(Requested by foxythepirate2o , hope this is okay!)
Justin took a deep breath, pressing his forehead against the cold metal of the sliding garage door. Getting down to the ground floor while avoiding Colin's apartment floor completely had been energy draining, but easier on his nerves. Especially when he had to check nearly every floor for their leader after his sister, Ray he was pretty sure, telling him he was downstairs.
He opened the door and walked into the garage. Like he had hoped, Austin was sitting on a stool next to one of the jacks, leaning forward on his knees and staring at a flower in his hands. Bri was slid underneath one of their go karts, a white one Justin didn't recognize, whacking at something with her wrench.
She slid out at the sound of the door closing, sitting up on her pink creeper with a wide smile. "Justin!"
"Austin, I- oh! Bri! You're here and you, you look... " He trailed off, lost for words. Dark circles were far sagging under her eyes. She was energetic but her face was eerily pale, like she hadn't seen the sun in days. All her features looked strained, her smile, eyes, like a corpse forced to appear alive.
Austin looked similar, exhausted and close to snapping someone's neck off. His hands were cut up and bandaged, but red and green stains still bled through the white gauze. Justin's heart churned easily. Their fearless leader was externally wilting.
Bri stood up from the creeper, clutching her wrench. "I know, I look adorable. I got a new badge, see!" She pointed to a heart-shaped pinned to her overalls that Justin only glanced at, more relieved than anything to see her still alive and well.
He chuckled. "It's adorable as always, heh. Did you make it yourself?"
She nodded proudly. "Mhm! It's pretty sturdy, too. Holds up against a nuclear blast even! So did you need something? Do you need me to fix your vehicle?"
"Actually I needed to talk to Austin about something. It's kind of important."
Austin and Bri glanced at each other. She gave him a tiny smile and turned to wipe the grease off her hands with a rag. "In that case, I'll go get some food for us! We've been here a while."
Austin cleared his throat. "You can get it from my apartment. I left some of your, uh, special food in my fridge. Just ask Ray where it is."
She nodded, squeezed his hand, and left. They watched her leave in silence until the doors swished closed behind her. Justin awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck while Austin set aside the probably dying flower with excruciating slow movements. "What's up?" he finally asked.
"It's about Colin," Justin said. No use in beating around the bush.
He raised an eyebrow. "What about him?"
"Have you noticed that he's been acting a little, you know, strange lately?"
"Colin's always strange; he talks to a dead fish. Though now apparently Bri can talk to him, too. I still don't know what that's all about."
"Well I mean, really lately he's been acting a bit off. Actually, more than off, he's been very creepy at times. Wait no, I don't want to call him creepy- he's not creepy but he did do a few creepy things. I don't know if Bri told you anything that happened, though I don't suppose she did since she didn't really remember-"
"Justin," Austin cut him off. "You're rambling too fast again, I can't understand you. Look." He rubbed at his eyes, tired starting to set it. "I know you know. What Colin is. He told us he had to tell you."
Justin blinked. "Wait... you knew?"
"For a while now, yeah. Found out by accident but it's good that I know."
Fazed by Austin's calmness, Justin stumbled back and sat on the lowered go kart behind him. "Did he tell you about the- the things he did because of it?" 'How many others knew his best friend was a murderous zombie before him?'
Austin sighed. "He did. Some of it I was even there for. Stuff went down, people did get hurt but... most of it turned out alright in the end."
'Did it though?? What about this was alright?' "So do you... don't you think he's maybe..." He sucked in a breath and Austin kept quiet, graciously waiting for him to get his words out. "I don't know! I don't want to speak bad about someone who isn't here to defend himself but like..."
"Do I think he's dangerous?"
Flashes of achingly waking up to the first sight of a skeleton staring empty right at him hit him and he shuddered. "Something like that."
"Look, Justin. I wouldn't let anyone in this tower if I thought they were a danger to any of us. My priority is keeping our family safe." Austin glared at the ground as he talked, digging his fingernails into his palms. It didn't even seem like he was talking to Justin anymore. "And Colin is a part of this family. I've seen what Colin can do while he's like he is, and while I do think he can be dangerous, I don't think we can just leave him."
"I don't want to leave him. He's, he's my bestie... " he bit his lip. Wasn't he? Somewhere in all the crazy and artificial obsession, Colin still was his best friend. If he had just told him from the start-
Would Justin have taken the news of him being a half zombie well? He didn't know for sure, but he wanted to believe he would've been calmer if a cage hadn't been involved. That was the one real problem here. Colin hadn't talked about any of it with him, taking things into his own hands.
Justin remembered the other day with Leo. He was on constant high alert, making sure he knew where Colin was at all times. His heart racing with every movement, his skin crawling with the cold, clammy grime like in the cage all over again.
"Have you been treating him differently?" 'Please say yes. Please don't tell me I'm the only one who isn't just moving past this.'
"Of course I have," Austin said simply and Justin let out a breath of relief. "When something like this happens, we have to adapt to it."
So much for relief. "Adapt how?"
"Keeping an eye on him daily to make sure he's not going off the rails, checking that he has enough food and that it isn't rotten, adding brains to the list of supply runs, making sure we have some when we go on day trips, that sort of thing. He's still Colin, he just loses his personality sometimes."
''Lose his personality.' That's one way to look at it.' It was his personality going haywire that was the main problem here. Just Colin's existence made his heart light. A world of color and fun, for years it had been like that. Now he had the added nightmare of that day. He couldn't separate the two and it scared him.
Justin wanted to be like that. Just accept this Colin as the new him. Like Austin said, it was the old him but with a new diet is all it is. But that's not what it is to him. The old Colin wouldn't have hurt someone. The old Colin wouldn't have even thought of hurting Bri.
His Colin wouldn't have hurt him.
But he did.
How did Austin or any of them expect him to just forget that?
"I don't," Austin said. Justin's head jerked up. Had he said that out loud? "You don't have to forget it. What Colin did was unacceptable and I believe he has been punished for it. But I also believe you should think about forgiving him."
He stood up, stretching his arms above his head. "I should get back to Rya and Bri. I think Colin's with Seek if you wanna talk to him." He patted Justin on the shoulder, not unlike his dad used to, and headed through the door. Leaving Justin to his thoughts and a surprisingly warm feeling.
'Forgive him?' It wasn't like Colin hadn't apologized over and over since, but the ever present fear wasn't something he could sorry away. Whether either of them liked it, it let a scar on Justin.
He jolted, suddenly thinking of something he hadn't considered before. Did it leave a scar on Colin, too? Justin leapt up and, after steadying himself, left for Seek's floor.
He needed to speak to his bestie.
