The moonlight filtered through the cracked windows of the Slender Mansion, casting eerie shadows across the dusty floor. In a room tucked away from the main chaos of the house, Jeff and Toby sat side by side. The room was quiet except for the occasional creak of the old house settling and the faint sounds of the others moving through the halls.

Jeff was sharpening one of his knives, the metallic scraping filling the silence. He glanced at Toby, who was fidgeting with his hoodie strings, his ever-present tic causing a twitch in his jaw. Toby was unusually quiet, his typical hyperactive energy muted, replaced with a nervous kind of restlessness.

“What’s eating you, Ticci?” Jeff’s voice cut through the silence, rough and casual.

Toby looked up, his eyes wide behind his goggles. “Just… one of those nights, I guess,” he said, trying to shrug it off, but Jeff could tell he wasn’t really fooling anyone.

Jeff set the knife down with a metallic clink and leaned back, smirking a little. “You mean one of those nights when the whole place feels like it’s gonna collapse around us?” He nudged Toby with his elbow, a rare gesture of comfort.

Toby’s lips twitched, almost forming a smile. “Yeah, something like that,” he admitted, his fingers tapping an uneven rhythm against his knee.

For a moment, they sat in silence, the bond between them understood without words. Jeff pulled out another knife, inspecting the blade, but his gaze kept drifting to Toby, who had finally stopped fidgeting and was leaning a little closer.

“Don’t go getting soft on me, Ticci,” Jeff teased, though his tone lacked its usual edge.

Toby just rolled his eyes, bumping Jeff’s shoulder with his own. “Shut up, Jeff,” he muttered, but there was a hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

The tension in the room eased, and the sounds of the house grew distant, leaving the two of them in a comfortable silence—two killers finding a strange kind of peace in each other’s company amidst the madness that surrounded them.