The Man in the Woods 6

Rose and John sat in the small black car Rose owned, driving back home from the store with several bags of groceries in the back seat.

And smother silence overtook the area, oddly enough, not a sound besides the car running, and the dull sound on the radio playing some generic song.

"..." John glanced over at Rose for the tenth time, and finally, spoke up.

"Rose...?"

"Hm."

"Is...is this really...okay?"

"What do you mean, John?"

"You're so smart, Rose, I really hate it when you play dumb."

Rose's pale hands tightened against the steering wheel ever so slightly, and the violet eyed girl sighed, staring ahead at the road for a long time, black lips parted ever so slightly as she calculated the right thing to say.

"...of course it's not, John. We can't just... We can't just force a stranger to stay in our home. You saw the handcuffs around his wrists."

Johns blue eyes widened, and he sent Rose a bewildered look.

"But you-! You were the one who decided to make everyone vote-you took his side, Rose! What the fuck?!"

Rose sighed quietly, and peered over at John before turning her attention back to the road.

"John, I know you think Dave is just trying to do what's right, but I think this is more about him than...Gamzee." She started, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"You've seen him lately, haven't you? So distant and not himself. Depressed even. I know for a fact that he's not happy with his life right now. And then. Then this weird, bizarre, totally exciting thing happens to him out of nowhere." Rose explained further. John stared with a befuddled look on his face, starting to click things together.

"He meets this totally unique individual, a person unlike anyone he's ever met before. He's different. He's totally untouched by society in any way, and doesn't have to do things like Dave does. I think...that Dave somehow finds him the solution to the mundane. He's trying to use this man to make his life unique and better for his own sake. Even if Gamzee wants no part in it at all." Rose frowned a bit, falling silent. John took this opportunity to speak up.

"But...you're not the only one who raised your hand, Rose...the others did too. So,what, do they all think this is a good idea."

"You raised your hand, too."

"That's..." He trailed off, kind of revolted by himself now. Did he seriously support this.

"Dave managed to convince you that this was the right thing to do, just like the others. But just like you, there will be doubts. Slowly, they'll begin to question why they ever believed Dave in the first place. I just hope to convince him to stop this before that happens. It won't help us if we gang up on him."

"So...what do we do, Rose? Do we just...wait?" John asked.

"Right now, yes. I'll work on slowly talking him down from this. In the meantime...well,all we can do is keep the others safe...Gamzee included."

-.-.-

Rose and John parked outside their large shared home, and headed to the front door, each carrying their own fair share of groceries. However, rose didn't even get the chance to unlock the door when a loud thump, and a scream was heard from inside.

Of course, Rose was hesitant to actually open the door, but brushed off the fear lingering there and finally tossed the door open. She kind of wished she hadn't, though.

The couple was greeted to a rather unusual sight. First, their living room was completely trashed. Karkat and Nepeta were cowering behind and overturned couch, and an insanely skinny man stared down at them, mouth pulled into a violent snarl, aggressive stance.

Gamzee's hair had been chopped off so it was shorter than before, and the handcuffs were now gone from his wrists, leaving behind a purple ring of bruises on both arms. There was also still a fair amount of swelling on his face, dark blue blooming on one side of his face, black eye on the other. He was scrubbed completely clean of dirt, and the only thing he wore at the moment was a pair of Dave's briefs, which showed off his skinny frame. There was thick gauze tapped to his side with medical tap, covering up the gash that once stood there.

The man let out another snarl, and grabbed the edge of a nearby end table, throwing it over, causing the lamp and anything else resting on top of it to crash to the ground.

Nepeta screamed and clung to Karkat tighter.

Finally, Eridan came back into the picture, shot gun in hand, and Feferi in tow.

"Eridan, no, don't!" She screamed as Eridan pointed the barrel at Gamzee with a snarl.

"Fuck. You." Eridan hissed out.

All at once, Gamzee turned to see Rose and John standing befuddled and shocked in front of an open door. The Capricorn charged toward them, or the door rather just as Eridan shot towards his head.

Miraculously, he missed by a hairline, the shot flying by his ear.

However, Gamzee shrieked anyways, and crumbled to the floor, holding his hands over his ears.

"Fuck...I...I think you actually hit him!" Karkat piped up from behind the couch.

Dave came rushing into the living room, handcuffs in hand. "What the hell was that? What did you do?" He shot a look toward Eridan's direction, before rushing over to Gamzee's side where the other was still squirming and hissing on the floor.

Dave kneeled next to him, and took the others head in his hands, while Gamzee still squirmed, panicked, spat. He checked for blood, any wounds, and found nothing new. He let out a sigh of relief.

"Christ...it's okay...I think the loud noise just hurt his ears."

Things went silent, and the others stared at Gamzee while he hissed quietly through rotten teeth, arching his back off the ground and smashing is palms against his ears to try and get rid of the piercing ringing.

"Dave...wha...what happened?" John was finally able to bite back his shock and manage.

"I had to take his cuffs off...so is could put some clothes on him." He spoke while doing just that, shoving the others lanky limbs though a baggy t-shirt, taking the chance while he was still stunned. He clasped the handcuffs back around the others wrists and then finally pulled a pair of pajama pants over the others legs. "He tackled me over and took off the second I did."

Gamzee laid his head against Dave's lap while he did so, shock over, and just exhausted, panting.

Dave leaned over, pulling the man to his feet, and kept his hands on his shoulder to keep him steady when he staggered.

Finally, the Strider noticed everyone in the room staring at him.
He paused.

"...what?"

-_..._

End of Chapter 7