thespherelogs | [Closed] A Scream in the Night

[Closed] A Scream in the Night

Who: Carol Peletier (

becauseyouhaveto) and Jason Stevenson (

snowjoke)
What: Carol's awakened by the sounds of a fight
When: Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, some time after midnight
Where: Dorm 201 and a bit in the hallway

The scream is what wakes Carol up. Her body is instantly on alert, hand flying out for her knife as she jumps up out of bed. She can hear two men next door, and the tell-tale thud of one of them hitting the floor. Past experience and automatic reflexes take over, and she tip-toes into the hallway to wait for someone to come out. Their words are softer when they finally speak again, so she isn't sure what's being said.

When a man clothed in nothing but a hoodie comes out, her blood runs cold. He's clearly in pain, and her neighbor is just pushing him out?

"Do you need help, sweetie?" she asks gently.

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Jason just stumbles using the wall as a crutch. He doesn't even notice the woman out there till she speaks, and he can't help but jump at the sound. He had a steady trail of tears as he looks at her, kinda snapping out of the daze he was in.

He hesitates, no idea who she was but he was in so much physical and emotional pain right now he doesn't know how he'do this on his own.

"please" his voice cracks as he hiccups a small sob. He truly looked pathetic.

"Help... me to my room?" He doesn't want to be seen like this, embarrassed and ashamed for it.

The poor boy...Carol stashes the knife in its sheath stealthily, not wanting to scare him. She understands the emotional pain she can see on his face. Carefully, unsure of where he's been physically hurt, she slips one arm around his shoulders and gently grasps his upper arm with the other hand to support him.

She keeps that soft, caring tone, needing him to trust her before she can be of any help. "Where is your room? If it's far, I don't mind taking you into mine. It doesn't look like you're in any shape to be walking."

He didn't see it at all, he can barely see with all the tears. He takes a shuttering breath as she supports him so gently, he leans against her and even with his whole weight on her he weight virtually nothing. He pushes a bit over 120 pounds on a good day, under her fingers his skin has a deathly inhuman chill to it, he's run out of energy so the air wasn't nearly as cold and he wasn't as spiky as he was a moment ago.

"I'm in 209" he mumbles quietly. It was a godsend that he's on his feet after what happened honestly. He doesn't really want to bother her more than he was, but he can't really deny her opinions at the moment.

The chill is concerning, but Carol's priority is getting him off his feet. She's already used to the presence of supernatural abilities among other residents. She guides him into her room, careful to keep him upright. "I'll get you settled, then go gather clothes for you, how about that? In the meantime, do you want to tell me what happened?"

With as light as he is, it's easy for her to maneuver him in and onto the bed. There's still the smell of charred flesh lingering about him. "If you'll let me, I can dress your wounds for you. And if it's bad enough, we'll go to the infirmary."

He follows along with no resistance, he just nods, before he fully realizes he was laying on the soft sheets. He looks around hating how similar they all were.
"I... um" he hesitates looking away from her. It really was embarrassing. "he, burned my dick... and stuff. Real bad." he felt shy, he doesn't have the strength to deny her the information, but in reality, it was a mess down there.

"I don't know why he did it" he mumbles tears starting to really start up again, he brings up a hand to wipe them away with a hiccup. He doesn't know if he had done something wrong or what pushed him to do it. It doesn't really matter right now but he can't stop thinking about it.

It's certainly not what she expected to hear, but she simply nods in acknowledgement.

"My ex husband, Ed...He used to beat me. I didn't know why, either." She turns to find gauze as she talks. "I thought, maybe I just wasn't a good wife, or maybe I shouldn't have interrupted his TV programs...He dislocated my shoulder a lot. I taught myself how to pop it back in place so I wouldn't have to answer so many questions from nurses."

Before returning to his side, she washes her hands thoroughly, then asks, "What's your name, sunshine?"

He listens to her and that wasn't fair, she seemed so nice? His eyes were red and puffy taking a deep breath.

"That's not fair" he mumbles quietly, he honestly doesn't consider the idea that Dodger is abusive. He was an asshole that's for sure he can throw a good few punches himself. "dislocate his shoulder" he says with a small nod. It was nice to have a conversation as a distraction, but he doesn't connect any of the dots.

"Jason" he looks over at her staring for a moment, he doesn't know why she was being so nice to him. "what's yours?"

"My name's Carol. I'm sorry we have to meet like this, but it is nice to meet you, Jason. I'm going to apply that burn cream, then I'll wrap gauze around it. When you're ready, I'll help you to the infirmary."

She takes the burn cream and begins to apply it gently. It's a good thing his skin seems chilled, though she does wonder if it's some physiological reaction to the burn. Once the wound is sufficiently covered, she makes quick work of wrapping it. "This will keep your skin from getting infected, and the aloe and lidocaine in the cream should help with the pain. Are you feeling nauseous or dizzy at all? I need to know if you are." It wouldn't be surprising, considering the tender location.

She'd witnessed others in bad shape plenty of times, especially after the virus had swept the nation, so to her, this was just another field dressing.

He just nods, trying to prepare himself. He looks away, looking at it makes the panic rise in his chest.

It was a mixture of searing pain, embarrassment and a mingling of fear as Carol dressed and cleaned the wound. Nothing could prepare himself for it as he only lets a few cries out. He whimpers and bites his lip till she was done, panting lightly. He's gotten quite pale after that, but at least he's out of future damage for the first part.

He doesn't answer her for a moment but nods. He's been holding out the need to vomit since he left, the smell being gone helps a tiny bit. The room wavered as he stares at the ceiling.

"Both," he musters up the ability to vocalize it.

Though she tries to be as gentle as possible, she knows it's still going to hurt him.

"Okay, I'll be right back." She stands and goes to the little kitchenette to set a kettle boiling. While she waits for that, she fixes a teabag into a mug, then pours the hot water over it when it's ready.

"This mint tea will help with the nausea. Just sip it slowly," she says as she offers it to him.

Jason just lays there a bit stunned as Carol leaves, he takes a deep breath just listening to the sounds of her moving about before he opens his eyes. He forces himself to sit up enough to take the cup.

"oh, Thanks," he says with a small nod. He brings the cup up to take a sniff. He was too familiar with teas. He takes a small sip, it was hot but he's able to handle it alright.

"Why are you helping me?" he doesn't fully understand, he doesn't have anything to repay her with.

"Because why shouldn't I? You need help, and I'm able to," she answers quickly. Because others have helped her when they didn't have to, and this was the only way she knew to repay that kindness. Because she sees herself in Jason, hurt, confused, looking for answers to questions that wouldn't be answered.

When she speaks again, her voice is softer, barely above a whisper. "You know, you don't have to go back to him. I can help you. I killed Ed, and even though no one dies for good here, we can still hurt the man that did this."

Jason quietly sips his tea and listens to her speak. He's not used to people being nice without expecting something in return.

He seems a bit uneasy as she mentions about not going back. He looks anywhere but Carol at the moment.
"But... I want to?" His voice drops and he seems to deflate a bit more.
"Him getting punched in the face would be great but... he looked surprised that it happened" he doesn't know if he meant it, but he does no that he got kicked out without Dodger even apologizing.

Oh...Maybe she ought to gather more information before making such a snap judgement. But it just didn't add up to the other man just tossing Jason out. If he loves Jason, wouldn't he want to help him?

"So, this is the first time he's hurt you? Why didn't he keep you in there?"

Jason hesitates, looking at the cup. Carol was probably right in some assumptions but their relationship was complicated. "I mean... yeah, but kinda not at the same time." He didn't sound too sure of it really.

"we fistfight a lot, but it turns into more than fighting, it gets pretty fun... sometimes he just hits me I guess."

He just sips his tea quietly for a moment. "I dunno... he seemed kinda nervous and stuff. But I dunno"

Carol furrows her brow, confused at the idea of someone enjoying being hit.

"In my experience, the first time never stays the only time. I fell in love with the Ed I met, but over time, he got mean. It started out with him just yelling at me, or berating me. The first time he hit me, he swore it was a mistake. The real mistake was in me believing him. And I understand wanting to stay with him." She sighs. It's not really her place to tell Jason how his relationship should go.

"You just need to be careful, and know when enough is enough."

Jason's used to being hit, he has to forever. The difference when it's with Dodger is that it makes him feel more alive and he's grown to enjoy it.

"Okay... I guess that's true."

He lets out a small sigh. "I dunno I just can't explain how he makes me feel... It can't hurt being more careful"

He feels bad for making Carol recall memories she may not want to, or worrying over his very stubborn ass.

"I know how that feels. It's a tough position to be in." She reaches up to gently run her fingers through his hair, trying to be soothing. It isn't her place to judge what others are into.

"Tell me more about this guy. You might love him, but what do others think about him?"

Dodgers the only person who's run fingers through his hair before, he tenses but does relax, he just looks a bit confused.

"Well... people think he's really strong and he does a lot of cool stuff." He trails off with a small frown. "He's really powerful and smart and people tend to think he's some crazy, violent person... which he is, but not I guess" he doesn't know how to word it right, speaking was never his strong suit.

"He can get protective and soft, he looks scary and can be scary. He has a job to do and he does it well, it's just who he is it's not like he can control it all the time, everyone just doesn't take the time to get to know him or something, he helped me care about being alive instead of enabling me to just wither away and die like I wanted to."

He has a soft look on his face as he takes a deep breath as he recalls some of this. Dodger means a lot to him even if it was a fucked-up relationship.

Carol listens attentively. Jason reminds her of a child in the way he talks about the man next door, and her heart breaks when he talks about wanting to die. It sounds like the man is all Jason has, really, and she wouldn't want to take that away from him.

"I see...I want to talk to him. Maybe punch him. If this was an accident, he shouldn't have kicked you out. If it was on purpose, he needs to explain himself."

He wasn't all he had, but it was pretty close. Especially here. He takes a deep breath snapping out of his bit of daydreaming.

"He might not wanna talk..." He hesitates a moment.

"He deserves to be punched in the face reallllly hard."

He has done fine without Dodger but he always tends to see him again, they work together and they do more than just that. it's an interesting complement to each other's personalities.

"I don't care if he wants to talk, we're going to talk. He's going to explain himself. You're at least going to get an apology. I'll make damn sure of that." Carol nods decisively, as if speaking it will guarantee it. She doesn't really know the man next door, though she's sure he's the one she saw stealing in the market. He reminds her of Daryl a bit.

Which makes her miss Daryl more.

"And I'll punch him as hard as I can."

All he can do is nod to that, he can't argue even though he wasn't very confident in it working. "I hope it works" he lets out a quiet sigh. Carlo was pretty confident, if not a bit intimidating.

"Punch him harder if he meant to do it." He was trying to joke around a bit but he's failing at it.

"I'll punch him twice if he meant to do it." She stands and offers to take the empty cup. "I'm gonna go grab you a pair of pants from your room, then we're gonna go see John and Dr. Laurie in the medical ward."

He lets out a small, half-hearted laugh. "gotta punch him good" he holds the cup out for her and nods.

"any pants would be alright... or some underwear... or somethin" trails off for a moment just thinking about the options of clothes he had before snapping back into it at the mention of doctors.

"do I have to see a doctor?" He would honestly prefer not to, this was humiliating enough.

He doesn't even think of the fact that they where there to help him, he's never been to a proper doctor before.

She takes the tea cup and goes to rinse it, talking as she does. "You do need to see the doctor, sweetie. What we did just now with the burn cream and the gauze is just a temporary fix. It's like you've got a cut that needs stitches, and all we did was put a band-aid on it."

Once the cup is rinsed, she stops by the bed. "You just wait here. I'll be right back." She leaves and hurries to Jason's room, grabs a pair of comfy-looking pants, and hurries back to toss them to Jason.

"Put those on, and I'll walk you to Dr. Laurie. She'll get you sorted."

He frowns a bit thinking when the last time he had a cut in that manner.

"I've done stitches before." He's done a very bad job with them at least once before.

Carol leaves and Jason just looks around the room till she comes back. He catches them rubbing the fabric between his fingers.
"I guess if you think it's a good idea" he starts to struggle them on with a small yelp, he grits his teeth and soon their on.
"I don't think a doctor wants to deal with this..."

"I know you're embarrassed, but trust me, the doctor will help a lot more than I did. Their technology is much more advanced than anything anyone has seen." She smiles and gently brushes his hair off his forehead.

"Let the doctor help you while I go talk to this asshole."

"I... still dunno how well talkin will go" he mumbles tugging at the pants fabric. He knows he'll deny it all for the most part.

"He might try and scare you away."

Her hand touches him gently he seems surprised for a moment before smiling a bit. "If you think they will help I'll go... but good luck talking to him."

He hopes it goes well, but he know's Dodger enough that he'll make it a struggle.

"I've fought scarier men. I'll be fine. Let's just get you to the medical ward right now, okay?"

She helps him stand up slowly, keeping a firm yet gentle touch. "We'll take it slow, since we'll be going a lot further than just next door. If you need to stop and rest, just tell me. Don't be embarrassed. Our top priority right now is getting you patched up and pain-free."

The pain wasn't that bad till he got up again, letting out a small whimper. He lets her take the grunt of his weight as he nod.
"I dunno... why you wanna help me so much, I don't got anything to give you"
he mumbles quietly. He appreciated the help alot and wasn't sure what he would have done without it, he's just nervous of what she expects out of him.

Well, that breaks her heart.

"I'm not doing this to get something from you. I'm doing it because I'm here and I can. I wish I'd had someone to help me back before--before everything."

That honestly startles him, he looks at the ground as they continue to walk.

"I guess... I'm not used to that kinda shit"

He's not used to any of the kindness Carol is offering to him. Dodger was the only one but even that was a stretch.

This was almost a parental feeling he's never experienced before. Over time he just stopped wishing for people to help him because they watend to, when they did it always backfired on him.

"Thank's for helping me."

No one shouldn't be used to kindness. It upsets Carol to think that there are people out there that don't know what it feels like to have kindness directed at them, or people who think it puts them in debt to someone else.

People like Jason.

"You're very welcome."

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[Closed] A Scream in the Night

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