Work Text:
"Alex, I'm home!" Jeff calls, sliding his arm out of the strap of his backpack and setting it on the couch. He expects to hear him call back, like he normally does, which is why he's slightly confused when he hears absolute silence. Sparky would be barking at the sound of the door opening whether Alex answered or not.
Jeff cautiously walked upstairs, shouting, "Come on, Al, it's not funny." What if the thing in his closet had gotten out? What if the Slenderman had taken his brother? What if it was something worse? What if--
He jumps when he hears something fall in Alex's room, breath catching in his throat. He should grab his phone; call Evan or Vinny. Hell, even Stephanie would be a good person to call right now. He damns himself as he walks to the door of his brother's bedroom, placing his hand on the brass doorknob before hearing something dripping in the bathroom, just down the hall.
Slowly and carefully, he takes his hand away from the door, instead following the noise to the open door of the bathroom. "Alex, I swear to fucking God, if you're screwing with me, you're sleeping in the shed," he says, tring for a joke before he pushes the door open further. Despite the light from the hallway behind him that should be flooding the room, he sees nothing.
A sigh escapes the man before he starts feeling for a light switch. Finally, his fingers latch onto it., the familiar plastic feeling filling him with some sense of relief. When the light flips on, all he notices is the drawn bathroom curtain, as if nothing else exists except that fucking divider between he and the bathtub. "Alex, man, come on."
He stands in the doorway a moment, giving Alex time to come out from behind the shower curtain. A sense of unease fills Jeff when he ends up standing there for what must be a full minute without that outcome. Slowly, he walks towards it, shaking slightly and willing himself to stay calm. He yanks it to the side, and screams.
Sparky is hanging on the wall, a spike driven through her head and paws to nail her to the surface. Her torso is slit, pelvis to mouth, and her insides wrapped around herself. Jeff gags, almost missing the message written in the blood of Alex's dog.
RABBIT OR...?
Jeff can't stop himself from retching until he finally vomits in the tub, right in front of Sparky's body. He hears the faint drip of blood coming from her torso, and the sound seems to wake him up out of whatever state he was in. "Alex!" he shouts, voice deeper yet still managing to break with the effort. "Alex, we gotta go man, come on!"
He goes to Alex's room and finally just shoves the door open.
He doesn't scream this time. Just covers his mouth with a dry sob.
Tears well in his eyes at first as he stares at the limp body of his little brother, beaten and bruised so badly he wouldn't be able to recognize him if not for that stupid fucking hat. Blood is seeping into his floor from the deep slits in his arms and legs, from shoulder to wrist and hip to ankle. His skin is peeled back, flesh parted to make way for bone. Like Sparky, his stomach is slit.
He sees another message, forcing himself to look away from him.
HABIT.
From the closet comes a low chuckle. He recognizes the voice. He swears to God he recognizes it. But it isn't comforting. Not like it normally would be.
"Jeff," the gravelly voice in the closet says. "Jeff, come on man."
···
"Jeff!"
A scream tears its way out of Jeff's throat as his eyes open, breathing heavily as Alex, alive and well, raises both hands. "Woah," Alex says, and Jeff stares at him. It had felt so real, like it had happened before and now only came to him in his sleeping subconscious. "You were screaming, man. I wanted to make sure that thing wasn't...You know."
He looks around, the living room of his home all too familiar, and yet horrific at the same time.
this wasn't what you dreamed about. this wasn't the house you were in.
"I'm fine," he says, pulling the blanket further up in an attempt to calm himself. He feels something wet against his fingers, and looks down to see Sparky. Alex lets out a small laugh as Jeff moves his hand to gently rub the top of her head with his knuckles.
"Looks like someone wanted to say hello," Alex says with a smile, petting Sparky's ears. "Isn't that right, girl? Yeah?"
Jeff lays back down on the pullout
we've never had a fucking pull-out mattress.
and pulls the blanket back over him, listening to Alex playing with Sparky on the other side of the mattress as he tries to go back to sleep.
why was evan in your dream?
···
It isn't until months, hell, maybe a year, later, when everything he loves is already dead, when he himself is dead, that he realizes that it wasn't a dream.
That is, if what his father says in the Sanctuary is to be trusted.