A/N: Ty to everyone that waited for this update lol, it's been months.
The sunset glowed through the trees, turning the landscape around you soft oranges and yellows, the sun sinking below the horizon. You shifted through your bag and brought out an old Walkman, popped a cassette into it and hit play. Putting earphones in, you continued walking, bobbing your head softly along to the beat.
"Wise men say only fools rush in"
You watched the world go from orange to blue as the sun dipped down until it was completely out of sight, the world growing slightly colder and darker. You weren't too worried, you had traveled here before multiple times, and knew the path by heart. Looming shadows didn't scare you like they used to.
Though maybe that wasn't a good thing.
As the sky grew darker and darker, the forest became almost pitch black, and you took out your flashlight. You still had your headphones in, the fun 50's era song playing contrasted the tone of the dark woods. You walked a lot slower now, your footsteps more unsure, trying your best not to trip.
Your flashlight caught something in front of you, and you snapped out of your thoughts, gasping lightly as you shone it again on the thing in front of you.
Nothing was there. You searched the entire area around you, swearing you saw something in those woods just a moment ago. Were you going crazy?
You turned off the Walkman. The calm, content feeling you had earlier had been completely shattered at this point, now you just wanted to deliver the letter and go home. You trudged through the woods in silence.
After a couple minutes, you rubbed your arms to get a little warmer, the thought of something watching you wouldn't leave your mind. There was a figure that had been standing in front of you, you knew it, but as you tried to think of it's appearance, you couldn't make remember anything but a dark, tall-ish figure. You sighed. How specific, right? Maybe it was just a tree it the distance, and you freaked out and thought it was closer? Sure, fine, whatever kept you from abandoning this mission completely, You thought.
Suddenly you thought you heard someone yelling, and quickly took out an earphone and looked around. The wind howled back at you. After a minute of listening intently, and hearing nothing, you frowned and took the other earphone out, and stuffed it- along with the Walkman- into your pocket. You wanted to look at your map again, but the thought of slowing down or taking your eyes off the trees around you made you nervous. What am I thinking?? You thought to yourself. I shouldn't be scared, I come face to face with other monsters constantly! And besides, there is NOTHING in these goddamn woods!
You forced yourself to stop walking, and swung your bag around you, grabbing the map. You focused on it, checking that you were on the path to the puppeteer's house. You squinted, the flashlight in your hand helping some. next to you, a twig snapped. Your heart beat faster, but you took a deep breath. Don't be a coward, you told yourself. Don't be a coward, don't be a cowa-
Something hit your left side, pulling you down to the ground with it. You looked up in shock (and anger, how could you be such an idiot??) to see a human figure pinning you. Hell no, there was no way you were gonna become a horror movie protagonist. You brought up your knee sharply, hitting the person in the stomach, they let out a grunt and loosened their grip on you, allowing you to punch them, push them off, and step away from them. You turned and stared at them, gasping for breath and trying to get your thoughts in order. They were blocking your path. And while most may have grabbed their bag and ran, you refused to listen to your instincts (again). For one thing, you couldn't grab your bag, the figure was in front of that too, hunched over and coughing from your jab at their stomach. And second, you were stubborn as all hell.
So you planted you feet and waited for the figure to regain his composure, which he did rather quickly. Your flashlight had been lost in the undergrowth, a few small rays of light peeking out and distorting the woods around you. The thing in front of you stood tall, they were about 6 feet in height. Their entire outfit was a dark bluish-black, blending in with the dark forest so seamlessly it was no wonder you didn't see them before. Their most defining feature was the mask they wore, blue, with an inky substance leaking out of the eye holes, dripping to the floor. They seemed to be staring at you, small beams of light casting across his body.
He stared back at you, his head tilted slightly. "Sorry for attacking you." He said," I didn't realize you were a messenger."
"Oh yeah? What would you have done if you didn't?" You snarled back, trying to fight the fear of this strange creature down. A drop of black goop dripped slowly out of his eyesocket, trailing down his mask as he continued "staring" at you, unmoving. "I would have tried to eat you." He said blankly.
Your thoughts flashed back to the yell you thought you heard earlier and shuddered, wondering whether or not it really was just the wind howling. "Who are you?" You asked him.
"They call me Eyeless Jack."
You narrowed your eyes at him. "How can you hunt if your blind?"
"I have thermal vision. I can see heat, and I can smell my prey, obviously." He paused. "You smell nice."
You blushed. "Excuse me?!" You asked.
"Can I go yet, or do you have more questions for me?" He said sarcastically, ignoring your comment. You glared at him. You had no idea if you could trust this guy, you felt like you couldn't just leave him in this forest. What if he attacked when your guard was down, like he had done only a few minutes ago? "Yeah, actually. Come with me." You spat back. His shoulders stiffened. "Excuse me?" He responded, mimicking the words you had said a moment before. You couldn't help giving a small smile.
"You heard me. Do you think i'm just going to let you sneak off somewhere? Besides, I need someone to help me get where I'm going."
Jack stared at you, you couldn't decipher his expression through his mask. you wondered if he was angry, but he muttered out a soft, "fine" and walked into the trees, away from where you were supposed to be heading.
"Uhm, it's this way..." you said, trying to find him in the dark. He came back out, shoving the flashlight you lost into your hands.
"I know," he said, pushing past you. "But how would you know anyway? I thought you were lost." You decided not to comment, and followed him, taking your bag along with you, slinging it over you shoulder.
The both of you walked in silence through the woods. You made sure to keep a few feet back in case he decided to suddenly attack, holding the flashlight tightly. He seemed to notice your apprehension, his shoulders hunched slightly, his walking pace brisk. After a while, his reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out a Walkman. Putting the earphones in his ears, you realized that the box belonged to you.
"Hey, wait! Did you steal that from me? When did you go through my bag?"
He took one of the earphones out and turned to you, an expression of mock surprise on his face. "Oh, I'm sorry, was this yours? I found it near the flashlight, I'm sorry," He said.
"Well, it is mine. Can you give it back?"
"No."
"What?"
"No," Jack said again, putting the earphone back in his ear. "I like this." You glared at him, walking a bit faster so you were now matching him step-for-step. "I happen to like it too, y'know." You snapped back. He sighed harshly, pulling out the earpiece and turning to face you again.
"Oh, well I'm sorry. I'm so terribly sorry you're not stuck in a forest 24/7 and can go buy things without people calling the police. I'm so terribly sorry you can pas the time by reading and talking to other living creatures and traveling but I can't. So you might just have to deal without a music player." He huffed and put the earphones back in his ear, looking straight ahead again.
You stared at him in shock. He had clearly been holding that in for a while, talk about repressing feelings, huh? Still, you felt bad, and stopped arguing with him about it. After all, you won it in a poker game, so it's not like you paid for the damn thing. You put your hands in your pockets and kept your head low, letting yourself be carried away by your thoughts.
A couple minutes passed, before Jacks hand suddenly flew out to the front of your face. You stopped startled, and looked at him. He shook his hand again, and you looked back at it to see he was holding an earpiece. You cautiously took it and out it in your ear. An old tune from the 50's was playing, and you closed you eyes for a second, savoring the sound. You wondered if this was Jack's own quiet way of saying sorry for his outburst, and you glanced at him. He was still staring at the path ahead of you two, seemingly not paying attention. You focused on the path as well, a small smile playing across your lips.
It seemed so odd to you how you were so scared and paranoid before, and how the forest had felt filled with monsters. Now, walking alongside one that had attacked you, and your heart felt like it was fluttering and light.
"You're really warm right now." Jack stated. And you blushed. "What?" Why does he keep saying all this weird shit to you?
"I can see your body temperature rising, are you blushing?"
"Uhh, no." You said, maybe a little too quickly. "Hm." Jack responded and turned back to face ahead. What did he mean by that?? You put your head in your hands, begging yourself to stop overthinking everything Jack did.
After a minute you muttered, "Sorry for hitting you."
"Sorry for trying to kill you" Jack responded without missing a beat. Another moment of silence passed, before you asked him what had been bugging you since he first mentioned it.
"How could you tell I was a messenger?" You asked. You hoped he didn't say it was because you smelled different or something weird again. He tilted his head slightly, thinking. "You didn't run." You pondered over that for the rest of the dark walk through the woods, the sweet love song playing all the way.
"Would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you? "