ᴡᴏʀꜱʜɪᴘ ᴍᴇ (ᴇᴊ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ)

13: Stained Altar

Crunch

You bit into a granola bar as you sat staring at the glowing screen of the television. You were at another motel, and Jack was in the shower washing off blood while you sat criss-crossed on the bed eating your makeshift dinner.

You hardly remembered how you'd gotten here. All you knew was that Jack had made you drive to the town over before stopping. You didn't remember driving, parking, or even getting a room from the person at the front desk. All of those actions had blurred together, your body working on auto-pilot alone.

Nothing felt real anymore. You felt like an imposter in your own skin. This wasn't you. You didn't kill people. You weren't violent. Sure, you had one hell of a past, but you'd never hurt anyone of your own accord before. At least not until today. You were different than you were when this all started, and you didn't like how you were changing. Who you were becoming.

You weren't sad Carl was dead, as cruel as that sounded, you just couldn't believe you'd actually helped kill him. You were getting more and more involved with Jack's crimes. No longer were you just following him around, now you'd actually helped. There was blood on your hands just as much as there was on Jack's. Your guilt had been all you could think about in the hours since Carl's death. Only now was your mind settling, and even then that didn't mean much.

With a sigh, you stared down at your half-eaten granola bar. You'd lost your appetite. Folding the plastic over, you tossed the bar back into the box it'd come in. You looked at the TV again. It was playing the movie Twilight. Which one in the series it was? You had no clue, but nevertheless Bella was in distress.

The water shut off in the bathroom a few minutes later. Jack came out soon after, now wearing a black tee shirt, jeans, and still his mask. You stared at each other as he stood in the doorway. You still hadn't spoken to each other after leaving the crime scene. You'd saved him from getting shot, and that had shocked both of you. With how the sight of blood was enough to make you queasy, you doubted Jack ever expected you to participate in killing the committee. Neither of you seemed to want to address it.

Jack sighed and set his hoodie beside the chair in the corner of the room. You noticed a tired slump in his shoulders again. It'd been a long day for both of you. You'd never seen him so on edge, both with Sharon showing up and with Carl's gun pointed at him. By now he was past not trusting you enough to sleep, the only problem now was that you'd forgotten to ask for two beds. Now all he had was a chair.

He didn't seem to mind, only sitting down and leaning back with crossed arms. As you watched you noticed the chair definitely hadn't been made with someone of his height in mind. Not much of his legs were supported by the seat, they were mostly hanging off the edge. It didn't look comfortable yet he didn't complain.

You didn't think before speaking. "You can um... You don't have to sleep on the chair." Your face lit up the second the words left your mouth. You didn't know why you'd said that. Never once did you think you'd end up offering to share a bed with Jack, and yet here you were. Embarrassed and mildly afraid of his reply.

Jack's head turned towards you with what you assumed to be surprise. He seemed to think for a long time before answering with an, "...are you sure?" You were not. But at the same time what was the harm in it? Everything would go smoother if you both could sleep and not in a stiff, small chair. Sharing a bed didn't have to mean anything.

You gulped. "Yeah." You were glad he couldn't see how flushed your face was.

Jack rose from the chair and slowly moved towards the bed. He seemed almost as confused as you were. Scooting back, you sat yourself as close to the edge as you could. Jack did the same as another silence filled the air, apart from the movie playing in the background. There wasn't much space between the two of you even though both of you were as separated as possible. Jack being the large man he was, took up almost half the bed. It was hard not to accidentally touch.