★ Paranoia

Chapter 62

January 10th, 2024

Day Eighteen

At some point, in the early hours of the morning, JJ woke up long before Mikey did. Anxiously, his eyes flitted to the digital clock at their beside, as they always did.

Three in the morning, almost four.

Two more days until certain death. Dread twisted in JJ's gut, cold and almost painful. His breathing seemed to stop, especially once he remembered that his hope for an escape was gone, and nowhere to be found. With all of the people out looking for him, there wasn't a chance he'd be able to go and search for Banana Kid. He was lucky he'd even been able to retrieve the leader's body without being spotted yesterday.

There was only one way JJ could calm himself down. Dragging his eyes away from the bright red numbers, he buried his face into Mikey's neck, allowing the hybrid's scent to gently tickle his senses. The burst of pleasure he felt from it was the only distraction he ever wanted.

Mikey looked so well-rested and peaceful in his sleep. Pulling away, JJ's eyes started to rake down his form, admiring every detail about him. Admiring turned to relishing, and relishing soon turned into craving.

Craving. Mikey was well-fed from earlier, but meanwhile, JJ hadn't eaten much at all. He simply didn't like the way he'd made the leader's remains; it had been for Mikey anyway, not himself. He preferred the way that he always did it, past midnight in his secret room with Alfred. Raw and violent.

So now, here JJ was, feeling hungry while Mikey was the exact opposite. His eyes ran along the shape of Mikey, from his rising and falling sides to his hips, gently shifting in his sleep. He found himself blushing as he watched him, as he always found Mikey to be cute when he was sleeping. As much as he would've loved to settle for simply this, this craving that he was feeling went way beyond just watching him.

JJ wished he could've just pushed through and ate earlier, because now he was awake early in the morning, hungry, and having undesirable thoughts as a result of it. Most of the time, he was able to ignore these, but he'd slipped up a few times in the past... biting Mikey's leg, biting his neck, and quite literally extracting some flesh from his neck as well. JJ could see Mikey's wounds clear as day, now dry, but it still looked like they ached. He wished he could take back what he'd done to hurt Mikey like this, but at the same time, Mikey was the best thing he'd ever tasted. He didn't want to hear Mikey screaming in pain because of him again, but at the same time, swallowing his flesh was a feeling that couldn't be beat.

Why is it that the person he cared about the most was also the person he wanted to hurt the most? JJ knew that the better he knew someone, the more satisfying it would inevitably be when he killed and ate them. But sometimes, he wished it wasn't like that, because if that were the case, then killing and eating Mikey would hypothetically be the best thing he could ever do. He didn't want to think of that- no, he couldn't think of that. Mikey was his lifeline, and needed him more than anything else in the entire world. If Mikey wasn't with him, then whatever would he do with himself?

But he couldn't help it. There were times where his cannibalisitc thoughts about Mikey took front and center, such as those few times mentioned earlier, and right now was one of those times. Oh, if only JJ had thought of this consequence earlier, and simply just ate his fill despite how he'd felt about it. Because now, poor Mikey had to be the center of JJ's confliction.

JJ forced himself to look away from Mikey's body, which JJ found perfect and delicious in every way. He wanted to give in to his impulses again, to push past Mikey's skin with his teeth and feel them reach the warm, tender flesh underneath. He wanted to tear it straight off of his bones, and in doing so, make Mikey his in a way that no one else could...