The Guy Next Door Pt. 3
Benjamin Poindexter x Cannibal! Mutant! Reader
𖦹｡⋆ Summary: Instead of finding himself lurking for Task Force agents, he's instead drawn into your house. One problem, however, you're home.
𖦹 WC: 3.5k
𖦹｡⋆ Tags/Warnings: canon inaccuracies. DDBA S2! Dex. Stalking. Breaking and entering. Taking medication. Mention of surgery.
𖦹｡⋆ A/N: I just want to thank all of y’all for the support for these two past parts. You guys keep me motivated to write for sure 😪😪. This one took a little bit longer to get out since I've been busy. (It's EXTREMELY hot in the East Coast y'all...). Anyways, hope you enjoy!!
⌯⁍ masterlist 𖦏 previous part 𖦏 next part ⌯⁍
Dex really did plan to go after Task Force agents.
He was honestly heading towards the sound of sirens that weren't too far from the neighborhood. Dex knew that he needed to push them back before they got too close to this area. He really didn't want to make a mess of his new apartment so soon. I mean, he just moved in.
Yet, when his eyes caught a glimpse towards a light shining from a window, he found interest in something else. He wasn't able to see you clearly through the window, but he noticed your shadow walking along your apartment.
His curiosity started to grow as he wondered what you were doing. His mind began to wonder once more on you. He wanted to learn more about you and why you were...you.
He knew you must have some routine, a schedule, that you stick by, but he wanted to learn more. How is that routine built when no one else is around? Do you keep on performing for others when no one else is there? Were you scared of someone knowing your true nature?
If you did have a true nature...why did you want to hide it? Hide it from him.
He wanted you to trust him. To let him into a world where no other person has dared to step in.
But, you might need to be given a little push before letting him in...
Dex looked around him, watching if there were anybody nearby. There wasn't a person in sight.
He stood there, contemplating on what to do. His mind was split apart on what was the right thing to do or the best thing he could do.
Task Force will still be there tomorrow.
He couldn't guarantee if you would be there.
His legs moved before his mind could fully catch up. The alleyway to the fire escape was dark and quiet. It was perfect to not be seen, other than the fact that at any moment this fire escape could collapse and potentially alert Task Force.
Oh, and the fact it might kill him for a second, but when hasn't anything he's done ever not tried to kill him though?
He reached his right hand out towards the metal ladder and pulled himself onto the fire escape. When he landed onto the fire escape, he felt the metal shift below his feet and drop slightly.
Gripping onto the railing tighter, his heart was racing in his ears while his mind raced on what to do next. It's not like he was going to quit now; he was already far into it now. So, slowly, Dex began to walk towards the second flight of stairs to make his way up.
You know, for something that was supposed to free you from danger, this seemed more dangerous than just burning to death.
Whatever, though. He didn't want to question his old, grumpy landlord.
He began his assent upwards with his hands white knuckling the railing. His eyes began to shift between the windows beside the fire escapes. One of the last things he wanted to do was get caught by the other neighbors and have Task Force come strolling in and wondering where the "intruder" was.
As he grew closer to your window, his mind began to wonder on what he would do next. Would he just make sure you made it to bed safe? Would he explore more into your apartment? Find out more about who you are like neighbors would?
From a mere few inches, Dex could see the wooden floor of your apartment from your window. In his mind, he immediately began to list the dangers of why she shouldn't leave her window wide open for the world to potentially see. Who knows what dangerous people lurk by.
Good thing he was there, next door, to protect you.
He leaned himself on the metal stairs leading up to the next level and sat himself there. He knew you were still awake from your lights still being on. He could hear your floorboards creak as you began to settle in for the night.
He could hear the sigh of relief coming from you as you made your way to the kitchen. From his angle, he could peer into the kitchen slightly. It allowed him to see you walking to your fridge and pulling it open. Instantly, he noticed how empty your fridge was.
Squinting his eyes, you just mindlessly ignored it and grabbed a jug filled with, what he could assume, was hibiscus tea. You placed it onto the kitchen counter with your back facing him. Dex leaned over to look at what you were doing on the counter to see that you were grabbing.
No, wait. You weren't grabbing something; you were placing down something. Dex looked closer to see that you were dropping down multiple pill bottles. One almost rolling off the counter before you caught it.
Dex's hand tightened on his railing as he looked at the sight in front of him. You were forced to take all these in order to hide yourself. How could someone live like this? Why must you?
He watched as you pulled open a cabinet to grab a cup and poured yourself the tea. Then, you grabbed a single pill from each one of the containers placed it into your hand. Something like this was like staring into a mirror.
Back when he was at that place. Forced to take so many medications just to feel "normal". He wanted to get better because that's what people pushed onto him. That he needed to get better for the "betterment of society".
He didn't want to get out the way he did. Kill the people he did, but he needed out. It wasn't a good way to live.
Now, he was watching the same thing unfold right in front of him once again. This time, with you. By this point, it looked like this was your normal routine. Throwing the pills back and forcing yourself to swallow them all in one go.
He couldn't believe it.
There was so much about you that was so similar to him. It’s if written in the stars that you two met. Why else would you have bumped into him? Why else would he have chosen to move in here?
He knew now that there was someone out there just like him. That he wasn’t this…freak.
But now he wondered. Why did you have to take this medication? What happened?
Through your window, he continued to watch you. He watched as you meticulously cleaned up the area and placed everything back into its place. He watched as you grabbed all your medication in your arm and walked until he could not see you through the window anymore.
It was purely a step by step process that you were following, even with the steps that you were taking. It was like watching a robot. As he was just staring into your kitchen, suddenly the room went pitch black. You finally had decided to settle in for the night.
Dex pushed himself off the stairs and started to inch himself closer towards your window. He grabbed onto the frame, pulling him towards the window to peep inside.
You were nowhere in sight. From the looks of it, your room was the far corner to the left of him with the door fully shut. Your apartment was basically shaped like his.
To the nearest left of him was your living room with a small couch, TV stand and the TV. To the right of him was the kitchen and a small dining table. To the back right of the apartment was the bathroom. It was a small apartment, but the way you decorated it made it feel more like a home-y, cozy interior to be happy in.
It was a sight that could have warmed even his heart.
Inching closer to the window, he pressed his hands onto the window screen and slowly began to push it up. He made sure to go slow enough to make sure that it wouldn't make a single sound. Slowly, but surely, he manages to pry the window screen open enough to let himself inside.
Before entering, he listened in the apartment one last time. He listened for the sound of movement within your bedroom. He wanted to make sure you were staying in the room for the rest of the night. He didn't want any distractions as he looked through your apartment.
When he didn't hear anything, his legs entered your apartment first, making sure that the wood floor wouldn't creak underneath him. Bending himself through the window, he pushed himself through easily, gripping onto the window for support. Once he fully got through, he stood in your apartment for a few seconds, waiting again.
He was listening for the sounds of shifting or movement from your bedroom. However, when no noise emerged, he knew it was time to start looking around. His head slowly turned to look at the apartment, thinking where he should search first.
His eyes adjusted to the room around him and focused on a specific pile on your TV stand. His legs dragged him closer to the living room, making sure to watch his step on specific wood panels. His eyes would occasionally glance towards your bedroom. He wanted to make sure you were sound asleep every time before taking another step.
The last thing that he would want is for you to find him here and think he was being...weird. The last thing he was being was weird. He just wanted to get to know you more so that he can figure out a way to get you out of your shell. He wanted to meet you halfway so that you could fully realize that he was there for you.
Looking down at the TV stand, his eyes focused on the pile on the right corner. From the top of the pile, he grabbed it to realize that it was a CD player in a case. He flipped it so that he could look at the front of it.
Immediately, realizing it was too dark, he turned his body towards the window so that the moonlight could shine onto it. On it, the title of the movie read "Inside the Human Mind: A Documentary on Human Psychology".
Dex shrugged at first as he read it. You just might like documentaries. When he went back to place it onto the pile, his eyes shifted to read the second one in the pile: "The Emotions that Control Us".
Another movie on human psychology.
Squinting his eyes at it, he grabbed the second one from the pile and into his hands. With the two CDs in his hands, he quickly placed down the two CDs onto the stand before reading the next one.
"How We Socialize: An Introduction to Sociology"
Three was more than enough to be watching these documentaries and buying them to be watching them on repeat. However, as he placed that one down, there was another documentary with a similar title. Then, another and another and another.
All of these had to do with human interaction or human emotions. All these CDs looked to be used frequently too. The paper holding the title and summary of the movie in place were starting to disintagrate and loose its color.
He counted eight movies about humans, and they weren't short documentaries too. They all had about the same runtime which was about two hours. He couldn't believe his eyes. This was your own way to hold yourself together like with his own CDs.
Then, when he got to the last one, it was much different from the rest of the pile. This wasn't one that was made by a company, no. This one looked like it was made by someone. On the CD itself, there was something written on it with sharpie.
It was your name, a date titled April 23rd, 1996.
However, just below that was titled:
Bullet Removal Surgery
In this pile, you had your own surgery like it was one of your favorite movies on display. None of these documentaries would have been for view for other people. Others would have viewed it as boring, but not if it was for you. For you to study and learn.
Yet, he wondered why you had your own surgery just tucked away in this pile. Some of the marker had been scratched off from age, so it had been watched at least a couple of times through the years. But, no "normal" person would just watch their own surgery on repeat. No.
There was something else going on and he had just scratched the surface of it.
He looked up from the pile of CDs and looked towards your bedroom again. He contemplated something in his mind, waiting for you to make a sound/sign to make him stop. However, when no noise emerged, he quickly grabbed your CD and stored it into his jacket.
And as if nothing happened, he placed each CD in its proper place until the pile was back to how it was before.
He would return it eventually, but he just wanted to see what was so interesting about this CD. Why would you keep this here with the pile of movies about being human?
Once done, he walked away from your TV stand and began to scan your apartment again. His eyes scanned towards your kitchen and your bathroom. He already knew about your kitchen and how you barely had anything in that fridge, just things to get you through the next day.
So, his mind believed the best place to go next was your bathroom. He wasn't going to do anything weird.
He was just going to scan the area and maybe see if your medication was lying around. He wanted to know what exactly you were taking. What were you trying to treat?
Dex creeped his way towards your bathroom as slowly as possible. Each step he took was making sure he didn't step on the wrong panel and caused it to creak too loud to wake you up. The closer he got towards you and your room, the slower he became.
As slowly as he was walking, his eyes decided to peer into your room. Your door was perfectly creaked open to allow himself to peer inside. Even though the room was extremely dark, he could make out the silhouette of you.
You were facing the wall with your back turned towards him. He could see the rise and fall of your chest as you were peacefully sleeping. Dex could almost smile at the sight in front of him.
It was the one time that he could see you be you. No eyes watching you and letting yourself rest from that expectation. Dex made a promise within his own mind that you wouldn't just find sleep the only place to feel safe, but in him too.
You'll just have to trust him.
Turning his head towards the bathroom door, he creeped his way towards it until his arm was able to reach the door. Pushing the door with just a finger, he slipped himself through the gap.
Inside, he looked towards the sink where he found a mirror resting right above it. Staring right back at him was himself. He was trying his best to ignore his own reflection as he walked towards the mirror.
He was still trying to wrap his mind around the reason why he was here, but seeing his own reflection was a bit...awkward.
Still, he had a job to do, and he wasn't going to back out of it.
Reaching his hand out, he grabbed the mirror. In a single second, his mind lost its focus and the mirror let out a loud creaaakkk! as it was pried open.
Dex widened his eyes and snapped his head towards the bathroom door, listening for you. Immediately, he could hear the sound of shuffling from the next room and the loud creaking of the wood panels.
Dex's blood ran cold as he tried to figure out what to do next. He couldn't knock you out, you would know there had been an intruder in your home. You would have the police called and they would immediately recognize him if they tried to question him.
His eyes shuffled across the bathroom before looking at the only thing where he could hide. Behind the shower curtains.
In a split second, he rushed over to the bathtub and crawled inside. He fixed the curtains slightly before standing there, very still.
Immediately after, he could hear you pushing the bathroom door open and turning on the lights. He squinted as his eyes tried to adjust to the new light and finding himself very aware he was in your shower. His head laid back on your tiles while he listened in.
He could hear you let out a deep sigh. Both from annoyance and sleep deprived. "How did this open..."
You pushed closed the mirror.
But you didn't leave. Instead, you stayed there as if you knew you weren't alone in here. He could hear your clothes turning as you turned to look at the shower.
Your own mind began to picture something beyond the curtain. Sure, it could have been you downed your pills all in one go and you were high off your mind, but...something was telling you to look more closely. It was your gut just telling you to trust it.
You slowly inched your way closer towards the shower curtain. You raised your hand to grab the curtain and slowly began to pull it open. Your heart beginning to race in your chest.
Dex, knowing he was going to get caught, began to think about ways on how he could knock her out and escape without a trace. He knew he would need to start packing his bags the moment he left the apartment. He would need to leave no trace that could lead them to believe that it was him.
He could just need to make it look like it was just an intruder had tried to break into her apartment.
He just needed to make it quick and as painless as possible for her. Just quick and easy and he would be forced to leave her alone. Leave her alone before even getting to know her.
His mind began to just curse at himself for doing this. Why could he just mind his own business? He could have just killed some agents and called it a night! But no. He wanted to get to know you more.
And now it was all ruined . . .
The curtain was almost pulled to see him before . . .
Bzzzt! Bzzt! Ringgggg!
You felt your heart jump as the sound echoed throughout the bathroom. You had taken your phone to the bathroom and had placed it onto the sink. Losing your focus on the curtains, you grabbed your phone and looked at the caller ID. It was Pris.
Quickly answering the call, you first speak up saying, "Pris, I almost had a heart attack. Why are you calling me at this hour?"
You began to shuffle out of the bathroom. You turned off the lights and closed the door behind you, letting Dex let out a soft sigh of relief.
From the other room, he can hear you say, "You're at a what? Pris, where did you find a club that opens on a Wednesday? Nev--Nevermind."
"You want me to what? Pris--ugh--you're cutting up," You answered back to her.
"Oh...yes. I can cover." You sounded more assured that she wasn't harmed.
He could hear a soft sigh coming from your lips before saying, "I'll see you soon. Drink water, please."
Dex could hear you shuffle into your room and shut the door. Dex bowed his head to look into the tub while trying to calm down his nervous system. Just the fact he needed to think about harming her to get away hurt his soul. He gripped onto his heart while taking in the slowest, controlled breath that he could.
Once he was able to get his mind straight, he manages to pull himself out of the tub from the little opening you left. He stands in your bathroom and looks back at the mirror he tried to open. He contemplates whether or not to try again.
The whole reason why he was here in the first place was to try and search for your medication. However, he knew that if he were to try again, you would surely know that there was someone in your apartment.
So, instead of going towards the mirror, he walks towards the door. Dex manages to pull open the door without a sound and makes his way back towards the window. Looking up towards the window, he noticed that, somehow, the window was still pried open.
He walks towards it, but not without looking inside the apartment one more time. There was still much to learn about you, but this was a start to learning to who you were.
With the CD tucked within his jacket, he snuck back out of your window and closed the screen behind him.
A/N: Not much dialogue in this one, but you know lolz. Sorry this one took a bit to make!!
