John stirred. He blinked his eyes blearily open to find that his face was still firmly planted in the corner of the couch cushions. He slowly sat up, his face sticky with dried tears. John quickly tried to rub them off before anyone noticed, but the room was silent aside from quiet breathing. He turned to his left and saw the fuzzy image of Karkat slumped over the table, asleep.
After a moment of scrambling to find his glasses, which had drifted between the couch cushions, his vision sharpened and he saw that Sollux remained motionless, in the same position that they had left him in.
He heard soft footsteps from behind him, he turned around and saw Kanaya tiptoeing out of her room, buttoning a long, black coat. When she saw him staring she froze, her eyes wide. John blinked but didn't say anything, confused as to why Kanaya looked so startled. She carefully lifted a finger to her lips, then indicating Karkat's sleeping form with a jerk of her head. John nodded and sank back down to lay against the various throw pillows scattered around the couch. Kanaya crossed the room, grabbed something that was standing by the door, quickly concealing it in her jacket and left.
Karkat woke less than a minute later, shaking his head groggily.
"You up?" He croaked to John.
"Yeah. How is he?"
"I don't know. Are you hungry or anything?"
"No."
"Yeah me neither."
John slid off the couch and slumped on the floor, his head hanging down. His arms were crossed in front of him and he did what he had been trying to avoid and studied them closely. There were only two spots that his original pigment remained, but even those patches had seemed to grow smaller overnight. His fingernails were slightly thicker, and, as far as he could tell, had darkened.
"You okay?" A voice asked from asked from John's left. He looked up to see Karkat standing over him. The troll then sat down next to John, curling his knees up to his chest. John shrugged.
"Yeah me neither."
"Is he gonna be okay?"
"I think so. He's gonna be pissed for sure but I think we can handle it."
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I was right there, I could've, I should've-"
"No. Don't beat yourself up about it, it already happened. Besides, you probably would have gotten killed if you had gone down there earlier. No one blames you okay? It's just another shit thing that happened in our crazy little world."
"They keep happening."
"Yeah, I know, you can never catch a fucking break without someone being stabbed in a clichéd dark alleyway."
"It's stupid."
"Yeah." John groaned and stood up, his clothes wrinkled and smeared with dirt, then walked into the bathroom, leaving Karkat sitting against the couch. He didn't mean to be rude, but John was feeling overwhelmingly guilty and didn't want to talk.
Kanaya's bathroom was a tiny room blocked off by an old mildew-covered shower curtain. The shower itself was nothing more than a large, metal basin and a shower head strung up on the ceiling. In the middle of the basin was a drain, that was there when Kanaya had arrived and no one knew where exactly it went. Sollux had singlehandedly gotten the running water working again for a small part of the city, it wasn't extremely clean but it was good enough.
He turned the lever and water began sputtering out, banging against the tin of the basin. He peeled off the shirt he was wearing, it was black with a yellow symbol of the roman numeral two. It wasn't his, but he no longer cared, him, Karkat and Sollux kind of shared clothes interchangeably now. John looked up, then almost jumped, as it seemed someone else had entered the bathroom.
He inhaled shakily, and again met his own eyes in the mirror that was hung on the wall. His face was entirely grey. He barely recognized himself, he felt like a stranger in his own body. His eyes were still blue behind the clear lenses of his glasses, but he knew they wouldn't be for long.
His lips were darker than his face, but only slightly. He had been expecting it to happen, but he couldn't help but feel a certain sense of finality. There was no going back now. Even by the strange, miraculous change that he somehow escaped this place, he could never go back to his old life. His breathing started to quicken, he closed his eyes.
Inhale. Count to three. Exhale. Count to three. Inhale. It's fine.
After seventeen carefully regulated breaths John turned away from the mirror and back to the shower. He pulled the rest of his clothes off and stepped in, cringing at the temperature. He had gotten used to cold showers, but it didn't mean he enjoyed them.
When he had endured as much as he could, he stepped out, shutting the water off and grabbing one of the fraying towels, determinately staring at the ground. He exited to Kanaya's room, shuffling through the large pile of clothes by the side of her bed until he found a few things that looked like they fit him.
He walked back into the living room, towel slung around his shoulders.
"Karkat?"
"Yeah?" Karkat was back over by the table, sitting in the stool again.
"How long have I...been like this?"
"Hm?" John gestured to his face.
"Oh..a few days. You didn't seem like you wanted to think about so I didn't say anything." John nodded.
Just then, Sollux shifted and groaned. Both Karkat and John jumped. Sollux blinked a few times, his eyelids collapsing slightly inward when closed, then bit his lip.
John and Karkat exchanged a panicked glance. Did he realize? Could he remember what had happened? John jerked his head to show that Karkat should speak first, who narrowed his eyes as if to say What the everloving fuck am I supposed to say in this situation? John indicated that he should just Suck it up and get on with it! and Karkat cleared his throat.
"Um..." he started.
"I know." Sollux answered. John and Karkat exchanged another look.
"This is kind of a stupid question but how are you feeling?"
"How you would expect. Can I get off this goddamn table now? I want to fucking sleep on something that isn't a shit piece of wood."
"Yeah, yeah of course." Sollux sat up slowly and slid off the table, stumbling to the side. Karkat jumped forward and caught him, hoisting him back up by his arm.
He guided Sollux to the couch, keeping a tight grip on his arm the whole time. Sollux flopped on the couch, turned over, and was asleep a few seconds later. Karkat stayed, staring down at him for a few more seconds before moving to the campstove in the corner of the room. He put up a pot of boiling water and ripped open a few packs of instant oatmeal.
"Where's Kanaya?" He asked.
"I don't know. I saw her leave early this morning." Karkat stiffened. He got up, abandoning the steaming pot and ran towards the door, looking to one side of it.
"Why can't anything ever go smoothly!" he snarled, stomping back.
"What is it?"
"Her chainsaw's gone. I think I know where she went."
"What do we do?"
"I don't know, go after her I guess? I didn't think much of Eridan before but.." He gestured to Sollux's sleeping form.
"I'll go find her, you need to stay and watch him," John said.
"What? You'll get lost twenty feet out the door. You've barely been here a month remember?"
The door banged open, interrupting the brief argument. John and Karkat both turned, John's mouth fell open.
Kanaya was framed in the doorway, a chainsaw in her left hand. Her coat was ripped and hanging in shreds, and purple blood was splattered violently across her entire body, staining her clothes and streaked in her hair. She smiled, blood dripping off her elegant fangs and eyes gleaming.
"Good news," she smirked. "Bastard's dead."