Chaos and Corruption (Jeff the Killer Fanfic)

58. Tidied up

Nina

I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, gently tracing the outlines of dried blood on my stomach. My chest hurt and I'm sure one of my ribs were cracked but that just meant Thomas did CPR properly. I wouldn't be here if he hadn't, I guess. I really died out there.

"Nina?"

"You can come in," I said quietly, watching the door pop open in the mirror while I continued to trace where the wounds had been. Pierce didn't hesitate and quickly closed the door behind him, having dropped his jacket off in my room and revealing blood stains on his shirt, "did you get hurt?"

"Eh, bird-thing bit my hand but not bad," he showed off the already-healed wounds before his expression eased, "are you okay?"

"I...I didn't feel it as much as I should've because my nerves but..." I whispered, squeezing my skin, "she punctured my stomach, a-and my organs...I'd be dead if it weren't for Habit and Tom. I was dead."

His face softened and Pierce wrapped me in his arms, pulling me against his chest and letting me tuck into his grasp. My whole body trembled like nothing else and for once it wasn't the adrenaline.

"Hey," he said quietly, shaking me from my thoughts, "no matter what happened you're alive now and that's what matters. It's going to take more than that to wipe you off the face of this earth."

A laugh escaped my chest and I nodded, sniffing hard and squeezing him harder. He joined me for the shower to get rid of any remaining blood caked in the corners, no shenanigans to be had but I was comforted just having him close to me. We snuck back to my room in towels and I changed into sweats and a tank top, zipping my old purple jacket around my shoulders while he ran a brush through my hair.

"You know," I softly chuckled, "we never made anything official."

"I just killed a big bird-monster thing and went into battle beside you," he laughed behind me, "I don't know what else I'd have to do to prove I want to be serious."

"That mean I get to call you my boyfriend?" I teased, leaning my head back into his lap to watch him smile. "Never had one of those before."

He loosed a whistle before we shared a warmer laugh. "Guess I'm the crazy one this time around, 'cause yeah, I wanna be your boyfriend."

"Good."

"Nina? Pierce, you in here?"

"Yeah, come in," I answered the knock and Tanis opened the door, Toby and Vlad not far behind her before she collapsed beside me and wrapped herself around me.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" She whimpered, revealing tears streaking down her cheeks. A smile tugged at mine and I just hugged her tighter.

"I don't plan on it."

Vlad dropped to his knees and held me just as tight before I shooed them both away, getting to my feet and approaching the last person in the room. His face was blotchy and he was hiding behind his mask but I already knew this had affected him far worse than any of us. I pulled Toby into a hug and he held me while he shook, his shoulders and hands twitching the longer I held him there. All of his friends gone in one fell swoop.

"Th-They're getting ready to t-torch him," he muttered as he took a deep breath, "I don't know about y-you all but I'm going to go watch th-that fucker burn."

There was a collective agreement passed between us before we all followed him down the steps. Aunt Ginny sat at the kitchen table with the little girl, probably clueless that she'd almost torn us a new one with that teddy bear but the longer I lingered on it the more I realized she was dead, probably stuck with the mind of a child, not just the body of one; my body eased and hey, she didn't actually manage to hurt anyone. I could let it be water under the bridge for this one. I forgave Habit after all.