He then dragged the body to the edge of the woods, confident that it was close enough to town that the Rejects wouldn’t follow. In fact he was pretty sure they had stopped following him a while ago. He made his way across the short jaunt north to the candy store. He could have climbed to a high spot and tried to pierce the dark with his telescope to see if patrols were nearby, but didn’t think he had the time and instead made the calculated gamble that someone would be in the area. Moving quickly but quietly, forcing his footsteps to be silent as he’d learned in his candy stealing days. Peeking around each corner, making sure not to be spotted until he was ready.
Finally he reached the candy store. He hesitated, trying to think if there was any other way. If he’d overlooked any obvious holes in the plan.
It was now or never.
Spencer opened the door, hard and fast. The bell above the door rang out loud and clear, squeezing a cold claw of fear and anticipation around his stomach. He slammed the door and opened it again and again, ringing the bell as loud as he could. Then he let it fall silent and listened.
Tap tap, tap tap.
They heard him all right. Now for another gamble, he had to run for it and hope they saw him, but not soon enough to catch him. He ran south, trying to make as much noise as possible. The ploy was almost the end of him. As he passed the last building on the edge of town he just missed running headfirst into a second Hollow Man who was rounding the corner at the same time. He’d been so intent on making noise that he hadn’t heard the thing. It reached for him with reflexes that fortunately weren’t as fast as Smiling Jack’s and he shot right by it.
It was on Spencer’s heels as he headed for the forest, and another one a ways behind it. His first thought was that it was too late, they’d run him down and tear him to shreds long before he reached the forest. Only they weren’t gaining, they were even falling a bit behind. He’d just assumed the Hollow Men could outpace him like Mr. Buttons, but their awkward gait was actually a little slower.
Of course, they didn’t ever seem to get tired and he was already exhausted. His breath came in tearing rasps from his throat and spots were forming around the edges of his vision. He pushed himself as best he could, but knew he was faltering. He stumbled and almost fell.
Just a little farther, he half thought and half prayed. Just a little.
He looked back and saw the gap he had created between them was closing. He looked for the body ahead, knowing he had to run right past it. He saw the place where he had left it but…
But something was moving.
The body?
No, it was the Rejected. They had been following him after all, and had found the body. He was headed right for them.
There was no guarantee the Hollow Men wouldn’t follow him right into the forest if he changed direction now. He had to try something so desperate and stupid that for a strange moment he was almost sure it would work, perhaps if only because he was too far beyond exhaustion to think about what would happen if it didn’t.
So instead of changing course, he charged right into the midst of the Rejected. He dodged the first one, but crashed directly into another one knocking them both to the ground. He was up and moving again in a flash, feeling talons brush the back of his leg as he jumped away. The Hollow Man behind him, heedless of the living obstacles, tried the same maneuver.
It wasn’t so lucky though. Its long legs were tripped up and it went sprawling amidst the Rejected. Spencer didn’t wait to find out what happened next but kept running until he could not longer see them. He climbed a tree and listened. He heard cries of pain and grunts and noises like that of an animal. It went on for a while, and he could even make out by the sounds when the second Hollow Man caught up and joined the fray. After what seemed like a long time he could hear nothing more.
He waited a long time for sounds of someone looking for him. He tried to stay awake but in his terrible fatigue he kept dozing off. Finally when he saw the first light of dawn he forced himself to climb down from the branches he was hiding in and sneak back to the scene of the battle. There were a tangle of bodies such that he couldn’t be sure who had won at first. Four Rejected lay full of stab wounds and bruised limbs. The two Hollow Men also lay motionless, leaking fluids that in the dim light could have been either blood or oil.
He was surprised, he didn’t think anything could kill one of Smiling Jack’s creations. Even if it had taken four of the Rejected to bring down two of them. And there lying amidst the carnage was his horrible treasure. The corpse of a boy wearing Spencer’s own clothes. He grabbed it by the shoulders and dragged it out into the open, about halfway to the town.
And then he walked away, deep deep into the forest as far as his tired legs would take him. He buried himself with leaves and lay with his eyes open, trying to stay alert for anyone that would sneak up on him as he fell into a rough slumber.
The next day that was it. The patrols had stopped. They had, obviously, found the body and mistaken it for Spencer, assuming he had been killed and mutilated by the Rejected. He knew his old life was well and truly over. He was safe from them forever, but only if they never ever saw him again. No more was he a creature of the town, now he was a creature of the forest. He would live amongst the Rejected but he would never, he told himself, become one of them.
It was two weeks of living off candy before he made his first trip to the bone yard to feed.
Much of his time living in the Rejected Woods was a blur. Survival was a day to day struggle, but one was much like another. He sought at all times to avoid the Rejected, save those times he had to scrounge for his share of the meat. In the year he lived amongst them he was caught by an aggressive one exactly nine times. Five of them he managed to outrun or otherwise evade. Two he managed to fight off in vicious, dirty matches. And two he was forced to kill with a short spear he’d made from a broken leg bone he’d found in the bone pile. Both times he ate of them until he had his fill.
He never tried to speak to the Rejected. It wasn’t that he didn’t think they could speak or understand him. He’d heard them some whisper and some gibber and some crying with loneliness in the night (especially the new ones). And it wasn’t just that he knew now how friendship could make you weak. It was that deep down he felt that if he ever talked to them, he would become one somehow. Become a monster like them. And maybe they thought the same, since every time he thought he heard them talking to each other, they would stop when he drew near.
Spencer didn’t give up spying on the people of Nowhere Blvd. He could watch them through the telescope from the woods without a chance of being spotted. It was the only way to pass the time, since the underground forest was nothing like real forests. It held none of the wonder or surprise or wildlife (besides the very rare insect). Just grayish brown trees circling the town from one end to another.
It was in watching the town and its inhabitants that he learned why the Rejected never left the forest. It wasn’t Smiling Jack they feared (at least not just him). Spencer discovered that Mr. Buttons wasn’t fed by Jack like everyone else, it fed off of the Rejected themselves. The teddy bear made regular hunting trips into the woods to catch one and devour them. Spencer knew that avoiding Mr. Buttons was more a matter of luck than skill, everyone knew bears could climb trees and he sure as fuck couldn’t outrun it. Still, when he saw Mr. Buttons heading for one part of the woods, he ran for another.