dead hands (my mh/creepypasta crossover au)

chapter four💕

(TW: hospital scenario)

tim was woken by the lights of the morning weaving through the trees and drifting through the window. when he looked down, he smiled at brian's sleeping form, still perfectly safe and loosely holding his hand. his eyes were still closed, and he seemed very relaxed. it reminded tim of the time before he had disappeared, back when they were just two broke college kids trying their best to make it through life together. it was always the two of them against the world. but then, in the months leading up to brian's disappearance, he had become distant and irritable, constantly looking stressed. tim was worried, but when he asked about it, he wouldn't ever get a straight answer. this new demeanor that had recently come to light was a comforting change, but it was still a bit unnerving. tim snapped out of his nostalgic trance and looked down at brian to see that he was staring pleasantly up at him.

"uh, good morning!" he whispered, trying not to be too loud. brian smiled and gave a contented mumble in response. that smile. damn. tim thought that it was the absolute most gorgeous thing. he couldn't believe that he had gone without seeing it for so long.

"are you feeling any better?"

brian's look of happiness slowly melted into fear as he realised that he couldn't actually tell what tim was saying. he began to sit up, but stopped when a sharp pain struck his chest. defeated, he settled back down onto the bed, limply placing a hand over his chest and looking even more pained than before.

more than anything, tim felt pity. this was the most raw expression emotions he'd ever seen brian give, and yet it was so childish and pure. was this really what was going on under all of that confidence? it didn't matter. what mattered was that the poor thing had his face scrunched up in pain and his fists balled up in the bedsheets.

"hey, hey, it's gonna be okay, alright?" tim whispered, comfortingly running a hand up and down brian's arm.

from across the room, the door gave and ominous creak, and slowly opened to reveal the same little girl that tim had seen in the forest before brian came back. sally williams the probably-ghost. the not-confirmed-to-be-a-ghost-but-is-in-all-honestly-probably-dead-in-some-way-shape-or-form girl. she was only cautiously peeking into the room, but when she saw tim, her face lit up and she bounded over to him.

"hi mr. tim! i'm so glad that you're staying here with us! i get kind of lonely here sometimes. the others here aren't bad, but most of them are really weird. not to be mean, but some of them freak me out. anyway, jackie told me to give you this! i don't know why. also i drew a picture for you guys!" she excitedly rambled as she proudly held out two pieces of notebook paper for him to take. it was certainly a change from her ominous behavior that he had witnessed in the past, but at least it was a bit less frightening.

he politely responded, "well thank you, sally," before taking the papers and examining each of them. first, the letter. it was written in messy cursive.

tim,

it feels kind of strange calling you that. i have no idea whether we're on a first name basis yet or not. well, too late. there's no going back now. anyway, i'm out for the day on a last-minute mission, and i just realised that i somehow completely forgot to tell you what brian will need to recover. whoopsie. surprisingly enough, there's not really any kind of surgery or medication that's needed at this point besides what's already being gradually administered through the iv and some therapy type stuff later on. other than that, he'll just need to rest until his bones are a little less broken and he's physically capable of standing himself up for more than a few seconds. you're free to stay with him for as long as you'd like, but once you're ready to head out and see the rest of this place, let me know (not today though. because i'm not here right now. that's probably obvious but i felt the need to clarify). i'll be back at around 3pm. see you then.

-jack

good to know. next, he looked at the drawing. a sloppy crayon scribble of what was probably supposed to be a cat. on the corner of the page, in sloppy, orange handwriting, the words "to tim and brian" and "from sally" were written. tim smiled widely.

"thank you so much! this is amazing!" he exclaimed.

she grinned and laughed before asking, "do you think brian will like it?"

"well, let's see," tim replied, turning back to brian and handing him the drawing. brian struggled to grasp at the paper, but managed. he looked at it for a moment before breaking into a genuine smile.

"well i'd say he does!" tim concluded. sally let out a giddy squeal before thanking them and rushing out of the room.

when tim looked back down, brian was smiling at him again. he began to process the situation, slowly but surely. a dead girl had just run into the room, given him a letter from an otherworldly demon with an alarming amount of medical knowledge, and then asked whether his best friend who had recently come back from the dead had liked her drawing of a cat or not.

this was going to be a weird eternity.