Chapter Text
You were currently in the kitchen, grabbing a quick bite before you went in to play another match. It has been a bad day of matches for you, no matter how much effort you put in, your losing streak kept growing. Your match results have been the talk of the day among your fellow survivors, a few people have even jokingly told you that it’s a sign to stop for the day. You joked with them too, but you weren’t going to stop playing; you were determined to win at least once today.
In the many games you’ve had that day, not one has been in Lakeside Village; in fact, you haven't played Lakeside for well over a month now. You thought it was a blessing that you hadn’t even had a thought about that map; you hated it. Why? The horrid humidity made your hair frizz up, you constantly got mud and sand on your shoes, the smell made you want to throw up, and the sight of the lake made you want to cry. You hated every single thing about that map.
You were currently at the waiting table with Andrew, Vera, and Martha in the lobby, preparing for a match. You engaged in small talk with Vera, who was right next to you, but you occasionally glanced over at Andrew who remained silent and kept his gaze on the table’s surface. You couldn’t help it, you thought he was really cute. He was shy, and that made him all the more adorable to you. You were hoping that you could impress him this match, or at the very least not make a fool out of yourself in front of him. You weren’t too sure as to how it would play out, seeing as your performance today hasn’t been good, but you were still hopeful. You desperately wanted to break your losing streak.
Everyone readied up, and soon the match began.
…
Before you even opened your eyes, you immediately recognized which map you were on. The warm, humid climate, as well as the musty, rotten smell of the lake gave it away. Gross , a shiver ran down your spine as you thought to yourself. You just spawned at the cipher that was stationed left to the large, old, wooden ship, and in front of the lakeshore. Just your luck.
You felt your skin begin to crawl as you stared out at the lake. How far does the lake stretch? You can’t even see the other side. How deep does it get? What if I drown in there? What could be swimming in the murky water? Would it drag me down with it? You quickly turned away from the lake as your thoughts began to race. Before you could manage to completely freak yourself out, you ran inwards, away from it.
On the rare occasion that you did get a match on this map, you tried your best to stay away from the lake for as long as you possibly could, and that’s exactly what you were doing now. You ran to the cipher near the center of the map, seeing as it was the closest one to you that was a comfortable distance from the water. You began to work on the cipher when you heard the loud chime of the bell. The chime was accompanied by the yelp of who you assumed was Andrew, seeing as it was a deeper pitch than Vera’s and Martha’s vocalizations. “Ah crap, Andrew was hit already,” you mumbled to yourself as you looked around, making sure he wasn’t near you. Not seeing him or the hunter near you, you continued to decode.
Only a few minutes later, Andrew was hit again and knocked down. You didn’t realize he was caught until you saw the red outline of the rocket chair from the corner of your eye. Must be a bad day for him, too , you thought to yourself.
As much as you wanted to run out and help your friend, you stayed put and continued on the cipher. You were a decoder, not a rescuer. Your kiting skills were not good at all, and such a decision could cost your team the win. Instead, you decided to monitor the situation. If Martha didn’t go to the rescue like she always did, you would do it instead.
When you finally finished the cipher, you saw that Andrew was still stuck in the rocket chair. He probably didn’t have much time left. You stood there, debating whether to go. Would you make it there on time? Where was everyone else?
You decided to take that chance and began running to Andrew. Not even a few feet in, you heard Andrew yell out ‘thank you’ and then the sound of Martha’s flare gun firing. Now knowing that Andrew was rescued, you turned back and looked for another cipher. You hoped they could get away from the hunter in time.
To your left was the outline of a cipher, and you ran over to it, getting straight to business. It was the one near the ship, right in front of an exit gate. No one seemed to be around you at the moment, meaning you could completely focus on completing the calibrations.
Halfway through decoding, your heartbeat began to pick up, and a feeling of dread overcame you. You looked around and saw Vera kiting Axe Boy to your right. By the way Axe Boy repeatedly tried whacking Vera and kept on missing, you could tell he was frustrated about not being able to get a hit in.
While your attention was temporarily shifted to the chase beside you, a calibration suddenly popped up. You missed it and ended up getting shocked. Axe Boy looked to his left, where he heard the failed calibration and saw you mid-flinch. He was done chasing after the Perfumer since that was getting him nowhere, so he decided to go after you instead, a decoder with poor self-defense.
“(Y/N), watch out! The hunter has changed target!” Vera called out to warn you.
Axe Boy attempted to strike you just as you heard Vera’s warning. You jumped out of the way of the attack just in time, the child-like hunter accidentally hitting the cipher instead of you. You took this opportunity to run towards the pallets behind you, hoping you could be successful in your kiting for once.
You were doing well, throwing pallets down and jumping over them whenever Axe Boy got too close to you. Axe Boy had had enough of it however, and began to destroy the pallets you threw to block his path. You foolishly decided to stay behind the fishing boxes that separated the two of you instead of running to a new area with unused pallets. Running around these boxes was not a smart idea as Axe Boy quickly caught up to you. Despite your best attempts, the hunter managed to get a hit in.
His strike gave you a short boost, which you took advantage of to run out of there. Instead of finding a spot with pallets that would enable you to kite longer, you ran straight to the ship, panicking and in pain.
The hunter was on your tail as you vaulted over the window space inside. You kept this up for a little more, but you knew that it wouldn’t be long before you went down; you were hurt and gasping for breath. In one last attempt to save yourself, you went up the old, metal stairs of the ship and came across Andrew and Martha decoding. The two dispersed as they saw the hunter right behind you.
Martha saw your struggling state and pulled you in front of her, deciding to body block for you. She kept a hand on your back, trying to push you forward as you ran down the stairs. With Axe Boy’s attention fully on Martha now, you took the opportunity to run to the other set of stairs again and hide. You knew that going out into the open would make you an even easier target if the hunter focused on you again.
You hid behind some boxes and took a breather while you were at it. If you had run any longer, you probably would’ve collapsed, as your stamina levels aren’t very high. You stayed in your crouched position until your heartbeat began to fade away, a clear indicator that the hunter was no longer in the vicinity. You let out a relieved sigh, got up, and limped to the cipher near you. You’d find a way to repay Martha later for helping you out today. As you began to decode, you heard someone call your name. You turned around and saw none other than the gravekeeper run towards you.
“Andrew!” You called out, happy to see him. When he got to you, the first thing he did was help heal you. When he was done, both of you started decoding with him in front of the cipher, and you to his right. Now that you didn’t have to worry about being hunted down, you came to realize where you were and tensed. It was quiet for a little while, you were too focused on not trying to think of the dangers of the lake under you. Andrew didn’t know this and thought of the silence as awkward, so he began to talk.
“You did well, kiting right now,” he said in his characteristically soft voice. Out of all the things he could have said to break the silence, he decided to compliment you. It’s not that you didn’t appreciate it, you just get all flustered when someone compliments you, and didn’t want to look like a bubbering fool in front of him. That said, you did appreciate the comment. It reassured you that even if you weren’t the best kiter, you didn’t seem to be the worst either.
“Ah uh, thank you. That means a lot,” you said as your face began to feel warm. You looked down at the cipher, trying your best to hide your oncoming blush.
“You’re welcome,” he simply responded. You lifted your eyes to look up at him, pale skin covered in a thin film of filth and his signature slight frown adorning his face. Somehow you knew to look past his sad and almost unwlecoming expressions, and you understood the sincerity in his words instead. That small interaction just about made your entire day, effectively distracting you from your fears.
The cipher was nearly finished and on the verge of popping when you suddenly saw a flash of red in front of you. The hunter was teleporting to your cipher, leaving barely any time to dodge an oncoming attack.
Luckily, you were able to quickly back away as Axe Boy suddenly appeared before you and swung his axe at Andrew. The hunter didn’t even spare you a glance, and you assumed it was because he knew that if Andrew gets chaired again, he'll be eliminated. You were on the side of the ship where only a few low planks covered a gap behind you. You were stuck there, unable to get past as Axe Boy kept swinging at Andrew, who kept miraculously dodging the attacks.
Axe Boy tried one last desperate swing before running after the gravekeeper. Unbeknownst to him and your teammate, that last swing nearly hit you and sent you falling off the edge of the ship as you tried dodging it yourself.
You saw your life flash before your eyes as you began to fall off the side of the rotten ship. You extended your hands in front of you, desperately trying to latch on to anything to keep you from falling into the deep, murky waters that taunted you below. A drop from this height could cause serious injuries if landed wrong.
Luckily, you managed to grab onto a small opening on the side. The way your body jerked as you saved yourself hurt your shoulders, but no amount of pain now was keeping you from letting go. You called out, trying to get anyone’s attention. You called out to Andrew, but he was busy trying to escape the childish hunter who chased him around.
You weren’t afraid of heights, but you were deathly afraid of large bodies of water, specifically lakes such as the one you were currently hanging over. No matter how much you tried to tell yourself not to look down, you went against your own will and saw the dark waters of the lake softly hit against the side of the ship. At the moment, you could've sworn your heart stopped beating. Panic began to take over your body as you realized you could fall into that .
“Andrew, anyone! Help me, help me please!” You screamed out, terrified. You weren’t even aware of the sobs that were escaping your mouth right now; the only thing you were aware of was your possible doom.
Your worn, muddy shoes kept scraping against the old wood of the ship as you desperately tried to pull yourself up into safety. No matter how much you tried and how strong your will was at the moment, you were completely powerless to your situation.
Completely powerless.
You had zero upper body strength, and you were still worn down from your kiting earlier; you didn’t even have control over the desperate pleas for help that made their way out of your mouth through your sobs. Sweaty and splintered palms decorated by bleeding fingertips clawed into the decayed timber of the vessel. Body now flooded by adrenaline, you couldn’t even control your body let alone feel the pain it was experiencing in its panic. It was as if you were on autopilot, moving instinctually to preserve your life.
The corners of your vision darkened, and your thoughts raced so rapidly that you hardly process them as they came. No hunter has ever elicited such a desperate response to danger from you before, but the deep, unrooted, and irrational fear of this filthy lagoon did. You were so overwhelmed with fear that you felt like you were about to faint.
But you didn’t, because you heard the worried voice of Andrew call out to you. He must have found a way to hide from the hunter.
You called back to him, pleading for him to save you, and soon you saw his face peek out from the side of the ship. Upon seeing your terrified state, Andrew tried to look for ways to pull you up. He quickly looked around to see if there was rope he could use but there was nothing. That’s when he realized he could use his shovel.
Andrew lay down and held on to the grip of his shovel with both hands as he tried to see if it would reach you. It barely did.
“Grab onto my shovel!” He called out. You carefully grabbed onto the step of the shovel, barely processing the pain in your palms as the dirty metal dug into them. Andrew had a lot of strength in his arms because he dug so often, so he wasn’t having trouble bringing you up. When your hands reached the edge of the ship, Andrew set his shovel aside and grabbed hold of your forearms. He then reached out and wrapped his arms under yours to pull you up more easily.
The force at which he was pulling accidentally knocked both of you down, and you ended up landing on top of him in a way that was anything but flirtatious or romantic. He turned himself over so he could check to see if you were hurt, but you didn’t give him the opportunity to. You clung onto him, with no intention of letting go soon.
The wave of relief that washed over you as you were finally safe racked a new series of sobs. Your body shook violently and the desperate gasps for breath through your bawl worried Andrew significantly. He didn’t know what to do or what to say to help comfort you so he wrap his arms your petrified form against his own comfort. He was left wondering what could cause such a reaction as the one you were having right now. Did you hurt yourself? Were you afraid of heights? He had zero clue.
As he sat there, he heard Martha and Vera’s calls as they worriedly ran up the stairs.
“What happened? We heard (Y/N) screaming from the other side of the map!” Vera asked, concerned for her teammate. Martha nodded, confirming the perfumer’s statement.
“I-I don’t know, Axe Boy teleported to us and chased after me, and somehow (Y/N) fell off the side of the ship. I just pulled her up right now.” Andrew answered, voice quiet but full of urgency and worry. Both girls knelt and tried comforting you to the best of their ability though there was not much for them to do for you in such a panicked and unresponsive state.
Axe Boy was looking around for a survivor and accidentally came across all of them huddled over you. Martha saw him and moved her head towards you, allowing him to grasp the situation. He wasn’t sure what happened, but he knew you were in significant distress, so he kept his distance in respect.
Eventually, you did manage to calm down, but you were still dazed and tired. You looked up to your teammates and shook your head in defeat. “I’m done,” you said softly as you rubbed your eyes, completely out of energy to even finish the match. “Let’s go back to the manor.”
There were no objections.
Andrew helped you up and kept his arm around your shoulders to both guide and comfort you. You held on to him as everyone walked to the closest exit gate. It was completely silent save for the sound of everyone’s footsteps crunching the gritty sand and dirt underneath. Feeling guiltyabout the events that just took place, you fessed up about what happened.
“I have limnophobia,” you said quietly. You looked up and was met by confused expressions, so you continued. “I-I have a fear of lakes… It sounds stupid, I know,” you said between stutters, “but the sheer terror I feel whenever I’m near them is just indescribable.” You told them, choking up again.
You felt Andrew lightly squeeze your arms, “It’s not stupid (Y/N).” Was all he had to say. You looked up at him and gave him a tired smile, which he did not return but you knew he still understood the sentiment. The rest of your team agreed, and everyone’s reassurance made you feel warm inside.
When you finally reached the exit gate, Axe Boy, who had been walking with you guys, surrendered and officially ended the match. The exit gates opened, and Axe Boy walked awa,y leaving all of you to yourselves, a gesture that didn’t go unnoticed. Martha mouthed a ‘thank you’ to the young hunter, and he nodded in response before walking away into the depths of the cursed map.
Vera and Martha didn’t want to crowd you so they walked up ahead, leaving you and Andrew with some privacy. You were unbelievably grateful for Andrew’s help in both rescuing you and comforting you, and you had no idea how you were going to repay him. You stopped, turned to him, and engulfed him in a tight embrace. You would’ve given him a kiss too, but you didn’t want to make things awkward between the two of you.
“Thank you,” you said into his clothes.
“Don’t worry about it, (Y/N).” He attempted to return the embrace, awkwardly patting your back. Such gestures from you made him happy to have helped, even if he would never admit it.
You both started walking, making your way back to the manor.
After that match, you swore that you were never stepping foot in Lakeside Village ever again.