Chapter Text
Simon is drooling.
Which is hardly unusual. There's a massive hole ripped through his cheek and jaw, Grace would be hard-pressed to think of a time Simon wasn't drooling at least a little, or wiping at his face to stop from drooling on the table as they ate.
He had both noticed and accepted it within the first three hours of meeting Simon. The guy had escaped from a blood ocean that had stolen his arm and left him with what appeared to be paranoid delusions, he didn't need the constant awareness Grace thought he was gross. Rocky thought Grace was gross. It's all just a manner of perspective.
Rocky is gone, off with Adrian on a reunion mating trip that Grace is really glad he doesn't need to bear witness to, and it was supposed to be nice, finally having another human for companionship in his tiny, isolated Eridian domicile.
It had been nice. When they'd first found Simon, and Grace had just cried for hours on end as they waited for him to wake up in the Erid hospital chamber, curled into a ball in his spacesuit as he bawled and Rocky very confusedly, gently patted his back through his own protective covering.
Simon had appeared to be settling in fine.
That is to say, he'd spent the first week locked in the greenhouse staring at plants with his one good eye, the one on the damaged half of his face constantly bloodshot and frozen in place, always staring off into the distance, glazed over and an almost milky white under all the red.
Still, he was a person. A real living human being, for the most part. The closest equivalent Grace had left.
He offered once, for Simon to take the ship and try to make it back to whatever planet he had come from. Simon had gone into a blind rage, breaking everything in sight while Grace could do little more than lock him in a relatively contained area, cowering behind the door like a kid hiding from a movie monster.
Later that night, Simon stared at the plants again, as Grace inched closer and closer to him, until he lingered a few steps behind the man. "I'm sorry." He'd said softly, and watched the slightest shift in Simon's shoulders. He chose to interpret it as relaxation. "I didn't mean I wanted you to go." He promised in a hushed voice. "I won't make you go. If you don't want. Just-If you had someone to get back to-?"
Simon never turned to acknowledge him.
He didn't sleep that night.
Barely even blinked.
The next two weeks, Simon stopped eating pressed into a corner. When Grace held things out to him in offering, sometimes he reached out and took them. When the Eridians came by to observe him or treat him medically, Simon sat rigid, but at least he didn't attack them. Grace thanked whatever God there might be that he'd somehow encountered the only man who responded well to his very limited remembrance of dog training books.
But now, Simon was drooling.
A long stream of drool that's already trailed out his mouth and down his neck, steadily dripping down onto the metal flooring.
There was no recollection in his eyes as he stared at Grace. As a matter of fact, his good eye had the same glossy sheen as his damaged pupil, and that eye, oddly enough, looked clear and bright. It tracked Grace as he slowly moved from side to side, watching it follow him.
"Simon?" Grace asked hesitantly. "Simon, do you…do you remember me? Do you remember where you are?" He questioned.
"Still hungry." A growl rumbled from Simon's throat, low and gravelly. It was the first words Grace had ever heard Simon say. He'd assumed he could have been mute the first four days, when Simon hadn't made a single sound or utterance of noise at all.
"Okay," Grace said, trying to keep his voice calm and steady, but hearing it waver as he took a small step back. "Let me go find you some food-" Simon started forward and, within five long strides, stood right in front of Grace. He took in a deep inhale through his nose, his blood red eye studying Grace's facial features. "Simon." Grace forced his voice to be firm. "I need you to take a step backward and respect my personal space." Words long forgotten from his classroom once more bubbling to the surface. "I can go get you whatever you need."
"Not-" Simon's tongue slipped out through the gash in his cheek and ran over the extra set of sharp teeth that had grown out from the skin. It wasn't his normal tongue, now longer and with a more defined point, more drool dribbling down his cheek and leaving behind a slight shine. "Simon."
Grace's next breath shook, his chest shuddering with fear. "You're confused." He said calmly, trying to be soothing. "You're hearing the voices again, Simon. None of it's real-" He cut off with a pained cry as a rough hand grabbed and then shoved, pushing him back into the wall and then pinning him down. "Simon, get off of me!" He yelled frantically, both hands moving to pull Simon's off his hip.
He was greatful now that the prosthetic arm he and Rocky had been designing in secret for the man wasn't yet built. Simon easily pushed him back against the wall again despite his missing limb, using his size to make up for it, blocking Grace from slipping past him and pressing his knee harshly into Grace's thigh.
"Simon, this isn't appropriate!" Grace tried once more, forcing himself to stay still for just a second in the hopes of getting Simon to calm back down. "You need to get off of me, right now, Simon. I-I can help you-"
"Don't need help." Simon lowered his face down to Grace's neck. He cringed away, squeezing his eyes shut as the other man moved right next to his ear. "Need blood."
Quickly, Grace shoved Simon hard, right at the stump where his arm used to be. It knocked the other man off balance and pushed him to the side. Grace hurriedly ducked past him and started to sprint for his room. He could lock himself in there and work Simon through some breathing exercises through the intercom, but not until there was a six-inch metal door between them.
A semi-truck tackled him from behind, Simon growling right into his ear as he sat on top of the now frantically squirming Grace. His arms were pined at his side, his legs kicking out ferverently as he felt Simon's weight shift as the man lent down. "Simon, get off!" He screamed, twisting his neck as he tried to turn far enough to face his attacker. "Don't-I can help you-"
Simon's face moved next to his, and the last thing Grace saw was the rows of jagged, monster-like teeth before Simon's head lowered again, and the teeth bit into Grace's neck. Grace screamed, throwing his head back, his vision going stark white and then pitch black, eyes rolling into the back of his head.
He let out a pained, garbled groan, head spinning dizzily as he began to feel lightheaded, his vision slowly wavering back into focus. "Si-" He uttered, tongue heavy in his mouth. "Ple-" Simon stopped sucking the blood from Grace's neck like some kind of demented fish vampire and sat back up, then slowly got off of Grace's back.
Grace wheezed, sucking in a rattled breath of air, hands shaking as they slowly moved to rest on the floor in front of him.
He needed to get up.
Needed to get up, and stumble to the bathroom, and sew stitches into his neck, and then call the Eridians for help before Simon-before this thing kills him.
"Believe me now?" The thing that had taken over Simon questioned with a gravelled voice. He grabbed the blond's hair and lifted his head, Grace crying out in angish as more blood gushed from his neck. Hurriedly, he shifted to his knees to relieve the strain pulling against his gaping neck wound. "Doctor?"
Grace let out a soft whimper, hands moving to his neck, putting pressure on his wound even as he screamed, the pain tripling in an instant as more blood bubbled from behind his fingers. "Please-" He begged while on his knees, the monster letting go of his head. Stars flashed in his vision as he supported his head with his hands, blood gurgling into his mouth from his throat. "Simon-?"
The creature staring down at him definitely wasn't Simon. He'd never spoken a word to Grace before, but the soft, wounded look that had once rested behind his good eye was gone, replaced with ravenous hunger in the other.
The long tongue licked Grace's blood off its teeth and Simon's cheek, a gravelled purr coming from deep in Simon's chest at the taste. He was blocking the way to the bathroom. Grace let out another broken sob as he stalked toward him again, slowly prying the teacher's fingers away from his neck.
"Please-" He begged, the creature not latching onto his skin again, but rather holding his wrists together with Simon's hand while his tongue lapped up the blood, feeling like sandpaper against Grace's skin. Grace cried out, weakly trying to pull his hands out from the creature's grip.
Forget stitching himself up.
He needed to send a distress signal out to the Eridians and then lock his house down so that it could never escape. He could bleed to death then, and the creature would eat his body, but then the Eridians would be safe.
Wait.
Grace's brows furrowed. He was getting confused. Eridians didn't have blood. They were rocks. But oh, if the creature got out, he could take the Hail Mary and enough fuel to get to another planet filled with creatures that did.
Seemed like Grace was due for another human sacrifice anyway. He'd had a good run, he supposed.
"Not enough." The monster complained, growling into Simon's ear. "More. Where's more?"
Grace's eyes flickered for just a minute. His vision was fading away. "Aren't any." He croaked out. "I'm the last human left." Simon's face morphed into a snarl at the lie, and he stood, leaving the room. Grace wheezed, pulling himself to his feet and stumbling toward the bathroom.
He half collapsed against the sink, slamming the door shut and locking it. Immediately, he heard the creature roar with anger at the noise and charge back into the room. Fumbling for the first aid kit, he fished out the needle and thread, thankfully already pre-threaded.
Bringing the needle up to his neck, his hands shake for a moment, hovering just above the skin. Letting out a nervous whimper, Grace forced his hands to still and hold down the wound with one end as he pushed the needle through skin. Screeching, Grace's vision went white again, and his legs buckled underneath him, hands gripping the sink for dear life as he tried to keep on his feet.
The creature pounded on the door, screaming incoherently from the other end, growling, hissing, practically roaring. It sounded like he was pushing his entire body weight against the door with each strike.
Grace grit his teeth and pushed the needle through the skin on the other side of the wound. He stood still and just sobbed for a minute, but the blood kept gushing like a waterfall, staining down the entire front of his shirt. His breathing became more laboured, the entire room shifting like he was looking at it through a fishbowl.
"Grace!" The monster screamed, banging his fist against the door.
Grace was dying.
He knew he was.
He needed to hurry the fuck up, or Rocky and Adrian were going to be heartbroken when they came back and found whatever remained of him. He finished another three stiches, the pain lessoning as he started to go into shock. He used the opportunity to finish the last of the stitches, then collapsed to the floor as soon as he was done, breath rattling as he puked up blood and bile.
But the stitches appeared to hold, even with the strain.
Too bad the door didn't.
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