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Ranboo drew in a breath carefully, his bones still cracking as they shifted back into place. His head hurt, he was strung up by wires, and he couldn’t touch the ground. They couldn’t lift their hand to rub their eyes, or scratch his nose, or pry off that god forsaken mask that was still stuck to his face.
He fucking hated that mask.
He hated the way the wires crept down his throat. They hated the way they could feel the metal sinking into his skin. And he hated how it controlled him. But what he hated most, was that it was used against them. They were given a false sense of security, and it was ripped away almost as soon as the security had settled into their bones, as soon as he finally felt safe.
Ranboo felt his skull shift slightly, a sign that his bones were finally somewhat in its proper spot. He opened his mouth, mimicking a yawn, letting his jaw pop back into place. They tugged against the wires that held them in place, but they wouldn’t budge. They groaned and let their head fall back, forgetting about the spikes that surrounded them. The spike went through the back of his head–which had just healed from the first time–and they gasped in pain.
“Shit,” They said, and his vision went black.
__________
Ranboo woke up with a gasp.
“Jesus Christ, man,” said a voice, and he turned his head towards it. “I thought you were dead!”
It was Charlie. Charlie was alive. He was okay. Ranboo felt himself tearing up at the sight of his friend.
“Wh– You’re alive?” he asked.
Charlie nodded and smiled. “Of course I am, Ranboo,”
Ranboo stared at Charlie, whose smile started to fade, and noticed the tears on his cheeks. “Did you really think I was dead?” Ranboo asked, and Charlie nodded again.
“I mean, spikes just went through your head, Ran. I’m gonna think your dead.” He said with a laugh, though it was interrupted by a sob. “I’m so happy that you’re alive,” He said, pulling Ranboo into a hug. Ranboo struggled to return the hug as he was still strung up by the wires, but Charlie was able to loosen them before they had woken up. Ranboo’s skull cracked and popped, and Charlie pulled away quickly, a bewildered look on his face.
“What the fuck was that?”
“My skull?”
“Your– Okay, cool, awesome,” Charlie said, kneeling to loosen the wires around Ranboo’s legs. “that’s just great.” He whispered to himself.
Ranboo pulled against the wires that were still around his arms. He smiled triumphantly as one set broke, giving his arm more freedom to move. They continued to tug at the wires, which started to come apart in small clumps, bits of copper sticking out of them. Once their right arm was out of its copper confines, he pried at the wires that surrounded his left arm.
“I almost got the wires down here off,” Charlie said, still working to untangle the wires that were around Ranboo’s legs and ankles.
“I think,” Ranboo started, a grunt interrupting him as he pulled the wires off of his left arm. “I got it off.”
Charlie looked up at him, his face still red and puffy from crying. “Okay, good,” he said and continued to untie the wires and pull them off of Ranboo’s legs.
“Holy shit.” Charlie said suddenly.
“What?”
“There’s some in your leg.”
Charlie pointed at Ranboo’s pant leg, which was lifted up, exposing his leg. Ranboo looked down and saw the copper wires that snaked around his leg. A few of them had sunken into the flesh, and it looked as if it was done on purpose. “That motherfucker.” Ranboo whispered to himself, knowing who had done it.
“What do I do with them? You can’t walk around with that thing behind you!” Charlie said, pointing at the wall behind Ranboo.
“Pull them out.” Ranboo said, and Charlie’s face shifted from mild concern to shock.
“What do you mean pull them out? Ranboo, I’m not gonna pull wires out of your fucking legs. You’re gonna bleed out or some shit,” Charlie explained, and Ranboo shifted his leg.
“I don’t care, pull them out.”
“Wh– Ran that’s–”
“Charlie pull the wires out of my leg.”
Charlie drew in a breath and grabbed one of the wires. He tugged at it, and Ranboo’s skin moved with the wire. “What the fuck?” Charlie whispered and tried again. This time, when he tugged at the wire, it came out of Ranboo’s leg, his skin following it.
“Awesome, that’s awesome,” Charlie said, holding the wire so Ranboo could see it. “Are you seeing this shit, dude? That’s your fucking skin. On the wire.”
Ranboo’s eyes widened at the sight. They opened their mouth to speak, but no words came out. He tried again. “Take the rest out.”
“What? Ranboo this one wire took off a chunk of your skin, what do you mean take the rest out?”
“Charlie, I really don’t want the wires in my leg. Please, for the love of God, just pull the wires out.”
“Fine.” Charlie said, and tugged on the next wire.
The remaining wires came out of Ranboo’s leg, each one pulled getting a wince from them. Each wire that was pulled out of their leg pulled off more and more of their skin, each piece coming off in chunks, and Ranboo could barely ignore the burning pain as tears ran down his cheeks.
“There. It’s done.” Charlie said, and Ranboo moved his arms to wipe away the tears that were on their face.
“Are there any in my other leg?” Ranboo asked.
Charlie pulled up Ranboo’s other pant leg, letting out a sigh of relief. “There’s no more, but I still have to untangle these wires.”
Charlie started to untangle the wires, and Ranboo started slipping down the pole he was attached to, albeit very slowly, but it was a start. Ranboo waited for Charlie to fully untangle the wires, and when he did, Ranboo slid down the pole, landing on his feet. His landing wasn’t very graceful, and Charlie had to stop them from falling face first onto the ground.
“You okay?” Charlie asked.
Ranboo shook out his hands and legs. “Yeah. my legs are asleep but it’s fine.”
Charlie narrowed his eyes at them and looked down. “Hey, Ran?” he asked, and Ranboo raised an eyebrow. “Your leg is bleeding.”
Ranboo looked down, and sure enough, there was blood soaking through his pant leg. “Oh.”
“Uh,” Charlie said as he looked around the room. His eyes lit up as he spotted something on the far side of the room. “Give me a second.” Charlie said and sped off towards what he found.
Ranboo stood in front of where they had been strung up for hours–he felt like a modern day Jesus being held up by wires in that position–and finally noticed the state of his jacket and shirt. His jacket was stained with blood–which they could only assume was his, it would be horrible if it was someone else’s–and they wondered if they would ever be able to get it out. They really liked that jacket.
“I found a first aid kit!” Charlie exclaimed as he ran back towards Ranboo, who was busy flicking bits of flesh and dried blood off of his shirt and jacket. “I think we can– Oh.” Charlie said, his tone switching from excited to disappointed as soon as he opened the red lid. “It doesn’t have any bandages.”
“Are there any scissors in there?”
“Uh,” Charlie looked through the box. After a few seconds, he held up a pair of scissors. “Yeah, why?”
Ranboo shrugged his jacket off and grabbed the scissors from Charlie’s hand. They cut one of the sleeves off as well as they could. He ruined his jacket, but it was fine. It was already ruined. Charlie watched as Ranboo pulled up his pant leg, exposing his leg–which was missing chunks of his skin and was a bloody mess–and knelt down. They wiped away some of the blood that was on their leg and started wrapping his jacket sleeves around their leg. He tied it off with a knot and pulled on it slightly, testing to make sure that it would stay in place. The knot stayed, and Ranboo stood with a triumphant smile.
“Come on,” Charlie said as he placed the first aid kit on the ground. “We need to get out of here.”
Ranboo nodded and slipped the scissors into his pocket, following behind Charlie, though his mind and eyes were elsewhere. A shadow in the furthest corner seemed to resemble a person, and the hairs on Ranboo’s neck stood up. Why was someone else in the mall with them? Ranboo stopped to stare at them, but the person–shadow?–disappeared.
“Are you coming?” Charlie asked from up ahead, and Ranboo noticed the amount of distance he had put between the two.
“Yeah, yeah I’m coming,” Ranboo said, finally taking his eyes off of the now empty corner of the room. The shadow was gone, and he was fine. They weren’t going insane. They were fine. Completely fine.
Ranboo and Charlie walked through the mall together, and Ranboo couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched. They kept looking over their shoulder, and everytime he did, something moved in his peripheral vision. He assumed it was just Charlie, who was walking very carefully through the mall, and the recklessness of the movement did not match Charlie’s careful movements at all, but Ranboo was trying to convince himself that he was not insane. He was okay, just tired.
A shadow moved across the mall where he was looking, and it startled them. “Jesus fucking Christ!” Ranboo yelled, and Charlie turned around.
“What happened?” Charlie asked, his face contorted with worry.
“Nothing, just–” Ranboo paused and stared at where the shadow once was. “It’s nothing, sorry,”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
Ranboo continued to follow Charlie through the mall, though he had his arms hugged around themself, and he felt more paranoid than they should. They kept looking around, trying to find small bits of movement to prove that they weren’t going insane and that what he saw was real, but he never saw anything pass by, and the two of them had already made it back to the food court.
“Holy shit.” Charlie said, and Ranboo almost bumped into him when he stopped walking.
Ranboo moved beside Charlie, and his eyes widened. “Oh my God.”
The two stared at the Showfall employees that were on the ground, each one without, at the very least, one limb. Showfall masks were strewn across the floor of the food court, and Ranboo had to ignore the feeling of nausea that was creeping up on them. One of the employees, which was laying on the ground very close to Charlie and Ranboo, was without a head and arms, its missing body parts left around it. Ranboo could very clearly see the way its muscles poured out of it and into the pool of blood that had collected near it, and they had to turn away from the scene.
Charlie seemed to have the same reaction, though he ran towards the nearest garbage bin. Ranboo waited until Charlie was finished, just barely ignoring the sounds of him pouring whatever he had eaten earlier that day into the bin.
“Well that’s just pleasant…” Ranboo whispered to himself, and Charlie stood beside them, wiping a hand across his chin.
“Yeah,” Charlie said sarcastically. “How does this shit even happen?”
Ranboo shrugged. “TV Monster?”
Charlie thought for a moment before nodding. “I can’t think of anything else that can do this.”
Ranboo could, but he didn’t want to think about what that man had done to them.
“Yeah, me neither.” They agreed.
Charlie looked towards the ceiling and walked through the sea of bodies. Ranboo, however, could barely keep his eyes away from them, and he hated it. They hated seeing the bodies and how they were torn apart by the TV Monster, but he didn’t know where else to look. If they looked up, they would see the moving shadows that made him feel insane, and if he looked down, they would see the deceased Showfall employees.
Ranboo decided on looking around the food court, its original colours washed away by a sea of reds, blacks, and whites. They saw something move in the distance, though it wasn’t as quick as the shadows he had seen earlier. He squinted, their eyes trained on the figure in the distance, who was standing near what could only be a mall directory.
“Charlie?” Ranboo asked, and Charlie turned to face them, his eyes flicking from the ceiling to Ranboo and back to the ceiling.
“Yeah?”
“Do you see that person over there?” Ranboo pointed towards the directory. “Near the mall directory.”
Charlie took a deep breath and looked towards the directory, and Ranboo noticed how he squinted before his eyes widened. “Oh my God, he’s alive…” Charlie whispered, and Ranboo raised an eyebrow. “Sneeg. Sneeg’s alive, Ranboo.”
“What?” Ranboo asked, still staring at the figure–who was apparently Sneeg, but he didn’t believe it–near the directory. “There’s no way. He got mauled by the TV Monster, Charlie! We saw it happen!”
Charlie ignored Ranboo’s protests and walked towards the directory. Ranboo sighed and followed, still suspicious of the person near the directory. As the two got closer, Ranboo noticed that the person did look very familiar, and a lot like Sneeg, but there was no way he was alive, right?
Wrong. He was very much alive, and he was swearing at the directory as Charlie and Ranboo walked towards him.
“Sneeg?” Charlie asked, and Sneeg whipped his head towards him.
“Charlie? What–” Sneeg looked towards Ranboo and his eyes widened. “Holy shit. There’s no way you aren’t dead. Charlie, am I seeing shit?”
“They’re alive,” Charlie said, motioning towards Ranboo. “I don’t know how, a fucking spike went through his head, but he survived.”
Sneeg’s eyes widened and he stared at Ranboo, who offered a smile and a wave. Ranboo opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out, and that was really pissing them off, considering the amount of times that had happened in the last few hours. He tried again.
“How did you survive the attack?” Ranboo asked, and Sneeg shrugged.
“I don’t know, I just woke up on the floor,” Sneeg said, pointing in the direction of the food court. “Somewhere over there.”
Ranboo looked towards where Sneeg pointed, ignoring the bodies that were still in the food court, though he noticed that some of them were sitting in chairs at tables, something he hadn’t seen the first time they looked. They thought as Sneeg and Charlie talked, most likely catching up on what they had done while they were both supposed to be dead, and Ranboo’s thoughts consumed him, until they didn’t. They heard a low hum coming from where Sneeg had pointed, and he kept trying to listen for the hum, but he couldn’t hear anything other than the voices of his friends behind him.
“Be quiet.” Ranboo said quickly, his words sounding harsher than intended.
“What? Why?” Sneeg asked.
“Yeah, why?” Charlie asked, his eyebrows furrowed.
“No seriously, shut up,” Ranboo said, and Sneeg and Charlie shared a confused look, but they stopped talking.
Ranboo listened carefully, the silence in the mall interrupted by the hum. “We gotta go.” Ranboo said, and Charlie looked at Sneeg, his face painted with confusion. Sneeg shrugged. “I’m serious, we have to–”
A loud clang interrupted Ranboo, and their body froze. The trio was silent as they listened to the silence in the mall. Ranboo heard the same hum again, this time it was followed by creaks and the sounds of something dragging. Whatever it was, Ranboo didn’t want to come across it.
“We should hide.” Ranboo whispered, and Sneeg and Charlie nodded.
Ranboo walked through the mall, wary of his surroundings. He had no idea where to go, where to hide, or what to do if the noise they heard was what he thought it was. They didn’t want to run into it by accident, so they ducked into a store.
A low grumble sounded from the back of the store, and Ranboo saw the way Charlie and Sneeg’s eyes widened with fear, and he knew exactly what was in there.
“Run!” Ranboo yelled, and Charlie and Sneeg ran.
Ranboo somehow ended up in front of the two, Charlie behind him and Sneeg running just barely beside Charlie.
“What the fuck was that?!” Charlie yelled, sounding out of breath.
“The TV Monster!” Sneeg yelled from behind him.
Ranboo could barely make out the sound of stomping coming from behind them, a low hum following it. He could hear his heartbeat, and it was somewhat comforting, considering the fact that they could die at the hands of a seven foot wire covered TV that seemed to have a mind of its own.
“How did it get over here so fast?” Ranboo asked.
“How the fuck am I supposed to know?!” Charlie yelled, though his breathing interrupted him as he talked.
The hum was still behind them, and it was only getting louder. Ranboo motioned over his shoulder for the two to follow him, and they ran into a nearby store, sliding across a counter, and landing behind it with a thud. Charlie followed, his landing just as graceful as Ranboo’s–it wasn’t. He almost fell over–and Sneeg started to climb over the counter, but his attempt was interrupted by the TV Monster grabbing him by the leg.
Ranboo reached towards him, grabbing Sneeg’s hand. They pull and Charlie grabs onto Sneeg’s other arm to pull him behind the counter, but the TV Monster was too strong. It yanked Sneeg away from the two, whose arms remained outstretched as Sneeg was taken away.
Sneeg yelled and kicked at the large figure, but it didn’t budge, if anything, it seemed to hold on tighter. Charlie and Ranboo could only watch as their friend, the person they had both known since they were young, was taken away from them again. Sneeg was dragged away by the TV Monster, his screams still heard as they rounded the corner, finally out of sight. Sneeg’s screams only grew louder, and the sounds of something–Sneeg–being stabbed over and over again was the only other thing that could be heard, aside from the hum and grumble that the TV Monster emitted.
Ranboo and Charlie had knelt down behind the counter, their backs leant against it. Charlie had his hand over his mouth, stifling the sobs that left him, and Ranboo was just barely keeping himself together beside him. Their breathing was picking up in speed, and the sound of his heart beating in his ears was back. Ranboo took a deep breath and turned around, placing his shaking hands on the countertop as he looked over. He was–for the first time ever–thankful for the mask he had on their face, which muffled a sob that escaped him.
What was left of Sneeg was in front of the store’s entryway. His head looked like it had been cut off of his and chewed on, almost like a dog toy. The rest of his limbs were scattered around, some near his head, others near the store, though there was an arm that was thrown into the store. Each limb looked as if it had been torn off of Sneeg’s body and thrown without care, blood pooling beneath them. The mall would be Sneeg’s final resting place, and Ranboo planned to avenge him. He didn’t know how he would, but they figured getting out of the mall would be a start.
“Charlie,” Ranboo said, turning to face Charlie, who was still sitting with his back facing the counter, his face covered in tears. “Charlie, we need to go. Now.”
“Is he okay?” Charlie asked, and Ranboo felt a sense of grief wash over him. They wanted to cry, but he couldn’t. He had to get him and Charlie out of the mall, and if they had to sacrifice himself for Charlie to make it out alive, they gladly would.
“No, um,” Ranboo paused to look over his shoulder. “He uh– He’s dead, Charlie.”
Charlie leaned his head back, letting it bump against the counter as he dragged his hands over his face, and Ranboo kept looking past the entrance of the store. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of Sneeg’s disembodied corpse. That was until he noticed the shadows that crowded around his body parts. Ranboo noticed that one had knelt beside Sneeg’s head, the others circling around the other bits of him that were strewn across the floor.
“What do we even do about that?” Charlie asked.
Ranboo kept his eyes trained on the moving shadows. “Let’s talk somewhere else.”
“Why?”
“I really don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to,” Ranboo said, finally looking down at Charlie, who was still sitting against the counter. “There’s probably an exit somewhere in the store, we just have to find it.”
Charlie nodded and got up, making sure his eyes didn’t land on Sneeg’s body parts. Ranboo led the two through the back of the store. They grabbed a small knife and slipped it into his pocket beside the scissors from earlier, and Charlie looked around for something he could use, coming up with nothing useful. Ranboo gave Charlie the scissors, and he kept them in his hand as the two walked around. They eventually found the back exit of the store, and they went through it quietly, careful not to alert the TV Monster. Ranboo opened the door as quietly as they could, which wasn’t very quiet at all, considering how loud the hinges creaked and the way the handle made a noise when it was pushed and let go of.
Ranboo and Charlie walked into the room, and Charlie let out a dry laugh at the set.
“I still can’t believe I thought this,” Charlie pointed at the cabin set. “was all real. How did I forget everything we did when we were younger? And with Sneeg too?” Charlie frowned at the mention of Sneeg, the sounds of him screaming haunting his thoughts.
“I don’t know man,” Ranboo said. “But that’s behind us, we just need to get out of this place.”
“Okay, but how?”
Ranboo hadn’t thought of that. He knew that they needed to get out of the mall as soon as possible, before they left on the floor in pieces like Sneeg was, but they had no idea how they would escape.
“Shit,” He whispered. “I didn’t think of that…”
“Okay, well, what can we do then?” Charlie asked, and Ranboo thought for a second.
“We can always try finding the exit? We’re gonna have to be really fucking careful though.” Ranboo said, and Charlie nodded.
“Okay, but what if–” Charlie started, but was interrupted by a groan. “What was that?” He whispered, and Ranboo shrugged.
Ranboo walked towards the noise quietly, Charlie following close behind. Another groan came from behind the cabin set, and Ranboo looked towards Charlie, an eyebrow raised in confusion. Charlie shrugged and the two of them continued walking towards the set.
Ranboo rounded the corner first, and was met with the sight of a bloody Hetch on the ground, leaning against the wood panelling on the outside of the set.
“Oh, thank God,” Hetch mumbled, and Ranboo narrowed his eyes. “Please, help me. Please,” Hetch begged.
“Help you?” Ranboo asked. “What the hell do you mean help you? You killed me!”
“Look, I know I did, and that was an error in my judgement. But you’ve gotta believe me when I say this, I couldn’t go against the Founder’s orders.”
“Bullshit.” Ranboo said, their tone harsh. “You clearly had fun torturing me and my friends, and for what? Some fucking game?”
“Technically I didn’t–”
“Shut the fuck up.” Ranboo interrupted, and Hetch stopped talking. “I died. He died twice. Twice!” Ranboo pointed at Charlie, who looked just as mad as they did. “And our friend, Sneeg? You remember him right?”
“The guy that dragged the skeleton around?” Hetch asked, and winced in pain.
“Yeah, he’s dead because of your stupid fucking machine.”
“Look, Ranboo, I have no control over what that does. It has a mind of its own. I mean, clearly, it attacked me too.” Hetch gestured towards the large gash on the side of his torso. “Anyway, I heard what you guys were talking about, and I know where an exit is, and I’ll tell you if you help me out.”
Ranboo scoffed, and Charlie rolled his eyes. “We’re not helping you at all, asshole.” Charlie said, his eyes narrowing into a glare. “You can tell us and we’ll be on our way,” He said, and Ranboo nodded.
“And maybe, if you’re lucky, we won’t hurt you.”
“Yeah– Wait, sorry, what?” Charlie looked at Ranboo, but Ranboo didn’t meet his eyes. They were too focused on glaring at Hetch.
Hetch sighed and shifted in his spot on the ground. “There’s an exit near the back of the mall in a hallway. All of the other exits are fake. They look real, but they won’t lead you anywhere but to a brick wall.”
“The back of the mall?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah, near the server room.”
“It’s always the fucking server room.” Ranboo mumbled under his breath. “Okay, thanks,” They said and started to walk away.
Charlie flipped the middle finger at Hetch and caught up with Ranboo, a smile on his face. “Well, that went well.” Charlie said, and Ranboo nodded.
Ranboo had the knife from the store in his hands, and they were twirling it as they walked. They stopped suddenly when they heard the low hum of the TV Monster.
“Shit, get down.” Ranboo said, pulling Charlie towards a large pillar. The two crouched behind it, praying that the machine wouldn’t find them. Thankfully, it didn’t, and Ranboo thanked every single god they knew of. Ranboo and Charlie got up as soon as the low hum of the TV Monster had gone away, and they continued their journey towards the back of the mall.
The two were wary of their surroundings, and they both opted to look up or straight ahead when they had to walk through the sea of bodies in the food court once more. They stopped in front of the server room, and Ranboo had to pull his gaze away from the shadow people that were huddled in a corner near the back of the room.
“This way?” Charlie questioned, pointing towards a door on his right.
“It wouldn’t hurt to try.” Ranboo said.
Ranboo led the way, opening the door softly and walking through, letting Charlie shut it behind them. If they were wrong about the corridor, and something was in there with them, they would be in danger. The two walked down the corridor quietly, listening for the smallest hint that something was there with them.
“I, um,” Charlie started, and Ranboo slowed their pace to walk beside him. “I feel really shitty about everything that happened,”
Ranboo raised an eyebrow at Charlie, but he didn’t speak. They decided to let Charlie continue.
“Especially with Sneeg. Fuck, man. We could have saved him.” Charlie said, and Ranboo noticed the tears in his eyes.
“We tried, Charlie. Don’t blame us, blame the TV Monster.” Ranboo paused to look at Charlie, who still looked like he was on the verge of crying. “And I think he would be happy knowing that we were able to get out of here.”
Charlie sniffled and nodded, and Ranboo kept going. “I’m really sorry, by the way.”
Charlie raised an eyebrow at Ranboo. “What for?”
“For killing you,” Ranboo said, and Charlie took a sharp breath. “You know, um, in the cabin, and the surgery room–”
“Yeah, no, uh, I got it. It’s fine, Ran. I know that wasn’t you.”
“But it was, Charlie. It really, really was.” Ranboo said, and Charlie shook his head.
“You were being controlled, you had no control over what you were doing. And to add on to that fucked up shit, you were panicking.”
Ranboo looked around the corridor, which seemed to be never ending. “Still. It was fucked up, and I’m sorry.”
Charlie smiled–though he didn’t look happy, and Ranboo noticed–and nodded. “It’s okay.” He said and sighed. “I just wish we could have saved everyone else. There had to have been a way to save them all, right? Like, if we came back to life, why didn’t they?”
“I don’t know Charlie.” Ranboo said, his voice shaky. They didn't like the subject of them being able to come back from the dead, especially after he did twice in one day. It wasn't a pleasant experience, and it hurt like hell, but they were curious as to why he hadn't seen any of the other cast members. "Maybe it was a one time thing for them?"
"Yeah, maybe…" Charlie whispered.
Charlie was silent, so Ranboo dropped the subject. They looked around the corridor they were walking through, and they noticed the shelves that lined the walls. A few of the shelves had picture frames on them, some were empty, but some had photos, and Ranboo noticed that some of them looked like his friends and castmates. He brushed it off and continued walking, though one of them looked scarily similar to Charlie.
A shadow rushed past one of the shelves, and Ranboo stopped in his tracks, Charlie stopping beside him.
“What?” Charlie asked.
Ranboo didn’t know what to say. How does he explain to Charlie that they have been seeing things all day without making him think that they’re crazy? Spoiler alert: he can’t, so they decide against telling him.
“It was nothing,” Ranboo said, but they could see another shadow creeping up on them, and his body froze.
“You sure? You’re shaking,” Charlie said, and Ranboo noticed that their hands were shaking, and they probably have been for the past few minutes.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”
Ranboo ended the conversation, ignoring the way the shadow loomed in front of them. They stepped through it, and the shadow vanished, but Ranboo’s nerves didn’t. They tapped their fingers together as he walked, noticing the shadows that would peek out from behind a shelf, or run across the corridor.
God, he hoped the door was close. This corridor went on for too fucking long and they were getting sick of it.
“Are we sure Hetch didn’t lie to us?” Charlie asked, and Ranboo shrugged. “I mean, he totally would, considering the shit he did earlier.”
“Maybe it’s just a really long corridor?”
Ranboo couldn’t take his eyes off of the shadow that stepped out from behind a shelf in front of them, and he hoped that Charlie wouldn’t notice. They ignored the shadow as best as he could and kept walking.
"Oh my God, finally," Ranboo said as he spotted the door up ahead.
"Holy shit, it's real," Charlie said, and Ranboo couldn't bite back the laugh that escaped him.
"We're getting out, Charlie." Ranboo said with a smile, and Charlie nodded, smiling back.
Charlie walked towards the door and pushed it. "For fucks sake," he mumbled, and Ranboo raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"It won't open."
"Actually?" Ranboo asked, and Charlie nodded. "That motherfucker." Ranboo whispered, and Charlie groaned.
"What do we do?"
"Kick the door."
Charlie turned towards Ranboo, confusion on his face. "What do you mean, kick the door?"
"I don't know, it works in movies, so maybe it'll work now?"
Charlie laughed and turned towards the door. He pressed on the bar on the door and pulled his leg back before kicking it, his shoe landing with a dull thud. "Holy shit, it worked." Charlie said, and to Ranboo's surprise, the door slammed open.
"What can I say, the movies never lie," Ranboo said with a chuckle, though he felt himself tearing up at the sight of the sunlight making its way into the room they were in.
Ranboo looked at Charlie and felt relieved that they weren't the only one that felt emotional in that moment.
"Ran, we're really getting out." Charlie's voice shook as he spoke, disbelief dripping from his words. "We did it."
Ranboo smiled at Charlie and stepped through the door. The sun shined on the pair for the first time in what felt like months, even though it had only been days, and it felt like heaven.
Ranboo turned to Charlie with a sad smile. "Sneeg would have loved to see this. Niki and Ethan too."
"Yeah, definitely." Charlie said, and the two stood outside the mall in silence, taking in the view of the sun and the parking lot in front of them.
"Hey," Charlie said and raised his closed fist towards Ranboo, a smile on his face. “You and me against the world, man.” Ranboo smiled and lifted his fist, bumping it against Charlie’s.
“Always.”