Reptilian?

The two of you had been walking for what felt like forever. While Jack could maneuver through these woods effortlessly, you had a little more trouble than he did, which caused him to have to fall behind a bit to make sure he didn’t lose you out here. Once you got into the clearing, you could make out the shape of a large building through the trees. These woods housed several abandoned structures that had slowly been shifted around through the years. Slender’s woods operated very uniquely, as you had learned over the time you had been working for it. The woods operated outside of time and space, functioning on its own laws rather than the laws of nature and physics. Those who resided in the woods could navigate it no problem, but outsiders popping in to camp or explore never made it back out, they couldn’t. No one had ever successfully escaped Slenderman’s damnation, even if they escaped the killer. They’d never leave the woods, that was the lands design.

You examined the building as you approached, trying to make out what it used to be. The wilderness had reclaimed it, vines growing up the structure’s stone architecture, shattered windows decorated in small flowers, and you could only imagine the amount of small animals and birds that had rummaged around and made themselves at home. It seemed that your confusion had caught Jack’s attention, as you heard his low voice quietly beside you, not quite a whisper, but close enough to it.

“It was a hospital.”

Intrigued, you looked over at him, expecting him to elaborate further. Unfortunately, the elaboration never came, leaving you with questions. How did he know that, exactly? Had he been inside of here before? However, you knew it wasn’t the time to ask questions. You two had a job to do, that’s what you were here for. Apparently, some homeless people had decided to hunker down in here, and Slender needed them gone.

Stepping into the hospital, the first thing that struck you was that it wasn’t dirty enough. Obviously it wasn’t pristine, but it looked relatively maintained. Not a few homeless people pushed away fallen ceiling to make themselves a bed, but rather like someone had actually came through here and swept up the floors of the debris from the collapsing floors above, took time to dust, actually wiped down counters and cabinets. Hell, some of this still looked in use. Even as confusion racked through your brain, you didn’t speak or mention anything to Jack. After all, you two still had the element of surprise, for now. You kept your eyes peeled as Jack quietly stalked beside you. You couldn’t help but notice that, despite his large frame, his footsteps were silent. Well, almost silent, you could make out soft pats of his shoes on concrete if you really listened for it.

You were quickly snapped out of your thoughts at the sound of something scraping in the room across from you both. Jack stopped in his tracks and you grabbed your weapon, preparing for someone to step out or step into view. Unfortunately, whoever decided to set up shop had already known the two of you were there, as you felt a throbbing pain in your ribs from behind you. Luckily for you, the person hadn’t thought to grab something to stab you, so it was just a relatively painful punch. You swung back, effectively elbowing the person in the nose and knocking them back. Once you got a good look at the person, you could tell he was on something. He was a very skinny man, horribly kept hair and stubble that seemed like he might’ve shaved recently and just did a really bad job at it. However, his eyes were blown wide, bloodshot and pupils dilated. He swung at you again, to which you dodged, but your weapon was knocked from your hands, and slid under a table nearby. As you dodged again, your foot bumped into something, a metal pipe. You grabbed it and swung, colliding with the man’s head and slamming it into the broken down water pipes of the building. You heard a crunch as he fell to the ground, and you cringed. Yeah, you had killed before, but that one you kinda felt bad for. Not necessarily because you felt bad for the guy, but because you could almost feel how that would’ve hurt. You shook your head to expel that thought and turned to where Jack was, although he was gone now. You had been so caught up in your own fight, you didn’t realize he went off to fight his own. You grabbed your weapon from under the table and walked to try to find Jack.

You looked in the room that the noise had been made in, and took a note of the few drops of blood on the concrete. You gathered that whoever was in here happened to be the one Jack caught, and seemed to have fled, probably upstairs, since you hadn’t bumped into anyone. Following the trail that the other victim so graciously provided you, you made your way up the stairs, listening for the sounds of struggling or screaming. Despite hearing nothing, you could gather Jack had killed her on this floor. Blood was splattered everywhere, and there was a track where Jack must’ve drug her body somewhere. You followed, figuring you and Jack should probably start making your way back home pretty soon, and stumbled upon one of the grosser sides of Jack that you liked to not think about.

Upon entering the doorway of the room Jack had occupied, he had the victim, who you could now see was a woman, also seemingly under the influence based on the same look in her eyes, up on an operating table. Well, that explained why this place still looked somewhat functional, and why Jack knew what this was. He was probably angry someone had wandered into his territory, hence why they got the mission. He had cut the victim open and was surveying her organs, checking to see if any were healthy enough to be appetizing to him. The sight made you a bit grossed out, you weren’t really one to dissemble or gut your victims, you just got them taken care of and left. So, his methods were a bit gross, in your opinion.

However, in an attempt to lot look at the grotesque display on the operating table, you realized Jack’s mask was off. You hadn’t seen him with his mask off yet, similar to how you hadn’t heard his voice until yesterday. Man, he was just warming up to you more and more here recently! Or he was getting ready to eat you. You really hope it wasn’t that second one. As you approached, Jack heard and immediately turned away, shielding his face until his mask was back on. Maybe he wasn’t warming up as much as you wanted him to. No matter, you wouldn’t rush him. You didn’t want to negate the progress you already had made.

“Sooo, I’m guessing this is your area.”

He nodded, staying quiet once more, but you gathered it was to focus on his operation this time, not because of you. You bounced on the balls of your feet, watching the way he moved with such precision. It was kinda cool, although still just really gross. You made a quiet popping sound with your mouth before speaking again.

“It’s nice, I like it! Cleaned it up good!” You took a brief pause before glancing at the victim once more. “Finding anything good in there, or…?”

Jack shook his head and stood up, his hands and shirt bloodied.

“Unfortunately not. Most organs probably needed transplants anyway, almost all were shutting down and ruined.”

He seemed particularly angry about this, this probably ruined his plans for dinner. However, your focus landed on him as he turned to look at you. His mask had flecks of blood flicked onto it, probably from his surgical incisions. His neck had drips of blood running down onto the shirt he had on. You could’ve sworn he had a hoodie on before you two had gotten here. That’s when you noticed the pile of blue fabric in the corner, drenched in blood with tears in the sleeves and a large cut in the torso portion, probably around his mid stomach. Returning your gaze to him, you took note of his gray skin darkened with maroon blood, and the black shirt with darker patches everywhere. Your eyes trailed his arms, not realizing how big he was under that hoodie. You had thought, originally, that the hoodie he wore was just big. No, actually, he was just big. However, in the midst of your ogling, you realized the dark liquid dripping down from his shirt, dripping onto the concrete. It wasn’t blood- well, it wasn’t the victim’s blood, human blood wasn’t that dark. Realizing, you quickly walked over to him.

“Shit- Jack! You’re hurt! Fuck- did she cut you?- that was a dumb question, obviously she cut you.”

You began quietly muttering to yourself as you gently tugged his shirt up to see how badly he had been cut, not realizing that you were immediately touching him and dragging his shirt up without asking him if it was okay, and he was probably the last person to do that to. You trailed your finger under the wound, trying to gauge how deep it was. You heard a low grunt from him, and you realized probably hurt. You glanced up at him, giving him a concerned look.

“Sorry- sorry. It looks really deep, Jack, you need stitches for it.”

Before he could even get a word out, you rushed over to his operating table and grabbed the needle and thread he had for the victim. You looked around for something to sterilize it, and found alcohol pads sitting out. You grabbed one and cleaned off the needle before rushing over and gently touching his stomach again. You looked up at him once more.

“I’m really sorry if this hurts, Jack.”

You give a quick apology before beginning, trying your best to avoid hurting him too badly. Jack watches you in silence, and contemplates telling you that you don’t have to, that it’ll heal on its own just fine, or that he was more than capable of doing it himself, but he elected not to. Instead, he placed both clawed hands on the operating table to hold himself up as he watched you work. You were actually pretty decent at stitching. Of course, it was rushed, and a little messy, but it wasn’t terrible. If he wasn’t available, you could stitch someone up well enough until he returned. He admired your work as you did it, taking in your focused, worried expression. Your concern amused him. He was flattered, don’t get him wrong, but he also knew the cut didn’t mean much of anything to someone like him. Regardless, he appreciated your efforts in patching him up. You wrapped the stitches afterwards, so that he wouldn’t catch them on anything by accident, and then stepped back.

“There you go-.” Jack got to witness the shift in your expression from concern to mortification as you realized you had just basically felt him up without asking him once. At all. “Holy shit Jack I am so so sorry! I don’t know what came over me-”

Jack’s low grumble of a chuckle cut you off, and he shook his head, shrugging as he pulled his shirt back down, covering the wound you so kindly bandaged.

“No need to apologize. I appreciate that you were concerned enough for me to care for my injury. Thank you, [name].”

You nod, face a bit red from embarrassment. You notice his torn up hoodie, and grab it for him, examining the rips and cuts in the fabric. None are too bad, you figure you could probably stitch it up for him.

“Hey Jack? If you want, I could fix your hoodie for you! It’s actually not in as bad of shape as I thought it would be, it’s pretty easy to fix!”

Jack glances over his shoulder at you, taking in the large jacket resting in your arms. You’d truly offer to spend your free time to fix something of his? Jack wasn’t necessarily used to having someone care enough about him to offer to take care of something of his. It meant more to him than he was comfortable expressing.

“If you wouldn’t mind to, I would appreciate it. Thank you.”

You smile and nod, walking along with Jack back towards the mansion. You trace your finger over the cuts of the hoodie, thinking about stitching the hoodie up. Your mind slowly drifts to Jack when he was covered in blood, when your fingers graced over his abdomen while stitching him up. Obviously, you knew he was strong, but you hadn’t realized just how much muscle he had until today. You could still practically feel his soft skin beneath your fingertips. You don’t even realize Jack wasn’t trying to get your attention until you straight up walk into him. He stares down at you, and you can’t tell if he’s amused or annoyed.

“Uh- sorry? What’s up?”

He shakes his head and chuckles quietly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I asked if you were okay.”

You let out a nervous laugh, your face heating up in embarrassment as you nod.

“Uh, yeah- I’m good, thanks man.”