BESTFRIEND...? | M̶̢̼̠͍̣̂̋̇͌̎̌̈́̕a̵̛͖͇̳̖͉̽͐͊̌ľ̷̞̹̤͕̦̼̾̏a̶̡̠̤̬͔̥͍̰̻͕̒̋̇͌̈́c̴̢̢͔̘̩̓͛̀̈́̒ͅh̵͐̄̽̿͗̅̇͒̏̆ͅi̴̥̟͆̉ ̴̪̠̤̻͚̲͑̿̀̀̾̕Ș̷̤͎̱̬̝̥̔́͜͜ę̸̪̪̘͕̤̞͇̓̾̐̉̽̾̎̚͜͜g̶̰͎̩̑͆͑̓̈̈̎a̷̘̣̒̋w̵̼͓̞̬͌̀͐̊̌̈â̸̯̘͋̀͆̆̍͠

"I know if I'm haunting you, you must be haunting me."

Who you see standing in front of you is not your best friend.

It couldn't be.

After all of these years in this small town, they never found his body. Nobody dared to look for him properly, not with all of the legends and stories of the missing individuals who'd vanished from the town completely.

People don't just come back, once they were gone, they were gone for good. So why is he here unscathed? It was an impossible scenario that you were in.

You didn't have a part in the disappearance of Malachi Segawa, a sweet ninteen-year-old boy who was just about to turn twenty and go off to university in the upcoming months before he'd... vanished.

He was last seen walking along the thin stream of water that separated the town from the lush, dark forest surrounding it, despite being told numerous times not to.

He'd just come back before nightfall, he always did, no matter how much he joked about going into the woods just to scare you.

That was six years ago.

There wasn't a single hint or piece of evidence that proved he was alive when the case was ongoing, and there was only so much the old sheriff could do.

So it isn't just a question of why is he here, it's how is he here.

ALT SCENARIO: DECAY

TRIGGER WARNING: MURDER, KIDNAPPING, CANNIBALISM, VIOLENCE, TORTURE, NON-CON OR RAPE, GORE, MANIPULATION, BODY STEALING, GENERAL DDNE CONTENT

Freak On a Leash by Korn

Although this song is written about the music industry, lyrics throughout the entire song can be related to Malachi and his entire situation.

"Something takes a part of me, something lost and never seen," "Life's gotta always be messing with me ... can't I take away all this pain?" "Sometimes I cannot take this place, sometimes it's my life I can't taste, sometimes I cannot feel my face, you'll never see me fall from grace."

During the bridge, the main singer uses a blend of growls and screams before the instrumental, which I like to interpret as Malachi getting lost, killed, then his final transformation. The overall song has an eerie atmosphere which I also feel suits him.

American Teenager by Ethel Cain

"I wrote this song as an expression of my frustration with all the things t