[ clean ] sender cleans blood off of receiver's body
Neither Ethan nor Henry knows who the blood belongs to tho
Things like this happen sometimes. Dead people whisper secrets in his ear. He dreams of rust and dead skin stretched over walls, shifting and twisting and a long haired woman slithering across the ground toward him. It's been a while since he's woken up to anything strange in his own living space, though. It makes him want to run again, pack up his things and live out of his car.
The knock on the door startles him. In the time it takes to check the peep hole, he struggles to remember if he had plans. Ethan waits patiently on the opposite side of the door and Henry vaguely recalls plans for coffee. Or something.
He's surprised when the other hesitates after the door is open. Henry doesn't think his discomfort is easy to read, but maybe Ethan knows him a little better than he thinks.
"Hey, um, you can sit down. I'm taking care of... I'll be ready in a minute." He stumbled over his words. He doesn't know how to explain that something doesn't feel right. That he woke up to it, the something, and if he doesn't shake it, it might stay.
Not that he has a lot to go on. He probably has no choice.
He heads to the bathroom and splashes water on his face, because there's nothing he can do right now. Not until whatever has come inside decides to do something. When he looks up into the medicine cabinet mirror, everything is wrong. Rotten skin. Numbers carved into the base of his throat.
He recoils. Trips over his own two feet as he stumbles back. He lands on his ass, an elbow colliding with the edge of the tub and
Ethan's calling his name. He blinks like he's coming to, but he knows he didn't hit his head. He didn't pass out. Things like this happen sometimes. Henry still doesn't say anything as Ethan takes a wet wipe across his jaw.
"Did this come from the faucet??"
Henry's throat tightens. His breath quickens. He thinks of blood pouring out of a kitchen sink. He thinks of opening a can of soup to find chunks of fingers floating around like a chicken substitute.
"I don't know. I...we need to go." He sounds far away. Somewhere else.