"They're gone, Little Bit." I felt a ghostly hand on my shoulder as Greed gently woke me from my nap.
"Huh?" I grunted, rubbing my eyes with one of my hands. I really hated waking up, and with all the aches and pain in my body, I was going to assume that I had either slept really weird or I had been beaten again. "What's going on?"
"You are sleeping under a table as mindless zombies ate the flesh of a human," replied Envy, giving me a very concise summary of what happened so far.
"Huh," I grunted again, giving Teddy a kiss on his head as I thanked him for protecting me through the night. Or day. Or whatever time it was. "That seems like fun."
There was a long pause before Pride let out a low groan. "Has anyone ever told you how perfect you are?" he moaned as I got on all fours and crawled forward.
"Only you," I replied with a shrug, just as Greed let out a low growl at my response. "Oh, and Greed," I clarified after a second.
When my hand emersed in something wet, warm, and sticky, I assumed I was no longer in danger of hitting my head on the tabletop. Coming to my feet, I wiped my hand on my bare legs before wrinkling my nose. "I need to find some better clothes."
Here I was, running around in cut-off jean shorts and a top in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. I really needed a better outfit. Or at least one that would hide the blood better.
"Take two steps to your left," said Pride, and without question, I obeyed his order. "That's mon ange," he continued to whisper in my ear. "Now, twenty steps in front of you is a staircase. Go upstairs and take a shower. Envy will help you find the washroom. Make sure to stick to the left when you go upstairs."
I nodded my head, clutching Teddy tighter to my chest. "Does Teddy get a bath, too?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. "He kinda smells bad. No offense, Teddy," I quickly continued, not wanting Teddy to get his feelings hurt.
"Envy will help both of you," assured Pride.
"And what are you and Greed going to do while I'm showering?" I pressed. While I wasn't upset that Envy was going to take care of me, I didn't like the idea of Greed and Pride being too far away either.
"We're just going to go out and scout," assured Pride. "We don't know what the world is like right now, and we need to keep you safe."
I nodded my head and followed his directions, counting each step I took until I was naked under the water, letting the hot shower wash away all the dirt on both me and Teddy.
"I need them to have more power," I whispered to the bear in my arms. "I need them to be real."
I knew that a big part of me was broken. In fact, I was pretty sure that I was too broken to still be considered broken, but that was okay. As long as my voices were around, I was happy.
-----
Drying off was a battle in and of itself, as the soft, fluffy towels Marie had in her bathroom caught on each of my staples.
I knew it was about time for them to come out, but without the staple remover, I didn't really want to just rip them out, either. I gave up after the tenth time the towel snagged on a staple and concentrated on drying off Teddy properly.
"Envy," I called out when I was sure Teddy was ready to leave the bathroom.
"Yes, Little Star?" he replied, his voice coming from right over my shoulder. Not expecting it, I jumped slightly before I could calm down again.
"I need clothes," I murmured when my heart started pounding. Seriously, I was going to have to put a bell on him or something.
"That, my dear, is a matter of perspective," replied Envy, and I could feel an invisible finger trailing up and down my spine. "And from my perspective, you don't need any clothes at all."
Rolling my eyes, I took in a deep breath. I hated being anywhere else but my home.
Not like I had ever been anywhere else but my home, but at least there, I knew where everything was. Here, I actually needed to bump into something in order to know where things were placed.
It sucked, and it hurt, and I didn't like it.
"I'm not going out naked," I replied, once again rolling my eyes.
"I have something for you," murmured a fourth voice. If the sound of a voice could actually make you pregnant, I was pretty sure that this newest member of the Voice Squad just knocked me up.
Something silky slipped through my fingers, and I frantically tried to catch it, almost dropping Teddy in the process.
I ran the cloth through my fingers, feeling the texture of whatever was in my hand. I was the softest, coldest, thinnest thing I had ever touched.
Dropping it to the ground like it burned me, I stepped back, making sure that I wouldn't go near it again.
"That's a bit extreme, don't you think, Pet?" murmured the fourth voice, and I wanted to do nothing more than cover my ears. Doing just that, I dropped into a crouch, completely ignoring the fact that I was still naked.
"Pride!" I screamed. The fourth voice sounded exactly like how Pere did when he wanted to play Daddy, and it was enough to make my skin crawl in all the wrong ways. "Pride!" I screamed again, my eyes clenched shut as I tried to make myself as small as possible.
It seemed like a lifetime, but before I drew my next breath, I felt someone else entering the bathroom.
"What the ever-loving fuck is going on here?" snarled Pride, and I felt myself relaxing at the sound of his voice. His voice was darker than I had ever heard before, the promise of blood and violence a soothing balm to my sharp edges.