Chapter Text
It was over. It was finally over. The animatronics had been killed. They would never claim another victim. And so, like badass survivors, Liv hopped into the car of the strange janitor and they rode off into the sunset to the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Except it wasn’t sunset, but sunrise, and Liv had a long day ahead of herself in the unspeaking presence of her would-be savior. There were a lot of questions she could ask him, far too many. Yet the strangely comfortable silence between the two remained. No real point in asking when she already knew he wouldn’t respond. Plus the more she thought about it, the more her questions seemed to answer themselves.
Where are we going? His house, most likely.
I’m only seventeen, am I just going to stay with you now? Probably, given he let her in the car in the first place.
Are you mute or just nonverbal…? What difference does it make?
What the hell is your name!? Does it matter?
Liv’s mind stirred back and forth between wondering what the fuck she was doing and feeling that this was, compared to everything else, completely normal. Yes, she was sitting in a car being driven who-knows-where by someone who is essentially a stranger. But just the day before she was planning on burning down a building full of satanic killer robots, so is this really all that out of character?
Obviously this situation was so weird, everything that just happened was so weird, this guy was so weird! Liv wanted to scream! And yet all she found herself doing was humbly sipping at the soda that the man had so awkwardly offered her. Deep down she knew she shouldn’t be but overall she felt… okay. Maybe having her parents murdered and being raised by a corrupt sheriff didn’t give her the most conventional mindset. Or maybe the janitor’s attitude was already rubbing off on her.
So the silence remained, leaving nothing but the sounds of incredibly loud dad rock between them. As they continued down the uninhabited road, Liv felt herself grow tired. Strange, considering she had just finished drinking an entire energy drink. But unfortunately for Liv, caffeine never had much of an effect on her. Despite the blasting music, coming down off her adrenaline rush she had been having since the night before was making it hard for her to keep her eyes open.
Apparently noticing this, the man lowered the music to a more reasonable volume. Not too long after, Liv drifted off to sleep.
She stayed asleep for the entire rest of the drive, finally waking at the feeling of the car jerking to a sudden stop. As she unbuckled herself, Liv looked out the window to see what destination the man ended up bringing her to. Naturally, it was a house. A simple, rather small house, sitting by itself on a lonely dirt road with a mountain practically in its backyard. Plain, grassy terrain filled in the rest of the landscape. Liv was surprised by this, as before she fell asleep, the view from her window had been filled with trees. Unsure of how long she had been out for, Liv had no way of knowing how far the man had driven her. She certainly wasn’t in Hayesville anymore, but was she still in Nevada?
The janitor hopped out of the car and Liv followed suit, quickening her pace to keep in step with the man who was certainly not waiting for her to catch up. He unlocked the door and headed inside. Liv entered somewhat cautiously, unsure what to expect. Her eyes took in her new surroundings. Similarly to the outside, the whole thing was dreadfully plain. White walls, no decor. What instead stuck out to her instead was just how incredibly clean everything was. There was not a single speck of dust to be seen and the wooden floor was polished to a mirror shine.
So he wasn’t just determined to do a good job or something, Liv thought. This guy is just a neat freak.
The man took off his boots and placed them on a shoe rack by the door. Liv did the same with hers but once again he didn’t wait for her to finish before taking off down the hall. She wasn’t sure if he still wanted her to follow him. Just in case, she decided to catch up. Now in what was apparently the bathroom, the janitor bent down and pulled a first-aid kit out from under the cabinet. He pulled out a roll of bandages and looked like he was about to do something before abruptly stopping and setting them down by the sink. He looked at Liv, then his watch, then back to Liv and proceeded to scuttle past her and speed walk to the kitchen.
Trailing behind once again, this time Liv found the man leaning over to pull something out of the fridge. He produced a carton of eggs and sat them on the stovetop. Without even stopping to look at her again, he turned on his heel and went back to the bathroom just as quickly.
Liv blinked. If the janitor didn’t talk that was one thing, but it was hard to understand what he meant when he didn’t even provide any useful gestures such as pointing. Luckily it only took her a moment to put the pieces together.
I need to go patch myself up. Make yourself some breakfast, she imagined the man saying to her. Although it wasn’t quite clear if he expected her to make food for just herself or for him as well, it seemed better to play it safe and make extra.
After pulling out a pan, Liv opened the refrigerator to see what else she had to work with besides just eggs. When she saw not a single soda can inside, she wondered if the man perhaps had a separate fridge elsewhere full of them. She grabbed some butter, cheese, and green onions, and placed them on the counter. As she moved the eggs from the stovetop to the counter as well, she was hit with another revelation. Although everything in the house may have felt completely devoid of personality, the appliances were all remarkably modern. They looked far newer than anything she ever had when living with Eloise. Hell, they looked downright expensive. It didn’t seem to match the rugged drifter vibe the janitor had going on, but then again, neither did his fancy car. A real modern cowboy, that man.
Humming Willy’s goddamn birthday jingle that despite everything wouldn’t leave her head, Liv got to work with making omelets. Starting with preparing the fillings, she only got two slices into chopping up the green onions when she was suddenly stopped. She flinched, heart pounding, and whipped her head over her shoulder as if there would be another animatronic there to attack her. But of course, all that stood behind her was the janitor. They made eye contact only for a split second before he pried the kitchen knife out of her hand.
Liv balked at the action as she calmed back down. “Hey, I can-” Before she could finish protesting, the man scooted Liv out of the way and proceeded to chop up all of the green onions at lighting speed. She just stared. Without any sort of acknowledgment, he placed the knife back in her hand and stepped out of the way.
“Show off…” Liv muttered as she resumed her cooking. Even speaking in a hushed tone made her voice feel like an overwhelming presence in the quiet house. It was puzzling. Truly it seemed ridiculous to be so unquestioning of this man, of this situation. Yet talking no longer felt natural here. Was she being rude? Well if she was, then so was he. On the other hand, this man did just escape a life and death situation and seemed rather wounded. Whatever happened in that final confrontation, it seemed he received far worse than the small gash Liv had on her forehead. Should she be asking if he was okay? No, she answered herself. If he wasn’t okay he wouldn’t just be hanging out here worrying about my chopping speed.
So Liv continued making the omelets without another word. The only noise in the whole house was that of the utensils she was using. It was quiet, painfully so, and the lack of any sort of distraction made it easy for Liv’s mind to linger on the events of the last several hours.
The woman who adopted her had been brutally murdered. Serves her right for allowing the same thing to happen to my parents.
She had failed to save any of her friends, seeing them turned into nothing more than mangled corpses. I told them to stay outside, I’m not to blame for them not taking the mission seriously.
She had very nearly died. But I didn’t. I’ve never felt more alive.
Was she trying to stay positive or simply being heartless? Liv couldn’t say for sure. She turned off the stove and placed the omelets on individual plates. When she turned around she no longer saw the janitor, so she carried the plates out to the living room where she found him sweeping something out from under the couch. Hair? Did someone else live here?
“Breakfast is ready. If you want some.” Liv said. The man finished his sweeping and washed his hands. Liv had already sat down at the kitchen table and began to eat by the time he sat across from her. She wondered if he would like the omelet or not. He didn’t make any sort of objection while she was making them but it’s not like she knew what the man liked other than soda. Sure enough, he started eating, no, inhaling his food. Despite Liv’s head start, he was already finished while she was only halfway through. He’s like this even at home, too? Does that mean he liked it? Could he even taste it at that rate?
The janitor was drying his freshly cleaned plate off when Liv brought her dishes over to the sink. She reached for the sponge but the man swiped it before she had the chance.
“Come on, I can wash my own dishes. Eloise always made me do them.” Liv said as the man continued to ignore her and wash them on his own. She sighed, “Great. Great talk. Do it your way.”
Leaving him to perform whatever personal cleaning rituals the man seemed to have, Liv found herself relaxing on the living room couch. A short while later, she heard a sound. It was a faint sound, one that had her doubt whether or not she really heard it. But then she heard it again. This time she recognized what it was. A meow. She heard it once more, closer this time, followed by said source of the noise joining her on the couch. It was a soft looking Birman cat with the most adorable big blue eyes Liv had ever seen.
“You have a cat!?” Liv blurted out in surprise. Of course, she received no response. She gently held her hand out to the cat, which cautiously sniffed it and gave it a nudge. Liv let out a soft chuckle. This strange, unstoppable badass of a man… who lived alone with this sweet little cat. It was rather endearing. She gave the cat a scratch under his chin, stopping when her fingers felt a collar hidden under the fluff. She leaned over to read the name tag, thankful she could at least learn the name of someone in this house. Marquee. A rather odd name for a cat, she thought. She smiled and resumed petting him.
The man returned to the living room and just seemed to stare at his cat. Liv couldn’t decipher any sort of emotion in his face but Marquee seemed to look back at him knowingly and hopped off the couch. He then approached Liv and pulled her up from her seat by the arm. The action was direct and assertive but he certainly wasn’t being aggressive. Stumbling to find her footing, the man walked toward the hall, still keeping his grip on her.
He opened a door and they entered a room Liv had yet to see. It was a small standard bedroom. A guest room, probably, but the simple spotless nature of it reminded her more of a hotel room. The janitor finally released her arm and left. Liv squished a corner of the neatly made bed. I guess this is my new room. Without another second to ruminate on that thought, the man returned only for a brief moment to toss a bath towel at her before disappearing again. Between the blood, sweat, and oil she was obviously in need of a shower.
Liv folded the towel in her arms and was about to go to enter the bathroom when a rather obvious issue struck her. She didn’t have any clean clothes to change into. Hell, she didn’t have anything. There wasn’t a single personal item to her name here.
Two options came to mind: ask the janitor to drive her back to her old home and pick up her old stuff, or start over completely from scratch. The first option seemed like the obvious, sensible choice. And yet… when she lost her parents as a kid, she was on a road trip. When Eloise adopted her, she didn’t have a single thing from her childhood home. If she started over once before, why not now? The notion excited her, really. Her life with Eloise was, to put it lightly, not something she would ever look back on fondly. And everything else was just a reminder of her now deceased friends.
No, she liked the idea of starting a new chapter of her life. Here, in an unknown location, with a man with no name, and a sweet little cat. This was her new home.
However… that was a lot to ask of the man. She had no money to buy things like a whole new wardrobe, and even if she did somehow manage to get a job immediately, she would still have to ask him to pay for a lot upfront. Sure, he seemed like a wealthy enough man, but Liv didn’t know just how far his generosity stretched.
With a huff, Liv decided it was probably best to present both options to the janitor and see what was more feasible. She stepped out of her room in search of him, if for nothing else than to at least ask for some spare clothes for the day. She glanced around the house but was unable to spot him. With nowhere left to check, she walked down the staircase leading to the basement she had yet to see.
Peeking her head, Liv couldn’t help but smile. While the rest of the house was so plain and boring, the basement looked like a straight-up arcade. Not only were there pinball machines, but a DDR machine, a few game cabinets, and a pool table down here. There were even decorations, the walls were covered in band posters! She reached the bottom of the staircase and finally found where the man was. She spotted him pulling one of his signature sodas out of the secondary fridge, quickly spotting before he closed it that there was in fact nothing inside but cans.
Liv let out a laugh. The more she saw of this man the more interesting he was. She was gonna like it here.