As he came back to consciousness, Joseph groaned. He rolled over on the floor, pulling his face from the tacky green carpet. His mind was fuzzy, he couldn't remember exactly how he had gotten there. He lifted himself off the floor and shakily stood up.
His heart practically fell out of his chest in horror as he looked at the scene in front of him.
Three people, a man, a woman, and a child, entirely drained of their blood, laid across the furniture haphazardly. He spotted words on the wall behind them, scrawled in blood in surprisingly fancy handwriting.
"You should have listened to me to begin with."
Joseph looked down at his hands. They were coated with blood up to the wrists.
He walked into the bathroom in a daze. Three innocent people, dead. He hoped to god that it had been DIO using his body and not…
He shook his head and put his hands under the tap, turning it on as hot as he could stand. As he washed his hands he stared at his reflection in the mirror.
He was sure that it was DIO, it couldn't have been him… right? He thought back to what had happened last that he could remember. They had left that woman's house, DIO crashed the car and-
-The car.
Shizuka was in the car.
Joseph sprinted from the bathroom into the living room, without drying his hands. He stood in front of the TV, which had a small splash of blood across the screen.
As he had hoped, Hermit Purple reached out and went through the side of the large monitor. The screen filled with static for a minute and as it cleared he saw the room he stood in, but in place of him stood DIO.
"You're worried about the invisible child, aren't you?" DIO laughed.
Joseph clenched his fists. "You better not have hurt her." He growled, "You've hurt too many people as is."
DIO put the back of his hand to his forehead and twisted his expression in obviously fake horror. "Me? Kill a poor defenseless infant?" He said, in an exaggerated offended tone, "You don't seem to care as much about that family." DIO laughed and turned to look at the corpses. "They had stopped to help you, you know. They saw the car crash and wanted to help you," He said darkly, "and as far as they knew, you've gone and killed them in their own home. Yet, you care more about the baby? For shame."
Joseph only glared at him. "If you didn't kill her, then where is she?" He practically yelled, "Tell me where! She can't be left alone for too long!" He stomped his foot, practically breaking a hole in the floor.
DIO tapped his finger to his chin. "I can't seem to recall exactly." He said, "I believe it was… ah. I remember." He grinned, "To find her, you'll need to listen closely… and quickly, too, you won't have much time." DIO laughed as he retracted the purple vines from the TV, causing the screen to cut out in a flash of light.
Joseph stood in the living room, stock-still and holding his breath, and listening.
…
Drip.
Drip.
He heard it. It was coming from the kitchen.
He sprinted into the kitchen and was horrified at what he saw.
A good majority of the kitchen was invisible, except for what looked like it would be a bucket of water if it weren't invisible.
He bounded into the kitchen but he slammed into an invisible table and flipped onto his back on the floor. He got back up from the floor and ran to the sink. He stuck his hands in the cold water and pulled out Shizuka, who promptly coughed up a lot of water.
"Holy shit…" Joseph whispered as the kitchen became visible again. He took the baby into the bathroom and dried her off. "Are you okay?" He asked as he wrapped her in a towel so he could at least see where she was.
Shizuka only whimpered and shivered in response. He brought her closer to him to try and warm her up, but as he pulled her into his jacket he realized that she was somehow warmer than him despite being utterly freezing.
"Shit…" He walked out of the bathroom and into the living room. He looked back at the corpses of the family that had lived there. He shook his head and walked into what looked like it used to be the child's room. "I don't think staying with me would be the safest option anymore." He said to the child, setting her in the child's bed.
As he walked back into the hall where the black wall phone hung he spoke. "DIO, I'm not going to tell them about you. I'm only going to tell them that Shizuka needs to be picked up. Please. Let me do this."
Hermit Purple wrapped itself around the receiver and pushed through the side as Joseph pulled it to his ear. "And what do I get out of not interfering here?" DIO's voice said through the speaker.
"I… I'll stay away from Jotaro and the others for the remaining 8 hours." Joseph hesitantly said, his hand tightening around the receiver. "Please. I'll leave as soon as I'm sure they'll be coming."
DIO laughed. "So be it." Joseph went to sigh but DIO cut him off, "However if you break your promise, I'll kill the child once and for all.." Hermit Purple slid out from the side of the phone.
He held his breath as he dialed Jotaro's number.
The dial tone sounded.
"Hello?" Jotaro's sleepy voice sounded through the speaker.
"Jotaro…" Joseph said, his voice shaking slightly. "It's Joseph, I-"
"Old man?" Jotaro cut him off, "You sound… different. Is something wrong?"
"No, no, I'm fine." He replied, sighing. "I'm going to need you to come to get Shizuka. Come in through the back door and don't go into the living room. She's in the kid's room by the hallway."
Jotaro went to say something but Joseph cut him off by reading off the address.
"...I'll be there." Jotaro replied, "You'll meet me?"
"No. I can't. I have..." Joseph said as Hermit Purple wrapped around his wrist in what seemed to be a reminder. "...Something important to tend to."
"Are you alone?" Jotaro's whisper came through the receiver.
Joseph tried to hold in a shaky breath. Jotaro was way too observant. Before he could reply, he was cut off by the sound of the dial tone.
...Jotaro had hung up.
Then, worse still, the dial tone cut off.
"I tried my best to lie to him, but he's too…" He said, looking down hoping to see that Hermit Purple was through the phone again...
...It wasn't. It was still on his wrist.
He heard Jotaro hum in understanding and the dial tone played again.
The hang-up was a fake.
"Oh no," Joseph whispered as Hermit Purple slammed through the receiver of the phone. "We've been tricked."
"You kept your side of the deal as best you could, Joseph." DIO's voice crackled through the now thoroughly busted phone. "As long as he doesn't suspect it's me, then we're fine."
Joseph started to sigh but was cut off again.
"...Although, now you have to keep up the end of your bargain. Let's go." DIO laughed as he crushed the phone with Hermit Purple.
Joseph set down the utterly destroyed remains of the phone. He looked over at the room where Shizuka was lying and walked through the house to the front door. He grabbed a set of keys that was hanging beside the door and stepped outside. He walked down to the car in the driveway.
"Don't crash this one, DIO. I'll do the driving." He said sarcastically as buckled his seatbelt. As he did so, Hermit Purple lodged itself into the radio.
"Certainly," DIO replied. "I have something for you."
Purple vines wrapped around something in the back seat. Joseph watched from the corner of his eye as it pulled something into the passenger side seat.
It was the once-white umbrella.
"Seriously? You still have that thing?" Joseph groaned.
"You'll need it. Believe me." DIO laughed, "Being burned by sunlight is not fun."