A Bit of a Rough Day

by JelltruviusTheThird08

Chapter 1: Getting His Shit Kicked In

Angelo was panicking, the black sludge kept spiraling up his pant leg, the uncomfortably slimy texture making him squirm as he frantically shot at it. “SHIT SHIT SHIT!” Angelo flailed frantically as it dragged him closer to the hooded man. His coworker and fellow agent, Kelcy was pinned to the ground, the strange man hovering over him. It felt like time had frozen for Angelo seeing Kelcy so close to death. Until the silence was broken by the hooded man's voice.

“We do this cat and mouse chase so often… It's almost sad to see you go…” The man laughed out in a raspy voice.

“Why… are you doing this?” Kelcy questioned, like it was his final wish on his deathbed.
The black sludge creeped a few more inches up Kelcy's body while Angelo was trying to get his bearings and aim at the hooded man.
“Hm…”, The hooded man mockingly considered Kelcy’s question, “Why do you think?”

The sludge was almost past Kelcy's shoulders when Angelo aimed his gun at the hooded man.

“It has to be controlling you…” Kelcy managed to choke out. The sludge was almost up to Kelcy’s neck when the hooded man spoke again, “Ha Ha! Controlling me–”

Angelo took the shot. The bullet flying through the hooded man's head and cracking a window. Although Angelo couldn't really see this happen because as soon as he pulled the trigger, he was promptly flung across the subway car and slammed back first into a grab rail with a sickening crack.

The hooded man quickly stood up with a hand to his eye. The sludge slid off of Kelcy and retracted back to him as he ran away, sneaking a quick yet shocked glance in Angelo's direction. The two agents are left laying on the floor but Angelo is the first to sit up, groaning and rubbing his lower back, he's surprised he isn't paralyzed from the waist down. Although that doesn't mean his back still doesn't hurt like hell when tries to stand up, only really managing to sit up a little straighter.

Kelcy on the other hand still can't feel his body. Everything from his neck down just felt like staticky nothingness. He tried to move his arm but he could only get his finger to twitch.

Seeing Kelcy twitching on the floor, Angelo tried to get himself standing by grabbing the grab rail he was slammed into and pulling himself up to his feet. He managed to walk over to Kelcy and kneel down beside him. Angelo could see dark stains on Kelcy's neck where the sludge touched it. He put his finger up to Kelcy's neck to check his pulse. Luckily, his heart was still beating and it seemed like he was finally able to move his body again.

Angelo helped Kelcy get back up on his feet, his arm over his shoulder to keep him standing. But even with his help Kelcy struggled to stay upright.

“We almost had him…” Kelcy muttered between wavering breaths.
“We almost died Kel-” Kelcy flopped face first onto the ground, nearly toppling Angelo to the ground as well, leaving him in stunned silence.

Angelo quickly knelt down next to Kelcy again, he seemed to still be breathing. Angelo’s back still hurt like hell but he was determined to get Kelcy help. He tried to pick him up in his arms, but he couldn't lift him an inch off the ground, he felt was hurting his back even more. “Well shit...”

He patted his pockets to see if he had his work phone to no avail. So he reached into Kelcy’s pockets, pulled out his phone and called the agency about a medical emergency, eventually hanging up when they confirmed they would send a medic.

Angelo waited in the emptied out train for what felt like an eternity. He kept checking Kelcy's pulse every few minutes to see if he was still breathing, seeing those dark stains creeping up his neck greatly worried him.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the opening of the subway door. Two medics dressed in uniform walked in, one walked up to Angelo.

He was about to speak but was cut off by the medic: “We've got this under control, report back to the agency.” They were surprisingly dismissive of him.

Angelo sighed and walked out of the Subway car, looking back before the doors closed, hoping Kelcy would be all right.

Notes:

I would have locked the hell in and kicked Gavril’s ass tbh /j

Chapter 2: The Agency

When Angelo got back to the agency, and sat down in his cubicle, he felt horrible. His back constantly ached, he was shifting around in his chair trying to find a comfortable position but he just couldn't. It felt like a million little knives were stabbing his spine. On top of that, he felt like he was having the worst migraine of his life, he could barely focus on any of the paperwork he was handed.

He knew he should have headed straight home as soon as he got out of that subway. But here he was anyway, struggling to sit right as more and more paperwork piled on his desk.

The rest of his time at work was spent impatiently waiting for his shift to end. He was constantly checking the clock on the wall while still trying to look busy.

He bided his time for hours until he looked once more at the clock. 1:30 am, a coworker tapped on his shoulder.

“Hey, dude…” The coworker whispered, “You've had your head down for like the past two hours, are you good?”

Angelo lifted his head up slightly and shook his head, “I'm… not.” He sighed in defeat as he flipped a few loose hairs back. He was going to say something else before he started coughing up a storm.

“I assume the mission you went on today didn't go great.” The coworker remarked and Angelo shook his head.

“You should probably be heading home by now. I'm pretty sure they got someone to cover you. I mean, you don't seem to be in the best shape.” The coworker patted his back. Angelo just responded with a nod.

Angelo managed to get up and he saw the coworker walking away down the rows of cubicles. Angelo set down his pen before walking down the rows of cubicles and to the elevator. Once he got to the ground floor he checked out for the day and headed out the doors.

Notes:

Surely nothing bad is ever going to happen to him ever again :)))))

Chapter 3: Not So Sweet Home

As soon as he got home he flopped on his couch. Groaning, he knew he wasn't going to be able to come in tomorrow– He could barely function in his current state– But although he was hesitant, he still picked up his phone and called his boss.

“Hey… sorry to call you so unexpectedly, but I'm not going to be able to come in tomorrow… I need a few sick days off” He swept his strangely greasy feeling hair back, waiting for the flood of questions. But to his surprise his boss seemed to understand, letting Angelo off the hook for about a week, saying that it'd be fine and that things would be worked out before his boss hung up on him. It was strange but still, it was a highlight on a rough day.

He set his phone back down to the coffee table and picked up the TV remote. He started flipping through random channels before landing on some cooking competition show.

Angelo kept watching the show for a couple of hours. Only really feeling the occasional ache in his spine. He was constantly rubbing his eyes ever since he got home when he noticed something on the back of his hand. Little black smudges, like he'd been crying wearing mascara. “What the…” 

He almost immediately scrambled up off his couch and into his bathroom. Breathing heavily, Angelo quickly placed his sunglasses down and leaned on the bathroom counter. He placed his finger on his lower eyelid and pulled down, revealing a build up of some kinda black gunk on his eye, it was squirming underneath his eyelid like a worm, it made him sick to his stomach. 

He suddenly felt this horrible slimy feeling in the back of his throat start coughing profusely to the point he started coughing up a bit of blood into the sink. The slimy feeling lurched up his throat. Feeling like he was about to throw up, he white knuckle gripped the edges of the sink.

He felt the grimy sludge rising, crawling, up his throat and burning his mouth as he coughed and threw up the tar-like sludge. He kept on throwing up for what felt like hours, his body violently lurching forward and almost breaking his mirror at one point. Traces of blood spilled out alongside the sludge, with it all eventually overflowing the sink and dripping onto the floor.

To his relief he finally stopped throwing up, although his lungs were still desperate for air and his body was trembling. Stepping away from the sink, he leaned against his towel rack and took a deep breath.

His shaking hand grabbed a towel off the rack, wiping off the remaining sludge off his lips. He noticed something still felt wrong. That's when he realized. He couldn't feel his tongue. Looking across to the mirror, he opened his mouth only to reveal nothing. Or at least what he thought was nothing, until some black, some black, slimy tendril peeked out of his mouth instead. He immediately closed his mouth, his hand shooting up to cover it.

He looked into the mirror in disbelief and breathing heavily, trying to calm himself down. He wasn't successful as he kept on noticing things that were wrong about his appearance: His hair a few shades darker, as well as his eyes, and his nails looked as if they were painted black with oil.

Angelo looked over at the mess of sludge and blood on the floor. He was thinking about getting a mop–or something to clean up the mess slowly spreading on his bathroom floor–but he felt like he was gonna pass out at any moment. Before he could even drag himself out of the bathroom he couldn’t hold himself together. THUD! he collapsed to the floor…

Chapter 4: “Can’t get worse than this, right?”

Waking up, Angelo realizes the mess has gotten worse. The black slime has been climbing up the walls like vines, he closes his itchy eyes, like the mess is just gonna go away if he just doesn’t see it. His body isn’t doing great either; he feels like he’s been stabbed in the back with a jackhammer. When he gets up he can hear his spine cracking and popping. 

He looks down at his legs to see one of his pants legs rolled up slightly, revealing a dark stain, just like Kelcy's, had crept up his entire leg and possibly to his hips. “What the fuck..?” He groans, reaching down to touch the stain. 

Until he noticed something, a thin line of black sludge was floating on top of the black puddle on the floor. It looked a bit shinier than the puddle and it laid on top like a water strider. He stared at it for a moment, his eyes tracing it to try to find where it was coming from until he saw it was connected to him. More specifically, it was connected to his lower back at his tail bone.

Angelo felt the small of his back, feeling the base of the tail and line that ran up his spine like one big vein. “What… What even happened to me?!” Eyes wide in panic, he looked to the mirror. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the blackened irises, nails, and greasy hair had all gotten worse. They were all pitch black by now, including his rope like tongue that sat in his slightly agape mouth. But what really concerned him were the faint black veins that ran across his body, pumping dark blood through his body like oil in an engine.

It all felt so surreal to him, like seeing a stranger in the mirror Instead of himself. This wasn’t how he was supposed to be, this wasn’t supposed to happen, he didn’t even know what was happening to his own body. But here he was, standing in front of the mirror, looking at what he had become.  He couldn’t peel his eyes away from the reflection, it was like looking at a car crash in slow motion, a haunting reminder of his mortality; was he going to die from this?

When he couldn’t stand to look at the reflection any longer he peeled his eyes away from the mirror and he trudged out of the bathroom with a heavy mind, he would clean the bathroom later, probably. He felt an empty void in his stomach, which was reasonable after he puked his guts up. Right now, he needed to eat. And plus, he needed to get his mind off his own mortality.

Angelo’s new tail dragged behind him as he passed through the living room with the tv still on, and into the more cramped than cozy kitchen. He opened up his fridge only to find a half empty bottle of ketchup, half a turkey sandwich, a gallon of milk, and three cans of soda. It definitely wasn’t the best thing you could find but, it could work for now. He took the day's old turkey sandwich out of the fridge and he leaned against his counter. He opened his mouth and his sludge tongue rolled out, catching him off guard once again.

“God damnit…” Angelo spoke with a sore throat. He didn't know how he was going to eat like this, if he could even still eat at all, but as he was struggling to figure out how to eat the sandwich. When suddenly his new tail slithered up towards the sandwich with a mind of its own and it grabbed the sandwich right from his hands.

The sandwich was engulfed rapidly by Angelo’s tail like stone sinking into water. The sandwich was gone, and Angelo felt fuller, but his hunger wasn't satisfied. He was at a loss for words. What just happened?

“What the fuck!?” He exclaimed, finding his voice again, he looked back at his tail that was now sitting flat on the kitchen tile. He was surprised he hadn’t completely broken down at this point. He needed a moment to process everything that’s happened to him today.

So, with his tail trailing behind him like a shadow, he went back to the living room and he flopped on his couch to almost immediately be interrupted by the sound of the doorbell piercing his mind. He got up from the coach with a groan, he couldn’t be seen like this.

“Hello? Is anyone home?” A feminine voice came from the other side of the door as he walked towards it and looked through the peephole. It was Rowan, Angelo’s neighbor. She was a nice young woman, most likely in her 20s. She was somewhat frantically knocking on the door and trying to turn the doorknob. He locked eyes with her through the peephole. A strange feeling washed over him when he saw her, he wasn’t quite sure if he was fear, or hunger.

“Hey, your Rowan, right? What brings you-” He said through the door, trying but failing to keep the scratchiness out of his voice. But he was cut off by Rowan’s worried questions

“Yes, it's me. Are you alright? I swore I heard something.” She spat out rapidly, fiddling nervously with the doorknob.

“Yea yea- I’m fine.” Angelo quickly replied, Rowan’s anxiety was making him even more anxious.

“Are you sure? Could’ve sworn I heard yelling from your apartment!” She exclaimed when she heard her that Angelo’s voice sounded worse for wear.

“Oh the yelling! Uh,” Angelo tried to come up with a good excuse on the spot, “I just got caught off guard by some tupperware falling out of my cabinet”, Angelo nervously chuckled, “You know how some people just stick them up there and pray they don't fall out.” 

Rowan didn’t seem to buy his excuse, she also seemed to be trying to look inside through the cracks in his blinds, which was an invasion of privacy Angelo was not ready for.

“Rowan. I’m fine.” He asserted, “There’s no need for all this.”

Rowan finally seemed to calm down slightly, “… I was just getting worked up there when I heard you yell. You’re usually pretty quiet, so that’s why I got so worried.” She sighed, sneakily taking one last peek through the blinds before heading back, “Have a nice day.”

Angelo breathed a sigh of relief knowing she was finally gone, that conversation felt like it lasted hours. But one thing stuck out to him from their conversation, the ever present feeling of hunger that hung over him like a veil whenever he saw her through the cracks in the blinds. Why in the world did his hunger grow when he looked at her? Was he already going crazy?

He flopped back down on the couch, more confused than ever. He just just wanted this to be over with.

Notes:

Thank you for waiting so long to finally finish this! I’ll admit, I kinda got burnt out of it at some point and I just had to take a break from writing. I also kind of left the fandom for a while. So again, thank you for being so patient! I will also be updating this with new chapters in the future whenever I get some more ideas for this. Feel free to suggest stuff in the comments.

I might do a second chapter with Kelcy’s POV but it's a big maybe, leading on most likely not. But y'all are always free to expand on my works in your own ways! (Just make sure to give credit for the au)

Chapter 5: A “Detective” in the Making

Summary:

Heyyy new pov and a much shorter chapter!

It had all started last night. Angelo had come home eerily early yesterday, four hours earlier. Rowan leaned back in her chair staring up at the several pin boards loosely hung on her wall. Photographs, sticky notes and torn out pages lined the pin boards in a storm of schedules and clusters of images, some connected by red strings, some not. It was all in some desperate attempt to unravel a mystery that wasn’t even there, until yesterday.

Her neighbor, Angelo, seemed to be quite the busy man. He would always come home late at around midnight from Monday to Saturday. There were only a few times a year where he’d come home early. Yesterday wasn’t one of those days. When he came home early that day Rowan heard something that felt off. She heard him through the walls, yelling, although she couldn’t quite make out what was being yelled. She had to figure out for herself what was happening.

That’s when she knocked on his door. They bickered back-and-forth for a moment until she saw him through the blinds. Did he dye his hair? Rowan thought as she recounted what had happened in her diary. The mystery was unraveling before her. She wanted—no, needed—to find out what was happening with Angelo, no matter the cost.

She knew she couldn’t just walk back up to his door and keep pestering him, she needed another approach. She glanced over to her desk where two bobby pins laid. Should I? A war waged in Rowan’s mind over whether should really be doing this. I just need a peek inside… She plucked the bobby pins off her desk and headed for the door. This is going to be an interesting night…

Notes:

Surely nothing bad will ever happen to her ever!!!

Chapter 6: They aren't here

He was in the back of the car again. Mom was at the wheel and Dad was in the front passenger seat. It was a dark night, couldn't really see anything, especially around corners.

None of them could have seen it coming.

Coming up to an intersection surrounded buildings, a glowing bar sign illuminated the oncoming truck but it was already too late. His mom tried to slam on the breaks but the truck hit them head-on with a SLAM . He could barely comprehend the split second a shard of glass lodged itself into his neck and-

Angelo flew awake with a gasp, grasping at his neck only to feel the scar. His choker was off, weird.

Notes:

I know this is a short one but more things are coming in the future!

Notes:

I’ve had this in my Google docs for like a year lol