Nekro-Narcissistic

Chapter 17 - Want It

[TW: Depictions of abuse, gore, violence, vomit, a mental breakdown, and mentions of suicide.]

    Pepper was absolutely shaken from head to toe, trying her best to act calm and collected on her trek down the hallway. For Salt to already be screaming like that, despite being aware of the dire circumstances really made Pepper's blood boil. She nearly blew their cover, screaming like that for all to hear. She prayed that she'd be the first one there, able to salvage as much of the situation as possible. Pepper began to panic, imagining the crowd of people that might already begin forming around the door. To her immense relief, there was nobody there. She looked around several times, ensuring nobody watched as she entered the room.

Locking the door behind her, she turned to confront her BCFF, only to be met by the sound of running water. Initially confused, the gears started turning in her head, only finally forming a complete thought upon opening the bathroom door.

"EEK! Pepper!! Privacy, please?!"

Salt bellowed, almost completely obscured by the mounting bubbles in the bathtub.

"SALT-!? Hey- wha- what the heck!?"

Pepper shouted, quickly assessing her surroundings.

Salt was still lying comfortably in the tub, however she'd begun running the water, and added more than a desired amount of bubbles to it. The water was spilling onto the ground, not entirely flooding it, but leaving it a bigger mess than Pepper had left it a few hours earlier. She stared at Salt with a look of defeat.

"Salt...Why?"

She asked.

"Like, what do you mean 'why?' I'm taking a bath!"

Salt replied, grinning with satisfaction.

"Okay... But why did you call me?"

Pepper reiterated.

"OH! Right. So like, while I was just- sitting here, getting cozy...I like, totally forgot something."

"And what's that?"

Pepper asked. Not even a moment later, an unidentifiable organ rose up from the mess of bubbles, bobbing up and down like a dead fish. Salt pointed down at it.

"That. That's it."

She said, without a hint of care in her voice.

Pepper wasn't sure just how much more of this her heart could bear without driving her crazy. Crazy as in, locked-in-a-white-padded-cell-and-throw-away-the-key crazy. She sharply inhaled, doing her best not to bash her head against the wall in frustration.

"Salt."

She said, barely audible.

"Huh?"

"SALTY-SALT."

"That's me! Yeah?"

Salt giggled, grabbing at a rubber duck that floated amongst the small sea of foam and entrails in the tub.

Pepper thought she would go mad, staring once more into a soup of intestines and gore. As the bubbles dissipated, she saw the water become a dark, murky color. She immediately lunged forwards, grabbing both of Salt's hands.

"Heyyy! What the hell-?"

Salt started, before immediately shutting up upon seeing Pepper's grave expression.

"Salt, Salt- I need you to listen to me. This is really, REALLY serious."

She deadpanned.

"You can't just scream when you want me to show up. I'll stop by whenever I can. Girl, you CAN NOT blow our cover! NOBODY is supposed to know you're here, remember?!"