Re: Hunt; deep in the woods
Questions, so many questions. There was a stir of familiarity from once upon a time, when the skeleton man was alive and human, but memories of that time had all but disintegrated to dust and any attempt to reach back and grasp them only eroded them further. His teeth clacked and his fingers rubbed together, bone grinding against bone. "Different kinds of bad," he explained. "Even monsters have a code, kid." And that was that. He had no desire to delve into his sins; there were too many anyway. It would take too long. But some things were better left unspoken. Some things just couldn't be properly expressed through words.
He shook his head, slow, slow movement. "Dangerous to not be alone, too." The invisible weight was back, and it was a miracle, really, that he didn't cave in on himself, bones snapping and crunching as the skeleton man crumbled beneath the past he was forced to carry with him even in death. But it wasn't even proper death, was it? He hadn't been allowed to die, to find the peace others did. Cursed in life, and cursed now too. He needed to get the boy the hell out of here and away from him as quickly as possible. "I don't need help," he snapped, the harshness grating on his already raw throat. "Help is what gets people killed. I'm going to get you somewhere safe, and then we're going our separate ways."
The mention of weapons brought an abrupt shift; he chuckled. "Don't need weapons. C'mon," he said, and gestured for the boy to follow as he turned in the direction of the massive house.