Chapter Text
“Come on then! COME ON!” Adam yelled, slamming his fist against his chest, white-knuckling the baseball bat hidden behind his back. There was an alternate, slowly circling him as if it were a lion in a cage, it’s all-too-empty eye sockets boring into his being. He could make out it’s teeth and gum line, stretching beyond its mouth and up to its cheekbones. It’s head was disproportionately large compared to the rest of its body—obscured by shadows—with two long, empty, and uneven eye sockets devoid of pupils. He could hear it grinding it’s teeth, drool cascading from its mouth and onto the floor. Adam gripped the bat harder.
It’d been doing this kind of careful dance—looking at him, watching him—but never moving toward him. As if it were inspecting him. For reasons Adam couldn’t explain, it made him feel furious. If he didn’t feel so positive it’d tear him to shreds if he moved, he would’ve.
He’d long since turned off the comms connecting himself and Jonah. He’d been doing nothing but whining and complaining for Adam to leave the house the whole time. Not like he had an option anymore, though—woefully recalling how the alternate had revealed itself by copying Jonah’s voice through the radio.
Adam drew in a silent breath, drawing one of his feet back to steady himself. The alternate made a noise that he could only describe as clicking in response.
“Adam,” It taunted, letting a garbled mimic of Jonah’s voice rise from its throat. Adam bit the inside of his cheek and tasted blood. “Do you believe me?”
“Fuck off!” Adam shouted, loud enough that he was almost certain Jonah could hear him from the car. The alternate reared backward at the noise, hands reaching at the sides of its face. Before he could even think, Adam took it as an opportunity to charge it.
With the satisfying crack of the bat against the Alternates head, Adam could feel joy rush through his veins as it howled in pain and fell onto its side.
Before it could slink away, Adam quickly stepped forward and onto what he presumed to be its ankle, raising his bat a second time and driving it into the alternates shin.
It screamed, and Adam smiled.
Freeing itself from beneath him, it made a wild run upstairs—a sight which made Adam feel positively giddy as liquid back oozed from the wounds on its body. He chased it upstairs, nearly tripping as he skidded around a corner to follow it into a room.
It’d driven itself into the upper corner of what Adam believed to be a little girls room, the light pink wallpaper becoming an ugly brown as the alternates blood dripped from the walls.
“Adam, stop!” Jonah’s broken, guttural voice pleaded from the alternates mouth. It’s drool had since turned dark with its blood. “Put the bat down! You’ll hurt me!”
Adam gave a low laugh, sucking in a breath as he swung at the alternates legs again. It crashed onto the floor and crawled over the bed, smearing it with blood. Suddenly, before he could react, it lunged at Adam.
He could feel it sink its teeth into his arm, and he screamed.
The alternate tore itself away from Adam and threw itself out of the room, and vaguely, he could hear it crashing down the stairs and out of the front door. Looking up, he could see his own blood and a chunk of his flesh dragged halfway across the room.
Adam looked down at his arm.
It was oozing black and red, and now that the moment had passed—he felt uncomfortably numb. His entire body felt uncomfortably numb.
Adam had barely another moment to think before he heard someone running up the stairs, and his own body collapsing against the floor.