How Many Posters (Grocers) Does One County Need? ||| GenLoss AU

with my back on the floor, cold linoleum icing my growing pains

Ache
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A continuous or prolonged dull pain in a part of one's body.

...

I mean yeah, that's an easy way to describe how Charlie felt waking up.

His eyes peeled open to a blurred landscape. His head ached like hell and he could barely see anything, but that was probably because his glasses were nowhere to be found.

He was laying on his back with his arms out to his sides. As he laid sprawled out on the ground, he tried to roll onto his right side He could feel his arms and back sticking to the hard, cold, flooring. 

His entire body ached, and his head throbbed as he rolled over to his right side, supporting himself with his arm. He could vaguely see a small, blue, rectangular object.

He reached his left arm over and grasped for it, eventually feeling a small, cold, piece of metal in between his thumb and index finger. He brought his hand back to his face, seeing his blue half rim glasses...

and, something else.

His heart ached as he could actually focus on his hand, now that it was closer to him. His fingers were covered in it. His hand trembled as he brought the glasses closer to his eyes, finally resting near the bridge of his nose.

He could see it now, it was everywhere.

It was on the floor around him, it was on his hands, it was on his glasses, and it was even on his watch. But now that he could see clearer, he noticed something else.

There was always something else, wasn't there?

He gazed at a large gash on the under-side of his right arm, one that eerily reminded him of something. Inside of the large wound, he could see what looked to be small wires, under his skin.

The wires slowly snaked around his exposed muscles, tissues, and bone. In and out of his skin, almost like they were sewing him back together. He felt like he was going to throw up.

And, if the fucking wires wasn't weird enough for you, maybe it'd be a lovely time to mention that whatever shit he was covered in - the sticky substance on the floor, his hands, his glasses, his watch - yeah, it wasn't blood.

It was a slimy, green, gooey substance that stuck him to the floor, and it seemed like it was trying to keep him there too. It was cold, and it was uncomfortable, and Charlie just wanted to give up sink right into it.

Trying to fight the urge to either pass out or hurl, Charlie looked away from his wound and began to pull himself up. At this point he couldn't exactly form coherent thoughts, it was more like whatever came across his brain immediately raced away, his mind still in fight or flight mode. Well, it wasn't still exactly in fight or flight mode, because he'd already solved that problem, as his mind simply choose to freeze when presented with a problem. Now, with his mind thawed, it now seemed like he couldn't even catch a thought and act on whatever decision that came with.

And how he managed to handle the whole, there's slime under my skin thing? He had no clue - but he did know one thing for sure -

He needed to find his brother.

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(Yo btw I'm just assuming Charlie is near-sighted because I genuinely have no clue if he is lmao)

(Also both chapter names are from the song Boreas by The Oh Hellos)