The Project

The Nosebleeds- Julian

Content Warning: blood

Julian followed Kana down the hall and back to their 'living quarters', muttering curses under his breath the whole way. He heard muffled voices as they approached- Lulu was easily distinguishable, he could tell Maia too, so the other two feminine voices must be Salina and Meghan. But there was a slightly deeper voice, too, that he couldn't quite place.

"Is there someone else in there?" Julian asked as Kana took hold of the door handles. He was silent for a moment, as though considering how much to tell Julian, before responding.

"Yes. And I'm sure they'll cheer you up."

Julian was doubtful. He honestly wasn't sure anyone in the world could cheer him up, let alone some random stranger who didn't know him. Who would be dumb enough to sign up for this psycho project anyway? Well... me, I guess.

Kana opened the door, pushing Julian inside and locking it behind him. The others were all sitting on one of the couches, and they all looked up when he walked in. The new person was on the couch opposite them, but he turned around when Julian entered the room to, and Julian's heart both dropped and rose when he saw who it was.

"Oh my god." The other boy said.

"Casey??" Julian cried.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Salina asked.

"Yeah," Casey replied. "He's my best friend."

"Casey, what- what are you doing here?"

"Well, I knew you wouldn't be able to survive without me." He teased, "Plus, it sounded sort of interesting. Doctor Angel said the same thing about, y'know, my condition, and she allowed me to be a late submission." Casey stood up and walked over to Julian. "So here I am!"

Julian crouched down and hugged him. Casey was surprised for a second before hugging him back.

When Julian let go, they both sort of awkwardly leant back and tried to act casual, causing Casey to stumble because the couch was further back than he'd expected and he had nothing to lean on. Meghan giggled.

"So uh... what do you guys do for fun around here?" Casey asked.

"That's kind of a good point. We haven't really had the chance to do much- we were brought here, spent about half an hour unpacking, and then were dragged off to the first test."

"Oh? What was the test like?"

Maia glanced at Meghan. "It was..."

"Terrifying." Meghan whispered.

"Violating." Maia said. Julian couldn't help but wonder what the others had seen- they'd summed his feelings about it up pretty well, if he was honest.

"Wait, what did they do?" Casey said, looking concerned. He glanced up at Julian, and Julian tried to steel his face- the tiny amount of it that Casey could see, anyway- and hide what he'd felt.

"It was some weird potion stuff that showed me my past. But not the good bits." Lulu said.

Meghan stood up, clapping her hands softly. "Let's raid the kitchen, see if there's any interesting food in there."

Lulu stood up too, and Casey walked over. "I'm in."

So they did that- Lulu and Meghan poked through the huge fridge, and Julian and the others looked through the many, many different cupboards. The kitchen was ridiculously large- way too much space for just the six of them. And he remembered that the bedrooms were the same, with room for like sixteen people. Doctor Angel was clearly aiming for more test subjects than she had.

"What the heck!" Lulu yelled, throwing something across the room. Julian stood up, hitting his head on the counter with a curse, and stretched his back.

"What?" he said.

"How is all of this food white? Chocolate, sure, you can use food dye, but apples?? Where do you even get white apples??? Not at any farmer's market I've seen! They really are intent on draining this place of any colour!" She took a bite out of the offending apple and spat the chunk on the floor, causing Maia to step away a bit. "Even the inside is white!! WHAT IS HAPPENING."

Meghan retrieved the thing Lulu had thrown- a white block of cheese- and put it back into the fridge. "It's okay, Lulu. Remember, your bed is still colourful. That's what matters."

Blood starts

Something stark red dripped onto the hard floor. Everyone stared at it for a second before looking to see where it had come from. Lulu growled and covered her nose with her hands as more blood started to drip from it. "Oh, great. Now my nose is bleeding."

"Well," Salina said, "the upside is that that's one way to bring colour into the room."

Meghan led Lulu into the bathroom, and Casey grabbed a paper towel and some water from the tap to wipe up the stain on the floor.

Julian looked over at Maia, and realised she was leaning against the counter, holding her head.

"Uh..." Julian said. "Maia, you good?"

She shook her head slightly, and Julian remembered that she was a vampire- how had he even managed to forget that?

"Is there... anything I can do?"

Maia took one hand down to reveal that her usually golden eyes had turned a shade of red similar to the blood. "Just, um..." She took a slow breath. "Just make sure she doesn't come out here until she's not- bleeding anymore."

Salina handed Maia a glass of water. Maia nodded thanks, before taking a cautious sip and closing her eyes.

Casey walked over, throwing the paper towel in a rubbish bin and eyeing her. "Is this going to be a recurring thing? Like, do we need to... let you drink our blood once a week?"

She shook her head again. "Not- I don't want to do that. Hopefully this place will find some for me, since I can't eat regular human food."

Julian left Casey to it, and walked into one of the bathrooms, where Lulu was holding a wad of toilet paper to her nose and Meghan was telling jokes.

"Okay, uh- I'm afraid for the calendar."

Lulu giggled. "Why?"

"It's days are numbered-" It was a stupid joke, really, but both of them cracked up, and Julian let out a snort as well.

"Oh, hey Julian." Meghan said.

"Hey." He said back. "How's the bleeding going?"

Lulu pulled the tissue back. "Basically done, I think- it'll be fine as long as I breath through my mouth for a bit."

"Yeah, cool. Also, Maia's having a bit of a problem- being a vampire and all- so just be careful."

"Okay." They all stood in silence for a bit. "Right, I'm done bleeding, let's head out."

Blood ends

{1063 words} {or 1112}

{Just a bit of a break chapter because my inspiration well for the day is running dry}