The Men in Slaypet

I'm not sure who the man in the hood is, but they have a deeper voice than me, so they must be stronger than me. Speaking of strength, I am not strong enough to carry Rose, so I'm just sorta dragging her, there has got to be a metaphor here.

The trees around us are weird. I haven't seen evergreens since I moved away from my parent's house. Unlike Haven, these trees don't seem as friendly. They look like they eat children every other Friday night. They make me feel uncomfortable. I know they can't hurt me, but still. I just want to go back to my nice big ol' tree, look at the sky, and die in my sleep. Maybe not that last one, I got a little dramatic, sorry. Why am I apologizing, nobody hears this!

"But I do!" The voice from early shows up again.

I just nod, I don't feel like saying anything to them. They hurt my friend. Then again, that would be acknowledging Rose as a friend, so maybe.

"I meant to say, I'm sorry that we got off to a bad start." The Voice continues.

I still ignore them, I need to focus on dragging Rose to this unknown location.

"Hey," Rose wakes up from passing out a bit earlier. "I... uh... forgot to ask." She yawns. "Who are you?"

"Umm..." The cloaked man pauses. "Club... wait a minute." He turns toward Rose and takes a closer look at her.

"What?" Rose asks.

"You sound familiar." Club tells her. "Rose?"

"Nope, never heard of them." Rose lies. Or, I think she does. Don't say it in a lying voice. Either way, she's lying to one of us... I'm still gonna call her Rose though.

"Then who are you?" Club asks again. I'm starting to feel that he is just a male Rose with all these questions.

"Daisy Evergreen." Rose Collar lies again. I do give her credit for the clever name though. I wouldn't know what to change my name to. Know where I am, maybe I'd just use Charlie.

"Okay miss Evergreen." Club faces us and continues walking. "What did you do to get shot with an ARROW!?"

"Oh you mean Herm!" Great, now she's delusional... I mean, She said while being dragged by her heels. "He got shot because he couldn't hold in his anger and attacked someone with a knife." Well... I mean... they got what they asked for.

"Uh huh," Club lies or I assume so. "Well I think I might have someone who could help."

We all go quiet because we have nothing to say. You know, I guess I should give these woods a name, it would make me feel more comfortable. I thought of Slaypet, it sounds ominous.

After a while, we finally made it. I think we made it anyway. I see a stressed looking man that has a name tag. If I wasn't responsible for moving the human potato you might call Rose, I would run far from here. He glances at me and looks repulsed.

Club calmly walks up to the man (who I can now identify as "Grosseiro") and begins to talk to him. After a while, Club brings Grosseiro to me and Rose. Grosseiro looks at me and I think Rose for an uncomfortably long amount of time.

Finally, he continues to talk to Club and Rose joins in as well. The strange thing is that they are speaking incoherent gibberish. It's strange but somewhat relaxing. After feeling like I was watching a wildlife tour live, Rose stood up somehow and turned to me.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" She asked me. She is holding out here middle, pinky, and her ring finger.

"3," I answer. "But why are you counting?"

The 3 of them laugh, I don't get it. I don't try to anyway. There is no use deconstructing the insane ramblings of a dying person's last words. Also, why isn't she dead yet? Slaypet must be some sort of demonic forest.

I walk over to a log and sit down, this day has been a dosy and I'm tired. I don't know what to do right now.

Earlier, Did I have a meltdown? I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I think so. Grosseiro reminds me of my dad for some reason. I'm not sure why, he doesn't even look like him. Club, he seems mysterious.

I just noticed that Grosseiro and Club are gone. Rose walks up to me and begins her rambling.

"Does that hurt?" She asks me. I am assuming she thinks I got shot with the arrow.

"Sure." I lie. I don't see any use debating over something that won't matter.

"How much?" She continues. I don't like this. Let me try to change topics.

"The trees are weird." I divert attention.

"How is that so?" She keeps asking and asking.

"I feel like they are watching." I told her. "I have been hearing a voice telling me to do strange things and I think the trees are telling secrets about me."

"Sounds like a metaphor for something." She fidgets with the arrow. "You should just relax."

"It's hard to relax when there are people who want us dead." I remind her.

"I think we could talk it out with them." She thinks aloud. I know that there is no mending between the 2 groups.

"Maybe." I blankly state.

I'm tired of this conversation. I'm tired just in general. I'm going to sleep.

I walk over to another log and lay down. It isn't comfortable, but after today, it will do. Before I could sleep, Grosseiro and Club come back, say some things I don't remember, and leave.

"The Juan Truths are going to be important." The voice tells me. "1, 2, 1, 2."

"What is that?" I ask.

"Nothing important." The voice cracks up. This is followed by silence.

"You know what, because you're my little social outcast, I'll help you a bit." The voice says, either insulting me or flirting with me, I can't tell. "To get rid of the arrow that 'your friend has', you have to go up the mountain left to the Club choking out Rose, got it?"

"Ye- what?" I get confused.

"You'll understand what I have said later." The voice says. "See ya later, nerd. I can't wait to do this again once you fa-"

I wake up on the log. I should've named the log thinking back on it, but a log is dead and undeserving of a name. As bad as I feel for the log, it can't be undone and I can't relate to dead things.

After letting out a yawn, I see Rose being choked out by Club. This must have been what the voice was talking about. I'm too tired to do anything about it though. Maybe if I pretend that I don't see them-

"CLUB!" Grosseiro runs at Club and tackles him. "What did I say earlier?!"

"You don't unde-" Club says before having a handgun pulled on him.

I'm gonna be honest, this is getting exciting. I can't wait to see what will happen next. Will blood spill?

"Sorry if this is the wrong time to ask," Rose says, still gasping for air. "But what the hell is going on?!"

They all stare at each other. It feels like I'm watching a mexican standoff from those movies I watched with Chrissa. Oh my, I wonder if my boss thinks I've been kidnaped or killed. Eh, it's too early to tell.

All of a sudden, Club runs toward and stands behind me. "Hermit, she is a murderous psychopath." He semi whispers. "Before you woke up, she was laying on you, with intent to kill! You wouldn't be alive if it weren't for me."

"I can explain!" Rose shouts back at us.

"Parem de agir como crianças!" Grosseiro points his gun in the air, and shoots. Everyone flinches, everyone shuts up. It echoes off nearby mountains. I hear a small yelp from the mountains back. Are they alive? Now to think about it, Pakkikiikikki most likely knows where we are now.

"Stop," Grosseiro mutters to himself. "Just stop it, please."

There is even more silence. I kinda feel bad for Gross, to be honest. If I had to put up with those two, I might have killed them as well. As for the sleeping on me thing, I think the blood loss in Rose's head is tiring and it's better than laying on the ground... I still hate her of course.

"I know how to get our little arrow problem fixed." I finally spoke up.

"Yes, yes, Herm." Grosseiro turns to me, making me flinch a bit. "What could you know?"

"The mountain to your right is important, I think." I told him.

"Then we should be on our way then!" Rose brushes herself off and starts limping toward the mountain.

We followed her before I did what I did yesterday and started to drag her along the way toward the mountain.

"Hey Jacob," Rose flails around. "I would like to apologize for the last time we met."

Whose Jacob? Is... is it Club? Nobody responded to her, so I have no clue.

We made it to the mountain. By mountain, I mean the start of a trail up the mountain. It is a big mountain, but I'm tired of dragging Rose around. I decided to just drop her and lay down on the floor.

This feels nice. It isn't as nice as resting next to Haven, but I take what I can get. I prefer being here then living with my sister in a small apartment, working in retail. This is way better than retail. This isn't perfect of course and I have to climb this huge mountain soon, but I wish I could stay here forever.

I open my eyes to see Rose holding out 3 fingers again. I groan and try to stand back up, but I can't. Did I sleep? It didn't feel like it.

"Are you okay?" Rose begins asking her infamous questions. "You've been out for... 5 minutes."

"I'm fine," I get up slowly. "Let's start clim-". I look and see we have already started to go up the trail. Huh, I could've sworn we weren't at the trail yet.

We continue to walk. Rose is also walking, which will hopefully shorten both of our suffering. Jaclub (haha, Jaclub) looks very upset and Grosseiro... he scares me. Something about that man is off putting.

I feel like I'm repeating myself. What is really going on? I feel my grip on reality is slipping. Is this even real? Who was the man with the head in his hand? Am I even in control! I feel alone. Someone is trying to attack me. Help. Please.

What was that? I'm sorry, I got a little existential there. We are going to help Rose and get out of here. There is no headless flame man, I need to get it together. I need some comfort.

"Hey Club." I start talking. It feels weird and unnatural.

"What?!" Club pouts.

"Nevermind." I stutter, that was stupid. I have to stop trying to be like my sister.

"Oh no, tell me what you HAD to say!" Club gets angrier.

"I forgot!" I pathetically squeezed out.

Club mutters something to himself that I couldn't hear. He wasn't like this when I first met him. He was nice. Maybe I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions so quickly. Are my predictions wrong? Am I not smart at all? I'm totally useless, aren't I?!

"Shh!" Grosseiro sticks his hand out, stopping the group. He looks like he knows what he's doing. Everyone goes quiet.

...

I hear whispering. It's the loud, shouty kind.

"Someone here." Grosseiro turns to us. "COME ON OUT HERE!" Forget me saying he knows what he's doing.

We wait, staying still.

A man stands out of some bushes. Not just any man, but an asian man with a name tag that says "Seupikeo". I think I saw him before.

"HEY!" He pointed at me. "I KNOW YOU TWO! YOUR HERMIT AND... Gros... gors..."

"Paul." Gro-Paul says, looking like he's about to snap. Also Grosseiro is Paul, got it.

Seupikeo awkwardly looks like he is going in for a hug but then stares at Rose and jumps back.

"I-I-Is that an arrow?!" He frighteningly asks, pointing at Rose.

"Yes, It's a long story." I told him back.

I hear a sigh and a strange woman covered in mud pops out of a different bush looking mildly upset.

"Heh," Seupikeo scratches his head. "I guess I could say that as well."

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