A/N: heeeeey everyone.
Wrote this as part of a spoooky week of writing on the TDRPU.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. Also I apologize for any OOCness at any time if there is any. I don't write Dave all that often.
Also heads up that there is murder and blood so be warned.
Enjoy!
The beginning of October.
Courtney Williams drove in her nice car towards her home that she shared with her husband and son. As a lawyer she worked all day and was quite tired upon arriving home. That didn't stop her from yelling at her husband should she feel the need. "Scott, you left your dirty shoes on the carpet again!" she called out in annoyance as she entered their house.
She got no reply.
Confused because Scott was unemployed and rarely left the house at night, Courtney set her bag down and headed further into the house. She turned on the lights. "Scott?" She looked around. "Are you here?"
"Scotty isn't around anymore..."
Courtney froze in her tracks. She knew that voice. It sent a chill up her spine. "What are you doing here...?" she asked, frowning.
"Paying you and your current catch a visit, is that so wrong?" the voice asked.
"It is if you break in!" Courtney snapped in reply.
The voice laughed. "It's more fun that way..." The person who belonged to the voice emerged from the darkest shadows. He towered over Courtney and she felt herself shrink before standing up straight again. "...I'm not afraid of you," she managed to say.
The man laughed and placed a hand under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "I'm sure you're not, Courtney. You've always been strong..." He grabbed her arm. "But not as strong as me."
Courtney tried yelling for help but he wouldn't let her. In fact, she never had the chance. His mouth was on hers for a moment, and then his knife was passing through the back of her throat. "Tell Scotty I say hello," the murderer said to her after pulling away and before dropping her dead body to the floor, wiping blood from his hand, and making his exit.
The police were baffled. Eight couples, four single men and three single women had been assaulted and then murdered in the area in the span of a month, with Courtney and Scott being the first two. They couldn't understand why. It kept them awake at night.
David 'Dave' Williams, fifteen years old, could also not sleep at night after finding his mom and stepdad murdered inside their home after coming back from school late. He'd stayed shut in his room for days on end with no one to tell him he couldn't. He had a bathroom connected to it so he could wash up when needed, but he didn't eat.
Eventually someone did come to the house, about two weeks later. A gentle knock on his door got Dave to look away from the ceiling. "Hey, Dave..." a soft voice spoke.
Dave saw it was someone he knew. His uncle, Mike. He sat up weakly. "Hey..." he replied with a heavy sigh.
"How're you holding up?" Mike asked as he opened the door and stepped inside.
Dave shrugged. He had dark circles under his eyes and he was thinner than he used to be, already rather skinny.
"I'm going to guess not good..." Mike replied, biting his lip. "I don't blame you for feeling this way, but you can't stay holed up in here forever..."
"Why'd you wait two weeks to show up?" Dave asked.
"The police wouldn't let me in..." Mike explained. "They were investigating and taking care of the, uh, mess..." He looked towards the floor.
"Have they caught him yet?" Dave asked. "The murderer?"
Mike shook his head. "They almost did, but he got away...speaking of the police, they want you to come in to answer some questions when you're ready."
"I'll never be ready," Dave claimed.
"I'm afraid if you don't turn that around, more people could die."
Another few weeks passed.
A visitor would be coming.
"I'm kinda nervous about this, Mike..." Dave admitted. He tugged at his loose-fitting sweater vest. "I barely know him." His frame hadn't quite filled out again after the weeks of near starving the month before.
"It'll be okay," Mike tried to assure him when he himself was nervous. He hadn't spoken to his brother-Dave's father- in a while, either. The last he'd seen him was his last prison visit. Now that brother was coming there.
A knock on the door of Mike's apartment turned both their heads. Mike took a deep breath in and out and walked over to the door, looking through the peephole before opening the door.
Mike's brother forced a smile, looking at his twin through one visible eye. "Mike...it's been a while," he said, his voice deep and gravelly. It made Dave shiver a little bit.
Mike managed to smile back. "It's good to see you too, Mal..." he replied quietly. "Come in."
Mal stepped into the apartment and looked around, his smile dropping. Dave held his breath, waiting to be noticed. He noted the dark lines under Mal's eyes, identical to his. Dave still hadn't slept well since that night, despite his best efforts and a change of scenery. When Mal's eyes landed on him Dave tensed the slightest bit. Mal slowly smiled. "Hello, Dave..." he greeted him.
"...h-hi...Mal..." Dave replied nervously. He'd never called Mal Dad. It didn't feel right.
Mal's smile fell again. He seemed to clench and unclench his fist once before looking around once again. He took a deep breath.
Mike watched the two warily.
"Quite the spread you have here, Mike," Mal remarked to break the tension. He couldn't have awkward silence.
"Thank you, it um...I've lived here about six months," Mike replied, glancing to the side.
Mal nodded slightly.
Dave was silent.
"Mike, would you mind leaving me and David alone for a little while?..." Mal asked, trying not to sound too threatening.
"Um, sure...I was going to start dinner anyway," Mike replied, walking off to the kitchen.
Mal looked down at Dave as Mike vanished. Dave shrunk into himself. Courtney had told him things about Mal as he'd gotten older, and they weren't exactly things one would like to hear about their father.
Mal wasn't entirely sure how to talk to Dave. He had no idea how to be a parent. "...so," he started, clearing his throat.
"Why didn't you come sooner?" Dave asked out of nowhere. His tone was accusing.
"...I had my reasons," Mal replied.
"Sure, and there was a reason Mom was murdered," Dave retorted, crossing his skinny arms.
Mal frowned, his covered eye twitching at the mention of Courtney. "Perhaps there was, but the killer is smart enough to keep their mouth closed..."
"That doesn't make it okay!" Dave snapped, his own eye twitching. "You could've come sooner..." He sniffled.
...if I'd been around he wouldn't be this weak Mal thought. What was he supposed to say? "I couldn't come...but I wanted to..." he claimed, trying to keep Dave from crying somehow. He didn't need that. Not right now.
Dave wiped his eye, his finger running over his eye bags.
"...have you slept at all?" Mal asked.
"No, not really...how could I after seeing my parents dead like that...?" Dave replied, not looking at Mal.
Mal's eye twitched again. Dave didn't consider him to be his parent. Understandable, but it nevertheless made him feel a bit angry. Irrationally angry, actually. "That's...fair, I suppose...sleep has never been a friend to me either," he said, his voice low as he masked his rage. He wasn't mad at Dave, he was mad at Courtney yet again.
Dave weakly nodded in understanding.
Mal glanced towards the door. His fists were clenching and unclenching. "Where are your things..?"
"Um, in my room...over there," Dave replied, confused by the question. "Why?"
Mal was silent a moment. "Get them. Now." He seemed a bit tense and almost sounded threatening.
Dave didn't want to argue because he felt afraid now. He stood and hurriedly got his things.
When he came back in, Mal grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the apartment, doing so silently and before Dave could protest.
Mike reentered the living room when he noticed the silence, and saw it was empty and that the door was partially open. His eyes widened and he looked around. "Dave? Mal?" he called out through the apartment. No answer.
He checked Dave's room. It was completely empty save for furniture. "No, he wouldn't..." he said under his breath, placing a hand over her mouth.
Outside, Mal was hurriedly pulling out of the parking lot by the apartment building, with Dave in the backseat. "Where are we going?" Dave asked, still confused and fearful.
Mal didn't respond. He gripped the steering wheel tightly as he started to speed down the street. "You'll see," he replied, his voice dark.
Dave silently gulped.
Two hours later they'd arrived to their final destination.
Mike was stressed beyond his mental capacity after both Dave and Mal never came back. It took getting the police involved to finally locate them both, and this took almost a year because of backlog with the serial killer case continuing along with others, especially after more murders happened. The pattern became more random and the killings frequent, often with multiple in one day. How that and the evasion of the murderer or murderers was possible was another mystery.
The evening that the police busted down the door to the killers' apartment, they were met with a surprise almost immediately: armed resistance.
Once reinforcements had been called and used and the smoke had cleared, five officers were on the ground, as were both Mal and Dave. They were both rushed to a hospital but only one of them survived the night.
Mike was called and he sped to the hospital in his car. He got the room number and ran to the door, then opened without knocking. "How could you do this...?" he asked under his breath, staring at the one in the bed.
Mal didn't respond. He had been shot several times and almost lost his life. His expression was currently hard to read. His hair had been moved away from his face by both doctors and policemen, so the deep set scars on the left side of his face were open to the world. The circles around his eyes were dark as ever and it almost looked like he'd been crying. He had been, unintentionally and silently, on the way to the hospital. He'd hoped that Dave, in another ambulance, would make it. He'd been wrong.
Mike looked down at the ground. He felt like this was his fault for not doing more to prevent this all from happening. For not looking harder. For not seeing the signs.
Mal was about to speak when Mike cut him off.
"It didn't have to be this way! You should have just left him with me the way you did all those years ago when you couldn't take care of him the way Courtney needed you to. He wouldn't be gone if you had- Dave is dead because of you," Mike said accusingly.
Mal was silent once again.
Mike couldn't look at his brother any longer. He turned and started to leave.
"It was never my intention for Dave to get hurt," Mal muttered. "I wasn't thinking...my anger blinded me as his blinded him from the truth."
Mike looked at him. "What do you mean by that?" he asked, his voice a bit shaky.
"...you'll know soon enough," Mal replied simply. "You'll know everything..."
After being discharged from the hospital, Mal was charged with numerous counts of murder and various forms of assault, as well as kidnapping and resisting arrest, among other things. He didn't deny anything, going so far as to reveal that he had manipulated Dave into helping murder alongside him for the year they were alone together. Mal was sentenced to several lifetimes in prison.
Mike went on living his life after Mal was locked up, though he could never get over what happened. The one time Mal called he did not answer.
Thanks for reading!