“How… can you be so relaxed about all of this?”
Plaster spoke up. Like the other two, he didn’t dare enter the room, and barely even dared to look inside. The terror of the whole setting was seeping into him deeper and deeper.
River and Aspen raised their heads at the same time, eyes on Plaster. Like dolls, their bodies froze up for a second, immobile, their eyes unblinking. It was then that Plaster, Amber and Rhythm started to understand something – the reason why Aspen, this murderer, got along so well with River wasn’t because River was a good leader or he was under his control.
It was because they were the same.
“It’s just a game. Unless you get devoured by a shadow, your chances of dying are always the same. Why not play it?” Aspen smiled, although it didn’t reach his eyes.
River’s tone held a hint of insanity that was easy to miss. “Where else would you experience a thing like this? Being like a ghost, controlling others, watching how the world changes as a result of your actions – why wouldn’t I enjoy it?”
Being stared at by two men whose gaze was so absurdly inhuman, Plaster stumbled a step backwards. He shivered, averting his eyes. “I… I th-think I’ll go downstairs for a while…”
He didn’t dare move until River shrugged, absolving him. Then he hurried back towards the entry space, closely followed by Rhythm. Amber’s body twitched into their direction, but she ultimately folded her trembling hands before her body and stayed put.
“Not leaving?”
“I still… still want to get out of here… Waiting in fear won’t help me”, she stuttered.
While Amber was unable to convince herself to leave, she was also feeling less comfortable with staying right next to River and Aspen. She stayed in their range of sight, wandering up and down the hallway to take glances at rooms and listen in on sounds.
Once, she put her ear near a locked patient room. She regretted it immediately, hearing insane mumblings that even through the language filter sounded like gibberish.
Her legs were constantly trembling, but there was no clean space to squat down, let alone sit, so she was forced to continue standing as the others continued checking each individual room.
“Here’s the room of the one who tried to escape”, Aspen called for River, finding the bedsheet they had seen dangling down before.
“Now we also know why they just cared about going down a single floor. The second floor has freely accessible stairs again. They just wanted to get out of here.”
“Relatable.”
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.
“Someone is coming!” Amber ran around the corner, pointing back. “The, uh, Actor? The patient that fled is being brought out of the other rooms to here!”
Elnfg tegglfv bnfg ab tfg ab byrfgnf.
Ktf qjalfca kjrc’a alfv eq, yea tf kjr tjio mjgglfv, tjio vgjuufv ys akb raegvs cegrfr. Lf kjr bynlberis vlrbglfcafv jcv mbcoerfv, yjgfis jyif ab rajcv bc tlr bkc akb offa. Lf rajuufgfv ktfc bcf cegrf ifa ub bo tlw ab bqfc j vbbg ab j qjalfca gbbw.
River twitched, rushing into the room on impulse. He heard Aspen behind him, a surprised sound, followed by the murderer spontaneously sprinting inside to join River.
They were just in time for the nurses to leave, the door falling shut behind them and getting locked.
“…”
“…Amber?”
“…Yes. I’m still out here.”
“Can you… check some other rooms by yourself? We will join you as soon as possible.”
“I’ll try.” The scene had been so absurd that some of Amber’s fear just vanished. She rubbed her face, taking a deep breath to gain some confidence. “I’m going.”
Inside the room, her steps away were barely audible.
River observed the patient, who swallowed some suspicious-looking pills on a tray. He laid down on the dirty bed, curled up, and soon fell asleep. The man was reeking of sweat and piss, but no one bothered to help clean him up.
“Stuck?” Aspen went into a squat, yawning.
“Stuck.”
“Awesome. An unexpected break.”
River went to squat next to Aspen. Although everything inside the room was dirty, he was starting not to care anymore. He didn’t want to stand for who knows how many hours.
“How are your nerves?”
“Good. It’s helping a lot that I’ve got the game to distract myself. How about you? Feeling better this time? You were a bit distracted the last time we called.” Now that they had nothing to do anyway, Aspen decided that they might as well have some idle conversation.
He remembered well how odd River had been right before the game.
“Oh, I…” River rubbed his neck. He hadn’t told Aspen, but there actually wasn’t any reason not to say it. “I fell down the stairs and broke my arm.”
“Fell?”
“Fell.” You were falling even if someone pushed you, after all. Falling was the process, no matter if it was your own fault or someone else’s.
“Does your arm hurt? It shouldn’t have healed so quickly?”
“I think the dreams fix that for us.” River raised his arm, showing that it was fine. He additionally flexed his fingers, his knuckles pointing out with the movement. The weight loss was most obvious around his hands and wrists.
“Can I just say, your fingers are way too slender, and that’s coming from me.”
“…They’re not. They’re normal.”
“No they aren’t.” Aspen grabbed River’s wrist. He held his hand against River’s, their palms touching. “See? Your fingers are just super bony, even compared to mine. You can tell if you look at them like this.”
River’s confusion quickly turned into what Aspen judged to be an unexpectedly dumbfounded expression, focusing on something entirely else.
“Why are your hands so small?”, River asked, looking at the distinct gap between their fingertips. He turned his hand to grasp Aspen’s and held it in his own, touching his fingers.
“That’s just how my hands are. Not everybody can have large hands like yours.” Aspen pouted a bit but didn’t resist.
“But they’re tiny.”
Aspen looked at River’s slightly dazed expression.
In all of his life, River hadn’t had enough close contact with people to notice such details. He never held hands with anyone, not even his family, so it was his first time actually realizing these differences. He had of course seen Aspen’s hands often enough now, but he never noticed that they were considerably smaller than his.
Unexpectedly, Aspen’s hand had no calluses. It was soft and flexible in his fingers.
Aspen watched River touch his hand with a lump in his throat. The taller man was squishing it like a toy, looking clearly confused at how far Aspen’s fingers could bend at ease and kept on rubbing over his skin.
It was the curiosity of someone who had never touched another’s hand before and Aspen had no issues with it, but…
He felt a bit conflicted.
So warm.
Aspen played along with River’s almost childish behavior, just indulging in the gentle warmth.
“…Would you tell me what’s up with you and that Deer guy?”
The movements paused, then resumed. River gave a long hum filled with resignation, even though his following words were very detached and monotone.
“He works in a casino. My brother dragged me there and sold me off to one of his friends and Deer. I guess Deer took an interest in me because I don’t react the way he expects. As for the whole drug thing, my brother made a deal with him or something – they got me addicted to some sort of drug to keep me under control.”
“So you’re… addicted right now?”
“The dream offsets it. I also don’t have any side-effects as long as I take it regularly, it seems. It’s just a leash my brother put on me.”
Aspen’s finger hooked around his own. “You’re just a corpse in reality.”
“I am.”
A corpse that doesn’t resist, that gets strung along like a puppet. Obedient and silent, slowly rotting away, unable to have its own opinion.
Aspen put his head on River’s shoulder. “Well, at least you’re not alone. In theory, I’m dead too.”
“Two dead people, sitting locked up on a hidden floor in an old asylum while their cellmate has been sedated.”
Aspen was quiet, then he snorted and started chuckling lightly at how absurd that sounded.
In their misfortunes they are together… but I just want to cry watching how the two are rejected by the world. Everyone around River disgusts me to no end. I didn’t tell you, but the first time I read the chapter where River is sold, I went to bed in a state of intense unease. River and Aspen so much better!
Anyway, thanks for this chapter =v=!
The two poor babies go through a lot together…
Aaaaaaaah I hope all the people around River get what’s coming to them soon/eventually 😫
I’m going to do a ritual right now to curse the poops that hurt them! 🕯☆🕯
I’m with you! 🕯🕯🕯
XD
Ready when you’re ready!
In each other’s presence, they found solace. :’))
ooh they did the hand thing 🥺