Quick recap: Sabre is escaped lab experiment that launched himself through a portal to a corrupted Steve Realm that's altered and all of the Steves are scary bois. Because of the experiments Sabre was turned carnivorous, so he and Orange/Rainbow (Orange Steve for this story) are partners in murder crime so Sabre can have food because all of the animals are mutated and Orange/Rainbow isn't sure they're safe for him to eat.

TW: Blood, death, etc everything you hear in a horror chapter

Okay now it's spoopy bois' murder time :D

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[Orange Steve's POV]

I wake up in my room, my clock's dull chiming pulling me from sleep. Exactly the time I set it to... perfect.

I get up and walk downstairs, excited for what I've planned. Sabre and I have been living in the Hub for a while, and it's been going awesome when we have each other's backs. We even liberated a kingdom from an evil king, and got the True Yellow King back on his throne. We haven't heard anything about Nightmare for a while.

While everything is turning out great outside the Hub, though... things aren't really all sunshine over here. Up until recently, we haven't had a single problem finding Sabre food after we got a good strategy going; We mostly just go after the Darkness, and if there's someone being a jerk in a village we go after them. Someone was gonna kill them anyway, considering how freakin' mean they were.

But for a while, we haven't been able to get a single opportunity to get something. All of the Darkness seems to be hiding, and there aren't any mean people that need weeding out either. We're not sure the animals are safe for him, so considering either the Darkness or village cretins are his only food source... Sabre hasn't been able to eat for a while. I'm getting worried for his health, honestly, considering how many days it's been.

I've just gotten out of my house and into the main yard of the Hub, when I feel something bump against my legs. Looking down, I see my little piggy buddy Gerald. I smile and kneel down to let him.

"Heya, Gerald!" I say, scratching the spot between his ears. Gerald oinks happily as he brushes against me again, kinda like a cat. "How ya doing?"

I stop petting Gerald and wait for a response. He trots in a circle for a bit before looking up at me, his face with a worried look. His dark red eyes almost make him look like how a puppy gives someone sad eyes, although his four uneven tusks, sharp teeth poking out from his snout, and many scar-like splotches on him contrast the cute look he's trying to do. I still understand though, and I've never minded the mutated pigs' looks, and Gerald is the ultimate exception.

"Don't worry buddy, I'm just gonna head out with Sabre to try and get him some food." I say. "It's just like when I go out to get you golden carrots. We'll be back perfectly fine, alright?"

Gerald looks at me for a second, then seems to nod and starts to trot off. I wave to him a little as he goes back to his pen.

"Seeya later!" I say.

I then walk over to where I know my other best buddy is at; Sabre's cave. Since he's kinda at least twice everyone's size, he doesn't fit in a house. So I made him his own comfy cave he uses as his own house! He was so happy when he first saw I made it for him.

I get to the cave entrance and walk inside. As I navigate the dark cave with its oversized furniture, I keep hearing low growling sounds as I get closer to where Sabre's bed is. Peeking out from behind a corner of the cave, I see Sabre is just sitting on his bed, wide awake. He's leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his stomach and just looking around the room. He curls up a little more every time there's another growl. So... it's gotten this far, huh?

I step out from behind the corner, and walk up to Sabre, greeting him.

"Heya Sabre, you doing okay?" I ask. Sabre looks surprised to see me.

"Orange?" Sabre says. "What are you doing up? It's like... 1 AM."

"Well, I have a plan for something!" I say. "Sorry it's so early, but this is close to when the person I got the tip off from said we could go."

"Wh- tip off?" Sabre says, confused. He then starts to wrap his blanket around him. "Orange, it's too early for this..."

"You were awake anyway." I tease, starting to walk out of the cave. I'm past the corner when I get his attention. "Besides... are you hungry or not?"

Silence. Then, I hear Sabre quickly get up and start walking behind me as I exit the cave. We're walking over to the portals now.

"You- You know where I can get food?" Sabre says, excited.

"Yeah! And even better; it's Darkness." I reply. "I was told by a bunch of Yellow Steves yesterday that a group of it has been hanging around near the Kingdom for a while around 2 AM. Since it's dark out, nobody's gonna see us, and nobody's gonna question it because it's Darkness."

We reach the portals, and I activate the yellow one, setting it so it'll take us quietly to a spot I scouted out earlier today.

"Hey Sabre? Real quick, how long has it been exactly since you've last been able to eat something?" I ask, worried.

"Uh..." Sabre says, stifling another growl coming from him. "Almost two weeks..."

"Then let's hope we get lucky." I say, and start towards the portal.

Everything changes as we're both surrounded by lightning, Sabre running into the portal right behind me.

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We appear in a forest, moonlight filtered through the leaves the only light source.

I quickly look around, remembering which way I need to go, and make sure Sabre's following as I run towards the hiding spot that the Darkness apparently pass by every night. I get to the tall, sturdy tree and climb up. Good thing it's not that high... Sabre climbs up after me, a few of the tree branches creaking as he finds a comfy and safe spot to sit down.

"Okay, now we wait." I whisper.

"For how long?" Sabre asks me.

"Uh..." I say, checking the small clock I brought with me. "Ten minutes. Just hold out for a little bit longer."

"Okay..." Sabre whispers.

I take out my bow that I brought while we wait. Soon enough, we hear rustling of bushes coming from to the side of where we are. I prepare my bow, aiming right towards the cause of the shaking leaves.

Five ebony-black creatures crash through the bushes, mindlessly stumbling down the path. Awesome.

"Hey, there's five dude, you might even have some left over to bring home." I quietly joke, keeping my bow trained on the Darkness in front.

"Buddy, there's not gonna be a thing there once I'm done." Sabre says, clearly getting antsy from excitement.

I wait until the Darkness is right in front of us, then fire the first arrow. It hits the lead creature in the throat, instantly killing it and making it collapse to the forest floor. While the rest look at the dead Darkness in confusion, I take the chance to fire four more arrows, hitting all of them. The rest drop like sacks of potatoes. I turn to Sabre as he's eager to climb down.

"You go ahead, I'll keep watch." I whisper. "Make sure you take the arrows out first."

"I will, got it." Sabre quickly says, and he jumps down from the tree branches.

As I carefully scan the area, I hear the crunching of bones and the sound of blood dripping from freshly killed flesh. When I look back at Sabre, all that's left of the Darkness is a few blood puddles staining the grass. Sabre is wiping blood off his face as he makes his way back to me. He hands me the arrows and I climb down to meet him on the ground.

"Did you get enough?" I ask, taking the arrows.

"Eh, close enough." Sabre says. "Not like we'll find anyth-"

Sabre is interrupted when we hear a distorted voice gasp. We quickly turn our heads and see a halfway infected Yellow Steve standing nearby. I quickly fire off another arrow, killing the infected Yellow Steve. Sabre and I stay silent for a moment after the infected falls to the ground dead.

"...I panicked." I say, putting away my bow. "But hey, halfway is too far gone anyway. Go get 'em."

Sabre excitedly goes over to the infected body, and picks it up. Taking the arrow out, he tosses it to me and I catch it. When I look back up after putting the arrow back in my quiver, the Yellow Steve is already gone and Sabre is walking back to me.

"Now I'm good." Sabre smiles. I smile back.

"Then let's go home; You probably want to go back to sleep." I say.

"Yeah..." Sabre says, yawning a bit.

I then teleport us out of there, back to the Hub before anyone else could find us.

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We arrive back in the Hub, standing in front of Sabre's cave.

Sabre hugs me before he goes inside, careful not to squish me.

"Thanks, buddy..." Sabre says. "For everything. I dunno what I would've done without you."

"No problem, Sabre." I say as he lets go, standing back up. "Seeya in the morning!"

Sabre turns and heads into his cave, sluggishly walking towards his bed. I walk over to my house again, noticing Gerald already asleep in his pen as I enter my house. As I reset my clock in my room to its normal time, and climb back into bed, I'm happy that I was able to help my best buddy.

And hey... doing this, we're doing the Realm a favor too.