When Will first arrived in this miserable world, he thought he knew fear.

The sound of a breath that wasn't his own, feet crunching through dead leaves behind him. That raspy, whining noise that bubbled up from the throat of a creature that had no right to exist. It had scared him senseless, only a few days ago.

Now, though… a self-described supernatural being was crouched over the mauled, twitching body of someone he knew, while innumerable monsters circled the house, tap-tapping on windows, testing the doors. He shivered, and realized he'd been completely right to be afraid, before. Every part of this world was terrifying.

"Your name's Barb, then?" She made a small sound, and Danny nodded, continuing the delicate plucking of stretchy strands of black goo away from her torn flesh. Will shivered, flicking his eyes back to the pot when he realized he could see the twitch of muscle inside her arm..

He steadied the make-shift stove he'd set up on the kitchen floor, candles under the propped-up pot of water. He tried not to look at the dark fluid finding trails in the linoleum texture, slowly creeping away from its source.

"-in the kit?" Will looked up, guiltily realizing he hadn't been listening.

Danny held his gaze for a moment, and repeated himself.

"Do you have any needle or thread in the first aid kit?"
"Oh, let me check."

Will rifled through it and found a tiny spool and a thin, curved needle tucked in one of the corners. Danny took it without a word, wet fingers threading the needle in a few tries, then set it to the side.

"Scissors?"

He climbed to his feet, opening the junk drawer to retrieve the silver shears. He opened and closed them a few times before turning them over to offer the handle to Danny.

Instead of snipping the thread, he started on Barb's pant leg, just above the knee. Will watched him work, jumping when she arched her back with a half-gasped curse, pulling the limb away. Danny grabbed her knee, holding it down and continuing to carefully cut the fabric, peeling it away.

The sounds creaking out of her throat were almost worst than the shrieks of the creatures outside. It made his hair stand on end, discomfort and restlessness sliding over him like an itchy blanket.

"Hey Barb." He whispered, not really confident enough to speak any louder. Brown eyes turned to look into his, and he offered a wane, forced smile. Her hand twitched up in something like a wave, and he wiggled a little closer, glad she was able to understand him.
She was probably so scared.

"Danny's an okay guy, alright? I know he's really creepy-" A small huff from the teen in question, "-But I'm sure he's trying his best to fix you up. I- I'm here, and I've been able to send messages to Mom, through the lights."

Her lips moved, and Will leaned in closer, trying to understand what she was rasping.
"...dreaming…"

He touched her hand, twitching just slightly when weak fingers curled around his.
"Sorry, This isn't…. You're not dreaming right now."

He tried looking only at her eyes, tried to avoid staring at the dark gash splitting open her cheek, or the ragged furrows across the side of her neck, but his eyes seemed magnetized to it, drawn inexorably down toward meat that shouldn't be exposed to the air. He tried squeezing her hand to stop the shaking in his own, before realizing that it wasn't him shaking at all.

Her face was ashen pale, muscles shaking in minute trembles, eyes glazed and staring at a point beyond his ear.
All at once, her muscles relaxed, head lolling to the side.

"H-Hey!" Will leaned forward, reaching out with alarm, but Danny batted his hand away.

"She passed out, probably from blood loss. How's the water look?"

Will dragged his eyes away from her, tending the water and wrapping his arms around himself until it began to boil. He blew the candles out, and watched Danny begin the meticulous process of rinsing out each of the many wounds.

The needle and thread, he couldn't watch, but the teen's hands were steady and demeanor confident as he stitched up the gashes as if she were a stuffed animal a dog had ravaged. He could hear the faint pop each time the needle broke skin.
"Grab some pillows - I need to get her back as well. "

Will must have made some sound, and felt himself cringe when the back of the jeans were peeled away to reveal ribbons of muscle hanging off the back of her calf. Even Danny hissed in sympathy, and had Will get some of his mom's clothes for her to wear. Will ran gratefully, repeating the mantra to keep the monsters out. Feeling their frustration ping back against some sort of barrier seeping through his house's walls.

By the time he returned, the blood and water had flooded the kitchen floor, and the worse of Barb's wounds had been tied shut. Danny didn't look any less concerned, feeling her pulse and tugging open an eyelid with his thumb as eddies of pink swirled in the shallow puddle around them.
He glanced up, "Thank you for keeping up the line," and then resumed a careful inspection, the boiled water down to a thin layer at the bottom. How did he-?

Will hunkered down, arms full of soft sweatshirts and pants,carefully held out of the bloody water.

"Is she… going to make it?" He asked, and the question hung too long in the air between them. Danny exhaled through his nose, shaking his head in a small motion.

"Not like this." He murmured. Green eyes flicked up to Will, regarding him with some wariness, before lowering again.
"I might be able to heal her, if I possess her."

Will twitched, swallowed, and clutched the clothes a bit tighter.

"Would it hurt?" He asked quietly, hearing the unspoken request for permission. Asking a friend, since she wasn't awake to give it.
Danny shook his head.

"Unsettling, strange, cold, but I've never had it described as painful."
"So you've done this before?"
"Not for something this severe, but… yes."

Will bit his lip, trying to wrack his brain for a reason this might be a terrible idea. Nothing came to mind, and Barb looked… awfully grey. Awfully still, for all that he could still hear the slight rasp of her breath.

"And you can… stop possessing her at any time?"

"Of course."

Will have a small, hesitant nod, and watched as Danny placed a bloody hand on Barb's forehead. He dissolved into green mist, flowing into her skin, and for a moment nothing happened.

Will yelped as Barb lurched, eyes acid green when they snapped open, mouth open in a strangled cry of pain.

"Ohhhh shit." She moaned, rolling onto one side and flexing her fingers against the wet linoleum. Water sloshed, dripping from her clothes where she'd been laying in it. "Oh shit I forgot this."

"Danny?"
Danny-Barb looked up at him, and he could already see some of the smaller scrapes start to close - faint green glowed in the stitched- up lines on her cheek.

"This girl- Barb-" it was strange hearing Barb say her own name like that, even if he knew it was Danny saying them. "-her leg is… not good. I don't think stitches are going to fix that." She- he? Exhaled a ragged breath, waving for his help as she(he?) leaned up on (their?) knees. No, it's Danny willing those things, so it's Him. He. Pronouns and possession are weird.

Will offered the shirt, looking away when Danny closed his own eyes and tugged the shredded, dripping shirt off and pulled on the much drier, much warmer alternative on.

"When you say not good, how bad are we talking?"

"I mean she's-" he cut himself off and stopped with one hand on the sweatpants in Wills arms. His expression screwed up, looking strange with ragged scars twisting it. A hitched breath like he was about to throw up, and Barb screamed, scrabbling away from Will and the now-crumpled body of Danny sliding down from the wall across the room.

having wet pants from falling
"Get out." She gasped, leg dragging behind her as she crawled toward the front door. "Stay out of me"
Her voice was broken by sobs, and the monsters outside started to claw at the windows anew, chattering in excitement
Stay out!

"Barb, wait!" Will bolted to block her path, holding his hands out helplessly "I'm sorry, I said he could, I thought you were dying, look, he healed you!"

"Stay out of my head" Will nodded quickly under her ferocious snarl, holding the pants out like a shield. Her own jeans were still in tatters around her thighs, one calf shaped less like a leg and more like a lumpy bundle of sticks - skin and too much thread wrapped around gristle and bone. He tried not to look at it for too long.

"If you don't want me in your head like that-" Danny dodged the rotted chunk of floorboard Barb ripped up and flung at his head. "-then you'll want me to keep you unconscious until we find a way back. Your body is in shock, not feeling the pain properly. Once it sets in-"

"You will not touch me."

Danny frowned at the hissed words, noting how she placed herself between him and Will, one arm reaching out to shield him. He sighed, crouching down to sit on the floor.

"Alright." Danny murmured, lowering his gaze. His shoulders dropped, hands picking at his fingernails in a gesture Will remembered from when they'd first stayed at Danny's room. Making himself smaller, less threatening.

"Barb-" She twitched when his fingers touched her elbow. "It's okay, Barb. He's been protecting me. He's not human, but he saved you from the monsters, and saved me as well. He's not… he isn't trying to hurt us."

She turned her head slightly, not taking her eyes off Danny.
"Where are we?"

Will shrugged awkwardly, a trickle of relief blooming up when she took the sweatpants, laying them over her lap.

"A weird, gross reflection of our world. It's.. another dimension, I think. It's still connected, so I think we can still find a way back."
She didn't speak again, and Will peered around to look at her face, tending when he noticed how pale it had become again. How the tremors shook her skin.

"Danny-?" "Don't." Barb gasped the command, pointing at Danny when he looked up. Her hands shook as she fisted them in the cloth on her lap, each shaky gasp sounding painful to the boys.

They met each other's eyes over her shoulder, each asking a silent question.

What should we do?