Request by sonofaghosthunter on tumblr: Jay is alive. But at what cost?
Jay woke up. Or maybe waking up wasn't the right word, it was more like he was surfacing. Shuffling out of a darkness he hadn't realized he was in but now didn't know how long he'd been in it.
What was the last thing he remembered? Alex, Alex with a gun and then… pain and then… the Operator… then darkness. Had he been hurt? He must have, so he had been unconscious, okay that was fine but then shouldn't he still be in pain? He couldn't have been unconscious for long enough to heal from a bullet wound could he?
He didn't feel pain, now that he thought about it he didn't feel much of anything. It was the first time he could remember when he hadn't been in any pain or discomfort. He sat up and there was no stiffness either even though he felt like he had been sleeping for years.
He got to his feet and his legs held them in a way they never had before. He felt like he could run forever, he looked up and there was a stretch of street in front of him. On impulse he started running. He expected to get out of breath quickly as he always did, the Operators sickness had done a number on his lungs but he didn't. His breaths kept coming even and slow as if he was sitting in his car listening to calming music.
Curiously he sped up, running full sprint down the road, his breath came faster now but rom excitement not exertions. He had dreamt about this, being able to run as fast and as far as he wanted without his legs hurting or getting out of breath.
He wasn't sure how long he ran but it didn't matter. He only stopped because his attention was stolen by the only unpleasant feeling he had had since he woke up. He was hungry. Okay that was fine, he could get something to eat. Looking around he noticed a grocery store. Good that was fine except he didn't have any money. Oh well it wouldn't be the first time he had had to shoplift something to eat.
He walked over to the store checking that his hood was up. It was so he walked in, there weren't many people there, two shoppers and a cashier, no one looked at him. He didn't mind, it was easier if they didn't know what he looked like so they couldn't track him down.
Walking to the back of the store he took down a jar of peanut butter, it would be a weird dinner but he was craving it. If he had to guess he would say it was because, even though he couldn't feel any pain from his legs, after so much exercise his muscles still needed protein. For good measure he went over to the produce section and grabbed an apple. Apples and peanut butter was a snack his mom used to give him when he was a kid so that would be less weird.
He walked out of the store again easily with his hands shoved in his sweater pockets to disguise the fact that there were full of other things. He walked around the block until he found a park. It was empty because it was dark and cloudy, probably late at night.
He sat down on one of the swings and took the jar of peanut butter out from his pocket and opened it. He propped it between his legs and took the apple out, wiping it on his sweater out of habit. He meant to take a bite of the apple and then use his fingers to scoop some of the peanut butter out of the jar so he could combine them but it didn't work.
When he tried to take a bite of the apple it disappeared. Or at least he thought it did, it took him a moment to realize that he could feel it inside himself. But not like he had swallowed it, more like it was slowly drifting through him towards the place his stomach was… or maybe should be. He gasped and instead of words a sort of static chitterling came out of his mouth. But now that he thought about it he hadn't felt his mouth open.
He lifted his hands to his face, his hands were gloved, he hadn't noticed that before. He tried to touch his face but it didn't work, instead it was a smooth surface, less like skin and more like the screen of a television. He even felt the slight static tingling he felt when he touched the screen of a tv when it was on.
"What?" he gasped, or tried to, what came out was the same static chattering. Curiously he reached down and dipped his hand into the jar of peanut butter, scooping out a glob. Shoot the gloves! Well they were ruined now. He lifted his hand close to his face and tried to open his mouth to lick the peanut butter of his fingers.
Instead he felt what felt like multiple tongues extend from his face and cleaned the peanut butter of his gloves, there was nothing left on them, they were completely clean. Well not ruined after all. Jay repeated the proses and this time he did his best to look down at the things that were coming out of his face.
They were blue, and they kept flickering like static. Well that wasn't normal or okay. He put down the jar of peanut butter and got up off the swing he walked over to a tree and sat down underneath that just as rain started to fall.
Alex had shot him hadn't he? Now Jay was willing to bet that it had been a fatal shot but somehow he hadn't died. He was still alive somehow but he didn't think he wanted to be. He lifted his hands and took of one of the gloves, his hands were made of the same blue static but it only lasted a few moments before it dissipated, crackling into the air. Quickly Jay ripped off the hood of his sweater and felt his head quickly doing the same thing his hand had. All of his clothes crumples as the energy residue that had been filling them escaped.
Jay didn't know how long it was before he woke up again. Feeling exactly the same way he had the first time except this time the only place there was pain was in his mind. He didn't want to live if this was the cost, he didn't even know what he was.