Work Text:
Ven opened the door to the restaurant, gun in hand. The cold air hit him just as fast as David did, turning the thought Ven got away safe around.
David pushed Ven back into the restaurant harshly, grabbing him by the wrists and slamming his back into the side of a small rectangular table. Ven grunted, and David grabbed the black pistol from his hand, then threw Ven to the ground.
Ven crawled away for a moment before getting up quickly and running to hide behind a table. The restaurant was big, with many many brown, wooden tables that were seperated with walls made of wood.
A fire-lit lamp had fallen over off the table he was smashed against and began to light the place ablaze.
He clutched the small knife in his hand tightly as he tried to catch his breath. He heard a click from where David stood.
"It's alright. Nowhere to go. If you want out, you gotta get these keys," he teased, then he began to walk around and search.
Ven had fought and killed multiple infected-from runners to a bloater or two, of course assisted by Lauriam-, but never has he fought an actual human like this, alone even. He has been scared before, but this was a different kind of scared; Fucking petrified. As scared as he's ever been for his life, maybe even more scared than 'fucking petrified'. So scared there were no describable words for it.
"I know you're not infected, Ventus," David said. "No infected person would fight this hard to survive." David was completely correct. Ven had been bitten by an infected years prior, but he had not been infected himself. Not too long ago, maybe 25 minutes, Ven had bitten David on his hand, and put on the 'he was infected' act, which he bought before Ven put the machete through his buddie's neck.
He started to take his chances and scurry around the place, like a mouse in a maze, even trapped like one. With every noise he made, he cursed to himself in his mind. Over the distant cracking of the spreading fire, surely it was heard by David.
As Ven scurried around, he found an empty bottle on the ground, and held it in his left hand.
"C'mon, Ven!" David yelled out. "You can run, but I'll only catch you!"
Ven could hear David approach closer. He was hidden behind one of the tables in the middle of the restaurant. As he heard David approach closer, he backed from his hiding spot and threw the bottle at him, square in the face, effectively shattering it. David stumbled back, and Ven took the chance and stabbed the knife right into his left side.
Ven got pushed back and he retreated back behind a table, by chance avoiding the several bullets fired at him while doing so.
"Good one, kid." David recovered quickly. "It'll be alright…," he said as he switched his gun to his left hand and unsheathed the machete from his back. He laughed.
Ven began running once again, weaving through the labyrinth of tables. Everything was happening so fast, but now he knew how to catch him off guard and go in to attack.
As he ran around, he kept an eye out for more bottles, and found multiple. He only kept one of them with him, but he memorized where the others layed. He ran around some more, and with every noise he made, came a "Whoops," or "Oops" from David's snarky, cannibalistic driven personality. Or, if he was really unlucky, a bullet came barreling towards his way instead.
Ven focused his hearing and pinpointed where David was. He crouch walked towards David, and caught him off guard again and successfully threw and shattered a bottle upon his head. Ven went in with his knife and stabbed David in his side again, backing up quickly. Though David was bleeding out, he still moved efficiently, and didn't utter any words during that.
Fuck, when will this asshole topple, Ven thought to himself. Ven knew well if he had gotten stabbed in his side, even once, he would not be standing.
While Ven did all of his moving, and crouching, he was fighting off the pain from earlier. Getting slammed into a hard, wooden table by a grown man as an afab 14 year old was not pretty. He was considerably smaller than the average boy his age, and even though he is a determined and strong fighter, his size is a problem.
But, through the pain, his desire to live was strong. His will would not give, nor his adrenaline, which blocked much of the pain.
He ran around more, anger boiling inside of him every time David said a snarky remark. He noticed that David had begun to get more aggressive each time he was stabbed, probably not expecting Ven to be such a fighter.
Ven went and grabbed one of the bottles he had found earlier in the small kitchen area and held it tightly to him.
"C'mon, Ven~," David said again, but dragging out his name in a playful manner. Ven felt repulsed. Ven thought the only thing David was thinking of right now was killing him, and sinking his teeth into his flesh.
Just that thought alone angered Ven greatly, and he rushed out again with a grunt of determination and risk, and threw the bottle at David's ugly face.
Ven stabbed the knife into David's right shoulder, and lunged onto his back, but only for a moment. David grabbed the back of his head and threw him forward over himself with a painful thud onto the hard ground.
The both of them lost their consciousness, and the fire raged on.
- - - - - - - -
Ven's eyes opened slowly, looking up at the blurry, and brown ceiling. His body ached and he groaned painfully. He heard a shuffling next to him on his right. Ven realized where he was and flipped over. He saw the Machete David had peeking from underneath a chair. It must've gone flying when they both lost their consciousness.
Ven began crawling towards it and got a good distance towards it on the red floor before being kicked in the stomach. He grunted and breathed hard, but quickly regained himself.
"I knew you had heart," David said with a smile as he clutched his shoulder. "Y'know, it's okay to give up. Ain't no shame in it." But Ven kept crawling slowly.
The fire roared and neared closer and closer, its crackling soon to become the loud embrace of death.
"I guess not." David looked down on Ven. "Just not your style, is it?" He growled.
Ven had almost reached the machete; his ticket to freedom, but was once again shut down as his shaking hand reached for it. Another blow to the stomach pulled him from on his knees and elbows and he felt a weight on top of him.
"You can try beggin'," David went. He grabbed the hood on Ven's jacket and pulled his head up a bit, so his nasty voice sounded right into his ear.
" Fuck you, " Ven hissed.
David flipped Ven on his back and his hands reached over Ven's small neck with great force, attempting to choke him to either unconsciousness or death.
"You think you know me?" His grip tightened. "Huh? Well let me tell you something." Grunting sounds escaped from both him and David.
Ven saw the machete in his sight and blindly reached for it.
"You have no idea what I'm capable of." David's face was inches away from his own.
Ven sure didn't know what David was capable of, but knew damn well what he was capable of.
He wrapped his hand around the handle of the machete and slammed it right into David's neck, this time, sending him onto his back. The satisfying sound of David's screams rang out throughout the restaurant for the last few seconds he was alive.
Ven got on top of David quickly, and took the machete to David's face over and over again. The crimson blood from his unrecognizable face pooled underneath him and splattered on Ven. All that pent up anger flew right into his swings, assisted by the adrenaline. He was scared, and petrified, but no longer will he have to worry about that jackass.
"Ven!" He heard a voice yell out to him, then hands on him. The machete fell from his hands and he fought back weakly. "Stop, Stop!"
"No-Don't fucking touch me!" He screamed. He thought another one-another one of David's buddies had come for him. He didn't want to die.
He was no longer on top of David.
"Look" He felt hands on his face that directed him towards the source. It was Lauriam. He was there. It wasn't a threat. "It's me, it's me." It was him. He wasn't going to die.
"He tried to-" tears poured from his bloodied face. He couldn't even finish his sentence, his mind too jambled to do so if he tried.
"Oh, Ven," Lauriam whispered. "It's okay. It's okay," he said quickly to reassure him.
Lauriam held Ven against him, and he cried into his shoulder. Lauriam's hand was on the back of Ven's head to provide security.
Ven had grabbed onto Lauriam as hard as he could.
"Lauriam," Ven whined. His body shook against Lauriam's.
"It's okay now," Lauriam said to Ven. He was so thankful that Ven had survived, and he didn't care one bit about the blood that soaked into his clothes.
"He won't hurt you anymore," Lauriam said. Ven's cheeks were in Lauriam's comforting hands, and he spoke to him. He spoke to him some things, some he understood but couldn't process. He heard them but he didn't.
Before Ven knew it, he was walking out of the restaurant next to Lauriam on his right. His hand was held reassuringly in Lariuam's left, and his right shoulder had Lauriam's other hand on it as they walked out.
Though Ven was shaken, and he was still crying, he now knew that he was safe for now. For now, nothing would hurt him, and David would hurt nobody else. Not like he had been hurt that day.