Generation Loss Oneshots

Ethan Nestor lived a normal life. He was grateful to have a place to live and a steady job, but his whole existence was just so depressing. He woke up, did his morning routine, then left for work. Then he came home and ate dinner while watching YouTube. Sometimes he would do things on the weekends but he didn’t really have any friends, which made doing things depressing too. He was desperate to have something to mix up his stupid little routine, but everything was too much of a commitment. He wanted a pet but he felt bad about leaving a dog home alone all day, and he didn’t really love cats enough to get one.

That’s when he found Turner. He loved him on sight. Suddenly his life felt a little bit brighter. He had someone to talk to, someone that didn’t require much attention but was still just the right amount of commitment to make Ethan feel like he was important.

Turner was a fish. But he was the best fish in the whole world, and Ethan would stand by this till the end of time. He still didn’t have any friends, but at least he had Turner.

But of course, nothing good would last. Ethan should have seen it coming.

The day he disappeared from his normal life was not a loss to anyone. No one was any the wiser to his disappearance except for Turner, when Ethan didn’t show up to feed him on time. But Turner was a fish, and such thoughts didn’t really cross his mind. He was a smart fish, but his brain didn’t quite have the capacity to be able to think about someone going missing.

Even Ethan didn’t know he was missing. That is, until he woke up.

From the second he opened his eyes, Ethan knew something was just a little bit wrong, but he couldn’t tell what.

No, he wasn’t referring to how he was tied to a metal merry-go-round with several other people. Obviously that was wrong. The feeling that sat in the very back of his mind like a very persistent, yet distant, parasite was something he couldn’t quite put into a thought.

Behind him was the sounds of someone crying but Ethan didn’t want to turn around because one, he wasn’t sure if he even could, and two, because he didn’t want to stare at someone who was obviously distraught.

He found himself dressed in all purple, an outfit he would unironically wear if…

If what? He couldn’t think beyond or behind this event, there was only this and he knew it.

On his right was a man dressed in an orange coat and pants, and on his left was a man in a green coat with a green hat. Ethan could feel someone else behind him other than the one that was crying, but he didn’t want to turn around.

He didn’t feel afraid somehow, even though his mind was screaming at him. He had been kidnapped!! He was in a weird room with strangers!! He was tied to a merry-go-round!!

And yet he wasn’t scared. The thoughts in his mind didn’t quite feel like they were his, more like a really well done impression of his thoughts.

The lights in the room were off, Ethan noticed. Somehow it was still bright enough in the room to see things though, but he had just barely been able to capture the colors of the clothes that the people next to him were wearing.

Through the wall across from him and behind a chain fence and some sort of control panel, Ethan could hear people. Two people talking, someone talking about ripping someone open.

After a moment, the most gut wrenching scream sounded from in the other room. In that second, Ethan felt the most intense horror he had ever experienced. His thoughts cleared, the mimic voice replaced with his.

“Where the fuck am I?” He squeaked out, his breath stolen by the fear that threatened to strangle him. He meant to look around to see everyone else’s reactions (he could feel them start to panic as well, the sobbing coming from behind him ceasing as the breathing in the room stopped), but then the scream stopped as quickly as it had started, the voice that had been screaming previously starting to talk again, sounding perfectly fine and cheerful.

Ethan relaxed back into the metal bar behind him as he forgot what he was thinking about.

A few minutes later, the lights clicked on and the door opened. Panic mixed with desperation filled Ethan suddenly. This person could get him out! This person would help him (and maybe the other people in the room too)!!

The one crying behind Ethan suddenly started to cry for help in a terrified, high pitched voice and Ethan felt himself start to join in, his words didn’t feel like his own as he started to ask for help, but they were his, obviously. He wanted to get out and this was the person that could help. They were in trouble and had bombs around their necks and this tall person with a metal, glowing mask was going to help them. He was aware of everyone else starting to ask for help as well but they were quieter.

Once everything was getting explained by this odd person who vaguely reminded Ethan of something (a movie, perhaps?), Ethan really started to realize how bad of a situation he was in.

He needed to get back to Turner. Nothing else mattered anymore. He hadn’t thought of his fish in a while and almost relished in the memory of his beloved pet. It felt like his only character point.

Ethan was distraught when Ranboo didn’t choose him, but understood the decision. Sneeg seemed much calmer and able to make rational, smart decisions. And the crying girl Niki was so nice!

He couldn’t help but hope that maybe if something happened that he would be able to leave though, and get back to his fish. Why was he thinking so much about his fish, he wondered. This was a life or death situation, (made obvious by the bomb that he wore like a necklace) and yet he couldn’t be bothered to worry about his own existence. But his fish might die and then Ethan would no longer be able to live with himself.

Then the moment arose. Niki was shot, Ethan heard the gunshot. Then something happened to Vinny (the one in green), though Ethan wasn’t sure what.

Then Ethan and Austin, the only other remaining character, wait no, the other remaining person trapped here were led through tubes into a huge closet thing. And Ethan felt calmer than he had ever felt. Now he was actually able to help and solve a puzzle and not feel like a useless human being. He was going to help Ranboo get out of here even if it was the last thing he did. Because Ranboo was the main character and they had to make it to the end.

Chapter 2: Fake Ending

Summary:

“Well Ranboo, looks like the audience picked death. Give them a bow before your final curtain,” Hetch’s voice crackled over the speaker, sending an odd slurry of emotion through Ranboo’s stomach.
Perhaps a mix of relief and the most overwhelming, intense sense of panic that they had ever felt, which was saying something based on what had happened to them over the course of the past three days.
The box around Ranboo’s head closed sharply and they closed their eyes, expecting blinding pain.

Chapter Text

Even before allowing the live audience to vote for whether or not Ranboo should die, Hetch knew he could never kill Ranboo, no matter what the audience said. They were too much of an asset to have, a wonderful actor and beautifully gullible, almost too easy to manipulate. And they had gained a shit-ton of popularity, despite the fact that they only had four hours of screen time. Perhaps Ranboo had been popular before they were brought onto the show.

Either way, they couldn’t be killed off so soon, that would be ridiculous. There was a new show that needed a lead, and Ranboo would be perfect for it.

“Please, just kill me!” Ranboo screamed at the camera, begging the audience.

As the time ticked down, they could see their mask flashing red. Suddenly, all of their memories from before the mall started to pour into their mind, flashes of their life passing before their eyes. Was it because they were going to die?

Either way, the abrupt onslaught of memories made Ranboo scream harder as they realized what it really, truly meant to be a slave to Showfall Media meant. They had such a wonderful life outside of this hellish mall, and they couldn’t get out to live it.

“Please!!” Ranboo cried, their voice breaking as they held back a flood of tears.

“Well Ranboo, looks like the audience picked death. Give them a bow before your final curtain,” Hetch’s voice crackled over the speaker, sending an odd slurry of emotion through Ranboo’s stomach.

Perhaps a mix of relief and the most overwhelming, intense sense of panic that they had ever felt, which was saying something based on what had happened to them over the course of the past three days.

The box around Ranboo’s head closed sharply and they closed their eyes, expecting blinding pain.

Ranboo’s eyes snapped open quickly as if they had woken from a nightmare. But what had been the nightmare? Ranboo dug through their memory, dredging out a faded memory of a mall and running around it with another person whose face was blurred and unrecognizable. They were being chased by… something.

Their mask glowed, shining red light into their eyes, though it wasn’t that noticeable. It had just been a dream though, nothing to worry about.

The last bits of terror clung to Ranboo’s skin as he sat up, looking around as they tried to remember where they were.

Oh that’s right. Obviously they were in their room, on their bed. Because they had just been asleep.

The light on their mask flickered and died. Ranboo looked around again, suddenly realizing none of this was familiar. Where were they?

They got out of the bed, immensely confused as they realized they were wearing full clothing, hoodie and shoes included, though they had just been in a bed.

“Hello?” Ranboo called, opening the door to the room, peeking their head out of the opening. “Anyone there?”

It sounded like there was movement coming from downstairs, so Ranboo steeled themselves and left the room, finding the stairs and creeping down them.

As they entered the downstairs of the house, they noticed that there were other people in the building with them. They were odd, wearing black suits and masks with some sort of symbol on it. There were many of them, all walking around and putting things in their places. A letter, placed onto the table, an apple into a bowl on the counter.

It didn’t look like they were cleaning, rather more like they were setting something up. Or maybe just decorating the house.

“Hello?” Ranboo walked up to one with long blond hair in a braid.

She acted like she didn’t see him, brushing past him with a mirror in her hands.

Ranboo blinked, turning in a slow circle to examine the rest of the open space they were in. The stairs had led down into a kitchen and the kitchen had an opening in the wall to the right that led into a large living room. Everything looked plastic-y and replaceable.

Ranboo walked up to another one of the masked people, tapping them on their shoulder this time. “Hello? Where am I?”

They didn’t answer, continuing on their journey to carefully set a remote on the arm of a rubbery looking couch.

“What the fuck…” Ranboo muttered, getting steadily more confused as time passed.

Something in their head said they should also be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

But of what, Ranboo didn’t know. It wasn’t like they were in danger or anything, if the worst came to pass,they could most likely just break out of a window or something.

Come to think of it, there seemed to be an odd lack of windows on the first floor.

A masked person, much shorter than Ranboo, walked past them, holding a heavy looking box. His brown hair fell over the front of his mask in the form of oddly familiar bangs that Ranboo had seen somewhere.

Without hesitating, Ranboo reached out, hooking their fingers into the back of the person’s collar, holding him in place. “Can you hear me?”

As with the others, he didn’t answer, instead standing idly with the box in his hands.

Ranboo let go of his collar with a sigh and the mask person walked off, heading into the living room. With nothing else to do, Ranboo followed him, hoping that the longer they were around him, the sooner they would remember why this person seemed familiar.

The person dropped the box in the middle of the living room, opening it and pulling out a lamp, which he took over to a table.

Ranboo watched him unload the box and carefully set everything up, before the person left, leaving the box and heading back into the kitchen. Ranboo followed, still mentally trying to fight through the weird fog that seemed to cover his memories.

Looking away for a moment, Ranboo almost lost track of the person before finding him walking up the stairs with another heavy looking box balanced precariously in his arms.

Ranboo ran upstairs after him, trailing after him as he made his way into the room Ranboo had woken up in. No one else was in there except the two of them, and a sneaky little thought planted itself into Ranboo’s head.

They closed the door, turning back just as the masked person set his box down. Ranboo moved quickly, crossing the space between them and the person in a few steps, planting their hands in the middle of the person’s chest, shoving him hard enough to make him fall over, landing hard on the floor silently.

He started to get up but Ranboo moved faster, sitting on his legs to keep him on the floor. His head tilted as if he was confused.

“Who the fuck are you??” Ranboo demanded, to no avail.

Instead of asking again, Ranboo grabbed the bottom of the mask the person was wearing, which seemed to spur something in the person as his hands moved faster than Ranboo was expecting, grabbing onto Ranboo’s wrist.

Ranboo winced, almost pulling back but instead used his other hand to rip the person’s hand from their wrist, then yanked up his mask, throwing it off to the side.

Under the mask was a boy who looked to be a few years older than Ranboo, his blue-green eyes expressionless. Oddly, Ranboo felt like he would usually be wearing glasses.

“Do I know you?” Ranboo asked cautiously.

Slowly, the boy’s face went from void of emotion to realization. “Holy fucking shit, Ranboo??” He said, his eyes widening.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Ranboo asked, a bit concerned that this person knew who they were.

The boy blinked a few times. “It’s me, Charlie? We were in the mall together, but I think I’ve known you longer than that.”

“Mall…” Ranboo muttered, desperately trying to find the memory of the mall.

“Ranboo, come on man! I died, remember??” Charlie sounded desperate for Ranboo to remember. “Something happened to me after you pressed the button, I- I don’t remember what…”

The mask on Ranboo’s face started to blink red. Charlie looked less and less familiar with each passing second. “Nnnnoo… I’m sorry, I think I thought you were someone else. Why are you in my room?”

Charlie let out a cry of desperation. “Nonono, please! You do know me! Why can’t you remember?”

Ranboo stood up, realizing they were still on Charlie’s legs. “Are you alright? I really don’t think I know you.” The mask was glowing a steady red now. “How’d you get in my house?”

Charlie stumbled to his feet, making a motion with his hands like he was violently flicking off water. “I-”

“Here, let’s go find someone for you to talk to!” Ranboo said brightly, finding it silly that he had only just now thought of that. “I don’t know why you think you know me or how you know my name, but maybe someone else could help you figure it out!”

“What?? No!” Charlie cried, backing up quickly as Ranboo tried to grab his hand. “Get the fuck away from me! They’re gonna put a mask on me again!”

“What’s wrong with a mask? I have one and I’m perfectly fine!” Ranboo said happily, tapping their finger against the metal mask that covered their mouth.

A look dawned over Charlie’s face before sinking into his eyes. “Alright, fine… I guess you’re right.”

Ranboo blinked, surprised that he was able to get Charlie to go along with them so easily. “Oh, ok!” They walked up to him, moving to grab his wrist to lead him downstairs to bring him to someone who knew what they were doing.

“Sorry-” Charlie whispered quickly before his hand shot up, grabbing onto the mask, pulling back as hard as he could. Ranboo screamed as the wires started snapping one by one, sending jolts of electricity into them.

The final wires snapped and Charlie stumbled backwards, holding the mask in his hand, loose wires sticking up.

It felt like everything was clearing now. And not just about what was happening right now, but everything.

“Ch- Charlie?” Ranboo whispered, tears welling in their eyes.

“Ranboo?” Charlie’s voice almost mimicked Ranboo’s, sounding quiet and almost near tears.

Ranboo lunged forward, hugging onto Charlie as tightly as they could, their body shaking with silent tears. “I’m sorry-”

“For what?” Charlie’s voice broke as he returned the tight hug.

Bit by bit, Ranboo was remembering things from even past the cabin, things from his life. “Charlie… Can you remember things?”

“Of course I can,” he responded, sounding confused.

“From before the cabin?”

Charlie paused. “Um-”

“We gotta get out of here…” Ranboo muttered.

Chapter 3: Escape

Summary:

“Holy fucking shit, you’re awake!” Someone said, their voice sounding familiar but in the sense that it was a voice that Charlie used to hear but hadn’t heard in a long time.
Slowly, Charlie pulled his hand away, blinking carefully in the bright light as he tried to get his eyes to adjust.
“Where am I?” He asked, his voice a whisper by default.

Chapter Text

The wire monster’s claws dug deep into Charlie’s arms, pulling a scream from him as hot blood rose to the surface of his skin, bubbling out of him, staining his shirt. Its claws reached his chest, ripping down diagonally from his right shoulder, all the way down to his left hip, cutting through the protective vest like butter.

Charlie shrieked, his voice breaking as tears started to pour down his cheeks, his body indecisive between taking gasps of air or screaming.

Then everything stopped. The wire monster froze, with its claws inches away from Charlie’s neck. It sounded like the other people with the masks had stopped too, now only one set of slow footsteps echoing through the room, getting further away with each long second. Was that Ranboo? Charlie was too afraid to try to get out from under the wire monster, his chest rising and falling quickly as he tried to catch his breath in short gasps that filled him with bursts of pain.

Minutes passed, and still nothing happened. The pain in Charlie’s chest had dulled slightly, same with the pain in his arms. The way the monster was on top of him made it so that Charlie had to carefully push himself out from under the monster with his arms so he wouldn’t touch it. A few more excruciating minutes passed as he inched himself out slowly, having to stop occasionally when his arms started to throb with enough pain to make more tears streak down his cheeks.

But then he was out. Charlie staggered to his feet, pulling off the bloodsoaked vest and dropping it on the floor.

A red exit sign glowed in the not-so-far distance, pulling Charlie’s gaze to it as he caught his shaky balance. Blood ran down his stomach, trailing down his leg, dripping down his fingers and onto the floor below him.

“Ranboo?” Charlie called quietly, his voice nearly a whisper. He didn’t know why he was calling to Ranboo, clearly they had left, because Charlie told them to. They had probably followed the exit sign Charlie was looking at.

He let out a quiet whimper, feeling very very alone, and still in a lot of pain. Charlie wrapped his arms around his stomach, the pressure making him feel a little better. He followed the exit sign, drawing closer and closer to its red glow that matched the blood that trailed after him, trickling down his arms, dropping off his elbows before landing on the floor with a ‘ tik ’.

Tik

…

The sign was right in front of him now, pointing him to the left. Charlie turned hesitantly as if something was going to be there, but nothing was except for the door, maybe forty feet away.

Charlie looked around quickly to make sure no one was about to stop him from leaving, before running to the exit, ignoring the horrific pain in his whole body, his breath coming in short, painful spurts.

His shoulder slammed into the door and it opened with an explosion of light. His hand pushed it open further, smearing blood across the door as he stumbled outside.

Nearly the second he got outside, Charlie realized how lightheaded he was. “Shit-” He muttered weakly before everything went black.

Charlie opened his eyes, wincing and covering his eyes with his hand, the lights burning. His arm throbbed with a sharp ache, making him wince again.

A door opened, the sounds of someone walking into the room reaching his ears.

“Holy fucking shit, you’re awake!” Someone said, their voice sounding familiar but in the sense that it was a voice that Charlie used to hear but hadn’t heard in a long time.

Slowly, Charlie pulled his hand away, blinking carefully in the bright light as he tried to get his eyes to adjust.

“Where am I?” He asked, his voice a whisper by default.

“The hospital, you’ve only been out for a few hours,” the voice said.

“What happened?”

There was a quiet sigh. “Nobody really knows.”

Charlie’s eyes were finally able to be open fully without stinging, and he looked over to his side where the voice was coming from.

“Schlatt?” He muttered, surprised.

“Yeah, hey,” Schlatt smiled, though he looked concerned.

Pain was slowly starting to build up in his chest and other arm, and Charlie glanced down slightly, seeing his torso wrapped with thick bandages that were slightly stained already. “What…?”

“Charlie… do you remember where you were?” Schlatt asked carefully.

“I was…” Charlie faltered, realizing he could hardly remember anything. “Um…”

“They found you outside of an abandoned mall, if that helps?”

Charlie covered his eyes again, the lights starting to give him a headache. “I don’t know…”

“That’s ok then,” Schlatt said cautiously. “Um… can you remember how long you were gone for?”

“Gone… at the mall?” Charlie asked, peeking through his fingers.

“Just gone in general, I guess.”

“Probably not that long, I don’t know…”

“Well, try more like a week?” Schlatt said, his voice turning up at the end.

“A week?”

“You and Ranboo both disappeared without a trace for a week. Do you know where Ranboo is?” Schlatt asked.

“Ranboo…?” Charlie fought to pull a memory of Ranboo into his mind, though nothing he was able to catch was that recent.

Until-

A vague something fell into place, a cloud of a puzzle piece, hardly even there.

“Ranboo… I can… I think we were running?” His words came slowly, uncertainly.

“Running from what?”

“I can’t… remember…” Charlie felt himself tear up. “Is Ranboo ok?”

“...We don’t-” Schlatt started, unsure how to word himself. “We don’t know where he is, still…”

“Did you check in the mall?” Charlie asked, pulling his hands away from his eyes, worry flooding into him.

“They sent some guys in there, so we’ll see?” Schlatt’s sentence ended like a question again.

Charlie looked at Schlatt, examining his friend before blinking. “Why are you here?”

“Great question. I heard they found you and I was worried,” Schlatt answered, almost vaguely.

But Charlie accepted it, too tired and in pain to ask anything else.

“I wanna go home…” He muttered, his voice breaking.

“We’re a bit too far to get you home soon, but since we’re kinda close to my place, I was gonna ask if you wanted to come with me?” Schlatt asked hesitantly, running his fingers through his long hair. “It would also give me an excuse to keep an eye on you so you don’t fucking disappear on me- um- us again.”

Charlie nodded slightly, closing his eyes again. “That’s fine… I dunno if I wanna be alone right now anyway…”

His stomach felt like it was being torn open, hands scooping out his insides. Charlie’s eyes shot open as he started to shriek at the top of his lungs. Through the tears in his eyes he saw… Ranboo? with a glowing mask on, their hands digging through Charlie’s gushing insides, their hands dripping with his blood.

Shouldn’t he be blacking out by now? Charlie had no idea something could hurt so fucking bad. He could taste blood in his throat and he screamed and sobbed, unable to do anything as Ranboo ripped into him.

“Charlie!” His shoulders were being shaken, pulling him out of his sleep violently.

Charlie bolted up to sitting, scrambling away from whoever was touching him. “Get the fuck away from me!” He screamed, close to hyperventilating.

He wrapped his arms around his torso, a shock of pain sparking from his chest and stomach, making him yelp. Now he knew the person was Ranboo and they were trying to finish ripping him to shreds.

“Charlie-” The voice sounded surprised, not like Ranboo’s, but maybe the mask could change their voice, who fucking knows.

“No! You’re not fucking touching me!” Charlie choked on a sob, pushing himself back further until his back hit a wall.

There was the sound of Ranboo getting up and walking away from Charlie. He let out a relieved breath, though it sounded more like a harsh sob.

The lights clicked on and Charlie yelped again, curling his knees up in front of his injured torso so Ranboo couldn’t get him while he was unable to see.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Charlie repeated weakly, setting his head down on his knees while tears started to streak down his cheeks.

“I’m not gonna touch you,” Ranboo said.

But they didn’t sound like Ranboo.

Charlie looked up, his vision blurry from both tears and lack of glasses, though the shape of the person in front of him was very different than Ranboo’s lanky figure.

“You’re not Ranboo?” He asked quietly, still skeptical.

“Are you ok?” The person asked instead of responding.

Charlie smeared the tears away from his eyes with the palm of his hand, clearing his vision slightly, enough to see the person in front of him.

“Schlatt?” Charlie sniffled, carefully starting to lower his legs away from his chest.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” Schlatt said carefully, looking unsure about what to do with himself. “Sorry I woke you up like that but you were screaming…”

“I’m sorry…” Charlie looked down at the bed, feeling more tears well up in his eyes. What was wrong with him?

“Are- are you ok?” Schlatt asked again, hesitantly sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I don’t know…” Charlie felt a tear drip down his nose, landing on the blankets under him.

“Did Ranboo hurt you or something-?”

“I don’t think…” Charlie faltered, looking up. “I don’t know…” He was having a hard time remembering what he was afraid of in the first place now that the sleep was wearing off.

“Uhm… yeah, ok… Do you need anything?” Schlatt asked quietly.

Charlie shook his head slightly before giving it a second thought. He pushed himself up from his safe position against the wall, crawling carefully across the bed, stifling a wince from the sore ache in his arms. Schlatt didn’t move, almost like he was frozen where he was sitting, like if he moved too fast he would scare Charlie.

Charlie stopped in front of Schlatt, sitting up on his knees. “Um… C- can I hug you?” He asked slowly, afraid that Schlatt would say no.

Schlatt nodded, moving on the bed so he was facing Charlie a bit more. Charlie wrapped his hurting arms around Schlatt, hugging him gently so he wouldn’t hurt himself. Schlatt’s arms hesitantly found their way around Charlie’s torso, grounding him and sending a tiny breath of relief out of him.

This was the present. Whatever happened before or in his mind was gone, and this was all that was happening now. He was safe and with Schlatt, and everything was going to be ok.

But why couldn’t he remember what he was screaming about?

Chapter 4: Fan Favorite

Summary:

Ranboo dreaded the next scene they had to act in, not because they were in any danger, but because to progress the story, Charlie had to die again. This time was guaranteed to be the most painful death of the bunch as well, though probably not more painful than having his guts ripped into.
Ranboo hoped that they would be able to control the wire monster enough so that it wouldn’t hurt Charlie too much, but the way they had designed it made it hard to tame.
Oh well, they supposed the show must go on. Charlie would live anyway, and then they could use him in the second installment.
He was, after all, a fan favorite.

Chapter Text

Ranboo felt bad. But only a little bit. This was THEIR project, and it was going amazingly. It was being received so well by their viewers! They couldn’t just pull the plug!

However, every time they looked at Charlie, and how genuinely terrified he was, they couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. Charlie really, truly believed that everything happening was real.

Well, at least when he was supposed to.

There was that one time he broke out of the fog keeping him in fantasyland and unintentionally felt Ranboo tearing into him. But Ranboo couldn’t feel that bad about it, it got them so many views. Especially since the faceless viewers thought the whole thing was acted out and started praising Charlie for his amazing acting skills.

They didn’t know that it was real.

It turned out alright though, Charlie had forgotten about it anyway, thanks to the wonderful technology Ranboo was working with.

But every time Charlie’s character died again, Ranboo wondered if they should just tell him what was going on and let him go. He had been on the show for so long, clearly a fan favorite. Then again, there was the fact that he was a fan favorite. The views might go down if there was no longer a character portrayed by Charlie, even if Ranboo managed to find a replacement. They had plenty of friends that were good at improv and acting, but none of them were Charlie.

That, and their friendship would be at stake. Charlie would most definitely hate Ranboo forever and ever if they told him what was really happening, especially if they let him remember everything that had happened from the cabin and beyond. There was no way that they would remain in contact.

Though, that was probably the least of Ranboo’s worries. It was just the last point on a very short list of reasons covering their predicament.

Ranboo dreaded the next scene they had to act in, not because they were in any danger, but because to progress the story, Charlie had to die again. This time was guaranteed to be the most painful death of the bunch as well, though probably not more painful than having his guts ripped into.

Ranboo hoped that they would be able to control the wire monster enough so that it wouldn’t hurt Charlie too much, but the way they had designed it made it hard to tame.

Oh well, they supposed the show must go on. Charlie would live anyway, and then they could use him in the second installment.

He was, after all, a fan favorite.

Charlie felt his breath die in his throat as he and Ranboo walked into the dark, warehouse-like room. It was darker than he would have liked, though the middle of the room was illuminated. As he approached, he realized that the thing that needed light was actually some sort of set. It looked like someone had taken the first floor of a small cabin and cut it right in half. The other half was missing, obviously, because this was a set.

Why did it seem familiar? Had he been here before? Charlie could hardly remember, the feeling he was getting was like deja vu wrapped in a dream within a dream. The faintest, tiniest little smudge in the back of his mind. Small enough to hardly go noticed, but large enough that he couldn’t help but realize it was there.

“Where are we, Ranboo?” Charlie whispered, his voice weak as he tried to figure out why this place seemed like somewhere he had been.

Something about this place was off. Like, obviously, there was the whole part about how they were stuck in a mall but now it looked like they were on a small movie set, but there was something deeper than that.

See, even the picture on the wall in the bedroom looked like a painting of him! Why would there be a painting of him? Or at least, a painting that looked so similar to him that it was odd?

Ranboo didn’t answer, looking lost in thought as they examined the cabin with a dull look in their eyes.

“Ranboo,” Charlie hissed, stepping up to Ranboo and tugging at their sleeve. “Do you know where we are?”

The red from Ranboo’s mask lit up their face, suddenly making them seem even taller than they were. “Sorry, what?”

“Do you know where we are?” Charlie asked again, firmly this time, like he knew that Ranboo knew what was happening. He didn’t know, of course, but he thought that maybe if he pretended to, Ranboo would listen.

“I… can’t say that I do…” Ranboo muttered thoughtfully, an odd hint of something pulling at the edges of their words.

Charlie thought Ranboo wasn’t being as truthful as they should be right now.

“You’re looking at it like you know it,” Charlie gestured limply at the set.

“It looks familiar, is all,” came Ranboo’s attempt at an excuse.

Ok, well maybe they were just as confused as Charlie was then. Maybe the tint in their words wasn’t the sound of them lying, but the sound of them being lost within this dream Charlie seemed to find himself in.

“I thought so too…” Charlie muttered, cautiously looking out of the sides of his eyes to gauge Ranboo’s reaction.

Instead he found that Ranboo was looking at him with such intent that it sent a jolt into his stomach and he looked away instantly.

They were certainly being odd, and it was making Charlie more and more uncomfortable with each passing second.

“Let’s… go find that button, shall we?” Ranboo suggested, meekly holding out a hand in Charlie’s direction, like they wanted him to take it and follow them.

Charlie eyed Ranboo’s attempt at an invitation before turning to face them, keeping his hands firmly by his side. “Um… yeah, button,” he said, trying to keep his sudden surge of mistrust from leaking into his voice.

Ranboo’s hand dropped back to their side and they turned on their heels, looking like they were about to head off into the wide expanse of dark room in front of them.

From what Charlie could see, there was nothing beyond the cabin, so why was Ranboo so ready to charge into the unknown? Now he began to wonder if Ranboo actually knew where this button was, and they were just pretending to not know this entire time.

But he didn’t exactly have any other choice than to follow Ranboo. And if they did end up knowing where the button was, Charlie would confront them about it.

Ranboo started walking, and Charlie shot one last glance at the odd cabin set. Something was moving just behind the outer wall of the room that resembled an attic.

Charlie leaned closer, wondering if perhaps he was just hallucinating the movement, but was proved wrong when a large hand made of black wires grabbed onto the wall.

The wire monster hauled itself away from the cabin, starting to lurch its way to Charlie with its clawed hand outstretched. Not in the “actually I’m not bad, I’m here to help” way, but more the “I’m going to claw your guts out” way.

Charlie screamed, turning so quickly to run that he stumbled. He caught himself and was so close to catching up to Ranboo, but sharp claws dug into his back, digging into his skin.

Before he could even feel the white hot pain, the monster was on top of him, its claws stabbing sharply into his chest, gouging into him.

Charlie shrieked as he felt his blood start to run out of him at a record pace, pooling under him. He tried to shove the monster away but it weighed more than it looked, its weight digging into him and choking the air out of his lungs.

Its claws dug into his torso, sinking so deep they grazed across the surface of his ribs. In a moment of blind panic, Charlie searched for Ranboo, hoping maybe they could help him.

But when he found them, frozen in fear with their eyes so wide it was almost overkill, he saw a hint of red that wasn’t coming from their mask. Just the tiniest hint of red, behind Ranboo, hidden in the darkness.

The button! If Ranboo pushed it, the monster would stop!

“Ranboo, the button!” Charlie screamed, pointing to it.

Ranboo turned like they were in a daze. They needed to move faster!

“Push it, please!” Charlie shrieked, his voice cracking in pain.

Ranboo snapped out of it and sprinted towards the button. Charlie wanted to watch but his attention was stolen when the monster roared, starting to awkwardly attempt to climb off of Charlie. Its claws dripped with his blood as it started to stalk towards Ranboo. As it slid off of Charlie, its razor sharp hand caught on his throat, ripping across quickly and tearing his neck open.

Charlie wanted to tell Ranboo to watch out, but he couldn’t do anything other than sob silently now, as blood poured into his lungs, filling his throat and gagging him with its thick, metallic taste.

There was a click, and everything went dark.

That hadn’t gone as planned. The moment Ranboo slammed their hand on the button, they knew that they had messed up, badly.

They thought they had programmed the monster to just scare Charlie, maybe scratch his arms a little! Maiming him was definitely not the plan, and it never had been.

But the show must go on, right?

Ranboo anxiously acted out the rest of the episode, the tears that bubbled into their eyes as they awaited their demise definitely real. But hey, real life pain always made actors better at what they did, right? Ranboo had heard once that the kid in E.T. had made himself cry for a scene by remembering his dog that had passed away. In a way, this was similar! One person’s pain is another’s inspiration.

But then, why did they feel so upset? They had just acted out such a realistic scene that they thought it was definitely their best performance, but they just felt so… bad about it.

All they could see was Charlie. There had been so much blood.

Ranboo wondered if their crew was taking care of Charlie now. They hoped so. He would probably die if he wasn’t taken care of.

But on the bright side, if he survived, he would have some epic scars that could possibly be worked into a backstory of some kind. When people forgot about him getting maimed, after all.

But that was an idea for a show in the very, very far future. Ranboo suspected it would take more than a few light-hearted episodes to make the world forget the way Charlie’s character had died.

They sighed silently, hoping their mic didn’t pick it up. Now they really couldn’t tell Charlie what was going on.

But that was alright, they supposed. He could just stay on screen for as long as Ranboo needed him for. After all, he was a fan favorite.

Chapter 5: All He Heard

Summary:

At the mention of safety, Charlie swore he heard a scraping sound, further into the darkness. Wire on concrete. Or maybe he was hallucinating, audibly. “Can we hurry?” He choked out, his leg starting to burn, the cut on his cheek stinging on time with his heart beat.
He could almost feel his head hitting against the corner. Hear himself screaming for Ranboo. Ranboo’s defeated whispers. And then that crunch. “Please…”

Chapter Text

The room was dark. Not unlike the rest of the mall, but this was a bit darker. Definitely more unsettling.

Charlie was just glad that the people wearing masks weren’t following them anymore.

Walking further into the room revealed a set of a house. It sat eerily in the middle of the dark space and Charlie felt his chest tighten with a feeling that was similar to deja vu and something else.

“What the fuck is that?” He whispered to Ranboo.

“It’s a house,” Ranboo said, unhelpfully.

“No, but does it look familiar to you too?”

Ranboo didn’t answer, looking over the set carefully. Charlie sighed and looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the button that they needed to find.

He didn’t know why Ranboo trusted that person on the screen. He held his tongue about it because he didn’t see any other way out of this scenario, but he had a weird feeling about Hetch.

And deep down, he was afraid of what Ranboo would do or say if he voiced his thoughts. Sure, Ranboo broke him out of that trancelike state he had been in, mindlessly streaming to thousands of people for god knows how long, but could he really trust Ranboo? What if Ranboo knew something Charlie didn’t and was keeping it from him? What if Ranboo was in on the whole thing?

He hated having these thoughts. He wanted to trust Ranboo, he really did. But being trusting would most likely get him killed. So until Ranboo proved themself, Charlie wasn’t putting his full trust in them.

But again, he didn’t really see another way out of this scenario, and being with Ranboo was drastically better than being stuck streaming or being chased by people in masks.

A creak startled Charlie out of his thoughts and he turned abruptly in the direction of the sound. An inhuman hand reached out from behind the left side of the set, grabbing onto the wall, its nails digging into the flimsy wood.

“Ranboo?” Charlie said shakily, feeling himself freeze.

“We- we gotta go,” Ranboo stammered, quickly grabbing onto Charlie’s hand.

Ranboo pulled on Charlie, prompting him to start running but it was too late. The monster lunged out of the darkness, lurching towards them faster than expected. Its claws grabbed onto Charlie’s torso, pulling him backwards. Charlie screamed and grabbed tighter onto Ranboo’s hand, holding tight enough that his feet started to leave the floor. Ranboo’s eyes went wide and they tried to reach for Charlie’s other hand but the monster ripped Charlie away, tugging Ranboo forward a bit as their hands separated.

“Ranboo!” Charlie shrieked as the monster struggled to carry him backwards. He twisted in its sharp grasp, trying to tug himself from its arms. As he struggled, a shining of red caught his eye. He paused for a moment, hoping to see what was causing it.

“Ranboo! The button!” He yelled, throwing an arm out to shakily point at it.

Ranboo unstuck themself from their frozen state of panic and turned, before turning back to Charlie and then back to the button before they broke into an unsteady sprint towards the red light.

The monster threw Charlie to the floor just in front of the set of the cabin, his head slamming into the corner of the floor of the set as he landed on his back, the impact stealing the breath from his chest. His vision flashed white and Charlie gagged, unable to make a sound.

Charlie gasped painfully, desperately trying to push himself up as he watched the monster click click click onto all fours. Blood soaked into his hair from the back of his head, pain rocketing through his skull as he moved. It crawled towards him, its wires scraping on the floor, sparks shooting up from the concrete. He wanted to scream but he was still trying to pull air into his crumpled lungs, so instead he started pushing himself backwards, trying to crawl away. But once again the monster was faster and suddenly it was looming over him. Its hand grabbed his leg, its long claws digging into his thigh. He thought that it had stabbed into him but he didn’t feel any pain.

The monster gave a staticky growl and Charlie tried to shrink into the floor with a whimper, his breath now coming fast and shallow.

The wire monster’s hand reached for his face slowly, grazing against his cheek, its claws cutting his cheek.

Charlie was too scared to do anything but freeze in place and hope Ranboo reached the button before-

The monster’s hand froze inches away from his throat, its metallic growling stopping so abruptly it was like someone paused it.

Charlie held his breath, waiting for it to come back to life and maul him, but a minute passed, then another, and another, and it didn’t move. His leg was starting to hurt.

Charlie tried to push himself out from under the monster, but just as he guessed, its claws were buried in his leg and prevented him from getting away.

“Fuck,” he whimpered, blindly reaching down and grabbing its hand. He managed to pull its claws out of him with some effort, biting his lip to keep his sounds of pain to himself, only barely managing to keep down another gag.

He pushed himself out from under it, using the edge of the set to steady himself as he pulled himself to his feet. The second he put weight on his injured leg, it buckled and he fell to the floor, letting a sob of pain tear up his throat.

Blood coated his leg, soaking into his pants, dripping down to the floor. With a pained whimper, Charlie carefully stood up again, managing to hold himself up this time.

“Fuck…” He whispered, followed by, “Ranboo?”

His call echoed hollowly through the space, but he received no answer. Did Ranboo really just leave him for dead?

“Ranboo?” Charlie shouted again, his voice breaking and making it sound pathetic.

Tears welled in his eyes as the thought of being abandoned. “Are you fucking kidding me?” He said to himself, his voice shaky, bringing him to the verge of breaking down.

“Ranboo, come on!” Charlie’s eyes welled up, his breath coming in stuttering gasps as he desperately tried to keep from breaking down, the pain in his leg and head combining with the intense feeling of abandonment.

He was completely alone in this huge mall. Ranboo was just going to let him die and disappeared. He probably was going to die now. The monster would wake up and come after him and he wouldn’t be able to get away and it would kill him. And then he would wake up and be fine and then it would kill him again and again and again. He didn’t know why but he had the feeling that he had died before.

All he wanted to do was collapse on the floor and sob, but he had to take advantage of the monster being paused and try to find the exit.

Charlie knew he couldn’t put much weight onto his one leg, so he settled on limping towards the button. If Ranboo ran away from there, it was safe to assume that whatever he would be looking for would be seeable from the button.

His vision was blurred slightly, and he reached up to feel for his glasses just in case they fell off when the monster was attacking him, but they still sat on his nose. “Shit-” He whispered, moving his fingers to gently touch the back of his head. His breath hitched in his throat when they brushed across a spot that sent a shock of pain throughout his whole skull. When he pulled his fingers back, they were shining with blood.

“Shit-!” He said again, his voice squeaking out of his sore throat.

He tried to go a little faster, managing to do so but every time he stepped on his left leg, a bolt of pain shot through him, nearly making him collapse multiple times.

“Ranboo?” He called again, just in case Ranboo hadn’t heard him the first time. There wasn’t a reply.

Charlie reached the button, looking around for a moment before seeing a glowing exit sign. He didn’t know where Ranboo had gone, but the exit seemed like a pretty good shot at finding them, so he went for it.

He was getting used to the pain now, able to walk a bit better while tuning it out, and he reached the sign a lot quicker than the button. The exit sign pointed off to the right, in front of him was a door. Charlie was about to turn to the right, when behind the door came muffled shouting.

“Ranboo?” Charlie whispered. He took a deep breath, gritting his teeth, and painfully walked towards the door, glancing back at the sign that promised freedom. He could escape once he found Ranboo.

His fingers landed on the cool doorknob, and he paused. Something felt wrong. He didn’t want to see what was behind the door, suddenly. What if this was a set up? Something to injure him more? What if Ranboo was luring him to this room so they could kill him again?

“Ranboo wouldn’t hurt me,” Charlie whispered to himself, his words catching in his throat. He didn’t entirely believe himself. But what other choice did he have, really?

The shouting turned to incoherent screaming. It was now or never, he supposed.

Charlie opened the door and immediately slapped a hand to his mouth to swallow his scream.

Ranboo was against the back wall, their head in an open, spiked box, their feet off the floor. They were held up by wires that twisted around their legs, arms, and torso, digging into them with enough force that blood had started to stain their shirt and pants.

“PLEASE, KILL ME!” Ranboo screamed, their eyes shining with tears.

There was a crackle as speakers turned on, projecting Hetch’s voice into the room. Charlie didn’t pay any attention to what he was saying, instead moving to run up to Ranboo, to do anything he could to help.

Just as he took a step forward, hands grabbed at his arms, holding him in place.

“FUCK! LET ME GO!” He screamed, pulling at the hands. “RANBOO!”

Ranboo’s eyes widened as they looked over at him. “Charlie-!”

“Today’s your lucky day, Ranboo!” Hetch said happily over the speakers. “It looks like the viewers have picked for me to kill you!”

“RANBOO, NO!” Charlie desperately tried to rip his arms from the hands that held him, but they didn’t move, their fingers digging into his arms painfully.

“Charlie-” Ranboo whispered, fear flooding their eyes. Their fingers twitched, like they wanted to escape but couldn’t move against the wires.

The box snapped shut, a horrific crunch sound ricocheting around the room. Blood dripped down from the bottom, flowing steadily over their shirt. Their arms visibly went limp.

The hands slid away from Charlie and he stumbled forward, catching himself and running as best he could up to Ranboo.

“Ranboo! Nonono, fuck!” He yelled, tearing at the wires that held Ranboo’s torso. The sharp end of one caught on his palm, ripping his hand open.

The wires suddenly slid away from Ranboo and they fell forward. Charlie caught them, collapsing to the floor with his friend in his lap. The box was still on Ranboo’s head, and Charlie tried to pry it open, staining the black box with more blood. His fingers slipped over the crack in the box, unable to find a place to hold on to.

“Ranboo, p- please-” He hiccuped, shaking Ranboo with his uninjured hand. “Please-”

Blood continued to run down from the box, pooling under Charlie with a steady

pink

as it hit the floor.

“We were so close, please Ranboo!” Charlie shouted, “you have to- you can’t- you-”

But Ranboo lay limp, the color draining from their hands and neck.

“R- Ranboo…” Charlie felt tears running down his face, burning the cut on his cheek.

He folded forward onto Ranboo’s chest, hugging them tightly. The lump in his throat grew and he gasped for air, trying to push away the tears. They came anyway, and soon Charlie was sobbing into Ranboo’s hoodie.

“I- I’m sorry I thought-” Charlie’s words melted together with his tears, making them inaudible. He couldn’t bring himself to say that he thought Ranboo was one of the bad guys out loud, so he left it unsaid.

He was alone now. No one was left except for him.

“I can’t do this alone, please!” Charlie cried, tangling his fingers into Ranboo’s hoodie, holding on tightly.

A sob escaped painfully from his throat, and he pressed himself further into Ranboo, hugging them like they were the only thing left in the world.

Eventually his sobs faded into quiet sniffles, which faded even further into some form of sleep, despite the uncomfortable position. He hadn’t realized it, but he hadn’t technically slept in a really long time.

When his eyes opened again, he was curled up against a wall, his knees to his chest. A sticky pool of blood sat drying in front of him, a few feet away. Its metallic scent buried its way into Charlie’s head, making his stomach churn.

Charlie tried to stand, his legs buckling slightly before he caught himself, standing with hardly any weight on his left leg.

He blinked, leaning against the wall and tried to gather his memories. What was the blood from?

“Ranboo-” He said suddenly, his eyes widening in horror as the memories crashed into him.

He needed to get out of this room.

Nausea squeezed his stomach, and Charlie tripped out of the room, pressing a hand to his mouth.

The space beyond the room was just as dark before, though now it seemed bigger. He was alone, all alone.

Charlie started running in a direction chosen at random as if trying to outrun the memory of Ranboo, but the copper smell stuck in his nose. All he heard was the crunch, the sound of blood dropping to the floor.

His sore, stabbed leg buckled and Charlie stumbled, falling to his knees ungracefully.

While he slept, the wound had tried to heal but now it ripped back open, warm blood starting to bubble to the surface of his skin, soaking into his pants that were already stiff with dried blood.

Charlie gasped in pain, holding in a sound while fresh tears blurred his vision. All he heard was the crunch.

He was so lost in his traumatic flashback that he didn’t even realize he was crying out loud again, until a sound snapped him back into his own body.

“Ranboo? Charlie? Where are you?” A voice echoed through the expansive room loudly, finally settling into his ears.

Not Ranboo. Obviously. They were dead. A different voice. Familiar though. A distant memory.

A name slid onto his tongue slowly as he tried to push past the fog in his memory. “S- S-”

“Charlie, Ranboo?!” The voice called again.

A blue hoodie, a matching snapback. Charlie knew this person. A cage, or perhaps two cages?

“Sneeg?” He called weakly.

Quick, panicked sounding footsteps rang through the room, and in a moment, Sneeg was in front of him.

Hadn’t he died? Charlie couldn’t remember.

“Charlie? Are you ok?” The fear shining in Sneeg’s eyes, visible even in the dark, shifted into worry. “What’s with all the blood? Where’s Ranboo?”

“R- Ranboo-” Charlie teared up again, the now familiar feeling of panic crushing into him, nearly folding him in two. “He- I-”

The equally familiar feeling of tears heated up his face. He looked up at Sneeg with tear splattered glasses before looking away, unable to bear the look of worry that Sneeg was dripping with.

“I fucked up, I really really fucked up, I think,” Charlie squeaked out, his voice breaking under the weight of the lump in his throat. “And I can’t really walk either.”

“Need help getting up?”

Charlie nodded pathetically and looked up just enough to see Sneeg’s hands, held out for him to take. Charlie grabbed them and Sneeg pulled him to his unsteady feet, his legs wobbling.

“You’re hurt, what happened?” Holding Sneeg’s hands gave Charlie a small sense of security, grounding him in the moment, though the crunch in his memory almost drowned out Sneeg’s voice.

“Charlie, what happened?” He asked again, pulling Charlie away from thoughts of Ranboo’s lifeless body on his legs.

“I got attacked, it’s fine,” Charlie whispered, looking to the floor.

“And Ran-”

“Don’t-” Charlie interrupted. “Please, I-”

Sneeg made a sound in his throat, like it pained him to not ask, but he held his tongue.

“Did you die?” Charlie asked suddenly, though he still didn’t look up.

Sneeg’s fingers suddenly squeezed around Charlie’s hand, letting up quickly. “Did I- did I what?”

“I think I’ve died, did you die too?” Charlie said quietly.

“I-” Sneeg seemed like he was about to answer with ‘well of course I didn’t die, I’m right here’, but he paused. “I don’t know…” He whispered.

“Hm…” Charlie hummed, wondering why it was that neither him or Sneeg could seem to remember things. “We… we can deal with that later…”

“You’re right, let’s… get somewhere safer,” Sneeg agreed carefully.

At the mention of safety, Charlie swore he heard a scraping sound, further into the darkness. Wire on concrete. Or maybe he was hallucinating, audibly. “Can we hurry?” He choked out, his leg starting to burn, the cut on his cheek stinging on time with his heart beat.

He could almost feel his head hitting against the corner. Hear himself screaming for Ranboo. Ranboo’s defeated whispers. And then that crunch. “Please…”

Chapter 6: He Said Screw It, Imma Smile Right Through It Then Scream When No One’s Around

Summary:

Static filled his ears, a high pitched ringing worming into his brain. Slime gasped in pain, folding over and pressing his hands to his ears, but it did nothing to block out the sound that was coming from inside of his head.
The static folded into words, echoing inside his ears. “Damn it, he’s still glitching. Fix it!”

Chapter Text

Something weird was happening to Slimecicle. He wasn’t quite sure what was wrong, but something didn’t feel right.

He felt like he was pretending to be someone he wasn’t, but he had always been a demon covered in slime that lived in a cabin, so why did he feel like that?

If he had really thought about it, he would have realized that he couldn’t remember anything before he burst out of the kitchen with a “boo, bitch!”

Instructing this person felt right. What was his name? Rainbow? Something like that.

Threatening him felt right. Being in charge felt right. Like he had done it before. To someone in the basement. He couldn’t remember who was in the basement though, and he didn’t care.

“If you don’t cook me the best meal of all time, Rambus,” he told the person in his cabin, “I’ll cook you. And you don’t want to know what happens after that.”

The tall person nodded and started frantically looking around for food, like he feared for his life. Good, that meant Slime’s threats were working.

“There’s nothing in here!” Ranboo said, grabbing a wooden spoon and smacking it against their hand in clear anxiety.

“Well you’d better find something or you’re fried, bitch!” Slime said, letting an erratic giggle bubble out of him.

Ranboo looked like he was about to cry, and a sudden jolt of discomfort jarred Slime, so he added, “Why don’t you check the fridge?”

Why did he say that? He didn’t want to help Ranboo, he wanted to kill him for existing!

“I did! There’s nothing in there!” Ranboo cried, half-turning to look at the small refrigerator.

Slime’s mouth moved before he could stop it, words pushing out from his throat. “Look again.”

Ranboo sighed and turned fully, reaching for the handle before pulling it open. Odd assortments of food cluttered the shelves, everything from pickles to a slime in a plastic container usually reserved for pudding.

“But this was-” Ranboo started.

“Fuckin’ get to it, we don’t have all day,” Slime interrupted.

“Right, uh-” Ranboo stuck his head in the refrigerator and Slime took that as his queue to exit.

He didn’t want to leave, he wanted to stay and tease Ranboo about how much he sucked at cooking, but his legs pulled him towards the door, and he found himself in the living room.

He could hardly hear Ranboo anymore, despite only being a few feet away from the kitchen, but maybe he could torment him from this room instead.

Just as Slime was opening his mouth to throw an insult at Ranboo, something slid away from his mind.

A fog over his vision cleared, his urge to fucking murder Ranboo melted.

Charlie blinked, drawing in a sharp breath when he realized he had no idea where he was. Well, obviously he was in a cabin. But where this cabin was, he had no idea.

He knew someone was in the other room. Charlie even knew his name. But he didn’t really know why. Maybe Ranboo would know what was happening.

He went to move into the kitchen but he was stuck to the floor. His legs refused to move, even his arms were stiff at his sides, unable to move.

“Hello?” Charlie called, struggling to get any part of him unstuck. Why was he in a suit covered in slime? “Ranboo? Where am I?”

His voice felt quiet in the empty room, only barely making it to his own ears. This was a dream, that was it. This was just a fever dream, it’ll go away.

His legs started to move, walking him to the kitchen doorway. The closer he got, the foggier he felt. Charlie could actively feel himself disappearing into his mind. There was a pressure as something pushed itself to the front of his consciousness.

Slime peeked into the kitchen. “Heya Rangoop, need help fucking up what you’re cooking or have you got it all on your own?”

Ranboo sighed. “I’m doing just fine.”

“Our audience thinks you’re doing a shitty job, so we’re doing a poll,” Slime said, staring into the pot of murky but sweet smelling broth that Ranboo had on the stove.

“Audience?” Ranboo whispered, like he was asking Slime and only Slime.

He glared at Ranboo, surprised at the audacity he had to even think about talking to the Slime Demon.

“Audience,” he repeated coldly. “They’ll decide what you put in there next.”

Ranboo looked like he was about to protest when it looked like a light blinked off behind his eyes. He walked to the fridge and grabbed a large jar of pickles.

Slime cringed, nearly hissing. “I hate those.”

Ranboo shrugged mindlessly and Slime huffed, retreating back to the other room.

Charlie blinked rapidly, clearing his slightly blurry vision. What was happening to him? He wanted to go back in the room and ask Ranboo for help, but a sudden surging of hatred for the other person flooded through him, churning in his stomach and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to stab Ranboo.

Following the hatred was a rushing of anger that wasn’t nearly as crippling as the hatred, but that was followed by an ocean of sorrow, so intense Charlie crumpled slowly to the floor, hugging his knees tightly.

It felt like someone he knew had just died in front of his eyes, ripped to shreds. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. His vision blurred again, though this time it was from tears.

A quiet voice rippled through his mind, like a radio station he had picked up but hadn’t meant to.

“Shit, get somebody on Slimecicle’s vitals, we’re glitching over here.”

The sadness faded back into anger and suddenly Charlie couldn’t breathe for another reason. This was all Ranboo’s fault. Stupid, fucking Ranboo. Charlie was going to stab him over and over and-

Slime stood up, looking around for the reason he was sitting on the floor in a ball, but he couldn’t find anything. He had to pull himself off the floor with a little bit of effort, the slime that clung to his suit gluing him to the ground.

He meant to go back into the kitchen, but instead he found his legs taking him to the couch, where he sat down. He blinked in mild surprise, unsure why he was here, but decided to just roll with it. (omg is that a jrwi reference)

He could hear Ranboo scuffling around in the kitchen, the clangs of pans as they rushed to make something edible out of the horrific items in the refrigerator. Slime rolled his eyes. God, he was annoying. He really just thought he could break into Slime’s cabin and then proceed to make a mess of his kitchen when Slime was ALLOWING him to use it to make something to save his life.

This is why he didn’t leave the cabin. People were so obnoxious.

Static filled his ears, a high pitched ringing worming into his brain. Slime gasped in pain, folding over and pressing his hands to his ears, but it did nothing to block out the sound that was coming from inside of his head.

The static folded into words, echoing inside his ears. “Damn it, he’s still glitching. Fix it!”

Charlie found himself curled on the floor, holding his head between his hands. His head ached, a faint memory of a loud, high sound bouncing around in his mind.

Charlie unstuck himself, pulling himself off the floor. “What the fuck is happening?” He squeaked out.

“Um- Mister… Slime- Demon, sir?” Ranboo called from the kitchen.

Charlie jumped and looked around the room quickly, afraid that this “slime demon” was in the room with him.

“Hello?” Ranboo called again.

Charlie paused after realizing that he was alone, and looked down at himself. “Fuck.”

He must be the slime demon, why else would he be coated head to toe in slime?

He dragged himself into the kitchen. “Um- that’s… me?” He said hesitantly.

Ranboo blinked. Why was their face covered by a glowing, metal mask? “Y…es?”

“What do you need?” Charlie suddenly puffed out his chest, hoping to make himself look more imposing. Why was he suddenly playing the part?

“I just wanted to check in and see if I should add anything else?” Ranboo said carefully.

“Why’re you asking me?” Charlie asked, hoping he sounded rude enough to pass as a demon.

“Because you’re the only other person here?”

Charlie blinked and shook his head. Why was he playing the part? He should be figuring out where he was!

He grabbed Ranboo’s arm and dragged them into the living room.

“Y- your name is Ranboo, right?” He asked quickly.

“Um- yeah?” Ranboo looked confused.

“Do you know where we are? I don’t think I have a lot of time,” Charlie said, his fingers holding on tightly to Ranboo’s arm.

“A.. cabin?” Ranboo answered.

“TURN ON SLIMECICLE, GO FUCKING FASTER!” a voice ripped through his head, screaming into his ears.

Charlie took in a sharp breath, ducking down slightly and whimpering in pain. “R- Ranboo, please! I don’t- where are we??”

“We-” Ranboo faltered, the red light on his mask flickering suddenly. “We’re…”

“Something’s not right…” Charlie whispered. “Please, I think we’re running out of-”

“Slime! We’re running out of slime! I mean slime! I mean slime! I mean slime!”

The light on Ranboo’s mask flicked off and they took in a breath like they had forgotten to breathe for a while. They blinked and looked down at the person in front of them. “Wait, what happened to you?”

“The fuck kinda question is that?” Slime asked before realizing that he was holding tightly onto Ranboo’s arm and jerked his hand away. “Go- um- go back to cooking.”

Ranboo stepped towards the kitchen, shooting a glance back at Slime that he couldn’t decipher.

“Go, you’re running out of slime! I mean slime! I mean-”

His voice cut out the second Ranboo disappeared back into the kitchen. Slime blinked and set a hand on his throat, trying to figure out how it was that his voice stopped so suddenly.

He shrugged and sat on the floor, happily rocking back and forth whilst awaiting Ranboo to finish in the kitchen. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t quite sure how long Ranboo was supposed to even be able to be working. He may have said Ranboo was running out of s- time, but how much time did he have left?

“How’re we doing?” A voice rippled in his head, feeling pleasantly velvet.

“Better, but he still might break character if we’re not careful,” an equally soft voice joined the first.

“Well, make sure that he CAN’T break character. EVER.” The first voice said, anger tinting his words, but Slime couldn’t help but feel comforted by it. It felt safe. Like this was an important voice he needed to listen to because everything they said was a good idea.

“Ever, sir?” Said the second voice.

“Tell me, when do you ever see a fucking reason for Charlie to come back?” The first voice spat. Slime was slightly worried for this “Charlie”. The voice didn’t seem to like them very much.

“Um-”

“Exactly. I don’t care if he glitches a bit more this episode, just find a way for him to stay in character FOREVER.”

The voices faded in his head, leaving him feeling empty. Slime wondered who they were talking about and who Charlie was. But he supposed it didn’t matter. All that really mattered was making sure that Ranboo finished making him food.

Chapter 7: You’re So Insane, Just Shut Up and Enjoy This Feeling

Summary:

The voice started speaking again, and Slime struggled to try to understand, but the moment he felt like he was on the verge of understanding, he lost it. It was as if the language it was speaking was on the tip of his tongue, but the harder he focused, the more his brain felt like mush. Melting. Out of his ears. Into his hair. Onto the bed. Dripping to the floor.

Chapter Text

The room smelled like it was once sterile. A thick metallic scent hung in the air, just barely sitting over the strong smell of alcohol wipes. It coated Slimecicle’s lungs, covering his tongue and lingering in his throat.

He didn’t mind though, it really wasn’t that bad. He was supposed to be sleeping anyway, so it wasn’t like he could act like it was bad, even if it was.

His eyelids were gently closed over his eyes that stung and ached with the familiar feeling of being overly tired. Why was he so tired? Hadn’t he just been sleeping?

The door above his head opened with a

c…rrrrreaak…

and someone tripped over the threshold, landing on their feet in the damp room. Slime could tell it was damp because every once in a while, there was a ping -ing sound that came from water dripping from the ceiling onto the floor.

“Gross, what the fuck?” The person muttered, their voice just loud enough to be heard by Slime.

Slime tried to open his eyes, to see who was in the room with him, but they stayed closed. He couldn’t figure out why his eyes, that were still closed as gently as possible, would be practically glued shut against his will.

The sound of TV static filled the room, and a voice faded in, though the words it was speaking sounded garbled and inhuman.

“Inside of him??” The person cried, as if they were responding to the voice, even though Slime couldn’t figure out how they could understand it.

The voice started speaking again, and Slime struggled to try to understand, but the moment he felt like he was on the verge of understanding, he lost it. It was as if the language it was speaking was on the tip of his tongue, but the harder he focused, the more his brain felt like mush. Melting. Out of his ears. Into his hair. Onto the bed. Dripping to the floor.

It felt funny, and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from laughing.

“I can’t go digging around in someone!” The person shouted.

The TV static shut off.

“Fuck,” The voice cursed, sounding painfully distraught.

They sighed and their footsteps approached the bed Slime was laying on.

“You- look…” they said painfully, like they too were feeling like their brain was melting from their ears.

“Familiar…” they finished, as they left the bedside.

Slime wondered what they were talking about, and also what they were doing. He wished he could open his eyes.

The footsteps returned, and there was a quiet clanging sound next to Slime’s head as the person set something down on a metal tray.

Then there was a cold sensation that slid up his torso, accompanied by the sound of fabric being cut, and suddenly Slime’s chest was cold as his top was cut away from his body.

Oh, was he the thing the person was supposed to dig into?

Something shifted, and now he found he could open his eyes.

“Hello!” He said cheerfully.

The person jumped, dropping the pair of scissors in their hand. The scissors landed on the floor with an unhappy sound, but Slime didn’t look away from the person, taking the time to observe them.

He thought something about them looked familiar, but there went his brains, dripping out his nose now.

“Y- you’re alive??” The person stammered, clearly surprised.

“Of course!” Slime smiled. As he spoke, he realized he was only able to move his body above the neck. Everything else was as good as paralyzed, frozen stiffly to the bed underneath him. “Who are you?”

“Uhm- I- I’m Ranboo,” they responded.

“Are you going to cut into me, Ranboo?” Slime asked happily, glad to be of service.

“Y- yeah man, I have to. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it dyude! That’s just the grind, amiright?” Slime responded.

“You’re- being a very good sport about this-” Ranboo sounded surprised.

“Well it’s not every day you get to pretend to be one of those dead frogs you dissect in school, is it?” Slime grinned. “I’ve always wondered about what my goop looks like!”

“Morbid, but okay…” Ranboo muttered, bending down to pick up the scissors and replacing them on the metal tray with a scalpel.

“Get goopin’, bro!” Slime encouraged, almost attempting to wiggle around in excitement before remembering he couldn’t move.

Ranboo looked nervous, even under their mask, but they lowered the scalpel, the cool tip brushing against the base of Slime’s sternum.

As the knife touched him, a violent flash of panic sparked through him and he winced, gasping. “Fuck! Wait, wait, wait!!”

Ranboo stopped quickly, pulling their hand away so quickly the tip of the blade scraped against Slime’s skin, green beading to the surface quickly. “What’s wrong?”

“You can’t! Please! I’m so sorry, I’ll-” Slime babbled, trying as hard as he could to move his body at least an inch.

He wasn’t even sure where this was coming from. Most of his brain felt calm and clear and totally ready to help Ranboo with whatever they needed. But there was a part of him that was crushing the rational part, that choked him with fear and threatened to take over everything. The fear felt like a different person. This wasn’t Slimecicle. Who was it?

Slime took a deep breath and smiled guiltily. “Sorry dude! I don’t know what that was, that was really weird! Anyway, cut away!”

Ranboo blinked a few times, looking as panicked as Slime had felt a few seconds ago, but lowered the knife anyway.

The fear bubbled up inside Slime the closer the scalpel got, but he smushed it into the back of his mind.

The knife pushed into his skin, the pressure felt nice. Reassuring. It stamped out the remaining fear and Slime relaxed into the bed, relishing in the feeling as Ranboo cut him open.

The cut was clean, perfectly straight. Ranboo peeled open the two pieces of skin, ripping Slime open to expose his gooey insides.

Thick, green slime filled him to the brim, and Slime thought it made sense given his name.

“Whoaaa, that’s sick dude,” Slime giggled.

“ I’m gonna be sick…” Ranboo muttered, sounding like they were trying not to gag.

“C’mon dude, what were you looking for?” Slime prompted.

“A- a key,” Ranboo pressed their hands to their mask, like they were trying to hold them against their mouth but forgot about the thing that clung to their face.

“I might have one of those in there, go check!”

“I can’t…” Ranboo whispered, looking helplessly down at Slime.

“Alright well at least sew me back up then, I can’t just go sludging around with my insides like this.”

“Fuck, fine, I’ll look for it…” Ranboo sighed and rolled up their sleeves, before sticking their arms into Slime.

They shuddered, their fingers digging around inside Slime, tugging gently at his organs.

Slime giggled at the weird feeling, before huffing dramatically when Ranboo pulled out a long strand of his guts. “Fuck dyude, have you no chyill?? I kinda need those.”

“I- I’m sorry!” Ranboo cried. “I’m trying!”

Slime laughed again. “I’m just messing with you, you can just put them back later, no worries!”

Ranboo tugged up on something, and pulled out a rubber chicken, coated in slime from fingertip to elbows. “What the fuck-”

“It makes funny sounds when I squeeze myself!” Slime explained.

Ranboo sighed and plunged their hands back into Slime, digging around. Their fingers latched onto something and they started to pull, only to be met with resistance.

They tugged harder, and something snapped inside Slime’s mental state.

“FUCK!” He shouted. “Stop!! Please! It- you- I’ll do anything!”

Ranboo stopped, but their hands didn’t let go of whatever it was that they were holding onto. “Um-”

“Please, you can’t!” Slime cried, drawing in panicked gasps of air.

“Can’t what?”

Slime shook his head, taking a calm breath. “Sorry dude! I don’t know why that keeps happening!”

Ranboo let out a relieved breath of air and ripped upwards, tearing out something that was definitely attached inside of Slime, and something probably important.

The scream ripped its way through Charlie before he was even aware of what was happening. All he saw was red. His vision was turning spotty, and he hardly even felt the pain.

Until it all crashed into him. Horrible, horrific pain that took up everything. Pain that was everything. The pain was everything and everything was the pain.

He wanted to throw up and pass out and he hoped he would die.

Charlie thought he would never stop screaming. The death he so craved felt light years away, unreachable and unattainable.

He might have been screaming words, but he had no idea. He couldn’t hear anything through the blinding pain, the only reason he knew he was screaming was from the scraping pain that was ripping up his throat.

Slime blinked a few times. Why did his throat hurt?

“Whatchu find in there, dude?” He asked, looking down at his goopy insides.

Ranboo didn’t answer, and when their silence lasted longer than five seconds, Slime looked up at them. A horrified, sick expression sat on the part of their face that was visible.

“You good?”

Ranboo’s eyes glazed over and they nodded quickly, laughing through their mask. “Sorry, zoned out!”

“That’s ok! Wanna keep looking?” Slime asked.

Ranboo nodded, and slipped their hands back inside of him.

Chapter 8: Think I’m Losing My Mind, Apathetic and Tired

Summary:

“Then… fucking shut down the stream! Ranboo already knows more than he thinks, we can’t let Charlie find out things too!”

Chapter Text

“Remember when I said we wouldn’t need him again?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Bring him back.”

“What’s up, goopers and gamers?! Welcome back to another slimy, sludgey , grimy stream! I think we’re just gonna jump right in today, no use in waiting! I have a spooky little video for us to react to today, chat. Shit’s gonna go wild, and I’m really excited about this. I’ve heard great things about this video, lots of twists and turns, so let’s slime right in!”

The chat flooded with viewers, all excited to see Charlie streaming again. Charlie meant to look at chat, but when he looked, his vision went blurry and made it impossible for him to see what they were talking about.

Oh well, who needed chat anyway, right?

If he was able to read it, he would see they were all asking where he had been, why it had been so long since he had streamed or tweeted or posted anything to youtube or instagram.

Somewhere in his mind, he wondered why this, of all videos, was what he was reacting to.

“WHOA, chat, did you see that??? That was a CRAZY transition into this SICK blue! I can’t believe they managed to edit that!”

Was any of this genuine? It felt forced. Fake. Did he really want to do this? He felt like something bad would happen if he didn’t give it his all, but he had no problem giving the reactions everything he had.

In the distance, he heard someone shouting. Where was that coming from? He was alone, in his office. And it wasn’t like his plushies were yelling at him.

“Charlie!”

He couldn’t pull his eyes away from the screen. All he needed to do was react. Do it for the viewers.

“Charlie!”

A hand grabbed his shoulder tightly. But he couldn’t look away from the screen.

His headphones were ripped off his head, and as they pulled away, it felt like something slid out of his ears, pouring out from his brain. The fog that was clogging his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed cleared. And he took his eyes away from the screen.

His friend. He knew this person. They played Minecraft together.

“STOP. WATCHING!” Ranboo shouted, grabbing the camera from on top of the computer that looked like Charlie’s before throwing it. It hit a wall and broke with a crunch that sounded more sinister than it should have.

“Dude! What was that for!” Charlie shouted, standing from his desk and running over to the wounded camera, picking it up and cradling it in his arms.

“What do you mean?? Charlie, don’t you know what’s happening??” Ranboo’s voice stuck in their throat, like they had been running.

“Yeah?? You broke into my house and threw my camera across the room??” Charlie cried, holding the camera to his chest.

“No! Look around, do you even know where we are??”

Charlie paused. Something like deja vu washed over him, and he stood up. There wasn’t a fourth wall to this room. Behind the computer on the desk was a counter, an empty mall beyond it.

“Wait, what?” Charlie said under his breath, dropping the camera and walking over to Ranboo. “What’s- where-?”

“Don’t know, I’ve been trying to figure that out. We need to find and push a button, which will turn off the security, which will allow us to escape,” Ranboo explained.

“Button? Wait, back up,” Charlie squeaked out before flopping down hard on the floor. He let out a hard breath, setting his head between his knees.

“You good?” Ranboo asked.

“How are you so fucking chill about this??” Charlie burst out, looking up, his panic dull in his eyes. Muted, almost. Was he even feeling this emotion?

“I know what’s happening, I’ve been here the whole time,” Ranboo said calmly, sitting down next to Charlie.

“The whole time since what?? What the FUCK is happening, Ranboo?” Charlie demanded.

“I dunno, just the whole time. I don’t know where we are, but it’s like some sort of abandoned mall. I WAS being recorded for live television, and the audience can choose what we do. We need to avoid the people with the masks, except for that one,” Ranboo pointed at a person standing blankly just outside of the open wall, holding a large camera, “We need that one. That’s basically it, I think.”

“Why do we need that one?” The mask the person was wearing made Charlie uneasy, his breath squeezing in his chest. He wasn’t built for this, he wasn’t someone who dealt with scary situations very well.

“If the camera isn’t on it, Hetch can’t watch us and help us shut off whatever’s happening here,” Ranboo explained.

“And Hetch is… good?”

“I assume, I mean it’s not like I can afford to not trust him. I’ve seen people die too many times to choose who I accept help from.”

“I’m sorry, but what the fuck do you mean? People have been DYING??” He was going to have a mental breakdown any moment, he knew it.

Ranboo shrugged. “I’m sure they’re fine. Alright, let’s get going!”

“No!” Charlie gasped out, grabbing at Ranboo’s arm as they tried to stand. “Please, no. I can’t, I can’t go out there-”

“It’s not like it’s that much more dangerous than in here-”

“I don’t care !” Charlie squeaked. In here it was safe. In here was familiar. It looked and felt like home here. And he had no idea about what could happen if he left.

He could die, probably. Just like everyone else.

“Charlie, we have to. I can’t do this alone, why do you think I came and got you?”

“You got me so I could help you?? Not because I was stuck and needed help??”

“A bit of both.”

“Ranboo-” Charlie begged, his wide blue eyes welling up.

“You can do it,” Ranboo urged. “Be brave.”

“I’m not brave though!” Charlie whined. “I should be at home, away from any potential murderers!”

“Shouldn’t we all,” Ranboo muttered, pulling their arm carefully from Charlie’s weak grip. “But we need to move. They’ll find us if we don’t get out of here.”

“Don’t say shit like that,” Charlie whispered, but stood up with Ranboo. He may have not wanted to leave this area, but he thought it worse to be in this area alone, now knowing there were things hunting Ranboo and possibly him.

“Don’t whine the whole time, please,” Ranboo said, the corners of their eyes crinkling into a smile.

Charlie huffed, following Ranboo out of the food court stand that was made to look like his room. “I won’t, asshole.”

He silently trailed after Ranboo as they carefully made their way through the mall. He wondered why he had had such a strong reaction earlier, especially since it felt like it had come from an outside source. The emotion he had been feeling didn’t come from his own mind, he was pretty certain.

He thought about it until his head hurt, and then static filled his ears. It grew in volume until he could no longer hear his internal voice, but it wasn’t painful. It dulled everything, whispering directions into his mind.

Charlie let out a breath of air, relaxing into his body. He still felt anxious, but now it felt like he was on autopilot, like someone else was doing the work for him. Like someone else was anxious on his behalf.

“Whoa whoa whoa, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Charlie blinked and looked around. “Did you say something?”

Ranboo turned to look at him slightly. “No?”

Charlie hummed in confusion, but shrugged it off.

“Um- making sure he doesn’t break character?”

“What you’re DOING, is making him emotionless! We need those raw emotions for this episode! I don’t care if it seems like he’s breaking character, that’s what we need right now.”

“Uh- right sir, sorry…”

The static pulled away and Charlie took in an uncomfortable breath. He suddenly felt a lot more uneasy, uncomfortable in his own skin.

He kept quiet and followed Ranboo, though he felt like at any moment, something would appear from one of the dark corners of the mall and drag him away. He had no idea how Ranboo was managing to stay so calm about this situation, and he really wished he could be in the same boat.

“Ranboo…” Charlie whispered, trotting to catch up with his friend after falling behind a bit. He honestly didn’t have anything to say, he was just uncomfortable.

“What’s up?” Ranboo replied.

Charlie quickly thought up something to ask. “Uhm- what does… what does the button do?”

“It makes it so we can escape.”

“Well, I know, but-” Charlie felt as if this was the right question to ask. It seemed like something he needed to get to the bottom of. “But how does it DO it?”

“Um-” Ranboo hesitated, the only sound that of the two friends’ sneakers hitting the grimy tile floor. “I’d imagine it turns off the people with the masks and security.”

“Se…curity?” Charlie asked nervously.

“Yeah, security,” Ranboo said, obviously not paying full attention to what they were saying.

“What’s that?”

“What, security?” Ranboo sounded confused.

“No, I mean, I know what the premise of security is, but like… if the people in masks AREN’T the security system, then what is?”

“Oh, I don’t… really know…” Ranboo muttered thoughtfully.

Charlie clenched his fingers into fists, his nails digging into his palm. Since when have his nails been this long? He could have sworn they were shorter yesterday…

“Ranboo, is it just me, or do you feel like you’re losing your mind?” Charlie asked, hoping his impression of a smile looked real enough to fool Ranboo.

Ranboo didn’t answer.

“Ran?” Charlie walked a bit faster to keep up with Ranboo’s pace.

“Sorry, I was thinking…” They muttered. “Um… depends on what you mean?”

“Like…” Charlie thought of how to word it. “Like you keep forgetting things? And you feel like the things you’re feeling aren’t actually YOUR emotions?”

Ranboo nodded so slightly Charlie wasn’t even sure he had seen it.

“Do you ever wonder about if something else is going on? Like, there’s no way we were just… kidnapped, or anything, right?”

“I mean, yeah. We’re being filmed, remember?” Ranboo said, pausing in front of a doorway to look inside.

“Right, but like… why?”

“Um…” Ranboo froze. “I-”

“Stop them.” A voice rang through Charlie’s ears, echoing around inside of him.

“But the system is still struggling, sir. Messing with them might bring it down.” Said a second voice.

“Then… fucking shut down the stream! Ranboo already knows more than he thinks, we can’t let Charlie find out things too!” Screeched the first.

“What-” Charlie whispered. “Did you-”

Ranboo nodded, their eyes wide.

The lights flickered, Ranboo’s mask flickering with them. Then all the light cut out, the red that had been shining onto Ranboo’s face shut off, and everything was quiet.

“Ranb-” Charlie started, before a piercing, shrieking sound of something that was trying to mimic the sound of static shot into his head. It blinded him, covering his vision with black and gray dots, fizzling over everything. Ranboo stared in horror as Charlie’s cozy blue irises turned to static, before it started to melt into the whites of his eyes as well.

Charlie cried out and slapped his hands to his ears, trying to block out the sound, but it was coming from within his own head. “Fuck!” He screamed, tears welling in his static filled eyes. As they started to slip down his cheeks, Ranboo noticed that they were also filled with static that faded and sunk into his skin.

“Help!” Charlie cried. His legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor, curling into himself.

Ranboo snapped out of their trance and took a step towards Charlie, but of course he couldn’t see them. They said something urgently, though Charlie couldn’t hear it over the shrieking in his ears.

Something was bubbling up in his chest, pushing into his head. Charlie didn’t even bother to fight it, allowing it to take over his mind. The noise faded, and though the static in his eyes lingered, as strongly as ever, he could see again.

His legs uncurled from his chest and he stood up, methodically taking the time to brush off his shirt, despite there being nothing on it. Then he blinked and looked down, as if realizing he was wearing something he shouldn’t be.

“Ch- Charlie?” Ranboo stammered at a whisper, bracing himself in case something bad was about to happen.

He blinked again and looked up at Ranboo. “Boo, bitch…” he said hesitantly. “What the fuck is happening?”

“Charlie?” Ranboo asked again.

“Who’s Charlie?” The Slime Demon asked.

“Oh fuck,” Ranboo whispered.

“S- Something’s happening-” Slime said suddenly, pressing a hand to his ribcage.

The static in his eyes almost doubled, more tears streaking down his cheeks. The thing in Charlie’s head slid away, and he looked up at Ranboo with teary eyes. “Help, please-”

There was a sharp pain, coming from just under where his hands held on his torso. “Please-”

The pain ripped downwards, tearing him open from his ribs to just below his stomach. He was being torn open. He knew it. And yet… not a single drop of blood stained his shirt.

Charlie shrieked, crumpling to the floor again. “IT HURTS, MAKE IT STOP!!”

Ranboo stumbled backwards, unsure of how to help. They watched staticky tears pour down Charlie’s face, contorted in pain.

Then the pain stopped just as quickly as it had started. The lights came back on, and Ranboo’s face lit up with red from their mask.

Charlie hugged his knees to his chest, resting his forehead on the cool floor, his body shaking. It took a second for Charlie to realize that he was crying, his own sobbing hardly reaching his own ears that were still ringing.

“Charlie?” Ranboo kneeled down in front of him, sounding hesitant.

“You didn’t help me,” Charlie sobbed, unable to catch his breath. He could still feel the thin line down his torso, where it had felt like a knife had torn down, ripping him open.

“I’m- I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what to do-” Ranboo whispered guiltily.

Charlie hiccupped and sat up, using the bottom of his shirt to dry off his face. He gave a weak smile and resisted the urge to hug Ranboo. “It’s ok, me either. I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m losing my mind.”

He wondered if they would be able to escape before his mind was fully gone. Maybe it already was.

Chapter 9: Scars. (Mental and Otherwise)

Summary:

“If I was a mimic, why would I be telling you about the mimics?” Ranboo reasoned.
“I don’t know, I can barely understand anything anymore,” Charlie said harshly. “It wouldn’t be the craziest thing.”
“Charlie…” Ranboo hummed, stepping closer to Charlie and backing him into a wall. “You’re right though, you shouldn’t trust anyone~”

Chapter Text

Button pushed. Ranboo sprinted for the exit sign, the only sounds they could hear were their heart pounding in their ears, and their rapid, frantic breathing. But just before they got to the door, they heard another sound.

“RANBOO!”

They stopped so quickly their shoes squeaked on the tiled floor. “Charlie?” They managed to choke out through their struggling lungs.

“Ranboo! Don’t leave me here!”

Ranboo’s hands twitched into fists as they took a step towards the sound. Then they paused. They saw Charlie die, didn’t they? What if that wasn’t actually who they thought it was? What if that was some trick being played to keep them here?

“Ranboo, please! It hurts!”

No, it couldn’t be real. Charlie was dead.

Ranboo turned back to the door with the exit sign over it. “Sorry, Charlie…” they whispered, before walking towards the door.

“RANBOO, PLEASE! HELP ME!!” Charlie’s voice shrieked. “DON’T LEAVE ME, PLEASE!”

The door opened and shut behind Ranboo, the sound echoing through the large room.

Charlie choked on tears, gasping from the pain through his sore throat. He couldn’t believe Ranboo had just left him. He would be stuck here forever now, he was sure.

After a few hours, Charlie finally gave up trying to move himself out from under the wire monster. Everything hurt too much, and he could hardly even move his legs anyway, so it wasn’t like he would be able to go anywhere even if he did manage to free himself. So instead, he covered his eyes with his bloody hands and tried not to cry, while hoping someone would find him. Anybody, even if it was someone from Showfall. And all the while, he couldn’t stop thinking about how Ranboo had just left him. Even after Charlie had begged and screamed for help. The slamming of the door to the outside rang in his ears, over and over. The thing that hurt the most, other than getting nearly ripped to shreds by the wire monster, was that the door was so close . Access to the outside and freedom was so horrifyingly close that Charlie couldn’t believe that he was stuck here, unable to reach it.

A few hours passed, though it wasn’t like Charlie could tell, seeing as he had passed out from the pain and had been out for quite a while. The lights blinked back on and the wire monster’s screen flickered back to life. It pulled its claws out of Charlie’s stomach and side and stood, picking up the human in the process. It lumbered out of the room with him in its arms, dragging a trail of blood with it from the pool that had gathered under Charlie.

Charlie opened his eyes with a grimace, expecting horrific pain to consume him the second he did, though he wasn’t sure why. Where was he again?

The only pain he got upon fully opening his eyes came from the bright light, searing into his retinas. He squinted and tried to sit up, but his arms were stuck down.

“Hello?” He called weakly, letting his head rest back onto the pillow under him.

“Oh, there you are! We thought you were definitely dead, good to see you making a comeback!” A cheerful voice said from just out of Charlie’s line of sight.

“Where am I? What’s happening?” Charlie squeaked out, unsure why his vocal cords felt like they hadn’t been used in a while.

“Well, you’ve been out for a few weeks, gave us a good while to make sure you were all healed up!”

“Mmmph…” Charlie muttered, struggling to pull his arms up. “Am I tied down? Who are you?”

“Oh yes, sorry! You kept trying to move in your sleep, we didn’t want you to hurt yourself!” The voice explained. “I’m Hetch.”

Someone stepped into Charlie’s line of sight and began to undo the restraints keeping him in the bed. As they were working, Charlie took a moment to examine them. They seemed to be taller than him, wearing a black hoodie with red trimming, and a matching mask that covered their mouth and nose.

“Now, I have some questions for you, but we can leave those until a little bit later, so you can have some time to properly wake up and get your bearings.”

“Why was I asleep? Where am I?” Charlie asked, repeating a former question.

“Ah, that leads me to my first request!” Hetch said happily, moving around the bed to undo the straps on Charlie’s other wrist. “I need you to remember as much as you can from before you passed out. Do you think you can do that?”

“Ngh…” Charlie breathed, flexing his fingers. “Um-”

“Great! See you soon!” Hetch finished taking the restraints off and left the room before Charlie could ask another question.

“Fuck…” Charlie groaned as he pushed himself up, cringing at the soreness in his torso, that definitely didn’t come from just being immobile for weeks.

He lifted up the thin shirt he was wearing, though he wasn’t expecting to see much.

Thick lines of scar tissue ran down his torso from his sternum to just below his belly button, a few rounder scars puncturing his sides as well.

“No, nono-” Charlie breathed out, dropping his shirt in lieu of pressing his hands to his mouth as he struggled to keep the contents of his very empty stomach inside of himself.

After a moment, he pushed the blankets back, hoping his legs were unscathed, and that he was just imagining what had happened to his stomach, but thick scars ran sideways across his thighs that were paler than usual, perhaps from the loss of blood.

Charlie swallowed hard and squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to block out the sight of the scars that tore up his body, but all he saw was a monster with a TV for a head, looming over him as it dug into him with its claws.

His scars started to ache with ghost pains, fueling the memory. His eyes felt like they were glued shut, tears starting to leak out from under his eyelashes as he gasped and clutched his arms to his chest before gasping in pain again and pulling away.

“No, please…” he whispered, begging himself to forget again.

Charlie’s eyes shot open and he lunged out of bed so quickly he fell to the floor. He frantically scanned the room before seeing a trash can, and he crawled towards it quickly. Grabbing it, he sat up, holding it tightly to himself as a reassurance, in case his violently churning stomach decided to turn into something more.

“Ohhh, fuck,” he moaned in distraught. “Ranboo…”

The closing door of Ranboo leaving him echoed in his ears, his stomach lurched and Charlie gagged into the trash can. But of course, there was nothing in his stomach for him to throw up.

The door clicked open and Charlie looked up, almost expecting to see Ranboo, here to save him, but it was Hetch.

“Oh, everything alright down there?” Hetch asked, though the way his voice twisted made his words sound ingenuine.

Charlie swallowed hard and set the trash can down, putting a hand against the wall to help himself stand on wobbly legs. “Uh- f- fine…” he muttered, suddenly against trusting Hetch.

“Well!” Hetch clapped his hands together. “Are you ready?”

“F- for what?” Charlie stammered, his legs nearly giving out underneath him.

“To answer my questions! First we can get you into some real clothes though.”

Charlie nodded hesitantly and Hetch moved towards him with his hands behind his back. When he reached Charlie, he moved his hands out from behind him and held out some folded clothes that seemingly materialized out of nowhere. Looking at the clothes, Charlie realized that he was able to see, that everything wasn’t blurry like it usually was when he just woke up. He gently moved his hand to his face, his fingers carefully brushing against his nose before finding the bridge of his glasses.

“What…?” He muttered, moving to take them off, but Hetch shoved the clothes into his arms instead and Charlie had to move his hands away from his glasses so he wouldn’t drop the clothes.

“Be fast, we don’t have all day.” And with that, he was gone, the door clicking shut behind him.

After finding his sneakers at the foot of the bed and carefully getting dressed in a green t-shirt and jeans, being cautious to not fall, Charlie unsteadily walked over to the door and opened it.

“Hetch?” He called, leaning most of his weight into the doorway.

Two people wearing white masks with a black design on it walked down the hall to him. Something about their masks looked familiar, though Charlie couldn’t quite put his finger on it yet.

They stopped in front of him and each took one of his arms, supporting him before pulling him down the hall.

“Where are we going?” Charlie asked nervously, his voice shaking suddenly.

They didn’t answer, instead silently leading Charlie down the hall towards a door that looked to be made of thick, dark wood. Definitely not something that would belong in a hospital.

Charlie blinked and suddenly he was sitting in a chair, the wooden door in front of him in the poorly lit room.

“Charlie! So good to see you doing so well already!” Hetch’s voice said, before he walked into the dim light. “As I mentioned before, we have a few questions for you!” His voice was dripping with honey soaked venom and Charlie felt it stinging his skin.

“Like- like what?” He stammered, finding himself nervously digging his nails into his wrist, stabbing little half-moons into his skin.

“Let’s start easily, shall we? Why, do you figure, did Ranboo leave you?”

Charlie’s breath caught in his throat, his cheeks flushing red in confusion. “What?” He whispered.

Hetch sighed and stepped closer to Charlie, towering over him. Tempted to stand, Charlie found he couldn’t move. But from fear or something else, he didn’t know.

“Why did Ranboo leave you?” Hetch asked pointedly, his voice hissing in his throat.

“Wuh- I-” Charlie stammered, shrinking under Hetch’s eyes.

“Alright, fine! If you’re going to be like that, I’ll answer it for you!” Hetch said, a manic twinge hanging onto his words. “He couldn’t care less about you, Charlie! He knew you were still alive, and couldn’t give a single shit to go and help you, because all he wanted was to be free.”

Charlie was frozen, his throat unable to pull air into his lungs. “T- that’s not true-” He squeaked breathlessly.

“Maybe it’s not. Who’s to say? Maybe he left to get help, but then why hasn’t anyone come to help you except me? Maybe Ranboo will be back, but I guarantee it won’t be for you, because the only person who cares enough about you to help you is me, Charlie,” Hetch explained calmly, kneeling down in front of Charlie.

“That’s not true,” Charlie repeated, a broken record of disbelief. “Ranboo wouldn’t- they wouldn’t- they’ll- they’ll be back for me! M- maybe they couldn’t remember where the mall is!”

Hetch shrugged. “I just wanted to give you a reason, so you wouldn’t start to panic over why Ranboo hasn’t come for you yet. I just wanted to warn you.” He stood up and started pacing back and forth, as if lost in thought.

“No,” Charlie said firmly, shaking his head. “Ranboo’s not like that. They helped me before, they’ll help me again. And if you’re ‘the only one that cares enough to help me’, then why are we still in the mall?”

“How ever would you assume that we’re still in the mall, pray tell?”

“The guys with the masks over there. They’re controlled by Showfall, right? If we weren’t in the mall, they’d have free will. And no hospital is this empty.” Charlie glared suspiciously up at Hetch.

“Actually, those ‘ guys with the masks’ are controlled by me, but good reasoning. You’re a smart one, aren’t you!” Hetch gave Charlie a little pat on the head, his eyes crinkling in a smile.

Charlie cringed but stood his ground as much as one stuck in a chair could stand. “So? Why are we still here?”

Hetch sighed forlornly. “So far, Ranboo’s been the only one to escape the mall in one piece. I tried, many years ago, but whatever Showfall did to me made it impossible for me to even walk within twenty feet of that door without something violent happening to me.

“Then how did Ranboo do it?”

“Ranboo is… different. Doesn’t matter anyway, does it? Ranboo left you here to die, why do you care?”

“Ranboo wouldn’t leave me here to die,” Charlie muttered under his breath.

“Well, if you see Ranboo, you can ask him, hm?” Hetch gave Charlie another pat before walking towards the door. “Feel free to explore the space, by the way, there isn’t anything dangerous in this section of the mall. Just don’t go too far, Security hasn’t been able to shut down since its wiring went on the fritz. I suspect it soaked in blood for too long.”

The heavy door slammed shut behind Hetch and the two wearing masks, leaving Charlie alone in the poorly lit room.

“Ranboo wouldn’t leave me to die, would they?” He whispered to the darkness, his breath still clenched tightly to his chest.

“Charlie!”

Charlie blinked his eyes open, letting them adjust to the darkness of the room. He could see the silhouettes of the “average bedroom furniture” that furnished the room Hetch had assigned him to, seeing as this was one of the only rooms the wire monster didn’t visit.

“Hello?” He whispered, sitting up cautiously.

“Oh good, you’re awake!” The voice whispered. “Listen, we gotta get outta here.”

“Where are you?” Charlie asked quietly, too nervous about the possibility of Security showing up to turn on a light.

“Right next to you, see?” A shadow that Charlie hadn’t looked at moved slightly, a hand moving to gently brush his.

Charlie winced and pulled his hand back quickly. “Who the fuck-”

“Okay, I’m sorry that I left you, that was dumb. But I’m back now, and we need to LEAVE,” said the voice firmly.

“Ranboo?” Charlie asked quietly, his eyes opening wider.

“Yeah. Charlie, please. We need to go!”

“Ok, yeah!” Charlie whispered excitedly, pushing himself out of bed. In the dark, his hand found Ranboo’s and he squeezed it to reassure himself that Ranboo was in fact real. “How’d you find me?”

“Followed one of the crew members,” Ranboo answered.

“Why’d you leave me?” Charlie asked.

“I’m sorry, I thought you had died…”

“How did you find out that I wasn’t dead?”

“I’m connected to you somehow, it’s like I can hear your voice in my head sometimes. You were dead silent for weeks but suddenly I heard you saying things and I knew you probably needed help.”

Charlie sighed in relief and started for the door, about to reach for it when Ranboo pulled him back. “Hold on, we need to be careful about this. Who knows what could be out there??”

“Oh, it’s safe in this area, that’s why I’m here,” Charlie explained.

“How do you know?”

“Hetch told me. He’s been helping me!”

“You’re… accepting help from that monster?” Ranboo hissed, their fingers tightening around Charlie’s hand.

“Wh- uh- he’s been very helpful, if it weren’t for him, I would be dead,” Charlie said nervously.

“He’s the reason we’re in this whole fucking mess!” Ranboo nearly shouted, their grip tightening even more. “Are you working with him? Are you in on this?? Did you lure me back here to trap me again??”

“What? No, no!” Charlie squeaked, trying to pull his hand out of Ranboo’s. “I didn’t know he was bad, I swear!”

“You’re lying,” Ranboo growled. “I can’t believe I came to fucking save you. You’re just as bad as anybody else who works for this company.”

“Ranboo, no!” Charlie kept struggling to pull his hand away, getting overwhelmed painfully fast. “I thought he was trying to help me!”

Before Charlie knew what was happening, Ranboo slammed him into the wall, knocking the breath out of him.

“Ranboo?” Charlie gasped, his hands finding Ranboo’s arm that was keeping him pressed into the wall.

“This is your fault…” Ranboo growled, lowering their face until they were inches from Charlie’s. “You did this.”

“D- did what?” Charlie pushed at Ranboo’s arm, but they outweighed him in both height and strength. “I’m a character in all this t- too! I got killed at least three times, and that shit fucking hurts!”

“Good acting then. I can’t believe I thought you were my friend.” Ranboo’s voice was dripping with rage, almost cutting into Charlie with their words alone.

“I- I am!” Charlie stammered.

Ranboo moved their arm up so their forearm moved from Charlie’s chest to his throat, pressing down hard enough for Charlie to see stars.

Charlie gasped frantically, clawing at Ranboo’s arm. He started to shake, his legs wobbling under him until he collapsed, narrowly missing hitting his head on the tile floor.

His breath came in short gasps, ripping up his sore throat as he choked and gagged. He curled up into a small ball on the floor, his body shaking with silent sobs.

“I hope I never have to see you again,” Ranboo hissed, kneeling down next to Charlie. Charlie didn’t answer, instead closing his eyes tightly, though that didn’t stop his tears from pouring out from under his eyelashes.

Ranboo stood, and hesitated for a moment before kicking Charlie in the chest, stealing the small amount of air Charlie had managed to suck into his lungs and causing his scars to light up in pain.

Charlie let out a short scream, his voice breaking from his broken throat.

And for the second time in Charlie’s recent memory, Ranboo left with the sound of a closing door, leaving Charlie sobbing on the floor.

Charlie didn’t leave his room for days, staying curled up in bed despite how hungry he felt. He didn’t want to leave if there was a chance that Ranboo was outside, waiting for him to leave just to attack him again. Or maybe it was that he didn’t want to admit to Hetch that he had been right. That Ranboo really didn’t care about him, that they were so quick to turn on him at the notion of a thought.

His chest had started bruising where Ranboo had kicked him, his scars even redder than the rest of his skin, a sharp reminder of the pain he had been in. The pain Ranboo didn’t believe in.

Charlie choked down another sob, burying his head under his pillow again. Another thing Hetch had ended up being right about, he was the only person who cared about Charlie now.

Probably. Charlie was still on the fence about Hetch, which he probably should have said to Ranboo. While he had no other option than to accept Hetch as essentially his savior, that still gave him no reason to trust Hetch. Especially after what Ranboo had said about him. If Charlie were to believe Ranboo, he would have to believe that Hetch was some sort of monster that was behind all of Showfall, and while he wasn’t about to rule that out as a possibility, he didn’t want to go around exclusively thinking that, in case it wasn’t true. If Ranboo was so quick to think Charlie the enemy, should he even trust their word anyway, no matter how passionate they were about it?

No matter, he supposed it didn’t wasn’t important. He would figure it out as he went along, and at this point, that path was probably about to take him to get some food.

Charlie pushed himself out of bed, gasping and cringing when moving caused his torso to move a bit too much for comfort, but he managed to get up without any further problems.

There was a small closet set into the wall across from the bed, and Charlie walked up to it, opening it with the hope that there was something warm for him to wear inside it but didn’t expect much. So when he realized that the closet was stoked with an abundance of hoodies, he was nearly overjoyed. It was so full of different types of clothing it could be the costume department of a movie set, though Charlie tried not to linger on that thought for too long. Charlie settled on a plain purple hoodie, pulling it over his head as he walked towards the door.

His breath shuddered in his chest the second his hand touched the doorknob, and all he could think about was something dangerous being behind that door, but he pushed it aside and opened the door.

As suspected, the blank hallway beyond the door frame was just that, blank. And empty, void of any other form of life that wasn’t Charlie.

He set off, heading left, hoping he would stumble into someone eventually, and he was right.

“Holy shit, there you are!” A voice shouted from behind Charlie, its familiar tone freezing him in place.

He tried to control his breathing, his hands starting to sweat as he tightened them into fists.

“Charlie, you ok?” Ranboo ran up behind Charlie, setting his hand on Charlie’s shoulder.

“No thanks to you,” Charlie said, going for firm and cold but landing on shaky and terrified.

“What do you mean?” Ranboo asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Don’t even try,” Charlie whispered, turning around so Ranboo’s hand fell off of his shoulder.

“Oh, Charlie…” Ranboo’s eyes bled through with sympathy. “What’s happened to you? Your neck-”

“D- don’t talk about that!” Charlie hissed, anxiously pulling up his hoodie to cover his bruised neck.

Ranboo blinked then held up their hands. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I’ve just been worried about you, I couldn’t find you anywhere…”

“You just saw me a few days ago, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Charlie huffed, pulling his hoodie up again.

Ranboo blinked before taking in a sharp breath. “Charlie, that wasn’t me…”

“Oh sure, then who was it? Because it sure sounded and looked like you!”

“You haven’t noticed? Showfall has been working on mimication, they can make anything look or sound like anyone,” Ranboo said carefully.

“That’s fucking stupid. Why would they be doing that? But then, I guess why would you be acting like you like me again after what you did?” Charlie muttered to himself, trying to work out Ranboo’s plan that they were definitely concocting.

“I’m trying to warn you, Charlie,” Ranboo said firmly.

“How do I know you’re not one of those mimics?” Charlie asked, his eyes widening.

“If I was a mimic, why would I be telling you about the mimics?” Ranboo reasoned.

“I don’t know, I can barely understand anything anymore,” Charlie said harshly. “It wouldn’t be the craziest thing.”

“Charlie…” Ranboo hummed, stepping closer to Charlie and backing him into a wall. “You’re right though, you shouldn’t trust anyone~”

“Ranboo?” Charlie said breathlessly, pressing himself against the wall.

“Do you think the real Ranboo would be more or less convincing than me? Genuine question, by the way. Maybe I got his vibe wrong, I bet you could tell from the vibe, right?” Ranboo asked, their head tilting unnaturally to the side.

“You’re n- not-” Charlie stammered as Ranboo grew taller, now multiple feet taller than Charlie.

“No, I’m not. I almost had you though, didn’t I?” Ranboo laughed, their head twitching to the side in a violent jerk. “You can’t trust anybody, you’ll never know what they want with you until it’s too late…” they hissed. They reached up and ripped their mask off, their jaw cracking as they did so, blood splattering Charlie’s face.

The mask hit the floor with a clang, and Ranboo lowered themself down close to Charlie’s face, blood mixed with drool pouring down the sides of their mouth, red lips hiding pointed teeth. “Charlieeee…” it hissed, its hot breath hitting Charlie’s neck. “ Security didn’t finish you off, so now I get to~ ”

Charlie could hardly breathe, paralyzed in fear despite every bit of his body screaming to run. Why couldn’t he move?

His legs gave out and he slid to the floor, tears streaming down his cheeks. “What do you want from me?” His voice broke, multiple octaves higher than normal.

“I don’t like it when people escape me, Charlieee…” Was all it said.

It bent down and picked Charlie up effortlessly, its long limbs wrapping around Charlie’s already sore torso like taffy, over and over again, so that no matter how hard Charlie struggled, he would never get free.

“Let me go!” Charlie screamed, twisting around in an attempt to get free, kicking his legs out at the monster that still looked like Ranboo.

“You can’t escape, Charlieeee… Not me, not this placeee… You’re here forever, why not give up nowwww?”

“Fuck you!!” Charlie cried. The monster was holding him so tightly he could feel his hands and legs starting to lose blood, his ribs crushing together so closely that Charlie was expecting to hear them start to crack at any moment. His lungs struggled to pull air into his body, causing him to gasp for air through his tears.

“Charlie? Is everything ok?” Hetch’s voice called.

Charlie tried to call for help, but Ranboo’s arm stretched even further, moving up to wrap around his throat so tightly that no sounds could come out. “No, don’t do thatttt… We can’t have thatttt…”

With his arms trapped at his sides, there was no chance that Charlie would be able to claw away Ranboo before he passed out, already his vision was being taken over by a vignette, black closing in around him.

At the last possible second, everything slid away from him, and before Charlie had even a second to take in a deep, gasping breath, Ranboo threw him.

His back slammed into the wall, a cracking sound echoing through the hallway, but Charlie had no idea as to what that possibly could have been. He choked, taking in so much air at once that he wasn’t sure what to do with it. Then came the pain, ripping through him. In his ribs. He had been expecting them to crack, but not in that way.

Charlie screamed, so harshly that his voice died immediately, resulting in squeaky, airy sounding screaming that bled into sobbing.

“It would have been nice if Security had just taken you out like it was supposed to… If you had died when you were supposed to then we wouldn’t be in this mess, Charlie,” Ranboo’s voice said, digging into Charlie’s ears and melting into his brain, despite the pain he was in.

“H- help me-” Charlie whispered, his voice barely audible, especially over the sound of Ranboo’s voice laughing, the sound echoing from the monster’s sharp mouth.

Maybe Hetch would hear the monster and come help Charlie. Maybe he would be saved before the monster finished him off.

The monster dropped down onto all fours, its arms and legs bending unnaturally, its joints popping and cracking out of place. Its head jerked to the right again, and for a moment, its hair moved out of the way, revealing its eyes. Warm and friendly, crinkling at the edges like Ranboo’s always did when they smiled. Then they were covered by its hair again and it took a step towards Charlie, its elbow stabbing outward as it did so.

“S- stop, Ranboo-” Charlie gasped, blood starting to pool under his chest where his rib had stabbed through his skin. “D- don’t-”

“Charlie,” the monster said warmly, its head tilting even further right, its eyes still covered. “I’m not your friend. I never have been. I’m not Ranboo.”

Charlie hiccupped, tears streaming down his face, blurring his vision and splattering against his glasses. He painfully moved his arms and tried to pull himself forward, away from the monster, but his bloody fingers slipped on the tiled floor, painting red streaks across the white tile.

A shadow crossed over his vision and Charlie looked up, his stomach sinking. The monster loomed over him, its face lowering to his, so its bleeding, drooling mouth hung just inches over Charlie’s face.

Charlie screamed, the sound quiet and broken in his ruined throat. The monster hissed in return, bloody teeth grinning. Its mouth opened, wider and wider as its jaw started to break with a series of sick cracks. Wide enough to swallow Charlie. He stared into the endless black of its throat before squeezing his eyes shut against the hot breath that steamed up his glasses.

Then it was gone. Charlie opened his eyes, his eyelashes almost glued together by dried tears. Where was he? Had it been a dream?

The monster had disappeared, leaving behind nothing. Charlie sighed to himself in relief through his nose once he realized it had all been in his head and started to get up.

He cried out in pain weakly, falling back down immediately when his broken ribs ground together and pushed further out of his skin, causing more blood to stain his already blood-soaked hoodie.

“F- fuck-” He whimpered, setting his head down on the cool floor. “Not a dream…”

Charlie clenched his teeth together, setting his hands on the floor and starting to pull himself forward. His soaked hoodie made a faint squeaking sound against the tile, but his hands had dried and were no longer slipping on the floor. He tried to keep his chest off the ground as much as possible, but every once in a while he would lose his balance and fall forward, landing on his broken ribs. The third time he did this, he had to physically press his hands against his mouth to keep himself from vomiting.

Blood streaked behind him, his hoodie a paintbrush covered in red. Charlie was beginning to think about resigning and just laying in the middle of the hall, but at that moment, he heard sounds of someone walking.

“H- help! Please!” Charlie screamed as loud as he could, which was just above a whisper.

The walking continued, though it drew closer with every step.

“Help!” Charlie screamed again. He was starting to taste blood in his mouth.

“Charlie? Is that you?” Hetch’s voice called back, his voice ringing loudly down the hallway.

“Hetch!” Charlie cried, pulling his legs under himself in a last effort to be noticed. He stood up, choking on his cries of pain. He fell against the wall, leaning most of his weight against it. His vision went blurry, fading black at the edges from the blood loss and standing so suddenly, and Charlie clutched desperately to the wall, fighting against the darkness in his vision.

Hetch rounded the corner and came to an abrupt stop when he saw Charlie. “Holy shit.”

Charlie’s eyes opened again, but this time they opened to see the ceiling of the room he was staying in. He stared blankly at the ceiling, trying to remember where he had just been and why he was surprised to be back in his room.

Then the memory hit him like a truck.

Charlie gingerly pushed the blankets off of himself and pulled up his shirt, his stomach twisting when he noticed the new scar that sat on his chest, sharp and jagged from the bone stabbing through his skin. He ghosted his fingers over the new scar, letting out an exhausted breath when he realized it no longer hurt.

As he checked himself, he played through the memory in his mind, replaying it over and over and over and-

What had Monster Ranboo said about mimics? Were there going to be more?

At this point, Charlie was starting to fully expect to never see the true Ranboo ever again, despite only encountering two false-Ranboos. He swore, the next Ranboo he saw, he wouldn’t trust.

He was right. The next Ranboo Charlie encountered tried to kill him, and the one after that, and the one after that, until there were so many fake, murderous Ranboos that Charlie could hardly remember what the real Ranboo had been like in the first place. His memories were starting to bleed together, all of the Ranboos merging into one. The longer this went on, the more his original memories of Ranboo changed. No longer could he remember trying to survive with Ranboo, trying to escape with his best friend, his brother. In his mind, he was alone, with only the memory of Sneeg keeping him afloat. In his mind, he wasn’t running away from Security or the Employees, in his mind, Charlie was running from Ranboo. They had hunted him, leading him to Security where they left him to die.

And at this point, the only part of Charlie’s body that was left relatively un-scarred was his face, though even there there were a few smaller scars, on the corners of his eyes, across his lip, a few nicks on his cheeks and ears.

And in his mind, the only person who could keep him safe was Hetch. Hetch always helped him, kept him safe when he could, was always the first one to check on Charlie. He was even working on getting the mimic Ranboos destroyed. Or at least, that’s what he told Charlie, but Charlie had no reason to not trust Hetch. Hetch was safe, Hetch cared about him, and Hetch would never hurt him the way Ranboo did.

Charlie had realized that when he was near Hetch, nothing ever came to hurt him. So eventually, he started being around Hetch at every moment he could be. Often so close that Hetch would trip over Charlie, but he never seemed to mind.

So of course, the only time Charlie was away from Hetch for longer than a minute, a Ranboo found him.

“H- H- Hetch?” Charlie called, his stomach clenching as he realized he had no idea where the only person keeping him safe was.

His stomach dropped even further when he heard his name being called. “Charlie?? Where are you?”

“N- N- No, nono-” Charlie whispered, his scarred legs giving out under him. “P- Please, no-”

“Charlie!” The voice hissed urgently. “Where are you? Fuck… I thought I just heard him!” The voice, clearly Ranboo’s, sounded distraught, frantic. But that wasn’t anything new. Charlie was more than used to the mimics sounding that panicked and upset as they searched for him.

Charlie’s past scars started to burn as he tried to catch his breath, his lungs squeezing so tightly that he was almost hyperventilating.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck-” Ranboo’s voice shook. “Please, can you hear me?”

Charlie shook his head and hid his face against his legs that he had pulled up to his chest.

Footsteps approached quickly, and Charlie knew that they had rounded the corner now. Any moment the pain would come, it was just a matter of time.

“Charlie! Oh- oh my god-” Ranboo’s voice broke, it sounded like they had started crying. “I can’t believe I found you-”

Charlie shook his head again, his body starting to shake. He had gotten better at keeping his tears down, but he was still unable to keep his whole body from shaking.

“A- are you ok? No, that’s kind of a dumb question…” Ranboo muttered, their footsteps getting even closer.

Charlie’s breath stopped short in his chest as he waited for the Ranboo to do something to him, to kick him against the wall or try to eat him or rip its claws into him until he gushed blood, but nothing was happening.

“Charlie, please-”

“W- w- whatever you’re doing, please, stop… J- j- just do it, please! I c- c- can’t…” Charlie whimpered, feeling more panicked than before. Something about the Ranboo waiting so long, drawing it out like this, was worse than it just attacking him. Maybe the mimics were trying a new tactic, they hadn’t drawn it out into what could be considered as a full conversation since the first few attacks.

“What do you mean? Do what?” Ranboo asked.

Charlie pulled his head away from his legs and looked up at the Ranboo, their eyes connecting with his. Warm and friendly. The eyes of every monster that had attacked him. A familiar blue, crinkling at the corners as he was ripped apart.

Charlie pressed a hand to his mouth, trying to keep himself from being sick and pushed himself back with his legs, shaking his head at the same time.

“Charlie?” Ranboo’s voice broke, and in that moment, Charlie realized that the Ranboo in front of him was wearing a different mask from all the others. This one was wearing a plain black fabric mask, instead of the glowing metal mask.

“G- G- Getting smarter, changing-” Charlie whispered out loud, behind his hand.

“Charlie, what are you talking about? What happened?” The Ranboo asked.

“You- I- please, why aren’t y- y- you doing anything?” Charlie asked weakly, pulling his hand away from his mouth.

“What should I be doing?? I came to save you, Charlie! We need to GO,” The Ranboo said, then gave one quick nod, looking at something in the hallway behind Charlie.

“Security-” Charlie gasped, finally working out what the Ranboo had been planning this whole time. THEY weren’t going to hurt him, Security was. Or some other Ranboo, but Charlie had never seen more than one.

He didn’t look back, too terrified about what he would see, instead standing quickly, trying to work out how he would get past the Ranboo without getting himself mauled.

And just before he was about to make a dash for it, something grabbed him from behind. A cloth was pressed over his mouth, and he didn’t even have a chance to fight back before he was out.

“Wake up,” a voice whispered.

Charlie’s eyes snapped open, but he didn’t sit up immediately. This was one trick he was familiar with. When he sat up, claws would plunge into his chest.

“R- R- Ranboo?” Charlie asked weakly, trying his best to keep his panic in check but failing.

“No, not Ranboo,” the voice said, and now that Charlie thought about it, the voice really didn’t sound like Ranboo’s.

“S- Sneeg?” He squeaked out.

“Yeah, hey,” Sneeg said.

Charlie decided to risk it and sat up, though he brought his knees up at the same time so there wasn’t even a chance for him to be stabbed into.

“Sneeg??” He said again, in disbelief, as he carefully examined his friend. No, something about this was too good to be true.

“By the way, sorry I had to knock you out like that, that was Plan B, in case you didn’t want to come with us for some reason,” Sneeg said guiltily, sitting on a chair next to the bed.

“That was y- y- you??” Charlie asked. Definitely too good to be true. Sneeg was using “us”, which meant he was working with someone, and likely that someone was Ranboo.

“Look, man, I didn’t want to but something seems wrong with you, to be honest…”

“No! N- N- Nothing’s wrong with me!” Charlie pulled his sleeves down, a habit he had picked up caused by being insecure about the scars that riddled his body.

“You didn’t want to come with us, man! After being trapped in there for so long, we were worried you would start to feel like you belonged there or something, so we planned accordingly, and honestly, it seems like we were right,” Sneeg explained.

“P- please tell me that the other person apart of that ‘we’ isn’t R- Ran-” Charlie stammered, suddenly finding himself unable to say their name without feeling sick.

“Ranboo? Who else would it be?” Sneeg asked.

“A- a- are they h- h- here?” Charlie stammered again.

“Yeah, they’re right in the other room. What’s with the stammer?”

“T- the w- wh- what?” Charlie asked, looking around quickly, scanning the room to make sure Ranboo wasn’t in there with him.

He realized he was in some sort of cabin, the walls made of wood planks. He seemed to be in the bedroom, sitting in the over-sized bed.

“The stammer. Every couple of words, you stutter. You ok?”

“I h- h- hadn’t noticed, I g- g- guess…” Charlie muttered.

“When did that start, do you think?”

Charlie shrugged, opting to ignore the question. “S- S- Sneeg, I thought that you d- died, what h- happened?”

“I mean, you died too,” Sneeg said calmly.

Charlie sighed and nodded slowly before looking around one more time, then leaned forward and grabbed onto Sneeg’s arms. “S- Sneeg, y- y- you n- n- need to get m- me out of h- here, p- please-” He stammered frantically, keeping his voice at a whisper.

“But we’re already out of the mall?” Sneeg said, his tone indicating it was more of a question than a statement, asking what Charlie wanted.

“N- No, I kn- know, I j- just-” Charlie cut himself off with a low growl, angry that he was unable to speak normally. He honestly hadn’t noticed before this moment, but he hadn’t been doing a lot of speaking, so he supposed it made sense. “S- sorry, I’m t- trying to-” He whined and covered his eyes with his hands.

“Hey, it’s ok dude, I get it. A lot of things happened in there, and after Ranboo escaped you seemed to get the brunt of it. You’re ok.”

Charlie took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “R- Ran- I c- can’t- they’re-” He was unsure how to explain his situation to Sneeg, suddenly afraid that his friend would choose Ranboo’s side, and he wasn’t around Hetch in case something went wrong.

“Here, hold on. Do you want to write it down?” Sneeg asked patiently.

Charlie nodded quickly, taking an exhausted breath.

“I’ll be right back, don’t move,” Sneeg said firmly, pointing at Charlie as he stood.

Charlie nodded again, confirming that he would stay, watching as Sneeg backed out of the room.

A moment passed, then the door opened again, and Sneeg walked back in, handing Charlie a pencil and a pad of paper before taking a seat. “I was worried there wouldn’t be anything but I got lucky” he commented.

Charlie smiled briefly then looked down at the clean piece of paper, tapping the pencil against the surface.

“Right, so what were you saying about Ranboo?” Sneeg asked gently.

Charlie thought for another moment before starting to scribble on the paper, the quick movements causing a scratching sound to come from the paper.

Under his pencil appeared words, his handwriting shaky and panicked.

That can’t be the real Ranboo, Ranboo wasn’t ever going to come back for me. I don’t know if you’re the real Sneeg or not, but if you are, we have to get as far away from that Ranboo as possible .

“What do you mean? Of course that’s the real Ranboo, who else would it be?” Sneeg asked, his eyebrows furrowing together in concern.

Charlie huffed out a breath of air. “W- W- Where were you, a- after R- Ran- a- after they l- l- left?”

“Oh, uh- I was still there, I was just hiding out I guess. I’m not really sure, I can’t remember much from the time I died and from when Ranboo found me.”

Charlie thought about this. If Sneeg couldn’t remember much, then the chances of him knowing about the mimics were low. Charlie wrote this down, then held the paper up for him to see.

“Mimics?”

Just as he had thought. Sneeg wasn’t in on the loop, and now they both were going to get killed.

They look and sound just like Ranboo, but they’re not them. They hurt me. That’s why you can’t trust that Ranboo, they’re not real.

Sneeg blinked a few times as he read the paper, his eyes scanning back and forth as he read it over and over. “But if that’s not Ranboo, why would he save us?”

They pretend to act like him, to get you to trust it, and then it tries to kill you. I don’t know why, all I know is that Ranboo abandoned us, and isn’t going to come back, and any Ranboo I’ve seen since them leaving is fake.

Sneeg sighed, rubbing his eyes with his palms. “Hm. Personally I think that’s the real Ranboo, but how about we give it a day or two and if I’m still alive, you talk to them?”

Charlie held back a shudder, but nodded once. If Sneeg was going to give him the benefit of doubt, the least he could do is return the favor.

“You can keep the paper, by the way. Are you hungry or anything?” Sneeg asked, already with one hand on the doorway. Charlie hadn’t noticed him getting up.

Charlie shook his head, his grip on the paper tightening, his fingertips creating little sweat marks on the white surface.

“Ok, let me know if you need something,” Sneeg said, shutting the door behind himself.

Personally, Charlie had never really felt so alone. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt more isolated than usual, which was saying something, because he had gotten more than used to being alone. But maybe it was just because he was now worried about Sneeg.

He sighed, starting a little sketch on the paper, on the bottom of the paper he wrote “ not real ”.

A boring, lonely day and a half passed, and somehow, both Sneeg and Charlie were still alive, much to Charlie’s surprise.

There was a quiet knock at the door, and Charlie stiffened, bringing his knees to his chest. He’d rather his legs get injured than his chest.

The door opened slowly, and Ranboo peeked inside.

“Charlie? Can I come in?”

Charlie shrugged, already feeling his breath start to shallow. Ranboo came in and sat on the edge of the bed, playing with the strap on their mask like they were thinking about taking it off.

“I missed you,” they whispered after a while. “I’m… I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner…”

Charlie shrugged again, pressing himself into the wall behind him.

“I didn’t know what had happened to you, I thought you were dead… But then they started airing what was happening to you, people thought it was fake, obviously it was censored, but I-” their voice shook, their eyes shining sadly. “I’m so sorry… it’s all my fault, I tried for so long to find the mall again, I should have-”

Tears rolled down their cheeks, melting into their mask. “Charlie…”

“Wh- wh- what?” Charlie asked, his own eyes starting to well up, though from fear. This Ranboo was too good, too real. When would they strike?

“I love you,” Ranboo whispered. “I’m sorry I didn’t save you sooner.”

Charlie froze, his breath halting completely in his chest. In the back of his mind, he vaguely remembered seeing Ranboo as a brother, a place of safety.

“I l- l- love…” he started, then remembered who he was talking to. “I l- love R- Ranboo t- too, b- but you’re n- n- not him.”

“What do you- of course I am??”

Charlie let out a breath and pulled out his notepad.

The second copy of Ranboo that attacked me asked me if I thought that the real Ranboo would be more or less convincing than it. I honestly don’t know, but so far I’ve only seen fakes, and I can’t imagine why you’d be the one I should trust. If Ranboo was going to save me, then they would have already, but they clearly gave up on me. I don’t know what you’re trying to do, or why you’re trying to play so hard into the “trustworthy” role, but you’re not going to convince me.

“Charlie, I didn’t give up on you,” Ranboo said sadly. “I didn’t know you were still trapped in there, I swear! I only knew about it because they started releasing footage of you. I- I’m so sorry I left you there, it should have been me…”

Charlie realized that he was crying harder now, tears streaming endlessly down his cheeks. “P- please, just s- stop! I don’t kn- kn- know what you w- w- want, b- b- but I’ll g- give you a- anything!” He sobbed. “I- I c- can’t t- take it! Just h- h- hurt me already, please!”

The intense anticipation, waiting for the pain, was worse than the pain itself. It was bringing him to the brink of a panic attack, a more than common occurrence recently.

Ranboo’s eyes widened and they scrambled off the bed. “I- I would never! Ch- Charlie, please, you have to believe me, I’m real! Look, see??” In a desperate move, they pulled off their mask, revealing the rest of their tear stained, scarred face. The outline of their metal mask dug into their face, tracing up their nose and down their cheeks.

Charlie’s eyes widened as he examined the scars. What if this was the real Ranboo? Would the fakes have scars like that? They probably didn’t know what the rest of Ranboo’s face looked like, that was for sure. But what if this was the perfect ploy? Was he willing to risk it just to get injured later, if this really was a fake?

“I- w- want to t- trust you, b- but…” Charlie whispered, “W- what if y- you’re not r- real?”

“I promise, I won’t hurt you. But I’ll keep my distance, if that makes you trust me more,” Ranboo said quietly, pulling their mask back on. “But eventually we have to try to get your glasses off.”

“W- w- why?”

“Because that’s what they were using to keep you under their control. For me it was my mask, for Sneeg it was his hat. I think for you, it’s your glasses. We haven’t been able to get them off, it’s like they’re attached to you or something.”

Charlie blinked away tears and reached up to his glasses, attempting to take them off, but sure enough, it was as if they were attached to him. Pulling on them almost hurt, something moving around inside him, just under the skin.

“Wh- what the f- f- f-”

“Wires,” Ranboo explained. “Mine went down my throat.” They headed to the door, their hair covering their eyes. This time it didn’t look menacing, it just looked depressed.

“R- R- Ranboo, w- wait-” Charlie choked out, tripping and staggering out of the bed. He had decided to risk it. Really, what could this Ranboo do to him that the others hadn’t?

Ranboo paused right as Charlie fell into him, wrapping his arms around Ranboo tightly, pressing his face into Ranboo’s chest, his body shaking with his suppressed sobs.

“I h- hope y- you’re r- real…” he muttered. “I m- m- missed y- you…”

“I missed you too,” Ranboo said weakly, sounding as if they were crying again as they tightly returned the hug, their fingers gently ghosting over Charlie’s back, deciding to ignore all the scars they felt there.

“T- thank you f- for coming back…”

Now was the moment. If anything was going to happen, it would happen now. The moment he let down his guard, the Ranboo would strike.

But nothing.

This Ranboo just continued to hug him tightly and cry. Charlie really, really hoped this Ranboo was real. So far, they had passed the first test. But that didn’t mean Charlie trusted them.

Chapter 10: Trauma. (Mental and Otherwise)

Summary:

His fingers gently brushed through the cat’s fur as he thought, closing his eyes. After a moment, a name appeared in his mind, so natural feeling it could have been a memory. “H- h- how’s Gillion? I c- could call you Gill for short?”

Chapter Text

Ok.

Charlie took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

He stood with his hands against the door frame, trying to mentally prepare himself for leaving the room. Ranboo was out there, he could hear them. But Sneeg was also out there. If anything were to happen, Sneeg would protect him. Probably.

Honestly the anxiety was almost crippling. He was surprised that he hadn’t fallen to the floor yet, especially considering how badly his legs were shaking.

Deep breaths Charlie, you can’t just stay in this room forever.

But Ranboo was out there. They hadn’t attacked yet, but any day now. Maybe they were waiting for Charlie to trust them more before they tried anything.

One last deep breath. Charlie pushed open the door and wobbled out of the room, moving to the left of the door to cling to the wall, his legs very nearly giving out.

They were still sore from the last Ranboo, the one that had bitten into his thigh and wouldn’t let go, while its claws had dug into his other leg.

The puncture scars were the most prominent on his legs at the moment, sitting on top of the other layers of scars that criss-crossed around the skin. Honestly, he preferred to avoid looking at his legs, or any other part of his body. Too painful.

“Charlie!” A voice called suddenly, making Charlie wince so hard he almost toppled over, his breath catching in his throat and making him lightheaded.

He turned around shakily, his eyes wide until he realized it was just Sneeg behind him. Somehow he had left his room and made it half-way through the living room before realizing Sneeg was in the room too.

“O- o- oh, h- hi Sn- Sneeg,” Charlie said breathlessly, leaning against the wall.

“Sorry for scaring you, but I have something for you!” Sneeg said excitedly, coming up to Charlie and taking his arm, helping steady him.

Charlie tilted his head to show he was listening instead of stuttering his way through a sentence.

“So I did a bit of research, and I think your stuttering came from trauma,” Sneeg started, causing Charlie to wince but nod slowly. “And so Ranboo and I thought we could find something to help you!”

“L- l- like what?” Charlie asked nervously, unsure if he should trust whatever it was that they had gotten him. The chances of it being something to harm Charlie were very high in his mind.

“Come here, I’ll show you!” Sneeg said, using Charlie’s arm to pull him away from the wall.

Charlie stood unsteadily for a moment before gaining his balance, but just in case, he pulled his arm away from Sneeg’s grasp and grabbed Sneeg instead, holding tightly onto his arm with both hands, his fingers twisting and digging into Sneeg’s hoodie. “O- o- k- kay…” He whispered, deciding to give Sneeg the benefit of the doubt.

Sneeg led him through the living room, off to the left of where his room was, and down a short hallway. At the end was another door, which Sneeg moved to open.

Charlie froze slightly, tugging sharply on Sneeg’s hoodie, finding himself nearly breathless. “I- i- is- R- Ran-”

“Ranboo isn’t in there, don’t worry. They didn’t want to stress you out, it’s just you and me. Promise,” Sneeg said, running a hand through his messy hair and shooting Charlie a nervous smile.

Charlie nodded and loosened his grip on Sneeg, letting his friend open the door slowly, as if he was worried about startling Charlie if he opened it too quickly (he was right, that would have absolutely startled Charlie).

He gently pulled Charlie inside, then quietly asked for Charlie to let go of his arm for a moment. Charlie obliged, opting for leaning against the wall again instead. He took a second to look around the room, noticing the bed decked out in blue, against the wall to his left. Sneeg’s room?

The bed wasn’t the only blue thing, most of the decorations were also blue, it seemed as if someone had been living in this room for a while, long enough to decorate it at least.

“H- h- how long h- have you b- b- been here?” Charlie asked, looking over at Sneeg, who had bent down to grab something from the other side of the bed, the side Charlie couldn’t see.

“Hm? Oh, a while. I dunno,” Sneeg said, sounding like he was pretending to be airy about it, but just under his voice was a note of uncertainty. “Time has been… weird, since we left the mall…”

“I- it was w- weird in the m- m- mall too…” Charlie muttered, his fingers moving up to brush against his glasses.

“Anyway! Look! If you don’t like him, we can take him back, but…” Sneeg stood back up, in his arms was a small cat, bluish gray and swirled with white, with bright green eyes. “He doesn’t have a name yet either, by the way.”

Charlie’s eyes widened and he pushed himself away from the wall as he completely forgot about his anxiety and walked up to Sneeg, holding his arms out. “C- can I-?”

Sneeg grinned and handed Charlie the cat, who blinked sleepily up at him, starting to purr. Charlie’s eyes widened even more and he gently pulled the cat against his chest, hugging him.

“I love him…” he whispered, nuzzling the cat’s head with his nose.

“Oh good, we were worried you wouldn’t,” Sneeg sighed in relief, before pausing as he realized that Charlie hadn’t stuttered. He decided against bringing it up. “Um.. anyway, do you have.. Uh- do you have a name for him?”

But Charlie wasn’t listening, instead burying his face into the cat’s side, nuzzling him happily while muttering into his fur. “So cute, you’re my little goopy gooper, my little goober…”

Charlie felt himself calming as he loved on the purring cat, his anxiety melting away, his shaking hands and legs stilled, his lungs expanding. “My cat,” he muttered, smiling to himself.

Sneeg let out a breath of air that sounded like a laugh. “Alright, I’ll leave you to it then? I’ll go get his things and put them in your room, ok? You can hang out in the living room in the meantime.”

Charlie nodded and adjusted his arms around the cat before following Sneeg out to the living room, where Charlie claimed a couch, sitting cross-legged and set the cat into his lap.

“I sh- sh- should name you,” he hummed quietly, giggling as the cat curled up in his lap, setting his head on Charlie’s thigh like a pillow.

His fingers gently brushed through the cat’s fur as he thought, closing his eyes. After a moment, a name appeared in his mind, so natural feeling it could have been a memory. “H- h- how’s Gillion? I c- could call you Gill for short?”

The newly named Gillion didn’t stir, though his tail slowly started to wag up and down, Charlie took it as confirmation.

Over the next several days, Charlie’s anxiety started to recede. Not by a lot, but it was a noticeable amount, and he had even started leaving his room more often. Of course, one of these days he was bound to run into Ranboo, but he had always thought he would just cross that bridge when he got there, and now that he was there, he wasn’t really sure how he was supposed to get across without falling into the rapids below.

“Hey,” a voice said, so calmly and quietly that for once, it didn’t startle Charlie.

He looked up, wincing and freezing, his heart dropping into his stomach, his fingers ever so slightly tightening into Gillion’s fur.

Ranboo must have seen it in his eyes, because they cringed and backed up. “Do you mind if I sit here?” They gestured towards the chair furthest away from Charlie.

Charlie nodded weakly, then paused and shook his head. “I- I m- m- mean, you c- c- can if you w- w- want…”

“I promise I won’t do anything,” Ranboo said quietly as they sat, pulling their knees up to their chest. “I just… I missed you… You’re here with me, but I never see you, and I just-” They sighed, looking away.

Charlie nodded slightly, his eyes flicking down to Gillion, loosening his grip on the cat.

“Charlie…” Ranboo whispered, their voice nearly breaking. “I-I’m so sorry that I left you there…”

Charlie didn’t respond, instead closing his eyes in hopes that it would keep tears from spilling out.

“It’s my fault, all of this is my fault, and I-” Ranboo took a shuddering breath, closing their eyes as well, their eyelashes already starting to stick together with tears. “I should have tried harder.”

Charlie looked up, opening his mouth to respond, but the words froze in his throat. His mouth closed as static started ringing in his ears, slowly forming into a voice.

“Slime! Charlie! It’s Hetch! I finally got our equipment running, and just in time. Look, we gotta get you outta there, the readings we’re getting suggest that that is another fake Ranboo. You’re in trouble!”

Charlie took in a sharp breath through his nose, though nothing else would move, his whole body was stuck in place. He wanted so desperately to ask what was happening, what Hetch meant.

“Charlie?” Ranboo asked, their voice higher pitched, almost a squeak.

Charlie’s eyes flicked up to look at Ranboo, unsure what emotion he was conveying with them.

“We’re coming to get you, Slime. Where are you?”

“Charlie, what’s happening?” Ranboo got off their chair, standing awkwardly like they were trying to fight against staying and moving closer to Charlie, both worried about him and worried about scaring him.

“I’m going to bring you back to the mall, Slime. Where it’s safe from Ranboo. If you can hear me, show me where you are.”

Slime. That name. Images bled into Charlie’s mind, gushing slime while getting cut open, being covered in slime and forced to torment his friends. Tears pooled in his eyes, streaking down his cheeks.

“SLIME! WHERE ARE YOU??” The words tore through his head, though he couldn’t move enough to wince.

“Charlie!” Ranboo shouted, their hands grabbing onto his shoulders.

Something broke and Charlie lurched forward so quickly it startled the cat, who jumped up and ran away.

“I don’t know, I don’t know!” Charlie screamed through his tears, dropping to the floor, gasping for air as he sobbed.

“Slime, please. This is your last chance to come back safely, tell us where you are.”

With every time Hetch called him by that name, more and more images flooded into Charlie’s mind, each more painful than the last.

“I don’t know where I am, please! Stop calling me that!” Charlie screamed again, covering his ears with his hands like it would block the voice from speaking to him. “Stop!”

“Slime,” the voice growled, echoing in his head. “Stop being difficult.”

“Ranboo, help me, please-” Charlie sobbed, keeping his head to the floor but reaching his hands out for his friend. “I’m s- sorry for being scared of you, help me, please-”

“Slime, they aren’t going to help you, I’M trying to help you! Can’t you see?? You ungrateful little fuck!”

Ranboo bent down quickly, kneeling close to Charlie and taking his hands, locking their fingers with his. “I’m here, I’m here…”

“Y- y- you don’t w- want to help me, do you? Y- you want s- something else…” Charlie whispered.

Ranboo may have answered, but Hetch’s voice drowned them out, the static increasing in volume. “YOU FUCKING IDIOT, I KEPT YOU SAFE FOR MONTHS, WHAT DO YOU WANT??”

“Y- you didn’t! I have s- s- scars to prove it! You m- m- made me scared of my brother on purpose, didn’t y- you?” Charlie whimpered, pressing his head down onto the floor, his grip tightening on Ranboo’s hands.

“What?” Ranboo whispered, so quietly Charlie almost didn’t hear over the static.

The static grew louder, turning into a high pitched whine that felt like it would split Charlie’s skull open. Something was filling up his head, his vision clouded over before green liquid started pouring down his cheeks. All of his scars started to burn, some fresher ones on his legs and back starting to rip open, blood seeping out and staining his clothes.

Charlie screamed and shot up, pulling his hands from Ranboo’s, pushing himself backwards quickly until he was up against the couch, his chest heaving violently. “Stop!! W- w- what are you doing to me??”

The slime was pouring out of his eyes so heavily now that all he could see was green.

“It hurts! Please!”

A body curled around his, holding him tightly. “I’ve got you, it’s gonna be ok.”

“Ranboo…” Charlie sobbed, closing his eyes against the green and wrapping his arms around Ranboo, holding onto them tightly. “I c- c- can’t- it hurts…”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry-” Ranboo’s arms squeezed him while Charlie hyperventilated, so unable to breathe that he couldn’t even cry anymore.

“You’re going to regret not letting me save you, Slime,” Hetch’s voice whispered just before the static cleared, the last bits of slime trickling down Charlie’s cheeks.

Charlie’s body shook with silent sobs as he continued to cling onto Ranboo. “H- h- help me…”

“What do you need? What happened?” Ranboo asked frantically, their voice panicked as they too, clung to Charlie.

“I d- d- d- don’t know,” Charlie sobbed, “I- I- I’m s- s-”

Ranboo cut him off with a quiet ‘shhhh…’. “Charlie, it’s ok. Please don’t apologize… especially if you can’t really talk right now…”

“S- s- s- sorry…” Charlie muttered, shuddering slightly as he fought and failed to catch his breath.

Ranboo ignored that, instead asking a different question. “Are you hurt?”

Charlie nodded weakly, and Ranboo pulled away to get a look.

“Oh… you’re bleeding… Shit, how did that happen?”

“H- H- Hetch,” Charlie whispered, reaching up to wipe slime off of his face.

Ranboo paled. “Fuck. Does he know where we are?”

“N- n- no, I d- don’t th- th- think so,” Charlie answered, barely able to respond coherently.

“I’m sorry, you’re probably not ready for questions, let’s go get you cleaned up, ok?” Ranboo stood up, holding their hand out for Charlie to take.

Charlie shakily took Ranboo’s hands, letting them support him as they traveled to the bathroom.

“I- I g- g- got it,” he said quietly.

“You sure? I can help if you-” Ranboo started to answer, then realized they probably shouldn’t try to push Charlie’s limit, and nodded. “I’ll be here.”

Charlie closed the door all but a crack and pulled off the long-sleeve shirt he was wearing, dropping the blood soaked garment to the floor.

He winced slightly as he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, turning away quickly as he searched through several cabinets in search of first aid, with no luck.

“Uh, R- R- Ranboo?” He called quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Wh- where’s t- the-” Charlie started to stammer.

“Here, can I just come in? So you don’t have to explain?” Ranboo’s voice asked.

“S- s- sure…” Charlie muttered, standing back so the door wouldn’t hit him.

“If you’re looking for-” Ranboo started, coming into the room before freezing. “Oh, holy shit.”

“W- wh- what?” Charlie squeaked, on the verge of panicking again, though he wasn’t sure why.

Ranboo’s eyes sparkled with tears as they examined Charlie’s torso. “Is this why you always wear long-sleeves? You have so many scars…”

“F- f- fuck,” Charlie stammered, his breath coming quickly now. “P- please d- don’t…”

“I’m so sorry… this is all my fault, this is all my fault…” Ranboo pressed their hands to their eyes as they took a deep breath. “I’m sorry…”

“N- n- no it’s not…” Charlie whispered, starting to fully believe that this Ranboo wouldn’t hurt him. “It’s n- not… c- can you just h- h- help me, p- please?”

Chapter 11: Damage. (Mental and Otherwise)

Summary:

“P- p- please don’t d- do this,” Charlie whimpered, pushing himself slightly away from Ranboo.
“Do what, Charlie?” Ranboo asked, tilting their head to the side, their eyes worried. “Look, it’s ok, I promise.” They reached up and pulled off their mask, dropping it to the floor with a loud, metal clang.
Charlie looked up at their unscarred, flawless face, their gentle smile, and gave up. He hung his head, a tear rolling down his face and dropping off his nose. “Ok…” he whispered.

Chapter Text

Ranboo couldn’t be more happy that Charlie was getting over his fear of them, but at the same time, part of them wondered if things were easier when Charlie was avoiding them. Because for the past few days, when he wasn’t clinging to his cat, Charlie was practically hanging off of Ranboo. Sneeg wondered why Ranboo and not him, but Ranboo assumed it was because they and Charlie had gone through more than Charlie and Sneeg, but there really wasn’t any way of telling.

Ranboo had been trying to not walk on eggshells when around Charlie, but every time they treated him any way other than with extreme caution, their mind flashed to when Hetch had wormed his way into Charlie’s mind, the way he had started gushing blood from his eyes and all the scars Ranboo had seen on him afterwards. They really wanted to treat him normally, but it felt impossible to do anything, they were paranoid about scaring Charlie. But something had to be done about his glasses.

“Charlie,” Ranboo said gently, making sure to give Charlie enough time to process their entry before coming fully into the room.

Charlie’s eyes lit up and he hopped off of his bed, running over to Ranboo and giving them a tight hug. “H- h- hi R- Ranboo!”

Ranboo smiled under their mask, returning the hug. They were so glad that Charlie was starting to feel less depressed and scared recently, and actually smiling more.

“Charlie, you know how… hm…” Ranboo paused, worried about saying something that might trigger Charlie, before sighing and giving up. “So, you know how Hetch was able to get into your thoughts?”

Charlie stiffened slightly, his grip on Ranboo tightening, but he nodded.

“Ok, well, Sneeg and I think the reason that he was able to do that was because of your glasses. You haven’t been able to get them off, have you?” Ranboo asked genuinely, unsure if they were correct in this assumption.

“I- uh-” Charlie pulled away from Ranboo, looking confused. “N- no, I think I c- can…” Though he sounded uncertain.

“Can you try for me? I need to see, just in case. I had the same problem with my mask, see?” Ranboo pulled off the back fabric mask they were wearing, underneath their skin was scarred in the shape of the metal mask, red lines crossing around their mouth.

“Y- y- yeah…” Charlie whispered, his hands slowly reaching up to gently curl around his glasses before he attempted to pull them off. But they stuck in place, unable to move even a centimeter. “W- wa- wait, n- n- no… This- th- this- i- isn’t-” Charlie stammered, his chest starting to rise and fall quickly, a look of panic flooding his eyes. “W- why do I feel s- s- something u- under my-” he shook his hands out, taking a step back before whispering, “under my s- skin…”

“Hey, it’s ok-” Ranboo said, holding their hand out to Charlie, hoping he wasn’t about to shut down. “It happened to me too, there’s just some wires we need to clean out, ok? It hardly hurts, I promise.”

But Charlie seemed too far gone at this point. He flopped down on the floor, covering his face with his hands as tiny, squeaky whimpers left him in time with his breath. “W- wh- what did they d- do to me?”

Ranboo winced before sitting down with a sigh. “I know, this is difficult. Let’s go get those glasses off before Hetch tries anything again though, yeah?”

That seemed to pull Charlie out of his emotional state because he looked up and nodded, using the heels of his hands to wipe tears away from his cheeks. Ranboo stood and held out a hand for Charlie to take, pulling him up.

“H- how d- do you get the wires o- o- out?” Charlie asked quietly.

“Oh um… I mean we haven’t been able to get them OUT, per say, we just sever the connection from the wires and whatever it is that it’s attached to. I mean, that’s what we did for me, Sneeg just had to get rid of his hat.”

“S- so I’m gonna have w- w- wires inside of me? F- forever?” Charlie squeaked, his eyes widening.

“Probably not for forever, but for the time being that’s the best we can do, and I don’t want to hurt you trying to get them out,” Ranboo said carefully.

“A- are there wires in me in other places? O- o- or just my h- h- head?” Charlie asked, obviously trying to shove down his panic.

“I… don’t know,” Ranboo said truthfully. “I haven’t been able to test that on myself yet. Let’s just focus on getting you detached from Showfall though, ok?”

Charlie nodded, holding tightly onto Ranboo’s arm, letting them lead the way to the door. The second Ranboo’s hand touched the doorknob, Charlie froze, his eyes glazing over, a single drop of blood rolling down his cheek.

“Oh no, nonono, not now! Fuck!” Ranboo cursed, before yelling, “Sneeg! Help!”

Charlie’s eyes snapped open and he shot up, looking around.

“Oh, no… nono, please…” He whispered.

He lay on the couch of the cabin that had once housed the Slime Demon, the very same couch that Ranboo had woken up on when they had first arrived.

“I can’t be here, please…” Charlie said out loud in disbelief, to no one.

He stood off the couch clumsily, his back and legs somehow sticking to the couch before he managed to pull himself off.

Charlie looked down with wide eyes, hoping to some higher power that he was not who he thought he was, but to his dismay. Because he was absolutely who he hoped he wasn’t.

Well, maybe not. Charlie didn’t feel mentally like the Slime Demon at all, the only thing was that he was wearing the suit and horns.

“Ranboo? Sneeg?” Charlie shouted, leaving the living room and heading into the kitchen. “Is anyone here?”

He decided to check in the basement, in case someone was in the cage under the stairs, but one quick search proved that he was alone.

“Ranboo? Are you there? Get me out, please!” Charlie screamed, running from the basement back to the living room. “I don’t want to be here!”

He reached up and grabbed onto the horns, attempting to pull them off, but doing so felt like a shot to the skull, so he left them alone.

A quiet voice wormed into his ears, burying into his brain. “That’s right Slime, give them a show.”

“Hetch?” Charlie took in a sharp breath. “What are you doing? Let me out!”

“Your little friend’s helping you get out, aren’t they? I figured we should try once more while we still have time. Remember, you’re on the air, try to act like it.”

“Fuck you!” Charlie screamed. “Stop watching!”

“What did I say? If you’re not going to act on your own, I might have to help you. And I don’t think you want that, Slime.”

“Stop. Watching!” Charlie screamed again, ignoring Hetch. “This is real! He’s in our minds, we can’t get out!”

“Charlie!” Hetch’s voice was so loud that Charlie thought his ears were bleeding, rendering him speechless.

Not that it mattered anyway, because now he couldn’t open his mouth. His body started moving on its own, taking him away from the living room.

“We’re gonna have some fun, Charlie. Are you ready?”

“Sneeg!” Ranboo yelled again, now holding up Charlie’s limp body, having narrowly caught it after he had crumpled. “Help me!”

Sneeg shoved the door open, nearly tripping into the room. “What happened??”

“It’s Charlie, I think Hetch got him,” Ranboo tried to explain coherently, but their words blurred together from their panic.

“So what, what do we do?” Sneeg asked, his eyes wide, looking back and forth from Ranboo and Charlie.

“I don’t know, I guess we should try to cut his wires before something bad happens???”

Charlie wanted almost nothing more than to ask Ranboo for help, to run back into the basement and rescue them from the cage that he had been forced to put them in, and get them to help him. But there were two things preventing him from doing that. One, he still didn’t have control of his body. Two, Ranboo would never help him after what he had been forced to do to them. After he had left them bleeding like that, after he had made them kill Sneeg.

He could feel Hetch’s grip on him loosening and he nearly collapsed, his legs wobbly without Hetch forcing him to stand.

“Please, you have to stop watching,” Charlie hiccuped, lowering himself carefully to the floor. “What about this is fun to you?”

“I don’t think you’d want to read those answers Charlie, be glad you can’t see chat,” Hetch laughed.

“How are you airing this, anyway? We’re inside my head, aren’t we?” Charlie asked, wiping desperately at his eyes.

“I mean I can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do in a million years, how hard do you think it is to broadcast what’s happening in your mind?”

Charlie stayed quiet, scowling at the floor, blurry through his glasses that were smeared with slime, blood, and tears. He wanted his cat.

“You probably shouldn’t have thought that,” Hetch whispered, “because I’m getting some really fun ideas for what’s next.”

Charlie paled, his heart sinking into his stomach. “No, no please-” he whispered, unable to get words of any other volume to come out of his mouth. “Don’t touch him…”

“Granted, I don’t need to do anything to him to hurt you, Slime…”

“Shut. Up,” Charlie hissed through clenched teeth, fighting to keep from crying.

“You said you wanted Ranboo to help you?”

Charlie’s breath stuck in his throat, his hands starting to shake. He knew where this was going, he just hoped he was wrong.

“Answer me, Charlie! Did you want Ranboo to help you or not??” Hetch screeched, static reverberating around inside Charlie’s head.

Charlie pressed his hands to his ears despite the fact that he knew it would do nothing to dampen the sound, letting out a short whimper. “Yes! I did! Ok?? I did…”

“After all that work I did, too, huh? Damn, you’ve genuinely gotta be the most obnoxious person I’ve ever worked with.”

“Work with?? You fucking kidnapped me and forced me to do things!” Charlie screamed, feeling tears prick the corners of his eyes again.

The room shifted quickly, the colors melting together before spreading back out and reforming shapes. Charlie was now outside the cabin, in the dark room with the button. The room where Ranboo had left him.

There was the sound of a door slamming in the distance, the sound felt like a knife to Charlie’s heart, pulling him back to how he felt as he bled out on the floor and Ranboo just left him.

He thought about getting to his feet, about chasing after Ranboo and finding the exit, but his legs felt too weak to support him, so he stayed put on the floor. Charlie looked down at his lap, swallowing over and over in the hope that he could get rid of the painful lump in his throat. In doing so however, he noticed that he was wearing different clothes now, a pair of tan cargo shorts and a white t-shirt with three hearts across the chest. Something about what he was wearing struck a chord in Charlie, it felt so familiar, had he seen this before?

Metal ground on metal and hinges squeaked. Charlie turned quickly to see the cage door opening, Ranboo climbing out of the small opening.

“R- Ruh-” Charlie stammered breathlessly, wincing as he realized his stutter was back. “Ran-”

Ranboo turned to him and grinned, walking to the open wall of the set, hopping off the ledge.

The closer they got, the further Charlie’s heart sank in his chest. Something was wrong.

“Ran- b- b- boo-” he whispered, his heart pounding a mile a minute. It made him lose his breath, his chest rising and falling quickly.

“Hey, Charlie. Are you ok?” Ranboo asked, looking down at Charlie on the floor.

“P- p- please don’t d- do this,” Charlie whimpered, pushing himself slightly away from Ranboo.

“Do what, Charlie?” Ranboo asked, tilting their head to the side, their eyes worried. “Look, it’s ok, I promise.” They reached up and pulled off their mask, dropping it to the floor with a loud, metal clang.

Charlie looked up at their unscarred, flawless face, their gentle smile, and gave up. He hung his head, a tear rolling down his face and dropping off his nose. “Ok…” he whispered.

Ranboo’s bloody hand appeared in his peripheral vision and Charlie lifted his shaking hand to take it. The blood made their hands slip in Charlie’s weak grasp, but they pulled him to his legs. Charlie fought to stay upright, his legs weak and very nearly shaking as badly as his hands.

Ranboo shifted their hand to Charlie’s shoulder, holding him upright, their other hand moving to hold his cheek as they looked at him with concern. The blood was cool on Charlie’s face, sending chills down his spine, his legs feeling close to collapsing.

“What’s wrong, Charlie?” Ranboo smiled at him, moving forward to press a gentle kiss to Charlie’s forehead. “You don’t need to be so scared.”

Charlie’s breath hitched in his throat with a weak sound, tears bubbling out of his eyes. “S- s- stop saying my n- name like that…”

As Ranboo pulled back, their fingers dug into Charlie’s arm, close to puncturing his skin. “Like what, Charlie ?”

Charlie whimpered again, his knees buckling. He dropped back down to the floor, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Hetch, p- pl- please! S- stop!”

“Who are you talking to? It’s only us, Charlie,” Ranboo said quietly.

Charlie felt like he was going to throw up, every inch of himself shaking like a leaf. Fitting, he felt about as fragile as a dead one. He really, really wanted to throw up. His breath was coming so fast he was lightheaded.

“P- p- please, I’ll d- d- do anything, d- don’t hurt me!” Charlie sobbed, looking desperately up at Ranboo.

“But this is so fun!” Ranboo giggled, reaching down, their fingers wrapping tightly around Charlie’s throat, squeezing the breath from his lungs. “Aren’t you having fun?”

Charlie’s eyes widened and he grabbed at Ranboo’s hands, trying to pry them off as they lifted him off the ground. He quickly found his footing, now trying to claw Ranboo’s hands, but the blood made everything slippery.

Ranboo set him down, grabbing his shoulders to steady him. “You’re ok, see?”

Charlie gasped for breath, his chest heaving before tightening as he gagged, his nausea worsening.

“You know,” Ranboo commented, their fingers dragging across Charlie’s cheek, streaking the blood that was already there, “I wouldn’t have to do any of this if it weren’t for you. I don’t WANT to hurt people, but really, you’re just asking for it.”

Charlie shook his head weakly, grabbing at Ranboo’s wrist. “P- p- please…”

“I know that you don’t want this, but I just don’t care ,” Ranboo said cheerfully, before reaching behind them and pulling out a knife, plunging it into Charlie’s side before he really even knew what they were holding.

Charlie’s scream caught in his throat as Ranboo dragged the knife up until it hit his ribs, blood gushing out of the giant wound.

His vision went spotty and Charlie slumped to the ground, causing Ranboo to pull out the knife before he fell.

Ranboo carried Charlie’s limp body to their room, setting him on the bed. Blood was leaking out from under Charlie’s eyelids, his fingers twitching slightly. He made a quiet sound of pain as blood started to stain his shirt at his side, spreading across the fabric.

Ranboo ignored it, taking a pair of scissors from Sneeg. They brushed Charlie’s hair out of the way, pulling the arms of his glasses away from the side of his head to expose the wires that pushed into his skin.

“Please work,” Ranboo whispered before starting to cut them one by one.

The blood coming out of Charlie’s right eye stopped as Ranboo finished cutting that side, and they quickly ran over to the other side of the bed, starting to cut the wires at Charlie’s left side.

The second the last wire snapped, Ranboo pulled the glasses off and threw them away from the bed.

They looked back, more than half of them choked with the fear that Charlie wasn’t going to wake up, but his eyes were open.

“Charlie!” Ranboo squeaked, moving to hug him.

Charlie flinched away from them with a sharp breath. “I- i- is this real? A- are you r- r- real?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m real,” Ranboo nodded quickly. They noticed how quickly Charlie’s chest was rising, borderline hyperventilating. They pressed a hand to his chest, firm but careful. “Slow down, take a deeper breath.”

“C- cat, where’s m- my-” Charlie started, and Sneeg ran out of the room, returning in a few seconds with Charlie’s cat in his arms.

“See? This is real,” Sneeg said gently, handing Gillion over.

“We got your glasses off, see?” Ranboo added, standing up to go grab Charlie’s discarded glasses.

“A- actually I c- can’t b- because I’m n- not wearing them,” Charlie muttered, a small smile creeping onto his face.

Ranboo sighed in relief, glad to see Charlie starting to relax a little. “We’ll get you some new ones, don’t worry.”

Charlie pressed his face into Gillion’s fur, nodding and murmuring a thanks. Sneeg quietly backed out of the room, nodding to Ranboo, letting them know he was giving them and Charlie space.

Ranboo sat on the edge of the bed, biting the inside of their bottom lip as they tried to think of what to say, but Charlie beat them. He set down his cat and nearly lunged at Ranboo, wrapping his arms around them in a tight hug.

“I- I d- don’t want to be s- scared of you,” he whispered, his body shaking. “I- I’m s- sorry…”

Ranboo winced slightly and returned the hug, making sure their arms were as loose as possible so Charlie wouldn’t feel trapped.

“D- don’t h- hate m- me…”

“I don’t! I could never!” Ranboo said in surprise. “It’s not your fault, I don’t blame you.”

Charlie nodded slightly, biting his tongue and swallowing the next words he was going to say. Don’t hurt me.

Chapter 12: Gone. (Mental and Otherwise)

Summary:

“I… don’t think you’re… entirely human, anymore. If I’m going to be honest,” they said quickly, clenching their hands into fists and shoving them into their lap so Charlie wouldn’t see their hands shaking too.
“What does that m- m- mean?” he whispered.

Chapter Text

A bang, screaming silenced quickly, and the sound of something being dragged across the floor.

Ranboo shot up in bed, their heart racing. Was that a dream, or something they had actually heard?

Something jumped up on their bed, and they winced, until they felt a paw on their wrist.

Gillion meowed, pawing at Ranboo like something was wrong. Their door hung open, and it was painfully quiet. Maybe not a dream.

“What’s up Gill, what happened?” They whispered, scooping the cat up, pressing him against their chest as they slid out of bed.

Gillion meowed again, squirming out of their grasp and jumping to the floor, tiny tmps as his paws hit the floor.

“Sneeg? Charlie?” Ranboo whisper-called, their chest constricting around their air.

“You heard something too, right?” Sneeg’s voice sounded behind them, coming from his doorway.

Ranboo nodded once, shoving their frizzy bangs out of their eyes. Not that it helped them see in the dark any better, but their hair framing their face like that was making them start to feel claustrophobic. “Charlie?” They raised their voice.

Charlie’s door also hung open, and Ranboo pushed it open further, peeking inside. Moonlight poured into the room from the open window, the gentle breeze from outside spilling inside, pushing the curtains away from the wall. The bed was in disarray, blankets thrown to the floor, and there was no Charlie to be seen.

Sharp pulling, tugging next to his ears, his skin felt like it was being ripped.

“Ngh… Ranb- b- boo?” Charlie groaned. His eyes wouldn’t open, his head splitting open from a headache that he had never felt before. Hot liquid-something dripped down his face, from his nose and eyes and ears. He tasted it on his lips, warm copper. Almost sweet like lime jello.

“Ran-” His voice caught in his throat and suddenly he felt nauseous. He was sitting in a chair, reclined, almost laying but not quite.

“Hey, calm down buddy, it’s ok,” someone said, and normally it would be reassuring but just the sound of Hetch’s voice made Charlie want to curl up in a breathless ball.

Glasses were slipped onto his nose and the pulling stopped. His eyes opened, fluttering gently as he got used to the bright light. There was a faint red film over everything, like he had been crying blood.

“Wh- wh- where- Ran- where is-?” Charlie gasped out, pressing his back against the chair he was in like that would help him get away from Hetch.

He was already trying to break the restraints keeping him down, even though he hadn’t noticed them until this moment. They rubbed against his wrists and ankles, one strap pressing against his chest.

“Slime, Slime,” Hetch said calmly, his words light. “You know, this could have been a lot easier for you if you had just told me where you were.”

“H- h- how did you-”

“Find you? Fuck me, that stutter is annoying. How’d you get that?”

The room they were in was too dark to see into, the only light source was painfully bright and pointing right at Charlie’s face, keeping him from seeing anything else. He assumed Hetch was sitting or standing somewhere to his right, but he really couldn’t tell.

“G- go f- fuh- fuck-” Charlie struggled angrily, clenching his jaw tightly.

“Y’know, I’m not as stupid as you think, Slime. Before you cut off those little glasses I knew where you were. Before I even asked you where you fucking were, I knew. I just wanted to give you an opportunity to come back willingly."

“T- t- take me back, I d- don’t-” Charlie squirmed, pulling at the restraints, but the feeling of the rough fabric rubbing against the scars on his wrists made him want to cry.

“Oh, but I do, I want you here, Slime. Do you like Slime or Charlie better? You seem like a Slime kinda guy, but maybe you just prefer your real name,” Hetch hummed, sounding like he was moving around to Charlie’s left.

“I’m not Slime,” Charlie growled, and to his surprise his voice held steady.

“No? That’s ok, you will be.”

“Why m- m- me?” Charlie asked, sinking back into the chair when his struggling got him nowhere.

“Well, you’re good bait to get Ranboo back in here, and you’re just remarkably fun to mess with. Not everyone would have put up with that much torture for that long. Keeps things interesting, y’know?”

Charlie bit down on his tongue, tears pricking at his eyes, red clouding his vision. Not tears, blood.

“Hey, stop crying.” Hetch leaned down close to Charlie, wiping away his bloody tears from his cheek with his thumb. “Do you think Ranboo will bring Sneeg back here with him too? Would be fun to get the whole cast back together, but then again, Sneeg is obnoxiously good at breaking character.”

“I h- h-”

“Hate me?”

“Hope you fuh- fucking die,” Charlie finished, hissing his words with so much venom that Hetch looked surprised.

“Wow, y’know, there really isn’t need to be so rude, Slime. Take a breath. It’s not like you’re going anywhere, so why get all worked up?”

“I g- g- got out once, I c- c- can do it again, b- b- bitch,” Charlie hissed, his stutter like a hiccup in his chest.

“I’d like to see you try.” A grin stretched open Hetch’s mouth. There was a little click as he flipped a switch.

Melting, melting, something felt strange. Was his heartbeat always so loud?

Slime pushed against his restraints, trying to pull his wrists out of the straps. Somehow all that ended up doing was squishing his wrists into the straps, his skin a vague green at the edges.

He let out a breath, scrunching his nose up as an attempt at pushing his glasses up his nose, but it didn’t work.

“What’s going on?” he called. His heart echoed in his chest, beating hollowly. Something felt wrong. That melting feeling.

But he wasn’t melting, he was perfectly fine.

“Slime! How’s it going? Feeling better?” a voice asked. The spotlight on Slime blinked out and overhead lights turned on, illuminating some sort of lab-looking area. Or maybe not, Slime wasn’t sure what a lab looked like anyway.

“Better?” Slime echoed, wondering what the problem had been.

“There was an accident, I fear you may have lost quite a few of your memories,” the person attached to the voice explained. Something about him made Slime uncomfortable. He wore a black hoodie with red trim, and a black mask that covered his mouth that reminded Slime of someone else.

“Hm,” Slime hummed as the man with the voice ripped the velcro restraints, freeing his arms first.

Slime’s hand migrated up without his noticing, ghosting over the lower half of his face. His fingers were cool against his skin, his lips. Scars, familiar scars, covered by a mask. A shiny mask?

“What’re you thinking about in that head of yours?” The man asked, tapping a finger against Slime’s forehead.

“The mask, the mask, who has a mask?” Slime muttered, tracing a line from his right ear, over his nose and to his left ear.

“Does it matter?” The man sounded annoyed but Slime ignored his tone.

“Yeah, yeah, someone…”

“Hey, stop thinking too hard. You hit your head pretty badly and I don’t want you overworking your brain.” The man’s eye twitched, just enough for Slime to notice. He pulled Slime’s hand away from his face, capturing his other wrist and holding them both in one hand, pinning Slime’s hands to his own leg.

“My head doesn’t hurt, see?” Slime slipped his hand away from the man’s grasp so easily it startled him. He knocked on his head, expecting to feel his knuckles against his skull but his hand almost sunk into his head.

“Whoa, whoa! Holy fuck??” Slime cried, pulling his hand away and looking at it. His heart beat louder, echoing through his body.

His eyes found the man’s face, the mask. Almost-blond hair, someone much taller than him. His heart beat for them, whoever they were. A flash of red.

“W- w- what’s happening?” Slime asked breathlessly. His heart pounded, his breath caught in his throat. He felt claustrophobic, near nausea. “H- H- Hetch?”

Hetch stood quickly, ripping off the mask. “You fucking idiot, why won’t you fucking cooperate??” His hand raised quickly, threatening to hit Slime and he winced, scrambling out of the operation chair awkwardly, tripping over the armrest and falling, his side slamming into the floor.

But it didn’t hurt, why didn’t it hurt?

He felt nauseous. Slime pushed himself against the wall, his chest heaving.

“Hey, Slime, I wasn’t gonna hurt you, come back here,” Hetch said gently, his smile all teeth.

Not Slime, his name wasn’t Slime. What was it? Blood rushed to his head. Ranboo, that was who he was alive for.

“Where’s Ranboo, w- where a- am I?” Slime whispered.

“Fucking stand up, right now,” Hetch growled.

Slime shook his head, his chest heaving. Sick, sick, sick. What was happening to him? Why couldn’t he remember his name? He pressed a hand against his mouth in an effort at keeping himself from throwing up.

His skin was cool and softer than usual, his hand sinking into his face and his breath caught in his throat. “Wh- wh- what’s happening t- t- to me…?”

Hetch sighed, rubbing a hand over his face before moving around the operation chair to stand in front of Slime, towering over him, cornering him against the wall.

“What d- did you d- d- do to m- m-” Slime gasped out. Why was he stuttering like that?

Before he knew what was happening, a sharp pain rocketed up his body from his stomach, where Hetch had kicked him. Slime coughed and gagged, clutching at his stomach as he fell sideways, gulping for air.

“Fucking useless, he needs at least one more go-through,” Hetch groaned to some unseen person as he bent down, grabbing a handful of Slime’s hair.

Slime cried out through his gasping breaths, his hands flying up from his stomach to grab at Hetch’s as he was dragged across the floor to the chair.

A switch clicked.

Slime couldn’t remember his head ever being loud, but his thoughts being this quiet felt… strange, to say the least. Like he never had any original thoughts, like he was only here to do as he was told.

“Stand up,” someone demanded, and Slime climbed out of the chair he was in, his feet landing on the floor.

He pushed himself away from the chair, his legs collapsing immediately, dropping him to the floor. The sound as his palms hit the floor was interesting and definitely not something he had heard before, but it hardly surprised him in the slightest. A wet slap, jello landing on a plate.

“That’s ok, take your time,” the same voice said gently and Slime gritted his teeth, his mouth felt dry and wet at the same time, his teeth softer than he was expecting. He tasted lime.

His arm shot up, grabbing onto the arm rest of the chair as he heaved himself up, panting at the effort. His legs shook, wobbling like they were made of jelly, and now that he thought about it, maybe they were.

“There you go,” the voice said encouragingly.

After a moment of standing, his legs grew steady and he was able to take his hand away from the armrest without worry.

“Walk to that wall,” the voice ordered, and Slime nodded once, his hair flopping into his eyes.

His first step made his leg shake under him and he almost fell again. It took longer than he would have wanted, but eventually he made it to the wall, falling against it with a breath of relief.

“Still needs a little work, but not bad,” the voice noted. The lights that Slime hadn’t noticed were off turned on, and he was finally able to see who was speaking. No one he knew, but he couldn’t remember who he knew.

“One last test,” they said nicely, not that it mattered because Slime would do anything they told him to.

They walked up to him, their hood covering their face just enough that he wasn’t sure who he was looking at. He tilted his head, trying to remember if he knew this person, but all he was drawing were blanks.

“Huh, interesting,” the person commented, and only when they wiggled the knife did Slime realize that he had been stabbed. “Didn’t even notice.”

When they pulled it out, the small hole it had created sealed itself back up, his skin tinted green melting back together.

Ah, slime. Like his name. That made sense, why hadn’t he put that together before?

“Perfect. Alright, I have a mission for you, do you think you can handle that?”

Slime nodded.

“Our base has been infiltrated,” the person started, Slime’s… handler, maybe? “I want him here, but he knows too much. This mask,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out a metal-something, “needs to be on his face before sundown. Hear me?”

Slime nodded, holding his hands out to receive the mask. The person handed him a bag, a crossbody messenger bag. Slime dropped the mask inside and slung the strap over his head, settling it over his chest and on his shoulders.

“Ok, get on out there,” Slime was told, and all he could do was nod.

“Charlie?” Ranboo hissed, hoping their calling wouldn’t wake any of the employees.

“Yeah?”

A voice behind Ranboo made them jump, whirling around. “Jesus Christ, you scared me!”

Charlie smiled and shrugged. “Sorry.”

“God, what happened? Are you ok?” Ranboo asked, grabbing at Charlie’s shoulders, holding him steady as they stared into his eyes.

“I- I- I’m ok- k- kay,” Charlie nodded. Something about his stutter sounded strange, but Ranboo wasn’t sure why. Maybe they were just hearing things due to their stress levels.

“Holy shit, I was so worried!” Ranboo pushed themself into Charlie, hugging him tightly and shrinking into him. “I thought-”

Charlie’s arms wrapped around them, his hold loose, his chest rising and falling so shallowly Ranboo wasn’t even sure that he was breathing. “Yeah, s- s- sorry. I’m ok- k- kay.” He repeated.

“Never, never again, ok? Don’t ever disappear on me like that again,” Ranboo said, feigning anger, but the way their voice broke made it sound weak.

“Never,” Charlie whispered. His skin was so cold.

“Let’s go, Sneeg and Gill are waiting for us,” Ranboo said, pulling back out of the hug, waiting to see Charlie’s eyes light up. But they remained dull, almost matte. Tinted green. Something wasn’t right about him.

“Charlie…?”

“Ranboo?” Charlie said pointedly. “C- c- can we g- go? I’ve h- h- had a long…”

Oh, duh. Of course he would be off, he had been dragged back to the place he associated most with his trauma and probably messed with even further. What was Ranboo thinking?

“Sorry, yes,” they said, taking his hand in theirs. Their hands felt cold and sweaty together, Ranboo could almost swear Charlie was shaking, his skin was smooth and soft, no longer scarred.

Something was off.

“Where’d you get the bag from?” they asked, shifting their grip on Charlie’s hand, keeping it loose in case they needed to bolt.

“I f- f- found it,” Charlie shrugged.

“What’s in it?”

Charlie let out the sigh that Ranboo had learned to associate with ‘I don’t want to talk, my stutter is too annoying’.

“That’s ok, we can talk about it later then,” Ranboo said, forcing their voice to stay bright.

They remembered what Charlie had said about mimics, and they were starting to wonder if this was one of them. But for the time being, this was the only Charlie they could find, so it was going to have to do. If they stayed aware that the person behind them could be someone out for blood, it would be less likely that any of their blood would be spilled, right?

The mall looked almost identical as the last time they were here, they noticed, though there were small differences that made it feel strange, almost like they were going to get lost.

“Hey, so you’ve been here for a few days, do you know your way around yet? This place is freaking me out,” Ranboo asked, deciding to risk it because really, what was the worst that could happen?

“N- n- no, n- not really, I w- w- was…” Charlie trailed off, his voice weak, shivering at the edges.

“That’s ok,” Ranboo said gently, pushing their fabric mask up their nose. “I just thought I’d ask.”

“R- R- Ranboo, I have to- I h- heard something,” Charlie whispered, pausing behind Ranboo, their connected hands forcing Ranboo to stop as well. “When I w- w- was with-”

“Hetch?” Ranboo guessed.

Charlie nodded, glancing around, his eyes landing on the various storefronts before deciding it was safe to talk. “He knew y- y- you were coming, h- h- he blocked off all the exits.”

“Fuck, are you kidding?” Ranboo’s eyes widened, their jaw clenching so hard it popped.

Charlie shook his head, his hair moving unnaturally as he did so. In clumps, flopping instead of swishing.

“Ok, so how do we get out?”

He shrugged.

“Fuuuck,” Ranboo hissed, dropping Charlie’s hand. “Why didn’t you bring that up sooner?”

“I- I- I-” He stammered, clutching at the front of his shirt, knotting it in his fist. “I’m s- s- s-”

Ranboo sighed, scrubbing their hands over their eyes. “No, it’s ok, I’m sorry. I’m stressed, it’s not your fault. You’re probably stressed too.”

Charlie’s hand moved to the strap of his bag, holding it tightly. His chest expanded in a deep breath and he nodded.

Ranboo gave him a small smile despite the mask, leaning forward to press their forehead against Charlie’s. “Sorry you got taken back here, this sucks.”

Charlie leaned into them with a huffed laugh. “Y- y- yeah.”

Ranboo kept their mouth shut about how cold Charlie felt, instead blurting out, “should we find somewhere to lay low then?”

Charlie nodded again, pulling away from Ranboo, shoving his glasses up his nose.

Fuck, how hadn’t they noticed his glasses before? That couldn’t be good.

They let Charlie lead, their thoughts racing in their head so fast it was overwhelming. This wasn’t Charlie, they could tell. But either it was one of the mimics and Charlie was still being held somewhere else, or this was Charlie and he was just being used by Hetch. What was the endgame here? Was it to continue the show? Ranboo assumed from the beginning that taking Charlie wasn’t the main goal, that it had to be something else as well, otherwise taking just Charlie wouldn’t be worth it. Was the goal them ? Now Hetch had both Charlie and Ranboo back in the mall, which wasn’t exciting for Ranboo, but it certainly would be for Hetch.

Was any of this making sense? Ranboo felt sick.

“Here, is th- th- this ok?” Charlie asked, breaking Ranboo out of their thoughts like a sledgehammer through glass.

They were standing in front of what seemed to once be a furniture store, through the glass door they could see chairs and tables tipped backwards, couches ripped, stuffing pouring out of the cushions like blood.

“Yeah, this is great,” Ranboo said. Their heart raced in their chest, pounding so hard against their ribs that the sound echoed through their ears, pulling the breath from their lungs.

“Are you ok?” Charlie asked, his voice surprisingly steady.

Ranboo held up a thumbs-up, and they hoped Charlie didn’t notice how badly their hands were shaking.

Charlie smiled, grabbing their wrist and pulling them into the abandoned shop, shutting the door behind them. “Should we blockade it, do you think?”

“Y- um, yeah.” Now it was Ranboo’s turn to stammer, breathless in their borderline panic. (tame impala mentioned)

Chairs and couches scraped across the linoleum floor, already cracked from years of no maintenance, as the two pushed the furniture to the door, shoving everything together until it was about as immovable as you could get.

Ranboo collapsed into a couch, spreading out and stretching their legs, pretending to mind their own business while watching Charlie out of the corner of their eye.

“Could you stop, p- p- please?” Charlie asked suddenly, stuttering like he had remembered that that was something he did.

Ranboo flinched and turned away, crossing their arms over their chest, like they could hide their pounding heartbeat away from Charlie’s ears.

“I know I probably seem… d- d- different, b- b- but,” Charlie said quietly, his voice thick with something that didn’t feel real, “a lot has happened, I thought…”

Ranboo bit their tongue, keeping themself from blurting out information that Charlie was probably waiting for them to hand out willingly.

“I thought you weren’t coming to get me, that I would be stuck here all alone again,” Charlie finished, and shit, maybe he was the real Charlie.

“No, no,” Ranboo gasped out before they could stop themself, “I- I wouldn’t, I-”

Charlie gave them a sarcastic smile that made their insides twist. “They did things to me, Ranboo, I don’t think I’m human anymore.”

Ranboo’s eyes must have given away their concern and confusion, because a look of annoyance crossed over Charlie’s face, his nose scrunching up. “I know you noticed when you grabbed my hand.”

There was nothing Ranboo wanted more than to ask for more details, except…

“Where’d your stutter go?”

They swung their legs off of the couch, standing up so they felt less vulnerable, keeping their distance.

“My what?”

Ranboo felt their throat closing. “Your stutter…?”

“It comes and goes,” Charlie said dismissively.

But no, it doesn’t. Ranboo knew all too well how Charlie’s stutter worked, after trying a new method almost every day to help Charlie recover from it.

“Right,” Ranboo whispered. “Sorry, I’m stressed.”

“Yeah, m- m- me too,” Charlie muttered, his stutter miraculously returning.

“Actually, why don’t you get some rest? I’ll keep watch,” Ranboo offered, looking down at their hands as they picked at their nails, pretending to examine them.

“Um.” Charlie’s eyes glanced around the room, a hint of green at the edges of the blue of his irises. A hand came up to brush through his bangs. “Yeah, ok.”

***

The darkness of the room was starting to get to Ranboo. The lights had been off for a while and they were starting to see shapes form out of the static in their eyes. Their vision blurred and they fought to keep their eyelids up. Their head nodded forward ever so slightly and they lifted it back up, leaning it against the sideways table behind them, part of the barricade.

They could hardly see Charlie where he slept on the couch. Or at least they thought he was sleeping.

Their head fell forward again, and stayed like that, their breathing softening.

The sounds they heard wormed into their half-dreams, the space between almost sleeping and almost awake. A loud clatter reached their ears and they gasped through their nose, jerking their head up.

Eyes opened with a snap, and they almost screamed. Charlie was sitting next to them, his head tilted. The green in his eyes was more prominent now, glowing at the edges and spiderwebbing to his pupils.

“Not very good at keeping watch, huh?” Charlie asked, a small smile creeping onto his lips.

Ranboo bit their bottom lip, their heart racing in their chest, beating up into their throat until they were choking on it.

Charlie hummed quietly, moving onto Ranboo’s lap, squeezing their legs with his, and normally under any other situation, Ranboo would have assumed that this was some form of flirting, but in this moment, it felt like Charlie was trying to pin them down. Their body froze up, sticking in place like they had been glued down.

“Ok, hold still please,” he said calmly, reaching to the right side of Ranboo, where he had been sitting. His bag sat there, and he grabbed the strap, pulling it towards himself.

Letting it rest against Ranboo’s leg, Charlie reached into it and grabbed something, but it was too dark and staticy and Ranboo couldn’t make out what it was.

With his other hand, Charlie reached up and unhooked Ranboo’s mask from their ears, dropping it onto the floor.

“There’s that pretty face of yours,” Charlie grinned, his canines sharper than normal, digging into his bottom lip.

Ranboo glared at him, their chest rising in a sudden gasp of their motor functions returning. With a quick movement, they shoved at Charlie, hitting him in the chest. Their hand sunk into his body up to their wrist, sticking in his ribcage.

“What the fuck?” They gagged, trying to pull backwards, their hand moving out at a painfully slow pace.

“Oh shit, I didn’t know that could happen-” Charlie sounded surprised, maybe confused, as he looked down at Ranboo’s hand buried in his chest. “Hm.”

“Charlie, what the fuck?” Ranboo cried, their voice strained as they concentrated all of their effort into freeing their hand.

“I’m not Charlie, stop calling me that,” Charlie said, his tone a little annoyed but almost like he had been waiting to say that.

Ranboo’s mouth opened to ask who the fuck he was then, but Charlie’s hand raised, holding the metal mask up to Ranboo’s face.

“Stop moving, I told you,” he sighed, pushing it forward so it dug into the bridge of Ranboo’s nose.

“Nonono, stop!” Ranboo shrieked, turning their head away fast enough that the edge of the mask cut their nose, slicing a neat line in their skin.

They diverted the energy they were using to pull their hand out of Charlie to instead yank him to the side, pulling from the inside. Charlie jerked to the side, falling off of Ranboo’s legs enough for them to slide out from under him. Using the momentum, they shoved Charlie to the floor and stood, ripping their hand out of his chest with a suctioning sound.

Their fingers lifted to graze over their nose, smearing blood over their fingertips. “What the fuck is wrong with you??”

Charlie groaned and rolled to his feet, rubbing his hand over the closing hole in his chest. “Fuck. Stop being difficult!”

“Dude, are you kidding??” Ranboo shouted, hardly hearing their own voice over their heartbeat.

“Listen,” Charlie hissed, “I get it, ok? I understand that you were just freed and this isn’t ideal , or whatever, you seem like a chill guy, and I don’t want to do this to you, but I have to.”

Ranboo blinked, freezing with their fingers still on their nose. “What… what do you mean, I seem like a chill guy?”

“Sorry, was that rude? Or…?” Charlie toyed with the mask in his hands, rolling it around.

“Fuuck, you were really being serious when you said you weren’t Charlie,” Ranboo cried, moving their hands over their eyes. “Are you like… a clone?”

Charlie shrugged. He tilted his head, his eyes flicking over Ranboo, and he lunged at them. His weight brought them both down, Charlie landing on Ranboo’s chest with his knees.

They gasped, their breath stopping short before it got to their lungs, stars of pain exploding through their body.

Charlie pressed a hand to their chest, where it melted into lime green, spreading across their torso and sticking them in place. “Stay the fuck still.”

Ranboo gasped desperately for air, their fingers clutching around nothing as they fought for air. Eventually it caught, pooling into their body, relief flooding through them. But only for a moment, before the panic addressing Charlie set in.

“Get, off-” They choked out, fighting to move their arms from where they were bound to the sides of their body with the slime-like bindings.

“Ranboo,” Charlie warned, his eyes flashing with something that resembled panic. “Please.”

The one word made Ranboo hesitate. It was a different tone than what Charlie had been speaking in up until now, something desperate, scared. They were more than familiar with that voice, though usually it was stuttering.

“Did Hetch do something to you?” They whispered, and even though Charlie was actively trying to turn them back into a slave, they couldn’t help but worry.

“Shut up, shut the fuck up,” Charlie growled, lifting his free hand up, holding the mask tightly.

“Charlie, Charlie,” Ranboo pleaded. “Hold on, wait-”

“I’ve been holding on! I wasn’t supposed to take this long!” Charlie shouted at them, his voice breaking. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HE’S GOING TO DO TO ME! I H- H- h-...” His voice caught in his throat, and his eyes widened, a familiar hint of fear flashing in his green eyes.

The mask clattered to the floor and his hand melted away from Ranboo’s chest, reaching up to press against his throat. “Wh- wh- why c- c-”

“I told you you had a stutter,” Ranboo pointed out.

Charlie gasped in a breath, rolling himself off of Ranboo’s chest and pushed himself against one of the tables that made up the barricade. “Fu- fuck, where am I? Wh- who are y- y-...?”

Ranboo sat up, pushing out a cough, the loss of weight on their chest allowing them to breathe in twice as much air as before. “It’s ok, it’s ok,” they said calmly.

“R- Ran, pu- put on the mask, he’s g- g- gonna-” Charlie begged, pushing out the mask to Ranboo. “I don’t want to be in trouble, please!”

He was fading in and out, unable to hold on to any information, and honestly Ranboo was impressed that he wasn’t panicking as badly as he could be.

“You know I can’t,” they said gently, reaching their hand out to pick up their black fabric mask, looping it over their ears.

Charlie leaned forward, covering his ears with his hands, pressing his forehead to the ground. “I know, I know, I’m sorry,” he whispered, though Ranboo had the feeling that it wasn’t directed at them. “I’m trying!”

He sat up, his hands fumbling across the dark floor for the mask. His fingers closed on it and he stumbled to his feet, his green eyes glowing like spotlights, trained on Ranboo like a deer.

His neck twitched, the green flickering out for a moment before blinking back on, his steps towards Ranboo jerky, like he had never walked before.

“OK, wait, wait,” Ranboo breathed out, maneuvering themself so they could back up without bumping into something. “Wake up Charlie, wake up, I can help you!”

“You can help me by putting the fucking mask on ,” Charlie hissed, getting closer now.

“Stop, Charlie,” Ranboo warned, their back finally hitting into a table. Their hands fell against it, bracing themself, their fingers finding something that fit into their hands nicely, it's cold seeping into their skin and cooling their burning skin.

They gritted their teeth, clenching their fingers around the pipe tightly, their whole body tense and wracked with nervous shivers, shaking so badly that they started to worry that the pipe would hit against the table and alert Charlie to their plan.

Charlie neared, stumbling awkwardly. “Boo, come on.” His voice was calm, clear. It sounded like it did before they got into all of this, before he was damaged, before he was trained into being someone other than himself.

Tears gathered in Ranboo’s eyes, sticking their eyelashes together and blurring the room around them. “I’m so sorry Charlie.”

“What?” That was all Charlie could get out before Ranboo pushed themself away from the table, swinging their arm out and connecting the pipe with Charlie’s head.

The sound that followed wasn’t what they were expecting, there was no crack, no thud. The closest they could get to a comparison was hitting mud with a stick. A wet slap, perhaps?

Either way, the green in Charlie’s eyes went out and he collapsed, the mask skittering across the floor when he landed.

Ranboo winced, a gasp catching in their throat, turning into more of a sob. The pipe fell to the floor, the clang echoing through the room, ringing into their head.

Their knees hit the floor as they dropped to the floor, they would probably have bruises later but they couldn’t find it in themself to care.

“Charlie…-” Ranboo choked, feeling their tears melt into their mask. That was going to be annoying to breathe through soon, but that was a later problem.

They reached towards Charlie, gently grabbing him and gathering him up, pulling his torso into their lap as they folded over him, hugging him desperately.

“Please don’t be dead, don’t be dead,” they cried, pressing their face into his back. No warmth came from his body, the cool feeling of his skin sinking into Ranboo, even through their clothes. His body was so small in their arms, he felt so skinny even though his body squished under Ranboo’s hold, like he did have at least some weight on him.

Ranboo had been quick to come to terms with Charlie being made of slime, because that really wasn’t that far out of the realm of possibility at this point, and they were really hoping that the reason Charlie felt so cold was because of that and not because they had actually just beat him to death with a pipe.

“Wake up, please,” they whispered, their breath warming Charlie’s shirt for a moment before it cooled again.

Charlie shifted, his hand moving to grab onto the side of Ranboo’s shirt as he groaned. Tears flooded Ranboo’s eyes, leaking past their closed eyelids and soaking into Charlie’s shirt.

“I’m g- g- gonna throw up,” he murmured, though he made no effort to escape Ranboo’s hold on him.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Ranboo hiccuped, holding back the urge to tighten their grip on him.

Charlie groaned again, the sound low in his throat. “Wh- wh- what did you d- d- do to me?”

“Cognitive recalibration, I think,” Ranboo muttered back.

“Fuckin’ h- h- hurts… I think my head’s going to explode…”

“Shit, yeah. I thought maybe since, y’know, you’re slime, it wouldn’t hurt as bad.”

“D- d- don’t call me that,” Charlie gasped out, his grip tightening on Ranboo’s shirt, pulling slightly.

“No, I’m not talking about that being your name, I’m-” Ranboo hesitated. “Oh, fuck. Nevermind, actually.” Charlie didn’t know.

“I’m… what do you m- m- mean I’m slime, then?”

“Nothing, I just- it’s fine, I just meant that I didn’t think it would hurt that bad.”

“You h- h- hit me in the head and thought it w- w- wouldn’t HURT THAT BAD?” Charlie pushed himself away from Ranboo finally, with a small wince and an “ow…”

He lifted his fingers up to where he had been hit, grazing over the spot, then pulled his fingers back to look at. “No blood?”

“Um. It really wasn’t that hard,” Ranboo lied, shifting where they sat, catching their bottom lip in their teeth.

Charlie glared up at them, then blinked a few times, moving his gaze slowly back down to his hands. They shook as he examined them, turning them back and forth. “Wh- I- Boo?”

“...Yeah?”

“Wh- wh- where are m- m- my s- sc- scars?” Charlie sounded like he was going to throw up again, his hands starting to shake even harder when he looked back up at Ranboo.

Ranboo also felt mildly nauseous, avoiding his gaze. “I don’t know what you mean?”

“I’m- d- d- do you… know… what h- h- happened t- t- to me?”

“Charlie-” Ranboo started, finally lifting their eyes up to meet his.

“Ranboo…”

“I… don’t think you’re… entirely human, anymore. If I’m going to be honest,” they said quickly, clenching their hands into fists and shoving them into their lap so Charlie wouldn’t see their hands shaking too.

“What does that m- m- mean?” he whispered.

Ranboo hummed, scooching forward on their knees, lifting their hand up. They set their pointer finger against Charlie’s chest, where his sternum bone should be, and gently pushed in. Their finger sank in easily, pushing Charlie’s shirt into the hole they were creating.

Charlie watched, his eyes widening. When Ranboo’s finger reached its first knuckle, Charlie slapped a hand to his mouth and shoved himself backwards, standing quickly.

His breath heaved in his lungs and Ranboo fully believed he was going to throw up, but after a moment, he dropped his hand away from his mouth.

“Ok, so wh- wh- what the fuck?” He asked, surprisingly calm, though Ranboo suspected he was hiding his panic attack.

Ranboo shrugged. “You were already like that when we found each other.” They tried to stay nonchalant, hopefully lessening Charlie’s reaction.

“Don’t. Don’t t- t- try to be calm about this,” Charlie hissed, shoving his fingers through his hair, pulling violently.

Ok, bad plan. “Sorry,” they whispered. “But if you think about it-”

“Don’t try to m- m- m-...” Charlie’s voice shattered, his words glued in his throat.

With a gasping sob, he dropped to his knees, looking up at the ceiling like he was hoping to keep his tears in his eyes.

Ranboo bit the inside of their lip, chewing at it until the faint taste of blood filled their mouth. “Ok. Um. Ok. Why don’t we try getting out first, and then we can… figure this out?”

Charlie shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut before he nodded.

Chapter 13: Faded (Mental and Otherwise)

Summary:

“I told you not to run,” Ranboo panted, still trying to catch their breath.
The room was getting nearer now, Charlie so desperately wanted to squirm and kick and crawl away, but now his brain was numbing and everything was blurring. His eyes unfocused, his eyelids heavy and-

Notes:

I started this series before the fucking mimic meme so now every time i look back for reference or have to bring it up i die a little inside
like bro didn't you know that his name is edwin? he made the mimic? AND it was difficult to put the pieces together?!??!!!!11??!?
also ahahaha imagine if genloss got a lowtaper fade (cuz the title?? ahaha... yeah you get it)

Chapter Text

Charlie watched as Ranboo’s chest fell up and down peacefully as they slept, his fingers pressed gently against the side of his head where the pipe had hit him.

The pain had long faded away, but something lingered, the feeling of being hit sat against his skull.

Ranboo had suggested that they get some rest before anything, both they and Charlie had to have been exhausted, the barrier wasn’t going anywhere, and even if someone tried breaking it down, they would know.

Apparently they felt comfortable enough around Charlie to sleep, which Charlie thought strange. He had just tried to kill them, and now Ranboo thought he was healed enough to just… rest around him?

Charlie didn’t feel comfortable enough around himself to sleep, in his mind, Slime could come back if he fell asleep, and he really didn’t want that.

There were several things that didn’t sit right with him about today, honestly. If he had been turned into slime, the substance, not the personality, why had being hit in the head hurt, when Ranboo sticking their finger into his chest didn’t? Why was he being used as bait, when Hetch could have just taken Ranboo from the cabin instead?

He had several things to complain about with being turned into slime, as well, but he didn’t even want to go into it. It wasn’t all that bad, he supposed, he couldn’t feel pain, unless he was being hit in the head, apparently, and his scars were all gone. He would really rather be made of a strange substance than have to see his scars every time he looked at himself, because at least he didn’t have to feel every little ghost pain from being mauled.

Charlie also didn’t like that his Ranboo, the real Ranboo, had actually turned on him. It made sense, sure, and he probably would have done the same in their situation, if they were trying to brainwash him, but he really had hoped that they wouldn’t end up hurting him, and they did. He wasn’t sure if he could get past that, but he guessed he would have to if he wanted to get out of here in one piece, and he really didn’t want to be angry at Ranboo. It wasn’t their fault.

Yes, it was, they hurt you on purpose . His voice whispered, loud in his ears. Maybe a little too loud. But Charlie didn’t want to think the name aloud. He needed to get these glasses off.

“S- s- shut up,” he growled, his words nearly breathless from fear.

The voice did just that, much to Charlie’s surprise, and he moved over to where Ranboo lay on the couch, sitting on the floor next to them, his hand gently grabbing at their arm, holding them.

“They w- wouldn’t,” he whispered, even though the voice was gone and the room was so, so quiet, so painfully thick that Charlie could hear his heartbeat thumping in time to Ranboo’s.

***

“Charlie.”

His eyes opened slowly, no need for panic when the one waking him up was his best friend. But then why was the ceiling not right? White and bright and fluorescent lights.

“Wh- wh- where are-” Maybe there was need for panic.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok,” Ranboo said gently, their hands holding his shoulders. “Take a breath.”

Charlie did as he was told, his eyes wide and staring at the white bright ceiling as he forced a breath into his lungs, shaky in, shaky out. He sat up slowly, and Ranboo took their hands away from his shoulders to allow it.

“Do you need me to explain anything or are you remembering?” Ranboo asked once Charlie’s breath was less shaky.

The voice in his head, the pain from the pole, the dark room with the bright spotlight and the voice, the voice .

“I- I- remember…” Charlie whispered after a moment. He didn’t feel like bringing up the dark room to Ranboo, didn’t feel like mentioning Hetch’s voice in his ears, bouncing around his brain, the praise and everything else that it had said.

“Ok, there we go. Good. Wanna…” Ranboo hesitated, like they were weighing their words, their decisions. “Wanna try to get outta here?”

Yes, please. More than anything. Charlie nodded.

“You know what I was thinking?” They said suddenly.

Charlie shook his head. His hair smacked him in the eyes, a gooey kind of texture that made him recoil inside his body.

“I was thinking, that maybe the reason it hurt when I hit you was because I hit the side of your glasses. Does that make any sense? Like… since because it’s in your brain, the wires on the glasses, hitting it jostled something and both unprogrammed you and hurt you. Do you get what I mean?” Ranboo explained, rather badly, Charlie thought, but he didn’t want to say that.

He nodded instead.

“Actually! Speaking of those, should we try to take them off before we try to go anywhere?” Ranboo suggested.

“H- h- how?” Charlie whispered, moving his hands up to his face, tapping his fingers along the frames of his glasses.

“Um. Yeah, good question. Let’s go find something that can take those off, I guess. Obviously there was a way to put them on in the first place, so there must be equipment that does the opposite around here, right?” Ranboo thought out loud, their words quiet as they muttered to no one but themself.

“I g- g- guess,” Charlie answered, “b- b- but-”

“Ok, yeah, come on,” Ranboo said, cutting Charlie off abruptly, standing to their full length so quickly Charlie felt himself flinch into the couch.

“R- R- Ranb-” Charlie tried again.

“Come on, Charlie,” Ranboo repeated, their tone stern and as if they were talking to someone much, much younger than them. Or a dog. They headed for the door, already starting to tear down the barricade before Charlie could even take a breath.

“Wh- wh- why are you acting so wuh- wuh- weird?” Charlie found his feet under him, standing, though rather unsteadily, his legs wobbling under him.

But Ranboo ignores him, instead tossing a chair away from the barricade, letting it recklessly hit the floor. They were making too much noise. Charlie felt himself tear up, his lungs squeezing so hard he couldn’t pull air into his lungs.

The employees were going to hear, they were going to come and take him away and maybe this time he would never see Ranboo again. Why were they doing this?”

“R- R- R-” Charlie choked out, but nothing would come out.

“Let’s go, Charlie,” Ranboo said, their grin exposing their teeth as they reached their hand out for Charlie to take. The doorway was clear now, and open, letting cool air from the open mall into the stuffy room.

“Ok,” he whispered, sounding so painfully dejected it was a miracle Ranboo didn’t notice, wobbling over to them on his unsteady legs. Almost falling, but before he could, Ranboo’s arms wrapped around his chest and kept him up.

“Be careful,” they said, and something about their voice sent chills up Charlie’s spine.

“I’m s- suh- sorry…” He wasn’t being dramatic, was he? There was something weird about Ranboo. This was bad, bad. He shouldn’t have fallen asleep, even accidentally.

***

The last thing they remembered was falling asleep with Charlie watching over them. But now they were in a different room, and Charlie was nowhere to be seen.

“Hello?” Ranboo called, their voice echoing off of walls they could not see.

It was dark, too dark to be normal. Nearly pitch black, all they could see was faint outlines of things that might be furniture.

There was silence, louder than their echoing voice, and then through the silence, a faint scream. It sounded so urgent, so panicked, so sick.

“Charlie-“ Ranboo breathed, an ache of painful butterflies stabbing through the lining of their stomach.

“Charlie?” They shouted, but all they got back in return was their own voice.

There was another scream, and this time Ranboo noticed that it wasn’t faint from being far away, it was faint from being muffled. Like someone had purposely gagged Charlie and was making him scream.

Ranboo took a moment to figure out where they were, finally noticing they were sitting up in a chair, their arms strapped to the armrests. A metal band wrapped around their head, squeezing into their temples and keeping their head from moving, and,

“Where the fuck am I? Hello?” Ranboo yelled, their voice a bit weaker than they had wanted.

Thunk . The lights turned on, the loud sound making Ranboo jump. The lights were so bright, painful to Ranboo’s sensitive eyes, that they had to blink several times before it started feeling less like they were being burned.

The room they were in now illuminated, Ranboo looked around. Their cabin. The one they lived in with Charlie and Sneeg, was the room they were chained up in. Was it their real cabin, or just a set?

“ Please be fake, ” They whispered to themself, the butterflies returning, and now they could taste blood in their mouth as it rose up their throat.

A door cracked open, creaking as it was pushed slowly. Charlie’s room.

Charlie stumbled out, tripping like someone behind the door had shoved him. His hands were duct taped together, another strip of tape covering his mouth. Green dripped from his nose and stained his shirt and dropped onto the floor under him, and Ranboo swore that if they opened their mouth they would vomit up a stomach full of blood from the razors inside of them.

“Why are you bleeding? Charlie?” Ranboo choked, pulling their arms against the restraints enough that it was starting to hurt.

The look Charlie gave them then would forever be burned into their memory. They weren't even sure what emotions he was portraying, something of a mix of pain and betrayal and hopelessness.

Someone followed behind Charlie, the hood of their hoodie pulled up, but Ranboo knew who that was. He grabbed Charlie’s arm, yanking him further into the room, and shoved him down onto the carpet in front of Ranboo. Far enough away that Charlie couldn’t reach an arm out to grab Ranboo but close enough that Ranboo could taste the sweetness of Charlie’s blood in the air.

Charlie whimpered through the tape when he landed on his face, a tiny sob crawling out of his throat.

“You’ve been super fucking annoying, you know that?” Hetch said to Ranboo, pulling down his hood to reveal his masked face.

“Hey man, just- let Charlie go, ok? What do you want?” Ranboo begged, pulling at their restraints again, the metal digging into the tops of their wrists.

“I want you , what do you think??” Hetch growled. “And I want Charlie, too. He’s so cute when he’s traumatized, don’t you think?”

He bent down to where Charlie was struggling to climb up to his knees, green blood running down his face and coloring the edges of the tape. He tilted his head, his eyes crinkling in what Ranboo assumed to be a sick smile. His hand came up under Charlie’s chin, grabbing it and holding him there. Charlie squirmed, breathing heavily through his nose, his eyes pointing up to the ceiling to keep tears from spilling out of him.

“Look at me,” Hetch hissed, his grip on Charlie’s face tightening, his fingers sinking into Charlie’s jello skin.

Another quiet sob rose out of Charlie and his eyes slowly dragged down until he was looking Hetch in the face, a thick tear rolling down his cheek, a diluted color of the green that was his blood.

“Hetch-” Ranboo went unheard.

Hetch threw Charlie back down to the ground and stood, walking away with a look in his eyes that Ranboo did not care for.

“Charlie,” Ranboo breathed. “Are you- What happened?”

A cruel move, asking someone who couldn’t speak a question, but Charlie wouldn’t have answered even if he could. He cried into the carpet, his blood and tears staining it green. Ranboo’s insides twisted like they were bleeding internally.

Sooner than they had expected, Hetch was coming back into the room, in his hand a metal stick, the round tip a burning red.

“Hetch?” Ranboo said, cautious. “You- you don’t have to do anything dramatic, ok? I’ll-”

Hetch grinned under his mask, and before Ranboo could say anything else, stabbed it down in between Charlie’s shoulder blades. The slime that made up Charlie’s body hissed and bubbled from the heat, and then the pain registered and Charlie was shrieking, wailing under the tape.

The smell of burning lime filled the air, Ranboo felt bile rise up their throat.

“ Stop! ” They screamed, thrashing in the chair now, pulling against the metal restraints even though their wrists were starting to bleed from where it was slicing into their skin.

“Or you’ll what? Run away again? You can’t threaten me, Ranboo,” Hetch said, so calm that Ranboo clenched their jaws together so hard they clicked. “You can’t do shit to me.”

On the floor, Charlie curled into himself, pulling his knees under his chest and tucking his head under his bound hands. His muttered crying started sounding like he was repeating the same word, over and over.

“What a fucking pathetic idiot,” Hetch commented, landing a kick against Charlie’s unprotected sides and pulling another gutwrenching sob from him. “Can you believe he’s older than you?” He pointed the metal stick at Ranboo, so close to their face that they could feel the heat exploding from it. “He acts like a fucking five year old.”

“Stop, Hetch, please,” Ranboo whimpered past the lump in his throat, past the feeling of blood running out of their stomach and down their chin. “H- he’s only that way because of- because of you.”

“NO!” Hetch screamed, his hand shooting out to grab Ranboo’s chin, his grip tight enough to bruise. “How do you not understand that this is all your fault?! All. Your . Fault. None of this would be happening if you had just stayed in your fucking place! If you hadn’t abandoned Charlie? You and he would still be here, safe from the world outside. I would have allowed you to still be together, maybe you could even have acted out your fucking… insane relationship!

“But NO. You decided to run off with this little crybaby and your friend, and you’re forcing me to do all this insane shit just to keep you here!” Hetch released Ranboo and kicked Charlie in the side again, and even though Ranboo knew it didn’t hurt him, they still winced when Charlie’s reaction was to nearly scream.

“Oh, it doesn’t even hurt! Fucking baby, this one is,” Hetch sighed.

“You’re insane! You’re so fucking crazy!” Ranboo screamed, the cuts on their wrists growing ever so slightly deeper, blood coloring the metal and staining the wood of the chair. “How are you so fucking psychopathic that you actually think you’re making sense!?”

“It makes sense, because I want it to,” Hetch growled.

He set the hot end of the stick against the back of Charlie’s neck, where his hair ended. Charlie shrieked again but didn’t move, which made this all worse for Ranboo. What had happened to him that made him rather take that over moving?

“How else do I make you feel guilty enough to put this back on?” Hetch grinned, lifting the stick back up, now dangling Ranboo’s old metal mask in his other hand.

“Charlie here, failed me. I don’t know how he failed a task I specifically engineered him for, but this is what he gets. If you just put on the mask, this will all be over! So really, this is your fault in several ways, because if you had just let him put it on you in the beginning, he would be unscathed.”

“I can’t- I-” Ranboo choked, then winced when Hetch started lowering the stick back down to Charlie.

Charlie screamed again, loudly sobbing the same word he had been trying to say. And Ranboo realized that he was trying to say their name, sobbing and crying for them .

A strangled sob tore up Ranboo’s throat. Hetch continued lowering the stick, purposely going as slow as possible.

“Wait, ok,” Ranboo whispered, and when Hetch kept lowering, screamed, “WAIT!”

Hetch stopped, tilting his head at Ranboo.

“Stop hurting him,” Ranboo whimpered, their arms finally relaxing. Blood dripped down to the carpet. “You can… just put the mask on.”

Hetch grinned, giggling to himself. He raised the stick again, lowering it to an inch above Charlie’s spine. “What’s the magic word?”

Ranboo choked down a sob. “What?”

Hetch didn’t say anything, kept the stick over Charlie.

“I- fucking-... Put the fucking mask on. Please ,” Ranboo said through gritted teeth. They wanted to rip Hetch’s throat out with their bare hands.

“See? Was that so hard? Charlie, get off the fucking floor.”

***

“Wh- wh- what are we d- d- doing here?” Charlie asked.

Ranboo stopped in front of a door. They were in the hallways in the back of the mall, much more dimly lit now than the first time they had run through here.

“Glasses? This is how we get them off,” they said, like it was obvious.

“Um. Y- y- yes, b- b- but how do you kn- kn- know that this is the r- r- right place?” Charlie squirmed, twisting his fingers together.

The look Ranboo gave him made him shrink into himself, a quiet whimper squeaking out of him.

“I had some time when I was looking for you, I came into this room and noticed there was a bunch of equipment. I assumed we could use some of it to take those off. Ok?” Ranboo sighed, shaking out their hair and then fixing it.

“Mmm-” Charlie wondered if he should ask his next question, before deciding that the worst thing that could happen had probably already happened to him at one point or another. Did he really have anything to lose? “Y- yuh- you’re not r- r- really Ranboo, a- a- are you?”

Their eyes widened. “What- what do you mean? Why would you think that?”

Charlie bit his tongue, flinching when it was softer than it should have been. Fucking slime. “I j- j- just-”

Ranboo sighed. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’ve been rude. I’m just… I’m kinda stressed, y’know? And… Just please, would you follow me?”

He didn’t really want to, but one quick look around told him it would be hard to run, and if this was a mimic, there would be almost no chance of escape. So he nodded, swallowing back the tears that threatened his eyes.

The room behind the door that creaked open under Ranboo’s control was dimly lit, the overhead lights flickering weakly. A definite change from the either super bright rooms or super dark rooms Charlie constantly found himself in.

There was a chair in the middle of the room, quiet and unassuming, and yet wildly suspicious. Charlie didn’t want to go in there, especially not with this Ranboo who said they were real.

“R- Ran-”

“Just-” Ranboo sighed heavily, pressing the heels of their palms into their eyes. “Go into the room.”

“B- bu- but I-” Charlie swallowed hard, his voice squeaky and small.

“You’re just deciding to stop trusting me now?” Ranboo let out another deep breath. “What happened between last night and now that made you stop trusting me? Did I do something?”

Charlie wasn’t sure if they were trying to guilt trip him but it was kind of working. “N- I-”

“Go in the room, please. Now.”

Charlie bit into his thumb, taking a step back and looking down the long hallway.

“Charlie-”

“I-”

“Charlie, I’m- you can’t go anywhere, you know that, right?”

“I-” Charlie was already breathing heavily.

“Do not try to run.”

Ranboo was breaking apart at the seams, acting less and less like Charlie’s friend with each second.

“Wh- wh- what are you g- g- going to do t- t- to me if I d- d- do?” Charlie whispered.

Ranboo swallowed, their eye twitching just enough for it to be noticeable. “I- nothing. I just- it’s dangerous, out there. You know? I don’t want you to get lost.”

“I won’t g- g- get lost.” Ranboo knew that Charlie knew his way around the mall. But not this thing.

“Charlie,” Ranboo hissed, taking a step towards Charlie, heavy and threatening and Charlie snapped.

He bolted, sprinting down the hall. There was an open door, after a few closed doors. He didn’t want to take the time to open another door, he could fumble and then Ranboo would grab him and it would all be over. If he could just reach that other door, though, he could slam it shut, find something to barricade it maybe? Or just keep running for it, there had to be some place he could hide where Ranboo wouldn’t immediately find him. Then he could find the real Ranboo and get out.

Or maybe… that was the real Ranboo? What if they were just acting weird because they were stressed, and Charlie was overreacting? What if he really was running away from his only friend in the world because their tone was off .

He would have to choose before he got to the door. He could hear Ranboo running after him, and maybe that’s what made him decide. Ranboo would never do anything to purposely scare him, and running after him was terrifying.

Feet away from the door, closing in. His lungs were heaving, it appeared that turning into slime didn’t give him the ability to run. Inches away, his fingers brushed against the wood.

A shock burned into his brain, exploding out from the wires in his head, and when his legs collapsed out from under him, he screamed. His breaths came in gasping, whimpering sobs, the floor was cold against his already cool skin. Ranboo’s hands wrapped around his ankles and started pulling him back towards the room.

Charlie tried to kick at them, the second his leg twitched there was another bolt of electricity.

“I told you not to run,” Ranboo panted, still trying to catch their breath.

The room was getting nearer now, Charlie so desperately wanted to squirm and kick and crawl away, but now his brain was numbing and everything was blurring. His eyes unfocused, his eyelids heavy and-

“Let me g-” he sobbed, his words slurred. Why was he getting tired now?

You should have listened to them. Hetch’s voice whispered in his head, a chill down his spine, an ache in his stomach.

His breath evened, his eyes shut, all there was was the rhythmic feeling of tiles passing under him as he was dragged down the hall. To the room, with the chair. To the reconstruction of what the real Ranboo had broken, his glasses.

***

His eyes opened without him wanting them to do so. The room was still dim, and there was Ranboo. His own body stood from the chair, his head tilting, grinning at Ranboo.

He wasn’t doing this. Why was he moving?

“Ranboo-” he tried to say, but his mouth didn’t open.

The mask sat on their face, the red light off. They were in charge.

Were they wearing that before? Why couldn’t he move?

Their eyes looked sick, nauseated. Their brow was creased, their pupils shrunken so small it was like they didn’t even have them.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” They whispered, but they already knew. Charlie saw it in their eyes.

“Like what?” Slime asked politely, taking a step closer, making the movement of tucking a piece of hair behind his ear even though his hair was made of slime and was also too short to fit back there.

“Like-” Ranboo blinked, their eyes finding his, and Charlie wanted to scream and cry and tell them that he was in there. “Fuck.”

“What is it, Boo?”

Ranboo’s fingers brushed against their mask as they stared at Slime, and Charlie realized they were looking at his glasses, not him.

Ranboo, please, let me out!

He saw Ranboo move like they were speaking but he couldn’t hear them anymore, static starting to fizz and burn and claw at his brain.

Do you like this better, Charlie? I don’t have to make it so that you don’t know what’s going on, I do that because it’s merciful and… a little easier to control you. But you’ve proven hard to control, even with this fucking… mental thing you’ve got going on. I’ve healed your physical scars, why not let me heal your mental scars too?

But alas, it doesn’t seem that that’s what you want. What you want is to be with Ranboo, right? Well this way is a compromise. You get to see Ranboo, get to hear them, but you’re mine . They hate you, this version of you. But I can make it so they don’t. Just let me take control of the situation. Let go.

The static faded away, and it would have left Charlie breathless, if he was the one breathing. He focused on looking out of Slime’s eyes.

While Hetch had been talking to him, Slime had backed Ranboo up against a wall, their eyes wide and shining despite the fact that nothing Slime was doing was that threatening . But also, he had attacked Ranboo earlier, so Charlie had heard.

“You don’t need to act so scared, R- R- Ranboo,” Slime said, mimicking Charlie’s stutter and making Ranboo’s eyes even wider, somehow. His arm pressed against Ranboo’s chest, looking up at him through thick eyelashes.

“Charlie,” Ranboo whispered, and the look they gave Slime went right through him, to Charlie. Did they know?

Ok, Slime, back up. The static said, and Slime did as it said.

The red on Ranboo’s mask blinked.

Once.

“Fuck,” they hissed.

Twice.

Then stayed.

No, no no no, Ranboo! Charlie screamed, desperately clawing at the inside of Slime’s mind. He could feel himself growing weaker, the image of him blowing away like a forgotten dream. Hetch, PLEASE!

And as Charlie faded, the last thing he saw was The Hero looking down at him, the color of Ranboo melting out from their eyes.

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Olive_Is_Awake, TatersDoesStuff, nagisreader, Ghostly_Eyes0, charli3zz, WHeaTCh1Ld, Sergeant_Fight_or_Flight, static_antlers, Inkymybeloved, MaggotMeat, and patheticlight as well as 6 guests left kudos on this work!

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patheticlight on Chapter 1 Sun 09 Mar 2025 08:14PM UTC

fucking eight hits??
dude, you deserve so much more for these, Jesus Christ- well done, amazing!!

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1. Rainbow116 on Chapter 1 Mon 10 Mar 2025 01:26AM UTC
  
  Oh my god thank you!! I just posted this last night so I'm really really surprised to even have one hit, so I really appreciate it!
  
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2. 1. patheticlight on Chapter 1 Mon 10 Mar 2025 07:43AM UTC
    
    It obviously deserves more!! kudos to you, make sure to add the angst tag (and maybe hurt no comfort if you wanna) so it has a better chance of being found!
    
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  2. 1. Rainbow116 on Chapter 1 Mon 10 Mar 2025 11:56PM UTC
      
      ohh shoot, thanks! i thought i did add it but it's totally possible i forgot
      
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    2. 1. patheticlight on Chapter 1 Tue 11 Mar 2025 07:41AM UTC
        
        np! hope this gets a lot of hits & kudos >:3
        
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