Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Homeowner awoke with a jolt. He turned his TV on to watch the news to see for new signs nothing new had been shown so he shut the TV off.

With a sigh he left his bed and grabbed his shotgun and threw it over his shoulder, he didn’t know if he’d need it again so soon but he didn’t want to be caught without it.

He left his bed room and headed to the living room he only let one person in last night. But he needed to check them as soon as possible, as he entered he saw the Bar guy talking with the Coat guy.

He was pretty sure Coat guy was a visitor on the account he was still cold even with the sun throwing a tantrum. Also with the darkness sounding his abdomen he however wasn’t going to pry. He had not made any moves to hurt anyone in the house and seemed relatively harmless otherwise.

The homeowner would deal with the Coat guy if it came down to it.

The homeowner turned his attention to his newest guest a nun. A cruel one at that. He didn’t trust her. So he walked up.

“I need to check you”

She looks the homeowner up and down while scowling “It seems god is not the only one who tests me so..”

He asks to see her hands.

They seem clean but he’ll be back tomorrow to check her again. She looks like a walking void no color to be seen.

He really didn’t trust her.

In his life he’d seen very few people who didn’t have any color at all. Those people were either extremely depressed, like his wife before the disease took her, and those with pure hatred in their hearts.

Like his father.

---

He leaves the room and walks to the office to check in with those in the room. A few days ago he let in a cheerful man who he’s almost sure is a human he has one last thing to check in accordance to what FEMA has released as signs.

He look at the others in the room who you know are human before turning back to the Cheerful man “I need to check you.”

He smiles at his host and says “Go on, if it’ll help you”

The homeowner checks the Cheerful mans eyes and decides as in accordance with what signs have been released he’s human. Before he’s able to turn away to check on the others in the room the Cheerful man asks a question.

“Are you holding up ok?” He looks at the Homeowners eye bags and sees how tired he looks. “You seem like your really not sleeping well, which is you know understandable given the situation”

He waves his hands in the Homeowners direction “You need to take care of yourself anyways.” The Cheerful mans hands land at his hips and he purses his lips as he talks.

The homeowner freezes, he hasn’t talked about himself in months not since the second to last visit from his neighbor before the world went to crap. He wrings his hands and takes a breath as to not make a fool of himself in front of his guests.

“I’m fine I just.” He pauses while trying to think of what to say, he looks as the color around the Cheerful man fluctuates, the longer he takes to answer. “ I just have gotten stressed because of this ill try to get better sleep tonight.”

The Cheerful man takes a breath before replying he thought about putting his hand on your shoulder but he did that the day before and you flinched so he refrains “Alright just if you need to talk I’m right here.”

The Homeowner nods and walks straight out of the room. He knows he should talk to the others in the room but he was feeling to many emotions at the notion of talking to someone about his issues.

He walked to the bathroom to check on both the former FEMA agent and the Widow also to make sure they hadn’t killed each other yet. He didn’t realize when he’d let the Widow in with her dead husband that she’d immediately clash with the Man in the hazmat suit.

When he opened the bathroom door the blue around her surged to a brilliant red. For only a second and it doused it self when she saw the homeowner was still behind her.

He hoped they’d get along well enough to not fight with each other all night. His hopes were proven true the previous night. The Former FEMA agent was sitting on the washing machine and had his head in his hands it seemed the dots that surrounded him had finally calmed down.

The homeowner had let him in immediately after a visit from the pale man two people had been taken from his home earlier that night and he was running low on people in the house at that point so he let all three people who came to his door in that night.

The dots that surrounded the Former FEMA agent were violent that first night and had calmed down in the days after until the Widow came that is. Saying that the homeowner turned to the silent woman. He keeled down next to her and they sat in silence for a time before the Widow got annoyed and spoke up.

“What do you want.” She stared down the Homeowner “ I want to be as alone as I can get, at least with that bastard in the room with me” she spat out that last sentence.

With that the Former FEMA agent took that as his cue to leave the bathroom at least until the homeowner was done speaking with the Widow.

The Homeowner looked away as he responded to the Widow “ I wanted to... “ a pause and the “offer food.” he turns his head towards his hands “I know you may not want to eat but you need to”

The Widow squints at the Homeowner the color around her darkens for a quick moment as she speaks “So what do you care. If I don’t eat I’m just another person in this stupid house” She squeezes the limp hand of her Husband “ You have plenty of other surviors to keep alive.”

With a quick breath as he really didn’t want to do this today says “ I care because I did the same exact thing.” He raises his head to the ceiling.

The Widow snaps up from her spot laying on the tubs edge the color around her is vibrating with lighter shades of blue mixing into the dark center. “You did the same thing?”

The Homeowner still looking at the ceiling as if it would grant him the courage on something stormed out of the room when talking to the Cheerful man for.

“ Yes, when my wife passed” he swallows heavily before he continues “ I barely ate anything for over two months until my neighbor dragged me out of my house and basically forced food down my throat.” he looks at the Widow with a almost laugh “But he’s gone and you have to deal with me.”

The Homeowner feels like the worst person to be having this discussion with the Widow he barley touches his own feelings let alone another persons. Especially when it hits this close to home.

“Just eat the food I make today, I’m making soup.” One of the few meals he could make without ordering ingredients which he expected a delivery tonight.

The Widow looks at her Husband dead and stiff and then looks back at her host. “Fine, I’ll eat it” She looks back to her husband. “But don’t give me to much.”

The color around the Widow warms ever so slightly but the Homeowner notices because he has seen these colors his entire life. He gives the best smile he can offer which is a small one. “Thank you”

The Homeowner decides his social battery is done for the moment and heads to sit in the hallway.

Chapter Text

After a while the Homeowner decides he needs to finish the rounds in the house before he steps back into the kitchen. After what happened the day prior he has no want to re-enter that space but as far as he was aware he was the only one with knowledge enough to make a decent meal.

As he stands up he sees as the cat walks in. He decided to lift the cat up, he looks into the cats eyes. The cat reminded him of the sphinx he had as a college student. He asked when the weird Cat lady was still in his home what the cats name was, but she had told him the cats name was just cat.

He was undecided on if he was going to give the cat an actual name. The color around the cat is dull, as it usually was around animals but it was a light green. He spoke aloud to the animal “Do you even like me?”

As if responding the cat made a mewing noise before wriggling it’s way out of the mans arms. Just as the Homeowner started towards the storage closet the cat threaded through his legs. It blinked at the Homeowner and ran down the hall.

The Homeowner took that as a sign to continue with his duties as a host. He walked to the storage closet and knocked lightly, on the chance the occupant was still asleep. When he got no verbal response but heard shuffling he opened the door.

Inside the foreigner whom the Homeowner had taken to calling Wireface as he refused to learn names in case they turned out to be a visitor, and he had to take care of them.

Wireface was awake at this point and used one of the few words he knew in the language “Hello”

The Homeowner walked up to him and did the thumbs up hand motion. He already knew the answer as the color around Wireface had significantly brightened and the red around his mouth lessened.

“R’n zhhfnrmt ru blf ziv zhprmt nv ru I’m uvvormt yvggvi”

(I’m assuming if you are asking me if I’m feeling better)

He says with a narrowing of his eyes and a turn of his head trying to figure out what the Homeowner was asking.

The Homeowner thinks that he’s asking a question and infers that it has something to do with the hand movement so he repeats it for Wireface. The Homeowner also points at him before point back to the thumbs up.

Along with asking aloud speaking slowly, to see if it would help. “Are you alright?”

Wireface seems to understand the question this time around. He looks the Homeowner in the eyes and gives a small smile this pulls on the wounds slightly.

“Bvh R’n uvvormt yvggvi. Gszmp blf uli xovzmrmt gsv dlfmwh. ”

(Yes I’m feeling better. Thank you for cleaning the wounds.)

He gestures at himself and then to his host as he speaks

“Blf ziv wvurmrgvob uzi yvggvi gsvm gsv.. fs ”

(You are definitely far better then the.. uh)

He pauses for a moment before continuing trying to think of the word, looking up as he does. Wireface snaps his fingers into a point as he begins to speak again.

“FEMA, yzhgziwh gszg wvrxvw qfhg yvxzfhv R xlfowm’g hkvzp gsvri ozmtfztv gl hvd nb nlfgs hsfg”

(FEMA , bastards that decided just because I couldn’t speak their language to sew my mouth shut)

The Homeowner watches as the color around Wireface fluctuates as he says that last sentence. He continues to talk for a few minutes. About the exact topic the Homeowner doesn’t know but he can assume it has something to do with FEMA.

Wireface likes how the Homeowner lets him talk even if they have no clue what the other is saying. It helps his sate of mind. With how he was deprived of even saying one word not even a week ago.

This is when the Homeowner has an idea. He walks out of the room while Wireface is mid sentence. This makes him go silent and he looks to the ground. Assuming he annoyed the Homeowner enough for him to walk out of the room without trying to say goodbye. He fidgets with the sweater around his shoulders.

The Homeowner walks back into the room with a notepad and two pencils.

Wireface looks at him confused before the Homeowner gets on the ground and lays out the paper. He immediately draws his home on the paper and the points at Wireface and back to the house. The color around Wireface brightened to an extreme amount just as his eyes widened and a big smile formed on his face.

The Homeowner squinted at the sight of how bright Wireface had become. Wireface however didn’t notice as he dropped to the floor and grabbed the other pencil that was laying on the floor next to the notepad.

He drew what was a representation of himself on the paper and next to it he drew a small version of the Homeowner. Next to the drawing of himself he wrote what seemed to be a name.

Wireface put down his pencil and spoke as he gestured to himself and back to the drawing with a gigantic smile. “Nb mznv rh Levan! Gsrh rh znzarmt.”

(My name is Levan! This is amazing.)

The Homeowner still squinting when looking up but he pointed at Wireface and spoke “Your name is Levan?” If this is what he was trying to communicate that would ruin his entire plan of not learning his guests names. He guesses he’ll have to live with it.

He nods rapidly as he got the gist of what the Homeowner was asking him. “BVH, gszmp tllwmvhh blf tlg rg. Drgs sld blf ziv R dzh dliirvw uli z nlnvmg ”

(YES, thank goodness you got it. With how you are I was worried for a moment)

Wireface the points towards the drawing that was the representation of the Homeowner and repeats and he hopes the word means what he thinks it does “Name?”

It comes out heavily accented but the Homeowner understood. It takes him a moment to decide if he was going to share his name or not. On one hand it would be nice for one person other than the little girl to actually know his name. On the other the other man was practically a stranger and it was apocalypse.

As Wireface waited patiently for the Homeowner to decide if he was going to share his name the color around him went down. Wireface gingerly picks the pencil back up. He starts to draw things to try to explain what happened to him and his friend who may or may not be dead.

After a few moments the Homeowners want to not only be known by a grieving little girl won out. He first wrote down his name careful to not write over Wirefaces drawings. He looks up to tell Wireface.

The Homeowner gestured at himself and to what he wrote. “My name is Mikhail”

Wireface looked at him and slowly repeated his name to make sure he pronounced the name correctly ”Mikhail. Z evib mrxv mznv.”

(Mikhail. A very nice name.)

He stops drawing for a moment and slightly laughs as he speaks “Rg urgh blf, zmw blfi hgfyylimmvhh”

(It fits you, and your stubbornness)

The Homeowner has no clue what Wireface just said so he looks to the drawing he made. He taps his pointer finger on it hoping to move on from the awkwardness of revealing his name.

Wireface had drawn himself and his friend next to each other and a line separated them from a figure that represented FEMA. He pointed at the still fresh scars that surrounded his mouth and back to the FEMA drawing.

The Homeowner got the message about that pretty clearly from that. He flinched back as the red color around Wirefaces mouth brightened the longer he looked at that drawing. The Homeowner quickly used the pencil to draw a heart above the drawing of Wireface and the person he didn’t know.

He did this to hopefully distract from the other half of the drawing. But that just made the color around Wireface to darken. The Homeowner mentally face palmed, he seemed to always have a way make everything worse.

Wireface was upset at his friend, and scared for him at the same time. He had traveled all this way to meet with him just to find out he was already in a relationship. He crossed out the poorly drawn heart above the two figures.

For this to not go further down hill than it already had. The Homeowner closed the notepad and pushed it towards Wireface. He then stood up “I’ll come to grab you at diner”. While he spoke he imitated eating. He then left the room before he could see both the color around Wireface, and his expression.

On his way to the kitchen to make a meal for everyone before night hit the Homeowner watched as the former FEMA hesitated to reenter the bathroom. The dots of color that surrounding him swirled with anxiety. The Homeowner with a bored half lidded expression heavily sighs before walking over to tell him to just sit in the hallway for the moment if he’s truly that nervous.

“Hey, can you just sit in the chair instead of blocking the bathroom.” He jumps from the sound of the Homeowners voice he didn’t hear him approach.

The former FEMA just looks at the Homeowner for a moment before responding. “I just don’t want to be yelled at again.”

“It is at least half your own fault. Just leave her alone till after dinner and then you can go back to trying to ignoring each other.” With this the dots around the former FEMA agent calmed. The Homeowner spins and heads to the kitchen after he speaks.

The Homeowner pauses for a moment before entering to cook. Yesterday he lost two guests in that room, because of course when he tries to placate his conscience by letting in a Parent-less Teenager she just had to be a visitor. The Homeowner walked in on her strangling the Con-Artist.

As much as the Homeowner did not like the Conman he had just confirmed him as human so he wasn’t going to shoot him. The Little Girl had luckily been in the Homeowners room watching cartoons when this went down. So she hadn’t had to see him shoot the visitor and dispose of both the Conman and the bloody corpse of what the Homeowner thought was just a teen with no where to go.

That’s the main difference between Coat guy and other visitors, he hadn’t hurt anyone. Not yet at the very least. The Blind man had asked if he was alright after. He had collapsed against the table. The Homeowner had told him he didn’t know anymore.

The Homeowner washed his hands as the water for the soup he was going to make boiled. At this the Bar guy walked in and to the fridge to pull out a beer. He paused to look at the Homeowner before he spoke “I just wanted say if you wanted to kick out the nun I don’t think anyone would care”

The Homeowner watched as the Bar guy left the room the colors around him dulling further. He took that to mean he also really didn’t like the Nun. The Homeowner then turned to the blind man who now looked as if he now had a question. “The Nun?”

For what felt like the fortieth time that day the Homeowner sighed. “I let her in last night." He turned to continue chopping potatoes. “She doesn’t seem like a very righteous Nun”

The Blind man just put his head into his arms. “Interesting”

During the time the Homeowner was cooking he quietly sang a song to himself to make the time pass faster. It was one of the songs his mother sang in his youth when his father wasn’t around to shut her up. He doesn’t know what the words mean.

The Homeowner finishes the food and pours some into a bowl for the Widow. He took to walking around the back half of his home to notify everyone. He notified the former FEMA as well who immediately shot up to go.

As the door to the bathroom opens the Widow looks up at the Homeowner. He hands her the food before leaving the room he says “Eat the food please.”

He closes the door and headed to the kitchen to eat some food himself. He made sure before he did anything else after eating to grab Wireface to make sure he ate.

Afterwards He decided to go to his bed room. He slides his shotgun underneath his bed and climbs into it himself before crashing asleep he felt exhausted.

Chapter Text

The night came far too quickly for the Homeowners liking. He woke up to the first knocking of the night. He got up dusted himself off and grabbed his shotgun and slung it over his shoulder. He started to walk to the front door.

Outside of the door was a man dressed in teeth and fingers. The Homeowner takes a step back in shock the color around him was a striking red with black where his face is. Before the Homeowner is able to get a word in the other man speaks up.

“Keeping you distance, huh? Good. That improves your odds of survival.” He leans into the door before continuing “..Unless you're a visitor.”

The Homeowner clutches his shotgun close before responding “Who are you?”

His reply is quick “Someone who's here to clean up the filth. My neighborhood's dealt with. You don't need to know nothin' else about me. “ He stares down the door as he talks but he backs up.

The Homeowner mentally notes to never mention Coat Guy to this man. “What's with the gear? Is that supposed to make you Visitor-proof?”

While looking through the haze of black around his face the Homeowner realizes something shocking. He recognized this man. He looked like a thinner version of the Homeowners neighbor.

“"Visitor-proof"? Oh, you mean this necklace?” He gestures to the fingers and teeth “Heh, that's a good term. I'll have to start using that.”

“It's a reminder- So I don't forget how many houses and how many towns I've purged. I pull a single tooth from each Visitor. They're the easiest trophies to take.” He stands up straighter as he boasts about what he’s done.

While looking off the porch towards the fields he continues “And of one really leaves an impression on me... I might just take something else”

The Homeowner goes silent before the Man starts speaking again “Since You already asked your questions. Now I'll ask mine.”

He adjusts his grip on his gun and leans in close to the peep hole “Anything going on in this neighborhood? Any threats I should keep an eye out for? “

The Homeowner thinks for a moment back to his encounters decides this man probably likes FEMA and then says “A half-naked visitor annihilated an entire patrol”

His eyes grow wide with shock “Just one? Half-naked?”

He looked contemplative “So it wasn't wearing any protective armor?” His head turned to the ground.

“Interesting... You actually saw him?” and then he immediately scoffs “Yeah, I believe you did. You don't talk like someone who's in the habit of spreading rumors.”

The Homeowner really wants this guy to leave. Thankfully he got his wish

“You've got my attention. I'll be back later.”

The Homeowner watched as the Vigilante left his porch he collapsed into his armchair.

After this conversation Coat guy who was waiting around the corner came over to speak with the Homeowner. The Homeowner saw him first. “What do you want”

Coat guy came to stand next to the Homeowner, when he did that the black void around his midsection lessened and filled with blue.

“I d-do-don’t tru-trust the Nun, she f-f-ff-freaks me out” Coat guy curls into himself a little more as he speaks his teeth chattering.

The Homeowner looking at Coat guy in disbelief, he’s sure Coat Guy is a visitor. For him to be freaked out that was off putting to say the least. “You’re freaked out by her?” Coat guy nods at the Homeowners words.

He looks off to the side for a moment “Sh-She keeps l-lo-looking at me l-like I sh-shh-should know s-some-something”

At that moment The Homeowner decided even if she wasn’t a visitor she was getting thrown out tomorrow night. “You think you could stay up all night?”

“Yes?” Coat guy tilts his head to the side at the Homeowners question.”W-Why”

The Homeowner sighs before leaning back further into the armchair. “Keep and eye on her tonight and if she tries anything come get me and I’ll take care of it.”

Coat guy at this instruction once again nodded his head and walked back to the living room. The night was still young.

-----

About a half an hour passed before another knock was heard. The Homeowner got up and went to the door and saw the last thing he wanted to see that night. A FEMA officer. He just had to hope they weren’t going to want three people now.

“We need more people. It's the only way to avoid a catastrophe.” The color around him perfectly matched the former FEMA you housed in your bathroom. It seemed their job did that to them.

The Homeowner was not just going to sit around this time “Where. Are. The. People. You. Took? “

The dots of red around got irritated at that and the FEMA agent snapped at the Homeowner. "CUT THE BULLSHIT.”

Even without being able to see the agents face with how the color was warping around the Homeowner knew he made a mistake “THE WORLD IS ABOUT. TO. END.”

The agent lowers his head “Keep playing games and we'll take everyone in this house.”

The Homeowner decided to play nice in this moment “What do you need from me how many people? “

That seemed to calm the FEMA agent “We're not taking everyone you have in there. Just two.”

Then we either find a way to eradicate the Visitors, or we never meet again because we’ll all be dead.

The Homeowner likes the sound of never seeing FEMA again but not the dying part. Especially another persons death. “I never want to see you again, but try not to die”

The FEMA agent seemed to deflate at the homeowners words. “The feeling is mutual, get the people you can choose this time and we’ll leave you alone”

The Homeowner walks through his home trying to decide. The Nun is out for sure seeing as even Coat guy was weirded out by her, but who to let them take. He walked into the office biting the bullet and just asking. The Standup guy offered himself up.

“Are you sure you probably won’t be able to come back?” The Homeowner asks as the Standup man gets off the floor.

He looks at the Homeowner and smiles. “Yeah I’m sure. Everyone else here deserves the space more than me.” The Standup man walks to the door. “And they probably won’t kill me, if they do at least I’ll be with my dog again”

The Homeowner tenses as the blue around the man brightens. Now was not the time to think on that so he headed to the living room to get the Nun. She tries to resist and to stay in the room.

“UNHAND ME YOU HEATHEN” she was screeching as the Bar guy stood up to open the door to allow the Homeowner to drag her out of the room by her arm. That’s when the Nun tries to bite the Homeowner.

He drops the arm he was holding and Coat guy who was waiting by the door jumps in between the Nun and the Homeowner and smacks her across the face. She freezes both due to the contact and just how cold Coat guy is. As he’s shivering even harder than he had the moment before. The Homeowner watches as the void swirl around Coat guy's stomach. He’s shivering even harder than he normally does, if it's from the fact he’s not completely folded in on himself or because he’s anxious the Homeowner doesn’t know.

Not knowing what else to do the Homeowner bursts into the storage room to grab a roll of twine he knew he had on his self. His shotgun slamming into his back as he abruptly stops. This startles Wireface who had been against the door trying to understand what was going on.

The Homeowner distantly heard the Nun yelling at Coat guy and him shouting a bit in response. Wireface looks to the Homeowner dumbfounded and then out of the door. “Dszg rm gsv dliow rh tlrmt lm lfg gsviv”

(What in the world is going on out there!?)

All the homeowner says in response is to tell him to stay in the room. Wireface lowers his hands from his shoulders to put his hands in front of himself confused. The Homeowner closes the door on his way out.

The Homeowner opens the door and flies back to where the yelling was in the hallway. When he reaches the group he can see that Bar guy is trying to restrain the Nun and failing. The Cheerful man had come out of the Office to try to help. All the colors mixing together around one another is giving the Homeowner a headache. He has to strain his eyes to see through them.

Bar guy has finally got a hold on the flailing old woman “YOU ARE ALL UNWORTHY OF THE LORDS GRACE” The void that surrounds her flaring with emphasis at each word.

Almost escaping Bar guys grasp she continues to screech “THROTTLING A WOMAN OF GOD WILL BE YOUR DOWNFALL” This is when the Cheerful man noticed that the Homeowner was back. He walked over and seeing the twine in his hands realizes what he’s doing.

“I know she seems pretty upset, but wouldn’t it be cruel to tie her up” He looks back at the nun for a moment with an expression of pity.

The Homeowner almost gets a word out but Coat guy answers for him “Th-That woman tri-t-tried to b-b-bite him” That shuts the Cheerful man up and he backs up. Coat guy is trying to keep the Nun from being able to turn to try to bite the Homeowner again.

The Cheerful man moves to help Bar guy get the Nun steady. “Alright I get it now.”

All of the colors blending further together makes the Homeowner have to squint as he tries to approach. The Nun starts to scream again staring at the Homeowner “YOU, YOU ARE THE WORST MAN I HAVE EVER SEEN”

The Homeowner is able with Coat guys help to wrap the twine around the Nun’s arms to keep them together. The group starts walking her to the front door. Wireface was standing against the frame of the door to the storage room. Watching with shock on his face the red color flares.

The Cheerful man runs to open the door and with a shove they push the Nun out of the door. Straight into the Standup man. He catches her and assuming what he had heard from inside the building was her being upset he holds on.

The FEMA agent looks at the nun for a moment before looking at the Homeowner for the first time. “Are we done here?”

Screaming is still coming from the nun as the FEMA agent looks at the Homeowner “That's all. Have a nice night.”

After the FEMA agent starts to turn Bar guy slams the front door. He looks at the Homeowner and understands him better. “I’m going back to the couch” The homeowner nods and just sits down. He thinks about how he now has to let people in because he’s lost four guests in the past two day. He can feel his eye twitching.

The Cheerful man walks up to him and gauges if he feels if the Homeowner needs a pep talk. He decides against it and just gives him a smile and a thumbs up. The color around him betrays what he actually feels however, the Homeowner sees its gone to a darker green.

---

The Homeowner needed to let people in now.

Time passed until it was about half way through the night until another knock came to the door. It was an older man in a white coat. He clearly had something weighing heavily on his heart with the dark dots around his heart. He looked to be a doctor, that gave the Homeowner an idea.

The Doctor spoke up after hearing the Homeowners footsteps “O-Oh, I thought no one was home. It's so quiet here at night. "He rubs his hands together “Good evening! May I come in?”

The Homeowner hasn’t exactly decided what he was going to do yet. “Who are you”

The doctor looks up at the peephole before answering “I'm a surgeon. I used to operate on the sick.” He looks almost disappointed as he spoke the dots around his heart pumped up and down while each word came out of his mouth. ”Our ward was always short on funding, so I often ended up handling patients with conditions outside my specialism.”

His face drooped from his half smile as he continued ”And now... the hospitals are gone. So I just wander, and help where I can.” he looks directly at the peephole”...If you let me in, I can tell you what happened to the hospitals.”

“How well do you think you could treat someone with a first aid kit?” The Homeowner can tell the man isn’t lying by the way the colors move around him. So he’ll let this older man in regardless but he wants to see if he can’t get some help out of it. To many people come for his help with serious problems.

The Surgeon perks at the idea of helping someone. “Well as long as it isn’t too serious I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to treat someone."

“Come in” The Homeowner opens the door for the man. Before anything else he pops into his bathroom and grabs the biggest full first aid kit, that he’s grateful he bought a few before this whole situation. He hands it to the Surgeon, and the asks for his hands to check him.

After he has cleared the Surgeon he walks him over to the closet where Wireface was still awake after the situation earlier that night.

He perks up as he sees the Homeowner enter the room. The Homeowner reaches for the notepad it had been placed on the shelves along with a pack of color pencils. He was unsure of where they came from but he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. He drew a plus symbol on the middle of the page and filled it in with red.

Wireface watched as he did this. “Ivw xilhh, orpv gsv wlxglih?” He only now noticed the Surgeon standing in the back of the room. He stiffened at the sudden presence but he doesn’t move. The Homeowner points to his own mouth and the at the Surgeon and Wireface understood. “Rh sv tlrmt gl givzg nb nlfgs?” He pointed at his own mouth as he spoke.

(Red cross, like the doctors?, Is he going to treat my mouth?)

With the way the red around Wirefaces mouth was pulsating the Homeowner knew he was understood. So he just nodded, he looked back at the Surgeon and was about to speak before the man spoke before him “Is this young man speaking Georgian? I recognize that language”

Wireface light up. Literally he was glowing and for the third time that day the Homeowner had to squint to be able to look at him. That answered that question. “Bvh! R’n Tvlitrzm wl blf pmld gsv ozmtfztv? Xzm blf gizmhozgv” He was speaking very fast and took a step closer.

(Yes! I’m Georgian do you know the language? Can you translate?)

The Surgeon responded with what little he knew “R wlm’g pmld evib nfxs, vmlfts gl gzop nvwrxzo R’n hliib. ” He felt very remorseful for not being able to talk further with him with what broken Georgian he did know was from trying to communicate with a patient years prior.

(I don’t know very much, enough to talk medical I’m sorry.)

The Homeowner watched as Wireface slumped and the color around him calmed rapidly. He turned to the Surgeon and clasped his hands together “What did you say?”

“I told him I can’t speak it very well just the medical terms really” He held the first aid kit closer to his chest.

The Homeowner tilted his head to Wireface “With what’s in the first aid kit can you at least treat his wounds?” The Surgeon nodded, so the Homeowner placed the notepad and pack of pencils back on the shelf gave a strained smile to Wireface and left them together.

---

It took far less time in between the knocks this go around. Outside is a woman in green and the color around her seems to be ever moving except for a bit of black that seems to make the shape of a noose. This makes the Homeowner jump when he notices it.

“I sense the energy here is swimming, Something interesting is developing within.” She takes a look around the porch “The Sun and Leo are in the Fifth House. I see it all so clearly.” She then takes a step back and seems to look directly into the peep at the Homeowner “You're a pretty vibrant person, aren't you?”

The Homeowner mouth half open answers the non question “I don't need anything from you”

She continues to stare as she speaks “I'm not trying to overstep here, darling.” She tilts her head and the color goes with it “I can just help you understand the cause-and-effect relationship behind the waves in this home.” She brings her arms together in front of herself. “A karmic sixty-nine, like two circling schools of fish.” She smiles “Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Understand?”

The Homeowner is more distracted by the way the color around her is functioning to say any thing more than “What.”

She expected more of response bad or good so she just continues “I understand that this is stressful for you since you're a Capricorn rising.” She nods as she says this and the color around her neck follows “You're juggling several constellations within yourself. You're a complex person. That I can tell”

The Homeowner decided to just let her in. He’s never seen the color around a person look that way. Yes it follows the person but it doesn’t move in the way this ladies did. “Come in” He opens the door for her he just stares at her.

The Fortune teller enters through the door “Ah, delightful. You're in quite an excellent location here, to be honest.” She waves her free hand around the threshold of the home “There's a powerful current of positive energy flowing through your house.”

She is guided to the kitchen as they enter the Homeowner gauges whether or not the Blind man is awake and checks to see if the Little Girl is in the room. The Blind seemed to be awake so the Homeowner announced his presence just loud enough to let him know who was entering the room, but not loud enough to wake the Girl.

He introduces the Fortune teller and the Blind man. He sits her in the middle seat, and he left the room, so he didn’t stare at the lady.

He goes back to the armchair and after some time decides no one else seems to be coming that night.

Chapter Text

The Homeowner awoke the next morning with a headache he knew was coming from the stress of the day prior. After watching the news he got up grabbed his shotgun of course and headed towards the kitchen he had questions that the Fortune teller just might be able to answer.

He walks in and greets the Little Girl who runs up to ask if she could watch cartoons. He told her she could and she brightens and runs off to the Homeowners room. He turns his attention to the new guest and just stares.

She takes notice and speaks “Now darling why are you looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost hmm?”

“Uh” He just point at his neck and makes an up and down movement “You uh, You got something there”

The Fortune teller takes a moment to look confused and then her eyes widen with shock “What do you see” She starts to stand to look the Homeowner head on he just watches how the color moves

“Well” He licks his lips, he’s more inclined to share what he actually sees due to the fact she seemed pretty well spiritual “It looks kinda like a noose is around your neck”

Her mouth drops and her eyes widen even further. “You can see my aura”

He looks at her in confusion he thinks that may be word he’s been searching for. “Your, uh what? I just see.. um colors…” He extends the s sound on the last word.

She correctly guesses that the Homeowner has no clue what shes talking about “The color your seeing is called an aura.” She brings one hand up and rests it on her chin. She’s pursing her lips as she looks at the Homeowner. “Now how can you see it” She moves a step back the Homeowner just is still staring at the Fortune teller. “That’s something your not supposed to be able to see with the naked eye”

The Blind man has perked up and is now listening to the conversation. The Homeowner finally breaks the staring as the woman grabs a camera from a pocket on her dress. “This might be a bit forward darling, but would you let me test something?”

“I..” The Homeowner doesn’t really but he’s on the verge of figuring out what’s been wrong with him his entire life. “Fine” If this doesn’t work out he can just go back to ignoring it the best he can.

“Wonderful, now” She turns to the Blind man “May I take a quick photo of you sir”

The Blind man turns in her direction “I have no reason for you to not, it’s not like I can see how bad I look” He rests his head on the palm of his hand.

The Fortune teller takes a photo of the man before turning to the Homeowner “Now before the photo finishes developing what do you see” She’s shaking the photo to develop it faster.

“Well, the color-” He’s interrupted before he can finish.

“His aura, say it how it is” She put a finger up to his lip as she Spoke “Now continue” She pulled away.

The Homeowner backs a step back as to not be so close “Anyways, I mean it’s pretty average in the color, except for the fact the place his eyes would be are like.” He thinks on the word “Like light bulbs I guess?”

It takes one moment more for the photo to develop, the Fortune teller looks at it and then back to the Homeowner. This happens a few times before she took a breath. “So it wasn’t a fluke” She looks straight into the Homeowners eyes and gives a tight smile. “Can you see your own aura?”

Now that was something the Homeowner could answer no problem “No I’ve never been able to see the co-” He pauses not wanting to get scolded again “My own aura” the Fortune teller seemed pleased with him correcting the word.

She put down the photo of the Blind mans aura. “Well why don’t we see it” She snaps a photo of the Homeowner before he could reply. She shakes it, and looks at as it develops. This is the first ever time that the Homeowner has ever seen his own aura. It’s interesting to say the least but he assumes it has something to do with the fact he can see auras without equipment. That probably makes him pretty special considering with how many people have passed through his life, he’s the only one who has ever been able to.

The top half of his face is completely blacked out he, there was lightness around the rest of the shape that makes his body. The weirdest part was the dots of white around his head that almost made the shape of a halo.

He doesn’t fully understand. He is not in any way holy he barely prays nowadays, but he can gather it;s probably due to his ability. Seeing the auras in the first place. The Fortune tellers eyes are wide now it’s her turn to stare. “Your aura is fascinating” She points to his eyes and then above his head. “The combination between the light and the dark” She is staring harder. “I’ve never seen it flow together how it does with you”

She waves her hands “When a person connects themselves to the universe they gain a unique aura” She gestures to her neck with a bitter expression “Such as myself, I’ve never met a person born into it”

“Never another person?” The Homeowner takes the photo and brings it up to his eyes.

She takes him in as he looks. “I’ve only heard about it from my mentor, I’ve been told it is very incredibly rare”

The blind man introgects into the conversation “What are you guys talking about” He tilts his head “Magic?”

The Fortune teller turns to him “Why yes, darling” She seems to use that name for everyone “The dear Homeowner here is magical~” The Homeowner can feel his face go bright tomato red.

“Magical? Like in actual magic, you were talking about that last night.” The Homeowner turns to look between them.
“I’m not magical” He side stepped the Fortune teller to face the Blind man “I just have… something going on with me”

The Fortune teller looks offended at his words “Darling, you don’t get this power and then act like something is wrong with you!” She puts away the camera as she speaks “You are at the very least in tune with the universe it’s communicating with you”

The Homeowner is just dumbfounded. “But something is wrong with me” The Blind man is just confused as he can’t see what is happening but by what he heard guesses their arguing.

He waves his hands “Calm down, people can have their own feelings”

They both look at him. The Fortune teller takes a breath. “I apologize darling, you have a gift.”
she looks at the Homeowner “A rare one and you talk as if it’s not good for you”

The Homeowner took a moment before he responds “Because it always has been” he walks to the fridge and opens it. He needs to call for more food he’ll do that in a moment. “I fully believe I would be better off without it, my father hated me for it.” He grabs a cup he’d put in their to chill it. “And I’ve had eye strain my entire life”

She looks at him and sighs so many people hate themselves if they are spiritually or magically inclined due to the hurt of others. Shes grateful she found her mentor now more than ever. “How about we continue this conversation later when we’ve calmed ourselves” She sits back at the table and brings out her tarot cards. To offer readings to those in the house.

The Homeowner leaves the room with a cup in hand and heads to the office to check on the guests in that room. As he enters he notices that the Cheerful man wasn’t there which means either he’s checking on the new guy or he’s in the living room. The Gravedigger was looking at the books on the Homeowners shelves.

He notices the Homeowner and walks over, the Kindergarten seemed to still be asleep. “What went down last night, when Luka came back into the room he seemed exhausted?”

The Homeowner recognizes the Cheerful mans name and he chooses to ignore it. “FEMA came and wanted two more people as you know.” He adjusts his stance. “We gave them the Nun and she absolutely didn’t want to leave.” The Gravedigger looks at the door “But I’m almost sure she was a visitor on account of..” He pauses he already knew he wasn’t good with people but with this many being in his house that didn’t help him. “Everything about her”

But the Homeowner had a question for the man in front of him. “You left your shovel on my porch correct?’’ The Gravediggers eyes fly open.

“Yes I did why do you ask?” His hand that’s almost permanently on his chin moves a bit lower.

There is a dead body in the Homeowner bathroom. He thought the Gravedigger noticed that. “I’m pretty sure the only way we can get the Widow to not have a dead body in my bathroom is for her husband to be buried.”

“Oh”

“So are you willing or do I have to do it myself” The Homeowner has buried more bodies before the cataclysm than he’d ever wanted to and he didn’t want to have to deal with it now.

The Gravedigger looks at the homeowner for a moment. “I’ll do it” He seems to be in thought the col- the aura around his head was glowing a more blue purple color as he spoke. “As long as there are others out there with me.”

The Homeowner thanks the Undertaker and he moves to leave the room.

He walks to the storage closet he was going to grab the Surgeon so he can have a look at first the Kindergarten teachers hands. She had blisters on her hands from trying to save her student in the fire and they only seemed to be getting worse. He was the going to have the Surgeon take a look at the Blinded mans eye sockets to make sure they weren’t getting infected.

He’d been giving the man his late wife’s pain medication due to the agony he put himself in. When he had pulled his own eyes out.

Wireface immediately perked when the Homeowner walked in the room “Good Morning!” He pointed at his mouth before he continued “Ollp sv xovzmvw gsv kfmxgfivh gsvb wlm’g ollp zh ivw zmbnliv” The red around his mouth had calmed down to an extreme amount.
(Good Morning! Look he cleaned the punctures they don’t look as red anymore.)

The Surgeon stands from the spot in the back of the closet. He walked up to the Homeowner “I heard from what I was able to understand, through this young man that there others in this home that may need my help?” He’s weakly smiling and the dots around his heart have seemed to calm down.

“R glow srn zylfg gsv lgsvi kvlkov drgs gsv mlgv kzw ” Wireface seemed very proud of himself, and he hands the notepad to the Homeowner to take a look.
(I told him about the other people with the note pad)

The Homeowner was starting get a few words of Wirefaces language as they continued to try to communicate. “Tllw qly” His words sounded off but Wireface was glowing again, so the Homeowner had to look away. (Good Job)

The Surgeon put a hand on the Homeowners shoulder. The Homeowner violently flinched away eyes wide, his heart was beating a mile a minute. The Surgeon immediately pulled away and realized what had just happened. “Young man are you alright?” He had immense guilt in his voice.

Wireface just stares and the light around him drops. “I’m fine lets just have you look at a lady in my office” He rushes out of the enclosed closet and speed walks to the office. The Surgeon follows but gives him space. He opens the door.

The Kindergarten teacher has woken up at this point and looks at the Surgeon closely. The Homeowners voice is soft as it will get at this moment while hes worked up. “Can he take a look at the blisters on your hands?” She watches the Surgeon as he walks around to the couch “He’s a doctor”

She agrees and the Surgeon gets to work on treating her hands. The Homeowner walks back to the door. “I have to go talk to someone else.” He can’t look at the Surgeon at the moment so he stares at the door. “I’ll be back in a bit, take care of her hands”

He stands in the hallway back against the door and tries to steady his heart beat and breathing because he still needs to talk to the Widow. The Homeowner slides to the floor besides the doorway. That’s when Coat guy exits the living room and sees him.

Coat guy was about to go to the kitchen to get warm water for himself. He sees the Homeowner and wordlessly gets on the floor with him. After Coat guy sits with the Homeowner it takes about ten minutes for him to fully calm himself. It’s been so long since his father died and he still has that reaction to people toching him.

Especially if it was an older man the same age his father was when he died. “I’m sorry I bothered you”

Coat guys eye brows furrow “I-It wa-w-wasn’t a pr-problem at all” he scoots an inch closer “Yo-Your w-warm and you l-l-looked like you needed c-c-com-company.”

The Homeowner was under the impression that nothing got Coat guy warm. However since he offered a small bit of comfort the Homeowner decided to offer a side hug. Coat guys eyes went wide but he accepted the hug from the Homeowner.

He stood first and offered Coat guy his hand his skin freezing against the Homeowners palm. The nodded at each other and the Homeowner now had to talk to the Widow.

Chapter Text

The Homeowner stood at the bathrooms door way for almost five minutes before knocking. The former FEMA officer opened the door. “Good you answered” The former FEMA officer looked at the Homeowner with a confused expression. “I’m going to need you to go into an another room for a bit.”

The former FEMA agent decided it wasn’t worth it to ask what was happening. He left after the Homeowner turned to let him through. The Widow was just staring over husband's corpse despondently at the wall.

The Homeowner get on the floor to be eye level with the Widow. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” He knew just how hard it was to have the loss of a spouse in a tragic way. But he cannot even imagine not being able to be there at all especially in the apocalypse. 

She takes a moment before she’s able to come back to herself. She looks at the Homeowner despondently still “What do you want I ate didn’t I?”

“Look, I’m going to level with you.” He puts his hands together in front of his face and takes a deep breath. “You can’t keep living like this.” The Widow looks like she’s about to say she should just walk into the sun then. “And before you say what we both know what you're about to say.” 

The Homeowner looks pointedly at the Widow. “You can’t do that to yourself”

She looks at him lips pursed. “And what would you know about it” She squeezes her husbands limp hand. “You talk about your wife what happened to her. Huh” She puts her head down and continues “You don’t have any idea what I’m going through”

The Homeowner knew this was going to happen, so he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath to talk on his late wife for the first time in three years. Voice shaking he spoke. “She had cancer.”

The Widows eyes widen and for the first time since she entered the house showed an emotion other than disinterest and anger, surprise. She had been so deep in her own misery she didn’t think. She deserved to feel her own emotions, no matter what they may be but she can’t hurt others in her grief.

“We found out a week before our anniversary that year” The Homeowner has decided he can’t look at as he talks bearing his heart to a woman that didn’t care but needed a splash of cold water across her face. “She had been sick for weeks, weak for months” He brings his legs up so he can hug them. “We thought it would be something that would go away on it’s own”

The Widow looks at him and takes in his tiredness. She can very easily see herself in him at this point. “She died the day after my birthday while in surgery, two months after she was diagnosed” He feels wetness fall upon his hands. The Homeowner hadn’t realized he had been crying. “I almost put a bullet in my head if I didn’t have my neighbor to come pull me out of bed so many times”

“So no, I don’t know exactly what your going through but I know something similar” He finally looks up at the Widow her mouth is ever so slightly parted. “I also know I can offer you a burial”

Her face scrunches up with his last words. “And how would you do that?”

Still with tears flowing down his face he reaches up to try to stop them, he can’t. “We have an Undertaker in this house right now and he agreed to make a grave in my yard” He stands to grab a towel for his eyes. “He’ll have to be in my yard at least until this ends.” He pauses and tilts his head “If it ever does, that is”

The Widow looks at her husbands face, it’s started to decay he doesn’t even look peaceful anymore. “Fine.” She puts both of her hands over his “Only if you have something we can use as a marker.”

The Homeowner thinks of the box of small crosses his father kept in the closet when he was a kid, knowing they are probably still there. “I can work something out.” His eyes have finally stopped pouring out his un-shed tears. “I’ll see you outside after night fall”

---

He walks out of the room and directly into the Former FEMA agent who was waiting right outside of the door. They tumble to the floor the Homeowners hand on the Former FEMA’s arm.

The Homeowner stands as quickly as he is able to. He already had not wanted anymore physical contact that day. The Former FEMA was trying to push himself up but wincing as he put his arm to the floor. “That’s gonna hurt for a while”

He’s finally able to get himself up when the Homeowner speaks up “Look I don’t have the energy to play nice right now, I am sorry however that I hurt your arm” He then points to the office "If you want, I let in a Surgeon last night if you want him to look it.”

“I’ll be fine, it’s my fault for standing to close to the door anyways” He walks back into the bathroom at that.

The Homeowner really wants to take a nap, but he has one more thing to do before he’s able to. He walks to the office hyping himself up before he enters due to his little episode earlier. With a breath he opens the door and enters the room. He sees the Kindergarten teacher now with bandages around her hands reading a book to the Little girl.

The Cheerful man is back in the room and talking to the Surgeon. He notices the Homeowners entrance and waves him over with a smile. The aura around him flashed blue, the Homeowner assumes the Surgeon told him what happened. He can feel his face getting warmer so he decides to not think about it. He turns to the Surgeon “I have another person for you to look at if your up for it?”

The Surgeon kept a healthy distance from the Homeowner learning from his previous mistake. “Of course young man, I’m not that exhausted from treating one patient.” The Cheerful man waved at the Homeowner as he went off to talk to the Gravedigger.

The Homeowner led the Surgeon to the kitchen. “I’ve been cleaning the wounds for him with boiled water and the antiseptic spray from the first aid kit I mostly need to make sure there isn’t an infection” The Surgeon nods not knowing what he’s about to walk into.

When they enter the room the Blinded man lifts his head towards the door, the Surgeon freezes in place looking at the open wounds where his eyes once were. The Homeowner walks over and turns his attention to the Fortune teller for a moment. “Can you move to the other side for a bit while I have this guy” he points at the Surgeon “look at his eyes?”

She looks up at the Surgeon then the homeowner. “Of course I wouldn’t want to disrupt treatment.” She stands and move her cards to the place across from the Blinded man.

The Homeowner pulls out the chair for the Surgeon who snaps out of his distracted state. He sits and faces the Blinded man. He introduces himself as to not startle the man “My name is Dr. Tyden Ivanov, may I ask what happened?”

Everyone seems to be determined to collapse the Homeowners plan to not know names. For a man who avoided people his whole life there were a bunch trying to worm their ways in now. The Blinded man speaking broke the Homeowner out of his thoughts. “Do you want the long version or the short version?”

The Surgeon starts to take things out of the first aid kit “For now lets go with the short version, if we need to get the longer one we can do that at a later date”

The Blinded man tilted his head “Well I saw a-” he pauses this is supposed to be the short version “a thing that was horrific and tore my own eyes out bare handed” The Homeowner has already heard the story and is currently just standing in the room because he has nothing better to do. The Surgeons aura is going haywire as the Blinded man speaks the dots around his heart beating rapidly.

He fiddles with the strap of the shotgun. The Surgeon gasped but just started to get to work after clarifying that he yes tore out his eyes with no help. The Fortune teller walked up to stand next to the Homeowner and asked a question. “What’s his aura like? Can you read it”

He crosses his arms over each other, before answering “Its mostly green except-”

She looks him up and down “Except what”

“He has dots of dark all around heart” He looks back at her and decides she’s going to push anyways “It usually means they feel guilty” He waves a hand in the air “I can’t” won’t “say more than that.”

He watches as the doctor cleans the goo from around the eye sockets of the Blinded man and walks over. “Do you need me for anything or can I leave the room?”

The Surgeon looks up for a moment “I’ll be fine, your free to leave the room”

The Homeowner graciously takes the que and leaves the room heading to his phone to call For Rest to get more food and cat food, he next heads to bed. All he needed in that moment was to lay down and sleep.

---

The night comes just as quick as any other but this time it’s a knock at his bedroom door that wakes him up. He grabs his shotgun and opens his door, on the other side is the Gravedigger.

“So it’s night are we burring this guy?” The Gravedigger is antsy he does not want to be outside at this point.

“Yes” The Homeowner took the lead to walk to the door. He just needed to make a stop first. The Homeowner quietly opens the storage closet door and he sees Wireface asleep on the floor. He reaches to a box he knew was by the door, one he hasn’t touched since his father died. In it were mini stone crosses. He didn’t know why his father even had them.

The Homeowner took one in his hand and grabbed a pencil from next to the notepad on the shelf. If it was going to be a true marker it would need a name. This was the only time he was willingly breaking his rules and it for a man that was already dead.

He walked out of the storage closet and closed it as softly as he could not wanting to awaken the man inside. The Widow was already on the porch when the two men walked out of the house. She was holding her husband. The Homeowner led them to where his wife once had a flower garden, the flowers had died far before the apocalypse started.

The Gravedigger started on a hole that would fit the dead man. The Homeowner looked at the Widow who was watching silently. “What’s his name?”

She looked up with a start “Your asking his name?” The Widow adjusts her hold.

The Homeowner only holds up the small stone cross “A proper burial marker needs a name. I’d also prefer to know the name of the man who’s to be buried in my yard.”

She thinks for a moment before allowing the Homeowner to know his surname and by proxy her own. “His name is Peter Lebedev” She’s quite as she says it. The Homeowner just writes the name on the cross.

After this he keeps watch to make sure no one approaches especially not the pale man who keeps coming to his door or that Vigilante who seemed to have a pretty open trigger finger. Soon enough the grave was deep enough for the man to fit.

The Grieving woman placed her husband down in the grave and stayed with him for a bit. She said a prayer over the body before silent tears poured from her body like a dam had been opened. The Gravedigger just looked away in respect for the moment. The Homeowner had to hold back his own tears as this moment wasn’t about him but it just reminded him so much of his wife.

After a half an hour of just standing as she sobbed, there was nothing they could do that would comfort her. She stands abruptly after kissing his colder hand one last time and moving him into the position he was most comfortable sleeping in.

She took a step back to stand next to the Homeowner as the Gravedigger worked to put the dirt back into the grave. The twos auras looking eerily similar as the ones at his own wife memorial. It seemed grief had a profound effect on the livings auras. He remembered the last time he saw his wife before she was cremated. He could barely look at her so used to seeing her bathed in a rainbow of light. It had begun to fade before she passed but it had never gone monochrome.

As the last bit of dirt was tossed over the new grave the Homeowner asked the Widow if she wanted to put the marker on the grave. She did, so she took the little stone cross walked over and put it right upon his head. They went back inside without incident.

---

The Widow is situated now on the armchair instead of sitting on the floor of the bathroom which the former FEMA agent is thankful for. As the Homeowner leaves the room and goes to his point by the door he is followed by Coat guy.

“Can I s-s-sit o-out here with y-you?” He points to the floor next to the arm chair “I’ll b-be on th-h-h-the floor”

The Homeowner let’s him beets being alone siting by the door waiting for something to happen. Little did he know, he was being tag teamed by the Cheerful man and Coat guy to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. `

It took a bit before anyone came knocking at the door. The Homeowner stood up and walked to the door. He looked out the peephole and saw a woman with red hair and her aura had glowing eyes, by the logic he’s gained from the Fortune teller that means this woman has something supernatural going on with her.

She’s not coming in.

“How's your new life treating you, baby?” She leans forward, the Homeowner squints his eyes he did not like being called that. “Managed to adapt yet?” She laughs out loud “How silly of me to ask. You do live here, after all.”

He deiced he would at least try to humor her even if the vibes he got from her were horrendous “What are you trying to do?”

“Oh, you wound me!” She puts her hand to her chest as she speaks “Something got you down? Did your wife leave you rece-”

“I’m going to cut y ou off there” He looks at her but she continues to talk anyways.

“Maybe the Visitors killed someone close to you, causing you to shut down emotionally?” She makes a faux sad expression “Or was it your childhood? Rough times back then, I'm sure. Did the memories all come flooding back? You poor thing…”

At this point Coat guy has got up to stand next to the Homeowner to offer support against what ever this woman is doing. “Tell me, baby. I'm just a stranger at your door. Maybe we'll never even see each other ever again.”

“I used to pray my father would drop dead is that enough for you” The Homeowner spits his words. Coat guy now understands the reaction he saw earlier that day. He offers a hand to the Homeowner, who leans into Coat guys hand the cold calming him.

The Seductive woman however for her part looked like she hit a gold mine. “Did you grow up with an abusive father? That's awful. I'm glad it's behind you.” she looked into the peephole “Letting go of anger is hard. Forgiveness is even harder.”

She flips her hair “I've felt the same, baby.” He really hates being called that “We can talk about it... if you want to.” She brings her hands up together “And…” as if pleading she continues “If you let me in, we might even be able to deal with the pain- and heal together.” She smiles a line “We all need some form of comfort these days. A little care... A little affection.”

“I’m going to have to go with no” Using Coat guys support in not letting this fatal dame get to him.

She looked surprised at this response but spoke answered “I never expected you to answer any differently.” She clearly did but is trying to fix the situation through the way her auras brightness wavered. “Do you think facing the end all alone will make things easier?” She looks off into the woods “Well... He doesn't think so.”

“I have a guess on who your talking about” He’s pretty sure she means the tall man. “But for your information I’m definitely not alone” As he speaks he looks at Coat guy who’s entire aura goes warm at including the void. “I have a lot of people in this home and I don’t need intimacy to help me get through this.”

She just huffs “Baby are you sure you won’t at least let me in for the night? I’m pulling all the stops here” She crosses her arms.

The Homeowner looks at this woman again “I’m almost sure someone else will take you in” He lowers the gun he was holding to his chest. “Also, a tip for you don’t call everyone baby.”

He walks away from the door, Coat guy in toe and sits back in the armchair to wait for the next knock.

“A-are you al-a-alright?” Coat guy looks up at the Homeowner from his spot on the floor he picks at his nails.

“No” The Homeowner puts his face to the ceiling “I’m really not but-” He turns down to Coat guy “What can I do in this situation? Not much, so I just have to pull through.” Coat guy looks at the Homeowner with concern he was pretty much his only source of warmth at this point. “Don’t worry I won’t walk into the sun if that’s what your worried about.”

They sit in silence before another knock is heard.

--

Chapter Text

This time is simple. Its just the food delivery “Thank you.”

The courier just says no problem and takes the payment and he’s off. The Homeowner puts away the food as quietly as possible and he heads back to the chair.

He and Coat guy continue waiting for anything new to happen. “How did you become a visitor?” Coat guy quite literally jumps at the Homeowners question, the black around his stomach flares. “You’re not getting kicked don’t worry. I’m just curious” He looks down at Coat guy who’s facing him from the floor.

“I” Coat guy puts his hand to his chin. “I g-gen-genuinely don’t kn-kn-know ac-actually” The Homeowner gives him a blank look so he continues. “It’s j-just th-the last thing I r-re-r-remember is working.” He gives a wave of his hand “I w-was stocking sh-sh-shelves at the radio s-s-store then black” He trails off at that point.

"Was that before the sun went screwy?” The Homeowner is now turned so he has his hands on the side of the armchair.

“Yes” His pupils are going wider the closer the Homeowner gets due to the heat radiating off of him. “I w-w-Woke u-up in the m-middle of t-t-the st-str-street in f-front” He waves his hand at his stomach “and I was l-l-like this.” The black has calmed after the Homeowner assured he wouldn't get kicked out.

The Homeowner looks for deception in his aura as that almost always gives it away. As far as the Homeowner was concerned he was telling the truth. He sighs “I’m n-not e-ev-even fully s-sure what I am.” He’s frowning “I mean vi-visitor o-of course but n-no one el-else has a v-v-oid for a stomach”

He looks as if he just had an epiphany “Ac-actually you kn-know the t-t-tall guy?”

“The one who always asks if I’m alone?” The Homeowner tilts his head.

“That’s the one” He looks towards the door “I went to secondary school with the man.”

The Homeowners eyes fly open and blink rapidly he then whisper yells “YOU DID WHAT.”

“You want to know his name, surprise him a bit back.” The Homeowner nods feverishly “His name Joseph Volkov”

“Volkov?” The Coat guy just smiles “No wonder he’s obsessed with dogs.”

There was a knock at the door. The Homeowner let out a breath and walked to the door. Outside the peephole was a man who looked to be very rushed. “Hello, there. Tell me... Can I trust you? You're not with FEMA, are you?”

His aura had what looked like stars around his head. “No, I’m not with FEMA” with that Coat guy perked up and is now listening.

“Oh, good. That means I can trust you. You see, it's standard FEMA protocol that agents disclose their affiliation when asked. They're required to.” Like that would mean anything he’s already had one lie to him “So if you say you're not with them, you must be telling the truth, hm?”

He looks around to make sure there’s nothing else outside. “Which means... I can share something big with you.”

“Where did you get all this” The Homeowner looked at this man and wanted to let him as long as he doesn’t say something completely horrible in the next 30 seconds he’ll let him in.

“Okay, I'll tell you. I think I can trust you. But you have to swear you'll never tell anyone else, yes?”

The Homeowner gave a verbal affirmative “I used to work at a research institute. They fired me over my discoveries.” He leans in to the door “I claimed that the Visitors are not the real threat. It's what's inside them. ...Brain parasites.”

Great a Conspiracy Theorist

Coat guy makes a weird face as he listens “But those fools refused to acknowledge the merit of my findings.” He makes a grimacing expression “Earplugs. That's all it would have taken to stop the parasites crawling into their heads. Thousands could've been saved!”

The Homeowner looks at Coat guy who was making a face “So I left the institute with my head held high. ...And a few valuable archives in hand.”

The Homeowner makes an expression to Coat guy as if to ask if he should let this guy in, Coat guy nods. So the Homeowner undoes the locks and opens the door. “Come in”

The Conspiracy Theorist looks at the Homeowner with a smile “You won’t regret this, I can promise you” He’s lead to the kitchen after the door is re-locked.

Coat guy remains in his spot on the floor as the Homeowner looks at him “Do you have a brain parasite?”

“N-not as f-far as I-I’m aware” He looks directly into the Homeowners eyes “I mean I th-think I w-w-would kn-know.” He shrugs and the Homeowner sits back down to wait some more.

---

The next knock came quicker. The Homeowner had a feeling he knew who it was. Only one person he knew of had an aura that came under the door.

He was right. It was the pale man “You feeeeeel that? Change is haunting you.--”

The Homeowner couldn’t hold it in with a bit of a giggle “Your name is Joseph?”

The smile immediately dropped off of his face and his eyes go wide. “I- what- how” His voice is less scary now with the pure disbelief.

“I have an old classmate of yours in the house” The Homeowner is feeling a bit of joy at this “such an ordinary name for something like you.”

The pale man is silent for a moment staring dumbfounded trying to remember what he was going to say before the Homeowner interrupted him. “Um” He remembers some of it “Strange things happen around you.”

The Homeowner is no longer scared of the man “Yes, I already knew this.”

The Pale man is now scrambling that was not in the list of things he thought the Homeowner would say. “Why don't we try something new? A gamble, of sorts.” The Homeowner stares at him “If there are at least two of US inside your house…” He tilts his head “You'll open the door for me.”

“Because dogs reside in their bodies now.” at this the Homeowner bursts into uncontrollable laughter. He doubles over Coat guy is also laughing quieter but loud enough to be heard by the Pale man.

“Why in the world are you laughing” The Pale man is feeling embarrassed he expected denial or anger not laughter.

The Homeowner is able to speak through his laughter “You” He pauses to take a breath “Your last name is Volkov and all you talk about dogs.” He keeps laughing “Or is it your bosses words either way it’s hilarious.”

He should have realized if he had his first name he probably was going to have his last too. He decided to try to change the subject “You have a one of ours in the room with you why”

Coat guy still giggling gets up from his spot and walks to the door. “B-because I do-don’t take o-or-orders l-l-like you do.” He had a smirk on his face. The Homeowner is also still doubled over at this point, he looks up at Coat guy as he speaks well that’s new information.

“Viktor” The Homeowner looks up into the peep hole for a moment.

Coat guy is almost stiffing his snickers “Bingo.”

“How are you able to resist the orders?” He looks genuinely curious but also still quite embarrassed.

The Homeowner also would like to know this so between giggles he looks up. “I c-can just b-bl-block them out” He shrugs even though the Pale man can’t see him “S-s-ss-since I’m no w-where near them it’s even easier”

It’s the Homeowners turn to speak up “Who’s them?”

Coat guy and the Pale man snap to attention for a moment they forgot the Homeowner was there. The Pale man spoke first “Something eldritch”

“You know since I have you off your guard why are you even here?” He’s finished his laughing and he has questions “Am I more special then then I already knew I was.”

This is turning out to be quite a different night than he had planned. “You only just now thought to ask that?” He trys to salvage the situation “Have you considered...that you were chosen? Hahaha. They send me for a reason… To change something?” He starts to gain a small smile again “And special what’s so special about you., that they send me here?

The Homeowner has officially nothing left keeping him back from talking “Other than being a walking lie detector?” The Pale man is now visibly confused “I mean I can see you before you even knock, on account of how bright your aura is.” Coat guys eyes go wide as he listens “It’s yellow by the way pretty rare, oh also I don’t explode when” He gestures to Coat guy “This guy lifts his shirt.”

Coat guy takes this as an opportunity to speak “J-just f-f-For your in-information if y-you break d-d-down the do-door I’ll explode y-you.”

“Explode me?” It becomes clear to both the Homeowner and Coat guy at the same time he doesn’t know about the hole.

Coat guy talks “I have a v-void or a h-h-hole in my s-st-stomach area.” He hugs himself a bit tighter. “It has ex-exploded everyone in-including th-those l-l-like us.” He unconcisly leans into the Homeowner who lets him. “E-ev-everyone except th-the H-Homeowner.”

The Pale man just looks at the door. “I didn’t know that was a thing that could happen.”

“Not a visitor thing?” It was the Homeowners turn to be confused.

The Pale man then looks outward “No it probably issss”

He looks up at the sky with the sun about to rise over the horizon. “Lisssten I already know you aren’t alone.” He turns back to the door “I’ll be back another night.”

The Homeowner watches as the Pale man walks over the horizon. He felt better than he had in weeks apparently laughter is the best medicine. “I’ve b-been meaning t-to as-ask a que-question.”

He turns to Coat guy as they walk back to the arm chair. Even if there’s almost definitely no one else coming he would be comfortable if he’s forced into a conversation before bed. “Go on?”

Coat guy takes a small picture frame out of his pocket and offers it forward to the Homeowner. “I f-found this in-inbetween s-s-some bo-books, wh-who is it?”

The Homeowner is routed to the ground as he stares at the face of a girl he hasn’t seen in twenty years.

His sister.

He stands there staring at the photo for almost five minutes. Coat guy realizes he needs to do something or the Homeowner will most likely continue to stand there. He reaches for his hand to try to shock him back to reality with cold. It works.

“I uh” He looks up at Coat guy “This is my sister she passed when we were young.” He pulls the frame closer to himself. “I haven’t seen this photo since I was a teenager and it was just sitting in my fathers books.”

He knew exactly where Coat guy found the photo the one shelve of books that weren’t his. He had refused to touch them after the man was killed. “I-” He looks at the other mans face “I think I need to sleep.”

He speed walks into his room locks the door and carefully place the frame on his nightstand. He crawls into bed and just lets himself cry.

---

After he woke up he knew he needed to make food for the house after watching the news it mentioned auras can be used to see if someone was visitor. Would have been much more useful a week ago. Grateful he had ordered new food he walks into the kitchen making his presence known.

Inside was the Blinded man intently listing to the Conspiracy theorist. He thinks he should check him but that could wait until after breakfast. Bar guy was also there drinking one of the beers from the fridge. “You’re up late.”

The Homeowner didn’t realize that Bar guy payed that much attention to him. “Late night.”

He walks to the fridge and takes out things to start on bread and grits. It’s at times like this he’s grateful for the culinary classes his late wife forced him in. “I heard you laughing at like 5 am, what was that about?”

The Homeowner decided it wouldn’t be a problem the other two in the room aren’t paying attention anyways “I found out the ‘Super visitor’ guys name from our local visitor apparently they went to school together.”

Now that he’s thinking about his sister he might have some clothes that would fit the Little Girl he’d have to check. “How’s that funny”

Bar guy takes a sip from his beer “He always goes on about how the world belongs to the dogs now.” The Homeowner takes a glance at Bar guy. “His last name is Volkov.”

This gets a snicker out of Bar guy “I get it then.” He goes to leave the room just as the homeowner finished getting the bread ready to be put into the oven. With this he turns to the new man to check him for signs before he finishes making the days food.

---

The rest of the day went off pretty well, he checked for clothing for the Little Girl. He found some so he brought it to her, she was braiding the Widow’s hair.

He brandished them and tapped on her shoulder. “I got you something.” The clothing was almost 30 years out of date due to the fact he was only a toddler when his sister was his age. But it’s what they had to work with at the moment.”

“THANK YOU!” She jumped out of the arm chair and snatched the clothes. She spun around the room showing Coat guy and Bar guy. He was surprisingly great with kids.

The Little Girl was ecstatic about having something other than one of the Homeowners old t-shirts to wear while he washed her clothes. She ran off with them to go change in the Homeowners room. “Where did that come from.”

The Widow messed with the fresh braid as she spoke. “They were my sisters.”

“You have a sister?” Her eyes slightly open more then they have been.

“Keyword were, she passed.” He balls his hands and squeezed.

“Oh” The Widow realized this man seemed to be followed by death.

---

He took a nap and awoke to start his waiting by the door for any newcomers. This time he was joined by the Cheerful man who leaned against the end table as he spoke to the air.

Wireface also joined this time he had come out sometime after the first knock and before any other. He was using the notepad and pencils in attempt to get some words to more easily communicate with the other members of the house.

They were working on this when there was a heavy knock at the door. The Homeowner got up from his spot next to Wireface on the floor to look out the peep hole. Only to see… no

no.

NO.

He saw his father standing outside the door. The aura was unmistakable.

The Homeowner backed up and fell to the floor hyperventilating; his father was supposed to be dead. He wasn’t supposed to have to deal with him anymore.

It couldn’t be him. He had watched him die.

He had watched the way his eyes filled with fear when he realized his son wasn’t going to lay down and take the beatings anymore.

The way he bled out from a shot that came from his own gun. From his own son.

He was turning in on himself sobbing silently.

The Cheerful man is horrified at what he is seeing. He decides to go to the door himself.

As that happens Wireface shoots up from his spot on the ground. He doesn’t know what to do, he can’t speak the language but he understands that Mikhail was in extreme distress. All he can think to do is run to the living room.

He grabs Coat guy by the sleeve and starts to drag him, Coat guy is confused and makes an attempt to stop his moving. It’s fruitless as Wireface continues to drag him to where Mikhail was still on the ground.

Wireface watches as Coat guy realizes what's going. He falls to his knees in front of Mikhail. “Can you breathe for me?” Coat guy doesn’t want to touch him if he doesn’t have to as he knows the reaction to unwanted contact.

Mikhail just looks up at him with unbridled fear in his eyes tears streaming down his face “H-HE’S supposed to be d-dead.” It would be a hard time to get him to calm without touch, but Coat guy was going to sure as hell try.

The Cheerful man approaches the door cautiously as another knock comes through the door, as he looks through, he sees an older man hair mostly white, but he looks like a different version of the Homeowner. “Finally, someone comes to the door.”

This is said with a huff and a crossing of the arms. “Well go on now”

The Cheerful man has a slight idea of what’s going on “Go on for what?”

“Letting me into my own home dumb ass.” He now knew exactly what was happening.

Coat guy had exhausted all his avenues of calming his except for contact. Wireface was now back in the living room trying to convince a sleepy Bar guy to come as he had been in the house the longest.

Coat guy took a deep breath and put his hands on Mikhail’s bare neck.

It shocks him

----

Chapter Text

You wake up with a start, you also think for a split second that you should have woken up somewhere else. Which is weird because you haven’t slept in you parents beds in years.

You hop out of bed and walk over to turn on the lap on your side of the room. Your sister isn’t in the room, but that’s normal she always wakes up before you. You make your bed, the last time you didn’t dad yelled at you really bad.

He hit you as well, but that’s just because you were bad and your Dad needed to correct you so you’ll be a good little boy.

You hear yelling coming from outside your room. That’s normal too your Dad yells a lot. But what’s not normal is that he sounds super extra angry. You hope you don’t see him with red instead of black because that means he’s super extra angry, and that means you’ve been a bad boy.

You don’t think you’ve been a bad boy! You tried so hard to be good. And he can’t be yelling at your sister she only gets yelled at by Mommy. They told you it was because she was never as bad as you were.

He yells at Mommy sometimes but that’s just because she didn’t do something she was supposed to. You walk to the door light as a feather to make sure you aren’t to loud Dad hated that. You hear dad yelling “YOU STUPID BITCH” you open the door a crack “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING”

It turns out that dad was yelling at your sister he had her hair in his fist. “I d-didn’t do an-anything!” She was sobbing as he held her close to his face. He was red, that was bad Dad wasn’t supposed to be yelling at your sister.

But you couldn’t do anything. Dad was always right, he told you so. You were also way to small to help your sister. “YOUR A LIAR” he slams her head into the wall blood now trickled down her face. The color around her was a mix between blue and red it was getting dimmer the more blood came down her face.

You notice your Mommy, she was ignoring your father as he hit your sister. She was dusting the shelves by the living room door. You assume she doesn’t see you, if she does she doesn’t care. You look back to your Dad and sister “YOUR MOTHER FOUND THE BAG YOU MADE.”

Your Dad is still yelling. He slams her head again the bleeding continues faster after each hit. “I don’t k-know what your talking a-about” Her blood mixed with her tears.

You don’t know what to do you can’t look away from the scene silent tears leaving your own eyes. You thought your sister was a good girl why was she being hurt. They told you she was a much better girl than you. “YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD LEAVE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION HUH?”

The wall was being stained from her blood. You remember your sister said you and her were going on a trip in a few days. She told you she got permission from Mommy. You can only guess that she didn’t ask Dad like she should of.

But why would she be hurt for it. She never even got yelled at. “YOU’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO LEAVE AGAIN.” He smacks her head against the wall one last time. You hear a sickening crack as her head hits the wall harder than the times before. The color around her is almost gone.

Your Dad dropped her and turned to your Mommy. You close the door before he can see you, and you run to your dresser to act like you didn’t see what just happened.

A few minutes later your Mommy comes in to tell you that your sister had to go to the hospital. That she got into a fight and she may not come back. You don’t know why she lies.

A week later your being dressed in your nicest clothing and being brought to a cemetery. It’s a closed coffin. You see a boy that’s probably a couple years older than you standing by the Undertaker who’s the one responsible for burring your sister. He stands with his hand on his chin, for some reason you recognize him, but you don’t understand why? You’ve never seen him before.

He stares at your wrists; you have bruises there from Mommy pulling too hard. She cried and apologized after so it’s fine, but she told you to cover it up. She didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea. You pull down your sleeve and turn away.

Your neighbors are there so are your grandparents. No one else showed up not like you expected them too. You think your sad but you’re not allowed to cry in front of your Dad so you stand still and bite your lip.

They give their condolences, you don’t know what that word means. Your Grandma seems more upset then your Mommy. After they put her in the ground they tell you to put flowers on the grave. You say your goodbyes. Your Mommy tells you that you can cry in front of Dad this one time, you do.

It only takes two days for your parents to empty the house of things that remind them of your sister. You get to keep her pillows; they never stop smelling like her. All the photos of her vanish and they take you to get new ones without her.

They act like nothing is wrong. Like their only daughter isn’t dead. Sometimes when Dad is not in the house you hear Mommy crying in her bedroom.

----

Your Mother dies when your 15. It was a heart attack, that’s why they didn’t catch it. You were now expected to take care of her duties except cooking. You cleaned and cleaned. It took a month before all the photos of your mother left the walls.

He only has black in the color around him now. Not even red.

Your Father didn’t care to replace them this time. He taught you how to use a gun. He started drinking more, he only got more violent with age. A bottle cracked over your head leaves you with a scar on your eyebrow.

---

At age 24 you can’t take it anymore. You take one of your fathers guns and hide it. The next time he tried to beat you, you’ll take out the gun and end it. You felt as if you’ve done this before, which isn’t possible which means you must have dreamt it right?

He comes into your room before sunrise, and you take out the shotgun. He stops in his tracks and stares down the barrel of the gun. He is confused for only a moment. He pleads with you.

You have no mercy. He didn’t stop when you begged. He certainly didn’t stop when he smacked your sisters head into the wall.

You shoot his heart. He dies almost instantly. You drag his body to the back of the house by your old swing set and bury him. You take the wallet off of the body before walking back into the house with no remorse.

The neighbor asks where he was. You say he had a nasty fall, and had to go live with family. A half truth. He sees the look on your face and never asks again.

---

Your the age of 26 when you first meet your wife. Her color is radiant, it hurts your eyes to look at her for to long. She’s feeding birds at the park she sees you looking and gives the widest smile you’ve ever gotten.

You see her again and again, you eventually introduce yourself to her. You marry each other the next year.

The two of you have three years together before she is diagnosed with a cancer that has almost a 100 % fatality rate. There are three months until she’s gone.

After the memorial her family never tries to contact you again. They only tolerated you because of her now that she’s gone they have no reason to talk to you. You don’t know if you cry you don’t pay attention.

You barely get out of bed anymore, you leave the door unlocked in hopes someone will come in and finish the job for you.

That’s until your Neighbor barges into your house and forces you out of bed. He makes you clean yourself makes you food. He takes you out and forces you to spend time with him and his daughter. It takes almost a year but you slowly stop having to force yourself out of bed.

Two years is what it takes for him to completely back off.

You feel something cold.

---

Mikhail is back to reality. Coat guy rears back after that moment of contact. Staring at him wide eyed his mouth is dropped open his arms up hands in fists. Mikhail is still not fully in the present moment just yet.

Bar guy is finally persuaded to come into the room when he sees the Homeowner on the floor staring like he’s seen a ghost. The Cheerful man is talking to someone at the door, turns to Coat guy who looks absolutely horrified. “What is the world happened here?”

“F-from wh-what I c-can gather, th-the H-homeowners f-father is a-at the door.” Coat guy’s expression not changing he turns to Bar guy. 

He tilts his head “I thought he was dead?”

“He was.” It takes a moment for Bar guy to realize the implications of that comment. He was probably a visitor.

The Cheerful man looks to Bar guy and mouths “What should I do?” Bar guy didn’t know how would he?

That’s when the Homeowner who had tears streaming down his face spoke up “Open. The. Door”

His eyes had a manic look to them. The Cheerful man startled at his words, he sure didn’t want to let the man in if the Homeowners reaction to even seeing him was to fall to the floor in tears. “Are you sure?”

“Do it” He says this as he hauls himself off the floor it’s clear it took a lot of effort. He walks around Coat guy as the Cheerful man opens the door slowly.

“Thank god you’ve see-” The Homeowners father is cut off as the Homeowner with a running start tackles him off the porch.

The Homeowner is now trying to strangle his father “WHAT ARE YOU DOING I AM YOUR FATHER.”

Everyone that was in the entryway rushes out of the house. “You’re supposed to be dead I’m correcting that.” His voice is eerily calm in comparison to how his body is racking with sobs he tacks on the end. “You stopped being my father the day you bashed my sisters head in.”

The Cheerful man who was surging forward to drag the Homeowner stopped for a moment at hearing that everyone did, everyone but Wireface who couldn’t understand.

He is the first one to reach the two, he notices the similarity in their faces and makes the correct assumption. He stops and doesn’t do anything just glares at the man with his arms crossed.

The Cheerful man continues to him along with Bar guy and they pull him off of his father. After which he just goes limp in their arms.

The Pale Visitor was in the tall grass as he was going come for another visit tonight but stopped when he saw another of his kind on the step. When the door opened, he had assumed the Homeowner had let him in. But then he saw the Homeowner leap out of the house and onto the man. He was gobsmacked. 

He decided he’d steer clear for the night as he saw two of the humans pull the Homeowner off of the visitor. If the visitor was still alive after this altercation, the Pale man also decided he’s have a little chat with him.

After the Homeowner is pulled of his father who was now a visitor, Coat guy decides he was going to kick the man after what he just saw. Which he didn’t know if that was a him thing or a Homeowner thing yet.

Following his example Wireface also stomps him. He however does it harder and directly to the groin. He was not letting this man get away with whatever he did to the Homeowner without reciprocation.

The Cheerful man and Bar guy carry him into the house and to the office to lay him down on the couch. They’d have the Surgeon look over him in the morning but at this moment he just stares at the celling. They leave the room.

The only other person left with the Homeowner was the Grave digger. He was left to watch the Homeowner. “How well do you remember your childhood.?”

This startles the Gravedigger to attention. “Uh, pretty well I guess?” He looks at the Homeowner

“What did your parents do for work..” The Homeowners never looked away from the ceiling

“My father was an undertaker and my mother a mortician.” He just tilts his head “Family business I suppose”

The Homeowner takes a breath before speaking “Do you remember a small boy whose wrists were bruised.” He finally looks from the ceiling and at the Gravedigger.

His eyes go wide and his hand drops from his face he very clearly remembers. He doesn’t need to answer verbally for the Homeowner to know the answer. “Was that you?”

The Homeowner gave a small “Yes”

“I remember the names of all the people I’ve buried, Maria right?” The Homeowner gave a nod. “I knew she didn’t die from a fight.” The Gravediggers voice soft “You only get those injuries from killing intent.”

Mikhail only starts crying again.

Chapter Text

After Coat guy and Wireface stomp the Homeowners father some more they walk back into the house. Wireface makes sure to lock the door behind them. He was furious. “R XZMMLG YVORVEV GSZG NZM GSV ZFWZXRGB”

(I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT MAN THE AUDACITY)

Wireface also spits on the man his spit mixes with blood from a reopened wound. The man reacts to it. They know he’s not dead at the very least.

Coat guy had no clue what Wireface said but he can get the idea. All he can think about of what he saw. He’s leaning towards it being a Homeowner thing. He has never been able to do that before. He understands the Homeowner much more now than he did before.

As they just stand in the entry way. The Cheerful man and Bar guy come back out of the Office. They all just kind of stand there for a moment before Bar guy speaks. “So that was fucked.” He turns to the door. “We just leave the guy out there yeah?”

The Cheerful man looks at the door for a moment "I think that's for the best."

He leans down to pick up the shot gun that was left on the floor and thinks about if he should put it in the Homeowners room. Coat guy speaks up “H-he p-probably won’t b-b-be ba-back if th-that’s any im-implication.”

He points to the window where they can see The Pale man waving at them. All but Coat guy jumps at this. He moves to the front of the house, and they lose sight of him. “Dszg rm gsv dliow”

(What in the world)

“I d-don’t th-think he was t-told he cou-couldn’t h-hurt other vi-vistors.” Coat guy turns on himself after he speaks. They look at him for a moment and decide that’s a daytime problem. Wireface only catches visitors and looks at him squinted trying to decipher his words.

Bar guy looks at all of them for a moment. “I'll stay by the door to refuse people entry.” He turns to the door. “Ain’t no way that, the Homeowner is going to be well enough for the rest of the night.”

They disperse; the Cheerful man goes to the living room for the night instead of the Office. He explains to the Widow what happened. Wireface grabs the notepad and pencils and heads back into the storage closet still fuming from earlier. The Surgeon tries to understand what he says. He guesses something about the Homeowner being injured.

Coat guy however walks into the office, and he places himself on the floor near the Homeowner. There’s not much he can do. But with how cold he always is he can at least act like an ice cube. Allowing the air around the Homeowner to cool down, it doesn’t hurt that being near the Homeowner warms him.

The Homeowner is still crying when he sits. The Homeowner notices him and reaches for his hand, holding it would help regulate his emotion by forcing his mind into the moment. The Gravedigger watches this happen, and he fully understands. During funerals he'd seen many a people only calmed by something cold.

The former FEMA officer pokes his head out of the bathroom to ask what happened earlier. Bar guy tells him. His eyes are gigantic at that, and he slinks back into the bathroom mumbling about how someone that decomposed shouldn’t be able to come back

----

A man stands in an alley way and looks down a creature as he walks by looks the creature in the eyes. It snaps it’s own neck after looking into his eyes. It seemed it couldn’t handle seeing it’s own dreams. How sad.

He’s felt an interesting energy since the last time he slept. It seemed light, in comparison to the heavy feeling coming from the creatures. It was amplified a moment ago and he caught a glimpse of a house. It would probably take an entire night and some for him to reach.

However he was more than curious he wondered if the person at the center of the light energy dreams.

He turns in the direction of the house and starts walking.

----

The next morning the Homeowner wakes up on top of Coat guy. At some point he fell off the couch, nobody bothered to wake him up. He scrambles off of Coat guy and to a standing position, his eyes are puffy and sore.

He cried more the last night than he had in years. Coat guy is still on the floor staring at him. “Why didn’t you wake me up?” He offers a hand to help him up “That couldn’t have been comfortable at all.”

Coat guy looks away as he takes the Homeowners hand. “Y-you n-n-needed the sleep a-and” He pauses to get himself righted he says the second part more quietly. “Your w-warm, so I d-d-didn’t mind.”

The Homeowner closes his eyes tilts his head and huffs with his hands on his hips. “Good your awake!” The Cheerful man walks into the room with a clap. “I’ll go grab Dr. Ivanov, we need to have him look you over.” He promptly walks straight back out of the room.

It was getting harder and harder for him to not refer to people by their names. If he learned them that is.

Coat guy looks at the Homeowner and also leaves the room. The Homeowner knows there’s no getting out of a look over after the stunt he pulled the night previous. He waits a good few minutes for anyone to come back in.

Wireface comes in first and tackles him into the couch with a hug. “Blf ziv zm rwrlg.” He backs off after a tight squeeze “Blf szw n-, fh dliirvw hrxp.” He bonks him on the head with the note pad that had a poorly written “Bad” on it.

(You are an idiot. You had m-, us worried sick.)

He was clearly using what he had learned to good use. A moment later the Surgeon entered. The Homeowner popped his head up to look. Bar guy followed closely behind and closed the door.

The Homeowner willingly held his arm out for the Surgeon who looked visibly surprised. The only problem the Homeowner had was being touched without warning. The Surgeon lifts his arm and verbally warns with every touch as he turns the Homeowners arm over.

After looking both his arms and legs over, he announced that the Homeowner will be fine. However, his arms have gigantic bruises down his forearms. His knees were also pretty banged up.

“I suggest, not standing for too long for a few days.” He sits at the couch. “Just be careful young man.”

Bar guy turns to the Homeowner, and he hands him back his shotgun. “I don’t know how you sit in that chair for hours at the time.” He stretches his arms above his head.

The Homeowner takes the gun from Bar guys hands. “I’m like two feet shorter than you.” He looks up towards Bar guys face. “Of course, you're going to be uncomfortable in a chair that fits me perfectly.”

“Well, that FEMA guy made food if you want some.” He starts to walk to the door.

The Homeowners expression dropped as he heard that. “Don’t tell me he got into an argument with the Conspiracy theorist?” His eye was already twitching he did not want to deal with a repeat of what happened with the Widow. He doesn't think he could deal with anymore arguing right now.

“No actually, after he emphasized that he wasn’t with FEMA anymore the crazy guy just started to rapid fire question at him.” Bar guy shrugs and opens the door.

Wireface cleared his throat to get the Homeowners attention and grabbed his hand to drag him out of the room to the kitchen. The Surgeon just stayed on the couch and laughed. The Homeowners steps were feather light and completely silent which confused Wireface.

Most people had taken to eating in the living room. The only ones in the room were the Former FEMA agent, and the Conspiracy theorist. The latter was questioning the former with a note book and pen. Writing down the responses. “How did the teeth thing happen?”

The Former FEMA was stirring what seemed to be a noodle soup of some sort. “I don’t know everything.” He hasn’t noticed Wireface and the Homeowner yet, he sighs and tilt his head.

His aura despite the annoyance in his voice had actually calmed, the dots of course ever present but they were less angry as he cooked. “But someone known to have bad teeth randomly killed a guy and when they looked in his mouth his teeth were perfect.”

“Happened a few more-” He finally notices the two standing by the door. “Oh hey.”

The Homeowner was watching with mild interest. “I didn’t know you could cook.” He tilts his head.

The Former FEMA looks back at the pot his ears tipped red in embarrassment. “I didn’t offer because I thought you wouldn’t want me to touch the food” He adds salt to the broth. “You weren’t awake and I’m the only one who can use the stove without supervision.”

The Homeowner nods he understands. The Conspiracy theorist was waiting for a moment to budge in. “I heard about what happened last night. His aura was sparkling as he spoke. “He gets up and walks towards the Homeowner and Wireface. “May I ask some que-”

Wireface puts his arm in front of the Homeowner. “Wl mlg tvg gl xolhv sv rh rmqfivw. ”

(Do not get to close he is injured.)

The Conspiracy theorist looks up and with a smile states “Svool ulivrtm uirvmw!” Wireface lights up like a flash-bang and the Homeowner has to cover his eyes. “ R’ev svziw zylfg blf yfg R wrwm’g pmld blf dviv Tvlitrzm. ” The Conspiracy theorist speaks with a fluency that was missing from the Surgeons words.

(Hello foreign friend! I’ve heard about you but I didn’t know you were Georgian.)

Wireface grabs the sweater around his neck tightly eyes wide “Blf hkvzp nb ozmtfztv? ”

(You speak my language?)

“Hlnv lu gsv yvhg izwrl hsldh lm vcgiz gviivhgirzoh ziv uiln Tvlitrz! ” He looks up confidently

(Some of the best radio shows on extra terrestrials are from Georgia!)

Wireface dimmed just enough for the Homeowner to be able to open his eyes. He thinks he’s going to ask to borrow the Fortune tellers camera to illustrate what he sees to his housemates. He’s surprised why no one has asked about his staring and squinting yet.

It’s most likely because he’s their host in this situation and they don’t want to be kicked out. “You two can talk later.” He waves his arms in between the two in hopes of calming Wireface down. “You wanted to ask me some questions.”

The Conspiracy theorist turns back to Homeowner as he sits. “Oh yes!” He rights himself with his notebook. “I was told it was your father at the door.” The Homeowner nods. “And he was a visitor.” The Homeowner nods once more. “I was also told you believed he was dead?”

“I knew he was dead.” The Homeowner gives a hardened face.

He notes it down at each answer the Homeowner gave. “Knew he was dead, OK.” This was said out loud as he wrote, he looks up. “So how long ago did he die.?”

“Six years.”

The Conspiracy theorists mouth drops. He flips through his notebook. “That.” He stalls for a moment. “Should not be possible.” Wireface looks at his face, he’s tempted to ask the man he can now freely communicate with to translate, but holds back.

The Former FEMA was plating the soup as he looks back at the Conspiracy theorist. “I told you so.” He walks the food over to the Homeowner and places it on the table. “Of all known visitors most were either recently deceased.” He goes to grab utensils and his aura starts to move erratically as he spoke. “Or were somehow turned into visitors while still being alive.”

“So what happened here is something so completely out of the range which would mean nothing we knew about the origions was correct.” The Conspiracy theorist opens to a new page and starts writing. “OR, something of most likely magical origin is involved.”

The Homeowner speaks up at that. “Oh, it’s probably the second option if it has anything to do with me.” He takes the spoon he’s handed from the Former FEMA. “Seeing how it was my father and he didn’t seem to be a skeleton.” He waves the spoon. “It has something to do with me.”

At that the little girl runs into the room and asks for a hug from the Homeowner. He leans down and picks her up into a hug. He plops her down and she hands him a drawing of her family this time the Homeowner is included in it. His eyes feel wet. She runs off after he tells her thank you.

He folds the drawing and pops it into his pocket. The Conspiracy theorist was looking at him dumbfounded. He was also taking out a camera that was identical to the one the Fortune teller has. He snaps a photo of the Homeowner.

Rude the Homeowner thinks he didn’t even ask first. But he doesn’t really care all that much. “Dsb wrw blf wl gszg?” Wireface looks at the Conspiracy Theorist. “Blf hfikirhvw srn”

(Why did you do that? You surprised him)

“R mvvw gl xsvxp srh zfiz, R’n xfirlfh zylfg hlnvgsrmt.” The Conspiracy theorist shakes the photo before putting it on the table. The Homeowner eats his soup.

(I need to check his aura, I’m curious about something.)

The Former FEMA comes to see the photo. They all stare at it for a moment before they in sync look at the Homeowner. Who is still eating the soup. “You have the most fasinating aura I have ever seen.” The Conspiracy theorist puts his hand to his chin.

“Yours isn’t boring either.” The Homeowner spoke while chewing, so his words were a little muddled but the Conspiracy theorists eyes snap to him, as do the Former FEMA. “You have this crown of stars thing going on.”

He was pointing to the top of the Conspiracy theorists head. Oh yeah he hadn’t told everyone yet had he?

“How in the world do you know that.?” It’s almost a whisper.

The Homeowner puts down his spoon. “I can see it.” He looks at the former FEMA agent for a moment. “The Fortune teller lady said I was pretty rare.”

Wireface just picked up the photo and was smiling at it. “Huh.”

“I didn’t know that was a thing to be completely honest.” The Conspiracy theorist just writes in his notebook again. “I never even theorized it possible, with how new the technology is.”

The Former FEMA agent just looks at the Homeowner and to the camera. “Wow you would have been pretty useful.”

The Homeowner has almost finished his soup. The Conspiracy theorist announces he’s going to take photos of everyone in the house and leaves the room as Coat guy comes in. “It’s not like It’s a perfectly reliable source.”

He points at the Former FEMA “You for instance, I almost didn’t let you in because you got weird dots I had only ever seen on a FEMA guy so I thought you were the same person until you started speaking.”

Wireface looks up at him at the mention of FEMA only to have a finger pointed at him. “Every time he gets super excited I have to squint because he’s more bright than most people.” He tilts his head. “But that’s not really a bad thing.”

Coat guy gets a finger in his direction as the Homeowner continues “And with you I thought you were either really hungry or really hated your stomach.” He brings his arm down. “Which to be fair isn’t not the truth.”

“Wh-what a-are we talking a-about?” Coat guy is utterly confused at the moment he just wanted food.

The Homeowner realized he needs to tell everyone this before he forgets again and surprises the Gravedigger and the Kindergarten teacher. He’s becoming more comfortable with talking about it which is nice. “I can see your aura”

“Oh” Coat guy only half understands. He looks at the Former FEMA who’s just standing there.

The Homeowner gets up and leaves to the living room to just an nonce it to everyone so he doesn’t not do it. When he enters no one heard him coming so when he opened the door half of the room jumps.

He forgot to make his steps noticeable. He hasn’t done that since the first night of the cataclysm. He’d wager a guess that it came from the fact he saw his father again.

“I have something to say.” The entire room looks at him. “I can see your auras." He puts his hands together in front of himself with a quite clap. "If you don't know what that is I don't care.” The ones who already knew gave no reaction the others however went slacked jaw.

He points at the Fortune teller. “Have her explain it I want to be alone right now.” She makes an offended noise as everyone in the room turned to her.

The Homeowner walks to his bedroom and for once doesn't lock the door. He slips the gun under the bed and changes his clothes.

He collapses on his bed.

Chapter Text

The Homeowner woke up with a cat on his chest it was a comfortable weight. His door was slightly ajar just enough for the cat to get in. He wonders who opened it. He stared at the ceiling for a while, just taking in the relative silence. He thinks he needed that. The cat seemed to finally notice that he was awake. The cat reminded him of the sphinx he owned with his late wife. It was a good cat who always loved licking his face.

It stretched and poked the Homeowner ever so slightly with its claws. It jumps off of him and meows as it settles back into a comfortable position on the bed and falls back asleep.

The Homeowner turns on the TV to watch the news. It was the same reporter as always, the reporter spoke of no new signs and less reported sightings of the pale man.

The Homeowner knew that was because he was spending so much time around his house. His thoughts drift to Wireface and how he was doing now there was someone who could speak his language. He felt almost jealous.

He shakes off the feeling and gets up. He realizes he slept through the night. The Homeowner rushes to his door only to open it to a Coat guy who had his hand lifted to knock. Their noses were almost touching each other. The Homeowners face goes hot at the almost contact.

Coat guy doesn't notice immediately backs off and folds his and under the opposite arm. He looked embarrassed. “I h-had something I-I wanted t-t-to talk a-ab-about.”

The Homeowner debates it for a moment but the only truly private space to talk. He sighs, then steps aside to let Coat guy walk in. “What's going on?”

He walks back to his bed to turn the lamp on. “D-don’t w-worry a-about l-last night by t-t-the way.”

Somehow Coat guy knew exactly what the Homeowner was rushing out of his room for. “Yesenin and I t-took c-ca-care of it, on-only one p-person came”

“Well.” The Homeowner could guess who Coat guy was referring to annoyingly enough. “That can’t be the only reason you knocked on my door?”

He looks at The Homeowner and was pulling on his nails before he spoke up. “T-the oth-other n-n-night, when I p-put.” He pauses for a moment taking a breath. “My h-hands on y-your n-neck, I.”

He stops and just looks at the Homeowner who makes a continue motion with his hands. “I, uh.”

Coat guy puffs his cheeks. “I saw s-something.”

The Homeowner squints at Coat guy before his eyes go wide. The latter’s eyes dart to the floor. His aura swirls.

“You.” The Homeowner pauses. “Saw something?” He feels a bit lightheaded and sits on his bed.

Coat guys eyes dart up and down from the floor and decides he would sit on the floor so he wouldn’t have to face the Homeowner. “Yes, I d-do not kn-know how it h-happened.” He waves his hands in front of himself. “I can a-assure you I d-didn’t d-do it on pur-purpose.”

The Homeowner puts his hands on his lap, he looks down at Coat guy. “Do what on purpose?”

He jumps for a moment. “I-I’m going t-to a-ask you a q-question b-before I answer that.” The Homeowner nods while Coat guy gives him a look. “Did.” A deep breath later. “Did y-your f-f-father, k-kill your sister.”

The Homeowners heart rate picks up and his breath rate increases not quite hyperventilating. Coat guy immediately puts his hand in the air. The Homeowner pulls back for a moment startled but after a motion of dilatation he takes the hand. “Yes.”

Coat guy leans his head against his arm that’s propped up for the Homeowner to hold his hand. A breath he didn’t know he was holding escaped him. “F-for the sp-split second th-that I w-was t-t-touching y-you.” He looks at the floor again. “I s-saw w-w-what I guess was, y-your past.”

He squirms as he says that last bit. Coat guy is biting his lip. “Oh.” That’s all the response he got. He looks up to see the Homeowner staring at his bedroom door, he was clearly thinking. Coat guy draws blood.

The Homeowner looks down to see blood trickling down his chin. He seemed to be snapped out of whatever state he was in with that. He stands and grabs a tissue from the box he kept on the dresser. He gets on the floor and wipes the blood off carefully.

He’s reminded of when he did the same for Wireface when he first came into the house. “Keep that there until the bleeding stops.” He sits next to Coat guy and puts his head back. Coat guy leans his head on the Homeowners shoulder carefully to not startle him.

When he doesn’t react or push him away he starts to speak again. “I p-promise th-that I didn’t d-do it on pur-”

He’s cut off by the Homeowner putting a finger to his mouth to stop him. “We can talk when your not bleeding anymore.” Coat guy blushes while the Homeowner isn’t looking, he didn’t know that was a thing he could do anymore.

Coat guy presses the tissue a little harder into his lip to hopefully make it stop bleeding he didn’t want the conversation to be longer than it had to be.

Time passes, when the bleeding stops Coat guy speaks again. “So, d-do you th-think that w-was a you thing?” He places the tissue in his lap.

The Homeowners mouth opens and closes a few times before he speaks. “Knowing me?” He squeezes his hands. “Probably?”

He glances at the top of Coat guys head. “How much did you see.” He was tired and he was literally just asleep; the Homeowner resists a yawn.

“Not m-much.” Coat guy tries to not bite his lip again, so he plays with his coat sleeve. “Just t-the b-big s-stuff I t-think.” He looks at the wall. “Like, y-your f-father's death, and you meeting y-your wife.” He tears the tissue as he moves and scrambles to grab it. "I-It w-was like b-b-bursts."

“You saw the aftermath of her death, didn’t you?” He’s blank faced, it’s not as if he got over her death. No, he doesn’t think he ever could, but he’s grown from it. That’s because she told him to be happy for her. He misses her, so much.

A quite affirmative was given. “I n-needed t-to tell y-you.” He reaches and puts his hair behind his ear. “I-it f-f-felt r-r-really invasive.”

They sit for a few more moments before the Homeowner decided it was time to check on everyone else. He makes sure to leave the door cracked for the cat, to not lock it in his room.

-----

The hooded man was in the basement of a burned out building riding out the day. He had almost made it to the source of the energy he felt. He had almost even fell asleep. It’s been about six day’s he thinks?

He lays on the floor and stares at the ceiling half lidded as he was thinking. Thinking on the types of dreams the person had. As he got closer he felt a much fainter energy, it was probably in the same building. He also notices in his half-awake state something above him. It looked like text and it was changing as he continued to think.

It was best to ignore it

There was a heaviness that lingered near by. A stronger one at that. He smiles at the thought of making it to the home at night.

He’s ever curious some might call him obsessed, he wonders aloud. “Do visitors dream?” He laughs quietly to himself.

-----

The Homeowner walks into his office to see the Cheerful man talking with the Kindergarten teacher and The Gravedigger. The first to notice him is the Cheerful man who excuses himself from the conversation to walk to the Homeowner. The Surgeon was browsing the books looking for one to read.

“You look much better than you did yesterday!” His smile is so bright in contrast to the rest of the residents of the home's moods. His aura never seemed to change. “I’m glad you got some sleep.”

The Homeowner didn’t really know how to talk to someone so animated. He never had. “Me too” He adjusts the strap of the shotgun uncomfortably. “I guess.”

The Cheerful man takes his sunglasses off his hat and fiddles with them in his hands. “Thank you, by the way.”

The Homeowner scrunches his nose. “For what?”

“For keeping all of us safe.” His face was clear he was thinking it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Yesenin told me you only let him in because you had too.” He waves a hand careful not to drop his sunglasses. “Without FEMA you would only need to keep one person in the house.”

He lifts his eyes to meet the Homeowners. “You didn’t hesitate to try to protect us either, with shooting the serial killer man after he tried to kill someone.”

The Homeowner felt very embarrassed. So, he bid the Cheerful man goodbye. He walks to the closet and opens the door. Wireface is on the floor tongue sticking out in focus as he wrote something in the notepad. He flips to a new page.

“Ahem.” The Homeowner didn’t mean to startle Wireface but he was so in focus. After he calms a moment later, he brightens, literally. His aura glows brighter.

“Blfi sviv!” He stands quickly with the notepad in hand and walks over with it. “R szw Zmzglo nzpv z dliw ylziw uli nv gl svok nv gzop.” He blushed and looked away. “Drgs blf yvggvi.”

(Your here! I had Anatol make a word board for me to help me talk. With you better.)

The Homeowner takes the notepad and looks down. “Well this is cool.” He points at amazing and in the few words he’s able to say in Wireface’s language. “Tllw qly”

(Good job.)

Wireface smiles, he takes the notepad back he flips a page and points at food want. Then points back at the Homeowner. “Blf hovkg gsilfts gsv mrtsg ziv blf sfmtib?” After the Homeowner nods Wireface grabs his arm and leads the way to the kitchen. This seems like it was going to be a pattern. “R hglnkvw lm blfi wzwh yzooh yb gsv dzb.”

(You slept through the night are you hungry? I stomped on your dads balls by the way.)

Wireface sinkers as they enter the kitchen “R pmld blf xzm’g fmwvihgzmw nv yfg R dzmgvw gl hzb zmbdzbh.”

(I know you can’t understand me but I wanted to say anyways.)

The Homeowner doesn’t know what he says but he can assume it was probably a joke based on the snickering so he laughs a bit. When they entered the kitchen the Blinded man was talking with the Fortune teller.

“Which is why I refused to give her a reading.” She was shuffling her tarot cards. She looks to the door as it opens. “Why did you single me out last night.” Her face was annoyed and the noose like part of her aura swayed as she spoke.

He looks down at her. “You are the most knowledgeable person about this stuff in the house.” Wireface grabs a sandwich out of the fridge. Huh Former FEMA must have made it. “Mind you I only learned what it was even called some three days ago.” He shrugs as he takes the sandwich from Wireface. “So. What was I supposed to do?”

She just looks done at that. But she felt a little flattered, so she’ll let him off the hook just this once. “Do you want a reading.” She’s tapping the cards into the table.

The Homeowner thinks on it “Maybe tomorrow.?” He has now taken a bite of food. “I need to check on the people in the living room right now.”

“Your loss” She continues the conversation she was having with the Blinded man. His aura seemed the same as ever, but his eyes seemed less inflamed. Not infected that was good. He never did talk to the Surgeon about it. He'll work on that.

He and Wireface walked to the living room and sees the Widow on the floor with The Little girl and the Former FEMA agent. They were playing an ancient copy of battleship, next to them were the boxes for lotto, manger, and chess. Seemed they found the drawer of his board games. It seemed like the Widow was winning against the Former FEMA and the Little girl.

The Homeowner just sits down to watch he notices Bar guy is reading a book and it seemed like Coat guy was taking a nap in the armchair.

-----

It was finally night, somehow the Little girl had roped the Homeowner and Wireface into playing lotto. That made the time pass a little faster but it made the Homeowner feel tired.

He gets up and stretches his hands above his head. The Homeowner walks out of the room and into the entry way. Coat guy was not far behind him. He placed himself at the side of the arm chair again.

It’s not long until the first knock of the night comes. It’s the Pale man, the Homeowner can tell before he even gets up.

“Ssso you alone?” The Pale man stood as he does every time but he got straight to the point this time.

“You already know the answer to that question.” Coat guy perked up when he heard who was at the door he loved making fun of the guy, it made the Homeowner laugh. When he laughs Coat guy feels just a bit warmer, that means everything to a guy who is forever frigid.

The Pale visitor tilts his head. “Just thought I’d get it out of the way first.” He looks behind himself for a moment. “I saw the event.” He looks back at the door. “The other night that is.”

“I took care of it for you.” The Homeowner was extraordinarily confused he thought the only reason the Pale man talked at for more than he needed to be because he thought the Homeowner was a funny human.

Not for any special reason past that. “Now why would you do that?”

He didn’t reply for a moment mulling over the question. “Whyyyy? Well, I’ve never seen you act feral.” The Super visitors' eyes glance up. “It was out of character for you.” He smiles. “And I felt fear evennn. I was unaware that I was still capable of that feeling.”

Coat guy who was listening was floored at the confession. “You fear? You’re trying to pull one on me, aren’t you?” Unlike the Cheerful man and the Blinded man whose auras felt as if they never changed, they actually did in slight ways. The Pale man’s aura never changed period, the Homeowner couldn’t read him.

“I assssure you, I am not joking.” His smile grows even wider “You never fail to surprise me, I think I can tell why they sent me to keep an eye on you.” He looks towards the horizon it’s dark. “Your lucky they can’t read minds, I’m only to kill you if your alone and nothing more.”

The Homeowner narrows his eyes and takes a breath. “Why are you telling me this?”

The Super visitors smile got tighter. “On the contrary to what you may believe, I didn’t want to be a monster.” His smile falls. “I tried to escape but a man refused me entry.”

“Escape?” The Homeowner probes.

The Pale man starts to turn around. “Now that I can’t telll you.” He stops before heading down the front steps. “Prove me right Homeowner.”

-----

The Homeowner didn’t know if he was going to let anyone in tonight at most his house could probably hold two more people.

It takes thirty minutes before someone came knocking again. Coat guy had been keeping count as he and the Homeowner sat silently.

Outside the door was a man in a hood. “Do you ever dream?” His aura was black but it was surrounded by light. Now that’s new.

The Homeowner tilted his head at the question. “What?”

The man in the hood looks at the peephole “You know, dreams. You know what a dream is. When you sleep... Do you see anything?” He shakes his head for a moment “You know what I've realized? People barely dream anymore. Why do you think that is?”

The Homeowner listens for a moment and thinks. “Do you dream?”

The man seemed surprised but shrugged “Hard to say. I haven't slept in six days. Maybe if I did, a dream would come to me.”

“Come in I guess.” The Homeowner was letting him in so he could try to sleep at least.

Coat guy quickly stands up as he comes in to get out of the way.

The man looks around the room before turning to the Homeowner. “Your energy is super light for being in the apocalypse.”

The Homeowner deadpanned “Another magic guy cool.” He points to the living room “We’ll talk in the morning go in there.”

The Sleepless man just smiles and walks to the room hands in his hoodie.

Almost immediately after he says this there’s another knock.