Work Text:
Bobble stood beside the door and lightly rapped on the wood surface once. The brief sound of the TV could be heard, then she heard slow footsteps before hearing the lock click.
Goggles’ grandma greeted her with a small smile, Bobble leaning down to give the old woman a hug, not missing the fact that she had to lean down even more this time.
“Here to see Goggles?”
“Yes ma’am,” she said while following her to the living room, making a beeline towards the kitchen connected to there. The blue inkling put the box in her hand on the counter, while the old octoling looked at her from the couch with a curious expression.
“My brother made some potatoes,” Bobble said. “There were a lot of leftovers too…”
“Thank you, kind lady,” the grandma said with her ever quiet tone. “He’s in his room, if you want to see him.”
“He still hasn't come out?..” Bobble’s shoulders dropped even more at the older cephalopod’s slow shake of her head.
She put the box in the fridge to heat up later, then made way into her friend’s room after chatting with his grandma for a few minutes. Her trip to the room wasn’t long as it only took about six steps in the small house. It was evening, so the entire house was dark, save it for the TV light from the living room.
It was quite eerie for Bobble. She loved coming here, how warm and homey it was, but now it felt cold. She stared at the few old frames of Team Blue on the wall, felt her hand clutching her hoodie with a shaky hand.
Finally tearing her gaze from the happy pictures with a shaky breath, her eyes fixated on the door of her friend.
“I know.”
But before she could knock it, she heard Goggles murmuring. He was mumbling, but they were too incomprehensible for her to make the words out.
He was talking to himself. He wasn’t on the phone– that was for sure, she saw his phone at the counter earlier.
Now Bobble wasn't a stranger to someone talking to themselves. She did it a lot, Goggles liked to speak outloud, Headphones too, and S– he also planned while talking to himself a lot.
But some of the bits and pieces she could make out from Goggles’ speaking was that he sounded like he was having a conversation.
Maybe he was having a conversation with himself? She did a lot of that these days too.
She noticed the door wasn’t locked, so she figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a peek.
She slowly turned the door handle, slowly cracking the door open. There she could make out her friend from the complete darkness, sitting slouched on his bed with his back turned to her. His mountain jacket was scattered on the ground with many other things, things he normally wouldn’t leave laying on the ground. He ran his hands through his very disheveled tentacles to set them back– he was missing his namesake too– and then looked down again.
He mumbled more stuff, too busy to notice Bobble peeking. His mumbles were becoming slurred at that point, as he hugged into his black tank top like he was shivering.
But suddenly, everything changed. His shaking ceased, and his posture became straighter all of a sudden.
He slowly turned his head to Bobble, and she could swear she heard a creaking sound and felt the coldest breeze ever go through her body and sent shivers down her spine, even if it wasn’t cold out.
The only thing she could see was the off white of Goggles’ eyes, and his pupils staring directly at her. The bags under his eyes seemed to make his eyes look even more hollow, and the uncanniness of his expression added onto the overall creepiness.
Bobble felt her legs stuck on their spot, she couldn’t move when she saw Goggles slowly dragging himself up from his bed to stand like a lifeless zombie. He staggered towards her with his head down, and Bobble felt herself backing up when she had to look up to see him looming over her.
He put his hand on Bobble’s shoulder softly while the other felt the unusual cold of his touch even from her hoodie. Goggles slowly ushered her out back, not like she went inside to begin with.
“Out,” was the only thing he murmured, but it was enough for Bobble not to push further.
She saw what that did to Headphones anyway.