(Untitled)

[theblindguy]

Auggie doesn't actually notice it at first - the light weight on his torso that started to move up his chest with a slow deliberation. In fact, he doesn't notice anything until that same weight ends up on top of his face, immediately cutting off his air supply. He let out a muffled gasp, grasping at whatever was attacking him - and that's what he

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[theblindguy]

Auggie immediately expects a reaction along the lines of the surprise he's feeling at the sight of him pinning some kind of weird animal down, which he's now pretty sure is dead. But now that he's far more awake and the adrenaline starting to dissipate, he starts to really take in the entire situation. The animal that just attacked him actually felt sort of familiar. When he pulled the blade from its body, it was completely clean of any blood that's supposed to be there. In it's place, as he tentatively touches it, he finds it's soft and feels like...stuffing?

"What?" he breathes out, sounding as confused as he is. He runs a hand along it's face, and now he definitely recognizes what it is he's been fighting with. He can just imagine what he must look like right then, and he immediately launches into an explanation even without her prompting him for it. "No, see, that - I swear this thing was just launching itself at me."

Except now he's not so sure that it even actually happened. It didn't make sense, though - he had gone through some pretty bad night terrors before, but nothing, not even right after his injury, caused him to have this vivid a dream and then made him act it out on top of it.

He eases himself into a seated position on the floor, resting the knife next to him. It's only then that he realizes his leg is still throbbing, and he places a hand where it hurts, feeling wetness the moment he touches the skin. He doesn't need to see it to know it's blood, seeping out of the wounds inflicted by its' claws.

Auggie's never been so glad to realize he's actually hurt. It's about the only thing right now that's telling him he didn't just have some sort of episode of - he didn't even know. But it involved a knife, so the idea he might have hallucinated something like this isn't something he wanted to think about.

"Look, see?" he says, lifting his hand away from the wounds that are a few inches above his ankle so she can get a look at them. "It was trying to crawl up my leg!"

[farmgrown]

Annie crosses her arms loosely over her front, notching her hip against the doorframe as she leans against it and silently observing, the faintest of smiles crossing over her mouth as she watches him feel for the stuffed bear, his hand moving over the soft shape and the hard nose and eyes, stuffing spilling out of where he'd stabbed it in the stomach, and it's difficult not to laugh then and there, but he sounds sincerely surprised, and as she looks more closely at him, he's actually breathing hard, winded, as if he's literally just been in a fight for his own life.

When he shifts, sitting on the floor, his hand goes to his leg, and unconscious action has her eyes going there too as she sucks in a breath, a wince through gritted teeth as his fingers come up red with blood and she immediately goes to help him, casting a wary glance in the direction of the bear. "Holy - well, come on, let's get you cleaned up, at least, and then we can deal with - whatever that thing is."

She holds out a hand to help him to his feet, steadying him once he's there with a hand against his chest, and she's not going to think about the fact that they're both essentially wearing what they go to bed in, is actively not thinking about the part where there really isn't much clothing on between the two of them right now. The important issue is that he's still freshly bleeding and from what she can tell, it's the teddy bear's doing. "If it's any consolation, I think you pretty much killed it with your big-ass knife," she murmurs, chuckling as she slings his arm over her shoulders. "Can you walk?"

[theblindguy]

Auggie can tell she believes him now just by the switch in the tone of her voice. Which is good, because he's pretty sure he'd be wondering about her if he'd ever found her in this position, too. He takes the offered help, standing with only a bit of a wince as he does so, using her to balance himself. Her hand is warm against his skin, and he only realizes then just how underdressed he is. It's something he'll need to fix soon.

"Well, it was me or it," he replies as way of explanation, a slight half-grin lifting when he realizes how ridiculous that sounds. At the question, he nods his head. "Yeah, just...point me towards my bed."

He honestly has no idea where he is in the room anymore.

[farmgrown]

Annie nods in agreement, leading him over towards the bed, stopping just in front of it as their knees brush the edge of the mattress, and then she slips out from underneath his arm. "I'm going to go grab the first-aid. Stay right there and try not to bleed on anything," she replies, grinning for a second before she disappears down the hall. She's stocked their bathroom with a few things from the Compound, including some bandages, and she grabs a cloth, getting it wet and bringing it all back to his room.

She kneels on the bed, one leg still hanging over the side, and pats her lap, trying to coax him to lift up his foot. "Here, let me see," she murmurs, gently handling it as she turns his ankle to one side, dabbing away the blood with the cloth first.

"There aren't many, but they're deep," she admits, frowning as she looks up at him. "I'm sorry I won you a toy that tried to kill you just now."

[theblindguy]

"Funny," he calls after her as he hears her leave his room. He sits on his makeshift mattress and putting a hand on top of what seems like the major area he's injured. It's not gushing or anything, at least, even though he knew that thing sunk its claws into him pretty hard.

He's compliant when she returns, because he knows she's going to insist on having a look anyway, even if he did point out he could patch himself up. For the first time since he woke up, a laugh erupts out of him when she apologizes. As the seconds tick by, it's hitting him more and more how ridiculous this all is. His tone is teasing, light, when he assures, "Don't worry, I guessed already you didn't mean to pick out a homicidal stuffed animal."

[farmgrown]

"I mean, if I'd really wanted you to get attacked in the middle of the night, I would've at least given you the courtesy of doing it myself instead of hiring Mr. Teddy right there," she replies, her own voice equally light as she drops her head and smiles, trying to focus in on patching him up with minimal pain involved.

A thought dawns on her and she frowns, making a soft sound in the back of her throat before she looks up to his face again. "You don't think we're the only ones who brought home a psycho toy, do you? What about all the other ones people won that day?"

[theblindguy]

"I'd be insulted if you didn't," he replied, letting her move his leg as she needed. The only time there's any kind of sharp pain, really, is when she puts on the antiseptic. He can't quite hide the quiet intake of breath when it happens.

His own smile falls at the question. It'd been bad enough he - someone who could easily ward off an attack - had to deal with it. Not many people on this island could say the same. "There's a least a few kids on this island, isn't there?"

[farmgrown]

She winces, almost feeling that pain vicariously through him, but it's over relatively quickly after that, and she only has to touch him gingerly to wrap the bandages around his ankle, winding around until she can secure it.

The reality of his words has her glancing up, expression shifting to one of horror as she almost leaps to her feet, lifting a hand to her forehead. "Oh, God, Auggie, I didn't even - we can't just stay here, then, not if we can warn others."

[theblindguy]

Auggie has a sinking feeling people aren't going to need them to tell them something is wrong. He shifts so his legs are dangling over the side of his bed again when she stands, worry creasing his brow.

"Let me just get dressed and we'll go to the Compound," he says, because he's pretty sure going out in his current outfit isn't exactly something he should be going out in. From the brief bit of time he'd been leaning against Annie for support, she's in a similar state. "We should - wait. Have you seen that stuffed moose Wolf gave me?"

A sound of a crash just outside his room's door answers before she can say a word.

[farmgrown]

"Yeah, I probably should too," Annie admits, looking down at her current state of dress with an embarrassed grin and a similarly-sounding chuckle, reaching up a hand to brush fingers through her hair and coming up with tangles. "Oh, God, and take care of these bees that have nested in my hair."

The crash has her whirling, immediately falling into a defensive stance as she backs in front of him, turning to where the sound originated. "Auggie," she says, muttering out of the side of her mouth, "how big was that thing again?"

[theblindguy]

"A little bigger than yours," he replies in a quiet voice, slowly standing. He doesn't even know if it realizes they're in the room or can even see at all. The bear apparently did, but was that a uniform thing?

Still, they might have the advantage this time. It still sounded like it was charging around out in one of the other rooms, but it doesn't seem like it's targeting them exactly. Not yet.

"Where's my knife?" he asks, because all he knows is it's on the ground, and it's about the only weapon between them right now.

[farmgrown]

Annie's not even going to so much as breathe too loudly, even though the ridiculousness of the situation starts to strike her as somewhat funny. She quells the laughter, though, as she bends down to retrieve the knife from the floor and catches a glimpse of Auggie's bandaged ankle. This is real, whatever's happening right now, and soon it's probably going to be a lot worse than stuffed moose and bears.

"Weren't there other kinds of toys at the carnival too?" she mutters, out of the side of her mouth, and presses the handle of the knife into his hand. It's his, anyway; he's more equipped to use it than she is, and they've been training in hand-to-hand. It's not like she's gotten rusty in the interim. The sounds on the other side of the door stop, followed by nothing but silence, and Annie starts moving towards it, reaching out to the handle and listening, craning her neck to try and overhear any more signs of movement.

[theblindguy]

"I think you may have mentioned that," he offers, which isn't much, he knows. He certainly couldn't see anything that'd been there, though he's pretty sure he remembered overhearing at least one person winning a goldfish. If everything from that carnival is turning evil, he doesn't even want to know what that is now.

He grips the weapon when she gives it to him. Even with it going silent, he knows it's a matter of time before it starts up again, and the less time it's alive, the less time it has to possibly trash what little they own right now. As ridiculous as the situation is, his mind races with how they can deal with this with minimal damage or injury. In a way, it's a little like old times - except the stuffed animal portion of it.

"Okay," he finally says, still quiet, though loud enough that he is sure Annie can still hear him even with the tiny bit of distance between them right now. He turns to his bed, suddenly pulling off the sheet covering it and bunching it in his hands and putting down his knife for the moment. They should be safe here until they open the door, he doubts he'll need it immediately. "Come here and take this. I'm going to need you to hide next to the door and open it for me. I'll stand where it can see me and bait it over. If you can throw this on top of it when it comes in after me - that should give me enough time to finish it off before it can free itself."

It's been making enough noise for him to think he'll be able to tell where it is once she traps it. If not, he's sure Annie'll direct him.

[farmgrown]

Annie's mind is racing, trying to put together all the possibilities for what they might have to deal with as soon as they venture out that door, never mind the door that leads outside. If their own hut is under attack, she can't even imagine what others must look like, especially if the current inhabitants won a small army the other night.

She reaches to take the bedsheet from him, fingers curling around the edge as she steps in, looking up at him with equal parts concern and concentration, making sure to focus on everything he's saying even as she finds herself momentarily transfixed. No wonder he made a good leader, back in the years when he'd served; there's this calm urgency in his words that causes her to pay close attention, ensuring that she won't miss a single step of what he wants her to do. She gives the sheet a tug to free it from his grip and moves around to the side of the door, where she'll be able to open it and then step back to give it full view of Auggie without clueing it into the fact that they mean to trap it.

"Okay, ready?" she whispers, knowing he's listening hard enough to be able to hear her. "On three. One, two," and she's clutching the sheet tightly in one hand as her other hand slowly moves toward the handle, fingers closing around the knob and turning a small increment at a time as she counts, and on three, she throws the door open, jumping back, both hands going to the sheet to draw it tight - and for a moment, there's nothing.

And then it strikes, in a blur of brown and antlers, real antlers, ones that could do way more damage than a few scratches, and Annie's not even thinking, everything resembling a plan flying out of her mind as she leaps forward, wrapping the sheet around it in a giant bear hug before she tries to tackle it to the ground, forcing it down onto its side. She only just manages to turn her head as it rears back, trying to do damage with the exposed antlers in any way it can, and one nicks her cheek, but the pain doesn't register. "I've got it!"

[theblindguy]

It was a plan that he knew could go horribly wrong if one thing didn't work as it should. He was putting himself in the line of fire, and if it slipped past Annie before she could do anything, he was probably not going to be able to dodge it completely in time to avoid another injury. But the thing was, he trusted Annie - trusted her skills - and that had to count for something. Standing in position, his entire body tensed up with his knife readied to strike, he listened to her count down, then the ensuing struggle after.

He followed her voice. He knew he had to be quick, because every second meant a chance for her to get hurt, and he didn't know what he'd do if that happened and it was his fault. The beast (because it wasn't really a stuffed animal any longer) was so wrapped up in getting her off it, it didn't even notice him before it was too late, leaving him an opening to plunge the knife into it deeply. It only made it struggle harder at first, until he did it again, ignoring the now even more furiously flailing thing, and then one last time. Apparently that last strike was the one that finally stopped it, as it finally came to a complete halt underneath the two of them.

He let out the breath he'd been holding when it was clear that was it. He reached out for Annie, his hand clasping around her forearm just for the contact. There was no hiding the concern in his voice when he asked, "Annie? Are you okay?"

That thumping noise of her tackling it had sounded pretty rough.

[farmgrown]

Annie doesn't release her grip on it until it's stopped struggling beneath her, right around the third time Auggie's knife goes in, and even then she still holds on for another second or two before she feels his hand gripping her arm, bringing her out of the adrenaline-fueled state she's in so that she can take a deep, calming breath, slow and even.

A few more seconds pass before she finally starts to feel the sting on her cheek and the swelling on her knee where she'd fallen wrong, unable to anticipate the dimensions of fighting a non-human opponent. Still, she's been hurt worse before, a lot worse, and as far as injuries are concerned racked up between the two of them, he seems to have gotten the short end of the stick this time around. She reaches up to touch her cheek, but the cut's barely more than a scratch, and she can walk, at least, as she slowly rises to her feet, using his grip on her to help herself stand.

"I'm alright," she promises, brushing off her pajama pants and then surveying the scene, wrinkling up her nose at the sight of the stuffing spilling out of the moose's neck from the multiple stab wounds. "Looks like you got it, though," she replies, pushing loose pieces of hair out of her face.