Shifter Sam Au

by Skiou

Chapter 6: Winding Down

Summary:

After an eventful trip to the second floor, things start to calm down in the apartment as another chaotic day comes to a close.

Notes:

This took a while, sorry y’all 🥲
I do not have an excuse, I didn’t get hit by a car or anything, I just got lazy 🤷‍♀️
But we’re back! This is mostly a downtime chapter, so not a lot of action this time around but we do get to see the characters interact more!
Hope you enjoy! 💖

“Come on man!”

Dan sprinted over to the kitchen counter, crouching behind it defensively.

Sam was holding a bunch of medical supplies, stanced up like he was about to wrestle a wild animal into submission.

“Dan, please! Just let me take a look at it!”

“Hell no!” Dan Jabbed a finger at him from his hiding place. “You’ve done enough already! I don’t need any more patching up!”

“Yes you do!!” Sam tried shuffling towards the man, only for him to take off again.

Sam growled in frustration as he ran after his roommate.

Leigh and Joel were positioned on the couch. Joel was hiding behind the backrest slightly as he watched the two adults run circles around the apartment.

Leigh, however, seemed quite thrilled at the display, pumping her fist in the air and chanting.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

She looked like she was watching a WWE match instead of witnessing a grown-ass man trying to force another grown-ass man to accept medical treatment.

The two of them came to a stand-off. Sam was panting slightly as he stared his opponent down, ready to start moving again if needed.

“Dan, come on. We can’t just leave that gash alone!”

“Why the hell not!?” Dan shot back as he inched a bit to the left.

Sam copied his movement, shooting the man an irritated glare.

“Because injuries like that don’t just magically heal when you slap a bandaid on them! What I did out there wasn’t enough! I have to like, clean it and stuff! So just sit still and let me help you!” He tried to make a grab for the man, but Dan dodged out of the way, scuttling to another part of the room.

“Dude, I don’t need you poking around my chest anymore. I feel f-AAHH OW!!” Dan suddenly doubled over, clutching his chest. He bit his lip as he tried, and failed, to suppress a whimper of pain.

Sam very quickly dropped his battle stance, staring at the man with a disappointed expression.

He raised an eyebrow as Dan let out another high-pitched whine.

“Did you hurt yourself?” 

Dan glanced in his direction, his eyes darting around awkwardly.

“N-no.  It just… stings a little bit.”

Sam placed his hands on his hips as he let out a sigh.

“Yeah. That’ll happen when you’re running around with a huge gash in your chest.”

Dan let out a small huff, glaring at the floor.

He was quiet for a bit.

“So? Do you want help with that, or not?” Sam gestured a bit to the supplies in his hand.

Dan stared at him for a couple more seconds, looking absolutely miserable.

 

“Don’t stick your fingers in it!”

“I’m not going to.” 

Sam was carefully unwrapping the layers of gauze from Dan’s chest as he sat on the couch.

Joel was watching curiously over his shoulder, shying away a bit once the wound came into view. 

It looked a lot worse than it actually was. But it didn’t make it any less ghastly, especially now that the bleeding had somewhat stopped.

It was still trickling though, it might need a bit more pressure applied to it.

Sam grimaced a bit as he looked at it. Fixing this with the equipment he had was not going to be easy.

“Oh hoho! I got you good back there, didn’t I?” Leigh placed a hand on Dan’s bald head, jostling it a bit. She was perched on the back of the sofa, watching the process intently.

Dan waved her off, scoffing as he did so.

“It’s just a scratch.”

Sam looked the man in his eyes with a deadpan expression.

“Dan, that ‘scratch’ is enough to land you in a hospital.”

“Well how would you know?” Dan shot back. “Are you a doctor or something?”

“It doesn’t take a genius to know this type of stuff. Now lay down.” Sam griped the man’s shoulder, gently guiding him onto his back. Dan grunted but didn’t resist. One of his hands went up to his wound, but Sam stopped him before his fingers could even brush its surface.

“Don’t touch it.”

Dan huffed a bit, but begrudgingly forced his hands to his sides.

Sam sighed a bit, turning to the coffee table and picking up a bottle with a white label on it.

Dan sat up a bit, warily eyeing the bottle.

“Woah, what is that?”

Sam stared at him for a moment before he turned the bottle over, showing him the label.

“Sterile saline.” He stated it very bluntly.

Dan looked at it, still confused.

“What’s it for?”

Sam tore off a bit of gauze and wadded it up.

“It’s to disinfect the wound.”

“Don’t you usually use… hhh… hydrogen peroxide for that?” Joel piped up, most of his teeth had grown back by now.

Sam looked to the boy.

“Well, hydrogen peroxide does work for disinfecting stuff, but it’s not ideal. It get’s rid of the bacteria, sure, but it also kills off some of your healthier skin cells and makes the healing process take a bit longer. And we can’t really afford that.” He applied some of the solution to the gauze as he explained this.

The boy seemed quite surprised by this information.

“Oh. Is that why the hydrogen peroxide… hhh… stings when you put it on a cut?”

“Yeah, I think it is.” He started lightly rubbing the saturated gauze along the edges of the gash. Dan winced a bit as the cold liquid came in contact with his wound, but other than the mild discomfort, he was fine.

Sam worked silently for a bit. He grabbed some paper towel and started padding the wound dry.

He leaned back, scratching his head a bit as he studied the injury.

“It sucks that we can’t get you stitches right now.”

Dan looked up at him, a slightly fearful look in his eyes.

“Do I really need them?”

Sam thought for a moment, rooting through his supplies. He had some medical adhesive strips, they were usually ment as a substitute until you could get proper treatment. They were ment for small cuts though… they were no where near big enough for this job.

He sighed, pulling the strips out.

“It’s not gonna heal right if we leave it alone. I’ll use some of these instead.”

He held up one of the strips. 

Dan squinted at the thing for a few moments.

“Are you gonna tape my chest up or something?”

“Ehh… sort of.” Sam crouched down to Dan’s level. “These things are made for stuff like this. They’re not exactly ideal, but it’s not like we can get an over-the-counter suture kit.” He rolled up his sleeves and peeled the backing off of the strip, reaching for the wound on Dan’s chest.

The man flinched away from him a bit.

“Be careful!”

Sam couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“I will. God, you act like I’m about to torture you.”

Dan grumbled, but settled back into the couch.

Sam tried to continue his work. His fingers brushed the edges of the gash, and he herd Dan suck in a sharp breath through his teeth.

He quickly stoped, looking up at the man.

He looked… scared. Like he was already anticipating the pain. And well, Sam couldn’t blame him. This next part wasn’t going to be the most pleasant experience.

He let out another quiet sigh.

“Dan, I’m not going to hurt you. I just have to pull the skin together so that it heals properly.”

Dan relaxed a tiny bit, but he still looked on edge. He let out a small breath, averting his gaze.

“I’m sorry. It’s just… I’ve never had something like this happen, ya know? It’s just kinda… it’s just new territory for me.”

A small moment of silence hung in the air.

Sam lightly placed a hand on Dan’s shoulder.

“Listen, if it freaks you out so much then looking at it isn’t going to help. You can just close your eyes, I’ll try to get though this as quickly as possible.”

Dan nervously chewed at his lip. But eventually, he gave Sam a firm nod, squeezing his eyes shut.

Leigh shifted her position on the couch, crawling along the edge to perch where Dan was.

“Do you wanna hold my hand?” 

Dan peeked one eye open, looking at the clawed appendage he was being offered.

He very quickly accepted it, grasping it tightly and closing his eyes once again.

Sam looked up at the woman, bowing his head a bit to her.

With everyone prepared, Sam finally got to work.

He started to pinch together the torn skin. Dan let out a strained whine as he started touching it. But he didn’t flinch away this time.

Joel very quickly walked away, the sight being a little bit too much for the boy.

Leigh seemed completely unbothered, even a little fascinated by the process.

Sam tried to ignore the woman’s eyes on him as he started applying the adhesive strips along the wound, layering them on until he was confident that it would hold.

He finally placed the last strip on, pulling his slightly bloodied hands away.

“Okay! It’s done.”

Dan quickly stopped holding his breath, sighing loudly as all the tension in his body melted away.

He released Leigh’s hand as Sam started to gently guide him into sitting again.

Leigh looked at Sam inquisitively as he began re-wrapping Dan’s chest.

“You know an awful lot about this kinda stuff. You sure you’re not a doctor?”

Sam let out a quiet sigh, his brows furrowing a bit.

“I used to go to med school and I picked up a few things from it.” He secured the gauze with tape. “I had to drop out though. The student loans were putting me in debt.”

For as simple as the topic was, Sam couldn’t help but feel awful whenever he was reminded of his collage years.

He wasn’t necessarily a bad student, mostly just… painfully average. 

He wished that he could have done better. Maybe then he wouldn’t have washed up as bad as he did.

“Man…” Dan finally spoke up. “Is collage really that expensive?”

Sam briefly looked at him, turning to clean up his supplies.

“Have you never been?”

Dan shook his head. 

“Not really. I mean, my mom told me all the time we couldn’t afford it. But like, she’s always been a bit stingy with money.”

“You live with your mom?” There was not a single ounce of judgment in Sam’s voice as he asked the question. But even then, Dan still avoided his eyes. He looked a bit embarrassed.

“Yeah…”

There was an awkward moment of silence as Sam finished picking up the coffee table.

He stood up, putting the medical equipment in the bathroom and quickly washing his hands.

He paused for a moment as he walked back out into the main room. That small mention of Dan’s mom, it made him realize that he hadn’t spoken to his own family in a while…

He sighed, muttering to himself.

“I should text Katie and Carlos…”

“What?” Dan looked at him with a raised eyebrow, midway through putting his shirt back on.

Sam suddenly remembered that he didn’t live alone anymore.

He awkwardly shut the bathroom door behind him, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Uh- It’s nothing. Katie and Carlos are my siblings. We haven’t talked in a while and I just realized now that I should probably check to make sure they’re okay.” He gave a nervous chuckle at the end, staring at the floor.

“Why bother?” Leigh spoke up, lounging on the couch. “Don’t you have better things to do?”

Sam slowly looked up at her, a look of shock on his face.

“Are you seriously implying that checking in on my family isn’t important?”

Leigh chuckled a bit, it sounded almost scornful.

“Well it’s not like you’re close or anything. You said it yourself, you don’t talk to them a lot.”

“We are close!” Sam threw his hands in the air, clearly irritated. “They’re just busy! life took us in different directions, okay? They have work and families, and I…” paused, running a hand down his face as he sighed. “I still can’t even find a fucking job…” it hurt to admit it out loud. But there was no denying that it was the truth.

His siblings had managed to build beautiful lives for themselves. But when jumping into his own adult life, Sam just couldn’t stick the landing.

Everyone stood in silence for a few moments. Sam became painfully aware of the fact that everyone in the apartment was now staring at him.

He didn’t meet anyone’s eyes. He always hated being the centre of attention.

He hid his face in his hands.

“I’m sorry. That was really depressing. Just- forget I said anything.”

Another moment of silence followed.

Then suddenly, there was another knock on the door.

Everyone turned to look.

Dan made direct eye contact with Sam.

“you answer it.” He whispered loudly.

Sam only shot him a small glance, but he didn’t protest.

He quickly pulled his cloak off of the couch, slinging it over his shoulders as he walked over to the door.

Sam peered through the peephole.

There was a little girl outside. She had long black hair and was wearing a purple sweater with a small backpack slung over her shoulders. She looked lost, and a little bit worried. She kept glancing down the halls.

“Hello?” She called out. “Can you help me?”

Sam wasn’t nearly as hesitant this time. He quickly opened the door for the kid.

The little girl squinted up at him once he came into view. 

He only now caught sight of a slingshot hanging out of her pocket.

“Uh… hey there!” Sam greeted, giving the kid what he hoped looked like a friendly smile. “What’s your name?”

The kid rocked playfully on her heels.

“I’m Sophie. I’m almost eight. My mom went out yesterday and isn’t back yet. I need a place to hide!”

Sam’s brows knitted together in concern.

“Where did your mom go?”

“She went out to get food because we didn’t have a lot when all of the craziness started. So we were in biiiiiiig trouble.”

That… didn’t sound good.

Oh god. Please don’t tell me…

“She didn’t go outside, did she?”

“Nope!” Sophie shook her head. “My mom’s smarter than that! Besides, there was a big alert yesterday telling people not to look.”

Sam felt relief wash over him at the confirmation.

“Okay, that’s good. Did she mention were she was going?”

Sophie gave him a very exaggerated shrug.

“I don’t know. She just said she was going out to get food.”

Sam was quiet for a little bit. Everything had gotten so chaotic since the start of all this. Hell, he couldn’t even walk around in the hallways without the threat of something attacking him. Was this kid’s mom even still alive?

He looked back at the little girl.

“Is it just you and your mom? Do you have anybody else you can stay with?”

“No.” The girl kicked a bit at the floor. “Mom said to stay with a neighbour in case she took too long. But boy, that didn’t work out too well.” She giggled nervously to herself.

“What happened?” Sam was getting more and more worried as he learned about the kid’s situation.

The girl shuffled a bit on the spot.

“Well, I tried talking to the lady next door. But she had a bunch of weird faces all over her body! The faces kept saying they wanted to help me, but she told me to run and that I couldn’t trust them. It was really creepy. Some of the faces were even drooling at me. So I did what she said and ran up here!”

A lady with a bunch of faces?…

“Sooo… can you help me out? You’re ugly, like kinda monster ugly. But you don’t look very dangerous. You just seem kinda tired, I get it!”

Sam buffered in shock for a few seconds at that comment. It was a huge blow to his already fragile ego. Like seriously, was that even necessary??

“A- I-“ he tried to respond. But before he could, he heard strange gurgling noises coming from somewhere down the hall.

Both of their heads snapped to where the sound was coming from. 

Then Sam turned to the little girl. He wasted no time.

“Get inside. It’s not safe out here.” Sam whispered urgently as he ushered the girl into the apartment.

He quickly closed the door, locking it behind him.

His eye briefly went back to the peephole, trying to get a look at what was out there.

“JOEL?!” He quickly turned around at the sound of Sophie’s voice, seeing her staring in disbelief at the mutated boy.

Joel perked up a bit.

“Sophie? Is that you?”

“What happened to your face!!?” Sophie pointed a finger at him, yelling a lot louder than what was necessary.

Joel slumped a tiny bit, looking dejected.

“My sister… hhh… bit me on the nose.”

“And you grew a bunch of teeth everywhere!?”

“Yeah.”

Sam looked between the two children as they talked.

“Do you guys know each other?” He finally asked.

The kids both looked up at him.

“Uh huh!” Joel nodded his head as he replied.

“Really? How?” Sam probably should have known the answer to that question before hand. Maybe his brain was just too fried from the days events to connect the dots.

But Sophie looked up at him like the man had just asked her what two plus two was. 

“Because we go to the same school, dingus.” She replied with the snarkiest tone she could muster.

Sam was once again unable to form a proper response, only managing a small:

“Oh.”

Sophie gave him a smug look, then she grabbed Joel’s hand and started dragging him over to the couch.

“So what happened?” She asked excitedly. “What are you doing with this weird looking old guy?” 

Sam watched as the two kids hopped onto the sofa and they began catching up on the past two days.

He noticed that Dan had sat down at the table. He had apparently started up his stream again and was now filling in his chat on what had happened, giving an epic and over-exaggerated retelling of their fight with the beast earlier.

Sam stood awkwardly in the middle of the room for a solid minute, not quite knowing what to do with himself.

“Things are getting pretty lively in here, huh?” He just about jumped out of his skin, whirling around to see Leigh, grinning at him as always.

“Don’t do that!” He hissed through his teeth. 

But the woman only chuckled at his reaction, her pupils widening.

“What? I’m not doing anything.”

 Sam huffed turning away from her and walking to the kitchen. He wasn’t sure why he was going for the kitchen specifically, he was mostly just trying to get away from crazy lady.

However, much to his dismay, Leigh decided to follow him.

“Aw, come on! Don’t be like that.” She put her hands up in a casual shrug. “I just wanna chat a bit!”

“Chat about what?” Sam shot back, as he walked behind the counter. “I barely even know you!”

“well that’s why we should talk. Can you really blame me for wanting to get to know my new roommate?” Leigh crawled on top of the counter, crouching on it like a gargoyle.

Sam went around opening and closing random cabinets, trying to busy himself with going over their food stock. But really, he was just trying to tune her out with the task.

Leigh’s eyes followed him the entire time as she shifted into a cross legged position, resting her head on one of her hands.

“I don’t get why you’re acting so cold.” She began. “I mean, like you said, we only just met each other. What have I ever done to make you so mad at me, Sam?” Leigh tried to sound hurt. But her smile made it clear, she was just fucking with Sam right now. And that, mixed with just the sheer audacity of the question, made his blood boil.

“Oh, I don’t know!” Sam whirled around as he slammed the cabinet door closed. “Maybe it’s the fact that you tried to murder us for absolutely no reason and then proceeded to do nothing but antagonize me for the entire hour that I’ve known you!!”

Leigh just laughed at him, and it only succeeded in irritating him further as the woman waved a hand dismissively.

“That’s all in the past! Why don’t we start over?” She crawled across the counter, getting unnervingly close to his face. “Besides, we might have a lot more in common than you think…” She pointed a finger at his deformed eye, the clawed tip getting way too close to poking it.

Sam suddenly grabbed her wrist, moving it away as he stared up at her with a scathing glare.

“Don’t touch me.” His grip on her tightened slightly, and even Leigh seemed a bit  surprised by the man’s reaction.

“Just because I let you tag along with us does not mean I want you threatening me in my own house.” Sam leaned towards the still smiling woman. “If I ever feel like you are going to hurt me or anyone else here, I will kick you out.” He tossed Leigh’s hand away, letting her go.

“Do not make me regret letting you stay.”

Leigh was silent for a little bit, rubbing her wrist. Then she started laughing again, looking up at Sam with those uncanny, cat-like eyes. 

“I like you!” She looked delighted.

Sam didn’t have the energy to put up with her any further. He just turned away from her, and she thankfully didn’t pursue him.

The earlier confrontation seemed to get everyone else’s attention.

Dan looked at him with a quirked eyebrow, his phone pointed at him.

“What was that all about?” He asked.

Sam waved him off.

“Nothing. It’s fine.”

He looked over to the hole in the wall. Maybe he should check in on Sybil, that would give him something to do.

He walked over and knocked above the opening.

Sybil came right away.

“Hey. What’s up?”

Sam gave her a tired smile, trying to come off as less frazzled than he actually was.

“Well, you know, the usual.”

“Who’s that?” Dan leaned over Sam’s shoulder, peeking at the eye.

Oh, right. He forgot to introduce her to everyone else.

“Uh- this is Sybil.” Sam explained, motioning a hand towards her. “She’s a neighbour.”

“Hi Ms. Sybil!” Joel called excitedly from the couch.

Sybil’s eye darted around the apartment, taking in all the new comers.

“Uh… hi.” She looked to Sam. “Man, your place has gotten populated, hasn’t it?”

Sam gave a small, nervous chuckle.

“Yeah… I guess it has.”

“So I take it you’ve been busy since we last talked?” Sam heard a shifting sound on the other side of the wall, like she easing herself into sitting.

Sam scratched the back of his head a bit.

“Well, I guess you could say that…”

Sam went on to fill Sybil in on all of the stuff she missed. The opening of the stairwell, Dan’s arrival, their descent to the second floor and their encounter with Leigh.

Sybil looked quite surprised by the end of it.

“Damn… I thought I heard something down there.” She looked over to Leigh, a hint of concern in her eye.

“And you just… let her stay here? After she tried to kill you??”

Leigh chuckled to herself unnervingly.

Sam shot the woman a small glance, rubbing the bridge of his nose and sighing.

“Listen, I have second guessed myself on this decision so much and I still am. Trust me, I wasn’t just being an idiot when I made that call… hopefully.”

Sybil squinted her eye at him.

“Then why did you invite her in?”

Sam actually had to think on that for a second.

Why did I do that?

But a part of Sam already knew the answer.

It was because she was like him. Or at least similar. Maybe he could learn something from her. Maybe he could learn how to control this strange condition he had, or at least hide it a bit better.

He just wanted to be able to do something about it. It had only been two days and it already felt like it was just getting worse and worse with each strange episode. He didn’t want to just wait around to see how bad it could get. He didn’t want to see how far his form could twist and warp. He didn’t want to see himself get turned into something awful. 

He just- he couldn’t do it…

But obviously, he couldn’t just tell Sybil all of that.

So instead, he did what he always did when faced with this topic: 

He lied.

“I uhhhh… I’m not even sure myself. I mean, she can turn into a big monster? That could probably be useful.” He couldn’t bring himself to look Sybil in the eye. Sybil herself didn’t seem to convinced, only letting out a hum in response while raising an eyebrow at the man.

A tense moment of silence hung in the air. 

But then Sam remembered something.

“Uh… there was a guy on the second floor too. Right when we entered. He said he was part of a group of astronomers studying the thing going on outside?”

He could hear Sybil moving around a bit on the other side, getting closer to the wall.

“Go on…”

Sam shifted a bit, adjusting his position as he nervously scratched at his scalp.

“He uhh… he mentioned that they were planning on performing some kind of a ritual. I said I’d try to help him with some of the offerings. He talked to me about a weird dream that he had. Something about a glowing liquid spilling out of a tube. He said that he felt like he had to collect it and take it with him somehow.”

Sam was now sitting cross legged, resting his head on his knuckles as he stared at the floor in thought.

“I feel like it’s important somehow? I don’t know. It’s probably a crazy idea. I’m not sure if I should even go through with this.”

Sybil was silent on the other end. Sam was almost certain that she was judging him right now.

“I-it’s insane. You don’t have to tell me that…”

“What if it’s… light?”

Sam’s eyes flickered back up to the hole, blinking a bit in confusion.

“What?”

Sybil’s eye peered back at him. Something in her pupils seemed to flicker almost like starlight.

“The liquid, from the man’s dream. What if it’s actually light? Light coming out of a telescope.”

Sam sat up a bit, even the residents of his apartment seemed intrigued by the conversation.

“How do you know?” He asked.

Sybil seemed to think for a moment, her eye squinting a bit.

“I… I don’t know… I just do.”

There was another awkward stretch of silence as everyone sat with the revelation they had just been given.

“I’m… gonna go now.” Sybil hesitantly spoke up. “I should probably make dinner or something.”

Sam finally pulled his eyes away from the floor, glancing up at the woman’s eye.

“Uh- alright…”

He heard shuffling as Sybil sat up again.

“Ah-wait!” Sam called out to her, peeking his own eye through the hole. This was actually the first time he had tried to look at her. Her apartment was really dark for some reason, so he couldn’t make out much. But he got a glimpse of a curly main of hair and what looked to be a mobility cane at her side. 

The woman stopped and looked back at the hole in the wall.

“yeah? What is it?”

Sam looked over to where Sophie was. She was leaning on the back of the couch, resting her head in her arms as she watched the adults talk.

“Do you think you can keep an eye out for Sophie’s mom?” He asked. “She said she was looking for food somewhere in the building.”

“Uh sure.” Sybil replied. “What’s her mom’s name?” 

Sam thought for a moment, realizing that he had forgotten to ask the girl that question.

“Her name’s Harriet!” Sophie called from the couch.

Sam glanced at her again, smiling a bit.

“Yeah, her mom’s name is Harriet.”

Sybil nodded.

“Alright. I’ll be keeping an eye out for any Harriets.” She gave him a small wave. “Talk to you later.”

“Alright, bye.” Sam leaned away from the wall, standing back up again.

It was getting close to 2-o-clock. He should probably start thinking about getting dinner on the table as well. 

They weren’t doing as poorly with food anymore but it would probably be a good idea to scrounge for some more just in case, especially with their newest arrival.

Sam sighed as he scratched the back of his head, looking at the door. Maybe they could go down to floor two or something? It seemed empty for the most part and he still had yet to clear out this floor.

Besides, Jeanne mentioned another way to get to floor one. That would definitely be useful, and not just for retrieving the woman’s laundry.

“Okay.” Sam went and grabbed his bag again. “I’m gonna try and pay this Lyle guy a visit, maybe he’ll be willing to give us some food?”

That is, if he doesn’t attack us first. His mind chimed in unhelpfully.

“OOO! OOO! I wanna come! Can I come?!” Sophie quickly jumped off of the sofa, running up to Sam and bouncing around.

He reeled back slightly from the girl’s sudden burst of energy.

“Uhhh…” his eyes began to dart around awkwardly. Common sense told him that it was a bad idea to bring a kid along into what could very well end up being a fight with another monster.

But then he looked over to Leigh, who was still staring at him and chucking to herself ominously. Then he looked over to Dan, who was still distracted with his stream and was now rating his video game collection.

Yeah, those two didn’t seem like the best choices to leave in charge of the kids.

Sam let out an exasperated sigh.

“Fine, you can come.” He turned his gaze over to Joel, who was currently arguing with Dan over his low ranking of Super Jumplad. “Hey Joel, why don’t you come too? We can make it a field trip.”

The boy perked up at his suggestion, quickly forgetting his altercation with the streamer.

“Okay!” He ran over to the two of them as they made their way to the door, Sophie was already hastily tying her shoes.

Dan watched as he went, jabbing an accusatory finger in the boy’s direction.

“That wasn’t serious critique! You don’t care about Super Jumplad 2’s artistic vision!-”

Joel ignored him, already slipping on his sneakers. It seemed that in that moment, Dan had realized that he was arguing with a child, a child that clearly wasn’t as serious about the argument as he was. The man slapped himself in the face, groaning loudly out of humiliation.

Sam tried not to chuckle too much at the exchange.

He turned back to the other residents.

“Alright, we’re heading out. You two behave and try not to trash my apartment while I’m gone.”

“You’re not taking me with you?…”

It took everything in Sam not to wince at the accusation.

He slowly turned to look at Leigh, barely containing his annoyed glare.

Despite the smile still plastered on her face, Leigh looked offended. Offended by the fact that this man that she had been goading on didn’t want her to tag along with him.

Her eyes narrowed at him, almost in a challenging way.

“I thought that was the deal. I get to crash at your place, and you get to drag me into more fights. Are you chickening out already?”

Sam sighed through his nose, tuning to face the woman head on as he put his hands on his hips.

“Leigh, I need someone to keep an eye on Dan to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. And you’re the one who did that to him. So I’d appreciate it if you took a little bit of accountability and helped out.”

Okay, that wasn’t really true. He just didn’t want to deal with the woman’s thinly veiled threats and unstable demeanour. And most of all, he didn’t exactly trust himself not to get tired and suddenly snap at the woman. 

He didn’t want to expose the kids to that environment, and he didn’t want to give that grinning lunatic the pleasure of seeing him get angry.

Leigh looked at him, then she briefly glanced over at Dan.

“Oh, so you’re making me baby-sit the man child while you ditch me to have all the fun? Real classy!”

“Wh- Hey!” Dan suddenly whipped his head around, clearly offended at being called a ‘man child’.

Sam took that as his cue to quickly leave, slipping out into the hallway with the kids and closing the door on the ensuing argument.

He let out a huge sigh of relief, his shoulders sagging as he did so. His hands were still on the doorknob when he felt a light tug on his pant-leg. He glanced down to see Sophie, looking up at him with an innocent expression.

“Sam, what was that Leigh, lady talking about?”

He huffed a bit, pulling his hood up and starting to make his way down the hall.

“Nothing. It’s fine, just… adult stuff…”

 The kids followed close behind him. Sophie squinted at the man with a curious look.

“What kind of adult stuff?” The girl suddenly let out a loud and dramatic gasp.

“Is she your ex-girlfriend?!”

“NO!” Sam very quickly shut down the idea. But even despite that, the little girl persisted.

“Are you suuuuure she’s not your ex?”

“I’ve never met that woman in my life! Yes, I’m sure!”

“Then why is she alway staring at you and smiling?” The little girl grinned mischievously. “Maybe she likes you!” 

Sophie giggled as she watched Sam’s eyes popped open in what she perceived as embarrassment. When in actuality, the look on his face was one of stunned and confused horror.

Just the implication that the woman might be pinning for him like that was enough to send shivers of dread down his spine.

Yeah. No. No thank you. Absolutely not.

“Sophie-“ He inhaled sharply, trying to keep the sharp tone out of his voice.

“Listen,” he finally began. “I don’t know why Leigh is obsessed with me, but she is and I don’t like it.” 

Because it scares me.

Because I feel like she wants to hurt me.

Because I feel like she knows something about me.

I feel like she knows what I am.

She knows what I am and she’s going to tell everyone-

Sam quickly shook his head, snapping himself out of it.

He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he pushed down the unspoken thoughts.

“Can we just drop this?” He finally asked, picking up his speed a bit. “Let’s just focus on getting to the stairwell. I wanna get out of this hallway as fast as possible.”

Joel looked at Sophie, the top corners of his mouth scrunching up in confusion.

The girl only gave him a small shrug as they both jogged to catch up to the man’s long strides.

 

Before they knew it, the three of them were standing outside of apartment 21.

Sam tried the door again, finding it still locked.

He rooted around his pockets, fishing out the spare key they had found.

He inserted it into the lock and twisted, but hesitated before opening it.

Sam turned to the two kids behind him with a wary glance.

“Okay.” He whispered. “We still don’t know if this Lyle guy is safe or not. You two hang back, I’ll go in first.” He pulled his gun out of the bag, making sure it was still loaded.

The kids nodded in agreement.

“And if anything happens…” Sophie piped up, pulling her sling shot out of her pocket, “I’ll shoot em!”  a wicked grin spread across her face.

Sam looked at the girl for a moment, his eyes briefly flicking over to the door.

“Uhhh… sure. Just- be careful.” 

He turned his attention back to the door.

Sam took a deep breath and opened it.

The door swung open to a small hall-like entryway. The first thing he noticed as he walked through it was how dark the place was. It seemed like there were a lot of people with their lights off nowadays.

But the darkness of the apartment was the only thing he could process in that split second.

Sam suddenly heard a shrill scream from behind him, followed by an odd clicking sound. He spun around and pointed his gun at the nearest thing, a large cloaked figure hefting something above it’s head.

The thing was screaming. Sam was screaming. The kids were starting to scream too.

Then suddenly, the thing skidded to a stop, immediately dropping what Sam could now process was a chair as it frantically pulled it’s cloak closed.

It skittered back from him a bit, stuttering and practically tripping over itself.

“S-SAM?!?!?!”

It spoke to him, this thing could speak. Okay that was a good sign.

Sam had to take a moment to process’s two things. One was the fact that he was still holding this person at gun point. And two was that the person in question had just called him by his name despite him not recognizing the guy.

He lowered his gun a bit once he somewhat collected himself, looking at the cloaked figure with a bewildered expression.

“yyyyeeeess??????”

God this was awkward. God this was so fucking awkward. 

The person let out a nervous laugh, clumsily kneeling down to pick up the fallen piece of furniture.

“I am s-so sorry! I- I almost hit you with a chair! I thought you were g-going to kill me or something!” The person tittered a bit more, placing the chair down at the dining table. Sam swore that he could hear a strange whirring sound emanating from the person as they spoke.

The kids had hesitantly made their way into the apartment, eyeing the strange man warily. 

Sam nervously glanced around the apartment, needing to take a bit to calculate on what else to say.

“Uhhh… I take it you’re Lyle?”

The man, Lyle, looked over at him. He had a strange look in his eyes, something hopeful.

“Uhhh- Y-yeah! T-that’s me!” He started fidgeting with his hands, avoiding Sam’s eyes. “Do you… r-r-remember me? We were uh, t-together- We worked together. A-at the convenience store.”

Sam squinted at the man for a few seconds, trying to put a name to his face. He couldn’t really recall most of his time working in customer service, he was mostly just on survival autopilot the whole time. But now that he thought about it, his face did look a little bit familiar…

His eyes widened in recognition.

“Oooooh! You were that camera guy, right?”

Lyle’s face broke into a huge grin, practically beaming with joy.

“Y-YEAH! Yeah! T-that was me! I-I’m glad you remembered.”

Sam smiled a bit, huffing out a small laugh.

“Well uhhh… how have you been doing?”

Lyles’s eyes flicked back up to him before darting away.

“Weeelll you know, I’ve been… keeping busy.” He chuckled a bit at the end, clearly trying to act casual.

Then Lyle looked over to Sam again, except this time he didn’t look away. The man squinted at him, his brow screwing up in concern. 

Sam tensed up, feeling that familiar surge of fear run up his spine and the itching sensation to pull his hood over his eyes.

“Sam…” Lyle took a hesitant step towards him, reaching a hand out. “Are you f-feeling alright? Y-you’ve got something uhhhh…” his hand cautiously gestured up to his eyes.

But Sam firmly cut the man off before he could continue.

“YES! I know my face looks weird!” He blurted it out without even thinking, almost like it was a reflex. He didn’t even process how harsh his voice sounded at that moment.

But his reaction caused Lyle to flinch back, looking like a kicked puppy.

Sam’s eyes widened a bit as the weight of his outburst finally dawned on him.

Lyle tore his gaze away from Sam, staring at the floor in shame as he fiddled with the edges of his cloak.

“I-I-I I’m sorry. I- I didn’t m-mean to- I’m sorry…”

“No- no. Don’t apologize.” Sam’s eyes stayed firmly on the floor as he hesitantly pulled his hood down, running a hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have yelled. I’m sorry. It’s just…” a ragged sigh made its way out of his throat, and he buried his strange looking face in his hands.

“The last few days have just been… a lot.”

Lyle stared at him for a moment, almost in disbelief. But then he let out a small, quiet chuckle.

“Y-yeah… yeah I get that. It’s been rough for me too.” He glanced around at a few of the doors, a nervous look on his face. “P-pretty wild stuff we got g-going on out there, huh?”

Sam let out a nervous huff.

“Yeah… tell me about it.” A hand started absentmindedly rubbing at his side, a new habit that he seemed to be developing.

He looked back up at the man. But now that he was properly seeing him, he… noticed a few things. The odd, inhuman silhouette under the cloak, the sliver of thin metal rods poking out from under the fabric. Sam even swore that for a split second, he caught sight of numerous eyes scattered across his body. 

But all of the oddities were quickly covered up as Lyle hastily pulled his cloak around himself. A familiar instinct that Sam knew all too well.

He blinked a few times at Lyle, who was now trying desperately not to meet his eye.

“Lyle, did you…” he hesitated for a moment, really hoping that this didn’t come off as rude. “Did you look outside?”

Lyle’s eyes practically bugged out of his skull and he quickly pulled the covering tighter around his form.

“A-pfft-well-“ he stuttered, looking everywhere around the room except for where Sam was currently standing. But eventually, it seemed to become clear to the man that there was no chance of hiding it.

He let out a resigned sigh, rubbing at the edge of his cloak with a sour expression

“I… did.” His hands suddenly pulled the edges of his cloak together. “Y-you can’t look though!” He shied away from Sam a bit, seeming almost embarrassed. “I-I-I don’t know what it did to me, b-but it’s bad. I can’t- I can’t be seen like this. I’m sorry.”

Sam stared at him for a moment, slight concern beginning to crease his brow.

“Uhh… okay? I wasn’t going to look. You don’t have to worry.” He gave a nervous chuckle at the end, hoping to calm the man’s nerves a bit.

It seemed to work as Lyle tittered a bit under his breath.

There was a short pause in the conversation before Lyle finally seemed to take notice of Sam’s small companions.

“Uh- sorry to pry again, but what’s up with the kids?” He pointed a hesitant finger to said kids.

Sam turned around to see the children standing right behind him, awkwardly watching as the two adults conversed.

Joel was warily staring at Lyle, holding Fuzzy tightly. And Sophie was just kicking at the floor a bit, looking a little bored.

“Oh- uhh…” Sam rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s a… bit of a long story. They’re staying with me for now. I thought I’d let them tag along with me just to get them out of the apartment.” He looked back over to Lyle. “We came to check in on you, and… I’m sorry, this might be asking a lot. But, I was wondering if you’d be willing to lend us some food? I was thinking of throwing something together for dinner.”

Lyle perked up at the man’s request.

“Uh- Sure! Sure of course! T-take as much as you want! I can always look for more!” He clumsily skittered over to his fridge and opened it up, sorting through all of the food he had.

Sam walked over as well, leaning to look past Lyle’s large form.

He didn’t seem to have a lot in terms of food… some of the stuff in his fridge was even rotten.

Sam looked back to Lyle, putting a hand up.

“I-I really don’t need much. I already have plenty of food. I’m just being careful."

Lyle glanced over at him, his face seeming to flush a bit.

“o-Oh, r-right. Sorry.”

He awkwardly went and tossed some of the rotting food into the trash.

Sam decided to just take some of his leftovers, he could probably make something with them.

He took the containers and shoved them into his bag.

“I-Is there anything else you need?” Lyle piped up.

Sam zipped up his bag again, slinging it over his shoulder.

“Uh yeah, actually. Jeanne said that you had a way down to floor one? Do you think we could check it out?”

Lyle’s eyes widened a bit, glancing at one of the doors as his nervous fidgeting grew more frantic.

“I-I-I really don’t t-think that’s a good idea! S-something’s kinda… in there r-right now. I-I think it c-came up from floor one? I-it almost s-spat a glob of acid at my face. I-I don’t know w-what to do about it, so I just k-kinda… left it there.”

Sam looked over to the door, and as if on cue, something rammed into it on the other side. He jumped a little bit at the sudden sound.

“Okaaay. Noted.”

Sophie curiously looked at the door as well, a glint of something mischievous in her eyes.

She pulled her slingshot out of her pocket, tugging on Sam’s cloak excitedly.

“Let’s go fight it!”

Joel’s head immediately snapped to her. If he still had a face to emote with, it would have been twisted in horror.

Sam was also very quick to shut the small girl down, much to the boy’s relief.

“No- Sophie, I think we’ve had enough excitement for the day.”

The girl looked up at him, wanting to rebuddle. But Sam placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning down to her eye level.

“Listen. I know you want to have fun, but this kind of stuff is dangerous. I don’t want you or Joel getting hurt, alright?”

Sophie stared at him for a bit, her face scrunching up in a deep frown. But she eventually let out a small huff, kicking at the floor once again in disappointment.

“fine…”

Sam let out a small sigh, standing back up again.

“Thank you.”

He felt yet another tug on his pant leg. He glanced down again, this time to find Joel looking up at him.

“Can we… hhh… go home now?”

Sam huffed a bit, a small smile tugging at his lips as he gave the boy a small pat on the head.

“Yeah. I think we’re just about wrapped up here.”

He turned back to Lyle, the man in question was fiddling with his finger tips while he waited to be acknowledged.

“Thanks for the food, Lyle. I think we’re gonna head out now.” He casted a wary glance at the bathroom door, as well as what looked to be a large fleshy growth on one of the other four doors. “Do you… think you’ll be alright on your own?”

Lyle blinked at him before averting his gaze once again.

“Yeah… I’ll b-be fine. I think I’m gonna…” his gaze drifted to the floor, he seemed to be fidgeting with something under his cloak. “I t-think I’m gonna try and… deal with some of my… visitors on my own. T-thank’s for swinging by! A-and feel free to come back whenever you like! O-or not- t-that’s fine too.”

Sam gave him a small smile.

“Actually, I think I’ll be coming back tomorrow with a few others. I wanna check out the first floor to see if we can find anything useful.”

He started making his way to the front door, the kids following closely behind.

“Stay safe, Lyle!” 

“Y-yeah! You too!”

And with that final farewell, the three of them walked out the door and Sam made sure to lock it behind him.

He slipped the spare key back into his pocket, sighing a bit as they started walking down the hall.

“I think that went well.” He said, mostly just talking to himself.

There was a small moment of silence.

Then Sophie spoke up.

“That Lyle guy was really weird.”

“Sophie!” Joel hissed. “You can’t just say that!”

“What?” The girl snapped back. “He is a weirdo! Did you see the way he was always looking at Sam?”

The two kids continued arguing in the back as they all made their way back home. Sam just silently listened to them, not quite having the energy to stop the fight. He just opted to let them sort it out themselves.

This parenting thing was gonna be a lot harder than he thought.

 

They made it back with relative ease. There was a short moment where Sam had to quiet the kids down after catching sight of a few monsters outside the stairwell doors. But other than that, they were okay.

Sam braced himself as he opened the door to apartment 33, fully expecting things to have been thrown around during Dan and Leigh’s argument.

But much to his surprise, things were okay.

The place was just as he had left it. A little bit messy but that was just how it always was. And Dan and Leigh themselves were… sitting on the couch together??

It was a far cry from when they had left them, and Sam was fully anticipating it to have escalated while they were gone.

Sam closed the door behind them as the kids started taking off their shoes. The click of the lock finally alerted his roommates to their return.

Dan glanced away from the tv and smiled at them.

“Hey! Welcome back!”

Sam loaded the leftovers into the fridge, eyeing the two of them warily.

“I uhhh, take it you’ve sorted yourselves out?” He asked.

“Yeah, we’re cool now.” He pointed to the tv screen. “We’re just playing some Mad Wheels.”

Sam walked over to them, catching sight of the tv. Sure enough, Mad Wheels 97 was playing on the screen. Leigh was absolutely enraptured by the game, but she seemed to mostly just be attacking the other racers. She was almost dead last but seemed to be having fun regardless.

Sam actually found himself chuckling a bit. At least they were getting along?

He went back into the kitchen, deciding to get started on dinner.

While looking through their food supplies, the kids complained about being bored. He set them up with some paper and crayons and got to work.

He decided to just throw together some of the left overs he had gotten from Lyle. His cooking skills were pretty mediocre and it was the best he could do at the moment.

Things were somewhat quiet in the apartment. Save for the game in the background and the occasional bit of chatter from the kids as they doodled away.

At some point while waiting for the food to heat up, he decided to put up a few of the drawings he had picked up from Joel’s apartment. It finally gave him an excuse to pull out the old fridge magnets he used to let his nieces and nephews play around with when they were kids. They were covered in dust and their once bright colors were now faded, but it still brought back some old memories.

Another thing that he had noticed was that he didn’t feel nearly as weird as he did before. The odd sensation was still ever present, largely centered around his wounds, but it was noticeably dulled.

Was he getting better? Or was it just easier to ignore now that things had calmed down?

He didn’t want to think about it too much. He tried to focus on the task at hand.

Just as he was about to continue preparing dinner, however, he felt something cold and wet brush against his leg.

It took everything in him not to jump at the sensation, and even then he couldn’t suppress the shiver that passed through him. Thankfully, none of his roommates seemed to notice, too engrossed in their own activities.

Good. He didn’t need anyone thinking he was crazy on top of everything else clearly wrong with him.

He sighed as he got back to work again.

 

“Mr. Sam!” He turned to Joel as he felt the boy tug on his cloak, holding a piece of paper in hand.

“I drew- Hhhh… I drew a picture for you!” He held up his paper, proudly presenting it to the man.

Sam’s eyes widened a bit as he took in the drawing.

On the page was a messily drawn image of him, Joel and Sophie all holding hands and smiling. It looked a little bit warped, but that was to be expected since the boy couldn’t see too well. But even despite that, Sam could tell that the boy had put a lot of effort into it. He had even gone through the trouble of including Sam’s shitty cloak as well.

Sam gently took the paper from the boy, just staring at it for a little bit.

Joel tilted his head at him.

“Mr. Sam? Are you… hhh… alright?”

Sam blinked, suddenly realizing that there were tears running down his cheeks.

He quickly wiped his face with his sleeve.

“Yup… I’m fine!” He let out a wet sniffle as he pulled himself together. “It’s great, Joel! Thank you! I’ll put this up on the fridge.”

“Can you put mine up too?” Sophie piped up, running up to him with her own piece of paper.

“I drew me and my mom fighting monsters!”

Sam took Sophie's page as well, seeing that it was, in fact, an image of the girl next to a woman in a long blue robe. They were facing back to back and were surrounded by a bunch of black blobs with red eyes and sharp teeth. However, despite their seemingly grave predicament, the two of them were smiling as they shot at them with guns.

A little bit dark for a kid's drawing, but Sophie seemed proud of it so he wasn’t gonna judge. 

“Yeah, sure. Of course.” He ruffled the girl’s hair a bit before walking over to the fridge and sticking the two drawings up with the magnets.

Sam took a step back, taking in the sight of his fridge adorned with pages upon pages of colorful children’s drawings. He didn’t ever think his life would come to this. He never really thought about having kids…

It was all so surreal to him, and he felt like something was gently squeezing his heart. He fought down the strong urge to get emotional again, especially as he felt something actually starting to squirm around in his chest.

Oh god. Don’t tell me that triggers it too-

The beeping of the microwave snapped him out of his thoughts.

He pulled the last plate of leftovers out of the microwave and set the plates on the table.

“Uh, Dinner’s ready!” He called out to the other residents, and everyone stopped what they were doing to gather around the table.

 

Dinner was quiet for the first few minutes as everyone ate their food.

The food wasn’t as bad, sure it was a little bit undercooked in some areas but Sam was too tired to care.

He glanced up to everyone else. Dan seemed to be occupied with his phone, probably looking at his stream. Joel seemed to be trying to navigate eating with his odd mouth without inhaling the whole meal. Sophie was picking all of the bits she didn’t like out of her food and plopping them into a pile on the table. Leigh was just ominously stabbing her dish, still smiling to herself as always.

Sam looked between each of his new roommates before hesitantly speaking up.

“So… how’s everyone’s day been?”

Leigh’s head snapped up to him as she stabbed her chicken.

“Boring. Take me with you next time.”

Sam just cautiously raised an eyebrow at her.

“Okay… I will.”

“Man, my stream’s been doing great!” Dan piped up. “I haven’t a viewer count this high in ages!”

Sam gave the man a small nod, turning to the kids next.

“What about you guys? Did you have a good day?”

Joel nodded, shoving a bite of food into his gapping maw.

“Today’s been really fun!”

“Yeah, I had a good day today too.” Sophie responded. “ A little boring though. I hope my mom comes back soon.” She looked over to Sam. “Do you think we can look for her tomorrow?”

“y-Yeah! Of course! We can look for her tomorrow. We’ll keep an eye out for her when we go down to the first floor.” To say Sam was worried about the girl’s mother was an understatement. He really hoped that she wasn’t just dead. He didn’t know what he’d do with two orphaned children in his care.

The rest of the meal passed uneventfully, a few conversations were sparked up but they didn’t really go past the level of small talk.

Everyone finished up their meals. Dan walked away and flopped onto the couch, not really bothering to pick up his plate at all. Leigh just stalked off to some random corner of the apartment. The kids both did their part and put their plates in the sink. Joel even offered to help Sam with the dishes but he wasn’t really tall enough to reach without a stepstool and Sam didn’t have one in the house. He should probably try and get his hands on one.

Sam found himself washing the dishes with his hood up. He didn’t really know why, it just felt comfortable.

The Super JumpLad theme was playing in the background, with the two kids currently occupied with the game.

It seemed that Dan was rewatching the streams he had recorded throughout the day. Sam would occasionally catch the occasional bit of banter that was shared between them through the recording, and he could hear Dan chuckling to himself occasionally.

Sam paid him no mind, just taking a moment to savor how calm things were at the moment.

But unbeknownst to him, Dan began to catch sight of some… odd patterns in the recording.

 

“Uh… Hey Sam?” Dan called over his shoulder.

Sam glanced over to the man, finishing up the final plate.

“Hm?”

“I uh… listen, I know this is coming outta nowhere.” Dan chuckled, a hint of nervousness leaking through his casual demeanor. “But like, just to be safe, are you sure you didn’t look outside at all?”

Sam’s scrubbing slowly came to a stop as he finally processed the man’s question.

He turned to his roommate on the couch and everyone in the apartment seemed to stop what they were doing at that moment.

Sam’s eyes darted around for a moment.

“Why are you asking?…”

Dan gave him a stiff smile as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“It’s uh… it’s probably nothing. I just… noticed a few weird things in the stream? I’m sorry- I’m not trying to judge you or anything but like…” his gaze drifted back down to his phone. When he looked back up, his smile had dropped into a nervous look of concern. 

“Sam… are you doing alright?”

Sam was quiet for a moment as he slowly placed the dish into the drying rack. He tried his best to keep his composure on the outside. But inside, he was panicking.

How obvious was it?

Did he see the arm?

Did he catch a glimpse of my neck?

Did an eye pop up somewhere and I just didn’t notice?

Does he know? Can I even lie to him?

Sam shook his head, pulling himself out of the spiral.

What should he even say?

“Dan-“ he stopped for a brief moment, letting out a sigh through his nose. 

Sam finally turned to face Dan, his arms outstretched and motioning to his whole body.

“Look at me.” He pulled his hood down. “I’m normal. No extra eyes, no arms sticking out of random places.” He lifted up his sweater to show off his sides, waving to his unmutated form. “My face is the only weird thing I’ve got going on. I’m… fine.”

It was fake. His excuse was so fucking fake and it only made him feel more awful. He didn’t even know what he was doing anymore. Lying was way harder than telling the truth. So why did he even bother?

A heavy knocking caused everyone’s heads to snap to the door. Then all of those heads snapped over to Sam and he let out an exasperated sigh as he tugged his hood back up.

“I’ll get it.”

He trudged over to the door, peeking through the eyehole. Then he froze as he saw what was beyond it.

Standing right outside the door was a large towering figure cloaked in shadow.

Sam just blinked a bit, his eye still pressed to the peephole.

“Hello?????” He called out, hoping the figure could hear him through the door.

He saw the figure shift a little bit before responding.

“Hi. Open up, I need a place to crash.”

Sam leaned away from the door for a second, weighing his options. He glanced over to the kitchen.

Maybe if I have a weapon on me?

He jogged over to one of the drawers, opening it up and grabbing a knife from it.

Sam creeped back over to the door, knife in hand. He peeked through the eyehole again, confirming that the figure was still there.

“Okay.” He spoke up again. “I’m opening the door. Don’t attack me, please.”

He twisted the knob and very slowly cracked the door open.

Standing in the hall was a large and imposing woman, a hockey mask obscuring her features and clever clutched in one of her hands.

She was tall, easily towering over Sam.

The woman looked down at him for a second, and her eyes briefly rotated under her mask, swapping out for a new pair.

Okay. Not a normal human. Got it.

“Hello. I’m Hellen.” The woman spoke up again. “Mind if I stay here? I got nowhere else to go.” Her tone was completely deadpan and her face was impossible to read under the mask, only making Sam more uneasy.

He shifted a little bit behind the door, still not opening it all the way.

“Uhhh… mind telling me what the mask is for??” He asked, his voice wavering a bit from his nerves.

“People scream when they see my face, so I wear this.” She explained bluntly, pointing a thumb to her mask.

“Okay. I… get that.”

Sam’s eyes darted to the cleaver in the woman’s hand.

He stared at it for a second before warily glancing back up at the woman.

“That’s a big knife you got there.”

“Yeah.” Hellen responded. “I use it to cut stuff.”

Mm. He didn’t like what that implied.

He squinted at the woman a bit, shrinking behind the door slightly.

“Do you use it to cut… people??” 

Hellen’s eyes rotated under her mask again.

“Not unless I have to.”

Okay, very ominous. But something told Sam that she wasn’t lying when she said that. So… slightly reassuring??

Sam let out a sigh.

“Okay uh… Hellen, I’m willing to let you stay but you gotta promise me that you aren't going to hurt anyone here.”

Hellen stared at him for a moment, her eyes rotating once again.

Was that just how she blinked?

“Didn’t plan on it.” She responded.

It was stupid to think about, but that was somehow enough to calm Sam’s nerves.

The woman still put him on edge but at least she didn’t seem too dangerous???

Okay, maybe Sam was just getting a little too hospitable. Jeez, was he really that lonely before?

It didn’t matter, he still opened the door for the woman, and she trudged inside, taking off her boots.

“Okay. Make yourself at home I guess? There’s food in the fridge in case you haven’t eaten yet.”

Hellen just looked around the place for a second, her eyes completely unblinking.

“Thanks.”

She walked over to the kitchen, searching around for one of Sam’s knife sharpeners and picking it up. Then she plopped herself down at the table and started sharpening her cleaver.

Sam looked at his newest resident, deeply questioning his life choices.

So much had happened today. He needed to clear his head.

He walked over to the kitchen, putting his knife back where he found it.

“I’m gonna take a shower.” He announced, already making his way to the bathroom.

 

The gentle stream of warm water helped to soothe the aching in Sam's body.

He sat down on the floor of the shower once he was done actually washing himself, just taking a moment to relax.

He thought about Aster, about the ritual that he had mentioned. They were supposed to collect depictions of the visitor. What kind of depictions were they looking for? Could it just be anything? A picture? A description? They had the hint now that Aster’s dream had been about light from a telescope. How could a telescope capture an image of the Visitor?

Maybe he could ask Lyle? He seemed to know a lot about pictures.

Yeah, he should ask Lyle about that tomorrow.

Sam poked around at some of his bandages.

They were all soggy now and some of them were even stained a bit with old blood. He should probably change them now.

He turned off the water and exited the shower, throwing his pants on and cracking open his medical supplies.

He hoped removing the bandages wasn’t gonna be too unpleasant. A lot of the wounds he had received over the past two days were pretty ugly.

He didn’t even want to think about the condition his chest was in right now .

He let out a sigh, starting to unwrap the gauze on his right arm.

Bits of dried out blood flaked onto the tiled floor as more and more of the wound was uncovered. 

But when the bandages were finally removed… it was… almost completely healed…

Sam cautiously traced a finger along the fresh, bumpy scar tissue. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A claw mark like that couldn’t have just healed overnight, could it? No- No humans didn’t heal nearly that fast. He should have still been covered in bandages for the next few months.

He shook his head, snapping himself out of his thoughts and redirecting his focus to where the gash on his side was.

He quickly removed the dressing from that injury as well.

Same thing. The scar didn’t look like it had healed quite right, but the fact that it was healed at all should be impossible.

His breath was starting to quicken a little bit as his hands fumbled to undo the bandages around his chest.

Hoooly ffffuck…

The skin on his chest had been almost completely chewed off. But a lot of it had grown back, leaving a large patch of scabbing right in the middle of the ghastly wound.

He had gotten that this morning… when Madison had attacked him…

There was no way that it was already healing.

Hell! He probably needed skin graphs for that! How was he just okay?!

He quickly began to tear every single bit of wrapping off of his body and every single one of his injuries was almost completely scarred over.

Some of them looked as though they had been torn open again, probably in their fight with Leigh, but even those were already well on their way to repairing themselves.

Sam looked at himself in the mirror, his hands tracing over each new scar on his body.

This isn’t physically possible… humans don’t just bounce back from this kind of stuff…

But you aren't human… a part of his mind whispered to him.

You know why this is happening… Don't lie to yourself.

Sam stared blankly at the sink, picking a bit at the odd scab on his chest.

He turned on the tap and splashed himself with cold water, snapping himself out of his trance.

Okay. So I can heal really fast. That’s fine. That’ll be useful. It’s not like it’s that hard to hide. I just can’t walk around shirtless. This’ll be fine.

Sam ran a hand down his face and sighed heavily.

He grabbed his sweater off of the side counter and pulled it over his head. Then he checked himself in the mirror, just hoping that he didn’t look too off.

Yeah… no one will notice. I’ll be fine.

He hesitated for a bit, studying his reflection for a moment longer before walking out of the bathroom.

 

Sam opened the bathroom door and flinched as he almost walked right into somebody.

He looked up to see Hellen with a plate of reheated leftovers in her hand.

They both stared at each other for a few seconds, the women’s eyes seeming to gaze directly into his soul.

“… I’d like to use the bathroom.” She finally said.

Sam blinked, his eyes darting to her plate.

“Okaaay??”

“Thanks.” Hellen pushed right past him, closing the door behind her.

Sam just looked at the door with a completely baffled expression on his face.

Why is she taking her food to the bathroom????

He shook his head, turning away from the door.

It was none of his business, he decided. If the crazy, knife wielding, six foot seven, masked lady decided that she wanted to eat in the bathroom, then fine, she could do that.

He sighed, scratching at his scalp. It was getting late, he should probably start getting the kids ready for bed.

He went back into his storage, pulling out a few spare pillows and sleeping bags.

“Alright, kids. Let’s get your bedding ready.” 

“Awwww!” Sophie cried. “But I’m not tiiiiired!”

“You don’t have to go to sleep right now!” Sam reassured her. “I’m just getting everything ready. Why don’t you kids come over here? You can pick out your sleeping bags.” He held up one of the child sized sleeping bags for the kids to see. There were three of them, all themed after an animal.

The kids hopped off the couch, Joel shutting off the game before scurrying over.

“Mr. Sam, didn’t we… hhh… already get my bedding from… hhh… my house?” The boy asked.

Sam looked up at him, then to the pile of blankets and pillow tossed into one of the corners.

“Oh! I… forgot about that.” He walked over to the boy’s bedding, picking it up and walking back over to their little gathering. “Yeah, you can use this! The sleeping bag’s mostly just so you’re not sleeping on the floor.”

“Oooh! Okay!” The boy took his bedding from the man, setting it down beside him.

“I call dibs on the butterfly!” Sophie announced, holding up a lavender butterfly themed sleeping bag.

Sam smiled and nodded at the girl.

“Alright. What about you Joel? Do you want the mouse or the shark?”

He presented the two options to the kid, and he looked between the two of them before reaching for one.

“I want… hhh… the shark!”

“Okay! Shark it is!”

He looked at the one remaining sleeping bag, one themed after a sleepy mouse.

“Guess I can just put this back.”

Sam turned to the other two adults in the room.

Dan was still on his phone and Leigh was lounging on the couch next to him, staring at Sam as he interacted with the kids.

“Can I trust you two to take care of your own sleeping situations?”

Dan paused what he was doing to look up at him. Something flashed across his face as if he hadn’t quite taken that into consideration.

“Oh- uh- yeah man! Hold on.” He got up, walking up to his overstuffed bag and dropping its large contents of clothing into the corner.

“I’ll sleep here!”

Sam just stared at him for a second, his brows knitting together in a mix of concern, sympathy and confusion.

“Uh- are you… sure? You can sleep on the couch.”

“NO!!” Leigh suddenly barked. “I’M sleeping on the couch!”

“W- can you not find some way to share???”

“Dude, it's chill!” Dan piped up again, having plopped himself into his pile of clothes. “I’ll take one for the team! You don’t gotta worry about it!”

Sam just looked between the two adults for a moment.

Leigh was glaring at him like a territorial cat and Dan was just sitting in his little nest of clothing, seemingly just okay with this, for some reason.

He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose a bit.

“Fine… Dan, just- let me know if you need a blanket or something. Okay?”

The man waved a hand at him.

“It’s not that cold. I’ll be alright!”

Sam could do nothing but give him a small nod at this point, glancing over to Leigh.

God. Every interaction with this woman is exhausting.

The woman in question just flashed him a victorious grin as she leaned back on the couch with her arms behind her head.

Sam couldn’t help but scoff a bit at the display. But he turned away from her and placed the mouse sleeping bag back into storage.

Just then, the door to the bathroom opened, and Hellen walked out with an empty plate.

She stared at the scene in front of her for a few moments, seeming to have listened in on the earlier conversation.

“What’s happening?”

Sam blinked at her for a second. Then his eyes widened as he quickly realized something.

“Oh shit- Uh- we were talking about sleeping arrangements? I’m so sorry, I forgot about you. I’d offer the couch but Leigh’s already called dibs on it.” He jabbed a thumb over at the woman, and he definitely heard her chuckling a bit to herself.

Hellen’s eyes just looked between him and Leigh for a moment.

She looked back down at the man, her eyes doing the weird blinking thing again.

“It’s fine. I don’t sleep.” She stated it bluntly, and that was enough to earn her a quirked eyebrow from Sam.

“You don’t sleep? Like, you have insomnia?”

Hellen was quiet for a moment, seeming to think about it.

“Something like that.”

“uh-Oh…” Sam’s eyes started to dart around a bit. “I uh… Is there anything I can do to help??”

Hellen silently stared at him for an uncomfortable stretch of time.

And when the woman finally spoke again. Her response was as ominous as always.

“There’s nothing you can do for me…” then she just walked off, turning on the kitchen sink and washing her dishes.

Sam just stared at her for a few moments, still processing that interaction.

He turned his gaze to the floor and sighed.

I am letting some weird people into this house.

He turned his attention to the now open bathroom, then to Joel’s tooth filled maw.

That was gonna take a while.

“Okay!” He clapped his hands together, leaning down a bit. “Joel, why don’t we get your teeth brushed?”

The boy just looked up at him, seeming to sag a little.

“Do we have to… hhh… right now?” He seemed to be dreading the whole routine and Sam couldn’t blame him. Just brushing past how abysmally long it was going to take the poor boy, the chore would likely serve as a constant reminder of what had happened to him. A reminder that there was no going back. That this was just his life now.

The friendly face that Sam had been keeping up slowly dropped at that moment. He sympathized all too well with that feeling.

He let out a heavy sigh, kneeling down to look the boy in his (kind of) eyes.

“Listen, Joel. I know you don’t want to do this, but you have to take care of your teeth, especially now. Let’s just get it over with, alright?”

Joel looked at him for a moment, holding Fuzzy close.

“How about this?” Sam spoke up again. “I’ll come with you and we can brush our teeth together. Does that sound good?”

The boy seemed to think about it for a moment.

Then, after about a minute to mull it over, he silently nodded his head.

“Okay.”

Sam gave him a small smile, pushing himself back up and guiding the boy over to the washroom.

 

“Mr. Sam? Why are you… hhh… doing this for me?”

Sam looked down at the boy, midway through pulling out the toothpaste.

“Oh uhh…” he paused, trying to figure out how to word his response.

“Do you know how my… face looks weird?”

“Oh yeah!” Joel piped up. “I can’t see it as well- hhh- anymore. But you looked like you had…hhh… shark teeth!”

Sam let out a small, nervous chuckle.

“Well that’s one way of putting it. The point is, this is all very new to me.” He said, gesturing to his face. “I’m still not used to my teeth being all… pointy. So I figured that, since we’re in similar boats, I could go through this with you so that you don’t feel so alone.”

The boy looked up at him, the corners of his mouth twisting upwards a bit.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.” He squirted some toothpaste onto his toothbrush, handing the tube to the boy once he was done. “I want you to feel at home here, Joel. It’s the least I could do.”

Joel seemed to hesitate for a moment as he reached for the toothpaste. But Sam’s reassurances seemed to have stuck with him, and he took it, squirting a large amount onto his own toothbrush.

They were probably gonna want to stock up on toothpaste.

Sam got to work, but just when he was a few seconds in, Sophie walked into the bathroom with them, carrying her own tooth brushing supplies with her.

“I’m gonna brush my teeth too.” She simply stated.

“Ohay.” Sam slurred out his response through his toothbrush, watching as the girl positioned herself next to Joel.

He was honestly expecting her to put up a bit more of a fight, anticipating at the very least a short argument over the matter. But it looked like she was taking the responsibility into her own hands.

Well, Sam wasn’t gonna complain about that.

He turned his focus back to his teeth. They still made him uncomfortable, but Joel, and now Sophie’s company helped him to feel just a little bit less ashamed.

Don’t get him wrong, he still hated having them, but at least now he could focus on properly adjusting his brushing routine to fit his altered oral anatomy.

He settled on scrubbing his molars first, since they were the most normal part of his mouth. Maybe a little bit pointier in spots, but nothing he couldn’t ignore. Once he got his molars done, he moved on to the fangs themselves, scrubbing each one until they were clean. The only bright side he could gain from this was that it looked like he wouldn’t need to floss as much anymore, seeing as the gaps in his teeth made it pretty hard to get food stuck in them.

The whole process added about a solid minute to his usual brushing time, but he still finished a lot earlier than Joel, who was only about a quarter of the way done by the time Sam and Sophie were. But they stayed with him, having light conversation while the boy finished up brushing.

“Sam.”

Sam turned to see Hellen standing in the doorway, staring at him through her mask.

“Yeah? Do you need something?” He spoke up hesitantly.

“The state of your plant is unacceptable.”

There was a long and uncomfortable pause after the woman’s statement. Even Joel stopped his brushing to listen in on what was happening.

After a while, Hellen spoke up again.

“When was the last time you watered it?” She asked.

Sam’s eyes darted to the side for a brief moment.

“This morning??”

“Good.” Hellen responded. “Keep doing that, once per day. And give it fresh soil soon.”

And with that, she walked away into the apartment to do who knows what.

Had she been in my fucking room???

He heard Joel spit his toothpaste into the sink. Then he turned on the tap, scooped some water into his mouth, gurgled it a bit and then spat that out into the basin as well.

The boy whirled around, pumping his fists up in triumph.

“I’m done!!”

Sam and Sophie both cheered for the boy, taking a short moment to celebrate with him on his victory.

Despite the strange interaction from earlier, Sam was happy, if only for a little moment.

 

Things were starting to wind down in the apartment and Sam soon found himself tucking the kids into bed.

He tossed Joel’s space themed duvet over the two children and they giggled in delight as the starry cover slowly fell over them.

Sophie nudged Joel, beaming with joy.

“Joel, we’ve never had a sleepover before! Are you excited?"

The boy nodded his head quickly, hugging Fuzzy tightly.

Sam huffed out a small laugh as the two kids chattered away.

“Okay, I’m turning the lights off now. You two behave.” He walked over to the light switch, flicking it off and plunging the room into a soothing darkness.

He turned to Dan, the man was still on his phone, his face illuminated by the screen’s glow. Sam could tell he looked tired.

He placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, getting his attention.

“Keep it down while the kids sleep, okay?”

Dan glanced up at him.

“Hm? Yeah, okay.” He turned down his phone’s volume.

“And get some rest yourself.” Sam went on. “It’s been a long day.”

Dan gave him a nod, smiling a bit to himself as he went back to watching his streams.

Sam sighed, rubbing his face a bit. He was tired too, it was time to turn in.

He started making his way over to his room.

“Goodnight, Sam!” The kids called out in unison.

“Yeah! Goodnight, buddy!” Dan chimed in.

Sam let out a small huff, a smile tugging at his lips.

He opened the door to his bedroom, closing it behind him with another sigh.

“Hey Sam.”

Sam just about jumped out of his skin as he whirled around, only to be met with Leigh.

She was grinning at him, seeming to have stood behind the door just to spook him.

Sam placed a hand to his chest, trying to still his pounding heart.

“What the hell, Leigh!? You scared the crap out of me!”

Leigh just laughed at him, her smile growing impossibly wider.

“Good. That’s what I was going for… heh heh heh.”

“What do you want?” Sam demanded. “I’m trying to go to bed!”

“Oh, I’m just looking around.” Leigh explained, walking around the room like she was taking a tour of the place. “I like what you did with the place.” Her tone was mocking, and it only made Sam more irritated.

His eyes followed the woman as she waltzed around casually, a scowl beginning to form on his face.

“I didn’t say you could be in here.” He stated, his voice firm.

Leigh turned her gaze to him, squinting her eyes.

“Hellen was in here.”

“I didn’t say Hellen could be in here either! I don’t know any of you guys. Can you blame me for being defensive when people are invading my personal space!”

Leigh just chuckled at him some more. Sam was getting really tired of that sound.

The woman went and sat right on his desk, staring intently at his closed curtains.

A tense moment of silence hung in the air.

“It’s beautiful out there, isn’t it?” Leigh spoke up again, cutting through the quiet like a knife.

Sam turned his gaze to her, his brows furrowing in confusion.

“What are you talking about?…”

“The thing outside.” Leigh explained, turning her manic eyes to him. “You saw it, didn’t you? Isn’t it amazing?”

Sam tensed, quickly turning his eyes away from the woman.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He stated. “I told you guys before, I didn’t look outside-“

“Oh cut the bullshit. I know you looked.”

Sam practically felt his heart stop dead in his chest. His head slowly turned to look at Leigh again. He tried to keep his expression guarded and neutral, but the look in his eyes betrayed the icy feeling of dread seeping into his soul.

“You can’t prove that.” His voice trembled against his will, no matter how hard he tried to keep it even.

Leigh chortled a bit to herself.

“I bet I could…” Her pupils dilated like a cat sizing up prey, resting her elbows on her thighs as she placed her head in her hands in a playful manner.

“You remember what happened earlier today? When we first met? I’ll admit, it was hard to spot at first. That cloak thing you pulled was a clever move. But I noticed that extra arm you had.”

Sam's entire face fell, a hand instinctively flying up to his side as he took a step back.

“Oh, and your little freak out after that.” Leigh went on. “I saw how your neck started to swell up. You think you were slick? Trying to hide it and everything? Please! I’m smarter than that!”

“stop…” Sam’s voice was barely above a whisper. He couldn’t look the woman in the eyes anymore. The room around him seemed to spin as he watched his biggest fear become a reality right in front of him.

“But you look perfectly normal now!” Leigh tilted her head, her voice tinted with mocking curiosity. “How did you manage that, I wonder. Could it be that, maybe, I was right all along? You are just like me!”

Sam stared at her, his eyes wide with terror as he gripped his cloak so hard that his knuckles went white.

“Don’t tell anyone.” He begged, his voice kept to a whisper. “You can’t tell anyone about this, please!” 

He was getting desperate, his breath was beginning to quicken as a familiar feeling of panic leaked into his system. The odd feeling throughout his body was finally pulled to the front of his mind once again.

Leigh laughed at him again, seemingly amused by his pleading.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on it. Why would I spoil something like this, hm?”

Sam pulled his cloak tighter around his body.

“What the fuck do you want from me?!”

“You know what I want.” Leigh suddenly stood up from the desk, her piercing yellow eyes locked onto him like a hungry predator as she began to slowly circle him.

“We’re destined rivals, Sam. Don’t you see it? We’re meant to fight! Tear each other apart until one of us is victorious!”

Sam was actively trying to keep his distance, his eyes following her every move. He felt his grip on his cloak tightening, a spark of anger flaring up inside of him as the woman spoke.

“Are you threatening me?”

“It’s not a threat…” Leigh spoke, her voice dripping with venom as she got right up in his face.

“It’s a prophecy!”

Her hand suddenly shot towards him and Sam squeezed his eyes shut, expecting the clawed hand to rake across his flesh.

But then that hand did something worse.

So much worse than he expected.

Leigh’s hand reached towards him and GRABBED his cloak, tearing it off of his frame.

He tried so desperately to hang onto it, but Leigh’s grip was stronger than he anticipated.

She wrenched the cloak from his grasp and tossed it into the farthest corner.

Sam let out a small cry of horror as he wrapped his arms around himself, trying to hide.

He was completely exposed. He could already feel his insides beginning to squirm around under his skin.

Leigh continued to walk towards him, her voice ringing out again, taunting him even through the rush of blood in his ears.

“I know what you are… you’re a monster in human skin, just like me.”

Sam backed away from her, his heart pounding and his breaths growing ragged as he turned away from the woman as much as he could.

“But you’re choosing to hide behind your humanity.” Leigh accused. “You cling to it like it’s all you have. But I embrace what I am!”

“leave me alone…” Sam’s voice was so small that he didn’t even think Leigh could hear him. He was beginning to tremble, shivering as he tried to fight down the building pressure inside of him.

“I know you have a monster in there.” The woman prowled closer to him, grinning manically.

“Now… SHOW IT TO ME!” 

She suddenly shoved Sam, his back hitting the wall hard.

Sam snapped right at that moment.

A guttural growl suddenly slipped out of his barred fangs, his eyes glaring at the woman like a crazed animal ready to pounce.

Leigh laughed triumphantly.

“Yes! There it is! Come on, LET IT OUT! Fight back!”

Sam’s eyes widened in horror, his hands slapped over his mouth as he finally processed the awful sound that just came out of him.

He doubled over, squeezing an arm around his torso and gripping at his face to suppress a pained whine. Everything was pulsating, his body swelling no matter how hard he tried to suppress it.

His chest heaved as he fought air into his lungs.

He closed his eyes, trying to slow his breathing.

Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

He could feel the arms starting to grow in, the stumps pushing up against the inside of his sweater.

Sam tried to force everything back inside, willing his body to stay human. And it was working, but not enough.

Leigh stared at him as the man’s changes began to slowly reduce at a snail's pace.

“No, No! What are you doing?! Stop fighting it! Just let it happen!”

She grabbed his wrists, the purple skin beginning to crawl up his neck.

Sam tried desperately to pull away.

“I don’t want this!…” He whimpered, tears beginning to prick at his eyes.

“WHY NOT!?” Leigh shot back.

“I just DON’T!” Sam harshly pulled away from the woman, freeing himself from her grasp and hitting the wall again. He hid his face in his arms, his now clawed hands beginning to grip at his hair.

He put all of his energy into turning back. He desperately forced all of the changes down no matter how much it made him feel like everything was about to explode out of him.

Sam breathed heavily as his body somewhat returned to normal. The bumps were still on his sides and his nails were definitely sharper than they should’ve been. But he was pretty sure everything else looked fine. Or at least, he hoped that it did.

“Why are you doing this to yourself?” Leigh demanded. "Aren't you tired of all of this? Aren't you tired of being weak? Why make things harder for yourself by holding it all in?-”

“NOPE!” Sam quickly grabbed the woman by the shoulders, cutting her off quickly.

“OUT!!” He threw Leigh out of his room, slamming the door in her face before she could retaliate.

He leaned his body against the door, trying to keep himself steady. He was panting and clutching at his chest, shuddering at just how vivid the writhing felt now.

Sam knew that the woman was crazy. Barely any of what she said made sense to him. But that last comment… she was right. She was right and Sam hated that she was right so much.

Because it made it so hard to ignore the itching feeling in the back of his mind that his skin was just too small for him. That he didn’t feel nearly as human as he did before he looked out that fucking window.

Sam tensed, the feeling under his skin suddenly becoming overwhelming.

He stumbled away from the door, towards his fallen cloak.

He managed to tightly wrap it around himself just as his entire body suddenly bulged, swelling up so bad that his sweater started to ride up and the seams of his undershirt began to pop slightly.

He pressed his hands over his mouth, stifling his cries.

He could feel something odd happening at the base of his spine, like something was trying to poke out of it.

It felt like his skin was about to burst open. He couldn’t take it.

He started to cry, warm tears beginning to finally spill down his face as his body shook with silent sobs.

I don’t want this. I don’t want this.

Why did this have to happen to me?…

Sam stayed like that for about a solid minute.

And slowly, his body returned to normal.

He took in deep, trembling breaths through his mouth. His eyes were still leaking and his nose was starting to dribble a bit.

He was so tired…

He groaned, rubbing at his face.

His eyes just drifted around the room for a few seconds, eventually landing on the calendar hanging off of his wall.

He didn’t use it very often, not like anything exciting was happening in his life anyways. He still checked it from time to time, just for basic stuff like holidays. But now seemed as good a time as ever to start using it. Might as well keep track of the days.

Sam grunted as he pushed himself up, leaving his cloak in the corner.

He ticked off the first two days of the apocalypse, then counted out thirteen more and put a big circle around the fifteenth, the day that this was all supposedly meant to end.

He sighed. These next two weeks were going to be the longest of his entire life.

He shambled over to his bed and plopped himself down, reaching for his phone on his nightstand.

He opened it up and was met with a missed alert, probably another thing he slept through.

It was categorized as an extreme weather event, and the description only said one thing.

DON’T LOOK OUTSIDE

That one sentence was repeated over and over again, filling up an entire paragraph and ending in an incoherent keyboard smash.

It didn’t help to calm his nerves one bit.

Sam let out a huff, his brows furrowing as he typed in the passcode.

The very first thing he opened up was his text messages.

There were only two people in his contacts. His sister Katie and his brother Carlos.

It had been a while since he had texted them, with their last conversations discussing plans for thanksgiving.

He decided to text his brother first, hoping beyond hope that he would respond.

{Hey Carlos. I think you already know about what’s going on.}

{I’m alright. A little bit rattled but I’ll live.}

{I hope you, Stephanie and the kids are okay.}

{Keep all the windows blocked, maybe move to your basement until this all blows over.}

{It’s gonna take another thirteen days so hunker down.}

{I’ll come look for you once it’s safe to go outside again.}

{Get back to me as soon as you can.}

He clicked send on the last message. 

Now all he had to do was wait…

Sam opened up his messages with Katie next, quickly beginning to type.

{Hey Katie. It’s Sam. I’m still alive.} 

{Hope you and the family’s okay.}

{This’ll all be over in about thirteen more days. Keep the door to your condo locked, maybe barricade it too. Don’t open any windows.}

Sam hesitated for a moment, his fingers hovering over the keys.

He let out a shaky breath, carefully mulling over whether he should do this or not. Then slowly, he began to type again.

{Something really weird has been happening to me.}

{My body keeps changing} he deleted that message.

{I keep having these weird episodes. I’ve just been feeling off in general.}

{I have no idea what’s happening to me. I don’t know if I’m okay or not.}

Sam paused again, tears blearing his vision as he shakily typed out his next message.

{I’m really scared.}

He wiped his face before continuing. 

{Please get back to me as soon as you can.}

{I need to know that you guys are okay.}

He sent the last message. He was crying again, tears silently streaking down his cheeks as he stared at his phone.

No response still…

Sam let out a sigh, shutting off his phone and rubbing his eyes.

I need to sleep…

He took off his sweater, taking a quick moment to survey any damage done to his undershirt.

It wasn’t too bad, just a little bit stretched out.

What am I supposed to do if something like that happens again? I won’t be able to just excuse randomly torn clothing.

He shook his head, laying down on his bed and pulling up the covers.

Maybe it won't get that bad. He thought to himself. But he didn’t quite believe it. Knowing his luck, it was probably gonna get a lot worse.

Sam sighed through his nose, closing his eyes and trying to drift off.

Then a knock came on his bedroom door.

“Oh my god. What now?” He got back up, grabbing his cloak from the corner, not even bothering to secure it with the safety pin.

He grumbled a bit as he walked over to the door.

Sam braced himself as he cracked it open, fully expecting to find Leigh coming back for more.

But instead, he was met with two little heads of black hair.

Sophie and Joel were standing in front of him, both with their bedding tucked under their arms.

“Mr. Sam?” Joel hesitantly spoke up, keeping his voice low. “Can we… hhh… sleep here tonight?”

Sam blinked, knocking himself out of his prior stupor.

“Uh- of course. Come in.” He stepped out of the way, letting the kids in before quietly closing the door.

“Did something happen?” Sam asked.

The kids seemed to nervously glance at each other, then to the closed door.

“That Leigh lady is really scary.” Sophie spoke up, holding her pillow a bit tighter.

Sam’s gaze went to the door as well. Then he looked back to the kids, a look of worry on his face.

“She didn’t hurt you guys, did she?”

“no.” Joel said, shaking his head. “But she got… hhh… really mad when you threw her- hhh- out of your room. She started stomping around- hhh- and getting all angry.”

“We heard her punch a wall.” Sophie explained. She started hugging her bedding to her chest. “I thought she was gonna punch me too…”

The girl went quiet after that.

Sam just stared at her, his heart sinking a bit.

I’m an idiot. I’m such an idiot. I shouldn’t have let that lunatic sleep in the same room as them. I am such a shitty babysitter.

He had to take a moment to find his words, and when he did, he tried to keep his voice as gentle as he could.

“I… I’m sorry you had to see that. uh- here. Let me help set up your stuff.”

The children gladly handed their sleeping bags over to the man and helped him to arrange them close to his bed.

Sam made sure to triple check that the curtains would cover the window enough for the kids to be safe. It seemed fine, they were a little bit longer than his curtain rod and covered up the bottom nicely. They should be in the clear.

“Can you do the blanket thing again?” Sophie asked once the kids were in their sleeping bags.

Sam gave them a small smile, hoping he didn’t look so tired.

“Yeah, sure.” He gripped the corners of the large duvet, holding it up in front of him. “Ready?”

The kids nodded vigorously.

“Okay. Three, two, one, Blast off!” He flung the blanket up, throwing it over the kids and letting it slowly fall over them.

They both giggled their little heads off as the blanket drifted over them both. 

Sam smiled at them. But he couldn’t help but feel… solemn.

What was gonna happen to these kids when this was all over? Where are they gonna be okay? Would he be able to take care of them? Or would he fuck up, just like he did with everything else in his life.

He sighed, getting up and crawling into his own bed.

“Goodnight, Mr. Sam.” Joel spoke up.

“Goodnight, kids. Get some sleep.”

Things were quiet for a few moments.

“Sophie, you should’ve seen Mr. Sam today. He blew up a monster!”

“What? No way!”

“He did! I- hh- saw it happen!”

“No you didn’t! You don’t have eyes!”

“I do have eyes! You just- hhh- can’t see them!”

“You’re lying!”

“No I’m not!”

Sam let out another sigh. Probably shouldn’t have expected this sleepover to be a hundred percent quiet.

He closed his eyes, listening as the two kids talked and eventually tired themselves out.

So much had happened in just one day. He had multiple people just in his house now and he was going to have to find a way to feed and take care of all of them. He was going to have to go back out again, he knew he had to. It didn’t stop him from dreading it any less.

And his siblings. He couldn’t stop thinking about them. Are they okay? They still hadn’t responded to him yet.

Sam’s mind drifted back to Joel’s family.

What if something like that had happened to them?…

His brain kept flashing with images of his family being mutated. His siblings, their partners, their kids, all twisted and warped beyond recognition in both mind and body. Being left deranged husks of their former selves-

Don’t think about that!

They’re okay… they have to be.

They’re strong… they’ll be okay…

Sam tossed and turned for a good chunk of the night, his thoughts swirling around in his head until they finally quieted down enough to let him rest.

Notes:

Haha! Even in the supposed chill chapters, Sam cannot escape the horrors!
Really proud of how I wrote the character’s interacting. Sam is #1 dad of the year.
And Hellen fans rejoice!! Your woman is here! And she’s very unsettling.
Using the whole ‘Sam went to medical school’ head cannon to explain his skills in first aid. Btw sorry for any medical inaccuracy’s, I’m not a doctor.
And of course, Leigh being a dick. But we love her for that ❤️
I cannot wait to expand on Leigh and Sam’s dynamic over the course of the story. There is just so much materiel I can squeeze out of this!
Sorry for the long and slightly incoherent ramble. I’m really exited to be getting this out!
Have a good day! 💖

Notes:

Hey! You made it to the end!
Hope you enjoyed! And I also have a tumblr where I post some art for this au.
Here it is if you want to check it out!
https://www.tumblr.com/skiourose?source=share