Killer Behind the Screen

Chapter 3: The Habits of Living

Weeks passed and the hours dragged by, Habit would leave and Elliot would comfort Nick the best she could. she respected both of them. Nick, because of his strength, and Habit because of his wit. She admired them both but she knew not to get too attached to either of them.

"Why do you care?" Nick muttered as Elliot bandaged his arm

"Guess it's just instinct for me at this point," she responded, "would you prefer I didn't?" He just chuckled at her remark.

"So you don't actually care?"

"I wouldn't say that-"

"No no you don't need to lie," He turned his face away and furrowed his brows as he stared at the wall.

"I'm not," she whispered to herself

Nick was nice but very disturbed, she didn't blame him though. He'd lent her an old laptop, well he didn't, Habit did but she didn't spend much time thinking about it, it hurt her brain. She got into the routine of sleeping till 10 am, then trying to find where the kitchen landed now, eating, lying around till she was hungry again, eating, checking Twitter, dinner, Twitter, then bed. She didn't dare leave the house, she knew even if Habit tried to kill him, Lazarus wouldn't stop till he got her back.

One issue she had with living with Habit is he would shuffle the rooms like a deck of cards so rooms were in different places. Sometimes it felt like he would purposely bring you to every other room except the one you wanted to go to.

One day, Elliot was on the couch when she started to hear shouting, she strained to hear that it was Nick and Habit in an argument. Then she winced as she heard the front door slam shut followed by Nick walking over with blood on his hands, a bloody nose, and eyes welling with tears. She stood up grabbing a washcloth and first aid but Nick stopped her.

"It isn't my blood," he says as Elliot inspects his arm.

"Well that's...good I guess," she says trying to be reassuring.

"NO, IT'S NOT! HE KILLED MY DOG!" He yelled "I'M TIRED OF BEING A FUCKING PUPPET! I KNOW YOU SYMPATHIZE WITH HIM, HOW? I DON'T KNOW AND HOW YOU CAN LIVE WITH YOURSELF? I DON'T KNOW EITHER!" Elliot took a deep breath fighting back tears. She hated being yelled at, not that many people enjoy it, but she composed herself.

". . . He's everything I wish I was. I wish I was like that so the shit I went through wouldn't have happened" she pauses trying to find the best words "I know what it's like to be trapped in someone's sick game, but the only way to end it is to be smarter or stronger or just luck," he looked into her green eyes.
"You all think it's a dog eat dog world, don't you"
"Because it is," she responded matter of factly.
He wiped the blood from his hands and she caught a glimmer of purple in Nick's eyes as HABIT spoke.

"That all true kid?" Habit asked

"How much d-did you hear?" Elliot asked, getting embarrassed.

"Pretty much all of it," he said watching her grow red and fidget slightly "lemme ask you a question... Are you scared of me? Aren't you scared I could hurt you?" she paused for a moment thinking then shook her head. Habit didn't know what to think of this, he was used to people being scared of him but she wasn't. He laughed to himself

Jesus this kid's either stupid or that Lazarus bastard really did it a number on her psyche.

He paused before speaking again "And why not?"

He watched her face as she thought "Dunno, I guess it's like you said, if you wanted to kill me you would've done it and if I'm being honest you're the only person I've talked to genuinely in a while"

Habit smiled at her answer

No wonder, no-face-tall-man took a liking to her, lonely kids in shit situations driven to kill have always peaked his interests, and it seems Zalgo sees some use for her too.

"Makes sense," he says simply then walks off leaving Elliot in the living room.