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Steven was used to waking up in strange places, but he had to say, hospitals were by far the worst out of all of them. Not only hospitals, but mind hospitals. As in, hospitals inside your bloody head apparently created by your alter’s subconscious because they thought they were actually psychotic.
That kind of hospital. That was the bloody worst.
Although, he supposed, looking around at the doors surrounding him, it could have been worse. At least he wasn’t in the dead body room again. That had been nightmarish. The rattling noise down the hall wasn’t unbearable.
He sat on the floor, the cold sting of linoleum seeping through his thin joggers. Of all the things their innerworld had to be, why’d it have to be a hospital? Couldn’t Marc have made it a garden or something? Or a tomb? At least a tomb’d be interesting. This was just a bloody pain.
He sighed and sank his head between his thighs. No sign of Marc yet, which probably meant he was in the body. He didn’t usually get blackouts anymore, key word “usually,” but it happened. They’d been fighting over where to get takeaway from, and Steven had gotten as far as reaching for the phone book before Marc had taken over. Apparently he wanted sushi, and that was just disgraceful. Sushi was straight up nasty.
The rattling grew louder. Steven frowned.
He.. recognised that sound. That was the sound- oh god-
He shook his head. Nope, nope nope. He wasn’t even gonna think about it. Marc had ignored it, and so would he.
The rattling only got louder. Steven clapped his hands over his ears. God, it was bloody awful. There was a loud kind of scraping noise, and suddenly, Steven was back in the sarcophagus, tearing his throat out with frantic screams and scratching his dull nails bloody on the hood, and oh god he couldn’t just leave them there to suffer the same.
He leapt to his feet and started off in a frenzied jog, trying to remember where the sarcophagus he’d seen last time had been. No, not that door- not past that one either- oh wow he was glad he’d never have to relive that one again- there! At the end! The upright sarcophagus behind the glass door!
He yanked the door open and without a second thought, pulled the lid off.
He jumped back, and the lid clattered to the ground, shattering against the floor. Someone eerily similar in appearance to both Marc and Steven toppled out, yelping loudly.
Steven caught him in his arms, stumbling back a bit at the unexpected weight. The man gasped and pushed him back, arms drawn up to his chest and eyes blown wide.
“Blimey- are you alright?” Steven asked as the man caught his bearings, hunched over and breathing deeply.
“Dios mio, it’s hard to breathe in there,” he wheezed between gasps.
“Yeah, no shit Sherlock. It’s a burial container, not a bloody luxury apartment. Although-” the man stood back up. “-I s’pose in a way it was a luxury sort of something.”
“Please stop talking,” the man groaned, “actually, wait- go tell Marc he needs to stop keepin’ me in there.”
“Wha- Marc put you in there?”
The man scowled. “He has a tendency ta, uh, get rid of things he doesn’t wanna deal with. What’s the word? Reprimir?”
“Repress?” Steven guessed.
“Sí, repress.”
“Are you Spanish?” The man arched an eyebrow at that, and Steven hastened to correct himself. “Sorry! It took me by surprise, that’s all. That was a stupid- you know what, forget it. What’s your name?”
The man sighed, more annoyed-sounding this time. “Jake.”
“Oh- well, nice to meet you Jake.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m St-”
“Steven Grant, yeah, I know.” He put his hand down again. Jake sniffed. “Alright, well.. you just- scoot along now, yeah? Don’t go diggin’ anywhere you’re not s’posed ta.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
Jake nodded stiffly, then paused. He looked at the ground in front of him, then behind where the top of the sarcophagus had fallen. “Have you seen a, uh-”
Steven pointed to the empty burial container. “Behind you, maybe?”
Jake looked over his shoulder. “Ah, yeah- there is it.” He fully turned, then bent down and picked something up off the ground. He stood back up to reveal a cap, and he began to dust it off with his sleeve. He fitted it over his head as soon as he deemed it cleaned enough. He straightened his coat. “Right. Good.”
“Good,” Steven echoed. He fidgeted with his hands. “So, uh-”
“Please just shut up.”
“I haven’t said anything!”
“I can hear your thoughts, they’re so loud.”
Steven scrunched his brow. “But we’re not in the body?”
“I know that, dumbass.” Jake rolled his eyes.
“So how can you-?”
Jake huffed humorously. “It’s not hard to tell what you’re thinkin’. You’re an open book, Grant.”
“Right, yeah,” Steven nodded, having no clue what he was on about. He started fidgeting again.
“So.. which way to the exit?”
“There’s no exit,” he said, unhelpfully, “believe me, I’ve looked.”
Jake sighed. He fell back against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor.
Steven picked at his nails. “Are we just gonna sit here then?”
Jake scoffed. “I’m gonna sit here. You’re gonna scram, capiche?”
“Yep, yep, clear as day- bye Jake! Lovely meeting you!”
Jake rolled his eyes. “Yeah, tell Marc I send my regards.”
“Will do. I’ll just- leave then.”
“Okay.”
Steven continued to stand there for another minute, subtly inching away every few seconds. Jake raised a brow at him.
“Okay?”
“Yep, I’m.. leaving now!”
“Okay.”
He slowed down even further. Another minute passed, and he was barely a metre away. Jake eventually gave in.
“Okay, okay, Jesus. Sit if you want, just- across the hall, and don’t try to talk- don’t even make eye contact.”
“Yay!”
Steven sank down against the wall opposite Jake, grinning broadly at him. Jake rolled his eyes.
“So- me and Marc both have last names, do you have a last name too?” he asked, barely thirty seconds later.
Jake looked off to the side and pretended to ignore him.
“Jaaaake?”
“What?”
“Answer the question! Do you have a last name or not?”
Jake narrowed his eyes at him. Steven kept on staring. Another agonising minute rolled by, the hall so quiet he could hear the ticking of the analog clock down the hall. Until-
-Jake sighed, and gave in.
“Lockley. My name’s Jake Lockley. I’m a protector or something.”
Steven grinned. Now they were getting somewhere!
And oh boy, was he excited to go places with this man.