Ashes to Ashes - The Pitt Apocalypse AU.
[excerpt from a fic im currently writing! Ch.1 will be posted in the next day or two if literally anyone cares]
"For dust you are…”
The smell of charred flesh is an aroma Dennis had come to be able to recognise since the Demons had clawed their way from the moss to feast on the bodies of sinners. Scurrying bugs, desperate to get away from the blaze, scrambled under the soles of his shoes and burrowed back into the same earth that had betrayed them.
Dennis couldn't understand why they'd want to run from the Glory of the Lord.
This is what he'd prayed for, what he'd been told would come true from the moment he could understand what the word ‘repentance’ meant. The blazing flames roared higher and the choir of agony he could hear rattling the walls of his home quietened, leaving only the wretching of Mel and the chuckles of the flames to be heard. Not even the whispers of Satan could be heard in Dennis's ear.
It was only a tugging on his arm that pulled his gaze away from the resplendent massacre of his home. Jack's voice floated over the roar of the Lord, guiding Dennis back to Earth alongside the bugs, and he looked to see face he'd come to worship in the last few weeks.
“-nnis , we can't stay here. Walkers are already - fucking hold them for a few minutes! - we gotta go, now.” Jack pleaded with him, his hand clasped around Dennis's bicep and his features pulled tighter than Dennis had ever seen them. He wanted to run his fingers over the pinched lines of Jack's forehead, the trembling lips that had christened Dennis's skin, and the skin that protected the case of Jack's heart - the centre of his soul.
Dennis wanted to cradle that heart in his hands, to feel the blood it leaks and feel it pumping in his grasp. Dennis wanted to protect Jack's heart in the rotted recesses of his body.
Instead, he turned his head towards the man without looking back at the home he'd made into his families eternal resting place. Jack's grip remained firm on his arm as they ran, farther and farther away from the only sanctuary Dennis had ever known, past the Demons that had been summoned back into the fire they'd been called from and towards the groups cars.
Flickers of ash swirled around him as ran, his feet pounding on the Earth and Dennis had never felt more alive. He smiled as he caught the ashes on his tongue, tasting the agony of his mother and the vitriol of his father.
At last, Dennis had found salvation .
“…and to dust , you shall return.”
