Chapter Text
Tommy knew his city was rich. At least, Main street was. But he had never lived in the rich part of the city. He had always been stuck in the slums, living out his days next to dumpsters trying to avoid finding himself in the middle of a gang fight.
So when he saw three men in suits walking down his neighborhood street, he was shocked to say the least.
It was instinct to part the crowd for them to pass, but something seemed to hold Tommy’s feet to the ground like glue. It was only when one of the suited men glared at him from beneath his sunglasses that Tommy finally stumbled to the side of the road.
“Sorry,” Tommy mumbled, although he knew no one would hear it over the rumble of the crowd watching the suited men pass. He was thankful for his height, allowing him to see over the heads of the crowd and watch the suited men pass.
In the center of the small ring the suited men had created was a tall figure with curly brown hair which bounced as he walked. Tommy didn’t have to listen to the whispers around him to know it was one of the Watsons, with his suited bodyguards following next to him.
“Mr. Watson, Mr. Watson! What brought you down to the slums of Ruefield?” someone, probably a reporter, asked, walking along besides the bodyguards with an entire team of people holding fresh notebooks and pens scribbling down his every word.
Mr. Watson turned his head, meeting Tommy’s eyes for a moment. His eyes were a dull red, a stark contrast to the bright blue sky and glittering sun above. As quickly as it came, the moment was gone, and Mr. Watson turned his head towards the reporter.
“Ruefield is my city, and that includes everyone, even those less fortunate than I. It’s the least I can do to visit every once in a while,” Mr. Watson replied with a smile so wide it looked fake. He was immediately barraged with twenty more questions, all of which he ignored as his bodyguards continued to push him down the street.
Tommy almost didn’t hear the clang at his feet. But when he felt an empty space where a familiar weight at his chest had once been, he knew something was wrong. Something small and gold and green bounced on the pavement at Tommy’s feet, through the legs of another stranger and stopped right in front of Mr. Watson’s nice dress shoes.
Tommy clasped the broken fishing wire which had once held his key, both worrying for the safety of the precious little thing and hoping to whatever god was out there that he’d never see it again.
The bodyguards stopped, and the brown fluffy hair which peeked over the heads of the bodyguards disappeared for a moment. When it reemerged, Mr. Watson was holding a small golden key with an emerald embellished on the head of the key.
Mr. Watson’s eyes scanned the crowd for a long moment until he made eye contact with Tommy once again and paused.
“This yours?” he called, holding up the key. Tommy nodded and began to shove himself through the crowd and towards Mr. Watson.
The crowd almost immediately began to part for Tommy, and he almost thought he might have suddenly become as rich as Mr. Watson until he saw one of the bodyguards beckoning Tommy towards him, using a hand to push back the crowd. The bodyguard pulled Tommy closer to Mr. Watson by the wrist until Tommy was almost standing directly in front of Mr. Watson.
“Here mate,” Mr. Watson said, setting the key in Tommy’s outstretched hand and curling his fingers around it. “That key of yours looks pretty expensive, don’t go losing that again.”
Mr. Watson patted Tommy on the shoulder, smiling in a way that seemed to say more than what Tommy could decipher, and motioned to his bodyguards to keep walking down the street.
Tommy just stared at his key as the crowd passed, shock freezing him to the ground.
How did he just talk to the son of the richest man in Ruefield?
And how did he not lose this stupid fucking key?
------
It was later in the evening when Tommy sat down at his usual bench at the edge of the forest which overlooked town. He could already see Tubbo climbing up the steep hill to reach the bench, and could feel Ranboo’s presence in the trees behind him.
“Tubbo, hurry up!” Tommy shouted down the hill. He could hear Ranboo laugh behind him in his strange rumbly way as Tubbo nearly slipped on a rock on his last step up the hill.
“I’m here, now shut up,” Tubbo laughed, playfully smacking Tommy across the face. “Did you see that crowd earlier today? What was that about?”
“One of the Watson’s was visiting,” Tommy replied, smiling at a new realization that he could hold the knowledge of this gossip over Tubbo’s head.
“Liar,” Tubbo said, scoffing at Tommy.
“No really, and he patted me on the shoulder!”
“Wait, what? You actually got that close to him?”
“Yeah.” Tommy smiled. “I dropped my key, and he gave it back to me. See?”
Tommy held out his key and the broken length of fishing wire which had once held it on his neck. Tubbo picked up the key gingerly, inspecting it and rubbing a small dent in the key that he had not seen before. He then held it up to show to Ranboo, who’s red and green eyes could be seen faintly glowing in the shadows of the forest.
“Wow, you really did drop it,” Tubbo breathed, holding the key up to the fading light.
“Of course I did! You really think I would lie?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck you!” Tommy laughed, shoving Tubbo’s face to grab his key back.
“Rude,” Tubbo replied. After a moment, he added, “You probably can’t sell this thing anymore now that it’s dented.”
“When could I sell it? I’ve always been told that it’s a fake, not a real emerald or real gold. What would a little dent change?”
“You never know,” Tubbo said, allowing himself to relax into the bench and watch the light fade. Tommy clutched his key in his hand, watching the sunset and listening to Tubbo ramble to Ranboo about something.
For someone without a home, this was home.
------
Tommy was always a little paranoid in the dark. It kinda sucked, because that was where he slept at night, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. It was just another reality of living on the streets.
As he walked back to his little sleeping corner on the far side of town, Tommy jumped between streetlights, startling at the faintest noise.
Oftentimes it felt like someone was following him. Sometimes, someone was. But on this night, something felt different.
This time, he didn’t hear footsteps behind him. He didn’t see a shadow flit behind his head. But he knew someone was following him from one thing alone; the acrid smell of blood.
The smell always hung in the air like a thick blanket over the slums, but this time it was stronger, and no matter how far Tommy walked, he couldn’t escape it.
Tommy let his steps increase in tempo.
The iron tang followed him like a shadow looming over his shoulders. It made Tommy’s stomach roil.
The smell began to grow stronger, and panic gripped Tommy’s lungs.
He ran.
And that was when he heard it.
It was a laugh, a deep thing which climbed in pitch as it echoed between the cobbled city walls. It sent a shiver down Tommy’s spine, like spiders crawling beneath his skin.
The wind rushed past Tommy’s ears as he felt the thing, whatever or whoever it was, encroaching on him. He ran faster.
Up ahead was a corner of the street, a spot where it split into two parts. Maybe, if he just rounded the corner fast enough, he could shake whatever was behind him. He didn’t have many other options.
Tommy’s feet skidded as he made a sharp turn into the side street, praying to whatever god was out there he wouldn’t die tonight. Up ahead was a dumpster, maybe he could hide behind it and scout out the… alleyway.
Shit. Alleyway.
Of all the places his dumb brain could have picked to hide in, why an alleyway?!
Tommy could feel his heart beating at the door of his chest, begging to get out and run. But Tommy’s body wouldn’t let it run. It felt like a mannequin of its former self.
Tommy didn’t have to look around the dumpster he was cowering behind to see where the creature was. Its silhouette, twitching and almost human-like, stood against the wall at the end of the alleyway. And it was growing.
The silhouette laughed again, a cruel and malicious thing, letting his voice cut through the air like a honey soaked knife.
Because something deep in its voice was soft. Not soft in a comforting way, but soft in a way that only made Tommy more afraid.
“I can hear your heart beating…” the creature hummed. It flashed its fangs, and Tommy desperately hoped they weren’t actually as long as they looked in the shadow form of the creature.
Tommy hugged his knees closer to his chest, cutting off his breath as the creature paused next to the dumpster. It turned its head away from Tommy, almost fooling him to think that he had lost it, and then its eyes locked with Tommy’s.
“Why hello there,” it purred, smiling with a set of large fangs. “Why don’t you stand up?”
Tommy didn’t want to stand up. He wanted to scream. He wanted to kick this thing in the shins. But instead, without any input from his mind, his body stood up, allowing himself to face the creature.
It was tall, even taller than Tommy, and it had glowing red eyes and pale skin. It rested a cold dead hand on Tommy’s shoulder, tilting its head to the side.
“This will only hurt a bit,” it whispered, it's cold breath brushing against Tommy’s chin.
“Please, get away from me,” Tommy screamed in his head, but it barely came out as a whisper. He couldn’t move, no matter how hard he tried. The gaze of this monster had seemed to have locked Tommy’s feet to the ground and back to the wall.
The creature hummed, and then Tommy felt an icy finger tilt his head to the side to expose his neck. It tugged the collar of his shirt to the side, and Tommy felt something sharp press against his neck.
The pain bloomed from his neck like a rose, spreading down his arms and strangling his body in a mind numbing agony he could not fight. Hot red blood poured down his chest, soaking his shirt and making his legs shake from the effort of holding himself up.
The monster curled its arm around Tommy’s back, slowly lowering him onto the ground as it drank from the little bit of energy left in Tommy’s body. Tommy could only focus on the warm sensation of his tears dripping down his chin to distract himself from the overwhelming pain.
The world was growing dark. The streetlights began to fade from view, and then even the stars twinkled out of sight.
There was no light left in this world for Tommy.
------
“Fuck.”
“Shit.”
“What the fuck is happening?!”
A bright golden burst of light exploded from the alleyway of a street in the slums of Ruefield, like the sun had been thrown into the sky. It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before.
And for the residents of the city of Ruefield, it was not unlike anything they would ever see again.