In the still of night <3 || Chapter 4/8 || Smiley creature (FROM) X Oc
Warnings: loss of hope, mentioned injuries, neglect (it’s the Matthew’s) and emotional manipulation(?)
Chapters: 1:https://www.tumblr.com/hannibalsdoll/797708847332687872/in-the-still-of-night-smiley-creature-x-foc, 2: https://www.tumblr.com/hannibalsdoll/800240648834940928/in-the-still-of-nigh 3: https://www.tumblr.com/hannibalsdoll/807364266474848256/in-the-still-of-night-chapter-38-oc-x-smile
Authors note: Sorry I haven’t posted in so long, I’ve been super busy. Hope you guys enjoy!
The next thing Marina feels is the sharp feeling of being cold- freezing. It bites into her skin, her eyes flying open, her body feels weighed down like lead as she tries to thrash around. All she can see is murky brown and the stinging feeling of dirt in your eyes.
Finally, she is able to get her body to move, albeit slowly, moving up for what seems like eternity. When she finally breaks the surface, coughing and gasping, she sees the trees and the sharp sting of sunlight. She must be at the lake..
As she clamors onto the bank, Marina promises herself never again. She’s never going to use that stupid-magical tree ever again! Her clothes cling uncomfortable to her skin, with a groan and a the sharp sting of pain flaring in her lower back, legs and arms, she rolls over to gaze up at the soft blue sky. She can feel the small cuts from running in the underbrush burn as dirt is unintentionally rubbed into them. Staring up at the sky, she feels a wave of triumph. She got away! She escaped, she lived!
For how long is a question that will linger in her mind, distant, but there.
The walk back to the town is hard, the sun blaring on her back, the clothes clinging to her skin, the feeling of rocks and other underbrush digging into her bare feet and the cuts stinging with the stretch of movement. When she finally finds the main road back, Marina felt like she could kiss it.
As she sees the Matthew’s house, she breathes out a sigh of relief. Of comfort.
Marinas mind wanders to the Matthew’s.. are they okay? Angry? Worried? She’s been so worried about herself her thoughts haven’t even grace the realization that she left the door to the house unlocked!! Sure, the cowboy-William?- and redhead- Adam?- were chasing her, but there is more than just them! They could have slipped in behind her and the Matthew’s wouldn’t even know before it was too late!! A sinking feeling hits her gut as she races up the porch stairs and into the house. Nothing. Silence.
Surely they’re fine, Boyd and the rest of the town aren’t outside, and there’s no signs of well… death, she tries to comfort, her heart pounds in her chest anyway as she searches around, eyes wide. Marina finds Tabitha in the backyard, washing clothes.
“Oh, Marina! There you are! We were starting to get worried… you left so early this morning!”
Marina forces a smile on her face, staring into Tabitha’s thinly veiled worried expression. “Oh! Yeah.. I just.. decides to take a walk, yknow? Woke up really early..”
She clears her throat, “you need some help with the clothes, Tabi?” The nickname sounds like acid rolling off her tongue, the lie stinging her heart. When did she start lying to Tabitha? To the Matthew’s? She doesn’t want to seem.. delusional or anything but..
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Marina thinks she’s going insane. Genuinely, and undoubtedly insane. The redhead has been tapping on the window for the past— what? Hour?
A chill runs down her spine, he’s never done this before.. stared into her room through a crack in the curtain? Yes! Muttered about some weird stuff at times? Also yes! But tapped insistently like he wanted her to lose her mind? No!
Marina finally breaks, flinging back the curtains and glaring with a gaze that could break steal. The red heads soulless eyes stare back.
“What?! What could you possibly want?! You have my suffering, what else?!”
The redhead doesn’t have the decency to look embarrassed as he smiles— wide and uncomfortable on his face, sadistic.
She stares at him, anger and frustration coursing through her veins, she wants to yell—to scream. But all that comes out is a weak, “why?”. His— or well it’s— smile doesn’t seem to dim, just widens impossibly like he’s enjoying a game only he knows the rules to. He looks away, like he’s thinking. Marina hates that these things are intelligent enough for that. To think. To commit depravity just because they want to.
Not unlike humans, is a thought she doesn’t pay mind to.
“…because our time together is always so limited..”
His smile dims, and for a minute she feels a prick of empathy- not for it but for the feeling of not having enough time with your family.. with your loved ones. That’s something that’s being trapped taught her—she took too many things for granted.
“Why don’t you come outside? I can help you, Nichole.. I can keep you safe and sound, like I should’ve done the first time.. just open the window just a little, darling,”
Of course. As soon as she feels even the slightest hint of empathy for these things— they try to manipulate her. Give them an inch, they take a mile.
“You wish,” Is all Marina could push out, what else can she say? She could shut the blinds.. try and get some restless sleep.. worry about sleep walking off outside…she doesn’t need to speak to this thing, she has friends here! Like Tabitha… Fatima.. Boyd— she guesses. But there’s something so captivating about speaking to this monster, about speaking to something that won’t judge her— atleast not outwardly.
All he does is smile back, like this is a fun game he knows he will eventually win. “What’s that book you’re reading?”
Marina’s eyebrows raise, her eyes glancing down at her bed stand, where a book— “Then There Were None”— She had found it in the storage space in the diner.. she was never much of a reader but there’s nothing better to do. “..it’s a uh… it’s a mystery book.” Distantly, her mind catches on his speech.. he knows what a book is???
“Mh.” The thing— Alex— hums. Should she just call him Alex? That’s what the cowboy thing called him and well.. he calls her Nicole. But it feels so weird to give it a name, like it’s a dog.. or an actual person. It breeds familiarity, trust. And those are things Marina doesn’t want to even remotely feel around these things, especially him.
The silence feels stifling, harsh, suffocating.
Marina feels the prickling feeling of wrongness as she starts to begrudgingly explain the plot.
What had she gotten herself into?
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Marina has started to regret indulging the red head in conversation— a momentary lapse in judgement made in a moment of loneliness, she defends to herself.
She stares out into the night, distantly watching the other monsters walk around. She wonders if they can telepathically communicate or they have just been doing this so long that their routines go without saying. The red head gazes at her from his spot just outside, on the road, a big smile on his face. It sends a shiver down her spine, though it doesn’t affect her as much as it used to.
Marina doesn’t want to focus on the fact that she might be getting used to the creature— that she’s becoming used to his presence.
Suddenly, a knock behind her knocks her out of her headspace—
“Marina..Are you still up?” Ethan’s soft voice pipes up. Her gaze lands on the clock— she’s long since stopped questioning how the electronics work in this town— 11:30. Marina’s brows furrow, why is Ethan up at this time?
Her socks slightly catch on the old wooden floor as she walks, opening the door with a soft creak. Her gaze down on the boy.
“Ethan? Buddy, why are you up?”
Marina tries to talk as softly as possible as she sinks down to eye level with the nine year old. He gazes up at her, wide eyed and soft. Marina feels a shot of guilt in her gut, she had been trying throughout her time in the town to pay attention to Ethan, to indulge him with games and stories.
She thinks that with the rest of the Matthew’s focused on well… survival, they have been a bit.. distracted from paying attention to the younger child. With Tabitha focusing on rearing Julie.. or Jim, and Jim off with his delusional plans of ‘finding a way out’, even at the expense of his family— Marina tries to ignore the feeling building that they will never get out of the town, that her hope is dwindling by the day—It’s hard to remember at times but Julie and Ethan are children.
“I had a weird dream… about the boy in white..”
Marina has long since heard about this boy— creature? From Ethan. At first she thought it was a kind of imaginary friend, a coping mechanism. But honestly, she wouldn’t be surprised if the boy is actually real.
Ethan seems scared as he shifts on his feet, his hands tugging on his dinosaur pajamas.
“C’mere buddy,” her hand finds his wrist, softly tugging him in the room. “Why don’t you sleep with me, yeah?”Marina tries to keep her voice soft as she moves to close the curtains, keeping her gaze decidedly away from the red headed creature— did he get closer? Ethan stairs at her from his spot on the bed, a look of curiosity on his face.
“Why are the curtains open? Mom says that the curtains aren’t supposed to be open at night..”
Marina tenses slightly, glancing at him. She smiles softly— awkwardly, and moves to grab her pillow and blanket, setting them on the floor. “I was just.. looking at the stars, Ethan.”
He doesn’t look like he believes her, but he doesn’t say anything as he lays down on the creaky twin bed.
