For once, the hotel was completely silent.
Glitch should've taken it as a blessing, to finally not have Rush's or Ambush's irritating screams echoing in his ears, but it felt so wrong. So, so wrong.
His spazzing, glitching body phased through a wall or two as an idea popped into his distracted mind.
I wonder how Halt is doing. I've not seen or heard from him in a while.
His body faded from existence, reforming in the depths of Halt's infamous hallway. But the hallway bathed in blue was lacking what made it so special: Halt.
It was uncanny.
The thick tension in the air was enough to set off alarm bells in his head; Halt wasn't the type to leave his assigned domain, especially since it was the one place he truly felt he belonged.
Panicked, Glitch observed the scene in search of the tiniest sign of his presence, but nothing was to be seen.
Where could he be?
Noticing Halt's leg sticking out from behind a closet, Glitch was relieved.
Wait, that's not blood, is it?
A cold sweat overcomes the entity as his body begins to jitter and glitch; he has no words to describe how terrified he is for Halt.
He walks towards Halt, his pace halfway between a walk and a sprint, as he tries to keep his cool about this.
"Halt, get up you dummy." His playful teasing evokes no response.
The faux joyful tone lacing his voice wanes in an instant; he spots the bloodied blade of a razor and puts together quite a horrific picture.
Dropping to his knees, he rolls up the sleeves of his dress shirt.
"Halt, can you hear me?"
Again, it lands on deaf ears.
Pressing his fingers to Halt's neck, he feels the slightest excuse of a pulse. There's no breaths escaping his agape mouth, and no movement to justify he can feel his own body.
He leans his ear towards Halt's mouth, listening for any noise that comes, but none ever arrives. Keeping his fingers on Halt's neck, he feels his pulse slowly come to a sickening stop.
"No..no, you're not dying on me, Halt!" Glitch cries, overwhelmed by a rage and a sorrow.
Positioning his hands atop one another, he readies himself to begin CPR. Using every ounce of strength he can muster, he presses onto Halt, performing CPR.
After a few minutes of fruitless labour, Glitch kneels backwards as he shakes his head, his body shuddering involuntarily. For a moment, the thought of giving up crossed his mind.
But what did Halt do to deserve such a fate?
That question convinced him to continue; the soft introvert wasn't deserving of such a vile end and he was going to prove it.
Resuming CPR, Glitch continued until Halt sputtered and coughed. He awoke to the searing pain of his self-inflicted wounds, the fiery sensation trailing up his forearms.
Pulling Halt close, Glitch wrapped his arms around him, shoving him onto the verge of tears.
"Please.." Glitch's voice had an unusual softness to it as if, even for just one moment, the sharp static ceased and his words were finally hearable,"..never do this again."
Sobbing, Halt lowered his head, his tears falling onto Glitch,"I felt so alone. I'm not wanted here, Glitch."
Taking Halt firmly by the hands, he looked the entity in the eyes as the two remained on the ground,"Don't you ever say that. You are one of the most valuable entities here, you hear me? Your presence is what makes my heart beat."
"What heart? We're entities, not humans; we don't have the ability to love, to value eachother for qualities, to form acquaintanceships or anything." Halt protested, hanging his head in shame.
A truth had been stated, a truth Glitch didn't know how to counteract; they weren't capable of loving or liking anything. Their lives revolved around their insatiable lust for blood, or what remained of their life. But somehow, they were able to care about one another, by some indescribable miracle.
"Well, I do. I do care about you, Halt. I don't care if I'm breaking some stupid rule or going against some higher power here; I genuinely care about you and that will never change. We're friends, remember?" Glitch stated, a stern tone in his considerate and heart-warming words.
Staring at Glitch through wet eyes, Halt perked up,"..we are? I thought you checked on me because Guiding Light told you to."
"No, I always check on you because we're friends. I thought you knew that? Well, now you do, at least." He held Halt, rocking from side to side in a comforting motion,"Now, we need to sort this all out."
Pointing to the sizeable wounds of Halt's arms, he made his intentions known to him. Without any protest, Halt held his arms forwards as Glitch repaired what needed to be repaired in the hotel.
The feeling that overcame Halt was an oddity; it was as if he could feel his skin sealing up and healing. Every droplet of the blood was gone, except for the stains on Glitch's shirt.
Standing up, Glitch offered his hand to Halt,"Come on, let's get you out of here. You need some fresh air."
His eyes regained their typical shine, the same bright light they were known for returned,"..Oh, sure."
Taking Glitch's hand, Halt was hoisted off of the ground and led off towards the courtyard to get a breeze of the fresh evening air.
Turning to look back at Halt's hallway, Glitch scowled at the room. He wasn't one to observe atmosphere but there was something about that room that sat wrong with him; a dark aura hung in the room like smoke, intoxicating any unfortunate soul with this ominous negativity.
"Hey, Halt." Glitch said, clearing his throat,"How about you stay in my room tonight? I don't want to leave you alone after what you did."
An expression of shock and a slither of happiness crossed Halt's visage,"..Really? I don't want to be a bother.."
Chuckling lightly, Glitch wrapped his arms around Halt and rested his chin on his head,"Don't worry about it, Halt."
"We're friends, right?"
