Weathered Walls || MCYT AU || DISCONTINUED!!

Chapter 15

His time with Clara was special, an oasis of being okay that he swore never to share with anyone. Tommy cared so little for the time before that he could scream each and every intimate detail until his throat bled and he still would not care who heard.

Mary looked at him, sympathy in her eyes, and for once, Tommy did not feel insulted. He faintly remembers someone comparing a hare's eyes to the devil's, but when he looks at Mary, all he can see is a moonlit pool where the angels go to dance. She nuzzles into his chest and, despite his capture, he feels free.

On the fourth day, Mary dropped dead.

He awakened that day feeling more tired than ever, the hare curled up against his chest. He yawned, stretched, and watched as Mary attempted to get off of his lap. She stepped onto solid ground, legs shaking. She moved to stabilise herself, and then she was on the floor, and Tommy was screaming.

He mourned more than he cared to admit, screamed more than he could handle, and cried more than he ever had upon arriving at this God-forsaken facility. But most of all, he cursed himself. Cursed himself for forgetting the most important lesson he'd ever learned.

Never get attached. Everyone you love will leave and everything you keep will be taken, broken, or both. He hated himself for forgetting.

He hates himself for a lot of things, these days.

He curled up, eyes averted, unwilling to look at the corpse that lay across from him, afraid to disturb her rest. He reached out a shaking hand, stroking her face, imagining, just for a moment, that she was warm.

Water Guy came later, sliding the bowl through the hatch. Tommy downed all of it without shame, and didn't speak a word.

His sleep was disturbed by nightmares that he didn't remember, but waking up in a cold sweat, the feeling of undeniable terror under his skin told him that they were probably bad.

The fifth and sixth days passed like clockwork. He alternated between thinking of everything and nothing, and he still had not moved Mary's corpse, despite it beginning to fester.

On the seventh day, his hunger pangs consumed most of his thought. He screamed in rage, words unintelligible, but he wanted out. He wanted to get the fuck away from the rotting corpse in the room, the stench that overtook his senses, and the memories that he wanted to forget.

He banged on the door so much he bruised, and, at the end of the day, all he could do was sleep, nightmares pursuing him once again.

Tommy didn't remember the eighth day.

On the ninth day he cried. He felt like a child again, unused to the injustice of the world. Hell, he was still unused to it, no matter how much he should have been.

He wept in the corner, eyes on the walls, the door, the bowl, anywhere but on the rotting corpse that was the centerpiece of the room.

He cried until he couldn't, and he screamed until he passed out.

On the tenth day, he was cold.

He felt cold from the inside out. He couldn't help the shivering, and he wasn't sure whether his hands were shaking from the events of the past however-many days, or whether it was the chill seeping into his bones.

He didn't even think the room was cold, or else he would've felt it far, far sooner.

He wrapped his arms around himself, and prayed. He wasn't religious, far from it. He referenced the Big Man often, but he'd been let down and ignored so much that his heartstrings had snapped and he had been drained of the little belief he had in the first place.

This time, he thought that maybe, just maybe, sixteen years of ignored wishes was enough. For all God forgave, he never once grovelled himself. Perhaps, just this once, he would try to make it up to someone.

So Tommy prayed and prayed, and said as many lines of the Hail Mary as he could remember and hoped, for once, it would be enough. That he would be enough.

God may not have graced him with freedom, or death, but he graced him with dreamless sleep. Tommy was not grateful.

On the eleventh day, he was hungry.

He chewed the inside of his mouth until it bleed, and dragged his canines across his tongue until his tasted copper.

All he could focus on was the pain, the acid eating away at his stomach and the sickening realisation that he was probably going to die here.

Tommy would have liked to say that he didn't want to. That he tried to resist. That he couldn't resist, because that was how he was, he was a predator, he was a wolf, it was his instincts- all lies.

Tommy didn't hesitate.

He sank his teeth into the decayed flesh of the carcass and devoured each and every bite of the festering meat. He choked down every morsel and the bile in his throat acquiesced to his desire for more. The rotten meat settled nicer in his stomach than he thought it would, and for once, he found himself praising his hybrid genes. After all, a wolf did what it had to in order to survive.

Tommy did what he had to in order to survive.

He repeated the mantra in his head, over and over. He dug deep for any feelings of regret he might have had, but all he found was bone-chilling apathy.

He picked the carcass clean at an alarming pace, finding himself choking on fur more times than one. His mouth was filled with the coppery taste of blood as he licked his lips clean, staring into his reflection using the water from the bowl. He didn't remember it being dropped off.

He looked back at the hare- Mary's body, and felt disgusted at himself. He could've waited. He should've waited, but the feeling of a full stomach was something he had craved since the first few weeks in the system, and it was something he hadn't experienced in a long time.

He despised the fact that he relished the feeling. He didn't deserve it.

Tommy sat there for a long time. It could've been minutes, hours, maybe even days, but time didn't matter to him. He stared at the walls, mind blank.

He hardly even registered the moment the door opened, and a familiar face clad in sunglasses looked down at him, horrified.

Good. They should be.

A/N: THIS. THIS IS MY FAVOURITE CHAPTER SO FAR!! I wrote this immediately after the last chapter since I was so excited to write what happens next. I read all your theories in the comments and still found a way to make it worse, huh?

By the way, don't expect updates to be this frequent, like, ever again. I'll probably hibernate for 2 weeks before I bang out another chapter (I'm joking).

Anyways! I feel like this is a banger chapter, let me know your thoughts in the comments? Also, feel free to ask me any questions about the story :D As long as they aren't spoilers, I'd be happy to answer your questions <3