"come home" // Corpse Husband

IV. 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜

Corpse thought himself to be the unluckiest guy on planet Earth.

None of the physical therapists he trusted could come out to work with him at home thanks to the pandemic.

The thought of having to take care of himself was absolutely terrifying. He was still learning new things about his body every day - the effects of his illnesses lying in unchartered waters.

Who's to say he wouldn't drop dead right this instant?

And while Corpse sat at the edge of his messy bed; the mattress of which held dents of restless nights; he contemplated the meaning to his existence.

Were all his efforts even worth it?

Somewhere in the halls of a prestigious university, Sage Graves wondered that too. The test in her hand showed yet another set of harsh red markings.

She worked hard on the things she set her mind to. And hard work was said to bear fruits. Then why, pray, did her recent results return fruitless?

"Come on, Sage."

Her best friend, Elijah, plopped down beside her with a hand on her shoulder. He knew just how self critical she could be at the tiniest moments of imperfection.

"Professor Rowan's been making shit out of syllabus and you still did better than half the class," he said.

"It doesn't matter, Elijah," she mumbled. "At this rate I'm going to lose my scholarship."

"No, you won't," he assured. "You're one of the most capable people here. Plus, I heard a group of our batch's going to complain to the dean."

She shrugged.

Elijah did not like to see his friends unhappy. Especially Sage. "Aw, don't be like that. Tell you what, I'll play you a round of that weird astronaut game if it makes you feel better."

And that's how Sage ended up playing Among Us with Elijah on discord that night. She had picked a random username to play with strangers that wouldn't recognize her.

The game started and much to her dismay, Sage ended up being a crewmate.

"Impostor," Elijah read outloud.

"E!" she laughed, already having forgotten the day's concerns. "You're not supposed to tell me what you are!"

"Oh," he said. "So, what exactly am I supposed to do with this red guy?"

She rolled her eyes at his cluelessness and the fact that he'd unknowingly just ended the game for her. Nonetheless she explained his motive.

"I think I get it now!"

Poor lime was Elijah's first victim. But hey, at least they had the entire lobby as witness.

Every single character stayed rooted to their spawning point in a circle - she could just imagine them cackling at him from their homes.

"What?" He said worriedly into the mic. "Was that a bad move?"

"Terrible is more like it," she replied.

His teammate was smart to call the meeting first. There was nothing left to be said. Elijah's orange space ranger was kicked out in a matter of two seconds.

"Aw, come on!" he cried.

Sage was a chortling mess by the time he was gone and the game continued. "Should we join a new lobby?"

"Yes, please."

She snorted some more at his sulky tone. "Alright but if you pull anymore stupid shit, I'm gonna rat you out."

"Heyyy, that's not very-"

The discord call chimed twice, promptly cutting Elijah off.

"What was that?" he asked instead.

Sage opened the software to answer her question and was met with a surprise.

Valkyrae is requesting to join the call.

Corpse Husband is requesting to join the call.

It was safe to say she was taken aback. Maybe she would have been excited if it were just Rae but a sudden call request from Corpse? They were definitely not close enough to interact off camera. Heck, they didn't even follow each other's socials.

She bit her lip, recalling each and every scenario of the three together — which she could've counted on one hand, really. And, Rae hadn't texted her for days. Perhaps she'd done something wrong?

First and foremost, however, she had to make sure Elijah was comfortable. "Um, E? Would you mind if two of my online friends joined?"

"Sure, maybe I can learn a thing or two from the pros," he said.

Two more chimes were a sign their requests had been accepted.