my eyes and lean against the wall with my hands on my chest. My hear feels happy and desperate at the same time. Masky leans on the wall next to me and asks what I was doing.
"Oh, uh." I stutter as I open my eyes and put my bracelet in my pocket. "EJ and I aren't allowed to be together, so he just left as I took of my bracelet."
"Hmm." He says out loud. "Do you hate me?" He says as he cocks his head and takes off his mask. His expression is so innocent, yet cold and dark toward me. I feel a little scared after what EJ told me.
"No, o-of course not!" I tell him. He seems to accept this answer and smiles warmly. The darkness around him vanishes and he grabs my hand in his. He leads me down to the living room where BEN and Hoodie were.
"Good!" He tells me, "I don't want his lies to work on you."
A couple hours pass by and it became lunch time. We all sat at the table together, no chairs empty this time. EJ sat far from me and Masky sat right next to me. The whole meal went by well, but I could feel EJ's eyes burning holes through my skin and knew that he hates that Masky is next to me after he told me to stay away from him. But what am I supposed to do? How would I tell Masky to leave me alone if he hasn't done anything to me?
After lunch, EJ leaves the table first and heads into the living room. Masky grabs my hand and leads me to the hallway and toward his bedroom. I hesitantly walk with him, but feel more comfortable seeing Hoodie in the room with us. We chat like we used to and it eases my worries about him.
I leave his room a little while after and head down to play games with BEN, but was stopped by Sally who wanted to play with her dolls. I agree and we play tea party. As we were hanging out, EJ walks past the door and looks at us while passing. I get a slight blush on my cheeks and Sally notices. She teases me about it before going back to our tea party.
I tell her I'll play again soon and head to BEN again. He welcomes me and hands me the second controller. We play for a while before Jeff walks in through the door with EJ, laughing and crying their eyes out, if they could. Jeff see's me and BEN and walks up to us.
"Hey Jack, would you hate me if I did this?" Jeff asks EJ and puts his arms around me. I tense up at the closeness of Jeff's proximity.
EJ shakes his head no and turns his head away from me.
"Oh, so you wouldn't mind if I did this too?" Jeff says, putting his mouth on my neck, licking my skin.
BEN jumps up after seeing this and whines. "What! How can Jeff do that but I can't!?"
I punch Jeff in the face and push him away from me. "What makes you think that you can touch me!?" I yell at Jeff.
"Because I can. Who's gonna stop me?" He teases me. "You?" He laughs.
I scoff and roll my eyes.
"No, but I am." Somebody says from behind me. I turn around and see Masky ready to punch Jeff, but Jeff gets out of his reach and stands next to EJ, who is looking at me. I avert my eyes and go back to the game with BEN. Masky sits next to me and looks to EJ, then puts his arm around me. I hear a growl coming from behind me, probably from EJ, then the two leave to go somewhere else.
Masky puts his head on my shoulder and seems calm for a moment, then licks my neck like Jeff did. I quickly turn to him and ask him why he did that.
"It's only fair." He simply puts it. "Besides, I won't be able to do it until it's my turn."
"Your turn?" I ask him, intrigued.
"Uh. Forget I said that." He says with a smile, then puts his head back down on me.
A couple hours pass by and dinner comes along. We all eat, then go back to whatever we were doing. After dinner, I walk to my room, but get stopped by EJ. He grabs my wrist and forces me to look at him, even though we aren't allowed near each other. "Why are you still with Masky? Has he done anything to you?" He asks me.
He seems worried about me, but I assure that there was nothing going on between us. The time we spent apart must have helped. He sighs and quickly hugs me. "I don't want to let go." He tells me. I nod. "Don't worry, I'll find a way to sneak you to me." He tells me.
"What do yo-" I try to ask him, but he pushes me away from him, heading the opposite direction away from me. I stare in the direction where he went and turn to head to my room. I see Masky staring at me from the opposite side of the hallway. I wave to him and he seems to be caught off guard, then waves back. He must have been in thought.
I go into my room and shut the door and get ready for bed. I lay my head on the pillow and wait for sleep to consume me. Eventually it does.
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I wake up to something not feeling right in my room. I feel a presence lurking in here without me knowing. I look around to see if I can detect anything, but nothing is out of place, nor is there any sounds coming from anywhere. I shrug off the feeling and lay my head back down, only to have my body slammed down onto the bed. I try to scream, but a hand was placed over my mouth preventing me to say anything.
My body is being pinned down by a heavy figure that has now climbed on top of me, keeping my legs in place and my arms pinned to my sides. "Shhh~" The figure shushes me. "Don't say anything or we would be caught. Everyone's asleep, so they shouldn't be able to hear us if we stay quiet." The familiar masculine voice tells me. His hand reaches over and turns on my side lamp on which illuminates his face.
"Jack.." I speak.
"Shhh~" EJ quiets me. "Don't talk." He tells me.
"You shouldn't be here." I tell him.
"I don't care. Do you?" He asks me, getting up slightly as if he was going to leave if I said I did.
I shake my head no and he brings my hands up above my head and brushes some loose strands of hair off my face before leaning in and kissing me softly. His legs were placed on both sides of mine, but he moved one of his knees in the middle of my legs, causing me to struggle a little. He shushes me again and starts kissing my neck. His left hand keeps my hands above me, not letting me move them. His right hand goes under my back, between the mattress and me; starts low, moving up my back. His cold hand reaches my neck, sending shivers throughout my body. His lips disappear from my neck, but his tongue doesn't. He lets it glide up from my collarbone to my chin, sending a warm/cold sensation up my neck.
"Jack.." I accidentally said.
"What? Jeff did it, why not me?" He said. I wonder what he would do if he found out that Masky also did the same thing? I should keep that to myself..
He continues to kiss me on my neck, then my lips again. After a while of this, he stops and puts his lips to my ear, whispering that everything will be better soon. His hot breath on me soothes me to a tranquil peace. He soon falls asleep on me. I don't mind. He is heavy, but he made sure to move his body to the side of me. His arms remain wrapped around me with his head on my chest.
I let him stay with me in my bed tonight, not wanting to wake him up and possibly have him hate me from my aura. Soon enough, I fall asleep with him. I wish things can just go back to normal and we don't have to sneak around like this.. Although, I kind of like this. It feels like forbidden love.
Love. Yes. I love him. Surely he loves me back. My mind slips from consciousness with this thought in my head.