Raincoat

The Janitor

                                                                chapter seven

I wake up to hear a knock on my door, causing me to jump ever so slightly. I sit up and look through the window next to my bed, quickly checking to see if Six was scared by the strange noise. She was frantically looking for a place to hide, which left me to believe she had possibly confused simple knocking for banging, threatening.

Can't say I'm too surprised.

I catch her attention and quickly calm her down, she sits up on her bed and curls up into a ball, as if she really wanted the noise to stop as soon as possible. I nod and make my way over to the door and open it.

"Vanity? Uhm--what brings you here?" I asked her, expecting it to be something about a child breaking an arm or needing more mental health attention.

I was greatly mistaken.

"H-Henry?" Vanity croaked, tears in her eyes. She sounded scared. If it weren't for her tone I might've spent a few more seconds focussing on the fact that this was the first time she had referred to me by my first name. I hum in response, acknowledging that I was listening to her. "Henryl you need to come with me." she ordered, though it sounded more like a desperate request.

"What? Why? I haven't even done the daily checkup on the children--"

"Please Henry..." she begged, interrupting me. "It's about Rodger..." I felt my breath hitch.

Rodger?

Our poor unfortunate janitor who absolutely loved children, who was a great caretaker, who gladly took the shift to help out even though he knew it would be filled with cleaning up vomit and crap? What on earth could have happened to him?
Rodger had been very helpful when I first moved down here, he explained to me what the children needed and their daily schedules. Idiots would find such helpfulness annoying, I found him useful. He took time out of his day to--...

I just realised that's exactly what Vanity had been doing for me this entire time...and I still found it somewhat annoying.

'Maybe I should apologize for that while it's still on my mind...' I think to myself. 'Nah, too emotional, there's no real point to it.' I mentally decided.

"Earth to Henry?" Vanity's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "You've been staring off into space for a minute or two..."

"Yeah--yeah I'm fine, what's wrong with Rodger?" I asked. She sighed.

"It's probably best if you just come see, don't bring Six with you...just trust me on this one..." she sounded and looked...strangely tired, not like she usually is, where she had spent entire nights taking care of both the guests and the children, those nights we were normally both up at the same time. No, this sounded much different. She sounded like she had been thinking about something...something important.

'Well whatever it is, I'll ask her about it at a better time.' I thought. I nodded, telling her that I would be right there, and I got changed into my work clothes. Might as well, not like I wouldn't be getting straight to work afterwards. As I glance towards the window, I see my reflection. I've gotten much thinner since I first arrived here. You can very clearly see the bones in my hands. 'Guess I haven't been eating as much as I intended to.'

Before I take the elevator ride up to the library, I take a glance at the door to Six's room. The thought of saying a quick goodbye to her comes to my mind, but I decide against it. She'd be fine on her own for a couple minutes.

What's the worst that could happen right?

The worst happened...

Rodger had been killed...

His body laid on the floor next to a...a television...

We didn't even know there were televisions available to the public, much less here...

We swore they were still in development...

Guess one somehow managed to make it here.

His neck looked as if it had been twisted, and broken. His trademark fedora hat laying next to his head. He was wearing a brown button up shirt with darker brown suspenders. It wasn't until now that I realized how pale his skin was, considering that at the moment it was almost completely bleached out. But the worst part, his head had been contorted into some weird shape that covered his eyes with his own skin.We thought we had kept Tv's out of the maw, specifically so that the disease didn't make it's way over here. But it wasn't enough.

Vanity stood next to me, putting her hand on my shoulder as I stared at the disfigured body. She let out a sigh, knowing that this would ruin the reputation of the Maw. I tried to keep myself together, that way I could handle the situation rationally. I knew Vanity would probably let her emotions get the best of her, so I did everything in my power to keep myself under control until this was sorted out. Yes, Rodger's death would leave a great effect on me, after all he was one of my greatest and only friends on this ship. However, I couldn't let feeble emotions take control of my actions. Rodger was dead, and if we didn't do anything to fix the Tv problem, someone else might die as well.

That's when Vanity said something...out of the norm for her.

"Can you recreate it?" she spoke, her voice dull and straight to the point. I turned to her, shock making its way onto my facial features. She sounded tired and scared while we were on the phone, but now she sounded almost...dead? As if the life had been drained out of her. She wasn't even staring at the body, her eyes stared bordely at the floor. Something was wrong and I knew it. It was the same feeling I had before when I woke up that one morning, I still don't quite understand why I wrote it down in my work journal, but at two in the morning I found myself feeling as if someone besides Six and I was in that part of the Maw, someone who wasn't supposed to be there. I got the same feeling when I looked at Vanity. I asked her what she meant, and she looked at me in confusion. "I'm sorry?" she asked, confusion in her tone.

"What do you mean 'recreate it'?" I asked again. She stared at the body for a few moments, then back at me.

"Sorry I don't--I don't know why I said that I just, well I haven't been getting much sleep lately and--"

"It's not the sleep Vanity, you and I have both been deprived of sleep for most of our time working here, you're only just starting to act weird now." he stared at me in slight shock, as if she was hoping I wouldn't figure it out that easily. She sighed and faced the opposite direction, letting out a small chuckle.
"I really don't know what came over me, I think it has something to do with--" she cut herself off, as if just realizing if she said what she wanted to say would cause some kind of problem.

"Something to do with what?" I pry. She shakes her head and looks back at me.

"If I told you, you'd either think I was going insane or pulling your leg..."

I never did get her to tell me what was going on.

I wish I did though...

Then maybe I could've stopped it...