Work Text:
Flakes of snow settled on Madeline’s hair and face as she climbed up the side of a crumbled concrete wall. The abandoned city on the Celeste mountain was full of them, along with half finished bricked houses and tilted traffic signs. From what she knew when she looked up the mountain before she came here, the city was never completed, and all the construction crew left halfway through. She never found out why though, besides rumors that a monster with the face of a chicken but the body of a man came out at night to kill.
That’s such a stupid idea. She thought as she jumped up to catch a window still on the wall across from her. Why would a chicken monster be here? Wouldn’t a mountain lion or wolf man make more sense?
She pulled herself up to the window and caught her breath as she looked around the room. There were some stairs leading up. Stairs were rare here, it would be nice to not have to parkour every time she wanted to move up.
The next floor was empty except for snow and dust, with another set of stairs that led up. There was light coming from the floor above, and the smell of smoke.
A fire? Should I leave in case it brings the whole building down? But what if it’s another person, it would be nice to talk to someone again.
It could also be the chicken monster. No, that would be too ridiculous. Taking a deep breath, she started to climb up the stairs. With each step, the smell of smoke and something cooking grew stronger, and so did the crackles of the fire. Before she reached the top of the steps, something jumped down in front of her.
“Ahhh!” It was the chicken monster man! Where a human head should have been was instead a white rooster’s. It was wearing a jacket, jeans, and a pair of sneakers. In one hand it held a bloody baseball bat.
Without thinking she turned around to run down the stairs. But in her haste she missed a step and started falling.
“Wahh!” A few inches from her face was one of the concrete steps. The chicken monster man had stopped her from falling all the way down by grabbing onto the back of her jacket. Then it lifted her off the stairs entirely.
“Woah, put me down!” She tried kicking at the monster, but since she was turned away from it, she couldn’t aim. The monster took her up the stairs and into the floor above. Now she could see that there were two birds being roasted over the fire, with two makeshift chairs made out of crates around it. In the corner of the room was a sleeping bag, and torn up advertisements hung from the walls like posters.
She was dropped down onto one of the crate chairs. The chicken monster man sat down in the one across from her. If she tried to run down the stairs he would catch her, she would need to jump through the window to escape.
The chicken monster man, it really needed a shorter name, placed his bat down next to his chair and picked up one of the sticks with the cooked bird on it. He held it out to her.
“Is it for me?”
The chicken monster man nodded. Now that she could see it more clearly in the firelight, the chicken head looked rubbery. Was it just a mask? But why would anyone wear a chicken mask while exploring an abandoned city in the mountains?
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry,”
The chicken man shrugged, and brought the bird over to him. He lifted up the mask just enough to reveal his mouth, and tore into the bird. For a few minutes, Madeline watched as he devoured the bird, the only sounds being his loud chewing and the crackle of the fire. When he was done, he walked over to the window and placed the bones out on the window still.
With his back turned to her, she got up from her seat. But before she could take a step, he whirled around and reached for her.
“Hey!” She tried taking a step back, but instead she fell over the chair and fell down. The chair broke with a loud crack, and she landed on the pieces of wood, and the chicken man landed on her.
“Ow,” something sharp was poking her on her side. She tried moving away from it, but with the chicken man above her, she couldn’t move.
Speaking of the chicken man, the chicken mask had slipped off his head. He looked like an ordinary guy.
“Can you get off me?” She asked.
He did so, and even helped her up from the ground. There was a tear on one of her jacket sleeves, it looked like a nail had ripped through it. That must have been what was poking her, and it even reached her skin, as there was a little blood seeping out of the tear.
The guy had put back on his chicken mask, and walked over to the corner with the sleeping bag. There was a backpack she hadn’t noticed before, and he was searching through it for something.
It was a small box of bandages. He walked towards her and pushed it into her chest.
“Oh,” The guy wasn’t a monster, but he was still dangerous, even if he was acting nice to her. It was clear she couldn’t run from him, for now anyways, so maybe if she acted nice back, he would let her go?
“Thank you. I’m Madeline, what’s your name?”
She couldn’t see with the mask over his face, but she could feel his eyes staring back at hers.
“Jacket,”