...𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋, 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 || gameknight999

CHAPTER EIGHT

I FIND MYSELF LOST IN WHAT YOU THINK OF ME

===

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Tom had been unavailable for most of it, preparing for his upcoming meeting with the Feynman family. He was there during dinner, however, and had grown excited as Angel talked with him about the Animals album. Erebus learned that Tom was the one who had gotten Angel into rock music as he gingerly ate the salad that Clara had made - he had voiced aloud his confusion on why one would eat what appeared to be tree leaves, and Angel had nearly choked on her ramen noodle soup from how hard she laughed - and he silently watched as the small family conversed among themselves, a part of him wondering how much he belonged with them.

They were all so kind to him. So unbearably, incomprehensibly kind to a man they barely knew.

He didn't understand it at all. Was this a display of stupidity on their part? Did they truly see something in him, like Angel did? Or were they just pretending to be kind to him in order to have him act a certain way?

That last one should have made more sense to him, given that he was used to this being the case with the majority of his subjects in Minecraft. However, it didn't - Clara's genuinity and Tom's sincere attitude proved this.

Had Angel really spoken so highly of him that they would act this way? The thought made him feel so warm, so valued, though he couldn't understand why or how he had earned this. He was a murderer, a villain in what her story should have been, had they not grown closer.

Here, in this world, he was still a murderer. This time, however, he was a murderer for her.

It was late in the night when he returned, his heart still pounding in his chest from what he had done. He didn't yet know how to read clocks in this world, but he knew it was late enough that the rest of the family would be asleep. Looking down at his hands, his eyes widened as he saw how stained they were, with a dark crimson the same shade as his Enderman self in Minecraft - it was as if this human form was ripping away, shedding itself like a snake's skin to make way for the dark red flesh.

Shaking his head to clear away those thoughts, he continued on. It was ridiculous; the color didn't belong to him, it belonged to them. Those bastards had been near the park, by some miracle, smoke pouring from their mouths as they giggled and drank an unfamiliar amber liquid. Angel's name had slipped past their lips, and before they were even aware of what had happened, their blood was on his hands, and they were rendered unable to say her name permanently.

Why was he still thinking about them? They were gone now, a distant memory,

He stepped into the dimly lit bathroom, flicking on the small lever to turn on the overhead light. In the closet, he found a rag, which he grabbed, and started to wipe the blood off of his hands. It mainly only coated his knuckles, but he quickly found that it was hard to wipe blood off of his skin without smearing it and making it more noticeable. He needed to wash it off another way.

The thought alone terrified him. He had seen Angel using the faucet to wash her hands, and knew that it dispensed water. Surely that would help to get the blood off, but at what cost? Would the water still hurt him? Or would it be just that - water, tinged a faint red with the blood washing from his hands?

It was all too sudden, the urge, in a way he hadn't been expecting at all - he was overwhelmed with curiosity, with the desire to turn on the water and force his hands underneath the stream. What would it matter if the water hurt him? That would be the expected reaction, one that a part of him believed that he deserved, no matter how far down in his twisted mind that part was.

Stepping forward, he put a hand on the faucet handle and pulled it toward him, jumping slightly at the sight of the water rushing so quickly into the sink. He watched it flow down the drain as if it was going to suddenly jump at him, his hand outstretched over the sink, inches from the water.