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Scott had never been the healthiest man, even before the disaster. Riddled with issues his whole life, he learned to deal with them all, working around his chronic pain and total exhaustion. A CPAP machine used at night, frequent doctor’s visits, and a bevy of medications, he managed to function as a whole human despite his issues. He landed an actually good paying IT job that kept him busy and he was able to develop real relationships with others.
One of these relationships started pretty soon after he started his job. It was an accident the way it happened. His boss William had simply come in to check in on him at his desk. One thing led to another and that desk ended up being a platform for all of their passionate and flurried endeavors. Days of heated attention and their sweat and pants mixing together... you could say they were fond memories.
The disaster wasn’t the thing that had ruined the week for him. He had thought it was going very well, in fact. Another heavy time together that left him panting to catch his breath. Will had tossed him his inhaler before redressing himself, leaving him to watch as his lover covered the body he’d grown to admire. He’d memorized it, all of it. Each curve and dip, the little scars around his shoulders and the calluses on his hands and feet. He knew everything about that body, everything about the man that held it. At least… he thought he had.
A momentary flash caught his attention and snapped him out of his thoughts. He stared as William pulled a golden ring from his pocket and for a moment, his heart jumped. He was going to propose more? More than their meetings in this dingy office? More than their flirting and suggestive gazes during the day?
But he was then made to watch in sinking horror as William instead slipped that ring on to his own finger. His ring finger. Scott’s stomach sank to the ground and he suddenly felt sick. So sick he almost vomited. His caught in his throat and he feared he already knew the answer but he had to ask-
“You’re married?” he was ashamed how weak his voice sounded.
William had turned to him with that stupid calm face of his. That same face that had made Scott swoon when he smirked. The same face whose eyes would catch him staring and light aflame as he closed the office doors.
“You didn’t think you were exclusive, did you?” and he left the office with his jacket tossed over his arm.
It had taken Scott much longer to recover that night. Climbing off the desk felt impossible, redressing was suddenly more painful than it had ever been. He left early from work, stumbling his way home. He was so out of it that he’d been offered rides by several concerned people but had turned down every one of them. He needed to be alone. But he didn’t even get that relief at home.
He was inside already when it happened. He had rushed to the bathroom where he did get sick, head leaning against the toilet seat. There was a sudden explosion, loud enough that he had to cover his ears. The mirror cracked and the walls trembled and the whole place started to shake. Scott moved as quickly as a damaged man could to get into the door frame. Earthquakes weren’t usual here, what was going on? He could hear as his apartment cracked and ceiling tiles fell. His photos on the walls crashed to the ground and the whole place went completely dark.
But there was something else happening, something else breaking through the sounds. A horrendous screeching, tearing through sound barriers like scissors on a sewing table. The shredding was worse than the banging and it was only getting louder. It was… approaching.
Scott forced himself up from the ground, stumbling out of the apartment to escape collapse. Outside was not much better.
The once blue sky was sickly red, dark clouds pouring over to block the lowering sun. They later learn they weren’t clouds, but smog. Pollution and pure hatred filling the skies. And just beneath them were… creatures. Inky black beings with white faces, elongated limbs that dripped with their rotting flesh, if you could call it that. And the screeching. That terrible screeching.
And they were approaching. Fast. Sprinting on all fours like dogs-
Scott turned, human instinct taking over. He ran, as if he would be able to outrun them, as if his stoned legs and asthmatic lungs could beat these… things. It wasn’t long before he could feel them breathing down his neck.
He didn’t exactly live in a nice place to begin with. The edge of a large city, they weren’t really priority. But you would imagine that road damage should be fixed. It was too late for those considerations. As he tripped and fell to his boney knees, he turned quickly to see just how close he was to salvation. Not close enough. They were on top of him instantly, screaming and reaching for him. He didn’t stand a chance.
Scott screamed, kicking out in a vague attempt to free himself. And surprisingly, his foot made contact. The white face of the thing he kicked dropped off, landing on the ground and shattering with the sound of porcelain on concrete. The face beneath made him wish he hadn’t fought back at all. The dripping flesh, drooling tongue, the eyes were sliding bloody from the sockets. But despite this, there was something so horrifically human about that face, to the point the eyes looked sad, so sad.
It was only a split second before that now mask-less creature was overwhelmed by his brethren, screaming a too-human voice as it was torn apart, limbs thrown and body left a smear on the pavement.
They turned back to Scott, screeching and digging their filthy claws into his skin. He returned to his own screaming as his skin was ripped and he was flayed open. The pain, the pain! He wished he could die from it. He was made to watch as his insides became outsides, pulled from his body and consumed by the terrors that ravaged his body. He felt far sicker now than he had before, but all he could cough up was blood. So much blood. His head dropped back and the world faded.
The next time he woke, he was being push. He was lying flat on a metal table, staring up at a dark ceiling of a long hall. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t do much at all. The pain hit him and he choked, gasping and working himself up again. And in a moment of dread, he realized he could hear the pumping of his heart. Not in his head. Right beside it.
Tears coursed down his face and he cried out, screaming and sobbing for everything that had happened and the pain- the fucking pain-
“Now, now. None of that, Scotty,” a familiar voice breathed down to him. The stupid calm voice, that stupid accent that made his knees weaker than they already were.
“Will-“ Scott forced himself to say between sobs, moving with every once of strength he had to look up, or back, to see the man he loved so dearly as he pushed the table. “Will- please- it- it- hurts- make it stop- make it stop!!”
“I will,” William told him, setting his hand delicately on his cheek as he leaned down over him. “I will take care of you. I’ll put you back together. Don’t worry,”
Scott couldn’t reply. He got dizzy again, coughing as blood flowed out of his mouth and on to the table beneath him. The world dimmed and then disappeared once again. The pain subsided.
The final time he woke, the room was dark, darker than the hall he’d been in last time. There was a quiet buzzing from behind him, a few blinking lights flashing but not lighting up the room enough to see. He was sitting rather than lying on a bed as most patients in hospitals were. He was starting to feel like he wasn’t in any hospital at all. But… then why was he solid? There wasn’t any mark on him to signify he was torn to pieces. The only thing that did seem out of place was something on his chest that he couldn’t see in the darkness.
A harsh static shock filled his body and the whole room became electrified. Scott grit his teeth tightly, and squeezed his eyes shut but this restraint didn’t last very long at all. He screamed, his whole body thrashing the now obvious restraints that were holding him down. The buzzing got louder and the lights turned on but Scott couldn’t be bothered to notice anything else about the room.
Footsteps approached. Calm, patient footsteps. Someone entered and approached, and an unholy tug yanked at his arm. But this time, he couldn’t scream. It’s like his voice was shut off. Though he tried, nothing came out at all. And that stupid fucking voice filled his head.
“Hello? Hey, honey, you guys okay?” That stupid fucking bastard… this fucking asshole!! He was talking to his wife while Scott was right there- he knew how much it hurt but he was doing it anyway!
But not only that, he could hear her. Her voice responded. “Yeah, we’re doing alright. Elizabeth wishes for you to come home soon though. She misses her daddy.”
Scott lifted his head, eyes filled with hatred and teeth grit till they cracked. But he was met with calm. Calm eyes, a calm smirk, though his face was slightly different. He seemed to be wearing a metal frame that was holding the side of his face together. He leaned against Scott’s chair in a calm and casual way. He had an old phone held up to his ear, the cord leading down to…
He was going to get sick, he was going to get sick again. The cord led straight into his arm, as if he was getting his blood drawn through it. Plugs lined up as if for other lines, other cords hung down and trail behind him to the damn machine he couldn’t see. With the light on, he could see the thing on his chest that horrible thing on his chest. It was a dial. A dial for plugging in numbers in a rotary phone. And more things leading back to the machine, his other arm not being much better.
“I’m going to see if I can call Henry. Need to make sure he and his little girl are alright.” William told his wife. “I’ll call you back in a little while. Love you.”
“You bastard.” Scott was able to spit as William hung up the phone. He was able to speak once the phone was returned to the hook.
William looked to him in mock surprise. “How rude. After all I’ve done for you. I did just what you asked. You aren’t dead- in fact, you can’t die at all. The Children did quite a lot of damage. You’re lucky I found you when I did.”
“Lucky.” Scott snarled. “If I was lucky I would have-“ His voice was shut off again as the phone was lifted off the hook. William leaned over him his usual calm air. Poking a finger into the dial, he began to put in his oldest sons phone number. The rotating dug deep into Scott’s chest, tearing whatever muscle had attempted to heal over his inhuman injuries. He attempted to scream, tears streaming down his face, but to sound came. It felt like an eternity before William stood again and moved back to leaning against the chair.
The rings, he could hear them. He could feel them. Like when you have a migraine and some ass drives past with their bass turned all the way up.
“Hello?” A warm voice answered, one Scott did recognize. His other boss, the one that didn’t often show up to work in person. He’d spoke to him on the phone though. He had always thought he was more approachable than William. Now he knew why.
“Hello, Henry.” William hummed into the phone. “It’s me, William. Just calling to make sure you’re still alive. It’s good to hear Michael could get you the phone.”
Scott stared at his boss and ex-lover, his face slowly dropping. He couldn’t seem to stay angry. He was angry, more than angry. But he felt sad… alone… what had happened to him? What were those… ‘Children’ that had attacked him? Was William being literal? Were those things all of the kids that had been disappearing?
His head slowly dropped down and he closed his eyes. What could he do? What was there to do? He was strapped down, unable to move. That machine was the only thing keeping him alive. He’d never been the healthiest but at least he was human. 100% human. How much of him had been destroyed? He may never get an answer to that question.
“Oh no he's doing fine.” William said, smirking as he looked down to the resigned man in the chair. “I'm currently calling you through him. Not even that wretched rabbit can hack us now.”