Charles
*Sch!K!*

*Sch!K!*

The shovel which Malus held was scooping up wet soil from the forest floor where he stood near a 4 foot deep hole. It made occasional clangs from striking stone and pebbles when he dug further. 

Resting beside a growing hill of dirt was a large form wrapped in old sheets. It was died up by cheap twine to keep it neatly held together. It appeared to be in the shape of some sort of creature bound by cloth.

A thin veil of pale fog clouded the woods that have been dampened by last night's rain. It drizzled off and on throughout the day, making the humidity spike in the area. This particular place had rock mounds and make-shift crosses that all had wildflowers placed there. 

Malus wore a yellow raincoat with its hood covering over his "Grave Crew" Hat, which compliments his white mask. The top sides of his jeans are smeared in mud with pieces of leaf and grass sticking to it. He continued to dig until he felt that it's good enough for the new corpse.

He embedded the shovel inside the dirt pile before he kicked the wrapped body rolling into the pit.

Thump!

Then grabbing hold of his shovel once more, the masked kid begins shifting the dirt over the dead deer that is inside the deep hole. At least a creature of these woods is able to get a proper burial.
Jaime
I'll get to this I promise, just dealing with a lot
Charles
It's ok, thanks for letting me know.
Jaime
Sam wandered into the woods, having decided that his one class for today was quite a lot of work, and that he really needed a break. He had figured a hike might be the solution, keyword there being *Had.* That was before he saw some stranger burying a deer ahead of him. That was probably a pretty strong sign to run. The next one would probably be that the stranger seemed to know what they were doing. Perhaps Sam had just watched too many movies, but he could think of quite a few murders that started or ended that way. Maybe, if he stayed quite and ran now, Sam could make sure that *He* Wasn't the next body to go into a hole. However, Sam would make a classic mistake found in many variable-budget horror movies, deciding that the next action should be further investigation. Surely, the stranger must be friendly... Right? They certainly wouldn't allow outsiders to get those close to campus, given the security threat that such an event would pose. Forcing down the last bit of both reason and doubt that he said, he would approach the unknown individual, glancing between them and the burial. 

"What... Exactly are you doing?"
Charles
The voice paused his actions for a second as Malus slowly glanced over toward the stranger standing alone. The question itself felt kind of stale to what he was doing was obvious; giving a dead animal a proper burial. 

The pale Kodama-looking mask stood out the most from beneath the yellow hood of his raincoat. A small fog puffed from the dark hole where the mouth of the veil. 

He implanted the spade of the shovel into the dirt pile as he begins to do signing with his hands as if to say,*"Please give me one moment."* 

Then he fished out the small black board and white chalk to write a sign for the other to read in a perfectly neat, readable message. *"Burying a dead creature. What are you doing here at the burial site?"*

There was a nasty, visible scar slashed across his throat where it appeared to have been operated on before. A clear sign that this kid is a mute by a simple look at the old injury.

All around the short boy stood signs of makeshift crosses, burial rock mounds and some headstones that he had made in art class. It appeared that Malus is some sort of keeper with the bold letters on his hat saying,**"Grave Crew"** On its front panel.

Malus was patiently waiting for the other's reply while he stood there with his gloved hands resting on his hips. These were his grounds which made him feel more responsible for this section of the woods.
Jaime
Sam stared at the kid as if he were trying to judge whether to run away in terror or go on a rant about why this was a terrible idea. He eventually settled on some hybrid of the two.

"Wha- why- how-
Why are you burying a deer in the middle of the woods? That seems really unwise. First off, why are you even handling dead deer? Is this a sacrifice of some sort? Are you a serial killer or something?" 

It seems like Sam's mind is jumping to the worst possible conclusions as he backs up out of shovel range, looking concerned and perhaps a bit afraid. ~~If you ask this narrator, this is all a bit scary, but this narrator also just got handed a sign saying to stick to the script.~~

Sam would continue rattle of questions, obviously still caught off guard by the sight.

"Why would you even bury a deer? We have animals that eat the remnants, no intervention required. Also, that's a lot of handling a deer corpse. This is how we're all going to get CWD. I feel like I should tell someone about this before something bad happens."

Sam would start to turn to leave, disturbed by seeing a random kid burying a dead deer, mildly concerned for the health and well-being of both of them, and having decided maybe these woods just aren't the best places for walks if stuff like this is going to happen.
Charles
The sputter of so many questions overwhelmed Malus until he starts getting annoyed. He couldn't help himself from rolling his eyes. With his speaking disability, Malus can't answer all of them. This person seem to be a new kid from the intranet. Usually he glance at the text but he doesn't bother texting. The place is so vanilla and boring.

Malus begins to write on the black board, deciding to be be more forward with this kid. *"Would you shut up? I'm just burying an animal to prevent disease from spreading, If you feel like telling someone, be my guess."* Malus sassily twirl his hand for him to go.

He was waiting for them to answer, now looking a bit annoyed. After feeling like the kid finish reading, he begins writing again. *"Well, I want to get back to work. You think I'm weird anyways by the way how you acted."*
Jaime
Sam seems a bit taken aback, but he would decided to stay, more curious than anything at this point. 
"Sorry, I'm a bit jumpy from all the caffeine, I've had over a gram at this point. I don't think you're *That* Weird, it was just a bit of a shock at first."

He looked into the hole, his curiosity getting the better of him. He stepped slightly closer, until he nearly fell into the hole, stumbling as he regained his footing. 

"I think we got off on the wrong foo-
Sam would slip again, this time much slower to regain his footing. 

"I'm Sam, who are you?"
Charles
Finding this Sam person to be an oddity with the sudden change of attitude, Malus stated at him judging my. His hands begin to move swiftly as he neatly writes on the black board again.

*"Malus, former grave keeper's assistant."* The message displayed after he turned it for the other to read. Well, waited after the creature nearly fell into the hole.

It was apparent that he was waiting to see what else this punk is about to do. Waiting for them to read the board before wiping it clean with the side of his hand. Then returning to write a new message on the board. *"Its just a dead creature that a kid recently killed. Oliver usually pick up messes after what the students or outsiders made. I'm doing this out of habit from my old job. I don't like finding things like this making it stink in the woods near the school grounds.""*
Jaime
Sam would seem to be significantly more relaxed now. Even if that was just an alibi, if the stranger really wanted to kill Sam, he probably would have done it by now. Unless he's one of those killers that goes on trying to form some weird relationship with their victim first, or tells them their big evil plan. Yikes. He was still clearly on edge, suspicious of how a random kid gets this job, and who Oliver was. And what does former mean? Does that mean former assistant to the existing gravekeeper, as in he was fired, or assistant to the former gravekeeper, as in something happened to them. 

Clearly on edge, and feeling out of great options, Sam would just sorta surrender, holding up his hands to show he was unarmed. Hopefully, that wasn't an invitation for this creepy guy to kill him
Charles
There was a hollowed sigh from Malus.

There's probably no way to concern the kid that he's not some serial killer or whatever in these woods. All he did was pick up his shovel and started shoveling the dirt over onto the dead animal. 

It was a rather big dirt pile that started to get smaller by each passing moment until it's all gone. Malus was a persistent kid, not bothering to take a break until he was finished. It didn't take him that long to get the hole covered completely. Now he just sling the shovel onto his shoulder where he walks by a large, twisted oak tree where he sits down on a fallen long. Setting the shovel down next to him, it leaned against the rough bark of the tree. 

Malus sets his work gloves aside on the log, he begins rummaging through his backpack to pull out a water bottle. He pushed the mask upward to reveal his lower face, appearing quite young and showing disfigurement. Malus takes a sip of his water to help ease the itch in his scarred throat.

With Sam appearing like a skittish prey animal, it was reminding Malus of how much he needed vitality. Draining some life from him would help relieve some of the hunger but he restrained himself from doing anything rash. There was a contemplating look from Malus, staring off at Sam before returning his attention to the water bottle.

He takes more sips of it before screwing the cap right now on and then putting the object back into the bag. 

ZIP!

The backpack is now zipped closed where it sat next to him back the shovel. The young kid takes out his notepad and pen to start writing a message again. He sort of forgot about lowering his mask while he wrote in neat letters on the paper.

*"Do you often hang out on the Intranet? You're new, so I assume you might be the Mist guy? There's a lot of similar names in Newton Cradle, so I am unsure."*
Jaime
Sam was still considering whether or not he should stay or run for his life. Unless Malus really was settling in for the long game before killing him, he was problem fine, but still, something about the whole situation left him creeped out and uneasy. He was still pretty sure it wasn't exactly normal to just be burying animals in the woods, but then again, nothing here was normal. Doubt aside, there was another problem. Even if malus *Is* A serial killer and Sam needed to run, he had gotten himself lost and didn't have a clue where to go. Furthermore, it was getting late, and he was losing light. Sam figured that unless he wanted to start a forest fire to keep the path visible, he should consider heading back soon. But that meant either getting help from the stranger or wandering around until something else happened, which could be hours at least. He thought for a moment when malus asked the question, trying to make a final decision as to whether or not he should trust the kid. Eventually, he would decide in favor, but it would still be painfully obvious how uneasy he was. 

"I spend a bit of time there, I guess. I am mist though. I'm having a bit of a hard time keeping track of some of the new people myself, think we got a new one today?"
Charles
He decided to switch the notepad for his cellphone to have the A.I read his text message. Sometimes he kinda wished that people knew sign language. 

*"What's wrong? Is this not adventurous enough for you to keep from boredom?"* Somehow the bot on his phone sounded a lot more sarcastic than it should. The way it pronounced it sort of made him a little taken back by it. 

Even if Malus was a serial killer it wouldn't be a normal kind of hunt that would make it difficult for the authorities to investigate. Sam sure looks like a nice juicy steak full of vitality that he wants so bad. He had enough composure to win against his temptations. Talking to the person helps plenty to cause him to gradually lose his appetite. 

*"You really have to be more careful when talking on the intranet. Especially when you want to plan on escaping, it's monitored by the feds."* The robot read out his text in a more normal tone now. *"I don't bother using it but it's a good place to see what's going on in the chat."*

Malus slings the backpack on before grabbing the shovel in his left hand, using his free one to hold and text on the phone. *"It is getting late. You're a newbie so we don't want the teachers to get worried. There's a shortcut that leads to the main path that would take you back to the school."*

He simply walked past Sam by several feet before pausing in his tracks, glancing over his shoulder as if expecting the new kid to follow. *"There's going to be nocturnal kids from Cradle who are much scarier than me. I'm just a small fry compared to them. So please follow unless you want to engage in their mischief."* 

Malus begins walking ahead.
Jaime
This I'm getting to shortly

Sam stayed put for a moment, seriously considering staying to see what this nocturnal mischief was all about. Sure, even malus scared him, and he still didn't have a good enough grip on his ability to effectively defend himself from the more experienced residents, but hey, maybe it would be fun. Maybe, malus is exaggerating the threat and it's really just going to be a giant party. And sure, he was new, but teachers? Worried? This place was a prison, he couldn't imagine the teachers gave much of a damn about some barely human like him. Besides, if these kids were such a threat, surely the teachers wouldn't risk their safety for him. To Sam, this mischief actually sounded... Pretty good, perhaps it would be an escape from the monotonous prison-like life of this place, at least for a few hours. With that, another moment passed. Then another. It would become apparent that if Sam hadn't already made the decision to stay, then he was at least deeply considering it.
Charles
Malus doesn't mind read or can see into Sam's inner monologuing. He's leaving Sam behind heading back to the school not wanting to be out here to deal with other mischief. If he truly needed vitality he would have just drained Sam's life. Right now he's not too sure what to feel about him. A part him just automatically don't like him as much. It's a feeling that he can't help for now until next time they meet again. Malus's lantern grew fainter with him as he leaves Sam alone in the darkness.