𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙢 𝘽𝙤𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨

Chapter Thirteen

Y/N

I wish she'd stop asking me that question. It makes me feel like even more of a freak than I already am. It's bad enough that I'm a flesh-eating monster, but it turns out I can't even do that right.

I have to be the weird one. The one who doesn't do things the way it's supposed to.

What am I? I'm a Corpse, but a slightly defective one at that. I'm a collector - a hoarder, she called me. I'm a music lover. I'm lonely. So I shrug, because that's the only answer I have for her. I don't know exactly what I am.

Not to be too existential, but does anyone know who they are, really?

"You shrug a lot," Jennie says with a trace of amusement. I'm just glad that the sadness is gone from her face, that there are no longer pools of water brimming at the edge of her bottom lashes. "That's such a non-committal response. You may only speak in monosyllables, but would it kill you to at least try and give real answers?"

I shrug and Jennie lets out a long-suffering sigh. "Now you're just being an ass," she says, shaking her head. She sets aside her empty food can and the bottle, and then settles back into her little nest.

I watch in interest as she adjusts the pillows around her and wraps the blanket around her shoulders.

"I-it's-s ha-ard," I admit. Jennie pauses and looks up, her brow pulling down in confusion. "T-to talk." I gesture limply at my uncooperative throat and shrug again.

It's hard to explain to someone how something that seems so simple can be so difficult for me; that those muscles she uses without thinking have atrophied in me and it takes lots of effort to get them to even move in that way again.

"Oh," Jennie's eyes soften and she nods. "You're right, I'm sorry. I just - it's so fascinating to hear you talk. I didn't think Corpses could, you know? Apart from grunting and moaning and stuff. And you are getting better actually. Maybe you're just out of practice."

Am I getting better? I think about it and she's got a point. When I first met her, it was hard enough to say just her name and now I can speak in almost full sentences.

The corner of my lip twitching upward again."Mmmay-be," I agree.

Jennie smiles and wraps her blanket more tightly around herself. "Okay, well I'm going to get some sleep," she says.

I stand up, taking the hint, and rub my palms awkwardly against my jeans. "Go-oo-od night, Jeh-Jennie."

She looks up and her grin is bright in the darkness. "Goodnight, Y/N."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jennie makes a lot of noise in her sleep. They are just soft little whimpers and squeaks, but I don't like hearing them. I think it's because she's sad.

She is hurting because her boyfriend is dead. Gosh, if she finds out I'm the one who killed him...

I need to find something to make her feel better. Something to keep her mind off her boyfriend and to keep her here. Something interesting.

I slump down in my nest of blankets. She already looked at all of the greatest things I have in here. She even explained what a few of the things are; I honestly didn't know what a majority of the things on my shelves are, I just collected them because they looked interesting.