Chapter Text
2nd Person POV
It's been a few years since the incident with Ithaqua's mother. Ever since that night you can't seem to forget his piercing stare when he told you what happened. You tried to comfort him and telling him that he'll find his mom, but he lashed out at you. "God. (Y/N), you just can't keep your mouth shut can you!" The male snaps, you retort in surprise. "I'm sorry. Im only trying to help you." The statement came out more like a whisper. The boy scoffs loudly, while picking himself up from the floor.
"I should've never met you. Ever." He states lastly. You felt your heart shatter into a million pieces, through all the years the two of you have been through together, you never thought it would end like this. "Please don't say that Itha. I'll help you okay? I'll help as best as I can, and we can save your mom--" "(Y/N)." "and everything will be back to normal--" (Y/N).." "then you and me will be the bestest of friends again—" "(Y/N)!" His last shout of your name finally got your attention. "I know you want to help me, but I'd rather you not. You'll only mess me up."
You nervously fumble with your hands "N-no I won't! I promise to help you as best as I can." He grumbles loudly "Just leave me alone. I'll do this myself. Goodbye (Y/N)." He deadpans, and walks past you and out the door. He's gone just like that you think, "Wait Itha!" You run out after him, but fail to see him. He disappeared just as quick. Your eyes start to well up with tears, and you start to cry; an ugly cry. The sound of your cries and screams resonate throughout the snowy night.
That's what you could recall, it was a night of pain for you, considering you never thought you'd lose your best friend just like that. That night you failed to tell him that you were leaving the next morning, your parents decided it was best to separate you from the duo. Sometimes your wonder if he'd even care if you left or not, after all he told you he hated you.
It's been three years now, so you kinda got over it, but it still hurts you to think about that night. You decided it's best to return to your hometown to set things right with Ithaqua.
Time Skip
Once you arrived to your hometown, you lavished the sight of the place, it's not much different from a few years ago. You hummed quietly as you walked through the streets, watching as the townspeople happily go about their day. You spent the day sightseeing and catching up with some of the people you once knew, then came dusk. You only planned to visit Ithaqua and his mother, but got carried away with the nostalgia of the place you once called home. Finding a place to stay way going to be a bit difficult, considering all the homes are rented and no one would take you in for the night.
You grumbled out “I can stay with Ithaqua and his mom. If they allow me that is.” To be honest you were very nervous about seeing them again, considering you ended on bad terms with Ithaqua. Once the sun was starting to set you continued on your journey to your former second home. The walk to the cabin took a bit longer than expected, you had forgotten where to go but managed to remember the location of the home. Upon arrival to the house, the moon was rising in the night sky, and it started to lightly snow. Lights could be seen inside the home, ‘Ah Itha or his mother must still be up.’ You thought to yourself; walking to the door and shakily putting your hand up to knock on the door.
‘I can do this.’ You knock on the door. No sound can be heard from the other side, as you awkwardly wait in the cold weather. ‘Should I just walk-in? Ma said I could walk in whenever, since I was considered a close friend.’ Contemplating on whether you should just barge in or not you decided to enter. You opened the door and poked your head in “Hello. Itha. Ma. Anyone there?” You allowed yourself in and closed the door gently behind you. You set the basket of goodies that you brought them on the kitchen table, and went to walk around to see if anyone was here. Then you see her.
Ma sitting there in bed, staring blankly at the wall in front of her. The sight startles you, you slowly walk up to her, “Ma. Are you alright?” You question the woman. When she turns to look at you her face contorts in fear, and she starts to scream. She covers her face with her arms; backing away to the wall beside the bed she was in. Her screams are ear piercing, her cries startle you and you walk to her bed and grab her hand softly. You want to try to comfort her, after all you didn’t know what she went through when those awful people took her away. The woman makes no move to pull away from you, she’s still a little hesitant about your touch but once you start to massage her hand, she eases in.
You sit in the bed with her and lay her down on the bed; while humming a song. The red head falls into a slumber within a few minutes, and you pull away from her, lifting yourself from the bed. You take the moment to look at her, she seems more of a husk of her past self now. Empty. What did those people do to her exactly? To be able to change a person who was once kind and loveable, to someone who’s scared of her own shadow. You try not to dwell on the thought any longer and you continued your search around the house to find Ithaqua. No luck. He’s not here. ‘He doesn’t just leave his mother alone like this. He deeply cares for her. Something is wrong.’
A million thoughts run through your head, mainly about Ithaqua’s whereabouts, and if something bad had happened to him. “I’ll go search for him”, you say to no one in particular, before you run out the home and into the snowy plateau.
It’s been about an hour since you started your search for Ithaqua, and sadly you haven’t found him yet. The weather seems to be worsening by the minute. Your face and hands felt numb, and the snow on your boots started melting; wetting your boots and seeping into your socks. At this rate you’ll die of hypothermia, if you don’t turn head back to the warm cabin. You shiver violently and turn back around, when you hear a twig snap from the direction you once faced. You stop dead in your tracks and turn to face the source of the sound. Nothing could be seen. “I must be going crazy, it’s just an animal wandering around.” You tell yourself. You then turn around and your eyes widen. A creature with dark blue clothing stands there behind a tree staring right at you.
The creature adorns clothing of dark blue, a white mask, a stick with a lantern attached to it and it’s on a pair of stilts. It’s eyes are the most scary feature of the being, black sclera’s with blue irises. “I’m just looking for my friend. I don’t want any trouble.” You call out to the creature. It tilts its head, which causes the ears on its cloak to tilt with it. “I’ll be on my way now. I’m sorry to disturb you.” Just as you were to walk away the creature lunges towards you and tries to scratch you with its claws. You dodge its attack just in time, then it claws are you again but manages to graze your upper right arm. You hiss out and clutch your lower arm in pain, then the creature knocks you down face flat into the snow and gnashes your back.
You shut you eyes tightly and clench your teeth, the pain of the now bleeding wound on your back has you screaming out in agony. The snow beneath you slowly turns into a crimson color, as well as your clothes. You can feel yourself blacking out and the last thing you call out, “Ithaqua…” Then it’s black.
If you were to turn back time, you’d like to go to the time when you messed up with Ithaqua. Instead of mentioning what’s been going around the town, you should’ve told him your feelings for him. How you enjoyed being with him, how you absolutely adored his beautiful smile, and contagious laughter. Oh how you would do anything to go back to that night and undo your wrongs. To be able to set things right with the boy you loved and cared so deeply for.
Warmth. That’s what you felt as of right now. What a strange feeling for someone who should be dead. You opened your eyes slowly; blinking away the blurred fuzz from your eyes, as you unblur your vision you see a bat like figure right in front of you. Once the blur in your vision has dissipated, you can see clearly that the thing in front of you is the very thing that tried to kill you. You scream hoarsely and try and back away from the figure, but is met with pain in your back and arm. The being backs away from you and puts its arms up in surrender, while shaking its head no. Almost as if it’s saying “I’m not going to hurt you even though I tried to kill you.”
Managing to sit up you look at the figure cautiously, “you’re not going to hurt me?” You question. It nods and sets its hands in its lap. You take the moment to look around the place you’re in, it’s a small well kept cabin, cozy place surprisingly. Looking down you notice you’re in a bed, and your arm wound is wrapped up nicely, you face the being. “Did you wrap my wounds for me?” It nods and looks away from you. ‘What a shy being for nearly murdering me.’ You sigh out and decide to rant to it. “I’m sorry for coming into your woods. I was just looking for my friend, you see. His name was Ithaqua and I just-“ you start crying without even realizing, “I just wanted to tell him I loved him.” You finally choke out; sobbing out.
It’s silent for a moment as the strange being lets you cry your heart out before you hear it speak. “(Y/N)?” It whispers out, you stop crying and turn to the bat creature, wide eyed. “Your voice sounds familiar.” You tell it; getting closer to the being and placing your hands on its masked face. It doesn’t stop your action, and it gently grabs your wrists, careful to not hurt you. “Itha, is that you?” You call out, and carefully touch around his mask. He nods while shaking, you smile and hug him crying even louder than before. “Oh Itha I missed you so!” He hugs you back, sobbing quietly as well.
He then pulls away from you and removes his mask, you stare at his face. It’s the exact face you fell in love with, you hug him again. “I’m sorry about that night Itha, I was just so scared of what would happen to you and Ma.” You sniffed out, he laughs lightly. “I’m sorry as well, y’know for snapping at you.” He says. His voice is a little hoarse, he most likely hasn’t spoken in a while. You released him from the hug and stare at his beautiful face, “I wanted to tell you that I loved you that night.” He abruptly states, you laugh “I love you too.” He then leans in for a kiss, and so do you. The two of you share a passionate kiss, and pull away from each other.
“Come with me (Y/N). I’ve received an invitation to play a game, and if we win we get any wish of our choosing.”
You agree.