AN
Calliope is British in here. Just because i love the line "You wouldn't much like to see me with it off," with a British accent and a tiny little giggle. It makes me smile.
Your bro pulls you into an alley and the first thing you're aware of is bricks digging into your back and his hand pressing hard on your shoulder. "What the fuck are you doing?" He snaps and you shoves his hand off of you, rubbing your sore shoulder. "Dave, what the actual fuck, you can't keep that thing." He points in the direction of the door and you know he's talking about John.
"I wouldn't have kept HIM alive if HE was a danger to me, and you know that." He gives you a look like he doesn't believe you. Fuck, even you don't believe you about that, but you're not going to let him catch wind of that.
"Keeping it puts all of us in danger."
"Will you stop calling him it?" You snap.
"No. It's not John anymore it's a thing that wants to eat us, dumbass."
"HE doesn't want to eat us!" You throw up your hands, "HE told me I smell nasty or something, HE turned a week ago and I'm perfectly fine. HE keeps the creeps off me and when he does go eat whatever it is he's been eating he keeps the details to himself, HE is fine."
You two stare at each other for a long time. It's a little easier to read him without his shades, if you had to guess he lost them some time ago. "I'm telling Equius. He'll help me keep an eye on the thing." He says, and he points at you. "If IT sets one undead hair out of line, IT is going down. Got it?" You can't tell if you nod or not before the door creaks open and you see John, hood pulled just as tight as before.
Equius is behind him and he steps out after John, who immediately goes to your side and is immediately the subject of your brother's glare. Equius touches his shoulder and your brother turns to him. "Dirk, I believe we may have a problem." He says and he makes a small hand gesture toward John, whose eye has been stitched up and is no longer just a hole in his face. You take a moment to get over the fact that the guy called your bro by his name. No one ever calls your bro by his name.
Until you were thirteen you thought Bro was his legal name.
"I know." He sighs, "Dave seems to think it's not a big deal. I was going to ask if you'd keep an eye on it with me." Equius offers a small nod to your brother and then turns his attention to you and John again.
"Should it come to that, I will make it's death quick."
Dirk turns to you two again, but his eyes are on John. "Say something." He demands and John seems to flinch.
"Uh," Is all he manages and you look between him and your brother, whose gaze is growing more skeptical. Come on, you think, say something, anything. "Something." He blurts and your brother seems satisfied. He reaches forward, grabbing John's chin and turning his head side to side. You can see the vein's in his hand straining, which tells you how hard he's squeezing him, but John hasn't winced. When he finally pulls his hand away the skin beneath was darker, almost like it was bruising.
He must have been squeezing really fucking hard. Your bro turns to go back inside, motioning for Equius to follow, which the big guy does without questioning. You watch them leave before you feel cold fingers brush your arm.
You hate that your first reaction to the cold touch is flinching away, and the one eye he has left drops to the ground, his fingers retreating. You want to say something, but when your mouth opens nothing comes out. You gently take his hand and he follows you inside.
Once inside you're immediately confronted by a short girl wearing a skull mask. She steps up to you and offers you a can of dried fruit, which you quietly accept. "Dunno much about you." She says and you can hear the smile in her voice behind the mask. "Dirk's talked about you an awful lot though, and you sound like a good kid. Name's Calliope." She holds out her hand for a shake and you do, and then her hand moves to John.
He shakes his head a tiny bit, knowing his temperature alone will set her off a bit. She draws he hand back and you see her head tilt a small bit as she looks John over. "Anyways, I suppose I could introduce you to everyone, or just sort of point and name names." She's still smiling. It's strange but you like it, someone being so positive in the zombie apocalypse.
She walks with you back into the room where the others were. "You've already met Equius and Nepeta," She says, and places a hand on your shoulder, pointing to the first victim of her introductions.
He's a tall lanky guy, cracked glasses covering mismatched eyes and his finger are twitching as if they're not used to being idle. "That's Sollux, he's a bit anti-social, but he's an okay guy when you do have to talk to him. A bit snarky, actually." She nods a little and you nod as well following her eyes to the next.
"That's Roxy," A small blonde with black lipstick. She almost reminds you of a friend from before all of this. "She's my friend, and she's a bit of a drinker but she's a sweet girl." You nod, and again follow her finger.
You learn names, and commit them to notable features. Karkat, the short angry guy with the scythe, Gamzee, punk looking possible drug addict, and Calliope, green skull mask. It's easy enough. You'll never forget Equius, muscles, or Nepeta, cat-hat. It's easy enough. You turn to Calliope when the introductions are finished and you thank her.
"Do you ever take that mask off?" John asks from behind you. You look over you shoulder at him and hear the girl giggle a little.
"You wouldn't much like to see me with it off." She says with a nod and turns, leaving before anyone can say anything more.
You go to sit in an unoccupied corner, judging by the looks of it, that's how things work around here. You brother and Equius are in another corner, talking and taking glances in your direction every now and then. No doubt they're looking at John. In an attempt to make him look slightly less obvious you pull on the tab and open the canned fruit, pulling out a piece and holding it out to him. "Eat."
He stares at it for a while his eyes shift up to you and he kind of shakes his head. "You know what happens when I try to eat real food." He whispers and you nod, telling him to eat it again. He's slow, but he finally takes it, putting it in his mouth and swallowing the piece of pear like a pill. He sits still for a moment before you see the alarm raise in his eyes and he's on his feet, darting out of the building faster than you can watch him go.
You get a few odd looks but the one you get from Dirk actually scares you.
It makes you wonder what you were thinking keeping him alive. Even if he is completely lucid, he's still a creep, he still eats human flesh.
He comes back, leans down and mumbles in your ear that he's going to go eat. You just nod and you see a chunk of eyes on him as he leaves before they're all on you.
You feel guilty, but you find yourself hoping a survivor will kill him. He can't stomach any food anymore, he can't eat anything that isn't meat or skin and it's not like you can walk to the convenience store and buy him a raw steak, he needs to eat the fresh, or almost fresh, stuff.
You feel the eyes leave, you slide your shades off and press onto your eyes with the heels of your hands.
You know how this story is going to end. You can't stay with these people if you want to keep him alive.