A heavy silence lingered between the two.
After JJ finished crying, it felt suffocating. Though, soon enough, he'd be wishing for that silence again.
JJ started to hear noises in the distance; unrealistically scary ones, proving them to be nothing more than figments of his imagination. He ignored it at first, but eventually, it grew too consistent to do so.
After a long, violent hiss; only one of so many prior, JJ's eyes shot open once again; slightly bloodshot with extreme agitation and the prior determination to block it out. Preparing to snap, JJ looked at the end of the bed, and what he saw, certainly wasn't nothing.
A killer clown was perched, it's usual maniac smile twisted into a rageful frown, its eyes blazing furiously.
"Selfish." It hissed, progressively getting louder and more aggressive. "Selfish, selfish, selfish!"
JJ scrambled to the end of the bed as two more killer clowns presented themselves, all harboring the same anger. They crawled towards him, freaking him out, and he started to scream as they reached their claws towards him, leaving the turtle across from him now awake, confused, and frightened at the sudden and extreme change in mood.
"Mikey!" He cried, breathing so hard that he started to feel dizzy as their claws scratched and grazed over his bare and exposed skin. He swore that the pain he was feeling, the blood he was seeing, and the scars forming on his body were all real. "Mikey, please, help me! Help me! Stop them, please, stop them! Stop them stop them stop them stop them stop-"
Just then, JJ felt an abrupt stinging pain along his face. His eyes were forced open then, and he saw Mikey hovering over him, his right hand shaking and his face ridden with the guilt of hitting him. The killer clowns were gone now, as well as the scratches and bloody streaks along his body. JJ was left confused and terrified as cool air consumed his form, rather than the choking presence of multiple enemies.
"I'm sorry," Mikey's voice shook regret and worry. "I-I didn't know what else to do- you were seeing things that weren't there, you wouldn't stop screaming, a-and-"
JJ whimpered, clutching the bedsheets with sweaty, shaking palms. His unfocused gaze was clouded with a deep, indescribable horror, one that flooded Mikey with so much sympathy that he couldn't think of anything else at the moment. He leaned down and hugged him, holding him close and protecting him from seeing anything else.
JJ still wasn't paying attention to him. He wasn't paying attention to anything at all, for that matter. He seemed non-present; trapped in his mind, and thinking of nothing but traumatic hallucination he could've sworn he felt.
Mikey knew the things JJ did were horrible and disgusting. There were times where he'd thought he was too far gone, but as he looked at the trembling, broken man huddled against his chest, he remembered why JJ has been acting so messed up in the first place.
"I shouldn't call it quits and leave him because I'm scared of him sometimes." Mikey decided firmly, his delusion taking over. "I need to find a way to get him proper help. But how? How, JJ, can I heal you? Can I even at all?"
