Jan 1
Im going to try to post more on here this year
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Im going to try to post more on here this year
i should probably have colored this but whatever
je le déteste <3
The image quality is probably abysmal unfortunately so sorry about that
Cave Diving
masterlist
content: lady whump, lady whumpee, lady whumper, systemic whump, recovery fic, rocky recovery, conditioned whumpee, pet whump, dehumanisation, fake death, emotional whump
Al jumped up from the couch, bag of frozen peas forgotten. He barged into Greta’s room and turned on the lights. “We’re leaving. We’re leaving right now. Officer Casey’s been murdered.”
Greta was immediately up and alert. “What?”
“She’s dead. She’s dead, and we might be next. Put on your clothes and we’re leaving.”
Greta didn’t ask anything further. She threw off her pyjamas and put on a hoodie and jeans. She grabbed the backpack Al had gotten her and threw in a few essentials, then she was ready. “Where are we going?” she asked as Al got dressed as well.
“I don’t know. I need to ask Vee—”
“Do not.”
Al stopped, jeans halfway up his legs. “Why? I— I remember you didn’t like her when she was here, but—”
“She’s one of them.”
“One of… who?”
“She’s a regular at fights.”
Al’s jaw dropped. “What— There’s no way, I’ve known her for forever—”
“I think Nina found me again through her. And found you.”
There was no way. There was absolutely no way. But Greta sounded so serious… “I won’t… I won’t call her, then. I need to call my landlord to cancel the lease, and— and we need to stop by at the bank to get cash, and then… then we catch a bus and leave.”
Greta nodded. Al was grateful that for once, she didn’t argue with him.
They were out the door in less than ten minutes, catching the first bus they saw to the bank. Al was still beat-up and sick, so they got a few looks from the people going to work, but he tried to ignore it.
Once they had the cash, they took a bus to the capital city to be able to get on an international train. On the bus, Al called his landlord and cancelled everything — he kept the deposit, but Al didn’t care, he wanted to keep his life.
After the phone call, there was nothing for him to do but wait for the bus to reach the city. He sat back in his chair, letting out a shaky sigh.
“I can’t believe they killed her,” he said quietly.
“They’ll do anything to protect their money,” Greta said. “But with Nina dead, I don’t think anyone will come after us specifically. I don’t think they’ll go through the trouble of finding us in a different country.”
“Hopefully.”
“Hopefully.”
The ride was almost peaceful; if only Al didn’t see Officer Casey’s blurred out corpse every time he closed his eyes, it would’ve been relaxing. Once they were in the capital, he took Greta by the hand and led her to the train station.
“Two tickets, please,” he told the lady at the register. “For the 8 AM train.”
“Two tickets,” she repeated, chewing on her gum loudly. “Why’s she wearing a dog collar?” she asked, nodding towards Greta. “Is she one of those guys?”
“Just give us the tickets,” Al said with urgency in his voice.
“Fine, fine.” She handed him the tickets, and they were off. They found the platform and sat down, both of them on edge. Greta wasn’t going to break the silence, though, so they just sat there quietly.
“I’m glad you came with me,” Al said eventually. “You could’ve… I don’t know. Gone back to…”
“I’m not going back,” she said decisively. “Not without Nina.”
“Won’t you miss your friends?”
Greta shrugged, jerky and stiff. “There’s nothing I can do about it. No way to save them.”
Al nodded. He supposed that was true. “Well, at least you won’t have to talk to the police,” he tried to say lightheartedly. Greta didn’t even smile.
“No.”
The train came, and they boarded without issues. Once on it, Al finally called his mom. She was bound to be awake by now.
“Hi, mom.”
“Hi, Al. What’s up?”
“I… I’m leaving the country.”
“What?”
“I’m on the train now. I’m leaving. Did you see the news about the police officer who died?”
“No, what happened?”
Al recounted all the events of the past two days, and his mother seemed too stunned to speak.
“So… So you’re leaving,” she said eventually.
“I am. Greta is with me. We’ll be okay.”
“Al…”
“We really will be. I just wanted to let you know. And mom?”
“Yes, Al.”
“Don’t talk about this to anybody, okay? I’ll call dad myself. But just… Just don’t talk about it. If anyone asks why I left, um… Make something up. Say I wanted a change of scenery.”
“If you really think this is necessary, I won’t stand in your way. I don’t want you to get hurt any further.”
“Thanks, mom. Do you want to say hi to Greta?”
“Yes, please give her the phone.”
Al handed it over, and Greta exchanged a few words with his mother. Then he said his goodbyes and hung up. He called his dad and told him the same story, and he was just as shocked but understanding.
When he hung up, he put his phone back in his bag and sat back. Greta was looking out the window away from him, and he spent a few minutes just staring at her. If it weren’t for her, he would be dead.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“What?” she asked, turning to look at him.
“For everything. Thank you.” She looked him up and down, then turned back towards the window without a word. Al went on, “Can you tell me what happened at night? While I was unconscious?”
“No.”
“Then… Then tell me about Vee. Have you really seen her at fights?”
Greta turned back towards him. “Why would I lie about that?”
“You’re right, you wouldn’t. It’s just… That’s crazy.”
“She never had her own dog. She was always just betting on others’. But she was mean.”
“Mean how?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Al nodded. “Okay, um… Okay. Well, I won’t bother you. Get some sleep until we get there.”
—
The first thing they did after getting off the train was to check into a hotel for the next few nights while Al searched for an apartment they could rent. It was proving to be a difficult task with no job and no prospects, so he ended up going out and asking around for jobs while Greta stayed in the hotel room.
No one wanted to hire someone with a busted nose and eyes swollen nearly shut.
No one, except a nice old lady at a local mom and pop shop.
“We’ve been looking for a cleaner for a while,” she said. “If you could keep the place clean, I’d be happy to hire you.”
“Yes! Yes, anything. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“But I must ask, are you okay? What happened to your face?”
“I fell,” he lied awkwardly. “Nothing serious. Again, thank you so much for the job. Can I start next Monday?”
“Yes, yes. Just be careful not to fall too much until then.”
When Al got back to the hotel room, he happily told Greta about his new job at the store. Things wouldn’t be so horrible just because they were abroad with not a lot of money. Things could actually work out.
“And where will we live?” she asked, and Al’s smile faded.
“That, uh… Yeah. Um. I don’t know.”
Greta reached up to fiddle with her collar, and Al knew exactly what she was thinking. With Nina, I had a stable place.
“We’ll figure it out. Maybe we’ll have to spend some time on the streets, but we’ll figure it out.”
“You’ve never been homeless.”
“Neither have you.”
She gave him a look, but then just sighed. “Well, I guess… I guess it’s fine if I’m gonna be homeless in a foreign country with a guy I met about two weeks ago.”
“But what an eventful two weeks it was!”
“I guess.”
“I’m gonna keep looking for rooms to rent. Hopefully we can find something small for the two of us.”
—
A week later, Al and Greta had moved into a single room place. It wasn't glamorous or even terribly comfortable, they had to share a single mattress without a bed frame, but it was their place, far away from the dog fights. And it was relatively cheap.
"I brought rice and beans," Al said as he entered the apartment with a grocery bag in hand. "That was… all we can currently afford. Hey, is something wrong?" he asked as he realised Greta was sitting at the edge of the mattress, deep in thought.
"I don't think I'm meant to be here," she said quietly. "I'm the entire reason you're even in this mess. I should've… I should've stayed behind. Gone back to the ring."
"What? Greta, that's crazy. None of this is your fault."
"If I had resisted my rescuers a bit more, if I had run away from you when you took me in, back to Nina, Nina would've never kidnapped you. We wouldn't have met Officer Casey, and they wouldn't have murdered her. It's all my fault."
Al put down the groceries and went to sit with her on the mattress. "None of it is your fault. You can't think like that. By this way of thinking I could say— I could say hey, it's my fault for not being a better fighting dog. If I was a better fighter, Nina wouldn't have wanted to go back for you. I would've replaced you."
Greta shrugged. "But that's stupid."
"As is your reasoning. It's not your fault, Greta. It's Nina's fault. Nina and her henchmen."
"Don't you miss your family?"
"Of course I do. But I would miss you as well if they kidnapped you again."
"You've known me for a month."
"A wild month. Let's just say—" Suddenly, Al's phone started ringing. When he looked at the screen, Viola's name was flashing on it. His heart skipped a beat. "It's Vee."
"If you pick up, she'll track it," Greta said.
"I'll block her number."
"Does she know your family?"
"Yeah, why— Oh no. Do you think she'll try to hurt them?"
Greta shrugged again. "I don't know. I don't know what stakes she has in the game."
"I'll call my mother to stay away from Vee. I'll be right back."
The call went as expected: his mother thought he was absolutely insane. "What do you mean Viola is part of the dog fighting crowd?" she asked, sounding almost exasperated. "Al, I really don't think… I'm starting to think Greta is…"
"Is what?" he asked, already defensive.
"I… How do I say this… Just, are you sure you want to base your entire life around what she says?"
"If it weren't for Greta, I would have nothing I could base on what she says. I trust her."
"Alright, sweetie. Then I trust her, too. Clearly, she means a lot to you. I won't talk to Viola from here on out."
"Thank you. I just want you guys to be safe. Greta seems to have been a really well-liked fighter, everyone knew her at the arena. We don't know how far they'll go to get her back."
"We'll be looking over our shoulders."
"Maybe you guys should move, too. Just— Not to another country, just to a different town maybe? Someplace Viola doesn't know."
"Sweetheart, we can't just sell the house and everything on a hunch."
"But—"
"We'll be safe. I promise."
Al sighed. "Okay. That's all I wanted. I gotta go back inside and console Greta. She thinks she's to blame for everything."
"Tell her I wish her the best."
"I will. Bye, mom."
Al hung up and went back inside. He sat back down next to Greta.
"Still blaming yourself?" he asked. She just nodded. "Ah, Greta. You're such a good person."
"I committed double homicide."
"To save me."
"To save you."
"Your hand was kind of forced in that regard."
"I'm a bad dog."
"We've been over this."
Greta took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Okay. How was work?"
They spent the rest of the day chatting and going out for a walk around the city. Al went to sleep pretty early, with Greta still in the bathroom. With his flu finally gone after about one and a half weeks, it was the first proper night of rest he got in ages.
When his alarm went off, he quickly turned it off so as not to wake Greta. But the mattress' other side was empty. Completely empty.
Al turned over and looked towards the bathroom — the door was wide open and the light was off, so it was clearly not occupied.
"Greta?" he called anyway. "Are you in the bathroom?" Nothing.
Al jumped up from the mattress and threw on some clothes, ready to go around the city and find Greta, and that was when he noticed the post-it note on the door.
'Dear Albert,
Thank you for all you've done for me. I'm sorry that I inadvertently dragged you into my world; that never should've happened. I also shouldn't have gone along with this move. You deserve better.
Please, don't look for me. You won't find me. Go back home to your family and stay safe — maybe convince them that a move is really the best plan of action.
I had a fun month with you. But dogs shouldn't masquerade as people.'
"No," he breathed. "No, no, no, no—" He immediately called his mother, tears gathering in his eyes as he waited for her to answer. "Greta's gone!" he cried.
"What? What do you mean?"
"She left a goodbye note and everything! I don't know where she is! She must've gone back to the ring, I, I—"
"Okay, Al, sweetie, slow down. Can't you report her to the police as missing?"
"And kill another officer?"
"How do you intend to find her without police intervention?"
"I'm going back to the fighting ring."
"Al, no. Are you out of your mind?"
"That's my only chance."
"Al, you can't—"
"I have to. I'm sorry, mom."
—
Al had made arrangements to come back home. He didn't stop by his parents' house no matter how badly he wanted to, he went straight to the road on which Nina had smuggled him out of town, blindfolded. This time, he went with his eyes wide open, trembling like a leaf in the wind.
Soon, he reached the fields, and he saw an officer standing around near the place where he assumed the manhole cover was.
"Albert?" he called. "Your mother has told me you would be here."
"My— What? What's going on?"
The man approached him and led him to the boarded up hole in the ground. "She told me you wanted to go after the 'fighting ring'. But there's nothing here. It's just an old cave that was boarded up to discourage cave divers."
"What? No, there was—" Al suddenly remembered Officer Casey, and the way she ended up after he'd told her about the ring. "I… I… I guess. I guess it's just a cave."
The officer gave him a pleasant smile, but a smile that hid something sinister. "Your mother has asked me to give you a ride home."
"I don't need a ride home." He needed to get rid of those planks and see the inside of the cave. "But thank you."
"She insisted." He put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing him just a bit too tight for it to count as friendly. "And I insist, too. It's dangerous out in no man's land alone with all these kidnapping cases."
"But I—"
"Albert. I'm giving you a ride home."
Al followed the man to his police car and sat in the passenger seat, uneasy. They didn't talk the entire time, aside from when he said goodbye when he got out at his parents' place. His mom was already waiting for him at the door.
"Al!" she cried. "Oh, I'm so glad you're alright. Come, come inside."
Al waited until the police car left their street to hiss, "I need to find Greta. And you sending corrupt police officers after me to discourage me won't—"
"Greta's gone, sweetheart."
"What?"
"She… Her body has been found in the cave. It was an accident. She must've gone back there to find her fighter friends, and she must've slipped, or—"
"There's no way. It must've been staged so nobody would look for her."
"That's why they boarded up the place," she said gently, but Al was undeterred.
"I need to go back."
"Al, sweetie…"
"I need to go back. Don't you get it? The police are for sure in on it, Vee is in on it— Are you in on it?"
"You're slipping into conspiracy theory territory—"
"Greta can't be dead!" he screamed. His mother brought him into a hug.
"I'm so sorry, Al."
"She can't be dead," he insisted.
"I'm sorry, sweetie. I'm so sorry."
"This is a ploy… A cruel ploy…"
His mother led him into the living room and sat with him on the sofa while he sobbed, repeating over and over again that this couldn't be reality. Eventually, he ran up the stairs to his childhood bedroom and cried into the pillow. He had to go back. He had to see that place again. There was no way they just boarded it up and expected everyone to believe it was because of cave divers.
But the next morning, his mother stopped him in the kitchen as he was about to head out. "Sweetie," she called softly. "Come, look at this." She was holding a newspaper, with a censored… body on the front page. And next to it, an image of Greta — the image he was intimately familiar with, the image they'd circulated when she had initially disappeared.
He walked over and took the newspaper. The article detailed Greta's initial kidnapping, the fact that she was missing for four years and never talked to the press or police about where she had been, her rescue, the rescue program Al was in, and her… subsequent death. But there was no way. There was no way.
"They dubbed it as a cave diving accident?" he asked in disbelief. "A cave diving accident? That's ridiculous!"
"Whatever accident it was, she… doesn't need your help anymore."
"She needs my help all the more now that they've faked her death to discourage anyone from looking for her!" he yelled.
"Sweetie…"
"It has to be fake! It— It has to be! That police officer from yesterday, there was something weird about him, too! He must be part of it— He, he—"
"Al. Please, look at the facts. I'm sorry that you lost Viola and Greta in the span of a few weeks. And I'm sorry that I can't solve this kidnapping crisis myself. Believe me, if I could, I would. But as it stands, we can only go on what's presented to us. And the facts are that Greta has passed."
Tears were pricking Al's eyes again. "She can't be gone," he breathed. "She saved my life. Why… Why couldn't I save hers?"
"You can't save everyone, Al. She chose to leave your new place. She chose to come back here."
"But she didn't choose to die."
"People rarely ever choose that."
"I… I'll be in my room."
"Take as long as you need. I'll be here if you want to talk."
Al went back up the stairs with the newspaper still in his hand, and collapsed onto his bed. He hugged the picture of Greta close to his chest and wept.
It couldn't be. It just couldn't be.
—
"Done and done," Vee said with a grin, holding that day's newspaper in her hand, triumphant. "With an actual article on your 'death', I'm sure even Al won't go around sniffing."
Greta was fiddling with her new collar. It was less worn out than the one Nina had given her.
"Aren't you happy?" Vee asked, cupping her cheeks with her free hand. "Nobody will go after him now that you're back."
"I don't like you," she muttered. "I've never liked you."
"But I'm the only one you knew where to find."
Greta said nothing.
"I must say, I'm pretty excited that my first dog is the famous Greta."
"If I win you fights, I expect you to hold up your end of the bargain."
"Of course. Nobody will touch your precious Al again."
~
tags: @whumpsday @whumpages-things @whump-me-harder
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content: lady whump, lady whumpee, broken bones, sickfic, hospital setting, past trauma, minor character death
Al spent the next few hours sitting there. He couldn’t imagine what was transpiring inside. He really wished he could’ve gone in with Greta, because honestly, he was getting really nervous for her. What if they really would put her in jail? He didn’t want to think about it.
When the door finally opened, he immediately stood, ready to plead Greta’s case if Officer Casey was to bring her out in handcuffs. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened.
“Albert?” Officer Casey asked as she led Greta into the hallway.
“Yes?”
“Take Greta home, alright? You’ve had a difficult night.”
“That’s… it? There are no charges against us?”
“Well, double homicide is serious business, and Greta will need to appear in court. But we aren’t pressing charges. She told me… a lot of things; things that will be used to bring down the entire fighting ring. I can’t believe I’m even saying that— The kidnapping cases… Goodness, I— It was happening right under our nose, wasn’t it? Anyway, she’s going to be a star witness when we track down the people she’s pointed out to me.”
“So she’s free to go?” Al asked, taking Greta by the hand. “And I’m free to go as well?”
“Yes. I’ll give you two a ride home — you can’t take the stolen vehicle, it’s evidence.”
“Can we… go to the emergency room? I think my nose is broken.”
Officer Casey nodded. “Of course. Come on, let’s get you two the care you need.”
Greta was like a frightened dog in the hospital. She was stuck to Al’s side the entire time, and she growled and hissed when the doctor told her he needed to hop up on the exam table to be assessed.
“Greta, it’s fine,” Al tried. “I’m sorry,” he said to the doctor. “She’s just not used to these situations. Greta, please…”
“I want to go home,” she said in a low voice, just to Al, while eyeing the doctor suspiciously.
“We will go home. Just wait a minute so the doctor can do his job, okay?”
Greta slowly let go of his arm and Al could finally sit on the table. He was diagnosed with the flu, — explained the persistent fever and limb pains — a broken nose, two fractured ribs, and a mild concussion. Could be worse, he reckoned. He was allowed to go home with Greta and advised to just take some pain medication and put ice on the spots where the swelling was the worst.
“I can’t believe you actually talked,” Al said with a smile as they were walking home from the hospital. “You talked to Officer Casey. That’s a big thing.”
“I…” Greta kicked a pebble in their way, sending it into the gutter. “I lied.”
Al’s smile faltered. “What?”
“I lied about it all. I kept the fighting ring aspect of it, but I lied about the location and the names…”
“Greta, that’s—”
“Stupid?”
“I— Yeah! Yeah, it is!” He grabbed her by the arm and turned her to face him. “Greta, why did you do that? They’ll look into it, they’ll find out that you lied, and you’ll be convicted for the murders!”
“I can’t talk to the police!” she snapped, jerking her arm out of Al’s hold quite easily. “I hate them! I hate the police! And I can’t give up my friends! Those people— The dogs— They’re my friends, okay? And they’ve killed, almost all of them have killed, what if the police try to convict them, too?”
“They wouldn’t—”
“You don’t know that! And some of the owners— They were kind to me! Nina was kind to me more often than not! And now Nina is gone and you expect me to give out the names of people who have helped me and kept me alive! I just told a lie so I could go home with you for another night. I just wanted to spend a little more time as… as a free person.”
“Greta…”
She turned away and continued walking home. She was sniffling.
“I’m sorry,” Al said once he caught up to her. “I didn’t know that you had such a… complicated relationship with the people running this thing. I… I thought it was only Nina.”
“Well, it isn’t.”
“Will you really go to prison to protect those people?”
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “I don’t know anything. Nina’s gone. There’s no one to tell me what to do anymore.”
“Well, if I may suggest—”
“You may not.”
Al sighed. “Okay. Let’s just… Let’s just get home and sleep on it.”
Once home, they both decided to pointedly ignore the mess that was their house. Nina’s people have trashed the place while looking for Greta. It was a concern for another day.
They both changed out of their bloody clothes and took long showers. Al took the medication prescribed to him by the doctor at the emergency room, ate some leftovers from the fridge because he was absolutely starving, and then he walked over to Greta’s bedroom and knocked on the closed door.
“Can I come in?” he asked gently.
“I want to be alone.”
“I… I don’t. I really, really don’t. Please.”
There was silence from the other side, and Al almost gave up and went back to his room when Greta spoke again. “Okay.”
He pushed the door open and entered timidly. “Tonight has been… a lot.” Greta was sitting on her bed, eyeing him warily. She didn’t give him the go-ahead to go closer. “I… I don’t think I’m really processing it as of this moment. I think… I don’t know what I think.”
“I killed Nina,” she mumbled. “Bad dog. I’m a bad dog. I’m a horrible dog. I deserve to be put down.”
“Greta, no…”
“I will be put down, won’t I? When they figure out I lied.”
“No capital punishment here. And you’re not a dog.”
Greta pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them. “I am. A bad dog.”
“I…” Tears were gathering in Al’s eyes as he really took in the events of the past 24 hours. “Greta, I… Look, I… I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry you went through this. I can’t even imagine… Four years of this, I…”
“Nina took care of me.”
“She was a horrible, abusive, kidnapping, awful, insane person. And I’m glad she’s dead. There, I said it.” That seemed to break something in Greta. She suddenly burst out crying, and Al was immediately by her side, pulling her into a careful hug.
“I killed her, I killed her,” she repeated over and over. “I killed her…”
“You protected me,” he said softly. “You saved my life.”
They sat on the bed like that, hugging, for the next several minutes. Greta kept crying and crying, and Al could do nothing but rub her back.
“Have you… killed anyone before?” he asked when she was a bit calmer.
Greta shook her head. “Nina wanted me to, but I… I never have. It felt like… Crossing that line felt like… It was too much.”
“So you did stand up to her sometimes.”
“She let it slide, since I was her star dog. But she made sure to still let me know I was a bad dog.”
“You’re a person, Greta.”
She shook her head again. “Not anymore. I used to be, but now…”
“You’ll need to tell Officer Casey about the lies. You need to tell her the truth.”
“I can’t.”
“I understand your hesitation, but think of how many people you’d be helping. Tonight, you were willing to help save my life on two occasions. You could save the lives of hundreds if you went back and gave her the correct info.”
“The police won’t help.”
“Give them a chance.”
“No.” She pushed him away, accidentally shoving him in the broken ribs, making him wince. “Go back to your room.”
“Greta, please. I don’t want them to take you away. You don’t deserve that. You should be free, you have just been rescued, they can’t lock you up again!”
“They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. I don’t care. Go back to your room.”
Al sighed. “This conversation isn’t over. But I’ll leave it for now.”
“Good night, Albert.”
“You know, you can call me Al. Like everyone else. Don’t you think we’re friends now? After everything?”
Greta lay down and pulled the blanket over her head, leaving Al with nothing but a little pile on the bed. He sighed again. “Good night, Greta.”
He left the room and turned off the lights on his way out, then went to his own room and put the mattress back on the bedframe so he could sleep. He didn’t even want to acknowledge the piles of clothes on the floor or the broken picture frames. He needed sleep, and he needed it badly.
Nina was dead. But the dog fight people knew his address now. Would they come back to exact revenge on him? Or Greta?
As tired as he was, Al ended up lying awake in bed, periodically crying. He felt like utter shit. He was scared. After a few hours, he got up and walked back over to Greta’s room. He knocked on the closed door.
“Greta? Are you awake?” he asked quietly. No answer. “Okay…”
“Wait.”
Al stopped in his tracks. “Yes?”
“Come in.”
He pushed the door open and stared into the darkness. “Can I come over and sit on the bed with you?”
“Yes.”
Al stumbled over there and sat down. “I can’t sleep because I’m afraid I’ll be kidnapped again,” he admitted. “Why are you still awake?”
“I don’t want to go to jail.”
He hummed. “We’re both… in a bit of a pickle.”
“Yes.”
“I’m… thinking of moving away from here. Maybe abroad, to a country where they don’t just kidnap people in broad daylight.”
“You would uproot your entire life because of this?”
“I…” He laughed a little. “Yeah. You say that like this was something to scoff at. I almost died. I don’t… I don’t want to stay here.”
“No, I get it. I wish you the best, then.”
“Greta… I thought we could move together. I wouldn’t just leave you here.”
“You wouldn’t?”
“Hell no!”
“But if we moved abroad, you wouldn’t get the financial compensation for taking care of me.”
“I don’t care. I’d get a job.”
“You wouldn't even speak the language.”
“I actually do speak a second language.”
“Oh.”
He felt around in the dark for her, just so he could playfully push her a little. “Do I look stupid to you?”
“I wouldn’t speak the language,” she amended, ignoring the question.
“You’d learn.”
“I’d just be a burden.”
“I love you, Greta. You’d never be a burden.”
“Besides, there will be an arrest warrant out for me as soon as they realise I lied. You can’t move abroad with a criminal.”
“You could always tell the truth.”
Silence.
“I know this is extremely difficult for you. I won’t even pretend to grasp it. But I still think you’d do a lot of good by coming clean.”
“If you're just gonna pressure me to go to the police, then please leave.”
“No, no… Sorry. Don’t make me leave. I can’t stand being alone right now.”
Greta sat up in bed. “Do you want to sleep in my bed?”
“Where would you sleep?” he asked, puzzled.
“On the floor.”
“Greta, no.”
“Why not? I’ve been sleeping on the floor for the past four years.”
“But I’m not Nina! I don’t want you to sleep on the floor!”
Silence.
“But I… What if I brought my mattress here? I could sleep on the floor. On the mattress. I don’t want to be alone.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“Thank you. I won’t bug you with the police, I promise.”
Al brought his mattress over and carefully lay down, trying not to aggravate his broken ribs. He felt immensely better sleeping next to the person who had saved him from the jaws of death, twice, and soon he actually drifted off.
He woke up at the crack of dawn, to a sharp pain in his side. He groaned and tried to turn over to alleviate it, but it was persistent, and he realised he wasn’t going to fall back asleep, so he quietly left the bedroom and went to the living room. At least his fever seemed to be gone.
He took another one of the pills he’d been prescribed, then took out a bag of frozen peas from the freezer and put it on his throbbing nose. Then he went and sat on the couch, turning on the TV to pass the time.
As he clicked through channel after channel, he stopped on the local news channel. There was a blurred out picture of the police station, with… Was that a person? And blood? He increased the volume a bit, curious to hear what the story was, but not wanting to wake Greta.
“...her body was found this morning by a local man. He says he was about to enlist the police’s help about a stolen wallet, but as he neared the police station, he noticed there appeared to be an officer standing outside. As he got closer, he realised the officer had in fact been pinned to the door by several knives. The man immediately called an ambulance, but the officer had been dead for hours at that point. Our sources say the officer’s name was Helena Casey. The murder seems to have been triggered by a report Officer Casey had received the night before, in connection to the kidnapping cases.”
Al sat there, entirely frozen. He couldn’t click away, but he couldn’t keep watching and listening either. He felt like he was going to throw up.
“No fucking way…” he whispered. “Even though— Even though Greta didn’t even give the real names— Holy fucking shit, what would’ve happened—”
What would’ve happened to them two if she had given out those names?
~
tags: @whumpsday @whumpages-things @whump-me-harder
A Long Night
masterlist
content: lady whump, lady whumpee, lady whumper, no holds barred beatdown, sickfic, broken bones, loss of consciousness, major character death, corpse stuff
Al sat there, frozen, staring at the open gate leading to the arena. “I can’t do this,” he said. Then, louder, “I can’t do this! I won’t do this!”
“Shut up and go,” a woman next to him said, like it was just that easy. Maybe it was for her.
They called his number again. He didn’t move a muscle. His opponent was a buff guy already celebrating his victory and taunting him. The crowd was getting impatient.
“For fuck’s sake, go already!” the same woman yelled. “They’re gonna beat us all if you don’t! Go!”
Al stood up on shaky legs and almost fell over. His vision was blurry from tears and the fever. He took one step after the other, slowly entering the arena. The gate slammed shut behind him.
“What’s the matter, coward?” his opponent shouted over. “Gonna run back to hide behind mommy’s skirt?”
“Why do you seem like you’re enjoying this sick game?” Al asked, completely horrified, but his weak voice was swallowed up by the cheers of the crowd. His opponent drew nearer. Al backed up. “Please,” he said, hoping the man could read his lips and expression. “Don’t hurt me.”
The man stopped and turned his back to look at the crowd. “Clap if you want to see a total knock-out! Clap if you want to see him dead!”
The crowd gave a standing ovation. Al was done for. This is where he would die, underground, in a fighting arena, by the hands of a stranger.
“Alright!” the man yelled and turned back to Al. “You heard ‘em.”
“I can’t,” he breathed. “I can’t do this. I can’t. I’m scared. Please, please someone help me. God, or whoever is up there, please help.”
Help didn’t come. The man walked up to him, and before long, Al was cornered. He grabbed Al by the collar and dragged him over to the centre of the arena, throwing him on the ground before sitting atop of him. Al was too sick to really put up a fight — he went down like a sack of potatoes. He at least had the strength to put up his arm and shield his face, although that mattered little when the man started punching him in the stomach.
“Stop!” he croaked, his hands going to protect his soft, vulnerable insides, but the man just took the opportunity and punched him in the face. In a daze, Al tried to protect his face again, but he was too slow. He got punched again, and again, and again. Blood was collecting in his mouth, and he was pretty sure a tooth got loose.
The man stood up and yanked him up, only to knee him in the face. Al heard something crack under the force. The crowd was wild.
I’m sorry mom. I’m sorry dad. I won’t be home for Christmas. I’m sorry Greta. I won’t be home in an hour to give you lunch. I’m so sorry.
The audience started throwing in items, and at first, Al couldn’t see them well out of his swollen eyes. But when the man picked up one of them, it became abundantly clear what it was: a knife.
So this was it. He let his head drop to the ground, staring up at the rocky ceiling above. He suddenly felt at peace, and he wondered if this was God’s grace. He wasn’t a believer, but right now, anything sounded good to him.
“Stop!” someone yelled — a voice stronger than his own. A female voice. A familiar voice.
The man looked up, his vicious grin fading. Al forced himself to turn his face towards his saviour and saw… Greta. His Greta.
“Greta?” The man gripped the knife tighter. “Two against one? I guess it’s really just you. This new boy never even tried.”
“Throw the knife away, Connie. You know it’s not fair. Or keep it — not like I haven’t beaten you a thousand times before, maybe you need the advantage.”
“Greta! Greta! Greta!” the crowd chanted as though they were one. “Greta! Greta! Greta!”
“Fuck you!” the man — Connie — spat. “I’ll kill you tonight!” He did drop the knife, though, and that was all Al wanted to see.
“Greta,” Al tried reaching out, but everything felt so slow and distant. “Run. Why are you here…?” Their eyes met, and Greta’s expression softened just a little. She didn’t respond. Thin and frail as she looked, she pounced on Connie like an expert hunting dog.
Al lay there, panting and feverish, as the two of them battled it out like a pair of young lions. His eyes kept wanting to close, but he wanted to see what would become of them, who would end up winning. Eventually, though, the control completely slipped from his hands, and he fell unconscious.
—
“Albert. Albert.”
Al groaned. His face hurt and felt tight from how swollen it was.
“Albert, we need to go. Come on. I can’t drag you all the way back home.”
Al opened his eyes. They landed on a superbly bloody Greta. They were in… a car? “What… What’s going on…? Greta, are you— Are you okay?”
“Can you drive?” she asked, urgent. “I— I did something bad. We need to go. And we need to go now.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Can you fucking drive or not?” she snapped, and it made Al come to his senses a little.
“I can drive,” he said, sitting up. And that was when he noticed the bodies. One in the driver’s seat, of a man he’d never seen before but assumed to be Nina’s driver, and Nina’s in the passenger seat. “Are they…”
“Dead. I stole one of the knives. I… Let’s not talk about it right now. We need to go.”
Al nodded. It was good he was still running on a half-empty tank, otherwise he would’ve freaked out majorly.
“I’ll throw away the body so you can sit in the driver’s seat,” she said before getting out of the car and opening the driver’s side door. She hauled the man’s body outside, leaving it on the curb in the middle of nowhere.
“And… Nina’s?” Al asked as he got out of the car too to sit in the incredibly bloody driver’s seat.
“I…” Greta looked away. “I can’t.”
“You can’t?”
“Nina is my owner,” she said, choking up. “I already— I didn’t have a choice, I— She was going to kill you. She was going to fucking kill you. I didn’t know what else to do, I—”
“Hey.” Al put both hands on Greta’s shoulders. “Greta. It’s okay.”
“None of this is okay!” she yelled, swatting his hands away. “I should’ve never come back! I should’ve stayed in hiding when you didn’t come back! But I didn’t, because I— I— I thought it wasn’t fair. That they took you because of me. I can’t believe I killed my owner! They’re going to kill me for this!”
“We’re going to the police, first thing,” he said more confidently than he felt. “I’m sure they can somehow protect you.”
“Like they protected you?” she shot back. “For being so gracious and taking care of an ex-fighting dog?”
“I’m sure they have better systems for the ex-fighting dogs themselves. Come on. Get back in the car, we’re… We’re driving there with Nina’s body.”
Greta nodded and got in the backseat. Al took his place in the driver’s seat, attempting to ignore the way blood seeped into his pants. He didn’t look to the side to see Nina’s lifeless face. He focused on the road, and the road only.
“Do you know where we are or which way we should go?” he asked as he started the engine. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out.
“This road takes you back to the city. Just follow it,” she instructed. “I can’t believe I’ve done this. I—”
“Greta. It’s going to be okay. You were acting in self-defence.”
“I killed her! I really killed her!”
“I know! I know, and I— I don’t even know what the appropriate thing to say would be. Congratulations? I’m sorry?”
“Just drive, then,” she sniffled. “Just get us back home. I… I’ll deal with it on my own. Like I always have.”
The car ride afterwards was eerily quiet. At some point, Nina’s lifeless body fell to the side and fell in his lap, and he almost crashed the car. “Fuck!” he screamed, stopping immediately and causing several cars to almost crash into them. “Get her away from me!”
“Just push her aside,” Greta suggested, and Al almost threw up as he touched her cold body to maneuvre it back into a sitting position.
“This is insane,” he muttered. “This is entirely insane.”
“The police station is right there. Just drive over and park the car so we can… get this sorted.” So Al did that. When he got out of the car, he was drenched in the blood of the two very much not innocents.
“Let’s— Let’s see what they have to say. Oh man. I might throw up. I might—” He stepped aside onto the pavement and retched. “I think I may be concussed… Or it’s just the… ‘driving alongside a corpse’ aspect of the entire ordeal…”
“I’ll stay here at the car,” Greta said. “With Nina.”
Al wiped his mouth and looked up at her. “Greta… She’s gone.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “I know. I killed her. But I still— I don’t want to leave her. And I don’t like police.”
“They’ll want your testimony.”
“Tell them I won’t talk.”
“You killed two people. I don’t even know what happened—”
“I won’t talk.”
“Greta, they’ll put you in jail.”
“Good. I deserve to be in jail.”
“Greta…”
“Just go.”
Before Al could respond, a female police officer exited the building and saw him standing there, covered in blood. “Holy shit!” she exclaimed. “Sir, are you— Sir and ma’am, are you two okay? What’s with all the blood? Is everything alright?”
Without a word, Greta got back in the car. Al turned to the police officer. “We need help. A lot of help.”
“Of course. My name is Officer Casey. What’s with the lady who just got back in the car? Is she okay?”
“It’s… a long story. Let’s go inside.”
Al recounted all the events he could remember. Officer Casey noted it all down on the computer.
“You’re the first person to have come back from a kidnapping like that willing to talk,” she said seriously. “If you could convince your friend Greta to talk too, it would be invaluable. Unless she talks and manages to give us a good lead on the perpetrators, I’m not sure she can avoid jail time for the murder of two individuals.”
“But she’s— Look, she was confused, desperate…”
“She needs to talk to me. Please, try to convince her. I’ll call a hearse for that woman. Nina. We’ll probably order an autopsy. We’ll need to collect the other body, too. There’s a lot to do, and a lot rests on your shoulders, Albert. So please, try to convince Greta.”
“Can I… go home and change my clothes? Please. I’m really bloody.”
“Not right now.”
“But I told you everything I know.”
“I have follow-up questions, I just need to make this call first. Try to talk to Greta and bring her in.”
Al went back to the car and found Greta in the passenger seat, in Nina’s lap. “What are you doing?” he asked, horrified.
“I killed her,” Greta said with tears streaming down her face. “I didn’t mean to. I just wanted her to stop threatening to kill you. I want to fix it, but I can’t.”
“Greta…”
“Please. Please, help. I need to fix it.”
“Greta.”
“Please!” she screamed. Al took a step back, afraid she would become violent towards him as well. He wasn’t afraid of her, not really, but… he saw how she fought. He saw the dead bodies. Maybe he was a little afraid.
“You need to talk to Officer Casey,” he tried gently. “She’s very nice. Can you come with me to the police station?”
“I don’t want to.”
“It’s really important that you come. Please. I don’t want to be separated from you, but if you don’t talk, there’s a chance you’ll go to jail.”
“I told you. I don’t care.”
“Greta, please. Please. I don’t want to lose you.”
She slowly, hesitantly climbed out of the car. She was covered in Nina’s blood, from head to toe. “I’ll go inside. I won't talk.”
“That’s a step in the right direction.”
“What if someone does something to Nina while we’re not here?”
“Do you want to wait for the hearse?”
“They’ll… They’ll take her away?”
“Surely, you don’t mean to cuddle a dead body forever.” Greta pursed her lips in a way that made Al think she would’ve. “We’ll wait for the hearse.”
“I don’t want them to take her away…”
“Just say your goodbyes now.”
“But I don’t want to say goodbye.”
“Greta… Don’t be like this. She hurt you. She hurt me. She was a fucking freak and wanted to keep you as her dog forever.”
“I…” Greta had never talked about her time with Nina. Al felt like they were only scratching the surface of their messed up bond. A trauma bond, as Vee called it. He should really research it. “Nina was different,” she settled on. “But she wasn’t… I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”
“We’ll get through this, okay? We’ll get through it.”
Greta nodded. The hearse soon arrived and they loaded Nina’s body into the back. Greta had to be held back from wanting to go with them to the mortuary. Then Al walked her inside the police station and led her to Officer Casey’s room.
“Please, try to talk,” he whispered to her before he let her go inside. “Just tell her what happened. Please.”
“I don’t trust her,” she whispered back.
“She’s our best bet at getting help. Greta, please.”
She was silent for a long moment. “Okay,” she said eventually. “I’ll try.”
“Good. That’s good. I’ll be right here, waiting for you.” With that, Greta turned around and entered Officer Casey’s room. Al took a seat in the hallway, still in pain, still sick, still covered in blood.
This was a long night.
~
tags: @whumpsday @whumpages-things @whump-me-harder
Cold
masterlist
content: recovery fic, rocky recovery, lady whump, lady whumpee, conditioned whumpee, anger as a trauma response, dehumanisation
Al woke up feeling utterly sick. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, already feeling like his throat was about to combust with every swallow. Yup. He was ill.
He sat up in bed, contemplating what to do about it. He could potentially go to the doctor with it… But what else would they do other than prescribe some honey candies? He could treat this at home.
Besides, he had a responsibility at home. He couldn’t just go out all willy-nilly.
Al got up and put on some clothes, then went to the kitchen to brew some honey-ginger tea for his poor, abused throat. He decided to make enough for two people, despite Greta not being big on tea. Maybe she would change her mind.
Speaking of Greta, he wondered if she was awake yet. Her door had been closed when he walked past, but that didn’t mean anything. Her door was always closed.
He popped a honey candy in his mouth and waited for the effects as the tea cooled a bit. He really hoped he wouldn’t infect the poor girl.
Right on cue, the guest bedroom door opened, and Greta scurried off to the bathroom.
“Good morning!” Al called after her, but it turned into a coughing fit. Man, he was really sick.
By the time Greta finished her business and came back, Al was sipping on his tea at the table. He didn’t say a thing, just waited for her to make a move if she so desired.
Greta slowly approached the table and sat. Good. Now that Vee wasn’t here, maybe they could get back into their usual routine.
“Would you like breakfast?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“In the bowl?” Greta looked away, embarrassed. “I’m not making fun of you!” he hurried to add. “I’m— I’m just asking, because, like, I can totally put it on a plate, too! If you’re ready for that.”
“In the bowl,” she muttered.
Al nodded. “Okay. In the bowl it is. Just give me a second while I drink my tea. Would you like some tea? It’s honey-ginger.”
“You’re sick?” she asked, totally ignoring his question.
“Ah, um… I’m feeling a bit under the weather. It’ll go away in a few hours, I’m sure.” He quickly drank the last of his tea and stood up to make breakfast for her. “Sausages and eggs?”
“Yes.”
“Coming right up.”
Once breakfast was served, Al sat back down and watched as Greta ate. She always ate like there was no tomorrow, like she was afraid it could be taken from her at any moment. It made sense. She was thin — thinner than was healthy. “Nina starved you,” he concluded out loud for the first time since Greta’s arrival. “Didn’t she?”
Greta glared at him, and he immediately threw his hands up. She didn’t answer, just went back to eating.
“I checked the fridge this morning,” he went on, hoping to steer the conversation in a more peaceful direction. “To see what you took last night. Not that you can’t take absolutely anything— What’s mine is yours. Mi casa su casa, you know. I was just curious. But everything was untouched.”
Greta swallowed the bite in her mouth — the last bite — and pushed the bowl away from her, indicating she was done. She then immediately stood up to leave.
“Wait, Greta!” She froze, staring at him. “Why can’t you just tell me what it was? I just want you to feel at home; if you told me what you like, or what you don’t like… I could buy more.”
“I didn’t take anything,” she said quietly.
“You’re allowed to. It’s okay, you can tell me.”
“I didn’t take anything!” she snapped, and Al quickly backtracked.
“Okay, okay, you didn’t take anything. I understand. But then… What were you looking for?”
“I just wanted to see if the food was still there!” she went on, still sounding angry at him. “That’s all! Laugh all you want!”
“I’m not laughing—”
She stomped off, slamming her bedroom door shut. Al sighed.
“I’m not laughing…” he muttered to himself before he stood up to wash the dishes. It was still weird to be washing a dog bowl every time.
By lunchtime, Al was feeling sick as a dog. He was pretty sure he was running a fever — but if he never took his temperature, the fever would never be confirmed, therefore it would never be real. Right? That was how it worked.
He was cutting up vegetables for a soup when Greta joined him in the kitchen, sitting at the table and watching him intently.
“I’m sorry about this morning,” Al rasped. His voice was going away. Great.
Greta shook her head. “Whatever.”
“I want you to feel at home. I really do.”
She was fidgeting with her collar, reminding Al that he still had the monumental task of trying to get Greta to say why she was so attached, and eventually, to remove it. “I don’t have a home.”
“You do. I promise.”
“I don’t and this is stupid. You’re all pretending. Pretending I’m a person. Pretending I matter. It’s dumb. You’re all dumb.”
Al furrowed his brows. “Greta, you’re undoubtedly a person. Can’t you remember what it was like before Nina?”
“There is nothing before Nina. Nothing after Nina.”
“Can you elaborate?”
She didn’t. She just sat there, staring off into the distance.
“Okay,” Al sighed, pouring all the cut-up veggies into the pot. “Lunch will be ready in about twenty minutes. Do you wanna talk or do you just wanna sit? I don’t want to chase you away.”
“Just sit,” she said, so Al nodded and sat down with her at the table.
Once the soup was ready, Al gave her three big ladlefuls in her bowl. She lapped it all up like a proper dog, and Al couldn’t hide how… broken-hearted this made him.
“What?” she barked.
“Nothing,” he said, looking back down at his own soup. “Nothing…”
“I thought we were over this.”
“We are. I’m sorry.”
Greta scoffed, but she wasn’t so angry as to leave even a drop of food. She never was. But as soon as she finished, she stood up and left.
Al smacked himself in the head. “Stupid,” he whispered to himself. “Stupid. Keep your pitying looks to yourself.”
By dinner time, Al couldn’t get out of bed. He was suffering alone in his room with a wet cloth on his forehead. The honey-ginger tea wasn’t working as usual.
Six o’clock came and went, and he could hear Greta walk to the kitchen and back to her room. He wanted to call out and tell her to take anything from the fridge, but he felt like he wouldn’t be able to raise his voice like that.
Soon, his bedroom door was gently pushed open.
“Albert?” Greta called timidly.
“Hi,” he said from bed.
“No dinner tonight?”
“I—” More coughing. “I can’t tonight, sorry. But take anything from the fridge.”
Greta stood there, pondering something only she knew. Then she closed the door and went to the kitchen. Good. She needed to eat.
Al had fallen asleep when he heard the bedroom door opening again. “Greta?” he croaked.
“I brought…” She trailed off, lifting a single, badly-peeled carrot. Al smiled. So she didn’t think he was horrible.
“Thanks,” he said. “Can you bring it over? I don’t think I can get up.”
Greta walked over and forcefully pushed the carrot into his hand. Even this had to be on her terms. Al didn’t mind. He took a bite of the raw carrot, giving thanks that he liked it; he couldn’t imagine Greta’s disappointment, had he rejected it.
“Go to the doctor,” she said after a little while.
“I can treat this at home.”
She glared at him. “Go to the doctor,” she repeated more emphatically.
“Come on, you also don’t like doctors. It was a whole battle and a half to get you to sit still while one examined you.”
Greta huffed indignantly. “Then don’t, and die alone in your room.”
“It’s just a cold, Greta. It’s not gonna kill me.”
“I’ve seen—” She cut herself off, her mouth snapping shut. Before Al could’ve asked anything, she stormed out.
“I guess it’s just you and me, buddy,” he said to the carrot before taking another bite of it. He did wonder what Greta meant. Who did she see? He’d assumed she was only ever in that basement. Had she seen Nina be taken by a bad cold? Maybe Nina was too sick at some point to care for her. That would’ve been devastating, given she was her only lifeline. Was this bringing back memories?
Al sighed. He had to go to the doctor tomorrow. He didn’t want to trigger anything in Greta.
He ate the last of the carrot and turned onto his side, attempting to sleep some. His throat was absolutely killing him, though, so there was no telling how successful that would be.
But he had to get better. He had a job to do.