Adam left work and descended into the subway, sitting on the cleanest bench he could find and beginning the mind-numbingly boring wait for the train--

*Symphonic metal crescendo* Keep goooooing; You saaaaid; To a rotting body; Begging for deaaaath; So here I aaaam; Forbidden from reeeest; All at your beheeest--

“David.” Adam greeted, victorious from a fight against his pocket for his phone.

“Yo! What's up?” He questioned in a whisper, sounding... unnaturally cheery.

“...Not much, what's up with you?”

“I'm hallucinating.”

“Oh.” There's something there. “What are you seeing?”

“Something big. And it has teeth. A fuckton of teeth.” It was a soul eater... “It keeps trying to reach into my chest, there's a bird there, and it's freaking out.” Spice was hiding inside his ribcage.

“I see. And does it hurt?”

“It's not supposed to be real, right? None of it, right?”

“No.”

“It feels real, but if I act as if it is, then the others will think I'm crazy. Like, actually crazy and dangerous, right?”

“Maybe.” He was already at the orphanage, and people were out and about. “Can you go somewhere without as many people? I can meet you there, and maybe we can try scaring it away.”

“Nope, they're watching me. They got mad that I went outside while sick, so they dragged me to the nurse's office and gave me some meds? I think it was cough syrup and something for fevers, I... I think it might not be pairing too well with my meds. At first, I thought, maybe, since I'm sick, it was making my symptoms worse, so I asked the lady outside to get me my meds, but I'm still seeing it and feel like shit. I think I'm about to pass out, but I don't know if it's the meds or the dog thing.” Fuck! They put him on watch... At least he already prepped a cover story in case things went south.

“It's a dog?”

“Yeah, it must have followed me here, I think? I only started seeing it after they gave me something for my flu, but at the same time, it feels like it was following me around for hours.” He had tried to lose it, but it must have followed him to the orphanage without realizing. “I wish it was nice like the bird instead of chasing people around.” He recounted, his cheeriness wavering.

“It chased people?” Did it catch Alice's dad?!

“I think? It's like I saw it chase a man, but he escaped in time, he went up to heaven, but I didn't at the same time? It's mad at me like it's my fault.” David managed to distract it long enough for Mr.Park to call his reaper, and they took him away safely, and it was pissed about it. “I'm freaking out, dude. I'm trying to not freak out because it's not real, I know it's not real, but shit's scary, and it keeps trying to eat the bird, and it's starting to hurt!” He said, a desperate cry briefly escaping through the cracks in his voice.

Fuck it.

“...Can you grow spikes?” Adam suggested, getting up and adjusting his backpack.

“Spikes?”

“Yes, like a chestnut.” He rushed up the stairs and tapped his pass repeatedly on the card reader.

“I can try...”

“Good, I'm on my way--”

“Wait, don't leave me!” David begged.

“I'm not, I'm staying on the line with you, don't worry.”

“Thank you...” David went quiet for a second, with only a faint rustling coming through the phone. “I think it's working... At least it's not in my face anymore. It's really loud.”

“Can you keep growing the shell? Push it away?” He asked, zigzagging through the people on the street in full sprint.

“...Adam, I think I'm about to pass out.”

FUCK! IF HE PASSED OUT THAT THING WOULD GET SPICE FOR SURE!

“David, I need you to throw up whatever they gave you, now, you can't pass out!”

“Already did, b-but it's still my system, I-- Oh fuck, it has so many arms...” David sobbed. “It's going to kill me! Adam, it's going to kill me, help me!” He begged, his last bit of composure going into keeping his cries at a whisper.

“David, it's not real! It can't kill you!” Adam yelled, ignoring complaints of whoever wasn't fast enough to get out of the way and ate pavement as a consequence.

“It can! It fucking can, I have the scars to prove it!” He snapped, not yelling.

“David, calm down. You can't let anyone hear you.”

“Don't you think I know that?! Ah! Deixa-me em paz, filho da puta!” Adam heard a crash on the other side, and the line went dead.

“David? DAVID!” He called into the uncaring beeping in his ear.

Fuck! fuckfuckfuckfuCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!

This was his fault! THIS WAS ALL MARK'S FAULT!

THAT SPOILED PIECE OF SHIT! IF ONLY HE KNEW HOW TO TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER NONE OF THEM WOULD BE IN THIS SITUATION! IF ONLY HE HADN'T FORCE HIM TO GET INOCENT BLOOD ON HIS HANDS, ALICE AND HER PARENTS WOULDN'T HAVE FOLLOWED HIM TO THE ORPHANAGE, AND DAVID WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO ACKNOWLEDGE THEM FOR HIS SAKE, AND HE COULD'VE GONE TO SCHOOL TODAY INSTEAD GETTING ROPED INTO SOMEONE'S UNFINISHED BUSINESS AND NOW THEY WERE GOING TO TAKE HIM AWAY, TEST HIM, MAYBE FIND OUT HE COULD REALLY SEEGHOSTANDPUTHIMINALABANDDISSECTHIM--

...

Oh, those... were headlights.

He was about to be hit by a truck.

He... He couldn't; he had to look after David and Cassie too. He had people to avenge, a whole family to kill, he-- He could ask Spice. There really would be no point in teaching him to be “independent” anymore, and surely she wouldn't deny his dying wish--

The truck passed in front of him like a flash, the world slowly regaining its noise as... a grip on his arm became more and more noticeable.

Adam looked at the hand gripping him, ice stuffing his veins as fire crept around gritted teeth and clenched fists.

Black leather gloves, branded with a strange coat of arms, and a matching fur-lined coat, covering an impossibly tall figure, with a face covered in a hat's shadow... and scars.