Saddle Tramp (A Santana x Male!OC Story)

Dream Sweet in Sea Major (Chapter 6)

"Take your hands off your neck, and hold on to the ghost of my body. You know that good lives make bad stories" -Sober to Death by Car Seat Headreast

~

During the last few days the two had fallen into a routine, Marty would do much of the daytime work on the ranch to prep for the horses, and would then get Santana to do a few things during the night. It was mainly stuff Marty had purposefully not done, so that the pillarman had something to do during the hours he could go outside.
It was after one such instance, late at night, so late that it was technically morning, that Santana arrived back to the house.

Only to be greeted by the sounds of Marty in distress. Entering into the room, he was met with the sight of the human thrashing in his sleep. Santana did not need to sleep, so he had only the vaugest idea what a nightmare was. Upon seeing what was happening to Marty, his first reaction was to reach for the human and attempt to wake him. When Marty didn't awaken, however, Santana decided to simply sit by the man's bedside and wait for him to sit up and tell the pillarman what was happening.

~

It was happening again, that same dream. This time though, when everything fell away, the thing masquerading as his friend smiled at him. Its teeth were broken and stained with blood, its face having to contort oddly to make any of the muscles on its cheeks change.

"You did this Marty."

The being took a step towards him, and Marty stumbled backwards. The attempts at protests stopping despite trying to leave his lips, he opened his mouth, and tried to speak, but it felt as if he was trying to push against a wall. Choked sounds were the only thing leaving his mouth.

"You let me go. You knew I'd die, and you let me go anyway."

It took another shambling step towards him.

"Why'd you do that Marty? Were you scared if you stopped me, I'd hate you? You'd rather I be dead than not like you?"

The thing tilted its head, letting out a mocking laugh.

"Afraid if I saw how worthless you were, I'd make Lisa Lisa kick you out? I mean it's only logical Robin. She still has two students without you. She would just need a choice on if she should keep you, or the new, better option. One of which is her son, the other is some hick she took off the street."

The thing's next step forward had Marty scrambling away, trying to gain as much distance as possible. He felt his back hit a wall, and sank down it until he hit the floor, staring up at the thing wearing his friend's destroyed face.

"Out of the two of you, who do you think she'd keep around? Though I guess that's not fair, how would you know anything about a family wanting to have you around?"

It kneeled down in front of Marty, the smell of death invading his senses. The stench coming from him reminding Marty of the animals he'd helped his father carry in from hunting trips. Rot and decay seeming to cling to every speck of their being.

"You ran away from home, hoping to not be treated like a burden anymore. Guess what, Robin? You'll always be a burden, because you're a useless, dumb redneck, who couldn't even muster the guts to stop your friend from getting himself killed."

Marty had screwed his eyes shut, and didn't react to the twisted and bent hands that creaked and snapped their way around his throat.

"And now you sit on your ass all day being buddy buddy with the only one of those monsters who's too weak to do everyone a favor and just finish you off. Speedwagon asked if you were doing this to die. You lied to him, but you can't lie to yourself, Marty. You know you should've done something right for once in your life and died in that hotel instead of me."