Chapter Text
“Are you alright?”
Boxten looked over to Poppy. He said he was fine. But she thought otherwise. Small drops of Ichor were trickling down his head, and he seemed lightheaded.
Shortly after, the elevator doors opened. Poppy and Scraps grouped up together, while Goob and Toodles stuck together, along with Teagen and Rodger teaming up, leaving only Boxten and Shrimpo.
“I DON’T EVEN NEED YOU!!! I CAN DO THIS ALL BY MYSELF!!!”
“Shrimpo no you can’t!”
The shrimp didn’t listen to the music box as he stomped away. It didn’t take that long to catch up.
“We need to work together, alri-”
“SHUT UP!!! YOU’RE VOICE SOUNDS AWFUL!!!! IT’S AS BAD AS YOUR MUSIC!!!!”
Boxten groaned from Shrimpo. He was genuinely so obnoxious. Especially with this headache. Boxten rubbed his head and found Ichor.
He wasn’t sure when he had gotten Ichor in his veins, probably a few floors ago. While he was extracting, the machine blew up, causing the Ichor to splatter all over him. The other toons helped clean it off, but... His arms felt weak, so they were hanging on his side.
He walked with Shrimpo until they found a machine. Boxten raised his arms to attempt to spin the wheel, but his arms shaked, and they felt worn out, even though he does this for a living.
Shrimpo shoved him out of the way and did the extracting himself. How was he even extracting it with him banging his head against the machine? Boxten didn’t have any idea.
Finally, after a good 10 minutes, they were done. Hell everyone else got the 3 other machines finished! Just when Shrimpo was leaving the area, Boxten grabbed his forearm.
“LET GO OF ME MUSIC BOX!!!!!”
And as sudden as it was quick, Boxten let go. Shrimpo knew how his arms were worn down, so he wasn’t surprised the music box let go of him.
But Shrimpo was caught off guard when Boxten suddenly grabbed him again.
“I SAID LET GO-”
Shrimpo went silent when he saw Boxten. His eyes had a red tint in them, and an awful, manic grin was on his face. Boxten had ichor dripping from his head, and worst of all?
A black hand from his head was what was holding onto Shrimpo.
“UNHAND ME I SA-”
Shrimpo screamed when the black hand pulled him in. The music box’s head slammed shut when Shrimpo’s body was halfway in.
Pain shot throughout the shrimp’s body, he tried to stand up but-
Why can’t he feel his legs?
Shrimpo screamed again when he looked down to see that his legs were chopped off! He tried to crawl away, but the twisted music box put a foot onto his chest. The music box put its hands onto Shrimpo’s neck. The grin on its face widened as it watched the shrimp choke and struggle.
The music box slowly started to rip off the shrimp’s neck. The sound of tearing flesh and cracking bone hurt Shrimpo’s ears, what made it worse was that it was coming from his neck. Black blood was pouring out, it made him sick.
Shrimpo thrashed and skirmished, but it was a lost cause. The music box completely decapitated the shrimp. The deceased shrimp’s head rolled away as the music box let go. The music box ripped off one of Shrimpo's limbs, and took a gigantic bite out of it. The box chewed until it swallowed.
And just as when the murder had been done, the music box snapped out of it. Boxten’s grin dropped and his eyes widened. What was he doing? He looked down and screamed to see Shrimpo’s headless body.
Shrimpo is definitely not gonna be happy when he comes back in the lobby.
He panicked when he saw the black blood was all over him. He rushed to the back and got multiple towels to wipe off the blood. He got most of the blood off. He’ll just have to say Shrimpo was caught by one of the twisteds, and that he was nearby.
Boxten walked away from the body, and the sound of the elevator opening echoed in his ears. He was the first to enter. The rest of the toons flowed in before the elevator doors shut.
But that’s when everyone realized, Shrimpo was missing.
“Shrimpo was last with Boxten, right?” Scraps asked.
“He was, but I fear something terrible has happened.” Teagan responded.
Everyone turned to look at Boxten.
The music box swallowed hard before saying- “He was attacked by one of the twisteds.”
“But how? Goob had all of them after him.” Rodger stated.
The environment was becoming tense. Boxten began to panic as everyone in the elevator waited for his answer.
“There.. There was another twisted Goob didn’t get the attention of. It was Tisha, and Shrimpo went near her while she was sweeping.” Boxten blurted out, hoping everyone would stop being skeptical about him.
“Come to think of it, I DID see a light blue twisted from afar! It was probably Twisted Poppy but still!” Goob exclaimed. Everyone else muttered in agreement. Boxten sighed in relief.
Speaking of Poppy, the toon version of her went to Boxten. She wiped the Ichor off of his head.
“Are you infected with that Ichor or something? I keep seeing it trickle down your head!” She uttered out loud.
“It’s just some of the blood that got onto me when Shrimpo was killed in front of me, don't worry about it.” Boxten said, reassuring the bubble.
As the more floors the toons went down, the more Boxten’s condition worsened. His eyes had a strong red color in them, the ichor flowing down his head was heavy, and he could barely raise his arms.
It was floor 12 when Boxten was starting to stop thinking straight. Everyone was genuinely concerned, yet Boxten told them to not think about it when they asked. Floor 15 was when-
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU AREN’T COMING?!”
Poppy yelled it out with shock. All the machines were finished, and all but 1 toon was still not in the elevator. And that was the music box.
“Poppy, I can’t stay with you any longer. I’m going to become one of them much sooner than you think.”
The rest of the toons had no idea what to do. Goob couldn’t pull Boxten in because he already pulled Toodles to him earlier when she was being chased by 2 twisteds.
“Please!- You know I can’t bring myself to live any longer if you aren’t-”
Poppy didn’t get the chance to finish when the elevator door slammed in front of them. Boxten stared at the elevator door for a minute as the sound of the elevator descending filled in the silence.
He walked away from the elevator, and went on one of the beanbags on the floor. Oddly enough, the twisteds on the floor weren’t chasing him.
He stared down at his hands, the environment in his eyes flickering to the kitchen where Shrimpo’s blood stained his fingers and palms.
A small laugh came from him.
“God.”
“How could I have been so stupid to not say anything?”
Boxten could feel his surroundings slowly fade.
“Hehehe..”
“Hahaha…”
“HAHAHAHAHA!!”
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAA!”
His small chuckles began to descend into manic laughter. He couldn’t think straight.
Meanwhile, Poppy couldn’t stop hysterically crying. Teagan pressed the “RETURN” button in the elevator which was going to bring them to the surface.
Poppy wishes she could have done something to stop Boxten from becoming what she has been running from for so long.