A/N: So, this story's going to be really weird for me, because the entirety of it is written in present tense unless it's a flashback. But, anyways. Here you go!
The air is stuffy when Hanna shoots up like a rocket in his bed on the floor, eyes wide in terror and confusion and a small but audible gasp escaping his throat. Through the tiniest window to ever exist, light is starting to shine through, casting a warm hue over the dismally small room.
Intense blue eyes scan the clutter of books and papers, spotting his laptop in the far corner. How did that get there? he wonders, already knowing the answer: Lionel moved it.
Lionel, as he was currently being called in the redhead's mind, is absent from the room, but judging by the smell of eggs wafting in from the kitchen slash living room, he is making breakfast. Hanna is certain that if anyone ever found out that a zombie made him food, they would panic and shriek about how unsanitary and unhealthy it was.
But they didn't know Lionel - who, Hanna decides, is now named Fernando. Unlike most others of the undead persuasion, Fernando was far from unsanitary. In fact, the only giveaway of his deceased nature was through his appearance; green skin, glowing red eyes, and the occasional lines of stitching were the only real things that made him stick out in a crowd.
Hanna sighs, laying back and closing his eyes against the warm mattress beneath him. Part of him just wants to fall back asleep; the idea is tempting enough that he actually lets his mind start to drift, and he's just halfway to unconsciousness when the door creaks open and a low, gentle voice inquisitively calls out his name.
He groans, opening one eye to see his undead companion watching him unblinkingly - something he's almost completely used to. "Hnuuh?"
"You should get up now, if you want time to eat before you have to go to work."
Hanna's mind goes blank, and he bolts upright after a second. This repeat of his earlier awakening finishes the job of getting him completely aware of what time it is. "Shit! I have to work today?"
Fernando watches as Hanna, in true Hanna Cross fashion, stands up from his bed and moves around the room with the speed of a fighter jet, throwing on his uniform and pulling on his shoes with a grace that shows that it's his second nature to be late.
He takes a simple step back to allow the frail redhead passage through the door and into the living room. The television is on and set to the news, courtesy of their stolen cable, and the anchorman is reciting news about no leads in the murder of a body found in the Ives Theater, identified as Lee Falun. Fernando dimly wonders if Veser, the half-Selkie they helped at that very same theater, is watching the news and balling his fists in fury before classes start.
"I swear, I have no idea how I survived before you came along, Galahad," Hanna says, although through the eggs he's shoveling down, it sounds more like a muffled cluster of nonsense. The small smile Galahad allows to reach his face is noticed with a dramatic gasp and a tick on a mental tally board.
Hanna, being done and throwing on his jacket before his brain can even register that the void in his stomach is no longer empty, says, "Okay, so I work until five, which is about when the sun goes down, so I'm thinking we can go visit Conman and Veser when I get home. By the way, no offense or anything, but could you blink? You haven't blinked once since I got up, and it's kinda creeping me out."
Galahad, at the request, realizes that Hanna's observation is right, and gives an unnecessary blink of the eyes. "None taken. It sounds like a plan."
"Don't get in too much trouble."
As the door closes, Galahad stares at the wooden slab for a good minute while he thinks, Shouldn't I be saying that to you?
In the now quiet apartment, he begins to clean up the remains of a one-man breakfast and muses about his plans for the day. The news, now flashing through the weather, cheerfully informs him that the day will be sunny at first, but storms were expected by the late afternoon. It looks like he'll be spending most of this day cleaning the apartment.
He goes back to the room they share, which doubles as an office, and looks out that tiny window. The sun is indeed shining, but over the tall buildings and on the horizon, he can see a line of storm clouds. Part of him entertains the notion that it's a premonition, the use of foreshadowing in their pathetically average lives.
Little does he know, is that he is absolutely right.
{}{}{}
Hanna isn't sure why he takes the long way to work; he's already running kind of late, and he had stared in the direction of his shortcut for a good few minutes earlier, but something in his mind told him to take the long way. And so there he is, walking through the center of the city in his work outfit and watching the cozy liveliness of the day crowd.
The day crowd, as he referred to it, is nice enough, but busy; burnt-out parents going off to burn themselves out some more at some kind of job, or dropping off kids at school so they can finally get some rest and relaxation. But in the day crowd, there's less chance of running into a big bad, since most of the more... troublesome citizens are nocturnal. He shudders when Ples Tibenoch comes to mind, and tries to shake the sound of ticking from his mind.
He finally manages to, but it is only replaced with the actual sound of people chattering at the news stand next to him. "What a shame," a woman comments, shaking her head before going back to her wonderful little world. Hanna silently slides into the gap she leaves in the crowd surrounding the stand, trying to see what the hype is about.
When he does, though, he can feel all of the blood draining from his face, and everything in front of his eyes explodes into white, stained only with simple black lettering:
"MISSING CHILD FOUND DEAD; POSSIBLE ANIMAL ATTACK".
"Never heard of this city having a bear problem," a man says, handing money to the stand vendor. The vendor replies with something that makes the both of them chuckle, but Hanna tunes them out to get closer and read the entirety of the story. A pit of dread forms in his stomach even before his eyes rest on the awful description of how Joshua Tanner, age seven, had been found in the park, mutilated in a way similar to bear attack, the day before. And before he even knows what he's doing, he's going back the way he came, his feet creating a frantic pattern of sound against the sidewalk.
Within fifteen minutes of departing, he's bursting through the door of his apartment, saying, "Caelus! Get ready, we gotta go to Worth's!"
Caelus, in the midst of tying up a trash bag, looks up in mild surprise at the sound of his red-haired companion. "Hanna? I thought you had to work."
"I did. I'm gonna call in sick, though, something came up." As he speaks, Hanna is picking up their phone and hastily pounding on the keys. "Seriously, finish up, we're leaving as soon as I hang up."
Caelus sets the trash bag next to the door to take out on the way and grabs at his long, dark coat and fedora; the former item was a gift from Hanna in celebration of their first Christmas together, despite it being at least another month until Christmas.
Hanna hangs up, having given a disturbingly realistic appeal to his case of not coming into work, and looks up at Caelus, blue eyes racked with fear. "Let's go."
The walk is uneventful, filled with double-takes that they are both used to. When they reach Worth's office, located through the third unmarked door in a dark alleyway, the doctor is strangely absent from his normal position behind the cluttered desk. "Worth?" Hanna calls out, closing the door behind them with a little slam.
There are the sounds of voices chattering in the back room and shoes clicking on tile, and a door marked with a paper slip reading "312" opens, Doc Worth stepping out in the smallest opening he can squeeze through.
One needed to only look at Worth to tell his personality. Under a dirty and mangy-looking, fur-lined coat, is a body that is incredibly thin, much like the body of a drug addict; thin and lanky, joints bent in a perpetual slouch. Hawk-like black eyes, nearly consumed by unhealthy bags, stare at Hanna and Caelus, ticked with furrowed eyebrows that only deepen the wrinkles on his forehead. "Th' fuck're you doin' here?" he growls, rubbing at his stubbled chin. "Don'che have work?"
"Yeah, but something came up, Worth," Hanna says pleadingly, his tone making Caelus uneasy; naturally, the undead man made no indication of his emotions.
"Somethin' always comes up, donnit? Well, y' can go off'n fuck yerself, I've got a client an-"
"It's back."
All falls silent at these two simple words. Worth stops short, his eyes actually widening once the words sink in. "Y'... y'sure?"
"Yeah. Read it in the paper. It was a kid." Hanna looks down at the floor, his hands clenched into fists as they find homes in his pockets. "They're saying it was a bear attack."
Worth snorts incredulously, but his expression belies his attempt to sound casual as he circles to lean against the side of his desk that isn't blocked by a dead plant. "'Ey, stranger things've happened here, right? Maybe the bear wanted t' see the scenery."
In the midst of the uncomfortable silence that follows the comment, Caelus utters the question that has been his mind for a good few minutes: "What is It?"
The doctor opens his mouth to reply, but is interrupted by someone calling him from the 312 room. He jerks upright, looking to the door (Caelus notices that, with correct posture, the good doctor actually stands taller than him by a good inch) before audibly giving a tick of his teeth. "Look, I've got patients t'day. How 'bout ye come back tonight?"
Hanna finally looks up, nodding dully. "Yeah." He then perks up slightly, the light reflecting off of his glasses. "Hey! Maybe I can be all official and call a meeting!"
Worth raises an eyebrow and waves them off as he slouches once again, slowly shuffling back to the back room. "Keh. Use the phone 'f ye want, but be outta here in fifteen."
Hanna hesitates for a second after Worth disappears behind the door before bouncing over to the desk, almost forcibly, and picks up the phone from the cradle, staring at it. "Uhhh - oh, look! Conman's phone number's right here, how awesome's that?" He punches in numbers and shoots Caelus a reassuring smile that only makes the zombie more uneasy. "I promise this'll make sense tonight, Giles. Conrad, it's Hanna," he says when the answering machine picks up. "Look, as soon as you get this, come over to Worth's office. Try and bring Veser, too."
With a look in a moldy phone book, Hanna also calls Veser and Toni's schools and leaves messages. When he's done, they've taken just a little longer than fifteen minutes, but it isn't until they've left the office that Worth's patient finally reveals itself. Drawing the hood of its raincoat over its head, it smiles at them when it passes, revealing teeth of wood before disappearing in a swirl of leaves just before it reaches the sidewalk . Hanna gasps excitedly and starts babbling about Walgeists and how it's good luck to see one, but Giles has long learned how to multi-task listening to him and thinking his own thoughts.
And his own thoughts are unusually worrisome.