Chapter Text
Keys jingling in your shaking hands, you blink slowly as the exhaustion pours like water over your hunched body. Grasping at the hoodie covering your chest as a way of comfort, you jiggle the doorknob, before the key clicks into place, unlocking the door covered in chipped paint. Kicking the door shut, you throw your keys on the kitchen counter, along with your sling bag. Running your hands over your face, you sigh, just happy to be away from the chaotic environment that you call work. Hand finding metal, you pop open the top of your tea kettle, filling it to the brim with lukewarm water from the creaky faucet. Turning the knobs controlling the burners on your stove, you slowly put the kettle on top of the blazing fire before making your way to your room. Quickly throwing off your hoodie and bra along with your pants, you find a cozy pair of pajamas light enough to not cause a hot case of discomfort. The fabric sitting comfortably atop your breasts, you scratch the skin that was once concealed underneath your bra, rolling your tense shoulders.
Pulling some fuzzy socks over your freezing feet, you begin to hear the whistling of the kettle. Sauntering to the cabinets lining the gray walls, you grab your favorite mug that has a lovely frowny face on both sides AND a middle finger on the bottom, smiling softly as you grab the black chai tea bag from its packaging. Humming at the smell, you pour some sugar in the now murky water, now looking forward to lying in bed, watching people being stupid on social media before falling asleep as whatever video plays on. Chuckling to yourself at the thought, you found yourself immediately setting your tea down and flinging yourself on the bed once you got in your bedroom. Breathing in the scent of tea and home, you lean over your bed side table to grab your laptop, logging in and immediately go to Instagram to scroll through the reels, you scroll for a little bit until you got tired of the normal humor. Going to TikTok, you smile as your fyp is filled with dark humor and offensive memes. Giggling at every one you stumbled across, then grumbling as Colleen Ballinger showed up playing her stupid ukulele. Scrolling one time before a plethora of colors filled your vision, almost blinding you as “Welcome Home” flashed across your screen.
As you found this was actually an ARG meant to be creepy and have secrets, you got interested quickly. Opening another tab, you searched for the website, eyes darting to every inch of the screen, taking in the horrific colors that practically lit up your room. Your eyes then saw him. Wally Darling sat on his stool, smiling as his easel waited for the brush of his paintbrush, though it never came. You scrolled through the website for a couple minutes, then clicking on “The Neighborhood”, blinking as eight homes stood in their colorful glory on your screen. Taking your time to look at every character and their descriptions, you start to notice that something was a little off. Past tense for everyone, except Wally, who also said “Goodbye,” not, “Go Back”? You hummed as you noticed another strange detail; Wally’s house had eyes and there was a strange shadow underneath the door, coming from what seemed to be underneath? Hovering your mouse over the shadow, a link showed up at the bottom of your screen. “So Below...?” You grimaced, “So this is going to be demon related?” You felt a lingering feeling of being watched, but just like the rest of us, you decided to keep going. Silly you. Clicking once more, you watched as another tab opened and the screen turned dark, before showing Wally knelt in front of one of Home’s eyes, sketched in an eerie ruby red. Your eyebrows furrowed as you came to the conclusion, he was probably worshiping Home. But, before you could make a move to exit the tab, a spiral began to slowly appear as if one was drawing it in real time on your page. Frozen, you watched as it trailed down before coming to an end, slowly coming to click on it. Almost fearful, you watched as it took you to, yet another tab called, “Neighbor”.
A Record showed itself from the shadows, vibrating erratically, sending a shiver down your spine. An audio file...? Pressing Control, A, you found that there was a caption. “There is no dialogue. Only the sounds of Home creaking, groaning, banging, or squeaking…Morse code?” You then listened intensely, trying to hear what Home was trying to say. “H…E…L…L…O”, you were able to decipher by writing it down on a piece of paper nearby. Staring intensely at the paper, then the screen, you couldn’t tell if you really liked the feeling it gave you knowing that Home could speak in more ways than just small bangs. Slowly going back to the website, you went back to the original “Welcome Home, You!” page. Just taking a second to stare at Wally, you see a red square begin to form out of the corner of your eye, just like the spiral did: slowly. Hovering your mouse over it, the link says, “I,” you click on it. Another audio file, you press play, “There you are! Welcome Home! Ha. Ha. Ha.” The laugh catches you off guard. Who is this? Is this Wally? You press further, finding colorful bugs around the pages that lead you to videos that just seemed to be Wally dissociating in conversations with his neighbors. Relatable. But more drawings showed themselves, and soon enough, you had audios that in order spelt, “I will help find a way. Soon I will understand, Neighbor.” Slowly, throughout the different audio files, Wally’s voice begins to distort more, but in the audio file named, “soon,” his voice doesn’t sound like it comes from your laptop speakers anymore. It sounds so... Close. Like he’s in your room.
“Let me in,” he says, before changing the conversation to a completely different topic. “Do you like to draw?” He drones on about drawing eyes, as he draws his own in red, but you remember from the earlier audio file named, “a,” he said, “I have more eyes now than I did before…You draw mine many times. I know it is thanks to you, Neighbor, that I can see.” ‘Fans drawing him... Creates more eyes for him to see through?!’ You thought. He wants more. He complains that he still can’t see. What does he want to see so bad? Us? Another shiver crept down your back, the hairs prickling on your shoulders and neck. You moved your mouse to go back to the website, going to the page “The Playfellow Exhibition,” before scrolling through the pictures, finding the Worksheet and writing down the answers, feeling the answers will come in handy later. Humming, you scrolled down to read the passage underneath, running your mouse along the words to help your eyes stay on the same line. As you got to the third paragraph, you noticed the word “answer” had a link attached. “Crack The Code...?” You muttered. Clicking, it showed a paper with a large number of notes scribbled around haphazardly, your eyes scrambling around to read every line. “Worksheet is 5 Questions-Key??” You smirked, proud as you clicked the page, finding a safe with different colored buttons. Eyebrows furrowed, you pressed one, which took you to a different site. “GUEST AREA: Please enter the password below.” You looked at the answers to the worksheet you wrote down, taking the first letters of each name, before quickly typing it in the awaiting box. Huffing in triumph, you quickly froze with the “Staff Only” screen displayed. Black everywhere; very different from the website’s overwhelming colors.
Pressing Control, A, you were able to decipher all the text covering the page, finding the words, “Ring-Ring-Ring. Hello? Can you hear me? Call back soon, please,” very disturbing. Scrolling through the pictures, you found the black substance covering all the merchandise and the worker’s office looks the same as the strange shadow under Home’s door. Heartbeat increasing in speed slightly as you scrolled more, you shivered at the words above the abyss of black, “It’s in here.” You shook your head, telling yourself immediately, “okay, that’s all for tonight.” What you didn’t see before you closed your laptop was the words that scribbled fast on the page in red, “PLEASE STAY”. As the laptop closed, you instantly felt the feeling of being watched leave as you set your laptop back in its place on top of your bedside table. Pulling the light covers over your shoulders, you turned the TV in front of your bed on so you wouldn’t be sleeping in full darkness. After a couple minutes of lying there with the TV droning softly in the background, you were able to lull yourself to the comfort of sleep. Suddenly, a silhouette formed on the screen of your TV, large almond-shaped eyes taking in your form as the head of the silhouette tilted slightly to the side. The permanent cat-like smile softened slightly to look more genuine. “Goodnight, neighbor,” was heard before the TV turned off.
Your eyes quickly blinked open as your alarm blared in your ear. Wincing at the ringing in your left ear, you sat up and practically punched the button on your alarm clock to get it to stop. Groaning under your breath, you looked around your room before realizing you had to go to work. FULL NINE HOUR SHIFT TOO. Groaning louder, you threw the covers off of you, making quick work to throw your pajamas off, replacing them with your work uniform and a hoodie to cover it for COMFORT. Going to your bathroom to take a morning pee and brush your teeth, you decided today was a day to try and cover your eye bags with a little bit of makeup. Eye makeup? Hell yea. Turning on your phone, you played your favorite playlist as you got your makeup out. Color corrector, concealer, powder, eyeliner, mascara, lip gloss, and blush. Shaking your hips and singing along to the music, you quickly applied everything. Applying eyeliner effortlessly, curling your eyelashes and pressing mascara on them, before the final touch: GLOSS.
A pair of eyes watched in awe from your phone screen, trailing over your face to see the work you had just done. It looked so natural! Pulling your hair back in a messy bun, pulling a couple short strands out to frame your face naturally, you nodded in satisfaction before taking your phone and leaving the bathroom. The eyes quickly disappeared to stay hidden but were still very present. Watching as you made your way to the kitchen and made yourself a cup of coffee, Wally smiled as he watched you pour in lots of creamer and sugar. He made sure to remember you liked your coffee extra sweet. Pulling out scrambled eggs from the fridge, he made a face as he knew it was probably days old, but he can’t judge. He eats with his eyes, after all. You ate quickly, getting the hiccups as you struggled to pour all the coffee in your mug down your throat. The hiccups continued as you tied your shoes and grabbed your bag. Today you felt like skateboarding to work, as it makes the morning a bit more fun. Just as long as you didn’t fall. Running up to your room with your phone in hand, you grabbed your sticker-covered skateboard. Seeing as you only had ten minutes to get to work, you rushed out the door, putting some earbuds in as you descended your apartment’s stairs. Wally watched in entertainment as you unknowingly made eye contact with him, unpausing your playlist, before placing your skateboard on the pavement underneath your feet.
Wally listened to the music with interest, finding that this music was way different than what played in the 1970’s. But as one song came on, it immediately caught his interest as it was clearly one of your favorite songs, with the way you lowly sang it under your breath as your skateboard rolled around on the concrete. “The Red Means I love You” was what it was called, and he absolutely adored it. The way you sang the chorus with passion and the feeling of pure chaotic love and obsession got his heart soaring. The wind rolling through your hair as your voice got lost in the sound of the air flying past you from how fast you were rolling. Your hand came out to your side to feel the wind through your fingertips, before curling back to your body again to grip at your hoodie covering your chest; a coping mechanism you never noticed you did. As the song came to an end, you rolled up to a diner, already bustling with people who loved the breakfast you served. Taking your earbuds out, the playlist paused, and you kicked your skateboard up, swiftly picking it up to carry with you inside. Sauntering to the back of the diner, you set your phone down next to you before taking your hoodie off, revealing your white polo shirt. You then grabbed an apron with a name tag that had your name written in cursive on it, wrapping the strings around your back, and around your front one time, tying it off in a bow, before fixing your bun. Straightening your apron, you slid your phone in your back pocket, the screen facing outwards.
Grabbing a pen and notepad, you slid them in your apron’s pockets, before walking over to the punch machine, and punching your ticket to clock in. As the day progressed quickly, Wally watched in interest, finding human interaction to be very interesting. He seethed every time a customer would try and flirt with you, with either very perverted compliments, or asking for your number. Wally would clutch his heart through his felt, wondering why he felt so angry, he had never felt that way before with anyone other than you. Feeling relieved every time you would reject them, he would still feel as if he wished you would say something else, bite back. He wants you to embarrass them, tell them what you truly thought. He could hear all your thoughts throughout the day, even if they were muffled by your jeans pocket. “Dude looks like he just hit puberty.” “I wanna just reach out and pop that pimple... I don’t know what to look at...” “Did he just say he has a boner?! I DON’T SEE ANYTHING!!!” He chuckles at every rude thought you think, wanting to tell you just to let them run through your mouth. His hands clench at his rainbow pants as he’ll see some customers look at your rear while you walk past. His favorite part of the day was when you were able to leave for lunch, skating down to a nearby cafe for some fancy looking food. But...You didn’t leave alone. He’d been watching you interact with this coworker of yours all day. They were so...clingy.
Wally had seen how they looked at you when your back was turned, that longing look... You went to lunch together, he hated how much it looked like a date. You, sitting in a booth, across from each other, laughing, having a good time. His eyes narrowed in envy, the phone set down on the table so he could hear and see everything clearly. He saw you guys try each other’s food, talk about everything going on at work, things he didn’t understand. But he did understand the part where your coworker was going to go to your place that night, you and them...alone. He just promised himself he would be there for the whole thing, make sure you are safe. Soon, the evening came, and you and your coworker were skating together, excited about tonight and relaxing. You even shared your wireless earbuds on the way to your house with them! He could still hear you both singing together, an angering sound. Their voice was like a fork to a kitchen plate. As you both got to your apartment, you quickly ran up the stairs, excited to finally have company. As you got inside, you quickly set your stuff down and ran upstairs to get changed. Your coworker jokes about coming with, but respected boundaries... Lucky for them. As you threw your clothes off, Wally heard your coworker’s perverted thoughts from the other room. So loud. He frowned as you remained unknowing, pulling on some cute Yoda-covered pajama pants, and a large black hoodie. But he couldn’t help but smile as you pulled on some more fuzzy socks, finding it endearing that you loved certain fabrics on certain parts of your body.
As you grabbed your phone, you danced for a second, stimming out of excitement, before rushing to the living room. There, your coworker was looking around as they sat on your couch. You smiled as you took the seat on the other side of the couch, taking the remote and going to Netflix on the TV, before getting up to make some popcorn. Pouring it in a large bowl, you sat back down in your spot, before putting the popcorn in between your seats. Logging into Netflix, you looked at different movies, before settling on “Lights Out”. Throughout the movie, your coworker would jump at jump scares, you stayed still and kept shoveling popcorn in your mouth, like this movie was the most interesting thing in the whole world. It wasn’t before long that they had to go home, Wally’s favorite part of the whole day! He watched as they left sadly, and smiled as you left the door with your phone and went to your room. With bated breath, he was waiting for you to open your laptop, but instead, you turned on the TV and laid down in bed, falling asleep quickly. Wally was a little disappointed, but there was also tomorrow! His pupils grew to almost cover the white of his eyes, an abyss of black staring down at you as your back rose and fell with every breath. He didn’t really like how silent it got when you slept, your mind focused on making a dream for you to be entertained throughout the night. But there were always exceptions for you. You were the most. He grinned, before playing some classical music on the TV, the volume faint. There, he stayed, listening and making sure you stayed safe and sound. Closing his eyes and taking in your presence, he adored the way you made him feel like he could be himself. He just wished you knew that he was there. Soon. ‘There’s a time for everything,’ he thinks with a small smile.