It’s been less than a month since his arrival. Transitioning into this lifestyle is still difficult for him with all things considered. He has no place to really call his own, but he’s managed somewhere to sleep, shower, and eat; it’s something, and to top it off he’s met people like him that his old friends would think are dangerous. Namely, Nathan Prescott. A loud boy who thinks with his heart and talks with his fists– Josh likes him the most, he thinks. There’s something ‘ugly’ in Nathan that’s inside Josh. A parasite infecting two different bodies, with two different results.
As unlikely as finding anything of substance was to him when he arrived, seeing someone he knew from ‘before’ was out of the question. It didn’t cross his mind at all… until today. She was just sitting there, covered in blood and bruises and dirt. The crowd seamlessly parts around her– it looks so unreal that he second guesses whether it is or not. Jess shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t look like that. Mike should be standing next to her with that cheeky asshole grin he always wears. They should be laughing and talking, but she looks ready to break with a strong gust of wind.
He pushes one– two, three.. four people out of his way, weaving against the flow of ‘blanks’ that never seem to react to anything, “Jess?” He calls, hesitant. It’s got to be her. It’s got to be REAL. There’s no fucking way this isn’t real. The space between them continues to shrink. “Jess!” Louder, clearer. His pace falters and slows as he comes up within arms length of her. It’s worse than he thought. The wounds, the look of desperate confusion, did he..? “What.. what happened to you? How– what are you doing here?” That was a stupid question. Did anyone know what they were doing ‘here’. “Did.. do you know what happened? Jesus..” ‘You look awful’ goes unspoken. He looked infinitely worse even still.
He wanted revenge and it looks like he got it, but it didn’t feel like he won anything.
Jess immediately turned her head when she heard someone call her name. Not just anyone either, she knew that voice. She knew that voice so well--! Once she set her eyes on him, she was shocked. First of all, she thought that he was dead. Second off, his face.. Was horribly disfigured. That was the best way that she could describe it. She still felt a bit comforted by his presence.
“Josh..? Josh-- I’m so glad that you’re here, you’re alive..!”
She paused when Josh asked what had happened to her, raising a hand to her face self consciously. Of course she knew what happened. How could she forget..? What she was doing here, however, she wasn’t really sure of.
“I don’t even know why I’m here, Josh.”
She started off, biting her bottom lip.
“I.. I was attacked while Mike and I were out at the cabins. By a monster-- I think they called it a Wendigo. It... It dragged me out of a window and down into a mine shaft. I guess I was out of it for a while, because I woke up on the floor of a broken elevator. I wandered around for a while, got chased by another one of those monsters, then eventually met up with Matt.”
She furrowed her brows, looking the other up and down. Jessica’s whole body shook, tired and sore. She supposed it was a better time than ever to ask what had happened to him.
“What happened to you..? We all thought that you were dead.”
