hardlydead | open post ye wankers

[ ghost face is at a clear and severe disadvantage, it'd be easy to call this a win the second evan got involved, but david knows from experience he's not the kind of person you can count out until they're out. it's not a mistake he'll make again, even if evan would complete the job if he didn't. ]

[ he feels the sting of the knife against his stomach, but it doesn't go in far enough for david to worry. if anything, it's a benefit. means he's close enough for david to try and grab that wrist, lifting a foot at the same time to kick one of his legs, aiming to try and take his knee out. ]

[ evan yanks ghost face back, which is bad for him even though the knife finds its mark. then david snatches at his wrist and kicks. ghost face manages to keep his knife arm free, but the kick lands, almost dislocating the knee and sending him to the ground - or at least it would, if there wasn't a hand gripping the back of his coat like grim death.

it leaves him hanging, but he's dealt with worse. he slashes at david's offending arm while trying to grab some part of evan that's close enough to hurt, but it's too difficult. still, he writhes and kicks with his good leg, making life difficult for everyone, and eventually evan decides against trying this standing up.

he doesn't drop ghost face - he throws him down. the knife flashes in the partial moonlight as he goes, but before he can jump up or stab at anyone's legs evan's got a boot against his head. it should be enough, except that ghost face doesn't stun easily and this gives him the opportunity to run the knife straight through the top of the boot into evan's foot.

that drives him off a few inches. it's enough. ghost face swings the knife back at david, but with his knee out of commission, he's not going far. ]

[ the knife slashes his arm, but with the adrenaline surging through him david barely notices it. he lets go of the strip of fabric as evan throws ghost face to the ground, moves around to his side, but that's as much time as he gets before evan's having to back off thanks to a knife in his foot. david doesn't waste time giving ghost face the chance to get up and get away. he stamps down on that injured knee to hopefully break it and descends immediately, trying to pin that arm with the knife with his leg as he moves to straddle his chest. no fucking way is he letting this shit scramble away again. david snarls, grabs at his hood to pull his head up with a sneer. ]

Nothin' to say now?

[ probably shouldn't goad him like that, but all things considered it's a very small show of spite from david. other things will occur to him later, ways he could really embarrass this fucker, make a mockery of him, but that kind of vindictiveness rarely if ever strikes in the moment for david. ]

[ in the moment it's usually all rage and violence, and that is very clearly the case for him right now. he twists his hand in the fabric of the hood to both get a firmer grip and tighten it around ghost face's head and slam his head into the ground. as many times as he can get away with. it'd be easier to just stomp him out, but david's not making the same mistake evan did. ]

[ there's a noise that escapes the mask at that stomp - along with the cracking of the knee itself, because while it might not be totally shattered it's really fucked up now, and despite everything he might say, ghost face isn't immune to pain.

nor is he immune to getting pinned. as evan staggers back, favoring the foot that didn't just take a knife through the top of it, ghost face finds himself caught, unable to rip his arm free from david's knee crushing it just below the elbow. he tries like hell, but it doesn't work very well, especially when his head's getting jerked around, smashed into the ground over and over. enough to disorient, almost enough to stun.

but not completely.

he writhes under david, rips at him with his free arm, and in the few momentary breaks in the violence his voice comes out from under the mask again, this time riddled with pain and spite and all the darkness that grew in him over the years: ]

Do you scream like that for everybody - or just him - you fucking whore?

[ it's not a particularly clever insult, but stripped down the core of him he isn't thinking much beyond getting the hooks in as deep as he can. even if he dies here, david's not going to forget what he said. and he's not going to forget the hand that snaps up, fingers aiming for his eyes -

or he wouldn't, except evan gets involved again, cleaver lashing out to catch that arm before it finds its mark. it doesn't cut the whole thing off, but it buries deep enough to cut bone. ]

[ something about the dig actually startles david, not enough to make him pause or let up in any real way, but enough that it shows on his face — a moment of surprise followed by raised eyebrows as he processes the words. and would argue he's never screamed for evan, unless screaming after having a metal hook violently shoved through his body counts. ]

Jealous?

[ it's not a clever retort either, but it's david's mouth running on autopilot while he shifts tack. ghost face's mask isn't like evan's, it's plastic, not likely to offer much protection. he barely even notices evan swing the cleaver for ghost face's arm as he starts driving his fists into ghost face's... face. not really caring that his hands are likely gonna come away cut up and bloody, focus singular on beating this man to death like it's the most important thing he'll ever do. ]

[ the response might surprise ghost face later on, but the resultant violence won't. with his arm still stuck on evan's blade and his knife hand pinned under david's knee and his own knee just about broken, he's essentially helpless to defend himself from the attack.

evan watches in silence as david beats his face in. the mask cracks under the blows, which would be a bigger problem for ghost face if he hadn't already been bruised and bloodied to hell and if the continued punches raining down on him didn't make him even more unrecognizable than before. the shards of plastic cut into them both, and the fabric tears, and eventually he can't even struggle to try and free himself just from the force of the hits alone.

when the arm caught in his cleaver goes limp, evan jerks it free, but he still doesn't get involved. the insult even got to him, and it wasn't even directed at him. david has a handle on this. he doesn't need someone else coming between him and a target. evan knows he personally never appreciated it, and he's not going to step in to stop violence against this particular trespasser for any reason.

it's not long before there's no more movement under david at all. no more strength to try, the world subsumed by pain. but ghost face isn't dead yet, given the noises coming from underneath the shattered mask; every breath drawn through broken teeth and a swollen throat is a struggle, but he's still breathing. ]

[ there's a moment of hesitation from david when he realises the body under him has gone still, where he sits there and looks down, paused with heavy, panting breaths. this is usually where he'd leave things. before now, maybe. even through the rage brought to a boil, the roar of blood in his ears, david sits there panting as part of his mind yells at him to stop. that he's going to kill this guy. ]

[ but... isn't that the point? isn't that what he has to do? besides the million reasons it's the best thing to do here, last thing david needs is getting shit from evan and ghost face for not having the bottle to see it through. shit, if this was the real world he'd be doing everyone a favour by killing this guy. ]

[ david swallows and tucks his hands into ghost face's hood to grip the sides of his head. the more efficient option of breaking his neck doesn't quite occur to david, instead he pounds the back of ghost face's head against the ground with full force and a roar of effort each time until his skull caves and there's no life left in there. ]

[ it's not now he would do it. but that's fine. everybody kills differently. and david means it. that's what counts.

when he sees the skull cave in evan doesn't flinch; he can see the way the hood suddenly crumples, the way there's one final violent shudder in the body before it goes still again. dead again, and at the hands of a survivor, helped by a killer. that'll sting.

evan waits a few seconds, then wipes the blood off his cleaver against the leg of his waders and offers down a hand to help him up. ]

C'mon. Your hands are fucked up.

[ no comment on the dead man. no judgment this time. why would there be? david didn't back down. there's a dead ghost on the forest floor, just like there should be. just like there would be if david hadn't showed. ]

[ he's in a bit of a daze, first just staring down at the cracked and broken and bloody mask, then at the backs of his hands in response to what evan says. as if the cuts and blood are on somebody else's body, not his. too dazed by all this to even question the offered hand, just takes it to pull himself up silently. ]

[ this is the second time now that he's leaving a dead body on this estate, and while this time he may not have done it alone, he's still the one that finished it. barely a second of hesitation to it either. david looks down at the body again once he's on his feet, stares silently. something about it being here again feels significant, but he doesn't know why. ]

[ is this what he is now? or maybe it's what he always was. something muzzled and restrained, but always waiting for an excuse. after all, it's not the act itself that's making him feel nauseous.
it's the grim sense of satisfaction with it that churns and makes him feel sick with himself. ]

[ for evan, this is nothing new. other people kill each other on his property - not all the time, but more often than he'd probably like. as long as they don't bother him he leaves them be. sometimes he watches the fights and kills the loser if they don't die on the way out.

this is a little different. for one, david's still alive, and likely to remain so for a while. the fact that he lets evan pull him up is telling. no words, no arguments. nothing like their last conversation. or their last meeting.

he gives ghost face's body one last long look to make sure it's not about to jump back up again, and then he motions to david to follow. back toward the mine, to fix up the cuts. his own injuries will heal - the stab to the foot's still making him limp with every step, though - so those aren't as important.

and if david's too stunned to follow, he'll get him by the upper arm to pull him along. normally he'd leave him be. funny how things change. ]

[ david startles a little as the pull on his arm jolts him out of his thoughts, but he follows evan quietly, almost without thought, as if he's simply moving because somebody told him to. because his mind is still replaying the sensation of feeling a skull cave under his hands and it's a little hard to think about anything else right now. ]

More time. [ difficult, but not impossible. david says it with the tone of someone who just remembered something, thinking out loud more than anything. ] S'what I meant to say. More time than him.

[ not that david really expects evan to remember a stupid exchange david and ghost face were having, nor does he expect him to care. it's just weirdly annoying now that he thinks about it, and it's an easy thing to focus on instead of the uncomfortable,
conflicting feelings. or other things he's still too shell-shocked to take notice of just yet. ]

[ evan glances at david when he speaks, having no idea what he means - he was only half paying attention to the words, at least up until they grew an edge and it was impossible to ignore.

he wonders if he should do something about ghost face, for a few seconds. if maybe there's some worth in putting the fear of him into the sneaky bastard. but it probably won't work. besides, he knows what that last insult was - the desperate rage of someone about to die. even ghost face will be irritated with it later, he's pretty certain.

and he wonders, briefly, about the way david responded before the violence. focused on the wrong things. accusing him of jealousy. probably for the best than silence, than just rage. god knows evan would have just broken him in half, and given him exactly what he wanted by doing so.

back down into the mine, avoiding traps and making sure david does the same because he knows he's not paying attention right now. after that, he probably won't go anywhere while evan gets what he needs. patching him up again. last time it was worse than this, but there was something different in the air. ghost face crawled away, david said last time. this time he didn't have the chance.

evan gets the old, not-exactly-clean bandages and snags the water bucket from the forge with the slightly-cleaner rag on it. blood in that doesn't make a difference to him. he waits until david's settled, either on a workbench or against one, before starting to pull the plastic shards out a piece at a time. ]

[ if evan wasn't making sure david didn't step in a trap he would almost certainly have lost a foot. last time, when it was evan, david was significantly more injured, but he'd at least had the luxury of sitting for a while to gather himself before heading out. he'll be embarrassed about it once the haze clears, on having to rely on evan to get him down here safely because he can't be trusted to do it himself, but at least right now he doesn't have the wherewithal to wonder why evan's helping him like this instead of seeing a job done and leaving david on his own. or killing him. ]

[ he leans against a workbench, becoming more aware of where his body hurts now the adrenaline's fading. he can feel the sting of slashes on his arm, blood cooling on the skin. when he looks down he can see where blood has seeped into his shirt, pulls it up under his chest to have a look, but there's really not much to glean from that. just a bleeding wound. luckily ("luckily") david at least has enough experience being stabbed by now to know it's not deep or serious on account of the fact he can still move without issue. ]

[ almost wishes there was an injury to be really concerned about though, something to focus on other than the fact he's stood here covered in his and another man's blood, wondering what that means. probably nothing, really. but when he glances over in the direction evan went, it does ring with some concern. that evan's probably one of the people he's most similar to here, and, well. look how being a murderer worked out for that miserable bastard. ]

[ it occurs to evan, briefly, that he shouldn't be doing this. beyond just the fact that david will heal on his own if left alone long enough, he shouldn't be doing it. he's helping a survivor of his own volition. again. why?

maybe it's the violence. maybe it's some sort of backwards belated apology for their last encounter, as if he could ever consider the concept of apologizing. maybe it's because he's not interested in seeing someone else wander by and take pre-revenge for ghost face, or to let ghost face come back himself and finish the job. in which case killing david would have been easier.

he doesn't think about it more than that, figuring that either the question will answer itself, or he'll forget about it. the lack of time here means every hour is the same. eventually, it'll be forgotten. has to be.

so for now he focuses on david. once one hand is free from plastic he wipes off the blood, eyes the wounds, wraps them up with a rough but experienced hand. god knows how many times he's fucked up his own fists enough beating someone to death; he could do this blindfolded by now.

as he reaches for the other hand, knowing the gut wound isn't that severe if david's still standing: ]

Made me look bad out there.

[ it's not angry, or a threat. he was expecting to use david as a distraction to run ghost face through; instead, david just about wholly took him down. it's almost impressive. would be, if it wasn't ghost face who died. ]

[ david stands there quiet save for the occasional hiss or wince as evan pulls plastic from his hand, keeps his hand relaxed and pliant so he can wrap it up easily. his other hand he leaves resting over his gut wound, watches evan clean up his hand with a vacant gaze. ]

[ at his comment, he looks up at evan and frowns. it takes a second for him to get what he's talking about, and then huffs out a small, quiet laugh. ]

Nah. It's Ghost Face.

[ he's a slippery bastard, but not exactly tough. ]

[ as he starts the process again on david's other hand, evan snorts. ]

Means I shoulda got him at the neck first try.

[ of course, he was aware he was being followed the whole time. despite it all, ghost face is good at getting away. getting out of situations he has no right to get out of. not when there's two people coming at him, apparently, but ... still. he should have done more than hit him, disorient him, and almost take off his arm. ]

Means he shoulda died way before all this.

[ the plastic pieces are small enough that he's not sure he can get them all. he's not a doctor; he doesn't have the tools. but he does what he can. ]

Still. Impressive what you did.

[ and then a probably very unwise comment, coming straight from the part of him that did things like that on the regular, way back when, and a callback to a conversation they had once before even he can barely remember now: ]

Different with your hands, ain't it? Feelin' him go.

[ david shrugs a shoulder. he knows evan has a lot of experience there, but from david's point of view it wasn't a bad showing from either of them. keeping ghost face from slinking off into the shadows to escape or strike again is half the battle. no point arguing that though — evan clearly feels he should've taken the asshole's head at the first swing. maybe he's right. ]

[ then he brings up that and david feels his stomach twist in discomfort at having to acknowledge it, eyes widening briefly in a silent panic. it was satisfying and made him hate himself all in one and he tries to reason it out, justify it in knowing ghost face would've killed him and felt no particular way about it. trying to use logic to push past the worry that maybe he's a bit more like these fuckers on the other side of the fence. a bit more like evan then he'd care to admit. ]

Yeah.

[ he clears his throat, gaze falling to evan's chest, to his hand as it's cleaned and wrapped. anywhere else. ]

Probably could've done it faster.

[ never mind that he didn't want to. ]

[ evan doesn't even notice david's abrupt discomfort. the way he focuses on anything else, the way his words are even more clipped than they were before. it's been so long since he killed for the first time and felt that empty pit in his gut, that moment of standing on the edge and wondering what happens next, that he's long since forgotten how it must be for other people.

and even if he did notice, he'd think: he killed me before, this can't be anywhere near as big a deal. ]

Not everyone deserves that. [ he wraps the bandage firmly around david's knuckles, then lets his hand go and looks at the stomach wound. he pushes away to get more bandages. ] Around here, nobody learns unless you make 'em hurt.

[ especially on his side, he means. evan pulls out a dusty roll of old bandages still brownish from old bloodstains. not ideal, but they'll do. ]

[ it's not as big a deal, for multiple reasons, but it is different. he hadn't really wanted to kill evan, just recognised it as a necessity, it's the main reason he's been hesitant to come to blows with evan over anything. but he wanted ghost face dead. wanted to hurt him more than he did honestly. ]

[ david tilts his head, considering that. ]

Don't get the feeling he's the type to learn from pain.

Sometimes it works.

[ sometimes. that's the key word. rarely, but sometimes, even that miserable little fuck can learn.

the gut wound isn't that bad, at least. the blade is always so damn sharp. easy in, but easy fix. no ragged edges to patch. evan gets the wound cleaned up as best he can and wraps the probably slightly unsanitary bandages around david, keeping the blood in, for the most part. ]

Might learn somethin' today.

Maybe.

[ he doesn't really want to think about it too much honestly. just focuses on keeping his arms out of the way while evan wraps the bandage around him. the next time he sees ghost face in a trial is going to be a rough one, no way is he not gonna take the opportunity to fuck with david where he can't fight back fully. ]

[ there are other things to think about anyway. david reaches out with a hand to tuck his fingers in the side of evan's waders when it seems like he's almost done with the bandage and tries to tug him a little closer. they could probably both use the distraction, right? it's not just david. ]

[ evan might not be aware of the chaos in david's brain, but as he finishes wrapping the bandages and david suddenly tries to pull him closer, he is aware of the fact that there's something amiss. he wasn't there after david killed him (obviously) but he remembers how david reacted in the aftermath. how cagey he was about it.

this is ghost face, so it should be satisfying. but he did have to almost drag him back. and david's injured, even if it's not that serious. and he's got just enough self-awareness to remember just how pissed off david was the last time he left this place.

he lets david pull him closer, but doesn't reach out to respond. ]

Thought you were still pissed.

So?

[ self-awareness is unfortunately something david is lacking right now, or he'd see this weird combination of being keyed up after a fight and desperately wanting to think about literally anything else and back off instead. or not come on to evan in the first place. ]

[ right now, in this moment? yeah, he's still pissed at evan, would probably just thank him and be on his way if he was firing on all cylinders, but he's not. he's far more focused on the warmth that radiates off evan's skin when he's this close, on tilting his head up so he can drag his teeth up the column of his neck. ]

[ it just seems like a better use of his time to him. ]

[ it's tempting. the way david, buzzed by the blood loss, gets in close, gets his teeth against his neck. it'd be easy to get the rest of his clothes off, get him over the workbench, find a way to make this even more satisfying than just turning ghost face into a smear in the grass again.

but.

even as his hands automatically find their way onto david, evan reconsiders. if it wasn't for the fury and the adrenaline and the blood loss, would he be doing this? or would he be pushing away with a grumbled comment about not needing help? in the past evan wouldn't even have hesitated. now, though -

it's not a good sign, this thinking and considering. unfortunately, the habit's getting in a little deep. ]

Not while you're this bad off.

[ he's turned him down for similar reasons before, although this isn't as bad, physically. in his head is where the problem lies. ]

[ david pulls back after a second, a confused frown on his face as he looks up at evan. last time evan turned him down like this it was, in hindsight, understandable. he had a pretty serious wound, probably wouldn't have even survived it. this time though? ]

[ he takes his hands off evan, a little annoyed, but at the insinuation that this is enough to put him out of commission rather than evan's refusal. ]

What? I'm fine.

[ there is a certain irony to both times being after evan bandaged up a gut wound from ghost face though. ghost face might actually be ruining his sex life. ]

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