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Lampert sighed as he gently knocked on the door. He looked around the hallway, cream white with beige floors. So simple, so boring. The lights in the hallway hummed softly, and not much noise came aside from the three soft taps the lamp made.
Until he heard a muffled thump as the man inside bumped into some furniture and something fell over.
“Shit!” he heard him yelp, before the doorknob quickly turned.
Lampert blinked a couple times as he made eye contact with Infected. He looked the exact same as he had for weeks; messy and exhausted yet still somehow full of energy, and with a hot pink mess dripping down his face.
“Lampert! Hey, bro!” Infected sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. He was still grinning as he carelessly shook his hand off, causing Lampert to wince. “Didn’t expect ya to actually come!”
“Mhm…” He cleared his throat, obviously discomforted by the…everything. Infected was too oblivious to know that. “So, why did you, uh…ask me to come over here?”
“Nothing! I just wanted someone to hang out and talk with, ya know? And you’re always so lonely, heheh.” Lampert flinched slightly when the boy poked him in the stomach, and that reaction alone got a few more giggles out of him. He wanted to say something back, annoyed, but he stopped himself.
Infected’s eyes widened with excitement as he wiped his nose again. “Oh! Wait, actually, I did have something, let me show you!” Lampert didn’t have any time to protest before his hand was grabbed—thankfully with Infected’s clean one—and he yanked him inside, the door only coming shut because the former grabbed it in his panic.
The lamp wasn’t pulled along for much longer at the very least, stumbling as Infected let go of him. While he searched his desk and floor for whatever he was interested in finding, Lampert fixed his vest and looked around. It felt weird being inside this apartment again, so familiar yet unrecognisable—though, literally, it hadn’t moved an inch. The floors were the same wood, but dirty laundry and trash littered it; the TV still sat in the far corner, but the layer of dust visible from the end of the walkway would choke Lampert if he tried to blow it off; somehow, even the posters looked grimier, a couple torn in some spots and others completely ripped off.
Lampert gasped when Infected suddenly jumped in front of him and grabbed his shoulders. “Hey! Still awake?”
“Gah—good lord, don’t do that!” He quickly looked at his shoulders, being sure to wipe off anything wet or sticky or pink before it stained. He just got a laugh in response. Now, though, it looked as if Infected was holding something. Lampert pointed down at the object, held at the waist height. “Wait, what’s that?”
Infected raised an eyebrow, but then he looked down and remembered. "Oh!" He held it up excitedly. It looked like a medical bag, with a resealable top and a couple cautionary stickers on it…he knew who this was from. “It’s a gift I got when I was ridin’ the elevator earlier! This weird lady, I think she said her name was Dr. Wet-row or something? She gave me this bag and said to use the stuff in it ‘cayfully’. I dunno what cayfully means, but I wanted to go through it with you!” He grinned, wiping his nose then adding, “She said it’s better to do it with a friend, so I picked you!”
Lampert was a bit confused at first, but then he got it. This was definitely intentional. After all, he was the one who knew him best, right? Maybe Infected would benefit from this. Whatever this was. “Okay…where do we open it?”
“Hmm…oh! I’ll lay a blanket down on the floor!” Infected passed the bag off to Lampert before running over to his closet. It was already open, and all he had to do was pick one. Of course, the one he picked was the big soft galaxy-print one. “This one’s clean, I think.” He walked back and kicked some stuff out of the way before laying it across the floor.
“You think?”
“I’m, like, ninety percent sure.”
The two sat down, both facing the bag in front of them. Infected didn’t waste any time pulling the bag open and digging inside. The first thing he took out was a plastic package filled with something. He opened that, too, and held a folded light blue rectangle with strings on it. “Weird. What’s this?”
Lampert took the package and inspected these a bit. “Oh. Those are face masks. They, um…when you sneeze, it doesn’t, uh, get on anything.”
When it clicked, Infected gasped and smiled. “Oh! Aw, yeah, that’s sick! I hate cleaning it up when I sneeze on something.” He stopped, though. Just kept staring at the mask. “Where does it go?”
“Oh, I can show you, come here.” Taking one out of the package, Lampert turned a bit towards the boy next to him and held it up. He made sure to unfold it a bit first, and Infected took the pause to wipe his nose again. He tried to stay a good distance from Infected’s face, but his cold metallic hands still grazed his cheeks, and he saw him jolt the tiniest little bit. He pulled back immediately, but he still adjusted the mask with one hand until it fit him right.
“There. How do you like it?”
Infected’s eyebrows scrunched as he fixed it himself. He didn’t really seem to like it. He still responded, shrugging. “It’s weird. A little itchy. And it’s a weird colour. But I can just put stickers on it and stuff!” Lampert didn’t have the heart to tell him how wasteful those stickers on a disposable mask would be.
“Okay, uh…let’s see what else is in here…” He fixed his shirt sleeves before digging into the bag himself. His hand caught something hard and jagged, and he pulled out a square grey box. “Oh. It’s—”
“No way! I know what these are!” Infected took the box and held it in his hands, searching for something. The pretty obvious opening wasn’t so obvious to this idiot, was it? Eventually he found it. “Yeah, yeah, these are tissues!”
Lampert was a bit surprised by that. He laughed and raised an eyebrow, poking the box. “You know what those are? That’s a first.” He was genuinely not expecting it, but it was…refreshing to not have to explain something.
“Mhm. U.G. got me a box a while ago but he didn’t really explain why or…talk at all…” Infected began to trail off, looking around. “He's really quiet sometimes…he leaves through the window a lot, too. Always super late at night, and then when he comes home, he’s always really dr—”
Snap, snap. “Infected. Back on track. There’s more stuff in the bag.” The man’s eyes widened and he blushed, giggling. Lampert took an item out again, this time finding a bottle of generic over-the-counter flu medicine. This one perplexed him. “Wait. Medicine?”
“Oooh, she got me medicine?! This is the best gift ever!”
“Wait,” Lampert asked, “I thought you didn’t have symptoms? Well, I mean, normal symptoms.” The amount of times he caught Infected in the elevator with something turned pink said plenty. He had to be careful walking around the place sometimes…
Infected’s face scrunched up and he made an “ehh” noise. “My nose is always runny, but sometimes I get these weird fever kinda episodes where I can’t move and I’m just, like, frozen for a few days. I get real hungry and thirsty and it sucks.” He conveniently ignored Lampert’s mortified expression. “Dr. West-road said the stuff in the bag could help with that, though, so this must be what she meant!”
“Uh-huh…” He cleared his throat and nodded. Infected always dropped the strangest information on him… “Well, uh…is there anything else in the bag?”
“Erm…” Infected stuck his hand back in and searched around a bit. “Noo….doesn’t seem like—oh, wait!” He pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper. It was coloured pink, with pretty markings on it. Definitely from Dr. Retro…
Unfolding the note—which seemed to be written in sparkly glitter ink, of course—he took a moment to read it. He stopped at the first line. “‘Let your friend Lampert read this’...oh, so this one’s for you!” He set the paper down in Lampert’s lap, and the boy took it in his hands.
It read,
Dear Lampert,
Hello honey! How are you? I hope things are well. I’m hoping you were the person our darling Infected chose to unpack this with! Or else, this note will probably make less sense, hehe…
But if this is Lampert, I do have some things I need of you. Please try your best to help Infected use these items to his benefit. I know how hard it was for you when Kasper first got the infection. It hit you hardest out of all of us; you were closest with him, after all. And I know you’re still mourning, and you haven’t exactly accepted…everything, but you have to help him. He’s been getting worse. Just look at him.
Lampert paused, glancing up at Infected. He was distracted and inspecting the stuff he’d gotten. The mask had been pulled down to his chin. He had gotten worse. Sure, when Kasper first got the disease, it was bad, but…pale, matted hair, twitchy…those wide, unfocused, dilated eyes in an unnatural colour. With a sigh, he kept reading.
I’m still working on finding a cure. I’ve isolated the script, but I can’t yet break it open or recreate it safely. From what I have figured out, though, its visible symptoms work like influenza. I remember your parents taking you to me when you had the flu at seven years old! Do you remember that? I know you’ve repressed a lot since then. Say hi to your father for me.
Take care of him for me, okay? For Kasper. I’m working as hard as I can to fix this. We all are. Don’t give up, because you know Kasper wouldn’t let you! :P
With love,
Dr. Lucille Retro
“Hm,” Lampert hummed.
That little noise startled Infected, and his eyebrows raised as he looked back up at the lamp. “What? What did it say?”
“Uh…nothing important. Just telling me to remind you to use the stuff and all that.” He folded the paper back up and shoved it carelessly in his back pocket. He had to fidget with his sleeves again to focus himself. “Guess we’re, um…done, right?”
“Yeah, doesn’t look like there’s anything left in here,” the boy replied. Before he could be stopped, he had picked up the back and suddenly stuck his head in it.
“Infected!” Lampert immediately grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking him backward as he pulled the bag off. He was genuinely alarmed, but he couldn’t help but giggle a bit. “Get your head out of there! Don’t do that!”
He let out a startled yelp, but he was laughing, too. “Hey, I was just looking! Let go!”
Infected stretched his back a bit before he completely sat up and looked at Lampert, coughing a bit. He was…smiling. His smile, his genuine smile, always looked so much like Kasper’s. So much so that sometimes, he just couldn’t tell the difference. This one didn’t. He was grinning, and the little gap in his teeth was visible. It was wider than Kasper’s, twitching a little like his whole body always was, but not forced or fake. Almost childishly excited. Now, he saw it like it was.
Lampert liked his smile, too.
His face went red and his bulb flickered a bit as he realised what he was doing. Staring. Again. And this time, his brain was repeating a slightly different shade of denial. He cleared his throat. “Um, well, ah—I guess I should be leaving or something. Uhm…” Awkwardly, he stood up and brushed his pants off. “I’ll…be leaving now…I guess?”
Infected looked confused for a moment, but then went “Oh!” and jumped up as well. His face was a little pink. “Uh, yeah, sure! Come back any time, man! I’ll, um—I’ll see you to the door or whatever.” His hands clasped together, twitching and shaking. Lampert almost thought he reached down, but he couldn’t exactly tell.
“Yeah, yeah, thanks,” the lamp replied. The two began to walk to the door—until they heard the back door open.
“Fuckin’...hell…urgh—”
Lampert looked mortified, and Infected just looked concerned. Of course, they turned to see… Unpleasant. Drunk and mumbling to himself like he was going insane. He was wobbling, trying his best to stand as he leaned one arm against the wall. Suddenly, in the middle of trying to take a step, he hiccuped and weakly shoved the back of his hand to his mouth. It took him longer than it should have to look up and see them.
“Oh—whuh—” Unpleasant looked between the two of them with a pretty confused look on his face, although it was a wonder he could see anything with all that damn hair in his face. It was so thick his eyes were shadowed. “Am I…hic—’m I, uh…interruptin’ something?”
Infected closed his eyes for a moment. Lampert could just tell he was holding in a laugh. “No, U.G., no you aren’t.”
“Oh. Gotcha.” He went back to attempting to walk. Eventually, he made it to the red couch in the corner, and instantly collapsed against it. His immediate snores were loud enough to hear from the start of the hallway.
“Is he—”
“Yeah, he’s fine.”