Gray [#4]

It took a while for Max to come back. 

Lucian spent the entire morning in the basement, working on the freeze to keep the body parts frozen so they could be preserved before he worked on a charm to keep them free from the consumption of cockroaches, rats, maggots, and other pests of decay. It took him the majority of the morning to properly turn a bunch of random scraps into s functional freezer that was strong enough to make the entire basement extremely, extraordinarily cold! Cold enough to keep the corpse preserved, but not cold enough to be felt above the basement, which was a thin balance that was hard to achieve. Once he was finished with that, he started to look over Max's corpse- he analyzed the cuts that separated his legs, arms, and neck from the body, clearly made post-mortem: "Huh... It was definitely made by a heavy blade... An ax? That's the only thing that can be easily found that could do this... And by the way these wounds are made, the blade of the ax was probably dull too..." 

"...dull?" It was that moment that Lucian heard Max's voice. Sinking from the floor above, Max looked calmer now, compared to his broken expression the moment Lucian explained to him what the Honey Festival was... It was pretty obvious that his mother, or a woman of great importance in his life, was nominated a Honey Queen once. "What do you mean by dull..?" Max had just come back, feeling a bit guilty about his anger outburst- He didn't really understood why he was feeling guilty about being angry, he was always angry about things even before his death. Angry at the world, angry at his father, and most importantly, angry at the mother. But then... His mother, the one he thought abandoned him with the monster that was his father, had left town with the closest guy she found- That's what his dad has been telling hin ever since the next day, after the competition of the Honey Queen (that he forced her to participate), when she didn't come back home. 

She had simply disappeared.

"Oh..." Lucian looked back at Max- he looked more blue now. Before, he looked rather transparent, but his emotions seemed to dull his ghostly body, making him look more blue than anything else: "Well, I was analyzing the wounds on your body, and I found out that whoever cut off your body parts were... Well, not only amateurs-" He ignored the look Max gave him that roughly translated to 'how the fuck do you know the difference between amateur work and professional work when it comes to murder?' and continued his explanation, looking at the corpse before him as he explained to the previous owner of the body what most likely had happened to him. His fingers dragged across the injured chest, a hole exactly where the heart should've been, but the heart had been removed way too cleanly for an incident... They'll need to get a new heart, and Max does happen to have a family member that he hates: "-but they also used a dull ax, most likely an ax that was already in that old house... Which means, whoever did this, didn't have a plan to dispose of your body... So, I rule out murder, and go directly to incident." Pulling out these pieces of wood and splinters, Lucian lifts them up for Max to see: "See this? You most likely fell from the top floor into wooden spikes, most likely formed fro-"

"THOSE FUCKING NERDS-" In a sudden outburst of pure, unadulterated rage, Max voice echoed and shaked the foundations of the very house they were in. Lucian was slightly confused at the sudden outburst, but as Max's ghostly body started to glow a bright red color, his hollow eyes flashed a bright crimson red light as he began to heave and growl. His fingers clenched around the wall, the wall broke and shattered, and splinters flew everywhere: "-THEY FUCKING KILLED ME, AFTER I FUCKING-" In an angry and swift movement of his hands, a piece of the wall immediately ripped off of it and moved quickly towards him. Lucian, who had removed his legs and was using his hands to move around, immediately used his Telekinesis to make an invisible shield to protect himself from the sudden projectile- It was a solid shield, however, he did underestimate Max's angry burst of power. "-THOSE BITCHES-" His anger was almost overwhelming, but suddenly he saw red spray out in a weirdly beautiful but also worrying visage of blood: "...Lucian?" 

His head was down on the ground, a spray of blood had spread out from his forehead and left eye. His hair was short, but even then Max could see that the blood had also covered his hair in splashes of red. Then he looked at the pieces of rock and wood that were scattered around Lucian's body, and realization downed upon him- Did he just kill the only person that cared that he was gone? "-oh fuck-" His whole body grew a dull pale white as his bloodthirsty anger faded away into a fearful regret. His eyes trailed the spray of blood, the unconscious boy, and the pieced of wood, rock, and even metal. His regret turned into despair, because the only person that had cared that he was gone, that prayed for him, was going to die because of his fucking actions, because he couldn't control his anger. "-oh shit-" He approached the downed guy, his fear was turning into dread, his despair was giving birth to those whispers, and his eyes were getting cloudy as he lost focus for a few split seconds. His fingers reached out and touched Lucian's chest, they faded into his body, and he could feel Lucian's heartbeat: "-oh gods... Lucian? Lucian!" He tried to shake the guy, tried to get him back up, but his fingers would just phase through his body and he couldn't get a grip on him-!!!

"Lucian? Sweetie-" Immediately, Max slapped the freeze shut, recognizing the old lady's voice. He was not going to let anyone else see his corpse! He pushed all the body parts into the freezer, made sure to conceal as much as he could, and soon faded away into nothingness as the old lady came downstairs. "-oh god, Lucian? Lucian!" The old lady, upon seeing her grandson sprayed blood on the floor, paled. She immediately went to check on him, ignoring everything around as her vision focused solemnly on Lucian's unconscious body- It was then that Lucian stirred, his eye opening and looking around frantically: "...ow..." He placed his hand on his bloodied eye, turning to look at his grandmother: "...Nana, the wall... It exploded." His finger shivered as he pointed at the wall that had been ripped open by Max, who just looked at this scene with wide eyes- Even after being hurt by him, he was still protecting him, even if by not exactly saying what happened. 

-Scene Cut-

In the end, he was taken to the hospital. 

Lucian had to elaborate a perfect lie, or rather, a believable lie. He told his grandmother and the doctors that after he was condemned to be stuck to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, he wanted to pick up some hobbies to keep the boredom and depression away, so he took engineering and drawing as hobbies and he had managed to drag himself downstairs to look for something old that he could repair, when the house started shaking and suddenly a pipe from the wall exploded with such force that a piece of it hit him right in the face. Thankfully, the damage to his face was actually minimal, the majority of blood was because a rock burst one of his blood vessel and cut through his skin, which was what caused his face to bleed so much! He didn't actually lose an eye, but it was hurt by a good amount, and after healing visibility would be reduced by a lot, making him almost blind in one eye alongside the other physical scars that he had too. 

They had to remove a few pieces of rocks, wood, and pipe from his face and body, which was what took the majority of the time from his small "surgery". Having used his Telepathy to softly guide the thoughts of the doctors, he was able to easily get himself alone in his hospital room while he also manipulated the perception of how bad the results of his exams were... He was pretty sure he should've used a lot more energy to protect himself, because he was way too used to be inhabiting the bodies of people who were more athletic and didn't have some sort of disease that made his body so fucking weak- Anyway, after making sure the majority of the exams came up as him just having some minor damages, he made his grandmother go back home to rest, he was alright and it was just a scare, nothing to worry about... right? Once he was alone, he threw up blood on the bathroom toilet. "Shit..." He coughed a little bit more, analyzing the injuries in his body and keeping them closed with his Telekinesis was an arduous task that required him a lot of focus and energy, but he managed: "...this sucks." He focused for a moment- His small intestine now had a small hole in it, he still had a thin but very sharp piece of metal embedded on his left lung, and he was pretty sure he was going blind on his left eye too. "Okay-" He swiftly pulled away the thin but sharp piece of metal from his lungs, making sure it left through the same hole it came in. Soon he closed the hole on his small intestine, and he made sure to clean the eye while pondering about which type of ocular simulator he wanted to make. 

In the end, he decided to make an eye with all the upgrades he could make. So, X-Ray, Heat vision, and a few other little knickknacks.

"...It's okay, Max." Feeling the presence behind him, Lucian floated upwards enough that he was looking directly into the mirror before him. A slightly bloodied bandage covered half of his face while a little bit of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, which he cleaned easily with his thumb. 

Floating behind him was the now dull blue and green form of the one and only Maxwell Jägerman, who looked constipated like he was going to have a bathroom emergency. He had the same look a child had whenever they knew they've done something bad, bad enough that their parents might be extremely angry with them, but at the same time he also looked absolutely fucking wrecked- It was then that it dawned on him, like a lightning bolt hitting his head minus the extreme pain and burning sensation, he felt realization hit him right in the face. Max was probably afraid that his outburst of anger and uncontrollable rage that ended up costing him a few injuries on his internal organs and an entire eye, would cost him the chance to come back to life.

"I'm not angry- Don't worry, I'm not petty enough to revoke the promise I made you... Look, you might not understand, but I was like you once. Angry, really angry-" Remembering his early years under the influence of the Lords in Black was a haunting yet cringing experience... He was so fucking edgy! 'And I wore too much eyeliner.' Shaking his head for a moment, Lucian sighed before he touched his face: "...if you feel guilty, I know what you can do to apologize-" He understood people like Maxwell Jägerman. These type of men don't feel like they've made up for a mistake until they work hard to repay the one they wronged in the past, until they feel like their debt is paid, and that they can be forgiven now. "You see, your corpse still needs a heart to be resurrected, and I need an organic eye... To get a heart that is compatible to you, we'd need to go through either the long process of analysis and finding the one person who has a compatible heart for my little Frankenstein act, or..."

"Or...?" Speaking for the first time ever since the incident, Max looked at Lucian's eye in the mirror reflection. That single eye had also not entirely escaped, having a small but clear sign of injury.

"Or we can take the heart of the closest family member." Lucian grinned when he saw Max's eyes light up with a dull but present red light- It was almost like an oil fire was lit in a dark ocean in the middle of the night, bright and eye-catching: "Tell me, little Maxie boo, what do you think of your father?" His fingers traced down his neck, following the trail of his veins before he dragged them to his chest. Poor Lucian, the previous owner of this body, was way too thin- This new Lucian? He wanted more muscles. "So, what'chu think, Maxie Boo? Ready to rip out the heart out of your own father's chest?"

"...ready." 

Meanwhile, inside Max's head '...little maxie boo?' Was he... flirting with him...? 

-Author-

Time to get a heart :3