Chapter Text
“JUST WAKE UP ALREADY.”
“SEAN WAKE UP.”
“Please, please wake up. No, nonono.” his own voice faded into Story’s as he slowly shifted out of the dream back into reality, sitting up to find he was still on Story’s couch.
“How did I-” he muttered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The fleeting memories of his dream biting in the back of his mind (it freaked him out, he didn’t know why). “ Oh Sean you’re alive! ” Story sobbed as she threw his arms around him.
“Wait, huh? Parker, what the hell are you on about?” Sean asked, pushing her off of him. “Sean, you're back. ” Story basically gasped out. “Oh..” Sean replied, “Guess I did go out last night then huh?”
“No, Sean, your back. It’s all scratched up!” Story corrected. Sean raised a brow at her and slowly brought a hand up to his back, and sure enough when he pulled it away it was covered in blood. “Right… Not a dream then,” he muttered. “But then where the hell did you go?”
“Me? What do you mean? I was here all night.” Story asked, confused. “No, no you left. You just walked out at like 3 am. I only know ‘cause you accidentally woke me up,” Sean replied. Story only muttered a soft “oh no” in response.
“But wait, what happened to you then?” She asked, Sean shrugged. “I followed you, but I got attacked by a dog and... Oh- “ Sean placed his head in his hand, looking confused- “I don’t really remember what happened after that.”
“Well, That's ok. Maybe you’ll remember later,” Story reassured, but she looked very worried. “Lets focus on getting you patched up for now.” Story stood up and walked to the bathroom, motioning for Sean to follow.
Sean pulled his shirt off over his head, taking a moment to examine the damage on the back. It was torn to shreds, holes too wide to stitch up or patch over. He took a moment to mourn the tattered shirt. It was one of his favourites, a “gift” from Lee (he stole it.)
“Kinda ironic that's the shirt you were attacked in huh?” Story said, trying to ease the tension that hung heavy in the room as she took the first aid kit out from under the sink. Sean, confused, flipped the shirt over ‘Black Dog’ . He chuckled, it was pretty ironic.
Story motioned for Sean to sit down on the step ladder she’d pulled into the bathroom as a makeshift stool. Doing so sat Sean across from the mirror, where Story found she had a full view of all scars that littered (no, infested. There were so many it looked like he had more scar tissue than skin) his torso.
Little white and pink scratches nestled themselves into his sides, seemingly getting deeper and worse the farther up his torso Story looked. 2 deep ragged scars shelved his chest, one on each side (They looked familiar, like surgery scars but messier. Story couldn’t place where she’d seen them before though).
A deep vertical scar sat in the middle of his chest, travelling up to his neck just above his throat and intersecting the scar that collared his neck, forming a cross. Just above the scar around his throat and slightly hidden beneath his hair were various bite marks that stopped just below his ear, though those were more faded and shallow than the others
The worst of it though was his shoulders, deep pale claw marks dug into both, surrounded by smaller pinkish scratches. It looked as if his shoulders had been torn apart and hastily put back together. (or as if something had grabbed him there. More harshly than it should’ve).
Sean bit back various hisses and whines as Story cleaned out the wounds. She made a few feeble attempts at conversation to distract him but he was too focused on the pain to respond.
“Uh, hey. What does this symbol mean again?” Story asked as she whipped away the last of the blood on his back (though the wounds were still bleeding slightly), which finally caught Seans attention.
The last scar visible to Story was a large symbol carved into Seans back, similar to the ones drawn on his mask and the inside of the book. The only difference being the various fresh claw marks that tore through the one on his back.
“Oh, uh-” Sean bit back another hiss as Story continued to clean the wound- “it’s a form of severance.” He replied, immediately letting out a sharp yelp as Story pressed a cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol against his back, replacing the one soaked in water she had previously been using.
“Aren’t you supposed to use water? I thought alcohol makes things worse.” he hissed out.
“S-sorry, but I need to make sure they don’t get infected!” Story defended, “but um, what’s severance?” she added, tilting her head slightly. Sean sighed, forcing himself to relax. “They’re symbols that, used with the right intention, can perform certain actions.”
Story still looked confused, Sean sighed again and continued, “different symbols perform different actions. Like a lock or something like that.” She seemed to understand after that and nodded. “Ok, so what does the one on your back do?” She asked, beginning to bandage the wound.
Sean shrugged. “I don’t know, The Speaker is the only one who knows how to use it. Though he has tried to teach a few of us,” he said. “I think it’s a form of binding. I know a lot of higher ranking members have one.” He added, lifting his arms to give Story easier access to wrap the bandage around his torso.
“So, you’re like, bound to that Speaker guy?” She asked, tying off the bandages and sitting back to admire her work. Sean nodded. “I guess so, I know it let The Speaker know where I was and stuff like that so I guess it acts as a spy cam or something as well.”
“So the speaker could know where we are?” Story asked, eyes widening. Sean shook his head. “The symbol was broken when that dog clawed through it, and the severance along with it,” he reassured.
“But what about the ones in the book? Your mask?” Story asked, still panicked. Sean raised a hand, signalling for her to calm down. “Different symbols have different intentions. The one in the book binds the object to its carrier. It’s unable to be used any other way.”
Story visible relaxed, but was still tense as though something was on her mind. “So, wait. Why did the dog scratch through it then? Do you think it was trying to help us?” Sean shrugged, “who knows, maybe it was trying to mark its territory or something.”
Story chuckled, as did Sean. But his face flattened after a moment as he seemed to remember something, “That monster was there. It spoke to me, I didn’t hear it but.-” he paused, trying to remember what happened. But it was as though his mind was a scratched CD and kept skipping over the encounter.
-”the words were just there y’know? Like it was putting thoughts in my head.” Sean shivered, the feeling was all too familiar, “I can’t really remember what it said though.” Story nodded, not wanting to press further. She understood.
“What matters right now is you’re ok,” Story said firmly. “Do you need another shirt? I might have an old pyjama shirt that’d fit you.” she added, changing the subject. Sean shook his head, “I have a few in my bag. Don’t worry about it.”
“Ok well, I’m gonna go make some lunch. I’ll let you sort yourself from here,” Story replied, “if you need to shower or something feel free, let me know if you need anything.” and with that, she left the room. Sean sighed for what felt like the 100th time and turned to try to figure out how her shower worked.