There was a soft click as the back door unlocked. A low creak as it opened. The four year old in the cupboard stopped breathing as footsteps entered the house and made their way past. He started breathing again as the footsteps went up the stairs.

Now a four year old in a cupboard wouldn't have been unusual if this occurrence had been during the day in a game of hide-and-seek. This was neither the morning, nor a game. The boy slowly pushed open the door of his cupboard that his aunt had left unlocked the previous night. Perhaps, if he'd known that the person who had come through the back door was a murderer, he might have just stayed put. Maybe.

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Toby stared incredulously at his sleeping targets. Kill the Dursley family, Slender said, they're tipping the balance rather spectacularly Slendy said. Now that Toby was actually here, it was rather difficult to see how. They seemed normal, if disproportionate. The wife Dursley was thin as a rake, the husband the size of a small whale. Nonetheless, what Slendy said goes. Toby raised his hatchets high and prepared to plunge them into the fat pig on the bed.

"Are you going to kill them?" Toby just barely bit back a shriek as he spun around. There was now a truly small child standing in the doorway. He looked maybe two years old and the most distinctive about him was the absolute mop of dark hair over his eyes.

"Yes. Y-yes, I am going to kill them. Where did you come f-from?" The child's head tilted slowly to the side.

"My cupboard. Can I watch?" Toby stared at the kid incredulously.

"Your cupboard. Ok. Fine. Yeah, kid, whatever. W-watch if you want to. We'll talk about the whole cupboard thing later." With that Toby slowly turned his back to the tiny kid and stood for a moment at the husband's side of the bed before shaking off his confusion and slamming both of his hatchets into the husband's neck. His eyes didn't even fully open before Toby had wrenched his hatchets out and slammed them back down again. With a squelching crunch the now detached head slowly slipped to the side and rolled off the bed. The kid let out a giggle as the head rolled over twice before seeming to stare upwards. Toby snorted at the kid.

"L-like that, did you?" The kid, and god, did Toby need to get his name, giggled again before his eyes flicked up to Toby and back to the bed. As Toby watched the kid's eyes widened and his smile dropped before he spun on one foot and ran, somewhat poorly with a pronounced limp, out of the room. Toby turned back to the bed as a strangled scream burst from the woman.

"Aww. What'd you have to s-scare the kid for? I liked him," as Toby raised his hatchets again the kid skidded back into the room, "Oh, hey, what've you got there?" The kid was back and holding two kitchen knives carefully by the handles as he grinned at Toby.

"Can I help?" Toby blinked. His wrist twitched twice before he slammed his hatchet into the woman's shoulder.

"Really like this k-kid," Toby informed the horrified woman in the bed, "Yeah, kid, you can help. Just lemme go kill the brat real quick." Toby slipped into a room down the hall that the miniature whale slept in. Hatchet in the neck, kid choking on his blood, check, and check. And back to the master bedroom Toby went.

"Alright. Here's what's going to happen kid. Bring those knives-s over." The whimpering woman scrambled back on the bed as Toby approached. She was in shock. Adorable. The kid set the kitchen knives on the bed, and really, how had he been able to get those. Sharp knives really shouldn't be in reach of a tiny kid.

"What are you doing? Who are you?," the woman's shrieking was grating and Toby cringed behind his mask. The woman hadn't even noticed the kid yet either, and really, her situational awareness was shit. Toby stepped to the side and turned slightly to lift the kid up onto the bed. The woman's expression hardened immediately.

"Ungrateful brat!" She kicked at the kid viciously and Toby grabbed her foot, snapping her ankle with one movement. The resultant scream was like nails on a chalkboard and Toby grimaced. The kid looked at Toby and Toby looked at the kid.

"Ok. Let's start. Here's what's going to h-happen. I'll help you stab her. Do you want her to die s-slow or quick?"

"Slow," was the immediate answer and Toby nodded.

"Alrighty. Here's one of the places that's really good for that." And Toby guided the kid's hands holding the knife.

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An hour later Toby had carried the now very blood splattered kid on his hip as they made their way out of the house. They now sat on a bench in the park nearby, the kid cuddling into Toby for warmth.

"So, kid, what's your name because I'm f-fairly certain that I'm keeping you. That was awesome," Toby looked at the kid who was still grinning, "We'll make it-t a proper introduction too. Hi, I'm Toby Rogers. You can call me Toby." The kid glanced up, and grinned a bloody smile at Toby.

"Freak. Freak Dursley. It's nice to meet you." Toby's smile froze. Toby yanked his facemask off and stuffed it in his pocket and pushed his goggles up as he flipped around to stare at the kid.

"Th-that's not a name. That is not a name! That's an insult! Why do you think that's your name?"The kid stared at Toby.

"That's what Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and Dudley call me." Toby stared back horrified.

"Do they call you anything else?"

"Yeah."

"What? What else did they call you?" Toby felt the urge to go murder the Dursley family all over again.

"Freak, brat, boy, burden. Um. Sometimes wretched nuisance? Are those names?" Toby's urge to murder intensified.

"No. They're not. Do you want to pick your own name?"

"Could I be Toby too?" Toby snorted.

"No, pr-probably best not. You need your own name. You could probably keep Rogers though, if you wanted. Here, there's-s, like, baby name websites and shit. I'll just look one up or something." As Toby pulled out his phone the kid began looking introspective.

"Um, alright, so there's a lot of names on here. Uh, I'll just, like, list them or something. Um, Liam, Noah, William, James, Oliver, uh, we're going to skip B-benjamin, Elijah, Lucas, Mas-"

"Jazz"

"-on, Logan, hang on, what?" Toby looked up from his phone at the kid.

"Jazz. I like Jazz." Toby blinked and cocked his head.

"Yeah, alright. I like it. You k-keeping Rogers or you going to choose your own last name?"

The kid-Jazz, his name was Jazz, seemed to consider it a moment.

"Keeping it. Jazz Rogers. Jazz. I like it." Toby grinned.

"It's cool. Good name. Are you going to pick a m-middle name?" The newly dubbed Jazz looked mildly panicked.

"Middle name?"

"Yeah. Most people jus-st say a first and last name. You know, Toby Rogers, Jazz Rogers, Vernon Dursley, kinda like that. But I think everyone has a middle name. Mine is Erin. Tobias Erin Rogers. Its-s pretentious. I like Toby much better." Jazz processed this quietly.

"Oh. Could I have a girl's name?" Toby blinked.

"Um, sure. I don't r-really see why not. Do you have one in mind?"

"Not really. What was your mom's name?" Toby sucked in a startled breath. That hadn't been what he was expecting.

"My mom's name?", Jazz nodded and Toby winced, "Ok. Um, my mom's name is C-connie. I'm not sure it fits-s you though." Jazz ducked his head frowning, and Toby looked mildly panicked.

"Oh."

"L-let me finish! My sister however, was my favorite person in the world. Her name would fit you a lot better if you like it. Her n-name was Lyra." Jazz's entire being brightened.

"I like it! I really, really like it! Can I really keep it?" Jazz was bouncing a little in place, and Toby grinned at him.

"You really, really c-can! You know, you're kinda g-good at talking for, like, a t-two year old." Jazz frowned severely at him, and Toby had to stifle a laugh at how cute it was on his tiny face.

"I'm four years old. Not two," straightening up proudly, Jazz continued, "I'm old enough to mow the lawn and use the stove on my own." Toby grimaced again.

"N-No. No, you're really not-t. And on that note, let's go back to the part where you said you came from your c-cupboard-d." Toby's twitches were getting increasingly worse and he clutched the bench beneath him in an effort to hold still.

"I sleep in the cupboard under the stairs," he grinned and Toby's heart sank a little, "I even have three pet spiders that live in there with me! Their names are George, Lucy, and Apples. Aunt Petunia forgot to lock my cupboard last night, so I could leave and follow you." Jazz grinned happily at Toby and Toby stared back in complete and utter horror.

"Lo-Lock your cupboard?" Jazz nodded, his legs swinging back and forth under the bench as he stared in awe at the sky.

"Usually Aunt Petunia puts me in my cupboard and locks the cupboard door, but Uncle Vernon was hitting me a bunch last night cuz I hadn't finished vacuuming and he put me in my cupboard and he didn't lock the door and Aunt Petunia didn't really check. So my door wasn't locked last night! Are there always that many stars?" Jazz finished his diatribe cheerfully and Toby almost wanted to scream.

"S-so your uncle hits you?", Jazz nodded, "A-and are you hurt? Anyth-thing broken?" Jazz looked confused.

"I don't know. How do you tell?" Toby stared at him.

"Just-no. No. W-we're going to the hospital. I'm taking you to the hospital. Th-thats not good."

"I'm not supposed to go to the hospital. Aunt Petunia said that freaks don't get to see doctors." Toby sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He wondered absently if this was how Masky felt all the time.

"That's n-not true. D-doctors treat anyone who needs it. J-jazz? I need you to do me a favor." Jazz glanced at him with wary green eyes.

"I guess so? What is it?" Toby looked Jazz in the eyes, tipping his chin back up when he tried to look away.

"Don't listen to your Aunt Petunia. Anything th-that she's said to you? Assume it was a lie and ask me. Alright?", Jazz nodded and Toby clapped as he stood up. "Alright. C'mon, arms up. We're going to th-the hospital. C'mon." Toby picked up Jazz and swung him onto his hip before walking out of the park, sirens sounding distantly.

"It's starting to rain."

"Yup. That's a good thing. Washes the bl-blood away. Easier to not get arrested."

"Oh. Cool! Do you have a house? You said you were keeping me, will I live with you?" Toby grinned happily.

"Oh, you betcha. A-and it's not a house it's a mansion, and other people would be there too. You go-good with that?" Toby hugged the boy closer to his side.

"Yeah. I'm ok with more people. What's a mansion?" Toby threw his head back and laughed into the rain.

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