#stripeixii writes stuff

[stripeixii]

Ooooh yooo

Random writing idea

Loosely based on a possessed corpse AU idea I had, but not necessarily part of the AU.

This takes place in the future, I'd say Cassie is about in her mid to late 20s

Word cout: 2,070

Cassie looked over the cluttered driveway she sat in, her cinnamon coloured eyes taking in the decaying house and landscape with nervousness as she tried to will herself to get out of the car. The click and whirr of the seat belt retracting felt unreal as she took a breath and pushed open the car door.

She slipped out of it but hovered around the open door for longer than intended as the vehicle droned out an irritating beeping. She made a face as she bent down and snatched the keys from the car ignition. 

She was just going to leave them in the car, but thought better of it, instead  she retracted herself and shoved the car door shut with a thud.

She wasn't sure what she'd find, if anything but she at least had a small glimmer of hope for an expectation.

 

The dead leaves and dry overgrown weeds crunched with each step, and each step filled her with more dread. The cold breeze tore at her cheeks as it blew past, taking leaves with it into the autumn air. As she walked up the paved path to the house she frowned, she didn't like how time had treated her childhood home. The outside looked battered, dirty with decay, and falling apart. The shudders hung off broken hinges and the windows looked coated in grime. The siding was dingy and discolored while the yard and weeds had grown up around the house to help encase it in solitude.

She had to kick a clump of overgrown weeds and dead leaves to the side as she stepped onto the porch and ascended up the steps. 

She gave a harsh gasp as her foot went through a part of the wood that was weak with decay and yanked her foot back. She was thankful for the boots she wore because that would have probably cut her leg all up. She forced herself to take another breath to calm down as she stared at the hole her foot had just made. Carefully she tapped around its edges with her toe, and then out in front of her in search of any more sunken in and decaying planks that made up the porch.

The cold air smelled like decaying plants and overhanging foliage, it reminded her of the wooded areas she'd sometimes play in when she was younger. It was a memory that felt bittersweet now as her gaze panned up to the door. Its dirty state was saddening.

With a strain of hesitance she grabbed the door handle to open it, but it was locked. She made a face in a moment of irritation, but a bit of pressure and resulting cracking noises had let her shove the door open.

She was immediately hit with the dence musty air and horrible stench.  She recoiled and had to compose herself before entering, unsure if she'd like what she'd find.

“...Dad…?” She called out into the quiet and thick air, the sound bouncing a bit off the walls and decrepit furniture. She looked around the corridor a bit with a twinge of disappointment seeing so many things from memory desecrated with time. She stepped up to the coat hooks near the door, they were empty with the exception of a dirty pink and green windbreaker in a child's size, dust hiding the bright colors under a dull gray overlay. Reaching out to separate the sleeve and examine it she tried to stop the pained expression she made. Instead she released the sleeve and went to unhook the small jacket entirely. The movement jostled it enough to disturb whatever was in the pockets and it fell out in a shower by her feet.

She quietly exclaimed,

“Ah!” As she stepped backwards leaving the coat swaying a bit on the hook, but realizing what had happened she had stepped back in place. Bending a bit she examined what was on the floor; buttons, rocks, a marble, and a decayed piece of hard candy ( it looked like maybe bugs had gotten to it as the wrapper seemed relatively empty but was still wrapped neatly.)

She frowned, deeming it unhelpful and stepping back. Thanks younger cassie.

The silence that had fallen over the house, and the undisturbed creaks as she carefully walked along the floor made her reminisce in the warm memory of running through the house barefoot to see what her dad was doing, probably cooking something in the kitchen. There was almost always a soft ambiance of something playing, he didn't really like the silence either. It was always jarring when the power went out, and even the quiet hum of appliances was gone.

She stopped in about the middle of the small hall that was the entryway and sighed.

“I'm sorry I didn't take my shoes off,” she whispered as she looked to her feet on the dirty carpet and it brought her memory back to the many times she had walked over the nice off white carpet in mismatched socks, something she had taken for granted out of ignorance.

She blew a sigh from her mouth as she turned to walk through the familiar halls, all the while choking a bit on the air having to press her sleeve covered hand to her nose.

Her eyes caught a dust covered Pictureframe, knocked back against the other little decorations on the little shelf hanging from a nearby wall. She approached and scooped up the picture to look at it, it was a photo of the three of them, her momm dad, and her… it too held an odd sadness that distorted her features a bit. 

The day they took this photo was such a nice one… they had gone out to a park with a pond, there were ducks! There were also frogs! Cassie gave a sad smile, even after her parents divorce he had still kept photos around, she knew that, but even now still seeing them about…

She glanced around a bit at the walls so she could look for other framed photos. It was like nothing had changed, had he never moved anything,

She stared at the photo she held a moment longer before setting it back in its place, and swiping at the dust collected on the glass with her thumb, it barely helped.

“Dad..?” She tried again as she continued forward with slow steps “I, Uh-”

She what? 

She didn't know.

She was here, sure, but why?

Another bauble caught her eye, standing watch from inside the open cavity of a cabinet placed over drawers, she approached slowly and carefully stuck her hand in the cavity to grab it.

The movement caused a black blur to unfurl from the darkness and shove outward, nearly hitting her in the face as it flew out of the cubby.

“Ahk!” She yelled as she stumbled back, falling on the floor.

“Ah- Okay,” she tried to reassure herself, “It was a bat, I’m-” She exhaled. “It was just a bat…” she mumbled and after taking a moment she pushed herself up and swiped at the dirt that was collected on the back of her thighs.

“Okay,,,” she said again trying to reassure herself before looking at the item again. A little plush rabbit she remembered well. Again, a bit more cautiously this time, she reached out and pulled it from the shelf. The purple fabric was matted and grayed with dust, and it's face and body were a bit deflated as if it had lost volume over the years. Despite its sad appearance, it still radiates warmth she long missed. She hesitated a moment as she held it out, she was going to put it back but decided to instead  shove it in her coat pocket.

She continued a bit further now and couldn't help but smile a bit as she stood in front of a cute green and purple decorated room, the glow-in-the-dark stars barely clung to the walls any more, they looked like a slight breeze would knock them down. Even coated in dust the frilly room seemed bright. She stepped into it and the familiar creaking from the floorboards of the doorway made her giddy, she wasn't sure if it was excitement or nervousness.

She trailed into the room and picked up

A stuffed toy that lay on the floor and she breathed out a bit of a sigh

The stuffed dog had seen better days, that's for sure. She turned a bit swiveling to glance around the room before deciding to walk across it and take a seat on the dusty bedspread; the mattress of the little twin bed sunk under her weight and the frame creaked. She blew out a breath as she set the dog up against the head of the bed with the pillows and other plush toys stashed there.

She could only handle reminiscing in the memories of the past for so long before she had to leave the bedroom, she thought she might start crying if she didn't. 

Out of respect for preserving it metaphorically she pulled the door closed and stood there a long moment looking at the closed door, her eyes stuck to the funky font spelling out “Cassie” but the stickers were worn and peeling. The name wasn't recognizable from the halves a quarters of letters, more so that the initial lettering left a clean outline from where it blocked the build up of dirt.

She had to manually tear her gaze away and turn to walk back the way she had come.

She was quick to notice this side of the house smelled much worse.

Without thought she idly wondered if an animal had died here. She pressed her hand to her nose in hopes of just smelling the scent that clung to the fabric.

She frowned, and forced herself to pull her hand away from her face as she cautiously pushed open the half closed bedroom door she now stood in front of. It let out a long whiney creak before the top hinge broke and it fell at an odd diagonal with an unpleasant thud, she had stepped back in surprise but managed to not verbally react.

She stepped into the room and the floorboards creaked and shifted with her weight. She wasn't expecting it to break through the eerie silence and jumped a bit before gathering herself. She scanned the room, half darkened by torn and rotting curtains, but in the places they had completely fallen there was plenty of light creeping through to illuminate the room. Like being near the mouth of a cave, not the bright glass house atmosphere of light pooling in through all the windows and bouncing off all the walls like she's used to seeing from this room.

Her eyes finally fell to the bed across the room and she yelped, jumping back into the rotted door and smacking her head against it.

“Ow-!” She gave almost involuntarily as her hand had trailed to her head to rub the sore area.

Her eyes fell back on the bed, and the skeletal decayed mass that lay on it.

It took a lot to force her legs to move forward, but she did finally trail into the room and over to the bed to stand in front of the decrepit sight.

“Oh… god..” She managed to  push out under her breath.  As she looked over the gross pile of bones in front of her, it was vaguely human shaped and barely held together by thinly veiled skin draped around it, the translucency allowed you to see the inactive veins and decaying muscle beneath. There was barely anything left to identify it as even a person.

When one of the fingers twitched she thought her soul left her body as she jerked with a jump, stumbling back a few steps and emitting a yelp.

Panicked, her eyes were glued to it as she watched from this distance to make sure it wouldn't get up and attack her, it took a minute for her to approach again with eyes still a bit wide with shock.

On the left hand she could see the tarnished but barely decayed metal wedding band on what was left of a boney finger.

The realization had crept up on her and not addressing it made it attack her in a flood,

“Dad..?” She whispered

“How long have you been in here..?”

[stripeixii]

Huh, au idea, thought it'd be funny idk

Word cout: 1,629

He wasn't sure he wanted to, but he had to see someone, he hated admitting it but he needed help, and this was a little bigger than a workroom consultation.

With the sentiment of a deep breath he started up the paved walkway to the familiar house. He had alway thought the spooky decorations along the walkway and porch were cute, but now they seemed to taunt him as he half drug his feet in a slow advance to the door. Not entirely sure he wanted to reach it.

The dark wood felt so familiar yet so off-putting noiw.. 

He had to summon his courage before giving a soft knock.

The door opened to reveal the petite girl behind it, and her eyes went wide.

Jeremy thinks it was the fastest he's moved as he stepped forward to cup a hand over her mouth before she could get any noise out.

His hand was covered in dirt and dried blood, and now his palm had bright purple lipstick smeared all over it.

“Please,” he started, “don't scream… a 6ft man at your door… and you scream… your- n-neighbors will call the cops,” he managed to get out, not realizing how difficult it would be to start talking again. 

Giovanna’s eyes were wide and she looked like she might be sick but she forced out and ‘Mhm,’ as she breathed out a heavy breath trying not to think about the grime on his hands.

With a bit of hesitation he pulled his hand away, and as soon as he did she yelped, bouncing back a bit.

“Wh-why are?? Why are you here?? You-”

“I know.'' He cut her off, and though his instincts told him to get in the house so he could shut the door, he stayed outside of it, having retracted his step from earlier and stepped back through it.

He did move cautiously to wipe his hand against his thigh, leaving a purple smudged stain in its wake.

Giovanna was (understandably) wigged the fuck out, and shuffled forward a few steps. It took a moment of silent contemplation before she finally approached his slouched figure. With an extreme hesitancy, as if he might bite her she reached out carefully to push the loose and tangled hair from his face, her hand holding it up at the side of his head as her eyes investigated the sloppy stitchwork that trailed around the top of his forehead, temple, cheekbone, and along his jawline. She could see his hair caught in the line but wasn't sure if it was in the stitches or old blood. She looked at him as if trying to make sure it was actually him.

It was at this distance he could see the entirety of her face,  she had tried to redo her makeup but it did little to hide her red and irritated eyes from crying. No amount of concealer would hide that her under eyes were swollen and puffy.

“What… happened..,” she asked quietly in a volume that was barely loud enough to be a whisper.

“Can I… Come in?” he countered her question with another and she frowned, stepping back.

“I’m- oh, uh- Y-Yeah-!” She said a bit panicked , her eyes bobbing around a bit. She was a bit surprised to see him slip his shoes off at the door before stepping into the house. The small illusion of normalcy helped her to remember the person attached to what was infront of her. He had even reached beside him to push the door closed.

Giovanna felt frozen in place, watching him, her hands folded together and pressed to her upper thighs.

“So-o, ah, why-”

Jeremy looked at her with an unchanging expression, part of her wondered if he could change his expression…

“I don't know why I'm like this.” He mumbled in response. Giovanna stiffened, straightening up.

“Oh! Um-!” She tried to find the right words

“I-” She tried again before forcing a coherent sentence, “Why did you come here-?!”

He looked to her from his gaze on the ground and managed half a smile, the first sense of emotion she's seen out of him since getting here, 

“You're into freaky shit like this.” 

Hah.

Though seriously, he wasn't really sure where to go.

“‘I think… I'd traumatize my kid.” He added

Both were oddly valid points, and she was at a loss of words, involuntary holding in a breath.

“Oh-h!” She breathed out, “Okay..!” She remarked but couldn't quite find the right words to keep the conversation flowing.

Glancing around a moment she forced a deep breath and shook her glad a little before pointing at the dining table. 

“Sit-!” She squeaked.

Interestingly she hadn't offered the couch, which was closer to where he stood, but if it was an attempt not to get upholstered furniture dirty, he kinda got that.

He decided it best to sit where she designated, despite being a home he was usually so comfortable being in he felt like a complete stranger.

His unaddressed questions were answered as Giovanna returned and set a coffee cup in front of him as well as a small napkin with a cookie on it.

Jeremy thought it was cute, he liked how she was trying to treat the situation normally.

Seeing his eyes on the cup she asked nervously, “Oh uh- c-coffee’s okay, right?” And he glanced over in her direction.

“Yeah…” He said quietly as he watched her give a sheepish smile. He noticed a lot of her make up was gone only smudges of the light foundation and smeared eye shadow and liner remained.

It was amusing at best, Jeremy had no doubt she had hastily washed her face in the kitchen sink.the edges of her hair clumped and shirt collar was darkened with water

What else would you do if a dead guy put his hand all over your face?

He decided not to mention it.

She had turned on heel to scamper off to the next room and Jeremy released a shallow breath in a sigh as he looked back to the cup and cookie in front of him.

He thought about how he hasn't recalled any sense of being hungry or thirsty the past few hours. Something told him the situation may go smoother if he ate.

After a moment of staring over the two he finally picked the cup up with a careful hand. He held back a smile as took a sip. This cup was one he liked and often chose when over here, the simple white cup had a purple floral pattern around it.

The sip he took was incredibly small but it was enough he could tell the coffee had been sweetened to an appropriate degree. He… strangely liked the normalcy. 

He looked up as Giivanna sat at the table beside him, though far enough away he'd have a hard time drubbing her. He didn't really blame her for being wary. 

He had to gather an ungodly amount of willpower to pick up the cookie with careful fingers that almost felt numb before taking a bite, careful not to accidentally get a fingertip.

Everytime his jaw moved he could feel the stitches ripping at the skin, which was… odd thinking about, because he kind of thought the skin was like a mask now, with no sense of feeling. He had brought a hand up instinctively to shield his mouth, a habit he though was dead but it seems its been hiding under the surface since he was a teen.

The actual action of eating was tiring, he quickly found out, and the repetitive motion of chewing quickly started to make his jaw ache. He hoped it was something that wouldn't last, because even though the sweetness was overpowering now, he didn't really like the idea of not being able to share a cup of coffee with Giovanna. It seemed like a waste to not have a cookie, either, as she always had them on hand.

Sometimes he wondered if it was a habit or if she just liked sweets. Regardless  he took another careful bite.

Every movement of his jaw stretched and pulled at the skin, ripping at the stitches, and even though he held a hand up to block the view of his mouth, Giovanna could see most of the tears and pulls clearly. Jeremy's expression was tense and unchanging as his eyes blankly watched the table as if he were concentrating to eat.

Jeremy had swallowed what he was chewing and was quiet for a long while. Even though he wasn't facing her, he could feel her eyes prying into him as her green eyes bobbed from the mug in her hands and up to him in a repeatative succession.

“Stop staring at me.” He said, not really daring to look at her. The words came out a bit stronger than intended. He gets it, it's weird.

She jumped slightly with a little gasp, having been caught.

“Ah- i-” She fumbled, as he turned to look at her now with an exhausted expression.

“I'm sorry! Ahm- Jeremy, d-soes it hurt..?” She asked but made a face, almost spilling the contents of her own mug.

“I-i mean-im-” She desperately tried to backtrack. His entire face had been detached, of course it probably fucking hurt.

“The stitches!” She blurted, really only interrupting herself. “Your mouth I mean, not….” She hummed out a noise bringing her cup to her mouth so she didn't have to speak any more. The sound of her teeth hitting the porcelain reverberated in Jeremy's mind as he thought of how that must have felt, but Giovanna showed no sign of distress towards it.

His shallow breath escaped him in a sigh.

“No,” he finally replied.

“But it's not pleasant.”