Chapter Text
Something changed in the past few months and now everything feels wrong, no is wrong. From things like how Embrys parents looked to the way they arranged their pillows in the morning nothing felt right anymore something, no matter how small it was, it was wrong.
At first the feeling of wrongness was subtle, it was easy ignore and Embry could go about their day without acknowledging the feeling of your skin crawling, the feeling of every individual hair on the back of your neck standing straight, and your brain whispering wrong, wrong, wrong. But now the feeling was harder to ignore and it was harder to not acknowledge the uncomfortable sensations and harder to ignore the whispering chant in their brain. The only way to ignore all this was for Embry to focus on doing a certain task (like washing the laundry) or focusing on specific thought.
Like what they were doing right now.
It was early in morning, too early to get up but early enough to not go back to sleep. So Embry lay in bed facing the ceiling huddled under warm blankets while the ceiling fan made the room cold. In the comfort and safety of their room they couldn’t help but think about before all this, before the feeling of wrong settled in and became an uncomfortable presence in their life, back when they and their mom would spend hours in garden and they would complain about reapplying the uncomfortable sunscreen, back when they would paint anything and everything with their dad and he would hang it up on the wall or fridge when it dried, back when they would have family movie nights and go to the market filled with friendly and familiar faces every other week. Back when things were right.
Embry rolled over on to their side and looked over to their nightstand at the clock siting on it watching the hands move as the time passed by slowly. It’s 7:32 now would be a good time to get up and make breakfast they parents must be getting a bit hungry after all.
Throwing off the mountain of blankets and slipping on the raggedy green slippers they loved, they quickly went downstairs to the kitchen and searched the cabinets for anything remotely edible. “Looks like peanut butter and jelly again” Embry mumbled as they leathered the jelly onto the first slice of bread and swiftly moving onto the other. After sandwiching the two slices together they sliced it down the middle, picked up the plate and began walking to their parent’s room.
They’ll need to head out to the market today they’re almost out of food. They would be fine for a few more days at least but it would be nice to get some meat from the market. It’s what keeps their parents full the most after all.
Reaching their parent’s room they turn the door handle and enter the pitch black room. The room was dark with blackout curtains covering the window and the lights turned off making every inch of the room look pitch black. Ever since they’ve gotten sick Embry almost never saw them out of the room or in a well lit area again. The feeling of something being wrong usually felt the most present when they were in the room with their mom and dad.
“Embry, is it breakfast time already?” Their mom shifted in bed raiseing and rubbing her eye while Embry entered the room and left the door open a bit. It was normally their mom who was awake around the morning for breakfast and their dad who was awake around evening for dinner.
“Yeah mom, I’m heading to the market after breakfast but I shouldn’t be too long” Embry explained walking to their mom’s side of the bed.
Before they got sick their mom and dad’s room felt like any other room in the house, a nice place to hang out in and like nothing bad would ever happen to them. But that feeling was gone and replaced by something else something that made Embry cautious of the room, made them feel claustrophobic, like the walls were closing in and would suffocate them without hesitation, made them feel like something was waiting, watching.
“Thank you Embry make sure you have breakfast before leaving, alright” Embrys mom grabbed the plate and placed it on her bedside table before pulling Embry into a to tight hug their head tucked under their moms chin as she waited for them to hug back. After a moment Embry hugged their mom back and with one last squeeze from their mom they broke the hug and Embry quickly left the room to head to the market.
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Immediately after leaving the house and locking the door behind them a guest of wind blew past Embry and ruffled their hair and apron. Smoothing down their hair they began the walk into town and the market, they passed by the broken swing set they would play on while their mom worked in the garden and their dad made burgers for dinner on a hot summer day. The swing set broke after they got sick and Embry wasn’t the best at gardening yet, to preoccupied with other things, so the plants in the garden died after they got sick. The walk was long but Embry didn’t care much they were just going to grab some food from the market as quick as possible. Even though things felt more right when they were out of the house they still had to help their parents recover.
After arriving at the market they walked over to Ms Bailor’s meat stall that’s all they really came here for, only to find out she didn’t have any meat. Again.
“This is the third trip in a row you haven’t had any meat” Embry groaned, while the sandwiches were a quick and easy meal to make and could keep their parents full meat was the best to use to fed them. It kept them full longer and made trips to the market less frequent because the amount of food would last longer. But alas Embry would not be lucky today.
“I know but you’re not the only customer I have you know, if there’s any extra next time you visit I’ll save it for you, ok?” Ms Bailor replied, she was a nice lady and it really wasn’t her fault there was no meat this time but still.
“Ok have a nice day Ms Bailor” Embry muttered turning away and beginning the walk back home. It was still early maybe around 9:34 in morning they could probably read a book they haven’t read in a while, maybe they could take a trip to the library, just a quick one, they haven’t read anything new in a while and they’ve memorized most of their books by now. No, no they were already pushing it with the market trips. Ever since their parents got sick they made it clear to Embry that they didn’t like them leaving the house at all, the reason being that Embry could have possibly contracted their illness and might spread it to the townspeople, but it didn’t make any sense to Embry they’ve been completely fine the whole time their parents were sick but trying to tell that to them was not worth the hassle so they could only convince them to let them go to the market when absolutely necessary. It also easier to convince Embry to not go out because what if something went wrong what if they somehow got worse while Embry was away and they couldn’t help!
Yeah it was easier to stay at home, no matter how wrong that place was beginning to feel.
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Embry got home around 10:36 in the morning, nowhere near evening when they would bring dinner to their parents and they would go to sleep. So with the amount of time they had to kill they made the decision that cleaning the house could wait till tomorrow and for now they just wanted to read and relax around the house and ignore the ever present feeling of something being off. For the next few hours Embry read more then half of a book they haven’t read in a little while, it was good, if only they could enjoy it as much as they did when they first read it, oh well.
Dinner time came quicker then Embry would like to admit and this time they made a butter sandwich, they really are running out of food. They walked back up to their parent’s room and opened the door leaving the door open a bit to allow a sliver of light through. For a brief moment in the darkness they saw their dad but, his eyes were glowing a light lavender with thin pupils. Embry blinked rapidly there was no way, after a moment Embry looked at their dad again and this no glowing eyes. Maybe they’re just tired.
“Embry? Are you okay?” Embrys dad questioned, they snapped back into focus and nodded their head while quickly walking over to his bedside table and set the plate down. “Yeah I’m good just a little tired” they answered, “okay well maybe you should head to bed early tonight” he remarked and pulled Embry in a quick hug. It just as tight as their mom’s was but this time was different, something was wrong, they felt something spiky on their back something like, claws.
Embry pulled out of the hug quickly but noticed that their dad’s hand seemed normal and nothing looked out of the ordinary, did they imagine it? All of a sudden the usual feeling of claustrophobia and eyes on them returned ten fold and it sent a violent shiver through them, they need to get out of here. Now. “Um goodnight dad” Embry stated, visibly frightened and darted out of the room as fast as possible while trying to not make their dad suspicious, there’s no way he didn’t notice.
Shortly Embry returned to their room and closed the door making sure to lock it, one incident like that could be played off as their own paranoia but two incidents in the span of a few minutes was downright suspicious. Is there something else wrong with their parents is something happening to them is there a part to their illness that Embry doesn’t know about! Are they! No, no what are they thinking nothing is happening to them it was just a very pitch black room and Embry was feeling tired it was probably that combination plus the lack of food in their system that made them hallucinate like that. Yeah that was it. That’s all it was.
Embry heavy sigh and walked over to their bed, maybe sleeping will help. ‘I’m not crazy just tired’ Embry chanted in their head while they took off their slippers and buried themselves under the mountains of blankets on the bed while staring at the ceiling internally chanting ‘I’m not crazy just tired’ until they could feel themselves drifting off to an uncomfortable dream.