puppy love
puppy love | yandere!mark grayson x afab!reader | MULTI-CHAP: 4
chapter 3
cw; DARK CONTENT!!! MDNI!!! MENTION OF ANIMAL DEATH, reader is neurodivergent, ableism, growing up is messy & adults suck, angst, niceguy™/slight incel mark, childhood friend/bully!mark, mark gets his powers sooner, teeny tiny implications of pseudo incest (blink and you’ll miss it), SADIST MARK, violent rape, threats of violence, & canon typical violence, so . . gore, stalking, implied murder, gender & body dysphoria, mentions/implications of disordered eating, mark teases reader about their body once, overall asshole mark, implied grooming (mark handles it but he’s a lil bitch about it later), so, victim blaming, misogyny, the inexplicable horrors of being afab, objectification, sexualization
about; [the fuckin' thought of you with somebody else, i don't like that.] . . actually, if you even consider leaving i'll lose a couple screws in due time, i'll stop breathing and you'll see the meaning of stalker when i pop out the dark to find you and that new dude that you're seeing with a attitude - IFHY (tyler the creator)
4.
there was blood on mark's hands.
syrupy and wet.
the distinct stench of iron rot fogged up his senses.
blood clots stuck like soft gelatin between his fingers. stretching, snapping webs of gore whenever he opened and closed his hands.
still warm as he switched on the water from your sink.
the suds from your hand soap came up a copper brown, adorned by tiny rivulets of red as he dug beneath his fingernails to scrape away any remnants of viscera.
dna washed away by tap water.
his skin purified once again.
mark looked up and met the eyes in the reflection, making sure to pick off specks of skull fragment and the fatty tissue of brain matter from strands of his hair.
what a fantasy.
a blink and it's all gone.
just like you.
you and your attention.
your undying devotion. a huff and the flame gets snuffed.
better yet. . you light and pass the torch to someone fucking else.
it's no good.
there's no use being mad at you and your uninspiring devotion. how special is your love, really, if it is so easily obtained?
and why does the fact that it no longer belongs to mark so upsetting?
why'd the realization that anyone who called you pretty would have you fantasizing about baby's breath bouquets - something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence in your shoe - make his blood run that much hotter?
why'd it make him stare down into the sink, faucet running, as he tried to slow down his breathing? gripping the edges of your porcelain sink until he heard it creak. counting forwards to a hundred, then back again.
he did all the things the therapist his mother took him to recommended he do when those feelings came up. things to see, smell, and touch, and taste. but the only thing that came through the ringing in his ears was the vivid fantasy of tearing your boy apart.
he could see the light leaving his eyes. he could smell the acrid stench of piss running down the coward's leg. and god knows he'd only ever touch him to dispose of his body.
and at the end, he'd taste the tears collecting at your cupid's bow when you sought comfort in his presence. just like the old days. it'd all be worth it in the end.
. . he shouldn't have read your dairy.
not because debbie raised him to 'respect privacy' - because who doesn't keep shit in their notes app in this day and age? - but because it put him in a shitty mood.
but he was also glad he did it.
it revealed what your problem was.
and mark's always been your problem solver.
mark was imaginative.
mark was smart.
mark was also patient.
surely, you'll get bored.
you'll preoccupy your mind with mundane things: how the world spins, for example. what you'll make of yourself. what people will think of you.
ouroboros: swallowing yourself whole trying to find the beginning to the end.
will you be loved? how will you be loved?
you're a glutton obsessing over not being enough in the first place. more, more, more.
you'll dizzy yourself.
come full circle, nausea and vertigo, habitually crawling back to him.
you're a distracted little thing.
you always have been.
it's in your nature.
mark tries not to be too hard on you about your romantic pursuits.
after all, you'll go after what you think you deserve.
and if that's dysfunction, then so be it.
however. . . your standards could be a little higher. had it been any other person occupying your mind. . mark wouldn't have cared.
oh, not at all.
he cares fuck all about your meaningless schoolyard crushes but the one thing that boils mark's blood is all of the abuse.
the hoops you have to jump through for the smallest shred of applause.
and really, how pathetic do you have to be? why can't you see that he's using you? as entertainment. as a pet. as a clown.
and what you don't understand is that deep down. . mark and your boy aren't all that different.
which explains why you like him so much.
mark and your boy were sharks.
your boy could smell your blood from a mile away; see the desperation in the way you sauntered past him, salivating at the thought of being the apple of his eye.
he saw you for what you were: prey.
and they saw right through your flimsy little costume of new clothing and perfumed wrists.
your boy and his group of cronies didn't laugh at your jokes because they thought you were funny. they laughed at the idea of you believing they found you entertaining.
your mediocre attempts at relevancy were funny - hilarious, even - because of how eager you were to impress them.
and the only reason why they hadn't used and discarded you like a plastic bag with warm dog shit inside of it was because they were more than happy tossing a coin into traffic, making you fetch just so they could entertain themselves watching you get hit by a bus.
but everything for your boy, right?
you and that fucking boy.
whatever it is, mark's more than willing to find a way to make all of that stop. he's devised some plans to make everything go back to the way they used to be.
it'd always been you and mark.
mark and you.
he planned to keep it that way.
and so, he was on his best behavior.
he'd let you have your boy.
he'd push down the bile that crawled up his throat whenever he imagined his hands on you. whenever he saw your face light up whenever your phone pings with a notification.
mark can be a very good actor.
he'd act as if his stares weren't deadly when you looked up and caught him looking at you. he could melt those icey eyes, the ones that glaze over in anger, and turn them into their usual warm brown.
he's on his best behavior.
attentive, even.
he's so, so interested in what you've got going on.
who are you talking to? yes you can tell me. no i won't get mad. yes. i promise. him? yeah, I remember. why didn't you tell me?
no, i'm not mad.
good for you!
no, i won't threaten him.
who do you think i am~?
mark knows better than to be outright poisonous towards you. not when there was another boy willing to stuff your pretty little head with cotton.
you are far too sensitive to hear anything that isn't a candied lie. if he plays nice, it gives him the upper-hand.
there is no need to vent to a diary when your best friend is sitting in front of you, doe eyed and innocent, the way he pretended to be when you two were twelve and his mom would check up on you in his room. or when teachers would walk past and he had to pretend he wasn't pressing the sharp point of his pencil into your thigh.
mark loves your parent(s).
they aren't that much different than you.
in fact, mark has come to find that there aren't many people that match him in terms of intelligence.
he can see why you came out the way you did. un-special, if he's feeling kind. the other word he'd like to use is not nice to call someone.
pining after approval, your parent(s) were very easy to like.
very easy to control.
"i just don't know if they've told you, yet. . it seems kinda unfair that i'll be the one to say." mark mutters under his breath, tracing shapes into the dining room table as your parent(s) sit across from him.
"mark," your parent reaches across the table, hoping to grab his hand, only for mark to pull it out of their reach. "if something's happening. . we want to know. we need to know."
"it's just that. ." mark pauses, gives a few seconds to really build the tension. "it's a bit embarrassing."
super.
he's worried about you, you see? there's a group of guys you've been chasing around in school. . and mark doesn't think they have your best interest in mind.
mark has heard. . things.
but you've gone cold on him.
he's worried you might be. .
well, he's worried you might be having sex.
with a few. .
. . all of them?
oh, who gives a shit? the more the better. and the more mark spills, plucks things out of thin air, the more petrified your parents look.
he makes sure to say it.
sex.
hisses, purrs it, whispers it like it's such a bad word.
he even wills himself to look embarrassed, averting his eyes like it's a shameful thing.
it brings him back to the day debbie caught him with some girl after a baseball game.
she had just been some random. a shiny object that called mark's attention. something he could put his dick into while he tucked his face into her neck and imagined the sounds you'd make.
his mom should've known he was already having sex. however, having been caught with his pants down and balls deep in someone wasn't necessarily the way he planned to break it to her.
he heard his mom and his dad arguing in the next room that night and, coincidentally, nolan came in and gave him 'the talk' to the best of his ability.
humans are fragile, mark.
yes, they are.
but the bruises on her were not his fault.
she was soft.
and she'd liked it.
nevertheless, your parents are not as forgiving as mark's.
they promise him it's not a big deal. that he did good. that he's good.
a good kid, a good student, a good friend.
but as soon as he's gone, he knows they are searching your room top to bottom.
he flies up to your room and peeks in through the curtains to watch them toss open closet doors, rummaging through clothing, bookbags, notebooks, whatever they can find.
and finally, your bed.
your diary with all the juicy, dirty - downright violent, jesus - fantasies mark wrote by forging your handwriting.
and your nightstand.
wherein tucked underneath your cute underwear lays a shiny pack of condoms.
at least you're being safe.
you'll never hear the end of it.
it's too good to miss and mark doesn't care if he has to wait all day for you to get home. he wants to watch your everything crash and burn.
not that he'll have to wait much, anyway.
your parent's on the phone, trying to contain red hot anger from spewing out like a backed up volcano, hissing at you to get home, now.
you poor thing.
you poor, poor, thing.
you don't know what to tell them when they toss the pack of condoms at your feet.
when they shove the journal in your face, showing you all the depraved things you wrote in that cute little scrawl.
the boys, the nights out in which you claimed to be at mark's: helping him out with a project.
yeah, right, stop lying, already!
"give me your phone. now."
fingers feverishly tapping and swiping, going through texts as tears stream down your flushed face.
you've got a date tonight.
and you hadn't told your parent(s).
what a coincidence, oh my!
your boy must've planned to seal the deal that night. and mark would be damned if he didn't have you first.
mark doesn't need to worry.
that's definitely not happening now, is it?
in fact, you won't be able to go anywhere that isn't class for the rest of the school year. not unless you're monitored by mark. and isn't it embarrassing, mark having to be some sort of guardian?
"I thought you were smarter than this."
and you're too good to yell back.
you're too good to argue and try to explain that it wasn't you.
you didn't buy condoms. you didn't write that. you didn't do anything.
but if it wasn't you, who was it?
who did?
you look every bit of a cornered animal. it's very you: to freeze in situations like that. back to the door, facing the window just enough for mark to be able to peek at every emotion going past your face through the crack of your curtains.
he watches it flicker past your eyes, the way the muscles in your neck tense up when you squeak out those ugly, strangled, sniffed out cries. the ones you try to hold back when you're crying alone in your room and you want no one else to hear them.
the ones you'd let out at your desk when you were itty bitty and your parent had dropped you off at kindergarten, promising you they'd be right back, but they never were.
you are so much like the way you used to be.
mark wishes things hadn't changed.
he wishes you were just as innocent, as good. he wishes no one would've turned you into what you are now.
he wishes you wouldn't have been stupid enough to let them.
you don't say anything.
you don't even push past your parent when they're done berating you, just stare down at the floor until their mouth has dried, and they shoulder check past you.
you only slowly turn to push the door closed, grab your computer and send a message to the only person you think you can confide in.
he arrives in ten minutes.
enough to make it believable, climb up a tree and sneak into your room.
you fall into his arms immediately, sobbing.
mark hopes you don't feel him smiling against your shoulder as he comforts you.
your boy has been different since the last time you talked to him. distant, distracted. different. you catch him zoning out whenever the two of you are studying in the library, not reciprocating when you try to play footsies with him.
you're not sure if it has to do with the night you had to cancel your date. sure, it was last minute but he'd told you that it was okay. but with everything going on at home, you don't have the patience to hear him lie.
"seriously, what's up?" you ask, kicking his shoe softly.
your boy looks up at you.
his eyes used to gleam with confidence. the type of cockiness that'd make your cheeks burn and butterflies flutter like mad in your stomach. but they looked empty then. he looked like he hadn't slept well. that night or the one before.
he looked around, making sure no one was within earshot. you leaned forward in response, your curiosity peaked.
"this is going to sound weird but. . do you ever get the feeling that you're being watched?"
you blinked.
"uh. . hm. ."
come to think of it. . sometimes you did. you've been sensitive to eyes on you since you can remember. the hyper vigilance is something you've grown accustomed to, making peace with the fact that it might not be a curse after all, and instead some sort of safety feature.
but it felt different.
not like the irrational tickle in your stomach whenever you think of a possibility. but the speckling feeling across your skin, crawling with a million legs, the kind that makes you hallucinate a breath against your neck. the type that has your head rolling, looking for an intruder.
nothing.
but you didn't tell your boy.
because your boy was talking about himself and you've learned to insert yourself into it could be rude.
you settle with saying, "what do you mean?"
he shrugged a shoulder. "i dunno. watched. I get that sometimes. see something from the corner of my eye. and when I turn to look it's gone."
you felt your heart pick up speed. strange. the same thing had been happening to you.
you let out a nervous laugh. "if you're saying this to scare me I'm gonna get really mad, y'know?"
"i'm serious." he said, almost urgently. "and here's this: i was walking to my car after baseball practice and found some weird red shit smeared across my windshield."
he's fucking with you.
surely, he is.
this must have something to do with the rumour circulating around school. the one in which they've seen a figure whizzing past. the one in which that figure is the reason in which some animal carcasses have been found in the baseball field, mutilated like some sort of fucked up science experiment. a villain that's found a hobby in terrorizing the town, perhaps.
"it's probably nothing." you whisper, unsure if you're trying to convince him or yourself.
"probably." he responds.
he doesn't look convinced.
and he doesn't reciprocate when you try, again, to get his attention.
your boy was gone.
gone, gone, gone.
word around the school was that he'd transfered.
but that started to feel suspicious when the students noticed the smell.
something easy to dismiss at first.
the kind of funk attributed to warm weather and not enough deodorant. growing boys and their scattered hormones.
and then it grew.
bold, loud.
ugly enough that it couldn't be ignored.
sour.
downright rancid.
and it was all coming from your boy's locker.
it got so bad a janitor had to pry his locker open.
and that's where they found a decomposed animal, tire marks through the middle of the delicate body. maggots swarming in the orifice where the eyes used to be.
you don't remember when the last time you saw him was.
you don't know if you ever will.
with his past time of mutilating animals and collecting roadkill, you're not sure you even want to.
and if you did, the only thing you'd ask is why?
mark seemed the least surprised about it.
he hadn't so much as grimaced as he told you the story of his locker being pried open.
the stench was the worst thing, apparently.
although, it wasn't enough to deter his appetite as he popped grapes between his fingers, making sure to squirt the juice onto you as he described fat, wriggling maggots falling off in swarming little balls off of the carcass.
you shiver, skin crawling, staring at the pile of homework before mark.
now that your boy had vanished into thin air, his entourage wanted nothing to do with you. you figured it was only normal. you were all preparing for finals, applying for college, planning ahead.
still, it hurt.
it hurt to think you almost had it, almost had him, but it was all taken away. you're not sure why you feel that way, but you do.
and the only thing keeping you afloat is the fact that you've found your way back to mark.
it reminds you, he'll always be there for you.
no matter what.
it's nice, you think.
spending time with your best friend.
even if it means doing mark's work again.
CHAPTER 5
