Beyond The Frights

Pit of Memories: Prologue

"Dude-" Oscar groaned as the push of Isaac's arm and the slipperiness of his socks slid him from the front door back into the kitchen. He didn't even know Isaac had the strength to pull it off. Isaac was always the speedy yet weak one, unless they counted 3rd Grade when Isaac was the biggest out of the three. Finally passing the entrance that separated the hallway and kitchen, he stopped pushing, letting Oscar gain control of his balance and his own free will to move.

"Was that really necessary?" He furrowed his brows and shrugged while staring at Isaac, who looked the same as he expected... a resting bitch face.

"Uh- YES. This is pretty serious." He shook the newspaper he gripped with his smaller hand, resulting in the top of it flopping up and down with each shake. Despite the shakiness of the rolled-up newspaper, he was still able to squint and read the blurry bold print of "The Woods Journal", the typical brand his mother read every day.

"... Is that my Newspaper?"

"Yeah, but that's not the point right now."

"What is the point then? That you finally learned how to read?" Raj's presence popped into Oscar's view after speaking and walking through the hall themself, seemingly getting left behind after, what Oscar imagined, Isaac noticing the paper on the sidewalk and grabbing it to rush inside.

"Hahah. Very funny," He said in the most toneless voice he could make, creating a sarcastic smirk on his face while leaning it towards Raj.

"But it's actually about this." Isaac pointed at one of the blocks of text on the front page before handing it over to Oscar, with Raj and him having to huddle up to read it simultaneously. The first few sentences mentioned the Stitchwraith, which Oscar was just confused by. Although, it wasn't from the existence of the Stitchwraith itself, he had known a bit about the strange tale for a few months... which was something about a robot in a cloak stealing garbage and eyeballs that also happened to kill people. He was only confused on why Isaac seemed to have such a serious focus on it now... until he continued reading. After a few sentences summarizing the other stories it's been in, it started talking about how it was recently reported picking up strange bright green fur and destroyed looking eyeballs... near a train track... The Plushtrap Chaser, it was picking up the Plushtrap Chaser.

"No way-" Raj was the first to speak after a deafening pause of silence, only being able to let out a mutter.

"Yeah."

"I thought that thing was some stupid hoax."

"I guess not..." Isaac moved over to Oscar's open side to look back over the Newspaper as Oscar continued to stare at it, too stunned to say anything still. Raj already said what they were all probably thinking anyway; that they thought it was some stupid piece of fiction taken seriously by the Authorities and people who were too paranoid. He barely saw anyone at school, the mall, the streets of town, and even the Nursing home talk about it as if it was a real danger. It was only spoken about how absurd it was in passing... but it was real. It had to be; it was too specific not to be. How could someone make up a fake story that coincidentally tied perfectly into knowledge only they knew about? No one else knew the Plushtrap Chaser was turned into shambles on those tracks, not even his mom. Some random kid couldn't just run into the woods, find exactly where the remains of the toy laid, then decide to lie the Stitchwraith picked it up, especially since reporting broken fuzzy green parts covered in blood were on a Train Track had a better chance of being taken seriously... Although, now there was the question of why the Stitchwraith would take it in Oscar's head. What reason did it have... Was it just to collect it? It apparently liked collecting garbage... or was the reason more sinister? There had to be a reason it was collecting garbage in the first place... His mind jumped back to the conversation he overheard before even seeing the toy, when the workers were questioning who processed the return and the eyeballs looking... real... The Stitchwraith stole people's eyeballs... right? Could it have...

"... Do you think the Stitchwraith made... you know." He turned and leaned his head over to Isaac, gesturing the entire newspaper toward him as if it would add on to the question.

"It makes sense. Creepy weird robot creates creepy weird toy." He supposed that did make a bit of sense, but it also led to many more questions Oscar could ask himself, with most of them having to do with the Stitchwraith's motives... if it even had any... Although, Oscar had one question that would lead to more action than more confusion.

"What are we gonna do now?" Do they report it? Try finding it? Try killing it? There weren't many things he could think of doing besides those; it didn't matter since Isaac would've stared at him, confused, either way.

"What. What do you mean 'what are we gonna do now'?"

"I thought you had something in mind- You Literally pushed me in here."

"Because finding out some creepy robot was responsible for the toy that could've killed us is pretty good information to know Oscar." Sure, he wasn't doubting it was important to know... but how could he just sit on that knowledge and do nothing in good conscience? They knew the Stitchwraith had possibly created a chomping, killing machine with real human eyes and teeth... and they were just supposed to do nothing? That wasn't right, and Oscar knew it. He couldn't feel good with himself if he didn't do anything, he would only feel... guilty.

"But- we can't just do nothing. We're like the only people who can put this together."

"What do you want us to do? Report the fact we know the green furry thing with real human eye-"

"DON'T- mention that again..." Raj interrupted, almost shoving their arm across Oscar's chest to poke Isaac.

"The furry green thing with... you know- was a toy we stole? Like That'll definitely go well." Despite the sass in Isaac's sarcastic remark, and his unawareness to Oscar's thoughts, it made Oscar cross off the option to report it in his mind, only two options now remaining for what they could do...

"... We try stopping it ourselves then."

"... What."

"Or- just try to find it to... get more information on it and report that- which we can then mention the green furry thing likely being a Plushtrap Chaser." Oscar spiraled up a more reasonable option they could do even though he barely had any intention to go through with it... He wasn't quite sure why, because it was infinitely smarter to do than try killing it himself... but, for some reason, he wanted to choose the former, having a sense of trust for only himself and his friends... Which Isaac didn't have as he continued to stare blankly at him.

"... You can't be serious."

"Just think about it Isaac- We can't just sit around and not do anything. Besides, if that thing really made the toy, and we were able to defeat it... maybe we have the potential to defeat it ourselves. It's just some regular robot, right? They're not that hard to trick- or defeat, or... I don't know- Whatever we plan on doing." Isaac's face didn't change, having his reaction speak for itself for what he thought of Oscar's... not thoroughly thought-out idea.

"... Please? You can't just expect us to not do... Anything, right?" Isaac's furrowed eyes slightly softened at Oscar's plea, but still portrayed wariness. He shifted his eyes around the room before directing them at Raj to get his input. All they could do was shrug, not showing disinterest in the idea, but not showing complete support either. Isaac's eyes then moved into a roll as he sighed.

"Ugh- Fine, you wannabe superheroes." He poked Raj's and Oscar's chest in conjunction with his light insult.

"But if we find nothing after like a week or two, I'm not wasting anymore time searching and am leaving the Detectives to risk getting murdered." He leaned back on Oscar's table as he crossed his arms while Oscar could only react with a nod. It was a reasonable deal, to him at least, it wasn't like they could try looking for it forever, but he was slightly turned off by Isaac's murder comment. He doubted anything like that would happen to a Detective... or themselves... In fact, he felt pretty hopeful things would turn out better than he ever would expect.