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Ray is backed into the wall, the looming forms of his friends intimidating enough for him to stay put, and not go through with his previous plans of escape— however brief the planning itself was. Intelligent as he is, he’s not superhuman. There’s no way he could think of a way out in the span of the two seconds it took for Norman and Emma to corner him.
“What were you thinking?” That’s Norman, his voice scarily calm and teeming with steel. Beside him, Emma’s face is carefully blank, but the look in her eyes makes Ray shudder. He’s seen her with that expression once before, directed at him no less, but somehow this is worse.
Ray blames their age.
Emma’s features are so much more defined now. Sharper.
Angrier, he amends, watching with fascination as the blankness on Emma’s face slowly morphs.
Gaze drifting back towards Norman, Ray smiles tightly. “I was thinking,” he says, “that I could buy us more time.”
“And you did,” Norman says, “which we are grateful for, truly, but why did buying us more time involve you throwing yourself at those demons, you—” Norman inhales sharply. Side-eyes Emma. “If Emma hadn’t shot them at the last second, you would have lost an arm. Leg. Something. And with our limited supplies out there, you would have died.”
“I know.”
Suddenly, Ray’s cheek is stinging. Before Ray could reach up and instinctively cradle it, a small hand is fisting around the collar of his shirt, pulling him off the ground. Emma’s fury glares back at him.
“Are you a liar, Ray?” Emma asks, no, demands, starting as a whisper but quickly evolving into a shrill shout . “You said you would live back then, didn’t you? So why— “
She’s shaking.
Out of anger, at first glance.
But the longer Ray looks at her, the better he’s able to understand it as grief.
“No,” Ray says. “I wanted to live. I still want to live.”
Emma’s hand shakes.
Norman is stone, his dark eyes refusing to leave Ray’s. “Then what the hell was that, stupid Ray? ”
Ray inhales. Exhales.
Knowing how stubborn both his friends are, he knows anything he says would be chewed, swallowed, then somehow spat back up on his feet.
“Their attention was on you two,” he says carefully. “I was out of bullets, and you couldn’t load your guns on time—”
“We were ready to dodge— ”
“—ready, yes, but fast enough?” Ray scoffs. “No doubt you both planned on pushing each other out of the way, because you both knew you wouldn’t make it on time, and you know what would have happened then?”
This time, Norman and Emma are silent, the latter finally letting him go.
Ray rights himself on the ground, his gaze never leaving his friends. “You would have bumped into each other, and in that millisecond, a demon would have you in its mouth—” he doesn’t realize he’s shouting until his throat starts stinging in indignation, having just recovered from a nasty cold, “—and if you think I wouldn’t have done everything and anything I could to stop either of you from getting killed, then you clearly don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
The anger in his friends’ eyes have long since disappeared, replaced by something akin to understanding. It barely registers.
“Besides,” he laughs, a soft, bitter thing, “if one of us has to die, it should be me. I... understand you two need each other. But I need the both of you too. Alive, preferably. So please just shut up and let me do what I want.”
Norman and Emma look at each other. Then at Ray.
“No,” they both say, and Ray bristles.
“Were you even listening?”
“Yes.”
“Then why—”
“Because what you said was stupid,” Emma says. “And you’re normally so smart, Ray, so I don’t understand why you would even think any of that is true.”
“All of that was— ”
“Ray,” Norman all too happily interrupts, “you clearly don’t know us well at all either, if you think we’d just accept you blindly sacrificing yourself for us. After what happened last time, I thought you’d finally understood that.”
Ray is speechless. Heat is starting to crawl up his neck, colouring his pale skin an embarrassing shade of red.
Is he… flustered? Shocked?
Happy?
Emma reaches forward again, grabbing his hand. Norman grabs the other. They squeeze simultaneously.
“We love you, Ray,” she says, large eyes bright and blinding. “And if you ever try to make us believe otherwise, we will hold an intervention!” She pauses, glancing at Norman.
Norman smiles sweetly. “You’ll be forced into house arrest.”
“Right!” Emma bounces on her heels, dragging Ray’s arm along with the movement. “No demon hunting for you! You’ll be allowed to read your books, but you’ll have to deal with us all the time! We’ll hug you, kiss you—”
Ray makes a face. “We haven’t done that since we were five.”
“—and you won’t get to leave unless we know for sure that you believe us!”
Ray blinks once. Twice. “...how are you so sure I won’t lie.”
Emma claps his shoulder with her other hand. “You are legally not allowed to. Not anymore, and definitely not after this, got it?”
Norman wraps his other arm around Ray’s shoulder, his hand brushing across Emma’s. They’ve made a cage around him. Ray wouldn’t be able to escape, even if he wanted to.
He doesn’t want to.
“It’s always been the three of us,” Norman says fondly, pressing his cheek against Ray’s. His voice deepens with his next words. “If you were gone, we wouldn’t feel right.”
“You’re family,” Emma says, like a broken record. How many times has he heard her say that in all the years they’ve been together?
Suddenly Emma’s eyes narrow, shadows casting over her face. “You’re ours. You’re not allowed to leave us.”
Norman nods, expression equally as dark.
Ray inhales deeply.
Since when was he the most sane out of the three of them?
“I have made a mistake,” he says, “deciding to help you stubborn idiots.”
But they would be dead without you.
Ray closes his eyes.
And you would be dead without them.
“A happy mistake,” Emma chirps.
Norman laughs a little. “And with all mistakes, you should take responsibility. Do you plan on leaving us alone in a state like this?”
Ray is struck with a sudden sense of deja vu. “Who do you take me for?”
Norman and Emma share a wild grin. They tighten their grips on Ray, hard enough to bruise. To hurt.
Ah, Ray reaffirms.
This is why he isn’t dead yet.