And I've been lying here for awhile now
Sitting and acting like a child
And if you find my garden, could you bring it back?
There's something wrong with him! No, no! He's fine! He jus' needs… he needs some time ta relax. We've been through a lot. Everyone has! There's something wrong with him! He needs to be locked up before he hurts someone! NO! He's. Okay. He jus' needs some time ta recover. Please. Please, let me take care of 'em. He's gonna be okay. I promise.
Nick was curled up in the bed now, back pressed against the hard headboard, staring, staring, staring out into the darkness. How had that hick convinced all those people that he was okay? God, he had such a charming tongue. A little enchanting tongue that could charm the Devil himself.
Beside him, said charmer lay facing him, having fallen into a fitful sleep after trying for many hours to convince Nick to lie down and sleep. Nick had stubbornly insisted he keep watch. Watch over what! Ellis had practically cried, there's no monsters, Nick. There are no more monsters. We're safe, why can't you understand that?
But that was where Ellis was wrong. There was a monster. It was inside of Nick's head. God, inside him. How could he not understand that? How can you not see it!
Because I've been lying here for awhile now
And I, I've been dying here for awhile now
And I, I've been dying for awhile, for awhile now
"Nick?" No. "Nick?" Shut up. "Nick…?" The conman finally dropped his gaze to the hick lying beside him. Ellis was blinking sleepily up at him. "Please… go ta sleep. Half yer problem is ya ain't gettin' 'nough sleep." He clumsily reached out for the other and his hand found Nick's shoulder. He tugged at the conman's clothing, gently, encouragingly. Because he didn't want to listen to Ellis talk anymore, Nick sunk down into the covers, staring up at the ceiling still. "Nick?" Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. "If ya want ta talk, ya know, ya can. I'll listen."
Nick swallowed thickly, eyes searching into the faint darkness. A part of him wanted to start talking, to just spill everything. All his fears, all his horrors, all his despair. He wanted to confess it all. But what could Ellis do about it? Nothing.
He rolled onto his right side to face away from Ellis, but only a few feet away in the bed beside his, he found himself staring into the worried face of another. Oh, Rochelle. Those eyes were haunted, concerned. She almost looked like she wanted to say something. Ah, pity. He didn't want it. Not from her. Never from her.
Nick buried his face into his arms, into the covers and the pillow. But he could still feel her staring. My God it was maddening. He could tell those eyes were staring still. Staring, staring, staring, just staring. Judging. God, stop looking at me! Nick pushed and clawed at the covers so he could roll back to face Ellis. In an instant he found himself only inches away from the other. Their eyes locked and they held each others gaze for what had to be a full minute.
Then Nick did something he wasn't quite sure why he had. He scooted a little closer, dipped his head down and pressed his face into the southerners' collar. Without any more prompting, Ellis' arms came out around him and held him close. That was all it took. Nick was asleep instantly.
"Nick, Nick! Let's dance, honey, let's dance!" Dance? She reached out and took his hands and pulled him close. Their bodies came together and the conman found himself suddenly in the midst of a very slow ballroom dance. But there was no music. There never was. Vienna seemed to always dance to the music in her head. He loved it though. He smiled.
God, she was beautiful. The way she moved, the way she smiled, the way she tilted her head back so she could gaze up into his eyes. She had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. They were so pure, so very, very pure. A beautiful gray-blue, sparkling with hints of gold. God, she was beautiful.
Their dance continued in little spirals about the kitchen and his feet matched her rhythm easily. She always set the pace and he liked that about her. She always pretended he was leading, but he knew differently. But, he was okay with it. She was just too damn cute the way she would lead him—him being a full foot taller than her—around and around that kitchen. Their bare feet padded softly against the floor. She was humming now—humming a tune he almost recognized. Where had he heard it?
Their dance stopped and her hands came up, body pressing closer. Her fingers caught in his hair and he tilted his head down, arms coming around her body. His eyes began to close, locked on those beautiful, perfect lushes lips. He wanted to kiss her, but—
He stopped, eyes half-mast as his right hand lifted slightly. Her body suddenly felt warm and sticky. He drew himself back, frowning worriedly. He was so intent, so intent on shaking the flesh hanging from his hand that he did not notice how her breath was hot on his neck now. When he looked back to her, finally, he saw that she was no longer beautiful. Half of her face was rotting away, a permanent smile of bone and teeth curving her missing lips.
He froze. Her hand lifted, skeleton-like now as the skin had sunk revealing every little curve of each bone in her hand. The hand squeezed about his throat and he could feel each joint and bone burying in his skin. She squeezed and a rush of air left him. But he couldn't fight it. He couldn't move. She squeezed harder. He felt a bout of dizziness over take him and his legs abandoned him and he found himself lying on the floor. She was crying as her fingers pushed down into his throat.
"I'm dead. I'm dead because of you. You left me and I died. Why did you leave? Why would you leave me! You were my everything!" I don't know! I don't remember! Why did I leave? I'm sorry, I'm sorry! But it was too late. It was far too late. As her fingers crushed his windpipe she hummed hauntingly over him. The song was Bach's Arioso. That song always made him cry.
But he couldn't cry now. She was dead... and so was he.
Nick jolted awake only to find himself pressed into someone's arms. He panicked. With a cry his hands came up and shoved the body away and he heard Ellis yelp as he went flying off the side of the bed onto the hard ground. Before the southerner could even begin to understand what had happened, Nick was on him in an instant, grabbing and throttling him. Ellis made a choking noise and his fists came up to beat at the others hands. Nick squeezed harder, undaunted by the painful rapping against his hands. The southerner's eyes began to roll back and he was starting to turn blue.
Then a hand grabbed Nick under the jaw and jerked his head back. He snarled and bit at the hand but another came up under his armpit and yanked him off the southerner. Then he was thrown face first into the bed and he felt a knee in his back and his face was being pressed into the bed. He snarled like a savage beast, trying hard to break free but Coach was unrelenting.
Ellis coughed and gasped from the ground, his chest heaving as he rubbed his aching throat. Beside him Rochelle was kneeling over him, "Ellis? Are you all right? Are you all right?"
"I'm—" He wheezed and there were tears trailing down the corners of his eyes—"I'm okay. Wha' jus' happened?" As he sat up his body shuddered violently. He cleared his throat, rubbing at it tenderly.
"Nick just tried to kill you is what!" Rochelle yelled, throwing up her hands. "Ellis we have to hand him over to the military. There's nothing we can do for him! He's insane!"
Ellis looked up, startled to see Nick pinned down by Coach. The conman was contorted oddly and he kept making soft mewling noises of pain and rage. The former football player was giving Ellis a look that only suggested he agreed whole-heartedly with Rochelle. Ellis shook his head in denial.
"Nah, man, wait. H-He's okay. He jus'… he jus' had a bad dream. Righ' Nick?" Ellis struggled to find his footing. He still felt a little dizzy and there was a lump in his throat—whether it was from being strangled almost-to-death or something entirely different, he wasn't sure. "Coach… let 'em go."
Coach gave Ellis an astounded stare then looked down to the conman. Nick had stopped struggling and had instead taken up to sobbing loudly, maybe in pain or in regret, it was hard to tell.
Coach let in a slow breath and shook his head. "You ain't the only one that's crazy, Nick." Then he let go and stepped back, hands raised high as if to say 'I let go, now he's your problem'. Nick, however, didn't move. He simply curled up onto himself, hands coming to crush over his ears. He sobbed.
"I can't do this," Rochelle said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, but I just can't. I can't stay in here." She grabbed at a robe and pulled it over her pajamas and then shoved her feet into her slippers, all the while shaking her head and waving her arms in absolute distraught. "I'm leaving. I'll be at the mass hall." She left without another word.
Coach gave Ellis a long, long stare. "Boy… Are you sure you want to…" He nodded to the withering conman, "be responsible for that? You just say the word and we can take him to the professionals."
"No."
"He needs help, Ellis."
Ellis bit his lower lip between his teeth and tears wavered in his eyes. Yeah, Nick needed help, but being thrown in a straitjacket and shoved into a padded room wasn't going to help him. There were too many others like Nick—and not enough doctors to deal with them. They were labeled lost causes. Ellis knew that. He knew because Keith was one of them. Locked away, unreachable, unattainable. A forgotten soul far too gone to ever be saved.
Not Nick too. Please, not Nick too.
Ellis' breath hitched in his throat and he crawled across the bed so that he could kneel over the conman. He shook him gently and Nick simply sobbed harder, curled up tighter and shook his head. "It's okay, Nick. I'm here. Yer gonna be okay."
Coach simply shook his head and sighed. Couldn't Ellis recognize a lost cause when he saw one?
If your finger is an untamed beast
Then I am just a centerpiece
On the table of your feelings
I find it sort of an interlude
It's just that helpless attitude of mine
Because there's no footprints on your ceiling
A/N: Song lyrics from "Things You Know" by Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst).
I understand that these chapters are short, but in reality, they have to be. I apologize anyways.
NOTE: I really hate how the lyrics skip a line. They're not supposed to, but is a dickface and won't let me do it any other way. It really, really irks me.
Also, randomly lately, for some very, very, very odd reason when I played as Ellis and Nick kept protecting/healing/following me it kept making me blush like... intensely. I played Dark Carnival as Ellis (usually Nick like 99% of the time) and I was so excited that I got Ellis' voice command to spam on the 360 version so I just stood there saying Nick's name over and over for like a good two or three minutes until I moved away and knelt down (still in the safe room area) so I could grab my phone and as I was getting up to get it, Nick walked over to stand right over me with this really intense look on his face-almost as if he was looking out for me. It made me blush so freakin' hard and I don't know why. D: God, I'm an idiot. Just thought I'd share that d'awhl moment. Also, he kept obsessively healing me and giving me pills. It was so strange, but I enjoyed it c_c.
I also noticed that the game is way easier to play when I'm Ellis instead of him being a bot. Stupid bot alway grabs the hunting rifle. Granted he kills a lot of special infected, but the hordes are always more intense feeling and Ellis always has really small numbers of kills at the end. Just found that a little odd.