When we get to his room, he closes the door behind us and locks it, making my heart practically leap out of my chest in fear of what he might be planning.

"What were you thinking walking through there without a shirt on?" He exclaims, storming away with his back facing me.

I accidentally drop my shirt, but decide not to pick it up. "I was actually thinking: 'I sure hope Ben doesn't see me like this.'" I say before I take the time to decide that joking probably isn't the best option.

"And you're fine with letting everyone else see you like that?" He asks slowly, threateningly, as he turns his head to look at me.

I feel my hands start to tremble. "Well, I-I wasn't, I didn't... I don't know, they don't know me, so I didn't need to..." My voice trails off. Once again, I can't form a complete sentence. I mentally slap myself in the face.

In one swift motion, he pulls me onto his bed and pins me down. My heart stops.

"I don't want any of the other boys seeing that much of you. You're mine, and only mine. You can't do stuff like that to give them the idea that they can have you," he chides. My face heats up beyond measure. Him pinning me down, yelling at me, being so possessive of me... it's scary, but even more than that, it's pretty hot. I'm upset with myself for thinking that, but it's true.

"I'm-I'm sorry... master... it won't happen again," I murmur, looking away from him.

He sighs and hangs his head. "Don't call me that. Call me Ben..." his voice trails off.

Confused but understanding that he has mixed emotions he doesn't want to express, I change the subject. "So, I take it you're feeling better?" I ask softly.

He glances down at me, then runs his hands through his hair. "Yeah, I am," he answers, grabbing my wrist again.

"You sure seem to like pinning me down," I joke.

"Gotta assert my dominance somehow," he says with a shrug. I can't help but giggle, which in turn makes him chuckle.

(Y/n)," he starts, getting my attention. I catch him quickly looking me down. "You're..." he leans down, closer to me. My heart starts racing in fear of what he might do, but thankfully he stops, catching himself before he can touch anything more than my wrists. He looks at the fear and uncertainty in my eyes, then pulls away, standing up and letting me go.

I sit up as he grabs my bag and tosses it to me. I catch it clumsily.

"Y-you should get changed. You look cold," he says with a nervous laugh. I grin and pull out a hoodie and pair of black denim shorts.

"Are you wanting to watch?" I joke, copying what he said to me last night.

His face turns beet red. "If you're wanting me to, I'm-I'm down," he stutters.

Now it's my turn for my face to get red. "N-nah, it was just a joke," I laugh awkwardly. He joins me in the awkward laughing, scratching the back of his neck and turning away to let me change in private. I slip off my wet clothes and put on the dry ones, immediately thankful for the warmth they provide, although my blush already did wonders to heat me up.

"Okay, I'm decent," I say. He turns around and glances me down, as if double checking that I'm telling the truth. We both sit in an awkward silence for too long, so I decide to speak again.

"I-I'm sorry for walking around like that..." I mutter, avoiding eye contact.

"Yeah..." he starts, "just don't do it again. The only person who's allowed to see that much of you is me: no one else," he says possessively-yet-casually.

I raise an eyebrow. "What makes you think you can see that much of me either?" I ask, copying his wording.

He tenses. "Because I'm your 'master'? And because you're mine?" He says like it's a question.

"So I'm yours, now, huh?" I challenge with a smirk. I can't help the faint blush that creeps onto my cheeks when he says 'mine', but I pretend that my face isn't red, hoping he won't notice it.

"Well, yeah. You're my proxy, after all," he answers, taking a step closer to me. "Unless... you want to be mine in more ways than that?" He says, raising his eyebrows suggestively yet also jokingly.

I laugh and playfully shove him away, making him chuckle.

"Ouch," he laughs. "Hey, by the way, sorry for being a grouch this morning. Not being a morning person and having a wicked hangover isn't really that great of a combination."

"Yeah, I figured that was why you were being so rude." I shrug my shoulders. Suddenly, I remember Kate and Toby. They're probably wondering if I'm okay, or what even happened.

"I should get back to Toby and Kate," I say awkwardly and abruptly.

He blinks. "Oh, right. Uh, I'll help you find them," he offers. I comply and we head out the door and down the hall.

"So, when I told you to make friends, you actually did?" He asks.

"I didn't mean to, but yeah. I actually met them last night and they—!" I cut myself off abruptly, remembering that I wasn't supposed to leave his room last night. He specifically commanded me not to, so revealing I left was probably not the smartest decision I've ever made.

"...and they...?" Ben repeats, asking me to continue.

I blink. Does he not realise? Should I just go with it? Should I say something? Now, let's think, (y/n). Which would get you in less trouble: you not saying in hopes that he doesn't remember, or telling him the truth and proving that you can be trusted not to lie? I huff out a breath. My parents had always said that it was better to tell the truth than not say anything, because I would be in bigger trouble if they found out than if I told them. Maybe this is a similar situation.

"Um, they tried to kill me... but when I told them I was your proxy, they just welcomed me with open arms," I say with a nervous laugh. "Now they act like we've been friends for forever."

He smirks. "Sounds like them."

I glance up at him, fear of punishment crawling in my veins, but I swallow it down and open my mouth to speak again. "You... you aren't mad that I left your room last night? Even after you told me not to?" I ask, my voice coming out small and weak.

He shrugs his shoulder. "I knew you would anyway, no matter what I said," he says. Wow. His confidence in me (or lack thereof) is quite remarkable. I don't know whether to laugh or be offended.

Suddenly, we hear a scream echo down the halls, making both me and Ben jump. It sounded like it came from the same hallway Kate's room is in. I start to panic, afraid one of them is hurt, and begin to run in the direction of the scream, but Ben grabs my hand and jerks me back, almost making me fall.

"Wait! I'll go first. I don't want you getting yourself killed," he says, looking ahead instead of at me. I nod, despite the questions that run through my head. Get myself killed? Is it really that dangerous here in the mansion? And why is Ben protecting me? Surely I can't mean that much to him?

We turn the corner and hear yelling coming from Kate's room. In worry, I run ahead and grab the handle on her door, but wait for Ben to catch up to me so he can protect me if need be, then I swing the door open and prepare to fight.

Kate and Toby, still shirtless, sit on her bed with Xbox controllers in their hands, Toby laughing while Kate looks enraged.

"HOW DARE YOU KILL MISTER WOOFLES?? IT'S PAYBACK TIME—!" She screeches.

Now it's Toby's turn to scream. "NO-NO KATE I-I'M SORRY! HAVE MERCY, M-MERCY!!!"

I look at the screen and see they're playing Minecraft. Kate is killing Toby's character with a golden sword.

"Holy shiitake—ARE YOU GUYS PLAYING MINECRAFT?!" Ben yells from behind me. I wince at his loud voice clanging in my ears.

"HECK YEAH! Wanna join?" Kate says, not turning her eyes away from the screen.

"Of-hecking-course! Let's go," I cheer as I walk over and grab a controller from Kate's desk.

"Count me in too!" Ben says, following my lead and grabbing the last controller. Ben and I sit next to each other on the floor underneath Toby and Kate's legs, turning on our controllers and joining the game.

"Let me finish killing Toby and then I'll meet you guys at the spawn point and lead you to our house," Kate says as she continues to hit Toby with the sword.

"Kaaaate, stooop. I said I-I was sorry..." Toby whines as he tries to get away, but then his screen goes red with the note: YOU DIED! Tobsters was slain by KittyKate.

"Dude why didn't you tell me you had so many diamonds?! Have you been stealing from me?" Kate exclaims, making both Ben and me laugh as she picks up all his dropped items.

"No, I just went mining while you found and tamed your dog," he mutters grumpily as his screen loads.

"He wasn't just any dog, he was Mister Woofles—" she sniffs, "—and you killed him."

"O-oops," Toby says without even a hint of remorse.

Ben and my characters finally load into the game, and we start chopping down trees right away while we wait for Kate to find us.

"(Y/n), let's build a house together!" Ben turns to me with an excited grin on his face.

I can't help but smile. "But what about Toby and Kate's house—"

"Nope!" Toby interrupts. "Th-there's no room left! You two h-hav-have to make your own house together!"

"Fine by me~" purrs Ben, looking at me mischievously and wiggling his eyebrows. I snicker and roll my eyes, proceeding to collect wood for our house.

Along the way, Ben and I argue about whether our house should be made of oak or birch wood and end up making my half of the house birch and his half oak. It was an easy compromise, and one room ends up connecting both sides. Ben and I meet in there when the game turns to night mode.

"Hey (y/n). What if... I put my Minecraft bed... next to yours.." he mutters as if he's embarrassed. I look at him strangely. He gives a nervous laugh. "Ha-ha, just kidding." He waves his hands around to show it was a joke.

Confused and amused, I give him a small but nervous smile. "Uh okay," I laugh.

"....Unless...?" He looks at me with wide, almost begging eyes.

Who is this guy and what the heck happened to Ben?

I genuinely can't decide how to react, so I panic and end up winking at him instead. This only makes Kate, Toby, and Ben all crack up laughing, which of course means I join in and laugh too.

After a few hours of playing Minecraft and Toby and Kate killing each other every five minutes, we hear the loud sound of a door slamming open somewhere in the mansion. I don't think much of it, that is until Toby, Kate, and Ben's faces all fall to fear.

"What? What is it?" I ask quietly, afraid to raise my voice any louder. Kate and Toby both look at me with worry, so I turn to Ben, looking for any sort of validation or comfort, but all I see is him swallow hard and stare into nothing.

He opens his mouth to speak, and his words do nothing to calm me down.

"Slenderman's home."

(Word count: 2026)

Teehee sorry for the long wait but here's another chapter! I'm leaving for camp tomorrow morning so sorry if I don't respond to any comments for a while cuz I won't have my phone. I hope y'all enjoyed this chap, and are prepared for the next one.

>:3c

Also; I made a cosplay account on Instagram!! So far I only have Ticci Toby's cosplay, but y'all should follow me! The account name is Ticci.Tobsters

Okie until next time!