WILL POV
"Y/n let's go," I whispered.
I threw my leg over the bike and sat down, but y/n had stopped. They let go of my hand and turned to faced to old building. Y/n looked as if they recognized or remembered something.
"Y/n? You okay?"
They seemingly broke out of their trance and smiled softly, "Uh, y-yeah... I'm fine. We should go."
I nodded, and they sat on the passenger's seat, throwing their arms around my waist. We got to Castle Byers and ate whatever was left of the granola bars, having no luck with food from Benny's. We agreed that raiding the grocery store would be a better option, but decided to wait in case there were any monsters searching for us.
"What's that?" I asked y/n, who held some piece of paper in their hand.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just a piece of old newspaper I found at Benny's."
"Cool, what does it say?"
"Um, nothing really, it's just and old picture and heading. But it looks so familiar..."
Y/n handed me the paper. It was a picture of a lady with dirty blonde hair. I gave it back to them and shrugged.
"I dunno, I've never seen her before..."
"Figures..."
"Yeah," I chuckled.
They suddenly stood up and walked towards the entrance of Castle Byers.
"Hey, where are you going?" I asked.
"I need to pee," they replied.
"Oh, okay. Be careful."
They nodded and quietly stepped outside. We knew staying in a house would be a lot more convenient than staying in a fort made of sticks in the middle of the woods, but we figured Castle Byers was a lot safer. Both of our encounters with the monster happened in our homes. They knew where we lived, and if the monsters wanted to come looking for us, we were sure those would be the first places they'd check.
I glanced around Castle Byers and spotted the newspaper picture. I picked it back up and examined it closely. It was a picture of the woman, maybe in her late twenties. The heading said:
TERRY IVES SUING
'They took my daughter'
I sighed and picked up another comic, this one a Green Lantern issue. It had been about ten minutes and y/n was still not back.
"Jeez, how long does it take y/n to pee..." I said sarcastically before getting up. "They've been out there forever."
I walked outside, covering my eyes as I made my way from behind the sheet.
"Y/n? You out here?" I called out. "Y/n? You've been gone a while are you... okay?"
Nothing.
"Listen, my eyes are closed, I'm not peeking. You can come out now!"
Still, it was silent.
I removed my hand from my face and looked around. Crap! They were anywhere to be found. What if the monster got them? Suddenly, I heard a scream from behind me.
"Y/n?"
I ran in the direction of the scream when I heard it again.
"Y/n!"
"Will, help!"
"Y/n? Where are you?"
"I'm over here!"
I spun in circles looking around for any sign of y/n.
"Where... I-I can't see you!"
"Will!"
I turned around to see them limping towards me. I ran up to y/n and embraced them in a tight hug.
"What happened?! Are you okay?!"
"I heard a noise, but it wasn't the mo-monsters. It sounded more like a bunch of whispers. So I followed the sound, I thought it could've been more people trapped down here like us, but there was nothing but a bunch of trees..."
"Yeah?" I nodded, waiting for them to continue.
"T-then I heard s-someone call my name, so I wandered around looking for who-whoever it was. But s-suddenly, I got dizzy and I fell backwards into the same ditch I woke up in when I got here. Shit! I think I twisted my ankle or something."
I knelt down to look at their ankle.
"It hurts like hell," they grimaced.
"Good news is it's just a sprain, staying off of it for a few days should help it."
"And the b-bad news?"
"The bad news is your leg is bleeding again, like a lot."
"Will... I don't think we're ever going to get out of here," they sobbed. "We've been looking for three days and still nothing. I'm scared and I miss my family. I've barely eaten. I want to be able to shower again and see sunlight. But I can't, I can't because we're stuck down here with no way or sign out of here!"
I looked up at them and hugged them tightly. I knew they were scared, even through all of their sarcasm and jokes. I gazed into their eyes and gave them a quick peck on the cheek.
"We can go to my house, I know we have something that can help," I knelt back down. "I tried rollerblading once... didn't work out."
I laughed, trying lighten their mood. Their eyes looked at me in fear, then back up again. Y/n limped backwards slowly, stifling a whimper.
"Will, the monster is right behind you..." they whispered.
"W-what?"
"Get up, slowly, and try not to make any noise. It's facing the other direction, so we can try to leave."
I turned around, trying my best not to scream at how close the thing was; it was only a few feet away from us, behind a tree and a few bushes. I did as y/n said and threw their arm around my shoulder, placing my hand on the small of their back. We managed to move only couple feet before it noticed us.
"Shit, shit, shit!"
Y/n tried to move faster, but it wasn't working. They tripped over a branch and fell.
"Hey, you okay?" I asked them. "It's okay, got you."
They smiled faintly and tried to stand up. Y/n winced in pain and fell back to the ground.
"Come on, I got you."
"No, Will..."
I looked into their big e/c eyes and could see right through them. I could tell that y/n was scared as shit, and I didn't want to let them down. Not just because I liked them, but because they were my friend. They were the only one I had down here. We had to stick together, find our way out of here together.
I sighed and smiled weakly.
"I got you."
I placed their arm around my shoulder and helped them up again. We obviously didn't get very far because the creature jumped in front of us. We fell backwards again and I tried to crawl toward a tree. I turned around to see y/n frozen in fear.
"Y/n, let's go!" I yelled.
"No."
"What? Come on, let's just go, we can go back to my house and fix your leg and ankle."
They turned around and looked towards me, "Will, I said no."
I could see tears forming in their eyes and a few threatening to spill. Y/n turned back around and struggled a bit to get up. They limped towards the monster, now only a foot away from it.
They turned back towards me and nodded their head.
"No..." I could only manage to whisper the words.
Tears were rolling down their cheeks and their leg was still bleeding profusely. I knew what they were trying to do. Once again, y/n faced the monster and stood their ground. Then, it all seemed to happen in slow motion. The monster, opening its mouth and bearing its teeth, growled at y/n. It reached down and snatched them up like they weighed nothing. I ran forward and grabbed their arm, not wanting to let go.
"Y/n!"
They screamed in pain. The creature yanked y/n back, sending me flying backwards and into a tree really hard. My head throbbed and there was a ringing in my ears. Through my half-consciousness, I looked up at y/n and could still see them crying.
"Y/n," I whispered softly, reaching my hand out as if to grab them. "Please, don't hurt them. Please."
The monster growled at me once more before turning to leave, y/n still in its arms, leaving me unconscious and alone in the middle of the woods.