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Jack wakes up in a place that appears, on the surface, to be his own house.
The first odd thing is that there’s no one else here.
The second odd thing is that there’s nothing controlling him. He’s himself again.
There’s no blood, no mold, no bodies, everything is as it was before things went to hell.
He can go outside, but finds that he isn’t able to leave the swamp. Every time he tries to head into town, the swamp eventually bends back on itself and he ends up back home.
There’s still a day and night in this realm, although the moon is black and oily and the sky has an odd greenish tint to it. There’s still weather, too. It rains a lot here.
Every day, he eats breakfast. He still gets hungry for some reason. Then he heads out, trudging through the swamp until he loops back. He doesn’t know what else to do. He sweeps the estate every few days, looking for any signs of the mold coming back. He isn’t taking any chances.
The first to arrive is Zoe.
He finds her on the bed in the Kid’s Room.
At first he thinks he’s seeing things.
“Zoe?”
She mutters something in her sleep and he stares for a few seconds, trying to decide what to do. Then he sits on the edge of the bed, gently shaking her awake.
“Zoe, it’s me.”
She twitches, cracking her eyes open. There’s maybe two seconds of calm before she recognises him and yelps, scrambling upright and backing into the wall.
“I know, I know. I won’t hurt you. Zoe? It’s me. I’m not gonna hurt you.”
She curls into herself, pulling her knees to her chest, clawing at the wall like she’s trying to break through it.
“Get away!”
“Zoe!”
“Please don’t hurt me.”
“I ain’t gonna hurt you.”
“Oh, god.”
“Zoe, look at me. It’s me.”
Zoe stares up at him with large, panicked eyes and he almost starts crying.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, “I never wanted to – ”
“Daddy?”
“It’s me.”
She goes mostly still, eyeing him nervously.
“It’s me, honey.”
Zoe edges forward slightly. She’s shaking. There’s a long pause, then Jack holds out his arms, offering a hug, if she wants it. He doesn’t know what else to do.
Zoe chokes out a sob and collapses into his chest, clinging to his shirt and he holds her, cradling her in his arms, gently stroking the back of her head.
“Shh. It’s okay. It’s okay, now. It’s over. I’m not gonna hurt you.”
He’s not sure if he’s trying to convince Zoe or himself.
They stay there for what might be hours, Jack muttering reassuring nonsense.
Eventually he feels Zoe trying to pull away and releases her. She leans back against the wall, her feet hanging off the edge of the bed.
“Daddy, are we dead?”
“Yes. I think we are.”
She contemplates that for a while.
“Is Mom here?”
“No, honey. It was just me until you arrived.”
“Will there be others?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how this works.”
Zoe moves back into her trailer and Jack brings her meals every day. He’s not a particularly good cook and he doesn’t pretend to be, but by god does he try. Sometimes Zoe comes into the house and they both sit in the living room and watch movies and pretend she isn’t scared shitless of him. They don’t talk about what happened.
Things are mostly uneventful until they find Ethan asleep on the couch.
There’s an odd, foggy quality to him, like he’s caught between two realities. Jack gets the feeling he’ll be gone again soon.
Jack wakes him up. Ethan immediately recoils into the back of the couch, lifting his arms in defence and Jack does his best to be reassuring. He explains the situation as best he can. He tells him about Evelyn and how he needs to stop her. He has no idea whether or not Ethan believes him. All he can do is trust him to finish the job.
He knows Ethan has come through when others start appearing. There are reporters, cops, hitchhikers, families, tourists, truckers, all kinds of unfortunate souls who were lured over from town. There’s an upsetting amount of kids.
Jack is there to meet every single one. Some of them attack him on sight. He doesn’t fight back. He doesn’t deserve to. He just lets them beat him until they collapse from exhaustion. Some of them scream and cry and Jack holds them until they calm down. Sometimes they take hours. He assures them he won’t hurt them. Some of them believe him. All of them continue to flinch from him whenever he brings them food.
The fridge restocks itself every day. Jack doesn’t question it.
At some point Marguerite appears in the kitchen.
She’s scared, confused, and when she registers Jack she backs up into the countertop.
Jack holds his hands out in what he hopes is a placating manner.
“Marguerite?”
She stares at him. He takes a few seconds to stare back. It’s been so long since he’s seen her uninfected.
“Jack? That you?”
“It’s me. I’m not – We’re okay.”
Jack walks towards her, slowly, deliberately, so she can leave if she wants to.
“I’m so sorry,” he says.
“I know. I’m sorry too.”
He stops a couple of feet away from her.
They both just stand there for a few seconds. Then Marguerite steps forward, closing the gap and hugging him around the stomach. He freezes up for a moment before hugging her back. They stay like that for a while. He’s missed her so much.
He fills her in on the situation.
Marguerite immediately commits herself to feeding everyone. Jack does his best to help.
He constantly showers her with affection, hugs, kisses, compliments, desperately trying to make up for everything he said and did under Evelyn’s control. She assures him she isn’t afraid of him, that she trusts him, but he still catches her stealing nervous glances at him sometimes. He pretends he doesn’t feel a little strange around her, too.
Sometimes she wakes up screaming at night. Jack holds her until she relaxes enough to go back to sleep. Sometimes it’s the other way around and Jack dreams about Marguerite’s centipedes spewing all over him. Sometimes they both scare each other and end up in separate rooms for the night.
Zoe sleeps in the trailer. She feels safe in there, he guesses. He can’t blame her at all for not wanting to sleep in the house. She hasn’t been able to look him in the eyes since arriving.
Every day, more poor souls arrive. Jack starts to realise that the estate isn’t big enough to hold everyone. He starts building, adding more rooms onto the house. Zoe offers to help. It’s slow going. The first time Jack gets the axe out to chop wood, Zoe freaks out and he ends up spending the rest of the day trying to coax her out of her trailer.
At one point, Jack gets a headache and barricades himself into the bedroom, convinced that Evelyn is trying to take him back over. It turns out to just be a regular headache.
The basement keeps regenerating building materials, much like how the fridge keeps refilling.
Lucas never shows up. Jack doesn’t know why.
Finally, Ethan arrives on the couch, for the second and final time.
This time, Jack lets him wake up on his own. If anyone deserves to rest, Ethan does. He just waits patiently until he drifts into consciousness.
Ethan opens his eyes. They’re glazed, unfocused, like someone who hasn’t slept in a year. His gaze locks onto Jack and he visibly tenses for a second but doesn’t actually flinch. Jack doesn’t know whether that’s due to conscious effort on Ethan’s part, but he appreciates it all the same.
“Jack.”
Ethan relaxes into the couch cushions and Jack smiles softly. He’s unable to fully express the level of gratitude he owes Ethan.
“You did good, son.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question. How are you feeling?”
“I feel dead.”
Jack doesn’t have it in him to respond to his joke.
“I’m sorry,” he says instead.
“Don’t be.”
Ethan sits up.
“Is Zoe here?”
“She’s probably in her trailer.”
“Who else?”
“Marguerite. And everyone that we…” he trails off.
“Oh.”
“There were so many before you, son.”
Ethan doesn’t respond for a few seconds.
“Do you have the space?”
“Me an’ Zoe have been building some extensions.”
“Do you guys want some help?”
Something twinges in Jack’s chest, because of course Ethan would automatically volunteer to help. He’s already done more than Jack can ever repay.
“Do you want to?”
“I mean, unless there’s anything else to do around here.”
“Don’t think that you’re obligated.”
“I want to.”
“Alright, son. Are you hungry or anything?”
“I’m not sure.”
“That’s okay. We’ll get you something and you can eat however much you need.”
They pass a couple of guests on the way to the kitchen. They still cower at the sight of Jack. He pretends it doesn’t hurt as much as it does.
Marguerite absolutely lights up when she sees Ethan, going straight for the hug. Ethan only flinches a little. He is hungry, as it turns out. He sits on the countertop and eats his food on his lap instead of sitting at the table. Jack doesn’t have to guess why.
Ethan waits for Zoe to join them at dinner before detailing everything that’s happened since their deaths. It’s quite a story, but the thing that Jack latches onto is that not only does Ethan have a daughter, but he gave his life to save hers. He wishes he could have done the same for Zoe, instead of… everything he did. He tries to think about something else. This isn’t about him. He can’t start crying at the dinner table while Ethan is in mid flow.
“Jack, are you okay?”
Everyone is staring at him.
“I’m alright, son. Don’t worry about me.”
“Daddy?” Zoe says. Her voice is shaking slightly.
“I’m fine, honey.”
“You don’t look fine.”
Her eyes are wide and she suddenly looks as scared as she did when she first arrived here. He doesn’t think he can speak to her right now, not without thinking about everything he’s done to her, everything he’s said, all the pain and terror that he’s caused her and the fact that there’s nothing he can possibly do or say to atone.
“I need to get some air. I’m sorry.”
They let him leave without argument.
He goes outside and chops wood until he calms down.
He doesn’t know if any of them will ever be okay again. And yet, things are somehow the most okay they’ve been in years. Marguerite is here, and they’ve almost stopped flinching from each other. Neither of them blame the other for anything. Zoe knows he won’t hurt her. She constantly flinches from him and has nightmares about him, but she still trusts him enough to sit and eat dinner with him despite her obvious fear. She was worried about him, even. Ethan is apparently so comfortable that he didn’t even question whether or not Jack was himself. Mia is apparently alive and well. Hell, if Rose is connected to the mold, he might even get to meet her someday.
He even got to open that bed and breakfast, although his guests are all terrified of him and none of them can physically leave. He still does his best to take care of them.
It finally occurs to him that he’s making things worse by exiling himself like this. The way Zoe was looking at him, she was probably scared he was going to turn again. He can’t just leave her in there in fear.
What the hell are you doing out here? They trust you, you stupid old bastard.
He pulls himself together as best he can and puts the axe down.
He goes back inside and eats dinner with his family.