Chapter Text
As soon as Jack realized what was going on, he grabbed Zillion’s arm and looked him in the eyes. “Don’t,” he whispered, putting on his most authoritative voice, which for him wasn’t that authoritative at all. “Whatever you’re about to get the urge to do, don’t. Please, let’s just get out of this alive.”
Rusty, trying to force the doors open, didn’t seem to hear, but Damian did. He gave Jack an amused look and opened his mouth.
“That goes for you too,” Jack snapped at him before he could speak.
“What does?” Rusty gave up on the doors and backed into the opposite wall of the elevator, leaning on it and folding his arms.
“Nothing,” said Zill, probably predicting (correctly) that telling Rusty not to act on his worst impulses would be counterproductive. “I’m going to call Kayla and let her know to tell our teacher why we’ll be late. It looks like we might be here for a while.”
Even just “a while” was a nightmare for Jack. It was just his luck to get trapped in an elevator, but to be trapped with these three particular people? Even his own cursed misfortune usually wasn’t that cruel.
It wasn’t as if Jack was afraid for himself. He’d lost the fear of death a long time ago. The real problem was making sure none of the others strangled each other before they were rescued.
Zill was Jack’s best friend, and he loved him like a brother, but Jack also knew that he was probably the most likely to start a fight here, and he needed for that to not happen.
Which would be difficult, because Jack also knew that Zill, Rusty, and Damian all hated each other.
The smile vanished from Zillion’s face as he hung up his call with Kayla. “She’s going to explain to our teacher for us. In the meantime, how about we just don’t talk to each other until someone comes to get us out?”
“Fine by me,” Rusty growled. “Didn’t ask to be stuck with a buncha queers and freaks anyway.”
Beside Jack, Zill stiffened and clenched his fist, but then looked at Jack and leaned back against the side wall of the elevator, very clearly holding his tongue.
Damian, however, spoke up. “Harsh words for someone who’s clearly gay.”
“What did you just say?” Rusty roared.
“I called you gay. Correctly,” Damian said calmly.
“What makes you think —?”
“Dude, we’ve seen the tension between you and Autumn,” Zill managed to say before Jack clapped a paw over his mouth. He took Jack’s wrist and removed it. “Seriously?”
“Never mind,” said Jack. “Rusty, calm down. There’s nothing wrong with being queer.”
Rusty seemed furious, but even he could recognize that he was outnumbered.
“Maybe not talking wasn’t such a bad idea,” he grumbled.
Damian winked at Jack, as if to say: Watch this.
Before Jack could try anything to stop him, Damian said: “That sounds like an admission to me.”
Now it was Rusty’s turn to hold himself back. “It’s not,” he growled.
“Okay, but now I’m curious,” said Zill. “Because if you were —“
“I’m not —“
“If you were queer, there’s no reason you couldn’t tell us. Nobody here would judge, and it wouldn’t leave this elevator. Right?”
“Well…” Damian began.
“Right?” Jack said, staring his cousin down.
“Right,” Damian agreed.
For the first time, Rusty looked more baffled than angry. “Seriously? I thought you all hated me.”
Jack hesitated. “I mean…”
“We still do,” Damian said what Jack was thinking for him.
“We don’t like you because you’re a bully who starts fights with people for fun,” Zill said flatly. “None of us care about your orientation enough to think differently about you for it.”
Damian raised his paw. “I mean, I care a little bit. I’ve gotten kind of invested in finding out by now.”
Rusty glared at him, then glanced at the other two. “Would you do anything if I punched him?”
“Yes.” Jack said.
Zill frowned, but didn’t answer.
“You… would, right?” Jack asked.
“Damian trapped you in your own locker for a week,” Zill pointed out. “I have mixed feelings about the idea.”
“Zill.” Jack gave him a look, like: Bro, I’m counting on you.
“Okay, fine. Yes, I would intervene if anyone in this elevator tried to hurt each other.”
“Well, that’s just perfect,” Rusty sighed. “And you’re not going to let this go either, are you?” He asked Damian.
“Oh, no way am I letting it go,” Damian agreed. “We could be stuck in here for hours. I know I can annoy you for that long, but how long can you stand it?”
Rusty turned away from them all and pressed his palm against the wall of the elevator. The others waited in silence.
“Okay, fine,” Rusty said at last. “It doesn’t leave this elevator, but… I do like Autumn. I ‘like like’ him.” He looked at the others over his shoulder. “Are you happy now? Now that you know I’m… I’m… some unnatural monster?”
“What?” Jack asked. “What makes you think that? I mean, the monster thing, not the Autumn thing.”
“Try ‘who’. My dad. And he’s right.”
Zill and Damian didn’t have anything to say to that. But Jack did.
“Look, I know I’m the only straight person here, so maybe I’m not the best equipped to talk about this —“
“Wait, you are?”
“Yeah, Zill and Damian are both bi.”
“I knew Damian liked guys, but you?” Rusty stared at Zill for a few long moments.
Zill rolled his eyes at him. “Don’t even think about it, Ruben. I have a girlfriend. And standards.”
“Anyway,” Jack interjected as Rusty flushed red with anger, “I can promise that whatever you are, you’re not a monster.” He paused, then added. “If anything, I’m the monster, here.”
“You?” Rusty asked. “Seriously? You think that?”
“It always seemed like you thought that,” Jack pointed out. “You know how my curse works, right? You must — you can’t shut up about it when you’re around me. It’s caused so much destruction and hurt people close to me. With all that, what else could I be?”
Damian and Zill both started to protest, but Rusty spoke over them both. “Jack, that’s not what you are,” he said. “You’re a good person. You never hurt anyone intentionally. Don’t think you’re a bad person because of something beyond your control.”
Jack processed that. “Um… thanks?” He said. “That was more thoughtful than I would have expected of you.”
“Yeah, well,” Rusty said gruffly. “You’d better not tell anyone I said that, either. Elevator rules. I’ve got a reputation to keep, after all.”
“Sure, sure.” Jack smiled to himself. Maybe they weren’t as doomed as he’d thought.
“You shouldn’t be insecure like that,” Damian agreed. “I mean, come on, we all know that, out of the four of us, I’m the monster.”
Silence.
“Were you expecting someone to correct you?” Zill asked.
“What makes you say that?” Jack said.
Damian stared at his cousin. “I’m literally the Antichrist. Don’t you get what that means? Hating me is like everyone’s automatic setting. And it’s not like I could make friends in Hell. Most demons don’t do ‘friendships’, they kill each other. Until a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t even leave the school without the authorities attacking me just for existing in this city. Nobody wants the spawn of Satan anywhere around them.”
“Oh, boo hoo,” Zill growled. “At least you know who you’re the spawn of. Try being a species that nobody knows. People know what demons are, and trust me when I say that they’re more afraid of me than you. No matter where I am, I can’t not draw attention. You think you have problems? I don’t know what I am.”
He sat down on the elevator floor, chest heaving, eyes turned downward. “And let’s just face it, I’m —“
“Don’t even finish that,” Jack said.
He looked around the elevator at the others. Four very different people, but from the looks of it, they all had something in common.
“Why don’t we all sit down?” Jack suggested, taking a seat on the floor beside Zill. “It looks like we’re gonna be here for a while.”