Chapter Text
The red hood over eyes covered your sight in a way that you could only see the floor and half of the room. Your dad had finally let you come to work with him and you couldn't be more excited! It felt like a dream come true! You had lost track of all the times you had asked, no begged, your dad to take you to work with him. You were constantly told that one day you would take over for your dad afterall, and you just really wanted to see what his job was like. Today was your 6th birthday and when your parents both asked you what you wanted to do for the day, you jumped at the opportunity to see what exactly it was that your dad did. When you mentioned that you had wanted to go to work with your dad tonight both of your parents had told you that they would need to discuss it amongst themselves for a bit before letting you know if you could go with him tonight, whatever that meant. You guess it meant that they thought it was a good idea too because here you are!
It smelled weird in the house on the hill, like metal and wet smell, Bob had told you once what the wet smell was called Petri-something. You smiled thinking about your best friend, he was the smartest guy you knew and it made you so happy to have such a cool friend like him. Maybe one day your dad can let you bring him to the house on the hill, it would take alot of work on your part since it took what felt like an eternity for your parents to finally let you come here. Your parents really like Bob though, so maybe it'll be less work than you think! You've also heard them say many times that it was a 'blessing' that you and Bob met so early in life, and the 'The Eyes' were very pleased with yours and Bob's friendship. You didn't get what they meant by that, mostly because your parents talked really weird about 'The Eyes' whatever that was, but maybe now today you'll finally know what 'The Eyes' were, and then you could tell Bob all about it tomorrow!
You stood there daydreaming about all things you would tell Bob tomorrow right there next to your dad at the podium atop a small stage like area in the back of the room. You were soon ripped out of your daydreaming however by the group of red cloaked figures in front of you chanting something. " Stellae, Oculi, Oculis servi sumus, quae superi stunt sidera, cum omnia vident." over and over again.
Your dad started raising his hands up above his head and speaking in a funny language as well. "o magni et potentes oculi! Tibi offerimus nocte sanguinem, quem sinus! Hac nocte tibi offerimus sanguinem purum, innocentis sanguinem, sperantes quod in hac nocte plenae lunae benedicas nos!" He turned to the right and signaled to some people outside of the door, and you were buzzing with excitement, nearly hopping up and down in place, this was so cool! Your dad knew other languages, you don't know any other languages, your dad was so cool!
The people that your dad had signaled to walked through the door with a small little baby goat, Bob told you once that baby goats were named kids, you don't think that one is very true because you are a kid and a goat looks nothing like you, so maybe sometimes Bob can be wrong but you still love spending time with him!
The people place the goat in the middle of the room as the other cloaked figures started chanting louder, it also felt like maybe someone forgot to close a window because the wind was picking up and you felt like you would fly away at any second as your red cloak whipped around your tiny frame. It picked up your hood enough to fully see the room, to fully see one of the cloaked figures pull out a dagger from their sleeve and slice the baby goats throat just then the others swarmed it's body, red covering them as they took pieces of the lamb and shoved it into their mouths. You're smile dropped, you wanted to throw up, and you realized dad wasn't so cool anymore, that baby goat didn't do anything wrong...Did it? It was just a baby how could it? Why were they eating it like that. As you heard the snapping and crushing of bones, a crushing realization hit you.
You don't want to take over your dad's job, and you can never tell Bob about this.
You kept up a fake smile the whole night, that is until you got to your room. As soon as you closed the door you ripped off the robe and hid it in the furthest back part of your closet and curled up in front of your closet to cry and cry some more. You hated your dad's work and his coworkers, you never wanted to go back to the house on the hill, you never want to know what 'The Eyes' are, and you never want to see another goat again. How could you, what if one of the goat's was that baby goat's mama or papa? How could you face them knowing that you couldn't put a stop to what happened to it's baby. You felt like a monster, even if you didn't do anything to it yourself, you started choking on nothing and more tears spilled from your eyes. You felt a hand on your shoulder and jumped back from it scared that it was one of your parents, you swore you had locked the door.
Looking up still struggling to breathe you saw a red turtle neck sweater, and a very worried Bob. You calmed down a bit at that, and remembered that you and Bob had started leaving your windows unlocked so that the other could check in with the other on nights when you two weren't allowed to have sleepovers.
"Are ya okay Y/N what happened?" Bob looked really worried about you. "Are ya hurt? Do you have any band aids I can patch it up for ya." He started looking you over for wounds grabbing your arms and moving them around to examine them.
This made you laugh and fully calm down, "No Bob I'm fine." you sniffled.
"Are ya sure? I can help you if you aren't, it's no bother to me." He said brow furrowed, still worried about you.
You stood up and gave him a big hug, he stiffened a little bit at this, Bob always did when you gave him hugs or held his hand to cross the street. "Oh Bob, I'm okay I promise, you already made me feel better see?" You stepped back from him and held out your hands to show him you were fine. You weren't but you knew if you said that he would worry, and there was no way you could tell him about what happened tonight. No you decided that tonight's events went with you to your grave, you would never tell anyone about this.
"O-oh okay." Bob said, brow unfurrowing "I'm glad I could help." a smile started forming on his face.
"Wait Bob shouldn't you be asleep by now?" You looked at the clock it was way past bedtime and Bob always sleeps during bedtime whether it be over at your house or at his, why was he up now?
"I uh I was worried 'bout ya." Bob said shuffling in place and face starting to get as red as his sweater "And I uh.... I wanted to give ya your birthday present is all. Couldn't sleep thinkin' 'bout how if I gave it to you tomorrow it wouldn't be a birthday present anymore because it isn't your birthday tomorrow... Ya know?" his voice got softer at that last part, he was so sweet.
You nodded "Yeah that makes sense to me." He let out a sigh, he seemed nervous for some reason.
"'Course it does." He said, proud that his reasoning made sense to you "So uh here ya go." He pulled out a small box from his pocket covered in sparkly balloon themed paper. It was very badly wrapped and covered in tape, aw he tried to wrap it himself for you, you could tell because his mama was very good at wrapping presents and showed off her excellent wrapping skills every year at Christmas when she handed you your present from her.
You reached to grab it from him, but he pulled the present back, you looked at him confused "Bob I thought the present was for me? Why won't you give it to me?"
He started tugging at his turtle neck with his free hand "Y-ya gotta promise that ya won't hate it....please." he looked at you hopefully.
You blinked, You always loved all of Bob's presents every year, why was he so nervous now? "I promise." you said and held out your pinky to him which he wrapped his own pinky around.
"Okay." he said handing it to you after you guys finished promising.
You opened the wrapping carefully trying not to ruin all of Bob's hard work, and pulled out a tiny box that was hidden underneath all the wrapping paper. He stiffened as you opened the box to reveal a small necklace with a weird shaped charm on it. It was so pretty! You stood there staring at it, it looked like something your dad would buy for your mom, you wondered how much it cost Bob, this looked like it costed at least 12 weeks worth of his candy store money, and Bob really loved his candy. Come to think of it you have been sharing an awful lot more of your candy store hauls with Bob than usual, did he save all his money to buy this for you?
Before you could ask Bob started talking to fill the silence that seemed to be suffocating him "I-it's a uh a Trinity Knot.... O-or sometimes called a Triquetra.. I-it represents uh... somethin' I uh I-I can't remember what...." He said trailing off and hiding his face in his turtle neck slowly. He totally knew what it was, Bob never forgets anything he learned a 'sponge for knowledge' his mama would call him. He looked so nervous about it though you decide not to question it.
"I love it so much." you said looking up from the box at him and walking over and closing the distance to give him another big hug.
He started almost jumped when you put your hands around his shoulders to hug him, you were older than him by a couple of months and still he was waaaaayyyy taller than you, sometimes you thought it wasn't fair especially when he would embarrass you when you'd ask him to reach for a high shelf for the candy you wanted at the candy store.
"Thank you." You started crying on his shoulder overwhelmed by today, he had made one of the worst days of your life into a bearable one, Bob always seemed to make your days better.
Just then he surprised you, for the first time ever in your friendship
Bob hugged you back.