Dead EndChapter 20

They end up staying another two hours, playing cards in the garden. It’s just Go Fish, but the simple act of playing cards in the sunlight, drinking lemonade and watching the sky slowly turn darker as the sun begins to set, shatters his heart. 

Mrs. Jane is a vicious player, with keen eyes and keener insight. She persistently wins the games, her laugh bright and cheerful every single time. Jordan snags a win here and there, but still comes out as the person with the most losses when they stop playing. Sebastian is quietly smug by the end, sitting with his back straight and a twinkle in his eyes. When Jordan sticks his tongue at him, Sebastian merely smirks devilishly. YA6mnE

Jordan bites down on a smile and ducks his head, defeated by that single look.

Mrs. Jane offers to make dinner for them, but Sebastian shakes his head quietly. ”It’s better if we go home before it gets dark.” Then he pauses, looking at Mrs. Jane downturned lips, and adds, ”But we’ll return soon, and we can have lunch together.”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Mrs. Jane lights up again. She grins, nods rapidly and says, ”It’s a date!” Jordan coughs behind Sebastian, raising a hand to cover the sound. Sebastian still glances at him, sending him a soft glare. Jordan fixes his expression and looks straight ahead, pretending that he can’t feel the eyes boring into his skull.

Sebastian sighs at last. ”Thank you for having us,” he says to Mrs. Jane, smiling at her. Jordan goes back to fiddling with his pack of cookies that Mrs. Jane gave him. They’re all handmade, and he really doesn’t know what he did to deserve them. But Mrs. Jane pressed them in his hands, and he couldn’t find the words to reject her. 06cuAx

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Mrs. Jane goes with them to the front door. ”Be careful,” she says, watching them put on shoes and jackets, and then the thick gloves. Jordan holds out his hands, and Sebastian tapes the gloves’ ends to his jacket. Sebastian pulls a little on the gloves, and deems the taping worthy. Jordan’s fingers flex in the gloves, testing his movements. They seem fine. He nods to Sebastian.

Sebastian smiles at him. ”Then we’ll head out,” he says to Mrs. Jane, and his smile is slightly uncertain but heartbreakingly genuine. Jordan’s heart almost skips a beat, and he nearly stumbles where he stands still. But he remains in control, forces his wayward emotions into order, and moves on. He won’t be caught in them now, when they’re about to step outside and face the zombies again. When they’re about to go back out into the line of fire, where just a single mistake can kill them.

He swallows, forcibly pulling his focus back to the here and now. He smiles, too, at Mrs. Jane. ”Thank you for the cookies, and the great company,” he says, going his best to sound suave and charming, the way Sebastian does so effortlessly. It doesn’t go that well, but Mrs. Jane merely blushes and waves at him, her eyes screaming her delight far and wide. Jordan ducks his head, and nods at her as Sebastian unlocks the many locks on the door and pulls the door open.

It’s inching closer toward evening, and the sky reflects it in its rather captivating coloring. Not much of it can be seen from their position, as they’re surrounded by high houses blotting out most of the sky, but some stray wisps of color can still be seen. But still… it’s beautiful.

Jordan rubs his eye, clearing his throat quietly. He follows Sebastian down the steps and then through the labyrinth of streets. They’re lucky; no new zombies have wandered in while they were inside. So the path back is easy, if intensely nerve-wracking. His eyes obsessively look around, searching every corner for something strange, his ears straining in the search for foreign footsteps.

But there’s nothing, and it leaves his hands trembling.

They reach the door safe and sound, and somehow that is more shocking than it would have been if they’d been attacked by a whole horde of zombies. (What is a group of zombies called, anyway? A murder? No, that’s crows. An unkindness? No, that’s—something else. A… fixation? A fixation of zombies?)

(What the hell is his mind doing?) yWXUce

”Okay?” Sebastian asks, murmuring the question as he unlocks their door. Jordan shakes himself out of his stupor (a stupor of zombies?) and nods, then coughs softly.

”Yes,” he whispers, achingly conscious of his volume. Achingly conscious of every noise he makes, every step he takes. He doesn’t know how good the zombies hearing is, and he can’t help but think they’ll hear his footsteps and come running. 

Sebastian opens the door and turns to face him. His face is serious; eyes set and lips pressed together. He stares at Jordan with an inscrutable look, a moment where Jordan has no idea what he’s thinking, can’t read anything from him. It makes Jordan’s breath catch in his throat, makes him step back. 

He doesn’t… he doesn’t really know Sebastian, does he? Z1gfzq

Licking his lips, he rasps out, ”What?”

Sebastian blinks, shaking his head a little. His hands clench, and Jordan is still startled by how little he can read that look. Something is wrong, he thinks. But he doesn’t know what. Doesn’t know how to fix it, or what to do. So he just raises an eyebrow and makes a questioning noise.

Sebastian deflates, looking down. His foot nudges on the stone staircase, and the breath he pulls in sounds painful. ”It’s nothing,” he says, and when he turns back to go inside, Jordan sees a shine in his eyes that looks suspiciously like tears. 

Blinking, he follows Sebastian in, his mind still spinning. He opens his mouth, but he doesn’t manage to say anything before Sebastian disappears into the house. And so Jordan is left alone at the door, feeling both strangely abandoned and like he somehow did the abandoning. Closing his mouth, he mutely locks the door. D1NEmB

A/N: This April is a great time to join my Patreon—not only will OSD be completed on Patreon by April 1st, allowing you to read all the way to the end, but I’m doing Camp NaNo again. I’ll be working on A FIELD OF SCATTERED STARS, the DEAD END Patreon exclusive spin-off novel! I’d be thrilled to have you join me! XD

Chrysanthemum Garden.