Hell's Reign (Patrick Stump/Fall Out Boy Fanfiction)

Chapter 13 - Guilt and Forebodings

            As Patrick looked back to wave at her, Tori felt a tight pang of guilt in the center of her chest. He had been nothing but understanding of her hesitations in starting a relationship. She hadn't expected him to take it so well, and she certainly hadn't expected him to agree with her, but the far off look in his eyes all morning had made her feel like she hurt him. Now, she faced the fear of something happening to all four of them out there, and the fact that they might not come back. She felt stupid now for not advocating for Patrick to at least stay with her. If something happened to them she'd be all alone, and stuck in Patrick's house, of all places.

When she closed the front door and turned back into the house, she sighed at the sight of it. She could see straight back to the barricaded back door, the memory of Patrick charging across the room to kiss her still fresh in her mind. The walls of the entire house were bare now, devoid of all the family pictures she had taken down. The widows were boarded up, and there were tracks throughout the entryway and the kitchen; mud and blood that had come in last night. In short, the bottom level of the house looked less like a house, and more like a warzone.

Tori ignored all of it as best she could and climbed the stairs slowly, kicking her shoes off halfway up. The upper level of the house was nearly immaculate in comparison. Pete, Joe, and Andy had made their beds before they left, leaving them as if no one had even slept in them. Tori herself had made the bed that she shared with Patrick, as he had moved around her to pack his things for the trip. They'd laughed about the silliness of keeping a clean bedroom in the midst of things, but Tori had told him that they all needed something that seemed like home, even if only meant a clean bed at night. Patrick had agreed.

Now, she crawled over the neat covers and curled up against the pillows, wondering If she had asked him to stay, would Patrick have laid with her right now? She felt stupid, for one thing, and for another, she felt like a coward. Everything she had told him this morning had been legitimate fears, but the fear of losing someone was no reason not to be with them. She was sixteen, had already lost her family and friends, and now she was pushing away the one good thing that had happened to her over the past few weeks. What else could she possibly have to lose, if not him?

As she laid in that bed, she felt cold. Before the apocalypse, before any of this, she would have thought the logical solution would be to crawl under the blankets she was laying on top of. Yet now, the blankets would not have been enough and she knew that. It wasn't just the chill in the air, but it was the chill down her spine that made her sit up. It was the foreboding that drew her out of bed and made her begin pacing the room, wondering if the boys were okay. She was never one to assume the worst in any situation, but now, seemed to be the time to start. Something felt off in the air, in the house, and her worst fears wandered casually through her head, as if they belonged there. What if something happened to Patrick? What if zombies had gotten in the house?

There was a spare pistol in their bedroom, sitting right beside the bow she had taken from Cabela's. The pistol seemed the better option with which to defend the house on her own, so she picked it up and checked for ammo. There was box of extra bullets on Patrick's bedside table, so she shoved a handful in her pocket and began to walk into the hallway. It was empty, of course, but the uneasy feeling was still there. Tori walked first into Pete's bedroom, across the hall from her own. His window faced the street, and leaning over to see out of it, she noticed two unnerving things. One, there were about four zombies currently milling about on the street, and for a horrible moment, she thought one of them looked just like Andy. Looking closer, she realized that she didn't actually recognize any of them, she was just over anxious. But then, she noticed the black Honda Civic parked where the van had been, just outside the house.