Lee X reader - Bones And All

8

It's later at night and I decide to read on a bench, but I'm interrupted by a drop of rain landing on my page so I go under the roof of some building. I hope it didn't heavily rain all night I don't have the energy for that. Once I get under the roof I see a strange man, who I would've just ignored but I couldn't because there was absolutely nobody else out at this time of night. Not only that but I can almost sense something strange about him. He calls out to me,
"I didn't mean to scare you." He had a thick southern accent and a peculiar outfit. He was wearing a fishing vest with a chore coat with various decorative pins. But he had no luggage.
"Are you here for the bus?" There was something odd about him that I couldn't put my finger on. Maybe odd wasn't the feeling that I would describe maybe just different.
"No missy, I was looking for you. Maybe that sounds weird to you. Or maybe it doesn't." It very much did sound weird to me. Why on god's green earth was he looking for me? I have no idea who this guy is. I drop my shoes and start to put one on,
"Do I know you?" As I'm putting on my other shoe he starts to walk towards me, not in any rush, just towards me.
"When's the last time you fed?" I stop putting my shoe on but he doesn't stop walking towards me.
"Stop-- stop there. Stop--" and to my surprise he did.
"You haven't in months I'd say." How the hell did he know that? How could he even tell?
"You can... smell that?" I think he might be like me. But I thought I was the only one.
"You can smell a lot of things if you know how. And we just smell anyways, whether we ate or not. Lord knows why. To find each other maybe? To steer clear? I don't know." Yeah neither do I. He takes a toothpick out of a metal toothpick holder and slowly walks back into town in the light rain.
"Come on, Missy..." I have so many questions for this guy. But I feel like I shouldn't ask them just yet because in the end he is a stranger no matter if he's like me or not. And if he is like me I should be careful. When he's turned around and not looking I pick a decent sized rock and follow him.

We walk along the edge of town in silence until we come up to a wooden hill leading to a nice looking neighborhood. He's still chewing on his toothpick and I notice the top of his ear has been slashed off.
"Where are we going?"
"Someplace dry and safe. I'm Sullivan but friends call me "Sully"." Sully. That's a nice name for a nice old man who may or may not kidnap me and eat me.
"I'm (Y/N). You live in this town?"
"Nice name. Never heard of it before. Don't worry, (Y/N)... I'm ok. I got rules. Number one is never eat an eater. It's a good one. Think you can follow it, too? I don't want to find you gnawing at my elbow all of a sudden." That's very fair.
"I won't." He gestures up the small hill leading up to a house,
"Through the back. We'll talk inside." I'm not sure I wanted to talk inside.
"Can't we talk out here?" I don't see why we couldn't.
"I'll fix some dinner. Look, Sully's trying to help. Is that alright?" Why is he referring to himself in the third person. This guy just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I understand he's old and probably lonely but still. I think about his offer for dinner while I look around and see other houses. People are still awake and a scream away if needed.
"Here. I smelled you from the yard!" He what?
"This far?!" How was that even possible. That was at least half a mile away. He goes up to the house and I follow behind him, keeping my guard up.

We go into a small kitchen and Sully flicks the light on so we can actually see properly. He puts his toothpick in the bin and puts on a rather whimsical apron. I sit down and examine the contents of the table in front of me but it's nothing interesting. Sully grabs some vegetables and starts cooking.
"I'm going to show you how to make Hobo Casserole." Did he just say 'Hobo Casserole'?
"What's in a Hobo Casserole? Hobos?" He looks at me after my poor attempt at a joke.
"Use whatever you got to hand. Set the oven to 400 when you start." He gets some other ingredients from the fridge and comes back and continues with the cooking tutorial but before I let him I have to ask,
"Are there lots of us?"
"Not lots but more than you'd think. You've met a few, sure." I give him a look and he continues,
"That you know of. You never had anyone take a special interest in you? A double-take sorta thing?" Now that he mentions it I start to realise it.
"I guess. But I just thought..."
"You just thought some people are creepy and left it. Girls have it harder that way. You're not wrong. It's better if we all stay clear of one another. We're dangerous to non-eaters, sure, but we can hurt one another just as bad... I hope you're hearing me." I'm getting a familiar sense of déjà vu.
"You sound like my dad."
"Good. He find out about you?" The way he worded the question made me realise the gravity of the way I was. It should've been a soul sworn secret but it wasn't. My dad kept on loving me even after he 'found out'. I simply nod as Sully layers the casserole. But I was still a bit confused,
"What about you? You just basically said keep away from people like us, but you came looking for me." He laughs and then tosses a pinch of salt behind him. Why? I have no idea.
"Sharp. What I smelled, was that you hadn't eaten. And when I saw you're just a girl on your own, I thought you might be hungry." I think we both knew what he was talking about but I had to confirm.
"For casserole?"
"No."
I look at the dark living room and see a framed sampler reading 'BLESS THIS HOUSE'.
"Who lives here?" Sully changes the oven racks around and is extremely calm after hearing my question.
"Go look." What does he mean go look? What could that possibly mean?

I walk toward the dark living room and turn on a lamp and see countess framed photos. I scan them briefly but stop when a cat brushes up the side of my leg. I finally stumble across a wedding picture but all I can hear is the ticking of the clock. I turn and look down a short, silent hall. I walk past a bathroom and see a lot of appliances for things an elderly person would need them for. The cat from earlier slips past me and into a bedroom where a small lamp is on low. I hear someone behind me and I just assume it's Sully.
"Use your nose. What do you smell?" I want to scream and cry.
"Is there a dead person in there?" I hope he says no.
"What do you smell? Describe it." I sniff the air and become familiar with the scents roaming around me.
"It's wet... and hot like soup."
"Good. What else?"
"But metallic."
"Like blood?"
"No. But close. More like vinegar. Vinegar in soup." I think I'm explaining it really badly.
"But not like rotten."
"No but close. More like vinegar. Vinegar in the soup." He then agreed with me.i find this whole situation quite fascinating. I come across a bedroom with Sully still behind me. The door is slightly adjar so I take a slow step forward and see a woman in the room. She's lying on the floor in the middle of the room. She looks quite old and so I take another step to get a closer look and can't hear a faint rasp. She's wheezing. But more importantly, she's still alive.

I immediately step away from the room in horror. How could he just keep her alive while he's living in her house, the least he could do was put her out of her misery.
"She's alive we'll get help-"
"Missy-"
"What did you do to her?!"
"I found her like that this morning." I don't believe him at all.
"You're lying. Let me by!" This guy had to be insane for living in this woman's house with her still breathing in her room.
"I followed my nose. I can smell it, especially on an old person. You did, too. You described it better than I could." I don't even know how I did that. But this is inhumane - how ironic - I can't stay here with an elderly woman dying upstairs.
"I want to go!" It's not like he's going to keep me here. Is he?
"Listen, let me bone on this for you. Whatever you and I got, it's got to be fed." The way he describes whatever 'we've got makes it sound like we're animals with some sort of disgusting disease. Which couldn't be more true.
"No- no. It was years before my last time-"
"It's because you're young you'll need it more and more." I should never have left. I'd rather gone my life without knowing all these things. But then I might end up doing something I'll regret if I don't know how to deal with this properly. I'm struggling to believe any of this, mainly because I really don't want to.
"And you won't always be able to hold yourself back. Maybe you already know that. There's a reason you're on your own, isn't there? Just... be calm. Maybe I should butt out, but I know from living as long as I have... if the circumstances are safe and good, then eat. It'll last you a while, maybe keep you from doing something you'd regret more. Even more, Missy." I didn't appreciate his little nickname for me. What was I doing with myself? What will I do with myself? Because there's no chance in hell am I staying here. I silently start to cry having little to no control over my emotions. I just can help but feel so guilty. Sully goes on,
"I found her like that and I don't think a hospital's going to help her, old as she is. Her mail's stacked up a bit so I don't think so I don't think she's got relations nearby." But she's still a person.
"I don't kill people. I try not to. That leaves this, and things like it." I need to take a minute to think about what I'll do.
"Can I use the bathroom, please?"
"Sure." He lets me past him so I go into the bathroom and lock the door. What am I even meant to do. I start to weigh out my options: I can either sleep here and potentially eat the elderly woman if she dies, or I can leave and sleep on the bench at the station but Sully would know where I am.
"What I'm proposing is I take the couch and you take the gues bed. I don't think it'll be long now." I wish it was longer so she could say goodbye to her friends and family saw in the pictures on my way to the bedroom.
"When it's time the smell will change. I won't even have to come get you; you'll know. So go and get right with it." I then hear his footsteps fading downstairs. I think I'll stay for now.