Pigment (Millard Nullings X Reader)

Don't Stop Me Now

Blood is such a strange smell. It's metallic, which makes sense, since blood has iron in it. It's not neccessarily something you notice, until you're surrounded by it. Jacob's hollows were very messy, and only attacked the wights until they could be officially called dead. Every room we ran by looked like it came straight out of a horror film, with flickering lights and the rooms covered wall to wall in blood.

The world was tainted red, it seemed, because of how bloody our battlefield was. Hell, I wasn't even sure I could call it a battlefield anymore, when it was obviously just an open grave. Bronwyn had Claire in her arms, and covered up her eyes, muttering, "Don't look, don't look."

There were a lot of headless bodies, which I preferred over the blank-faced bodies that still had their heads attached. I decided that I was no longer scared of the hollows anymore, but of Jacob. I'd seen hollows in action before, but never had I seen them so grotesquely disassemble a body like I did when Jacob was in control. There would be times when even he was disgusted in what the hollows did, as if the thought that they could be this dangerous never hit him before.

Because we were at basement level of the place, we had the climb multiple flights of stairs to actually get to the ground floor. I told Millard it was fine for him to let me down, since I had my walking stick, and he didn't argue. He was my nerd, not my hunk. If I really didn't want to walk, I would have had Bronwyn carry me. But because Millard let me stand on my own feet, I had a hard time going up the stairs. I let everyone go in front of me, as Millard held my cane while I walked.

After a while, we all made it to the ground level of the building. Emma and Jacob were arguing about something, and I heard something rattle like metal against metal.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Millard.

"Hear what?"

I looked around us, and noticed that a door hid next to the staircase we just came from. It was opened a crack, and I hobbled over to it with my cane. Millard followed suit, and I nudged the door open with my walking stick.

"Shouldn't we be sticking with our group?" Millard pressed.

I ignored him, and went inside. I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting. Maybe another room full of kids, or a little boiler area. But instead, I found a little white bedroom with a body on the floor. I ran over to it, and turned it over. I recognized him as one of the wight soldiers, and checked for a pulse.

Nothing.

I checked the body for any sign that he was hurt. There were no bruises, cuts, or anything. In fact, he looked to have been in perfect health, even a bit young, too. There was nothing unusual in his pockets, save for a key chain with only two keys on it. I wouldn't have been surprised if one of the keys unlocked the room. But why have it locked, anyway?

I scanned the area, but the only thing in there was a white, twin sized bed. The covers had fallen off of the mattress and under the bed. I was about to leave the room, when I heard the rattling again. It came from under the bed.

I sat on the floor, and tried to look under the bed, but it was a tight space underneath it, and everything was covered up by the blankets.

"Is anyone under there?" I asked.

"I killed him, you know!" A voice called out from the blankets. She must have been talking about the dead wight. "And if you come any closer, I'll kill you, too!"

"I'm not a wight, I'm peculiar like you," I said calmly. "I didn't mean to scare you, I swear! Look, my name's (Y/N), and I'm just here to help you."

I took the key from the wight's pocket as proof that I didn't need it, and slight it under the bed. A small hand quickly grabbed at it. She pulled them under with her, and I heard her play with them a bit. She didn't say anything, but then I heard a little click. Whoever was under the bed slid a pair of now-open handcuffs and the key back to me.