Chapter Text
His heart was beating like mad. He knew that the monster that was chasing him was still here, looking for him. He managed to shake her off by hiding in the locker, but the Hag was still here, searching for him. Dwight heard footsteps coming right towards his locker, heartbeat hammering in his ears. He barely muffled a scared whimper. He’ll die now, won’t he? No doubt the monstrous woman will open the locker doors and hook him, for the second time. His chest was still aching from that, but Claudette managed to patch him up well.
The footsteps came closer and closer, so he closed his eyes in fear, unable to face the killer. He didn’t want to see her sharp teeth and those empty, hollow eyes. The footsteps were here, right here and he heard the locker door open. His whole body winced, like a turtle, he lowered his head. But nothing happened… yet he still made no move to open his eyes. He still waited for his inevitable doom, but instead of it, a whisper reached his ears.
“Move…” a familiar, rough voice made Dwight’s head snap up and eyes open. Tufts of messy black hair, fluffy white scarf wrapped loosely around his neck, green jacket that was caked with mud and blood, piercing chocolate brown eyes… it was no other than their most stoic team member looking at Dwight, waiting for the skittish man to move, while occasionally looking behind him, no doubt worried that the Hag would hop in through the window. After Dwight didn't move an inch due to shock, he sighed and snuck into the locker; not the way Jake would had enjoyed it, but desperate times called for desperate measures and calming Dwight down would have taken precious time they both did not possess.
Dwight’s cheeks flared red as his brain finally processed what just happened; Jake climbed into the locker with him, closing it behind himself. Jake’s hands rested on the back of the hideout, palms on each side of the nervous leader’s head, their chests pressed together due to lack of space. The smaller man was not sure if it was the embarrassment of having Jake so close to him or the Hag that made him heart thump like mad. Probably both. He had never been this close to anyone and he did a bad job of hiding his crush for the loner. He wasn’t sure if Jake knew about his feelings though; he either didn’t or didn’t care enough to acknowledge them… though the saboteur didn’t shun the leader.
“shh…” Jake uttered into Dwight’s ear, making the smaller male gulp as his ear was graced by the warm breath of the taller male. God, his heart was about to hop out of his chest… he wondered if Jake could feel it? Their chests were pressed together; their height difference was made obvious like this too. He didn’t feel Jake’s heartbeat… he was always so calm. But perhaps his hammering heart made him miss his? He couldn’t tell anymore.
Dwight was pulled out of his thoughts by gentle brush of something soft and fluffy against his cheek. Concentrating on the view in front of him, he saw the back of Jake’s head; the taller man had turned his head to look through the holes in the locker door, keeping watch for the Hag, meaning his unruly hair was in the smaller one’s face. Dwight was honestly surprised at how soft Jake’s hair was… it would have been soothing to run his fingers through it, but he didn’t have the guts to move a finger, let alone touch his hair.
Sound of scratching soon caught the leader’s attention. Angling his neck to look over Jake’s shoulder, he saw the Hag hop through the window. If not for the deafening heartbeat and her monstrous appearance, he would have found the way she always climbed through the windows cute… but nothing about Lisa Sherwood was cute.
The Hag looked around the room, hissing angrily at the fact that she lost her prey. She was moving towards the locker, making both men tense up. If they were caught now, it would be a very short round…
Life had a sense of humor, though… or maybe it was fate? Or the Entity? Honestly, Dwight didn’t even know anymore. All he knew that Jake’s hair was tickling his nose and he could feel a sneeze coming. A small sniffle escaped him, though he tried his best to suppress it, his eyes tearing up. Jake heard the small noise and snapped his attention towards the smaller male, in a barely audible tone mumbling ‘Bless you’ in a desperate attempt to jinx it, one hand pressed against Dwight’s mouth, though it didn’t help much. The nervous leader sneezed… but just in time, the blaring of the gates powering up rang out and made Lisa snap her head towards the exists and run off; Claudette und Laurie must have used the time the Hag spent looking for Dwight to finish the generators.
Jake exhaled. That was way too close for comfort. After the heartbeat calmed down, he slowly angled himself to exit the locker, looking back at Dwight, a bit worried if he was okay… not that he showed it much; his face betrayed no emotion, just his usual stoic, passive expression. “T-thank you…” Dwight sniffled, tears still streaming from his yes. Jake shrugged. “Let’s go.” He said nonchalantly and moved forward towards the exit gates to the opposite direction where the Hag ran. He knew Dwight would follow behind him, though he didn’t enjoy seeing the office clerk sob, they really had to get out before anything else. He didn’t know how long Laurie and Claudette could keep the killer busy. He hated depending on them in general; if one of them got caught because they dallied…
As soon as they got to the gates, Jake didn’t hesitate to open them, constantly looking behind himself, to both check if the Hag was coming their way and to see if Dwight was holding in. The nervous leader was a crying mess, standing behind Jake, nervously biting his nails. Jake learned quite quickly that Dwight did that a lot in stressful situations… for someone who was in his mid-twenties, he really was childish, wasn’t he?
Giving a loud crack and making a lot of noise, the gates opened and they both moved inside, but neither actually moved to leave the Coldwind Farm just yet. They didn’t know if they could… leaving Laurie and Claudette behind was not an option after all.
“Can you see them?” Jake turned to Dwight, who was wiping his tears. “You can usually see Auras…” he mumbled. In truth, the loner was a bit jealous of that ability Dwight had. To see if their friends were okay or what they were doing was rather practical. That way, Jake would always know when he should sabotage and when actually go and help out.
“u-uhm… wait… I…” the leader sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve, concentrating a bit and looked around, his body still trembling from the crying. “I see them… they look like they’re running…” he mumbled. “Are they safe?” Jake asked, coming closer. “…I-I don’t know… I-I don’t see them anymore…” he stuttered, fumbling over his words more than possible.
“I see the Hag, let’s go…” Jake mumbled, grabbing Dwight’s bicep and dragging the smaller male out of the Coldwind Farm. Dwight stumbled on his feet, almost falling over from suddenly being dragged. “J-Jake?” he muttered, earning a hum. Jake did that a lot, hum in acknowledgement, showing that he did listen, but didn’t have much to say to it. “T-thank you for helping me…” the nervous leader stammered.
“... you lead her to me, you know.” Jake said. That made Dwight panic. “I-I did?!? Oh god, I’m so so sorry! I-I didn’t know!” he began to apologize frantically, waving his arms; the movement made his chest ache. He guessed whatever medicine Claudette had used was slowly wearing off.
Jake stopped and turned around. He flicked Dwight’s forehead. “Stop worrying so much.” He mumbled. “It’s fine. It happens to all of us.” The saboteur gave a sloppy pat on the smaller one’s shoulder.
Dwight gulped and nodded, trying to calm his breathing. “O-okay…”
Jake nodded as well. “Let’s go, they’re probably already waiting…” he mumbled and turned around, walking along the path, till the campfire came to view, with their fellow survivors, including Claudette and Laurie.
“Oh! You’re here, thank god…” Claudette sighed in relief and came to them, no doubt to inspect Dwight’s wound.
“what happened in the first place?” Laurie asked, squinting a bit.
“Dwight ran into the house with the Hag behind, where I was. He hid in a locker; I didn’t see it and wanted to hide in the same locker. There was no time to find another hideout, so we hid together. Once you finished the gen, she came to you, so we took the other exit.” Jake spoke, completely neutrally, without a grain of emotion.
“Oh hohoho!” Meg grinned. “You hid in the same locker..? That sounds quite… cramped.” She said with a snicker.
Dwight’s ears turned red and he looked down.
“Ignore her.” Jake mumbled and walked to his usual spot, a bit away from the campfire, to keep his space.
“She doesn’t mean it in a bad way…” Claudette soothed as she began to tend to Dwight’s wound.
“Yeah, man, loosen up!” Meg agreed, though her mischievous grin did not make him feel any better. His eyes wandered to Jake, who going through his toolbox, seeing what of it was still usable and what needed to be replaced. Eventually their eyes met, as Jake raised his head to look at the nervous leader, probably curious if the wound was okay.
Dwight couldn’t keep the eyecontact… he looked away, his whole face burning red as he hid it in his palms. Why couldn’t he be normal, like the others…