A/N: So I've decided on an updating schedule! From now on new chapters will come every Friday, unless otherwise stated or if something comes up, which I'll strive to let you guys know if I'll be late with a chapter. I'll also let you know if I plan on changing this schedule. In any case, I should give y'all a violence warning for this chapter. But don't worry too, too much about it. Without further adieu, here's the chapter!
- - -
"...Hey Sundo?"
"Hmm?"
Sundo tilts his head to the side to look at Joshua, who is lying beside him. The two of them are lying side by side on Joshua's bed, both of them tired out from laughing and running around the room.
"...Why are you so afraid of adults?" Joshua asks this in a quiet murmur, as if to keep from scaring Sundo.
The boy beside him stiffens, and when Sundo doesn't answer right away he starts to regret the question. Sundo instead chews the inside of his cheek nervously, shifting his emerald gaze to the wall to watch the patterns of light shining on it through the window blinds.
"You don't have to answer," Joshua adds quickly, "I was just wondering."
Sundo shakes his head. "No... It's okay. I just.. I haven't been completely honest.. with you. When I first got here there were some that... I just-- because of them, I c-can't really trust any of them."
Joshua's eyes widen somewhat at Sundo's raw admittance to this. He hadn't expected such a honest answer, even if he doesn't know exactly what he means.
"What do you mean 'when you first got here'?" He asks, rolling over to sit up and look down at Sundo.
It's been a little over a week now since Joshua and Sundo had first met. Due to Sundo's apparent fear of other humans, namely the adults, the two of them had spent almost all of their time together in Joshua's room. At first this hadn't been extremely strange of Joshua to do, as it's been extremely hot outside lately anyway, but considering Joshua's normally sporty and active nature, it isn't surprising his mother began to worry after a few days.
He hadn't been leaving his room all day, nor had he let anyone into his room, and whenever she did come in he'd always seem frazzled. He hadn't seemed to be getting a lot of sleep lately either, which really pushed her to ask her son about the sudden change. He'd always smile widely though, and tell her some long, random, non-sensical story until she just gave up and told him to 'be quiet and eat his dinner'.
Joshua really didn't like lying to his parents though, and he is really starting to hate keeping Sundo a secret. He understands his fear, but now he's really looking for an explanation as to why he's so afraid. Why his new best friend has to run away at the very sound of an adult's voice.
Because of this deep sediment, their previously carefree conversation has now taken a fairly serious turn at Joshua's question, and there are now no more traces of humor in their young faces, especially Sundo's.
"There was a crash.." Sundo mumbles again a response Joshua has already heard several times.
The brunette shakes his head, "I already know that. But how is that how you got here?"
Sundo drops his gaze from Joshua's, unable to hold it. "I... From the sky... I kinda.. fell." His voice is almost inaudible, but Joshua still manages to pick up what he'd said.
"Like.. a plane crash?" Joshua whispers in disbelief.
Sundo shakes his head again. "No, it was a rock. I was inside it for some reason, I don't know, but then it hit and shattered and.. those scary people were there, and I..."
His expression grows suddenly pained and he allows his sentence to trail off. He can still feel Joshua's eyes on him, and he glances to him before giving a shaky shrug.
"I ran away." He finishes simply, though it doesn't seem like the full answer.
Joshua stays silent for an uncharacteristically long moment. He's connecting the dots in his mind, thinking of every sci-fi comic and movie he'd ever read or seen. When Sundo said he'd fallen from the sky in a rock, did he mean a meteor? That must mean he came from space. And if he came from space...
Sundo is growing concerned at the other's silence, and is about to pipe up when Joshua loudly speaks up again.
"Are you an alien?!?" Joshua exclaims astonishedly.
Sundo's eyes widen at the outburst, and he doesn't know how to reply. This doesn't faze Joshua though, as he starts excitedly hopping around on the bed, jostling Sundo in the process.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my goooosh, Sundooooo!" He seems about to burst from his excitement, much to Sundo's confusion.
He doesn't really understand what Joshua means by 'alien', but if Joshua is so excited then it must be something good?
"Am I?" Sundo asks befuddledly as he struggles to sit up on the bed next to Joshua.
Joshua beams at him, nodding enthusiastically. "You must be! That'd explain everything! Oh my gosh, Sundo, this is so-"
"Joshua?"
Both boys instantly stiffen at the sound of the woman's voice from downstairs, and they both share a wide eyed look.
"Who are you talking to?" His mother calls up curiously, having heard her son's outburst.
Joshua's expression grows pained, and his gaze frantically darts between a fearful Sundo and the door to his room. "U-uh... No one!" He finally calls back.
"Are you sure?" She sounds suspicious, and they can already hear her coming up the stairs.
Panicking, Sundo scrambles to get off the bed, but Joshua catches him quickly by latching onto his arm. "Wait!" He exclaims. "Please, please, don't leave again! Just stay and meet my mom, she's not scary!"
As Sundo looks back to him, Joshua can see the indecisiveness flashing in his eyes, and he tightens his hold on the alien's arm. "Please." He pleads again quietly.
Slowly Sundo relaxes his tense posture. Joshua can still see the unease in the way he sits, but as the raven haired boy gazes back into the other's imploring chocolate eyes, Joshua can see him finally relax fully.
"Joshua Malone Gonzalo. I can hear that you are speaking to someone, so you either introduce them to me now or you lose your TV privileges until next week. Do you understand, young man?" His mother's stern voice comes from directly behind the door, and Joshua cringes.
"Yes, Momma. You- you can come in and meet him..." Joshua speaks up with a slight tremble in his voice from nervousness. What if she doesn't like Sundo?
He moves his hand down from Sundo's forearm to his hand, intertwining their fingers in a gesture that seems a comfort for Sundo, though it's for Joshua's consolment just as much.
Joshua sits still for a tense long moment as the doorknob turns, holding his breath as the door is swings open. Mrs. Gonzalo is about to step into the room when she does a double take, her eyes finally falling upon Sundo. The small boy is still trembling, now practically plastered to Joshua's side as he clings to him, eyeing the woman like a bristling animal.
"Oh." Joshua's mother mumbles, at a loss for words.
Sundo was the last kind of person she expected to find her son hiding in his room. She'd expected some kind of bad influence of an older kid, or maybe a girl, but never a terrified looking little kid who looks like he'd been living in a gutter for weeks.
It's Joshua who finally speaks up fully, breaking the stunned silence that had befallen them. "Er- so, Momma, this is my friend Sundo," he starts off awkwardly, "Sundo, this is my mom."
The middle aged woman swallows her surprise, and pulls on a soft, warm smile. "Hello, sweetheart, it's really nice to meet you." She speaks in a comforting voice as she walks towards them, crouching before the bed. She holds her hand out to Sundo in a friendly attempt at getting him to open up, but Sundo winces like she'd hit him.
A concerned look falls over her features as she looks from Sundo to her son. "Is he alright? How long has he been like this?" She keeps her tone low, but despite her best efforts she only seems to set off Sundo more.
To both of their surprise, the boy hisses at her. Joshua's eyes widen, and his head snaps to look at his friend, who he finds starting to look a little queasy from his panicking. His quiet breathing had hitched and accelerated to the point of bordering hyperventilation, and he seems about to throw up.
"Sundo? What's wrong?!" Joshua asks in a growing panic; The alien's hysterics seem to be contagious.
"Honey, I need you to calm down. Both of you. Please, everything's alright, 'hon." Distressed lines have worked their way into his mother's forehead as she tries to keep them both calm. She's confused and worried, having entirely no clue how to help this poor, terrified boy, and no idea that she's the one to scare him so much.
Whatever is stressing Sundo has him beyond consolation, as he all but cries out at the sound of her voice. Her attempt at calming words had the exact opposite effect as Sundo wrenches himself from Joshua's grip, flings himself off of the bed, and scrambles to the farthest corner of the room from them. His small chest is heaving with his shuddering breaths, and his eyes are wide and wild. He isn't looking at Joshua or his mother anymore as he growls viciously. The sound is quickly followed by a groan, and tears shine in the boy's eyes from invisible pain inflicted upon him. Something is happening to him, but it's beyond Joshua's understanding, and it scares him.
Sundo is standing on uneasy, shuddering footing, and he doesn't seem able to hold himself up any longer when he finally collapses in on himself. A sound of worried alarm slips from Joshua's mouth he leaps to his feet, but his mother grabs him harshly before he can run to Sundo. Her eyes are wide with bewildered horror, unwavering from Sundo's groaning, curled up form as he starts to convulse. Joshua's gaze tears from his mother back to his friend as the sound of cracking bones fill the room.
Terror finally seizes him now, filling the pit of his stomach like freezing lava as he watches his friend wail in agony. He doesn't understand what's happening to Sundo. It's like the boy's body is slowly being pulled apart; Joshua can see his shoulders painfully stretching, and his limbs elongating to inhuman proportions. Sundo is curled up on his knees in a fetal position, and his hands claw frantically at his head as he cries. Joshua can't stop looking at his hands.
The skin has grown taught, and he can see as the bones beneath it slowly force their way to the surface, his fingers growing into bony claws. Even as Sundo continues to grow, the clothes he's wearing don't. They start to tear along the seams, and the boy's ribs outside of his skin become visible along with his spinal cord, running right down his back and continuing to grow. It becomes what almost resembles a tail, curling up and twisting behind Sundo with his same agony.
The only thing Joshua can think is that his friend must be a werewolf.
Sundo is still crying, his face still concealed between his knees and his hands still clutching his hair as his body continues to grow to horrific proportions. He's becoming a monster; and Joshua can't stand to hear him wail anymore.
A sob wrenches it's way from his throat as Joshua yanks himself from his mother's arms, the woman too petrified to stop him. Bolting forward, he tries to reach his friend, but he's stopped as Sundo suddenly whips out of his curled up position. An animalistic screech echoes in the room, like the monstrous cross between a human's and a coyote's cry, and Sundo launches himself at Joshua. Joshua screams as he's thrown back, tears pricking in his eyes at the pain flaring up his back and from the sight of the creature on top of him. It isn't Sundo anymore.
What had once been his friend's face is now a monster's. His features had ripped and stretched into a bony wolf's skull, stuck to his face like some sort of grotesque mask. The hollow black eye sockets seem utterly soulless aside from the sickly green orbs glowing deep within them. The monster snarls at Joshua as he snivels beneath it, its ragged breathing hitting his face in hot blasts as it bares canine teeth that were never covered by lips.
The teeth are slick with some kind of olive colored slime, managing to be both horrifying and disgusting. Joshua sobs loudly as the monster draws its face closer to his, and the creature finally hesitates. Its claws on either sides of his face still, and it stares deeply down into the boy's brown eyes for a second. A second that sparks an almost cognisant flash in its skeletal features, pushing back its primal, animalistic instincts.
"Get off of him!" A shriek comes from right behind the monster, and is quickly followed by its scream of pain as a chair is slammed into its back.
Whipping around, the monster automatically claws its arm out behind it, boiling rage fuelling its reaction. It growls viciously as its bony talons connect with Mrs. Gonzalo's stomach, gorging through it with ease. The woman's eyes widen instantly, shock preventing the wail from escaping her lips. She doesn't have to in the end though, as her son screams for her.
Joshua's voice shatters into a million pieces as he bawls, grief and anguish escaping him in cries as his watches his mother crumple to the ground. The monster responsible is frozen in place. It stands above both humans, its body starting to tremble as its glowing orbs focus on the blood dripping slowly from its claws. And all like that, it seems to snap again.
Screeching, the extraterrestrial creature bolts for the door, falling to all fours in its desperate scramble to get out of the house. It can still hear its friend's crying even as it flees from the house, and if one were to follow it, they'd be able to hear its crying as well.
- . - . - . - . - . - . -
Bright lights of the hallway glare into his vision like rude intruders. The pasty white halls of the emergency room are filled with the sounds of the bustling of doctors, the busy chatter of nurses, and the quiet sniffling of a young boy in the corner. The boy had long since cried himself out, seated in an uncomfortable hospital chair provided by a nurse, who had likely just wanted him out of the medical room. Now he only stares blankly down at his shoes, his legs just barely too short to reach the ground from his seat.
His attention is drawn up as a grave faced doctor steps out of the room in front of him, a clipboard held in his hand. As his eyes fall to the boy, the doctor's expression grows heavy, and Joshua stares up at the man with wide hopeful eyes for any news. Slowly, the doctor steps across the hallway to kneel before his chair, looking into the boy's eyes with an empathetic gaze. It's at that moment that the din of the busy ER becomes practically nonexistent to Joshua, and it's at that moment that he finds his life starting to crack.
He sits still as the doctor speaks to him, frozen in place almost like a statue. The words almost seem to fly right past him, the man's lips are moving but nothing seems to be coming out. Joshua just barely manages to grasp enough of the information so that his intuition is confirmed. What he'd already known is now undeniably true.
As the doctor finishes his soft, tentative explanation, the boy before him is dazed. Slowly though, his big brown eyes start to fill with tears again, and he brings his hands to his face to muffle the heart wrenching sob that tears its way from him as his crying starts anew. The doctor is heavily affected by this, the boy's tears weighing on his conscious along with the guilt of his own failure.
He reaches out a comforting hand towards Joshua, but is stopped by the call of a nurse behind him. He tries to explain the situation to her, but the urgant woman cuts him off, explaining why she needs his immediate assistance.
The doctor looks back to the sobbing boy in front of him once more before reluctantly standing up to follow the nurse, leaving the boy with a vague command to stay where he is and wait for his father. Joshua would do no such thing. As soon as he's left alone, Joshua clambers out of the chair and stumbles into a run down the hallway. He can hardly see through his tears, and he repeatedly runs into people, but he can't find it in himself to care, even as multiple adults shout for him to stop or try to grab him.
Once he makes it outside, his tears really start to flow again. He can't stop them anymore, they stream down his face as he continues to run, unknowing of where he's going. Anywhere is fine, just away, away from here. Away, away, he wants to get away, away. . .
"Joshua?"
The boy comes to a violently abrupt halt at the sound of his own name. His wet eyes widen at the familiar voice, now cracked with emotion and uncertainty.
"Sundo."
Joshua turns around to face the other boy, unable to even wince at the raw, broken sound of his own voice. Sundo looks just as horrible as him, if not even worse. The smaller boy's clothes are tattered to the point of being practically nonexistent, and he's yet again covered in dirt and scrapes. His face is wet with tears that he still seems unable to stop shedding, and he can't find it in him to take a step towards his friend.
"She'd dead." Joshua states simply, watching as the alien's eyes widen. "The doctor said... He said we got there too late. She wouldn't stop bleeding, that they didn't know how to stop it. They'd never seen a wound like it, and... t-they weren't able to save h-er."
His voice cracks on the last syllable, and Joshua's sentence ends with another sob. Sundo finally tries to take a step towards him, his arms reaching out to try to hug him, but Joshua instantly recoils.
"She's dead, Sundo! She's dead and it's your fault! You killed her!" His anger suddenly explodes from him like a simmering pot finally boiling over.
Sundo's eyes widen further, more tears starting to well up in them. "J-Joshua- No, I-" He tries to choke out.
"No!" Joshua wails, lashing out and shoving Sundo backwards. "You're a monster! You killed her! You killed her, you killed her, you killed her!"
He's screaming hysterically now, shocking Sundo to the point where he's unable to catch himself before he falls down. There he remains, staring up at his friend with a horrified expression. Each accusation sends agony and guilt ripping through his chest to the point where feels like he may die as well, like he now desperately feels he ought to.
"Josh-Joshua pl-please-" Sundo hiccups through his sobbing, but Joshua is too far gone.
"NO!! We're not friends anymore, Sundo! I never want to see you again, monster! Get out of here! Now!" Joshua screams, drawing his leg back to deliver a vicious kick to Sundo's side.
The alien yelps and instantly scrambles to his feet, hesitating for only a moment before bolting to flee without looking back. He couldn't bring himself to do it. If he had looked back before escaping into the tree line behind the hospital, he'd have seen his 'friend' fall to his knees. As soon as Sundo is out of sight, Joshua finally breaks down. He's a sobbing mess, feeling empty and shattered, like a part of him had just been ripped away. He doesn't know what to do, and can't do anything but bawl and wail his agony.
He feels like he'll never be whole again.