Chapter Text
The death was bloody. Violent. A collage of red and white and black and brown as his head smashed into the deep water, pulled down by the costumed figure. Howlz felt his consciousness fade in and out as the water filled his lungs and-
Howlz’s eyes opened. They were not in that pink room- but in something like a backroom? A morgue? – taking deep breaths, one after another, each breath pouring out his congested nostrils. His nose was, suspiciously, absent of blood. For the time being at least. He still instinctively wiped his nose however, mostly out of habit but also of nervousness. He takes in their surroundings – it is a morgue, however there is one. Casket? Storage vessel? Howlz had only been in a morgue once and he was completely sick of it. Lopps had to take him out after he saw a body.
Howlz takes another breath. There isn't anyone here. Can’t be. The place looks abandoned, save for the few miscellaneous computer equipment scattered around, covered in dust. Howlz avoids breathing any dust in – it messes with his already bad h emophilia. He rubs his nose again.
There’s also a door – theoretically the only exit in the “morgue”. He takes a glance outside: lines and lines of. oh. Unused caskets. Howlz goes numb, shaking a little in fear. ‘there isn’t any corpses, you can’t have a morgue without more vessels, you’re fine you’re fine you’refineyouarefinehowlzcalmdown ’
His heart-rate rapidly increases. This isn’t good.
‘breathe. Breathe. Calm down.’
‘Calm. Down.’
Some one is coming. Fuck. FUCK. FUCK.
‘CALM. DOWN.’
Get back on the seat sit down and close your eyes don’t get caught and don’t make a sound don’t move don’t sneak a peek don’t. do. Anything.’
The door opens, creaking way too loud for Howlz’s ears – the person who put them here has arrived.
They come over to Howlz, inspecting her body and looking over him. He hears writing on paper. His ear tries to twitch.
They stop writing. ‘no no no no no no’ They look over Howlz’s head, seeing his ear staying perfectly still.
They move on, towards a wound on Howlz’s upper body, muttering to themself, “He seems to have a bit more damage on their right forearm and legs… ear twitched slightly … waken up?”
SHIT. They know. Shit shit shit shit shit. Okay relax. Nothing bad is going to happen. Calm down.
More writing. The seconds drag on, Howlz’s silent breathing growing more and more agitated. This feels. Wrong. Weird. They keep on nervously looking over her body, checking and double, triple-checking him for any signs of damage. They seem more panicked about keeping him safe and fine than just. Putting her in one of those caskets.
Howlz also recognizes that voice now that he’s heard them speak for hours on end. Is it? No. No it’s not. It can’t be. He’s weird, rude, abrasive.
Well. Now he is. In the past they were. Nice? In a way. Kind to him. They. Ugh.
Howlz whimpers a little.
FUCK. NO. NOOOO. They’ll hear you. Keep it cool keep it calm keep it-
But they did.
They stop for a moment.
“… Howlz?”
No response.
“Are you… awake?”
Howlz’s ‘response’ this time is a twitch of the ear. This time it was intentional.
“Ah. Shit.”
He brought Howlz out of the room, past the “storage closet” towards a more homely place – a seemingly lived in main area with a faded-thread couch covered in paw-print staining the fabric, with way too much pillows piled into a pseudo-nest in the entire middle. A small patch of fur pops out the top of the ‘nest’ – a cat with stark yellow eyes staring directly at Howlz and R.
They glace at Howlz for a minute, long enough for Howlz to feel a sense of panic and some internal sadness and empathy.
“Hey um.”
R’s voice interrupts Howlz’s eye contact as they all turn towards him.
“This is Howlz and this is…” he says, introducing Howlz to the individual in the nest.
R stage whispers to them: “say your name.”
They don’t respond, instead nesting in their bed and closing their eyes. A yawn, inaudible yet loud, reverberates throughout the room.
“I hope you are fine with staying with m- with us,” R says, this time towards Howlz. There’s a bit of nervousness in his mannerisms and speech now, they seem a bit embarrassed at the behalf of Howlz. It might be from his constant insulting, or maybe the jarring room with its sterile office and calming living room. Howlz gives him a thankful look as they move to sit down. His hip crackles a bit, pain zipping up to her head and chest. Their heart beat increases, breathing more heavily now.
“OH- those wounds hasn’t healed. Thats what I was worried about no no no..” his voice trails off as they return quickly to the office/‘morgue’ room.
Ho wlz catches their breath as he looks at the large nest on the couch. Well. It’s not really a couch per-say, its much larger than that. A combined bed and couch, Howlz guesses. Howlz peers down inside the nest now, seeing a surprisingly large, roomy space covering in blankets and pillows. The cat is lying down inside there, head laid atop a lump of cloth. Howlz crawls in, observing where the cat lies, avoiding waking them up from their nap.
“mmgh…?”
Shit. He woke them up. Howlz steadies himself, he doesn’t know if they would blow up due to this or take it calmly.
“oh. It’s you.”
Huh. Well, they’re calm at least. Howlz waves hello, then points at his muzzle to indicate the absence of her mouth.
“…”
“oh. You can’t speak.”
A sigh.
She gestures him to sit down. Howlz obliges.
Immediately a tired feeling enters into his body, he’s so exhausted. ‘ I think I can lie down. For a bit…’
Howlz returns to consciousness, the warmth of fake fur and fabric rubbing against him. He feels an arm tighten around him. Soft like a pillow, or a stuffed toy, but bones metallic and hard.
Howlz breathes in deeply. He closes his eyes and goes back to bed.